Make Ahead Breakfast For A Busy Day

So, if you told me ten years ago how much I would love being a housewife, I would have said you were definitely high. But I love it. I love cooking, I even enjoy cleaning (THIS DOES NOT INCLUDE LAUNDRY WHICH IS FROM SATAN HIMSELF) and I just love taking care of my husband. He works so hard at the railroad on such an unpredictable schedule, that's one of the reasons I've stayed home is so that we can have some time together. That said, I am getting ready to go back to work this winter in real estate and am very excited about it. This recipe will definitely be a keeper for busy mornings with no time to make a hot breakfast from scratch.

BREAKFAST ENCHILADAS

• Approximately 2 cups cooked breakfast meat (ham, sausage, bacon, whatever you like)
• 2 cups Tillamook Cheddar cheese (listen, you can use another brand...but that brand would be incorrect. Sooooo...your move.)
• Diced Veggies, about 1 cup, whatever you like (I used mushrooms and peppers)
• 2 cups half and half 
• 5 eggs
• 10 medium sized soft tortillas
• pepper

Take a 9"x13" baking dish and grease that mother with either Pam or butter or whatever. Grease it good, you don't want this masterpiece sticking.

Mix together whatever breakfast meats and veggies you chose in a bowl with 1 cup of the TILLAMOOK cheese. Seriously guys, it's just the best and I'm gonna have to insist here.

Portion your veggie/meat/cheese mixture evenly into the tortillas and place in the pan. Leave the ends open.

Whisk together your eggs and half and half. Add a little cracked black pepper if you're like me and put that noise in everything. Mix it. Mix mix it REAL good.

Pour the egg over the whole thing. Just dump it all over. Trust me on this.

Reserve the other cup of grated cheese until right before baking.

Pop it in the fridge, go to bed. You've got breakfast covered in the a.m.

Wake up. I know, it's rough. But you get a delicious hot breakfast today!

Preheat oven to 350.

Put that reserved cheese on top. Bake COVERED with tinfoil for approximately 35 minutes or until it is completely set. The egg mixture weirdly makes its way in to the enchiladas and makes like ten mini breakfast burritos. Craziness. Awesome. Anyway, after 35 min, pop the foil off and bake another 10 minutes uncovered. VOILA. Breakfast. 

Seriously, they were delicious and kept awesome in the fridge, we ate them two more days in a row and Brett even took one for lunch. They would freeze well too, I think. Also, you could totes cut this recipe in half. They are awesome topped with salsa as well!

ENJOY.

BUMBERSHOOT (We Are Not Festival Girls)

Labor Day Weekend. 2013.

Attended first music festival.

Sunday morning, I hopped in my best friend's car at 7:30 in the blasted morning and we made our way up to Bumbershoot in Seattle to see some of our favorite bands. I had high hopes, people. Too high. Unfairly high. In my head, we were going to see Tegan and Sara, fun., Mates of State, a forum with the writers of Parks and Rec, Death Cab for Cutie and possibly the tail end of Matt and Kim. SO MUCH MUSIC FOR A MERE $55! We would wander the grounds, eating delicious yum yums, people watching, relaxing in the grass as the music played, WE WOULD BE FESTIVAL GIRLS, DAMMIT! 

we forgot our flower headbands and wore too much clothing, as it turns out

Everything on the interwebz about music festivals is a lie. It's a lie, people. Okay, I'm being dramatic. Here's the conclusion I've drawn: festivals are not the way to see your favorite bands. If I wasn't so attached to seeing my favorite bands, who happened to be the headliners and playing the main stage, it would have been a different experience all together and probably closer to the one I had in my head. But that wasn't the case. There were three bands out of a bajillion thousand playing that day that I HAD to see. Tegan and Sara, fun., and Death Cab. All three headliners playing in an arena that had a capacity. This was the problem. Had they been on a stage outside like the other bands, we would have been able to do our thing on festival grounds wandering booths/food/other music until maybe 30 minutes before these headliners were going on. But because Bumbershoot has their heads up their collective asses changed things a while ago, headliners play in Key Arena. So you have to line up hours before to assure you get inside to see them and don't end up in the nosebleeds. 

As it turns out, we would spend many more hours standing in line than we would listening to music. We did, however, get to see the three bands we came to see, plus Ra Ra Riot who was playing just before Death Cab. We ate greasy chicken strips for lunch while waiting in line for Tegan and Sara at about noon and then were starving by the time we got back in the arena for Death Cab so I waited in line for 40 MINUTES OF MY LIFE for a mother loving burrito only to receive nachos and be too exhausted to even give a hoot. "I actually ordered a burrito...you know what? Nachos are great. Give me the nachos...DO NOT START MAKING ME A BURRITO, KID, HAND OVER THE CHIPS!"

Greasy food and shot expectations aside, the bands we came to see absolutely kicked ass and that's all that really mattered at the end of the day.

tegan and sara

fun. 

death cab for cutie playing Transatlanticism in it's entirety. life changing.

So after waking up at 6am, driving three hours, last show ending at 11:15pm, driving to Kristin's brother's to crash for the night, showering, and finally getting in bed at almost 2am, it made for a near 20 hour day for approximately to see less than 5 hours of music. In short, I'm getting too old for this shit. 

I got to spend the day with my bestie listening to music that speaks to my heart, though. And I mean really, am I seriously complaining that I got to go to a music festival? No. I'm very fortunate to be able to do these kinds of things in my life. This is a mere cautionary tale...if you're over 25, you're going to spend a good part of your day asking, "WHERE IS YOUR MOTHER?!" to the hooligan children roaming the grounds, cutting in lines, shoving you, wearing no clothes and being utterly gross. To be fair, while waiting in line for hours for Death Cab, we did meet three lovely young girls standing behind us who might have restored my faith in the next generation. All in all, glad I went, not sure I'll be back. Bumbershoot, it's been real.

me and one of my best girls, kristin

Rainy Soup Day

I love autumn. 

It's quite possibly my most favorite time of the year. I got my first pumpkin spice latte of the season today (yes, I am aware it is not quite ACTUALLY fall, but it was rainy and dreary and gloomy outside, just let me have this, okay?!) and it inspired me to just go all out autumn errrrythang today.

I bring you...

TACO SOUP

Here's the deal. You can't screw this up. If you actually manage to mess this up, I will give you an award of some kind. You can use any canned beans you have on hand, add diced potatoes or squash for some extra umph, etc. Get creative. Here is what I used today:

• 1 can Simple Truth Organic kidney beans
• 1 can Simple Truth Organic pinto beans
• 1 can Simple Truth Organic great northern beans
• 2 cans Simple Truth Organic diced tomatoes (the kind with no salt added)
• 1 can Simple Truth Organic yellow corn
• 1 small can La Victoria diced green chiles
• 2 cups water
• 1 lbs. Simple Truth Organic ground turkey
• 1 packet of ranch seasoning
• 1 packet of taco seasoning

Brown your meat. Open all cans. Add all cans (do not drain anything!) to crockpot. Add meat to crockpot. Add water and packets to crock. Stir that stuff up. Turn said crock on for 4 hours on high or 8 hours on low, it makes no difference. Go about your business and come back and enjoy for din din.

See what I mean? Try and mess this up. My husband will top this with tortilla chips and a dollop of sour cream. That makes it extra amazing. I won't, because minus that it's actually a pretty healthy dinner. And I'm watching my girlish figure (read: I would rather use those calories for a glass of wine dessert later). 

I'm gonna try and post some more recipes in the coming weeks/months. Let me know what you think!

present

I have a goal. I want to live more in the present moment. I want to ignore my iPhone, iPod, tablet, TV, and everything when engaging in conversation with those I love.

I am a real jackass about this currently. Bare with me. I'm going to fix this. This need to constantly respond to every text/email/Facebook comment has got to be reeled in. Join me in this effort? Call me out if I'm being a jerk with my electronics. Help me be a better human. Life is too short to miss because we were looking at a screen. I'm gonna do better. I said so on the interwebs, that's as legally binding as it gets.

young&wild&free

I'm thankful for my youth. I'm thankful for everything my roaring 20's have brought my way. Cheers to living it up, because you only get ten years to be in your 20's.

Live Music

Tonight I am thankful for live music. I am heading North tomorrow to see fun. with one of my best friends. I'm thankful for the euphoria that happens while watching a band of musicians that you can tell understand the incredible privilege that it is to watch people sing along to a song you wrote. I have always said that must be the best feeling in the world. Tomorrow is going to kick ass.

The Gratitude Journal

I have been struggling with what to blog about for some time. I needed a theme, something to force me to write daily, even if it was a mere sentence or two. I bring you...The Gratitude Journal.

Today, I am grateful for my friends. I am grateful that we laugh, cry, struggle and rejoice together daily. I am enamored with their children, who call me Auntie Jen and melt my heart with their smiles. I am constantly in awe of the beautiful women I call my best friends. I love you all more than words on a page could do justice. You are incredible.