My White-Trash Fish Tacos

Here's a little recipe I put together last Friday night. I was inspired to come up with an easy fish taco recipe after I had the most amazing fish tacos in a restaurant a few weeks ago and was trying to find a way to make them at home easily and affordably. This recipe is simple and so surprisingly delicious, I'm totally making this a part of my repertoire. Hope you enjoy!

My White-Trash Fish Tacos:
Fish sticks (about 4 per taco)
1 bag (undressed) coleslaw mix
1 bunch cilantro
Avocado cream
Flour torillas

Bake fish sticks according to directions. Heat flour tortilla on dry skillet until warm and pliable. Shmear avocado cream on warmed tortilla. Place fish sticks, coleslaw mix and fresh cilantro leaves into torilla and roll.

Girls Weekend

So, I went on my girls weekend and have been pretty much MIA ever since. I had a good time, ate and drank too much, didn't sleep enough (or really at all, got stuck out in some serious weather at our tailgate, discovered this AMAZING invention called "bar-noculars", Auburn won (!), and I spent some time with my oldest friend.



Before I met my friend, the Bar-nocular:


And after I got closely acquainted with the Bar-noculars:


And then I came home Sunday night to find my two wee ones were battling some nasty cold/flu thing and then I succumbed to the same a few short hours later. By the latter part of last week, I began feeling better, but to tell you the truth, I missed my family so terribly while I was gone, I just wanted to spend some real time with my babies. I've really enjoyed spending time with the Hubs and my girls this past weekend and feel that my weekend away gave me a new appreciation for all the love I have waiting for me at home.

Wordless Wednesday: 1 year ago...

And where do you think YOU"RE going?!!

So I'm off. I'm leaving the quiet sanctity of my lil' suburban nest for a righteous weekend with my oldest and dearest friend. I'm also leaving the comfort of twitter, the voices of my favorite bloggers, and the status updates of my cyber friends for some real human interaction. And I'm scared. This is the very first time I have left BOTH my kiddos and Hubs and taken a break just for me. And I'm determined to enjoy myself. Hope you all have a great weekend as well.


Oh, and one last thing,{ahem}, WAR DAMN EAGLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wordless Wednesday

The Young and the Breast-less

I have NEVER liked my boobs. I remember being jealous of the girls in 6th grade who were wearing training bras and I had nothing, nada. I envisioned what I would look like as a grown woman, and that always included having a decent size chest. To me, at the time, that was what distinguished the women from the girls.

Around age 12-ish, one summer, I remember walking into my parent's kitchen and telling my mom how much my chest was hurting. She' smiled and told me she suspected I was experiencing growing pains and that I'd probably soon be waking up to my own set of ta-tas. I went to bed that night dreaming of perfect Christie Brinkley boobs and imagined how much better everything would look once I had a lil' stuff to fill it out with. Little did I know...

I don't recall exactly when I realized not only did I have bewbs, I had "breas-tess-ess". Big, honking, heavy, uncomfortable, DDD+ boobs. I know I was young enough to be mortified when I had to buy "Golden Girl" bathing suits for pool parties because none of the itty-bitty bikinis my friends were wearing would fit me up top. I know I came home in tears a lot because my early adolescent self had been called a "slut" in Middle school just because I was voluptuous; hell at that point I'd never even kissed a boy. I wore sports bras and XL shirts to try to cover up what lurked underneath. I had 1-inch-wide indentations in my shoulders from the gigantic-granny bras that struggled to hold up the weight of my chest. I had pain in my back when I awoke each morning. And I remember so vividly the countless times I'd be in a dressing room with armfuls of clothes strewn on the floor weeping in my mother's arms because truly NOTHING would fit me properly. For a gal who's always been OBSESSED with fashion, waking up to these huge thangs on my petite 5'2 frame, which didn't allow me to wear what I so desperately wanted to wear, was torturous.

I remember how ashamed I felt. Walking somewhere with my Dad and brother and noticing how these dirty old men ogled me. How they saw nothing of the girl I was. I was nothing to them but a "nice rack". It was beyond humiliating. This was my experience for several years during my already excruciating adolescence until one day, I'd had enough.

I don't know who brought up the idea for the surgery first, me, my mom, or some Doctor. But in July of 1992, I had breast reduction surgery to correct my monstrous mammories. It was the best decision I'd ever made.

Now, I would never recommend anyone have the surgery at the young age I did; I was 15at the time. I know some of you may be gasping, judging, thinking how/why would anyone have plastic surgery at such a young age. But believe me, the thought of going through the rest of my teenage years known as "that slut with the big tits" was more than I could take. And it was the right decision for me at the time and I've never come to regret it.

Nor have I ever come to really like my boobs. I still wish they were smaller (like an A would fit me just fine) and because I hadn't finished developing when I had my surgery, my post-op boobs went from a medium "B" to a very-full "C" over the course of the next couple of years. I often think of what they say about people who have lost a great deal of weight and still look in the mirror and see a fat person staring back at them. That's me. Totally. I still see that self-conscious young girl looking back at me, shoulders curled forwards, trying to hide her womanhood from the world.

Now in my thirties, I'm just now learning how to accept my body the way it is. I'll never be a waif. I'll never have anything but a flat-as-a-board British booty. I'll never wear a triangle top bikini. I'll never have a washboard stomach. But I will also never allow someone to make me feel the shame I once felt about just being who God created me to be.

I'll never again give someone that power over me.

Girl Talk Thursday-Favorite Halloween Costume

I was totally psyched to learn of this weeks topic for Girl Talk Thursday for several reasons. First off, I really love Halloween. Its not so much the dressing up in costumes for me, but I love decorating my home with all kinds of orange and black decor, witches and black cats, burning my favorite caramel candles (BBW's Creamy Caramel are my personal favorite), and using big bowls of candy as centerpieces in my favorite serving bowls I've been collecting over the years. October is also the perfect weather month for me. I love being able to open my windows during the day, and don a cute lil' jacket, but most of all I love warmly snuggling under the covers at night when the temperature drops. I always sleep better in the fall than any other time of year.

Anywhoo, back to the topic at hand: favorite Halloween costumes. I am not someone who is fanatical about my costumes, although I usually throw together my black wig, black dress and black lipstick and go as either a witch, or a throwback to my early 90's style; which ever you find scarier...

But one particular Halloween, I did it up and I did it right. It was actually the first Halloween my husband (then boyfriend) and I were celebrating together and just a couple short weeks into our relationship. We collectively decided to go as Ricky and Lucy Ricardo. We went to a fabulous party (a friend-of-a-friends) and I spent all day getting dolled up. After the party we went to our favorite bar/hangout, where my husband (then boyfriend) proceeded to holler to me all around the bar, "Lucy, I'm hoo-oome!" "Lucy, Jou've got some ess-plaining to do!"

This night will go down in memory as my all-time favorite costume I've had but also a night when I realised I really wanted this guy to stick around for awhile. To this day, I frequently refer to my Hubs as "The Ricky to my Lucy".




*On another note, as I look at this picture, now almost 10 yrs old, I can't believe how similar I look now as I did then. Ok, ok, not the weight part, but after going through numerous different haircuts and styles over the last decade, mine now looks strangely like it did then. And the color? Ok, in this photo it came from a can, literally, but it is not totally unlike the intense auburn shade I'm rocking at age 32. Now that's a little scary...*

Wordless Wednesday

To be Announced...

I love this picture. But I am at a loss of what to call it.

Suggestions?

White Chicken Chili with Avocado Cream

So its Sunday evening, and my poor body is wrecked from the pizza, burgers, fries, not to mention beers, I consumed over college football kick-off Saturday. The thought of firing up the grill was so not appealing to me. But, being Labor Day weekend and all, I felt the pressure to make something a little special, a little festive, and a lot healthy. I scoured my cookbooks and the internet for a good way to use up all the avocados I'd bought at the "Super-store" the other day, and found many recipes for a chicken tortilla soup and the like. But to my dismay, they all took hours to make or I didn't have all the necessary ingredients they required. So, I improvised, and came up with what is perhaps the best meal I've made in awhile and I'm pissed I didn't take a photo of it, cause it was damn-purty too! So here's my recipe for what I threw together. I hope you try it and I hope you enjoy!


White Chicken Chili with Avocado Cream-

For the Chili:
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 lb chicken tenders cut into bite-size pieces
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3-4 cloves of garlic, chopped
Salt and Pepper to taste
1 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp dried oregano
1 pinch red pepper flakes
1/2 a can OR 1/2 bottle of beer (I used Yueng-Yling)
2 cups chicken stock
2 cans cannelini or great northern beans, drained

For the avocado cream:
2 avocados
1 lime
3 Tbsp sour cream
Salt and Pepper to taste

Toppings:
Cilantro, Chopped fresh tomatoes, Lime wedges, crushed tortilla chips, cheese, etc.

Directions:
Add 2 Tbsp olive oil to large pot and put over medium-high heat. When oil is almost smoking, add the chicken pieces and season with salt and pepper. When chicken has some nice color to it, add in the onion, red pepper, cumin, oregano, and red pepper flakes. Cook until veggies have softened, about 5 mins or so. Add in the garlic and cook about 1 minute more. Add in the beer, and reduce, picking up all the drippings from the bottom of the pan and allowing the alcohol to cook off. Add in the chicken stock and two cans of beans. Bring to a boil and then turn heat down to a simmer. Allow to simmer while making the avocado cream and prepping the toppings.

Once chili is simmering, slice avocados in half, lengthwise and remove pit. Scoop avocados into a bowl. Squeeze juice of 1 lime over top of avocados. Using a fork, mash avocados until you reach a smooth consistency. Season with salt and pepper and stir in the sour cream until well blended.

After 20 mins or so, ladle chili into bowls and top with large dollop of avocado cream, cilantro, chopped fresh tomatoes, crushed tortilla chips, and a lime wedge.

Girl Talk Thursday- My Top 5

I have had this list swimming around in my brain for the last few years. A few have come and gone, but a few of the classics keep creeping back in. So, without further ado, Knoxvillepixie's Top 5:

1. Giovanni Ribisi: I have had a MAJOR thing for him for the better part of the last 20 years. He first caught my eye as one of Kevin Arnold's friends in "The Wonder Years" and again as the love interest on that AWFUL "My Two Dad's" show. I've followed his career for so long and I find him amazingly talented and just plain old HAWT!



2. Jamie Oliver: Jamie has so many things going for him to get him on my top 5 list, such as:
A-He's British, making me get all nostalgic for my U.K. roots
B-He can cook like no body's business
C-He has a lisp (SWOON)
D-He's adorable and has a great sense of personal style
E-He's a Dad to three little girls and and he's a huge advocate for making healthier eating more accessible to children and families.
Love me some Jamie Oliver!
.

3. Jon Hamm: no explanation necessary. If you know me you know I loooove "Mad Men" and he is always the epitome of dapper in that show. But I also think he looks equally as yummy just like this:

Don't cha think?


4. Lenny Kravitz: Ok, so this is a little questionable these days. I mean come on, I have heard all the rumors of his, ahem, lack of personal hygiene, I know he's VERY short, and he is a notorious womanizer. But if you have ever seen him perform on stage you will know why he made the cut. He is pure sexual energy on stage and is immensely talented to boot. So, yeah, I still love me some Lenny, what, what?


5. Zack Braff: probably my most controversial on the list. But I've adored him since "Garden State" (love, love, love that movie) and think he's a great comedic actor as well. I know he's not the most stereotypically handsome guy of the bunch, but there's just something about him.


Honorable mentions to: Dita Von Teese, Chris Martin, Gale Harold, Lorenz Tate, and way too many more to mention. Is it getting hot in here?

Wordless Wednesday