Homemade Tortilla Chips & Guac!

Recipe corner!!!

It's Memorial Day weekend y'all and the true kick off to summer BBQ's and parties. What better time then now to share my best guacamole recipe with you and also the tale of how I made my own tortilla chips, which was a slight fail but still a tasty one!

 I made enough guacamole for one person, maybe two people, you can double or triple this recipe easily to tailor to your needs.

INGREDIENTS:

2 ripe avocados
Tomato, diced....I only had cherry tomatoes on hand so I used a handful and quartered them.
One clove of garlic, smashed and diced.
A quarter of a white onion....you can use any onion or amount you'd like, it is purely for taste and crunch.
Salt & Pepper, generously
Cumin, also generously
Chili powder, you guessed it...generously :)
A shot or two of lime juice

Mix well together and let sit while making your chips so that it can ~meld~

I started taking photos after I had cut my tortillas, but basically you take either flour or corn tortilla rounds and using a knife, or like I have a pizza cutter, cut equally into 4 pie pieces. I had larger tortillas so I ended up cutting my pie pieces into smaller triangles and some rectangles....no one's perfect haha. Then you take your soon to be chips and you drizzle oil (any sort, I used olive oil but I may use coconut next time based on the final product) on them and then mix the chips around to coat them. Next I lay them out onto a foiled baking sheet and sprinkled cumin, salt and chili powder on top of them.

Preheat your oven to 400 and  put those chips in for....OK so the original recipe I used said to put the chips in for 5 minutes and keep an eye on them. I ended up leaving these chips in for about 10-12 minutes before I thought they had reached proper golden brown color and desired crispness. I don't know if my oven is a bit wonky, or I used the wrong oil or what but my chips were less chip like and more pita chip like. Which isn't bad but when you are expecting one thing and you get another it's a little off I guess. Either way, keep an eye on your chips! And test your guacamole during this waiting game ;)

Finished chip shot! These weren't as crispy as I had hoped, but next time I may switch out flour for corn tortillas and olive oil for coconut and update the progress. The guacamole was excellent and I would 20 out of 10 make it again, plus it was 100% my own mixing :)

Have a Happy Memorial Day everyone!!

Keep on, Keepin' on!

M.

MAY Be I Ought To Make A Schedule Hahahaha

So with my cracked tooth fiasco I ended up needing it pulled out....which was seriously the worst thing to ever happen to me at that moment. I am no fan of dentists in the first place but this was too much. The unfortunate misstep I took in lowering our dental insurance cause me to have this tooth pulled without laughing gas/sedative. Just shots of Novocaine and a yank!! *cue all my cries forever* Moral of the story, actually read your health insurance packets when you get them so that when you to have an unexpected need for it.

Flash forward to the weekend and our friend's(and neighbors) awesome wedding! So much friendship, so much love, such a wonderful time. My man and I made lifelong friends from an epic week of partying and hanging out. We now have more homes in different countries to visit, which is amazing! Travelling is definitely something that has been on the backburner for far too long.

Another flash forward into this, the end of May and it took me all month to finish writing this blog post. So pretty much this title that was originally a pun is now really what I'm going to be doing as soon as I publish this. Woooo organization!!! I've had a full Kale-Bleuberry-Cherry smoothie, I AM READY hahahaha

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

April Showers Bring.....Projects? Smoothies? Life Adventures?

Oh hi!

So I have at least done a once a month on here :D

But in all seriousness I've been busy, I've been up and down, I've been working all the weekends. It's been a weird time so far this 2016. I've been trying to figure out life and deal with all the things I guess grown up 30 year old ladies get to do. But I'm here! And I'm writing, so great times.

I decided on Monday that I was like "Yea, I'm gonna start getting healthy and eating well rounded meals more and less bad snacks!" So yesterday I bring my lunch to work, kale salad w/ walnuts and cherry tomatoes and a nice onion vinagrette.....and as I take a bite I chomp down on a walnut. On my not-so-great back tooth. And I cracked it :'( This is what I get?! No one ever cracked a tooth on a cheeseburger!!! So now until Monday when I go to the dentist, I can't really chew without it hurting. So now I'm making alll the smoothies. Maybe a health kick on it's own then?? But not at all how I wanted this to go.

I have made 3 smoothies so far and 2 were great and now the one I'm drinking as I type this out is, UM ok, I guess??

The first 2 as follows ( I was inspired by pinterest):

Berry Berry Great :)

Handful of dark pitted cherries
2 Handfuls of blueberries
Handful of strawberries
2 Heaping Tbsp vanilla yogurt
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Pour and a Half of cranberry juice

(Such accurate measurements)
Blend and enjoy. Also I used all frozen fruits so I didn't need ice.

Peanut Butter Yum :)

One to Two bananas (depending on the amount you want to make. I used one and it yielded about half a mason jar full)
3ish Tbsp of peanut butter
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Third of frozen apple juice concentrate

Blend and enjoy. Again no ice due to the frozen juice.

Now the third....I only changed kale from spinach but I got this recipe straight from a pinterest search

Pineapple Avocad-no :/

2 ripe avocados (it does make a full glass)
4 sliced pineapples, chopped
2 heaping handfuls of kale
A Good Squeeze of honey
A Good Pour of pineapple juice
Ice (nothing was frozen)

Blend.....for way longer than you had to on the first two and take a sip, it has an avocado texture, which is expected-but it's too thick. I was hoping as the ice melted it would be ok but I've been test sipping during this whole blog and it's not gotten better. It needs more fruit and juice and less avocado I think. If you do make it: please tell me if you improved on it.

When did this blog get so fancy and full of recipes?! I am a true at home blogger now yes! Expect all the posts on how I DIY'd my entire porch using only dollar store items, spray paint and things from Crate & Barrel that I causally had laying around my house.

But for real though, I'm having a small get together for Fourth of July weekend and I will probably DIY some decorations for that. Plus later in the year I am throwing a baby sprinkle for my dear friend and will definitely update the blog for that adventure.

Stay Tuned!! :D

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

March Madness

I'm not sure how to even state this properly or begin to talk about the insane things happening in our life. But I will say that at the root of it all, we have a wonderful friend family. Everyone who has been there, trust me it has meant more than you know.

I still live in shut down mode and though we had an awesome time with our friends who just visited, my head wasn't 100% in it. At the back of my mind there is always a "what's going to happen next??" "what will slap us in the face this time??" I can't function properly anymore. I have to drink, I have to plant, I have to do half assed crafts and redecorate my space when I should be writing or working or cleaning. I don't feel like a good adult/friend/partner. I feel like a hermit and a sad girl. And it's all stemming from someone who doesn't even live in this damn state. Who has ruined vacations and weekends and parties and doesn't even realize the pain they've caused. Nothing is fair anymore and I'm sick of it.

I sit in my house an squander away the hours of my life instead of being outside and seeing the world and the people that I love. I'm always in here waiting for the other shoe to drop. I hate it, and I'm sorry if you think I've just been being a bad friend, I haven't done it on purpose. I have to self preserve myself alone in here so that eventually when this is all over, I come out head held high and ready to be 100% happy.

Hope that's fucking soon though.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

When Did It Become February?

So my life has been a bit topsy-turvy as of late. February came in with a bang and a slap and a hell of an attitude. Things are happening that are 1000% out of my control and out of my man's control and only now a week and a half later we have reigned in this crazy. I won't delve into details because for now it's a grey area and I might make a more in depth article/blog when it's properly settled down. Today I just want to say....

To my friends/family:
I'm very thankful for all of you and I appreciate all the kindness and support. I'm sorry that I shut down and I revert back into my little cave of aloneness and I shut everyone out. It happens, it's a defensive trait. I'm reaching out my feelers though and I would like some company very soon :)

To _____:
I miss you and I love you. I'm sad that you are so far away. I'm sad that you can't visit. I'm sad for this whole situation. It's terrible for all parties and I feel that there is some much better solutions than the ones that we are faced with now. I hope you are happy, I guess. I hope you are doing well in school, you are smart as a whip and don't let anyone bring you down. You are a shining little firecracker, don't let anyone burn you out. I hope this finds you somewhere out there, know that you are loved and missed by more than me and whenever you want to come back, we're here with open arms.

That's all for now.

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.

Choose You Own Adventure

I've been both busy and not busy. Not busy, but busy playing tablet games. Busy having a wonderful time distracting myself from both my blog and the 60 day write club to write and illustrate a picture book for my 2 year old neighbor. But also busy with work. Flipside-busy having great chats with my neighbors and bonfires. I've come to the thinking that maybe there's two forms of busy on the life spectrum. You can choose how busy to be, and with what, I will always want to choose a good busy (so bonfires and drinks and building an empire of books)

Life in general is about choices, some are hard and some are easy but as far as it being a personal matter-it's always the right choice in the end. Hear me out: even when you make a so called wrong choice, you learn/recover from it, so thus it teaches you something, so it can't be that wrong. Obviously there are other situations where a choice is very clearly wrong and I would like to think that anyone reading this would never have to make a life or death choice.

Stay busy in the way you'd like, and make good for you kind of choices.

Keep on, keepin' on,
M.

It's 2016!

So without meaning to I took the entire month of December off from this blog. Sometimes life gets in the way of things whether good or bad and you put things on the back burner without a thought. I work in retail as well so it gets pretty hectic with hours and late nights and then there's all the get togethers after and all the christmas shopping you do for your families. Basically it's alot, but now its January and it is time to begin anew and get going on making 2016 a great one.

First: So much more home organization and making our spare room into an actual office for actual work. Both with my man's business and my own writing dreams.

Second: Writing dreams are going into FULL swing this year. My dear friend Candace has been a journalist for all our years of schooling and has multiple side projects. One of them, Life Between Weekends, proposed a challenge for this year, well for the next 2 months: Write the novel you've always wanted to-and do it in 2 months! Not like write it, edit it and publish it, but get those words and thoughts down on paper, so to speak. I love the idea and to have a small team to hold each other accountable seems like a really good fit for me. So here's to me writing the next great American novel!

Third: Have more adventures. Go more places. Really travel and have a reason to pin places on the map. Live my best life.

I'm turning 30 in 6 days. Why not go for it all this year?? Make 30 the best year and banish the old stereotypes!

Keep on, keepin' on,

M.