Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Sí Sí



This is something I happened to make up (yes, really) because I was craving some sort of Mexican food, but not really wanting to make enchiladas or tacos. Remember a while back when I made "Uglies"? This is a spin off from those...but Mexicanized :)

The ingredients I'm listing are what I used to make 24 SiSi's with left over meat mixture (enough to make 12 additional SiSi's). The extra meat mixture can be frozen so you can use it at a later time if you're feeling squirrely to make more mini enchilada grenades :) I REALLY recommend making the meat mixture several hours before you're ready to bake. By making it and letting it soak, the chicken will have soaked up a lot of flavor!

Preheat the oven to 375*

3 packets of taco seasoning
1 carton of chicken stock
2 jars of salsa (however spicy you want)
1 medium white onion
6 cloves of garlic
2 roasted chickens
4 tomatoes
 1 head of lettuce
1 package of shredded mexican blend cheese
3 packages of Pillsbury biscuits

In a large bowl, combine the three packages of taco seasoning, two and a half cups of chicken stock, and the two bottles of salsa. Stir and set aside. 


Now, I normally roast chickens myself..but since I'm lucky enough to live near a town that was having it's Tuesday market, I managed to pick up two freshly roasted chickens from them. The reason why I prefer roasted verses BBQ is that the chicken keeps a lot of moisture in the meat and pretty much seasons itself as it's cooking. Nice & tender!


Pick all the meat off the bones, shred it into chunks and toss it into the bowl with the sauce mixture. If you want to add the skin in, it's your choice...I just tossed mine to the pups since they waited ever so patiently for me to make some sort of mistake to drop them some goodies.


Take your onion and coarsely chop it up, toss into chicken mixture.


From a bulb of garlic, take out anywhere from 5-6 cloves (medium sized) and finely chop them (I used my food chopper to do this)..once chopped, toss the garlic into the chicken mixture. 


Make sure to mix everything in the bowl thoroughly! If you're wanting this to soak, just toss it in the fridge till you're ready to bake, otherwise, just set this aside 


Next, you'll be working on the crust.


Spread some flour out on the counter so you can flatten out the biscuits.


Flatten the biscuits and shake off the excess flour..


..then fit the biscuits into the muffin tins. Now, don't bother trying to make the "crust" pretty..they'll bake however they want to which gives them that rustic kind of look.


Spoon the meat mixture into the shaped biscuits, then top with the shredded Mexican cheese.


Bake for 17-19 minutes!


While the Si Si's are cooling, you can work on the lettuce and tomatoes. 


Wash the lettuce thoroughly & dry. When you cut it up, you can do small slivers so you have a nice shredded lettuce you can use as a salad. 


Wash and dry your tomatoes. I'm kinda funny about mine since I don't like that core in the middle. So, I chop the top off, use "The Corer" down the center of the tomato to remove the heart, slice it in half then slide the seeds out. That way, I don't have the acidic part of the tomato to deal with when I use the good parts as a garnish. 


Once you're all set, assemble the SiSi like you would with a taco salad (lettuce, tomato, sour cream & shredded cheese)..and you're all set to go!


Monday, July 18, 2011

Week 2 (again)

I forgot to post yesterdays weigh in! Sorry! Sorry! I have a really bad thing called "Shiny Syndrome". When I get up on the weekends, I go right into the kitchen and start making breakfast for the guys, then from there we go on with the rest of our day..by the time it dawns on me to weigh in, it's too late. Sounds silly, but if Eric doesn't remind me right when I get up to weigh in, I forget (seriously).


So, I'm just a tid bit over what my lowest weight has been. Hopefully I can make some progress this week since we're heading out to Italy a week from today :D I'm a little apprehensive about the flight because of the damn seats. I love traveling, but not fond of flying since those damn airline seats are narrow. If you know me, you know I don't have narrow hips...momma's got some junk in the trunk, so those seats are usually my mortal enemy. I guess this trip will help me gauge what to expect with my upcoming flight in September (aye aye aye).....eighteen hours in a tiny chair. Shoot me.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Blauwe Bessen

I have a whole new respect for people who work on farms that pick produce by hand. I truly do. 


There's a fabulous blueberry farm called Blauwe Bessen in a town called Meeuwen-Gruitrode, which is about twenty minutes from here:
 Lekker & Gezond means "Tasty & Healthy" :)

 You have the chance to go pick your own berries..as much as your little heart desires! They supply the buckets and you supply the energy. For one kilo of berries (roughly two pounds), it costs four euro (about $5.60)...honestly, that's fantastic! For a little package of blueberries that barely weighs anything at the commissary, it's about $3! I remember going to that farm back in 2009..I thought I wrote a blog on it but apparently not, lol. So, here ya go! 

The weather this week has been less than impressive. In fact, it's been cold and rather soggy. I have no idea what's up with summer this year, but whenever a sunny day graces us with it's presence, we take advantage of it! Well, today was that day, so I decided to get John out of the house and we headed over to Blauwe Bessen since some recipes I wanna make require blueberries, they're a fabulous source of antioxidants and John really likes them as a snack.

We got there, grabbed our buckets and made our way over to the designated picking area. On our way over there, we saw several older couples walking out with two buckets (each) filled to the brim with berries! YEAH! We were gonna get some good sized berries if that's what they were leaving with! Haaa..psssych! About thirty minutes into picking, it became VERY clear to us that those people must've been picking right when the farm opened (which is 9am) and we showed up around noon. The berries on the bushes were very small, nothing along the lines of what we got the last time we went picking. After an hour of walking, picking, squatting, and reaching, we managed to get only one kilo. Le sigh.

From there, we walked over to the area where they empty out your bucket, weigh it and let ya know what the total damage is. In addition to the berries you pick, you can also buy other goodies they sell there like blueberry wine, syrup, jam, juice, etc.


They even have some FABULOUS blueberry pie! Oh man, I really had to refrain from buying some because I'm watching what I eat..but it's SO good! 


Of course, I snagged some blueberry juice because I like making myself some "blueberry soda" with it. You take some of the juice, add soda water and about two tablespoons of splenda and you're good to go! It's AWESOME! 
My fabulous blueberry soda:

In addition to the juice, I also picked up some blueberry wine. Oh, I know..I'm not much of a wine person, but theirs is the only stuff I actually like!
And, I scored some blueberry tea :)
Oh, and then there's the blueberries. The bowl in the middle is what we actually picked..the rest, I bought from the farm. You can clearly see a difference in the size of the berries from what we picked verses what they were selling. Quite frankly, I was totally ok with buying the rest of the berries since I'll be making muffins and other various items over the next few weeks and it was still cheaper buying 'em from the farm verses dealing with the commissary.

Don't judge me!


Sunday, July 10, 2011

Week 1 (again)

So, I'm starting over.

I still have two more months till I fly back to the States, so I'm *hoping* I can get down another ten or so pounds by then. Of course I want to keep up my progress while I'm home, but I'm being realistic about it considering I'll be traveling via car the majority of the time from California, to Oregon, then Washington, back to California in addition to the other trips I have planned. LOTS of road time for me!

Anyway, I weighed in yesterday. Sorry I didn't post then, but Eric and I dove in head first to our "PURGE PURGE PURGE" house project. We're about a year and a half out from moving (no, I have no idea where we're going yet) so we wanna start getting rid of junk we don't need or want anymore. Speaking of getting rid of junk, I managed to lose some weight from my last weigh in:



At this point, I'm a little over a pound and a half shy of my lowest weight since I originally started, so I'm lucky my body decided to be kind & get rid of the additional weight I had gained last weekend.

Here's to hoping for a progressive upcoming week!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

YIPPY YIPPY YIPPYYYYY!!!!

Ahhhh!!! I'm so excited right now!!!


As some of you know, I stalk the local antique warehouse called Slegers. Over time, I've scored some pretty cool stuff like trogs, a nice scale and even a spiffy lookin' coffee grinder. One of my main missions before we leave Belgium is to get a nice Belgian table. Their quality when it comes to furniture is amazing and I rather invest my money into antique stuff verses some modern day pieces (MAJOR difference in weight and sturdiness).

Well, there's this table I've been eyeballing for a while now. Since..hmmm..let's say December. A friend of mine ended up buying the larger version of the one I wanted because she got a killer deal (table, buffet AND hutch!). Here's a pic from her Facebook I acquired:


As much as I loved her set, it'd NEVER fit in our current house. Never, lol. So, I kept my eye on the table I was wanting. Thing is, it was in a set with a MASSIVE buffet and matching hutch. But, those two pieces didn't match the table..so that always made me wonder why they were wanting to sell it as a set.  Don't get me wrong, they're beautiful...but ridiculously large and would probably kill our weight allowance when it's time to move again. I found out that the price for the entire set was 1,400 (aghhh, it hurts!) so I knew that wasn't gonna happen considering that converts to $2,005. Eeeek.

About a week ago, Eric finally had a day off in the week (that's a RARITY!) so I took him over to the warehouse to show him the table. He even liked it! Then again, I'm not surprised  since he and I are a lot alike when it comes to style. We both love dark walnut wood :) I noticed the table was set several aisles away from the buffet and hutch, so after doing some investigating, it turns out that they're selling the table separately because they realized it didn't match the rest of the set. YIPPY!


They were wanting 800 for the table ($1,145)..it was do-able, but Eric really hated the chairs. REALLY hated them. They're very sturdy and rather heavy (about 8lbs a piece, at least), but it'd be kind of a pain to get them reupholstered. In all honesty, I wouldn't want to buy the chairs to just have them gutted and redone....not worth shelling out more money in the long run. So, we kinda went back and forth on it and decided we'd "see" if it was available once we got back from our Venice vacation.

For some reason, I had a feeling I needed to go over to Slegers today. I dunno how to explain it, but it was like a twitch saying "You NEED to go. Now.".... I tossed John in the Xterra and we rolled over there to check the table out and it had moved. My heart sank! I walked all around the showroom floor and I finally found it. Apparently someone had taken a look at it earlier and debated on whether or not they wanted it (sound familiar!?).. they hadn't put any money down on it, so it was still up for grabs. I managed to snag one of the employee's and asked him about it and we haggled back and forth. Since Eric and I were not fans of the chairs, I made it clear that I didn't want them with the table, so after some thought.. the guy knocked 150 ($215) off of it for me. DONE DEAL! Sure, someone else had probably taken the time to go have lunch to think it over and come back..but I've been wanting this for a while! I ran down to the ATM and got the money for the deposit (we'll be picking it up after our Venice trip). The guy must've thought I was a nut because I was so happy about buying it, lol. The final price came to 650 ($930) which really isn't all that bad considering the table is 100+ years old and in fabulous shape!

The pattern on the table top:


I love love love the detailed carving around the sides of the table as well as the legs!



The best part is that the table extends! When its extensions aren't pulled out, it's 55 inches long, and with the extensions it's 102 inches. Perfect if we want it for a regular dinner table, or if we wanna use it when we have additional company over! I think the coolest part is that the leafs are built into the table so you don't have to worry about storing them somewhere else in your house. If you wanna have more table space, you just pull the sides out and they slide out from underneath the main table top surface.


All I gotta do now is pick up some dark wood wax to spruce it up a lil bit and we're good to go! Luckily, they also sell that there for 5€ a container, so I'll make sure to snag some when we go back to finish up the purchase & arrange the delivery :)

Tuesday, July 5, 2011

I H8 My Body.

Oh hey, look at that...I'm blogging!

I didn't bother posting a weigh in for Saturday because the scale hadn't budged at all, yet again. I've been stuck at 235 for the last three weeks now and it's incredibly frustrating. Yes, I realize it's a plateau and I shouldn't let it get me down...but frankly, I'm allowed to feel how I feel because I effing hate my body. I do my weights, I do my cardio, I watch what I eat...blah blah blah..but yet, no progress. Yes, I've lost twenty pounds, but it seems so.."meh" in comparison to how much I want to lose.

I ended up enjoying the three day weekend between spending time with Eric out of the house, running errands, movie dates and such.....ya know, I RELAXED! Today is my "Monday" despite it obviously being Tuesday, so I figured I'd weigh myself to see what the damage was from the weekend and I got a lovely shocker:


Yup. I managed, since Saturday, to gain 5.4 pounds. AWESOME, HUNH? Talk about defeating. Thinking back, the only "bad" thing I had was a chicken sandwich..and I only considered it bad because it had bread. Never mind the fact that I've been drinking plenty of water, walking a ton and behaving...almost five and a half pounds in three days makes me depressed.


You're probably thinking, "Geeze Erika, it's probably just water weight". Probably so. Then again, my body has this knack of holding onto anything and everything as of late so it's going to take a ton of extra effort (in addition to what I'm already doing) to get this shit off of me. I'm VERY upset with myself. In a matter of three days, I managed to set myself back a month. 

Go me. 

I'm not giving up. I'm pretty much starting from Day 1 all over again..I just need to vent because this is starting to feel very disheartening despite all the hard work I'm putting in. At this rate, I won't be hitting my goal weight by the time I head home..and hell, I MIGHT hit my goal weight by this time next year. Losing a pound a week is frustrating the absolute shit out of me. 

This isn't a pity party post. I'm seriously angry with myself.