Wednesday Night Dinners

A couple of months ago, my friend and I were sitting in his kitchen talking about how busy our lives were going to be this year. We made a decision that we would try and catch up at least once a week for dinner. After more discussion we also decided that we would make a rule that each meal we made for this dinner would be something we had never made before. This event quickly grew from the two of us to our whole group of friends. So each week we gather together for dinner at a different person's house and we eat a meal that this person has never made before. 

This week it was my turn to host and I decided to make a dish that took me back to my pilgrimage to Spain in the summer of 2011. So I decided to make Paella and Sangria. I was very nervous about how this was going to turn out, but I was pleasantly surprised! 

The recipe that I created produced about 10-12 servings. I have had several people ask for the recipe so here it is.

Paella:

3 Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts

7 Mild Sausages

1 lb Uncooked Shrimp

2 Red Bell Peppers

2 Green Bell Peppers

1/2 Onion

4 Cups Chicken Stock

Short Grain White Rice (I used Verde Valley, you can find this in the Hispanic Food Section)

Smoked Paprika

Tumeric

Saffron

Garlic

Salt and Pepper

A few hours before I started cooking I chopped up everything I needed. I knew that I was quickly going to be adding items to my pan so I wanted to make sure they were ready to go when I needed them. I chopped up the peppers and onion and tossed them in one bowl,  I cut up the chicken and sausage and put them in one bowl, I covered the bowls and put them in the fridge. The last thing I did for prep was peeled the shells off of the shrimp. 

When it was time to cook I started about 45 minutes before we wanted to eat by tossing some olive oil in my pan and sautéing my veggies. As the onions and peppers were sautéing I started the rice in another pan with two cups of rice and four cups of chicken stock in hopes of relaying some of that flavor into the rice. After the peppers and onions have done their work I tossed in the chicken and sausage to start cooking. At this point in time I added the smoked paprika, saffron, garlic, salt, and pepper. I sprinkled all of these items over the top of the chicken and sausage. I didn't measure any of these items out, but I would suggest using about a teaspoon of each at first and add more later if needed. After the rice finished cooking I added it to my large pan to cook with the meat and soak up some of that flavor (this is why I chose short grain rice, it has the ability to soak up more flavor than long grain rice). Just a few moments before we were ready to eat I tossed in the shrimp in 3/4 of the Paella (some of the people eating didn't like shrimp) and let them cook for about 4-5 minutes (until the shrimp turned pink and had a "C" shape to them). I served the Paella with bread and Sangria. 

Paella is definitely a dish I will create again in the future.  Hope you enjoy!!!

*NOTE Saffron is about $17-$20/ container, if you decide to opt out of saffron you can add more tumeric which will help with that yellow coloring.

3 hours, many laughs, and 18 meals later...

If I had to use one word to sum up my life lately the word would be CHAOTIC. My life is pretty much a huge slab of chaos. This is a rough outline of my daily schedule. 

Daily mass at 7:00am followed by breakfast.

Work at 8:00am

Lunch at 12:00pm

Studying for graduate school at 12:30pm or staying and working all afternoon.

Going home for a short dinner break at 5:00pm before going back to work  

Back to work at 6:00pm

Get home from work at 9:30pm

Study for graduate school a little more and go to sleep around 11:00pm or 12:00am. 

Wake up at 5:30am and do it all again.

My days off are generally Friday and Saturday and I usually sleep in a little, do some school work, quilt, clean house, do laundry, and catch up with some friends. 

Pretty much every moment of my day is planned out and because of that cooking has sort of fallen to the back burner. It was much easier to grab some Taco Bell on the way home from work for my short dinner break than it was to make a whole meal and have to deal with the clean-up too. It became a pretty easy and expensive habit to have, but you can only eat so many bean burritos (or enter other fast food option here) before you are totally sick of them. 

One afternoon I was scrolling through Pinterest looking for recipes I had never made before for our Wednesday Night Dinners (that's a post for another time) and I came across this idea of frozen crock-pot meals. WHAT?!? So I kept reading and searching and here is what I found. There are tons of people who come up with a list of meals they would like to make, do all the prep work, freeze them, and enjoy. This makes eating better super easy because in the morning all you do is pull out a frozen meal, toss it in your crock-pot on low, and come home to a delicious dinner all ready to go!

I sent a quick text to my friend Jess and asked if she would be interested in getting together that weekend to prep a bunch of meals and share the items we would make. She was on board because she loves crock-potting as much as I do! So we got together yesterday and spent three hours (from the moment we started shopping until we were totally finished) making 18 crock-pot meals. It was FABULOUS! 

We have never tried the recipes that we made (we may have tried things similar, but not these specific ones) so as I pull these out of the freezer and use them I will be adding more posts about what I liked and what I would change for next time. Here's the thing though, each meal will give us an average of 4 servings and each serving averaged out to be $1.33/serving. We did have some of the items at my house, but we ended up buying most of the things on the list. Below is a list of the bags we made and recipes for each. 

For ALL of our recipes we mixed directly into two gallon freezer bags to cut down on dirty dishes (I hate washing dishes). Note that these recipes are for both bags, so you would split them in half if you are prepping for 4 servings each bag. *NOTE: if you are cooking for a family and would like leftovers you shouldn't split each recipe in half like we did, you should bag each recipe in one bag* 

ENJOY!!!

Recipe 1--CHILI:

2 Lbs Ground Beef

1 can hot chili bens

2 cans tomato sauce (small)

2 cans tomato paste

1 green pepper chopped up

1 T garlic powder

2 tsp salt/pepper/sugar/red chili powder

Brown the ground beef, drain, and cool (this was the very first thing we did when we got home so it would be ready for our recipes when we needed to mix the bags). Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Recipe 2--CHEESY GARLIC CHICKEN

2 large chicken breasts

1 can cream of chicken soup

1 can cheddar cheese soup

2 tsp garlic powder

2 T butter

1 tsp salt 

1/2 tsp pepper

Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours. 

Recipe 3--Tater Tod Casserole

2 lbs ground beef

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

1lb string beans (fresh or frozen)

1 can cream of potato soup

8 oz velveeta cheese (could also use shredded cheese)

21 oz bag of tater tots. 

Cook on high 2-3 hours or on low 4-6 hours

Recipe 4--CHICKEN FAJITAS

2 large chicken breasts

2 green peppers

1 cup chicken brother

2 taco seasoning packets (or 8 T if you use the seasoning in the big container)

2 tsp red chili powder

2 tsp salt

Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours

Recipe 5--WHITE CHICKEN CHILI

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 cups chicken stock (one container)

2 cans white beans (drained)

1 can chopped green chile (we used roughly 5 frozen hatch green chiles)

4 tsp red chili powder

2 tsp salt/pepper

Cook on low 4-6 hours.

Recipe 6--LOADED BAKED POTATO SOUP

10-12 red potatoes (you could also use 5-6 russet potatoes)

1 container bacon bits (you could also use a pack of bacon, but be sure to cook it first)

2/3 c butter

2/3 c flour

3 cups chicken broth

1 c water

3 cups milk

Remainder of velveeta cheese

1 c sour cream

1 tsp salt/pepper

Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Recipe 7--BUFFALO CHICKEN SANDWICHES

2 large chicken breasts

1 bottle of hot sauce

Cook on low 4-6 hours. Shred chicken. Serve on a bun with garnish and ranch or blue cheese.

Recipe 8-- GOLDEN CHICKEN AND NOODLES

2 Large boneless skinless chicken breasts

1 can broccoli cheese soup

1 c milk

1tsp salt/pepper

Extra Wide Egg Noodles (cooked on day of serving)

Cook for 6-8 hours on low.

Recipe 9--TEX MEX CHICKEN

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts

4 T taco seasoning (or one packet)

4 T flour

1 green pepper

1 red pepper

1 can corn

1 1/2 cups salsa

Cook on high 3-4 hours or low 6-8 hours.

Shopping list:

Gallon size freezer bags

12 Chicken Breasts

4 lbs Ground Beef

1 container sour cream

milk

1 box of unsalted butter

bacon bits

1 box chicken stock 

1 box chicken broth

2 cans tomato sauce

2 cans tomato paste

1 can hot chili beans

2 cans cream of chicken soup

1 can cheddar cheese soup

2 cans white beans

1 can cream of potato soup

1 can broccoli cheese soup

1 can corn

1 bag extra wide egg noodles 

1 box of velveeta (the larger box)

1 bottle hot sauce

3 packets of taco seasoning 

1 bag frozen tater tots

1 lb string beans

4 green peppers

1 red pepper

It's in Our Veins.

At the beginning of the summer I was able to take a few weeks off and enjoy some time in New Mexico and Arizona. Although the entire trip was filled with memories and great stories, I would like to focus this post on the first week of vacation. 

When I decided to come to New Mexico for my vacation it was completely based on the fact that a few of my cousins from New Jersey were also planning a vacation to New Mexico at that time. I really wanted to do whatever it took to make it out at the same time as them because it had been 20 years since we last saw each other and two of the cousins who were coming I had never even met before. 

Although we had been physically apart for 20 years I still felt like I knew them. Part of that had to do with the fact that we found each other through social media several years ago so we have been able to see what is happening in each others lives, but the other part is because we are family. I know I know that sounds kinda weird, but I think even if I knew nothing about them for the last 20 years I would be ecstatic to see them. 

While in New Mexico we spent the entire week with family. It didn't matter if we were out doing the touristy stuff that Albuquerque has to offer or if we were just sitting around playing a board game, we were having a blast being together. 

One afternoon we were getting ready to hit the road to head up to the Sandia Mountains for a ride on the tram and some hiking, while we were there we were talking about how crazy it was that we could all just "click" the way we did. One of my cousins mentioned that it didn't matter that we had been apart for so long, our friendship was in our veins. That statement couldn't have been more true. That week I spent time with family that I hadn't seen in 20 years and I spent time with family that I see every time I am back in New Mexico, it didn't matter how long or how recently I had seen them we were family and that bond is unbreakable.

I am extremely blessed that I have wonderful family. Family who is there to support me in the big moments in life, but who are right by my side in the little things as well. I always wondered why exactly our family could be so close, and then I realized it's because it's in our veins!

It Just Takes Time

I have officially lost 30 pounds. And it feels like it has taken me FOREVER to get to this point. Sometimes I get really frustrated with my weight loss, sometimes I give up, and sometimes I feel like I'm making zero progress. Although I don't really have a "goal weight" I do have goals. When I reach my final goal for my fitness I will be able to do things I've never done and the cool thing is that in the process I am getting better at doing things I've never done. A healthy bmi for my height is around 160 lbs, but I don't really have that as my goal. Instead, my goal is to be healthy! I want to be able to run our 5k fundraiser with the youth I work with, I want to be able to go hiking with friends and not be the one they are waiting on, and I don't want my weight to stop me from doing anything. I want to be healthy! In order to be healthy I have to drop more than 100 pounds and man does that sometimes feel like an impossible task. 

Sometimes I get super frustrated that it is taking so long to reach my goal, then I remember that it took me about 8 years to put on so much weight. Honestly, the last time I remember feeling happy in my own skin was on my 16th birthday (and I'm about to turn 24). It took 8 years to become unhappy enough to do something about it. Often times I forget how long it took to put the weight on because it was easy, all I had to do was eat whatever I wanted and do nothing. It has been 5 months since I seriously started focusing on changing my life, but for me this is hard. I have to focus on fueling my body with good food and I need to spend time in the gym or working out at home. It's a decision I have to make everyday, a decision to change my life. It is a choice that I make because of each and every one of you! For years I have made excuses and for years I have not been the person I was created to be, so now it is time to become that person. In all honesty though, I can't do it without your continued support  because I am human and sometimes I need a friend to remind me what my goals are. Thank you for being that friend and I hope you would share your goals with me so that I can be that friend for you! 

Here's to changing our lives and being who we were created to be! 

The Difference of a Year

A few weeks ago I sat in adoration with 12 of the youth I am blessed to work with. I thought about my first encounter with Junior High students on this same retreat two years ago. I remembered the three boys I took with me and how much fun we had. A few moments later I began thinking about this retreat last year. I was blessed to bring 6 students and I was so excited that in just one year our number had doubled.

On Saturday night the second year of the retreat I was a mess. I spent most of the night crying. And let me tell you they weren't pretty tears. I was so deeply saddened because I had come to the decision that I would be leaving Wyoming to be a Catholic Missionary with Lifeteen, a movement that is so close to my heart. As I sat in adoration that day I realized that my choice to leave meant I was leaving these students behind. Sure, there would be someone else who could come in and journey with them to heaven, but that someone wouldn't be me. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make, and I knew either way my heart would break because I would either walk away from my desire to be a Lifeteen Missionary or I would walk away from and incredible parish and group of youth. 

On that night last year I remember crossing paths with my dear friend Miguel on the way back to the room where adoration was taking place. He knew something was wrong and didn't have to speak any words he just held me in his arms as I cried. In that moment I realized that I would also be leaving behind the place that I had come to call home, a place where some of my biggest faith moments happened, a place where I built a life of my own, and a place where I came to know God in a totally different way. In that moment I uttered the most sincere prayer I have ever said "Lord, if this is your will please make me strong." I knew that I would need great strength to make this decision, whatever that would be. 

As I'm sure you know after much prayer and many feelings of confusion I finally decided to stay in Rock Springs and continue to journey with these students. And let me say I know in the depths of my soul that THIS is where God has called me to be. Never would I have imagined a year ago that our youth groups would be growing in such great ways, never would I have guessed that I would now be responsible for education of all age groups, and never would I have realized just how happy I would be doing that. It is incredible how joyful life can be when we let the Lord fulfill the deepest desires of our hearts. 

It is incredible for me to really stop and think what a difference a year can make!

That Christmas Cheer

A lot of people would classify me as some sort of Grinch when it comes to Christmas time. I find this a little funny, because Christmas is my all time favorite holiday! I'm just not the biggest fan of Christmas as we as a culture see it.

I will be honest in saying that I hate Christmas Music!! I blame this on my years of working in retail and the restaurant business. When a person spends several months before Christmas listening to the same set of songs on repeat it is a little hard to keep that Christmas spirit. To this day when Christmas music comes on my radio I change the station as quickly as possible.

If you were to walk into my house or even see it from the outside you would notice that there are no Christmas decorations. I don't have lights all over and I definitely have no tree up. Mostly because I think it is pointless to set up decorations for only me to see. Really, the only Christmas decorations that I have are two Christmas Mugs that I drink my cocoa in year round that I received as gifts.

By every way you look I seem like the biggest Christmas Scrooge ever! I am here to say that I am in fact, NOT anti Christmas!

Yes, Christmas music drives me crazy and my house isn't decorated, but I LOVE CHRISTMAS! See, Christmas is where it all began. When I stop and think of Christmas time I don't like to think of a big jolly man in a red suit, a tree that only I will see, or even music that drives me nuts. I like to think about the fact that in a little manger the savior of the world was born. That a woman was blessed beyond measure to be the mommy of the most important person in this world. So yes, my office isn't blaring Christmas music and no my house isn't decorated, but I am so excited for Christmas this year (and every year)!!

I hope that all of you have a very blessed Christmas and are able to reflect a little bit on what this Holiday is all about. I know for me ,it will be a very special one. Not only will I get to think about what this faith has meant in my life, but I will also get to celebrate the very first Christmas with my baby nephew.

Suffering

Have you ever wondered why we suffer? A question that hasn't been far from my heart in the past has been, if God is real why would he let me feel this pain? If God is really there why would I have to suffer like this?

I think at some point in each of our lives we all have to experience some sort of suffering. Suffering is part of our humanity. Maybe our suffering is the death of a loved one, illness, financial struggle, loss of a friend, or maybe you feel like you're alone in this world. At some point you will experience something that may seem just too hard to handle. When that moment comes it is natural to ask ourselves those questions, but something I learned the hard way was that in the midst of asking those questions we also have to seek out the answers.

I have had a few moments in my life that I felt completely out of control. Moments where I wondered why God would let that devastation happen to me. Something I have learned through all of that is that when we suffer we never suffer alone, because Christ suffered first.

A few summers ago I was a Catholic Missionary for the Diocese of Cheyenne with a program called Totus Tuus. Our program for the older youth was focused completely on suffering. Each Sunday I would stand up in front of a group of new kids and I would pour my heart out to them. I would share with them one of these moments of suffering, I would share my shortcomings, and would conclude with the ways in which the Lord led me out of that suffering.

That summer in itself was one of great growth for me. I would have days where I felt this tremendous sadness because getting up to tell those stories each week just kept them fresh in my mind. Getting up and pouring out my heart made me feel so vulnerable, but at the end of the summer I realized that I grew so much as a person.

As I'm sure you know, my favorite musician ever is Matt Maher and one of my favorite songs of his is called "You Were on the Cross". One of the lines that just pierces my heart goes like this"Where we you all that I hoped for, where were you when all that I've dreamed, came crashing down in shambles around me? You were on the cross." I just find so much comfort knowing that in the hardest moments of my life when I feel truly alone, I get the chance to remember that I am not at all alone. See, we have a man who chose to die a horrendous death to show us that we would never suffer alone.

I know that this time of year is full of happy memories, but I imagine that it is also full of heartache remembering some of those moments of suffering each of you have endured. I hope that in those moments you will look to the cross and remember that you do not have to suffer alone.