Monday, May 30, 2011

Home made green enchilada sauce

Green Enchilada Sauce


I love making green enchilada casserole, but I used to always use this stuff for my sauce.





Until one of my best friends Ana taught me how to make the 'real' stuff. It is very simple and makes a huge difference so I thought I'd share :)



2-3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
1 large onion, minced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
2 green peppers, chopped
1-2 jalapenos, seeded and membranes unless you want it spicy (you can even use a Serrano for some real spice!)
1 1/2 lb. tomatillos, husked and quartered
1/2 bunch cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tsp. Kosher salt
1/8 tsp. black pepper
4 c. chicken broth


In a large saucepan or stock pot, heat olive oil over medium heat. Saute onions and garlic until tender and fragrant.

While onions are sauteing, combine tomatillos, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, and cilantro in your blender. Process until smooth; you may have to do it in batches and/or add some chicken broth to make things blendable.

Pour the tomatillo mixture over the onions and garlic and add chicken broth, salt & pepper. Simmer 15 minutes-1 hour, depending on the consistency you want. I usually turn the heat to high and boil it uncovered until I reach the consistency I want; it makes things go a lot faster. The sauce can also be simmered in a slow cooker all day.

Serve over tacos, as an enchilada sauce, inside burritos, or as a dip for chips.




When using as a dip for chips I love adding the sauce to the blender with some salt and a few avocados. Seriously best dip ever!!

Saturday, May 28, 2011

30 Before 30~ Find a job I love


On my 25th birthday I started compiling a list of things I want to accomplish, a 30 Before 30 list. It has been a slow process of crossing these things off my list but today I get to cross of number 18. Once I graduated from nursing school with my ADN I needed to pass the NCLEX and find a job. The NCLEX was tough, but I passed with flying colors! The finding a job part seemed to take forever! Almost 6 months to find a permanent full time position! Just a few months ago on Valentine's day I started a great job working for Macer Medical. It is a great working environment, and Dr. Macer is always teaching me new things. As a nurse I always thought I would need to work in a hospital, but as it turns out working in a clinic is great for me! I have great hours, and weekends/holidays off! I even have some wiggle room to go back to school and get my BSN if I want to. Dr. Macer is even starting a new business called Medilean to help her patients lose weight. I'm excited about it because I get to be here while it is just starting out, so she values my input which is great! I get more responsibilities all the time and even got a raise at my 90-day evaluation! This may not be my forever career, but it is a job that I love. I love being a part of the Macer Medical staff, and I hope I stay a long while!

Friday, May 27, 2011

It was over before it started...

I'm going to talk about something today that I never thought I would open up about on the Internet, but I opened up with an IRL friend recently and it has really helped me deal. I've also seen some of my friends share their troubles online and it seems to have helped them. So I'm giving it a shot.

Last July at my complete physical I spoke to my physician about trying to have a child. She informed me that with having PCOS it would be tough and may take a while, but there are options and things to try. I liked that she was honest with me so we knew what to expect. My husband and I started on what might be a long journey. We still feel (and are!) young so we told ourselves we weren't in any hurry but would take a child when God blessed us with one.

Fast forward to March; Josue and I were still wanting to trust God's timing but we were also realizing the reality of how hard this was going to be. I had an ultrasound to take a look at my uterus & ovaries and found that I had quite a bit of cysts. So my Doctor decided to put me on a medication called Metformin. Traditionally this medication is for diabetics but for some reason having to do with insulin it seems to help patients with PCOS as well. It seems to be working well, I've lost 12 pounds and ovulated right away!

Now this next part is something I haven't shared with anyone not even my closest friends or family, only Josue and I know. As much as I love my Mother and usually share everything with her I'm glad she doesn't read this blog, she doesn't exactly support our decision to start a family "so soon" and I know she would be sad to hear this. (Mom if you ever do read this I know you love me, and would be very happy to have your first grandchild. I love you!). So anyway back to my story... On Sunday April 10th I decided just for fun to take a pregnancy test, I thought there would be no way that it would be positive but since I was 15 days past my first (metformin) cycle I would just try it. I couldn't believe my eyes...it was positive! Just to be sure I used a digital to confirm and it was also 'pregnant'

I had this gift all wrapped up and ready to go to give to Josue for just this moment. (It is a box with a baby blanket and an I love you Daddy T-Shirt) I didn't even get a chance to give it to him cause I came bouncing out of the bathroom with the pee stick! We were both so happy, anxious. and scared all at once!




It wasn't even 48 hours later when I woke up bleeding, I knew it in my heart that it was over, over before I even let myself tell anyone, over before we even got to be truly happy about it, just over! I had what we call in the medical world a Chemical Pregnancy. Being a nurse I knew what it was, I think that made me feel a little bit better about the whole thing. The baby didn't even have a heartbeat yet, and if I'm being honest it wasn't even a baby yet. If I hadn't been checking I wouldn't even had know I was ever pregnant and just had thought I go my period. I was sad, hurt, and angry all at once. Why wasn't I able to hold on to my baby? What was wrong with me? I was almost embarrassed to tell Josue. He is such a wonderful man though. He told me it wasn't my fault (which was exactly what I needed to hear) he held me and just let me cry. I know he was sad too, but he was strong and told me we always had another chance. I now try to look at it as positively as possible and try to realize it wasn't our time, God has different plans for us. It was hard but we have started again, and as always we hope for the best.




A friend of mine posted this picture on her blog, and I just loved it!




I think I may continue to share how I/we are feeling and dealing with trying to start a family. It hasn't yet been a year yet that we started this journey, and I know that other's have had far more struggle and I hope that my blog doesn't offend anyone. For now I just know that we are taking it day by day, trying to stay as positive as possible and know that God has a plan for us.





The friends that I mentioned before that have opened up online about similar issues are an inspiration to me. Not that I could ever imagine having to go through some of their losses, or that I could fully understand the others that are trying to get pregnant, but that I was inspired to share my struggle to get pregnant because their blog entries meant so much to me.