Baked Turkey Chimichangas!!

This glorious bad boy is a baked chimichanga! I know, I know...I guess it may not be a real one since it wasn't bathed in gallons of oil or made with a flour tortilla, but this mama needs to get fit! So the fresher, the better and this glorious-ness satisfied my Mexican cravings last night.

So if you need a Mexican healthy alternative, here's the recipe for you!

Ingredients for chimis:
6-7 Whole wheat tortillas (probably 8 in. diameter)
1 lb. ground turkey (I love Jennie-O)
no-salt seasoning of your choice (I love Penzy's® Mural of Flavor - that's what I used here)
shredded low fat/non-fat cheese

Spray your non-stick pan with a light coat of olive oil cooking spray and heat over medium heat. Brown the ground turkey until you can't see anymore pink (and if you're like Mr. What's-his-face and color-blind, ask someone to verify it's not pink anymore) and flavor with the seasoning of your choice. I think I probably added about a teaspoon, at least, of the Mural of Flavor. Seasonings are pretty much freebies as far as calories go, unless it's salt. And ain't nobody got time to work off that extra water weight...back on topic: Turn off the heat when it's done cooking.

Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees, prep a cookie sheet with a light coating of olive oil cooking spray. If you have a gas stove-top, warm a tortilla over a low flame. (For those of you unfortunate enough to have an electric stove, microwave the tortillas with a damp paper towel for about 20-30 seconds in the microwave) Place tortilla on a plate and spoon about a hand-full of ground turkey in the middle of the tortilla. Sprinkle about an ounce of cheese and roll the tortilla, folding the sides in so nothing can come out. Then place your prepared chimichanga on your prepared cookie sheet. Continue this process until you're out of turkey.

Bake in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, until your tortillas are slightly dry and crispy on the outside.

Ingredients for pico de gallo: (adapted from the South Beach Diet Cookbook Tomato and Avocado Salsa recipe)
4 roma tomatoes, diced
1/2 medium red onion, diced
1 jalapeño, seeded and diced
approx. 1/2 C cilantro (but let's get real, can you ever have too much? om nom nom)
1/4 tsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
Juice of 1 lime

Dice up your veggies and cilantro, throw them in a bowl (not literally, but you know), add the vinegar, cumin and lime juice and give it a stir!

When your chimis are done, slap on about 2 heaping spoonfuls of that pico and you'll be in heaven in no-time. Not gonna lie, mine lasted maybe 10 minutes, tops...

Enjoy! Love and God's blessings,

Mrs. What's-her-face

It's been one year

On January 9 of this year, Louis and I celebrated our first year anniversary. So I thought what better way to start blogging again than to look back at what I've missed blogging about: my life with my wonderful husband the last few months.

I finally graduated from the University of Arizona mid May. Louis and I were able to visit Indianapolis with some great friends and show him the old stomping grounds. Just as things got quiet again after fun celebration of weddings and friendships, in mid September we got to celebrate the gift of life.

I woke up on a Sunday morning realizing that I should have had a monthly visitor that past week. I came into the living room and sat down on the couch, looked at him and said, "Babe, I'm slightly nervous. It's a good nervous but it's anxiousness."

He looked concerned. "Everything ok?"

"I think I might be pregnant," I said with a little smirk on my face. I told him not to get me wrong, I wasn't upset I might have been pregnant. Because of my anxiety since I'd never had to face this kind of situation before Louis said, "Don't worry. We can go pick up some pregnancy tests, go to Starbucks and have a coffee, take it easy and we'll just see what happens."

Five minutes later, I was in the shower and Louis yelled to me, "I'm going to run to Fry's and get those pregnancy tests for you. I'll be back" which told me that he was just too excited to wait. He got home and I drank a few glasses of water and started to make breakfast. Louis kept on asking me, "Do you want to take them now? You don't have to take them now, I mean, we can wait but if you want to wait. But we don't have to wait. You could take it now if you want to." Yeah, he was definitely excited.

And so, a couple months later I've got quite the belly bump. Just before Christmas we found out that we're expecting a little boy and just this past weekend we set up his crib and changing table. Oh what fun will ensue when this little guy comes around. I'm going on 28 weeks now and I can definitely feel our little blessing moving around in there. I've finally been able to see out of the corner of my eye that my stomach will twitch when Louis Jr. has some hefty movements. His dad has felt him moving around and jokes with me about my large, growing tummy.

All this time I've started to think, too, that this is the perfect story of a Rookie Homemaker. Life has thrown me a curve ball and I'm so excited to knock it out of the park with my wonderful husband. More to come soon. I have another prenatal appointment on Thursday so hopefully I will have new pictures and can start posting those.

Today's Mam's Birthday!

It's been quite a while since I've posted, but I thought I should!

Life's been kind of hectic since graduation. I've been working more hours at the Mall. Not full time or anything but I find myself exhausted when I come home, or especially exhausted even before I have to leave for work. I usually only work 6 hours straight which might be the problem, no break, but then I feel like a baby who can't hack the work straight through. I had to work 9 hours straight a few weeks ago and I just couldn't hack it. It may be because I'm standing constantly and not really walking around a lot. I walk in a very small area a majority of the time.

But this week, I wanted to put that pain aside. I wanted to do something special for my mom for her birthday. Ever since I started playing sports in high school, I've pretty much been on the go. I've put my family second at times to do things while I was younger like go out with friends or boyfriends or work. I even forgot about plans mom had made a couple weekends ago and told one of my co-workers I'd take her shift. So to make it up to my mom I wasn't going to forget her birthday.

So for starters, I made reservations at this quaint Tea Restaurant complete with you choosing your own china cup and saucer, eating off mix matched china plates, enjoying your meal with real silverware and sipping fantastic loose-leaf tea strained through an adorable little strainer that catches the tea leaves while it's poured from china tea pots. A dear family friend came with us, too. It was a fun time.

But during the week I wanted to make a spiffy cake for mom.

I'm slightly hooked on, well more like addicted to, a show on TLC called "Cake Boss." On one episode, Buddy Valastro replicates the top tear of the wedding cake at he and his wife's wedding for their 8th anniversary. He made a checkerboard cake by cutting circles out of both chocolate and vanilla cakes and then mixing them in alternate patterns.

It may have been easier just to bake it the way the kit told me too, haha.

But it was pretty easy to alternate the different layers.

I'm not a pro, so I went through a bunch of frosting and it totally was not perfect...

But It came out really cute anyway. I made marshmellow fondant to put around the cake and to cover the rice crispy tea cup and saucer.

Which in turn gave me this:

The checkerboard look was completely unexpected and Mam and our family Friend were completely surprised!

I couldn't think of a more fun birthday for my mom. They'll be over tonight for some bbqing and cards :)

Reboot

Ok, so I know it's been quite a long time since I've written at the end of the semester. Now I've finally graduated and I'm learning to be a housewife, working woman and unemployed-in-the-real-world.

But just for the sake of updates, I'll just start rambling. As I noted in one of my older posts, I'd been in an accident and rear-ended someone. Since then our truck has been in the shop at Chapman Automotive Repair Center. They're certified through our insurance company. Since then it's been nothing but problems. During the first month they had it everything seemed fine despite the fact the guy calling me with updates didn't know anything specific that was happening to the truck; all he said was that repairs were on schedule. That's really reassuring right? Well we'd had problems.

We received the truck back a couple days before it was scheduled to be done. I noticed some problems with the paint job on on the passenger front fender and pointed it out to our technician, I guess you could call him. Looking at the fender with the glare from the setting sun, I could see dimples in the clear coat. They weren't huge and massively noticeable, but I remembered when my father had work done, after my first accident in his car, telling the man in the shop that he'd sent planes back for less while he was in the Navy.

When our tech explained it to me, he said that what happens is that sometimes nicks prior to repainting could have problems getting buffed out. I internally laughed and thought, "To do a paint job right, are you not supposed to strip, prime, sand, paint and finish the vehicle? I've watched enough episodes of Overhaulin' to know that." (not that I'm trying to say I know more than this guy did, I just felt like that was the best way to do a paint job right and if my insurance company is shelling out almost $10,000 I'd like it to be done right.)

As soon as we got the truck home, Louis discovered a clip in the wheel well that had not been secured down, causing the plastic to wear against the tire and creating a burning smell. The battery was bubbling over, and something was rattling in the driver's side door.

Two days later, I barely got the engine to turn over after a very, not-so-nice "rurrr....rurr....rurrr...rruuuuuuvrooooooom" of the engine. I took it to Checker to have it replaced, put the battery back in about an hour and a half after I'd gotten there, and then it happened. The key fob back at home since we weren't used to driving with it, I battled with the after-market alarm system to get the truck started. With nothing happening and the key not being read in the door, I had to consent defeat and walked two blocks to where my Sunfire was sitting at my husband's bus stop.

To make a longer story short, the tech told us we just needed to drive with the key fob (which sounds like a good idea, but there were problems with the alarm that we were having after the accident occurred), gave us the run-around after dealing with it and left us with a broken wind-shield-wiper-fluid spout from the hood of the truck.

Grrr on Chapman Automotive.

The end of the beginning

My husband and I both have our quirks. He teases me for freaking out when he makes fun of my O.C.D. measuring ingredients when baking and I drive him crazy when I space out and leave blinds open in the morning in our cave of a house.


This past weekend he helped me take some very moving pictures associated with my rape. I felt bad for having to include him since the final pictures we took left both of us a bit depressed. Before we went to sleep, he asked if I was ok. I told him honestly that I thought the previous day's activities left me a little dead inside. I wasn't looking forward to looking at and editing all the pictures we'd taken.


Some of the final shots were me in my underwear (totally not naked I promise) wrapped in a rebozo. My mom would probably kill me since it was a gift from a very rick member of the family in Mexico, but it made for perfect contrast. As soon as I got myself situated on this fallen log that had been burnt a little, I started crying. I didn't even try to start, it just came in a rush and I couldn't help myself.


Laying there next to him he said, "That was the hardest part for me. I had to disassociate myself real quick...Seeing you crying I had to think about you as the subject than my wife."


That struck a nerve with me. Sometimes I don't know if it was good for me to do this project or if I should have just kept it to myself. I can't thank him enough for how much he's been there for me.


While the semester is finally coming to a close, I look back and think about how my semester's been different being married.


My husband is an amazing man. Louis is my best friend and I feel like my life has really reflected that. Most students hang out with their best friends and roommates and I did just that, so I guess my experience hasn't been that much different besides the sparkly things on my left ring finger. I've busted my butt and had horrible days. And then I've had the best days and uplifting activities. My husband has been there through them all.


At the same time I can turn around and say I've been there for him. There were scares for him while his projects weren't going as planned and his section of the company were taking layoffs. At the end of the day, we're still growing and leaning on each other for support.


I will love him forever, until death do we part.

Capitalism=bullshit?!

Since this seems to be the topic of conversation on everyone's minds, I thought I'd put my two cents in, especially since it was thrown in my face this afternoon.

I was waiting for class to start earlier and I was sitting with a classmate discussing current events in class. She commented about my wedding rings and asked me to tell her the story about how Louis proposed, of course the conversation was light and fun. Then, the young man that was sitting just on the other side of a column got up and walked into the stairwell. My classmate stared at him and smiled and laughed. I thought she knew him.

"This guy...," she began. "I was on the phone with my sister and, I don't know about you but, I'm very liberal. We were talking about the new 1070 bill that got signed on Friday and he was just laughing and shaking his head...Are you for it or against it?"

I reluctantly said I'm for it, because I couldn't lie and I wanted to try my hand at logical argument that my husband is so fantastically good at, but I'm not very practiced. She started to state her point about how she used to think that everyone in this country was getting along and how there really wasn't that much racism, until she started taking a class and saw how "horrible our country really is."

I began to defend my position. My family came over to the states legally, and my family became naturalized citizens.

She returned with how classmates were in tears on Friday because their family got scared and members returned to Mexico. "How horrible it is to see families torn apart."

I shot back, "If they were here, legally, in the first place they wouldn't have a problem. It's just reiterating legislation that the federal government put in place at the beginning of the 20th century.

I began to talk about my husband's situation. I believe he's a great example of capitalism and the American Dream. He grew up in ghetto Tucson, avoided gang activity, worked hard to get his college degree. Now he owns a house, a truck, and makes a comfortable living all before the age of 28.

As we were walking to class and I finished my story, she says, "Well...he's an exception. The American Dream is bullshit."


If someone said that to you, point blank, what would you do? I was furious. How could she sit there and just say that my husband was one in a billion? Give me proof the American Dream is bullshit!

I'm not asking for a handout. I'm proud that I come from Mexican heritage. But I'm an American and I refuse to be a victim, as does my husband.

When I came home to continue my discussion with him, he told me he didn't see himself as the American Dream as much as he viewed his grandfather. Louis's grandfather came to the states, provided for a family of 5 children and he did without a handout. His grandfather didn't ask anyone to take care of him. He came here for a better life and did it the legal way. Worked hard, retired and now he's "marinating with my nana," as Louis likes to put it, . He's the sweetest man just taking it easy and waves at people from a big la-z-boy chair from his front porch at the base of 'A' Mountain.

I don't want a hand out. I want to work my ass off and be able to tell my children and grandchildren that we worked for everything we had and made a life for ourselves. I don't want to be a victim: "O woe is me who came to this country illegally and almost lost my life for nothing..." You, my friend, have human rights. But you do not have the legal rights as an American citizen, except now it seems backwards. I recall a conversation with some family friends about a year ago, who are also Americans of Mexican decent.

He was camped out one night with some friends on a hunting trip. They were sitting around the fire and some illegal immigrants came across them with semi-automatic weapons. If things turned ugly and our friends fired at the immigrants in self defense, our friends would have gone to jail and not the illegal immigrant. Now where's the justice in that?

I'm not against immigration. I'm against illegal immigration. And to see how people are up in arms because the state of Arizona is taking a stand against illegal activity is kind of hypocritical.

I commend people for wanting to immigrate to this country in search of a better life. And I agree that something needs to be done between both the United States government and Mexican government so that the process doesn't take almost 10 years. But to come over illegally, one's already a federal criminal. I know they're probably all fantastic people, besides the drug cartel. And please keep in mind, it's not just  Mexican illegal immigrants. It's Chinese illegal immigrants, Indian illegal immigrants, Canadian illegal immigrants and a number of other countries can be represented.

I just ask for people to understand that others may not think as he/she does and to think logically and see the other side of the coin. I understand that people are upset that families are being torn apart, but that's the consequences for doing something that's not right. It's like the fed catching a drug dealer. They have to do their time, I agree it's horrible and shouldn't have happened in the first place, but isn't that the fault of the individuals who are in this country illegally and not the people enforcing the law?

At this time, I apologize for my rambling. After my classmate made that comment to me without letting me say something in return, I just felt so sad. I wanted to ask her, "Why are you in college, then?"

Soundtrack of our lives

My mom and I have bonded many a couple days where we devoted 14 hours of amazingness to a Mexican telenovela called Alborada. One of the most beautiful men you've ever seen, Fernando Colunga, wins the heart of a woman, Lucero, in a story full of the epitome of telenovela stereotypes: amnesia, someone's pregnant with someone else's baby, someone else is having an affair, and evil mother who switched babies at birth, and a guy who's got so many issues it's ridiculous - but we love it!

Well, we did it again. My mom and I have been sharing our Mexican bond over the last few months since school started watching another telenovela called "Zorro: La Espada y La Rosa" or "Zorro: the Sword and the Rose." 

It, of course, has the same rubric for the typical Mexican soap opera: amnesia, a psycho power-hungry villian, two women are pregnant with someone other than their husband's baby, everyone thinks the female lead is dead except for the one guard who's helping her and the token little man with a hump, the male lead's father is in love and married to one woman, but he's also in love with his dead wife's twin sister, and the female lead's mother is the next heir to the Spanish throne, but she's been in prison and locked up with a mask because her husband, the governor of California, wants to marry the male lead's aunt who happens to be the mother superior of the local convent. Hahaha, and I haven't even begun to tip the iceberg!

Since this particular telenovela is on at noon I've discovered the beautiful piece of technology known as DVR. This weekend I was catching up on the 20 episodes I haven't been able to watch since school has been so busy. Luis has rediscovered his Play Station 2 and God of War II. One break, he came into the kitchen and started laughing. 

"This soundtrack is on replay, isn't it?" he commented, referring to how the end of each scene boasted pounding drums and sounds that tried to perpetuate the suspense of the scene. "That's hilarious! Babe, we're out of eggs. Dun dun dun dun-dun-dun, dun dun dun dun-dun-dun," he said as he smacked his stomach in a drumming manner. 

Last night his shenanigans lead to a pillow fight and then when we went walking this morning, both of us perpetuated the antics. 

I love that my husband can make me laugh so much, so I just had to share.