Well I’ve got a recipe of my own here for you today!
This is a green sauce chicken enchilada, and let me tell you, it is delicious and fairly simple. A bit time consuming but it’s not too bad! So let’s dig in, shall we?
The ingredients
1 full chicken breast (cooked and shredded)
1 large can of green enchilada sauce
Sliced olives
1 can of refried beans
1 small container of sour cream
Flour tortillas
Mozzarella cheese (shredded)
So to start you’ll want to cook your chicken breast. You can do this in a skillet or even in the oven, whichever you prefer. Once it’s done and cooled a bit, you can start shredding. (My most hated part of making this delicious dinner)
After my chicken is desirably shredded, I set up my assembly station. Open up all your cans, but for the enchilada sauce I just pop two holes in the can (one hole to pour, one hole in the opposite edge to have a vent to allow the flow of sauce.)
Grab a spoon for your sour cream and a spoon for you refried beans.
I put my enchiladas in a deep casserole dish and I can usually fit 6.
Pre heat your oven to 350° and let’s get cracking’!
Set a tortilla in your baking dish, spread a generous amount of sour cream, then refried beans.
Then add your chicken (desired amount).
Top with olives, an mozzarella, and a small pour of enchilada sauce. Fold up your tortilla and place seam side down in the pan and continue on until you’ve run out of space.
Now if you have extras (you probably will) you can just make up another small pan.
This is all up to you but I like to use my extra sour cream and beans to slather over the tops of my rolled enchiladas, regardless of what you do, you’ll pour the remaining sauce over top of your enchiladas with some cheese.
Pop in the oven for about 15 minutes, let sit for 4-5mins and enjoy!!
Not a great picture but…. These are soooo yummy!
These are such a hit in my house that we never have left overs!
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking here lately on some things in my life. And one thing I keep wondering;
Is someone’s past trauma an excuse for their bad behavior?
I’m sure you could argue that yes it can be. Maybe from tendencies of PTSD, or depression, anxiety. But I’m going to be honest here, from personal experience, I say no.
I started out life in neglect, and was then put into a place where I was verbally and emotionally abused until I was old enough to move out. And it didn’t stop there, I found myself, in two separate instances, of sexual abuse.
And let me tell you something. (I don’t mean to sound stuck up, or cocky.) I am a kind soul. I am loving, I am empathetic, I am a pleaser, so much so that it is to a fault. I get taken advantage of, seen as weak because I am sensitive to the feelings of others, and put others before myself.
I “allow” situations that make me extremely uncomfortable, and panicked, all because I don’t want to hurt someone else’s feelings, or be judged.
Now, is that behavior caused by trauma, absolutely. But do I use that as an excuse to be mean, or rude, or hurt others? No I do NOT.
So let me just ask you again, is trauma and excuse to be a shit person?
Well that’s what everyone always told me. But I disagree.
Money absolutely CAN buy happiness.
You know what money can’t buy you? The one thing that money will never be able to buy you in life, is love.
No amount of money, or gifts, can buy love. It’s a feeling that isn’t shaken by a price. It isn’t stolen by a gift. It is the only thing that cannot be taken away, cannot be touched, or broken. (Although it can feel that way sometimes. But love is by far the strongest force.)
Money can buy happiness, because you can pay to have something that gives you joy. You can pay to watch a movie, buy a song, or food that fills your belly and makes you smile. Money can buy you comfort, and ease of living, and that makes you happy.
It doesn’t matter how much money you have, you could be the richest in the world, or the poorest, and still have love. And you know what, love can give you happiness too. So while money can buy you great things to make you happier, it can’t buy you the love that will make you the happiest.
Of course you can buy things that you love, like a dog, but it won’t “buy” the bonds of the love between you, no matter how many treats you throw their way. Love is earned, love is a part of you as a soul. And without it, life as we know it wouldn’t exist. You can’t get rid of love, and if you feel that you have, then it wasn’t truly there.
So get out there and buy yourself some happiness! You may just find love along the way.
I hope you all have a lovely Sunday, I just wanted to pop on here while I had a quick moment to tell you that, things won’t always seem easy. We all no that by now, but sometimes we need a reminder. Life gets hard, life gets messy, little things will build up and turn into big feelings.
But don’t let that define you. Don’t let it take you over, let it drown out who you are.
I am by nature a happy person, a loving person. I care deeply and feel even deeper.
When bad things happen to me, (unfortunately a lot) I tend to hold it all in. Every feeling about what’s going on gets stuffed down and then eventually you just snap under the pressure. But I hide it all so that I don’t burden anyone else, or make their day “worse”, but that’s a horrible way to cope. And I am aware of that. So I try my best to meditate and let it all out. Or at least a little bit.
Any amount of calm helps me immensely, so if you are having a hard time too, just remember to sit, and breathe. Bring in as much comfort as you can, in anyway that you can. May it be a warm blanket curled up on the couch, a hot drink to fill your belly, or a movie a song that moves your heart.
Wheat bread cinnamon French toast w/ scrambled eggs and coffee with a side of cubed French toast for my toddler.
I LOVE breakfast! When I was a kid,we did breakfast for dinner a lot, and it was a favorite of mine. From French toast, to pancakes, to biscuits and gravy and usually a side of bacon.
It was a rare occasion, like Christmas morning, that we ever had breakfast foods for breakfast! But maybe that’s why I became so fond of it all. And honestly, who doesn’t love some crisp bacon?? (Yes, I see you non- bacon lovers… haha)
But since being an adult and now having children, we do eat breakfast foods for breakfast, (and for dinner, of course) but with my son being so picky about eating, we are limited on what we can have. So I want to share with you this simple but tasty way that I make our French toast!
Fresh eggs from my backyard chickens
The ingredients:
4 slices Wheat bread
5 eggs (they don’t have to be fresh, but I definitely prefer my chickens eggs to store bought.)
Ground cinnamon
Ground nutmeg
Ground ginger
Whole milk
Now I don’t use measurements when adding my seasonings but just as a rule of thumb, use mostly cinnamon, about 1/3 of that amount on the ginger and then about the same or less of nutmeg, they are just accent flavors, and you don’t want them to be overpowering.
Your bowl should look a bit like this!
Mix it all together with a fork or a whisk, and it doesn’t have to be perfectly blended, again, all preference. I tend to leave mine with some bigger cinnamon chunks left because it leaves some dimension in your bites.
Time to cook!
(you can see that since I didn’t blend perfectly that I have nice yummy chunks of cinnamon all over)
Your first two pieces will have the most cinnamon! So if you decide you need more on the last ones, go ahead one mix some in before you batter up your last pieces.
Now I don’t have exact times here for you, but I usually set my pan to a medium high heat for the first two pieces, I peel up a corner on each to check and see the bottoms. If the bottoms are brown, you can flip. My pan is also bigger than my burner, so I do rotate my bread 180° to ensure that it all gets evenly browned.
Once you flip, that second side tends to cook faster so be mindful of your toast!
I turn my burner down a few notches as well when I do the last two, but everyone’s pans are different so you may not need to.
Once your toasts are cooked, I take the remaining egg mixture and pour it in my empty pan and scramble! You’ll get a nice sweetand savory scrambled egg! (I add salt to my eggs at the end because I love salt on my eggs)
Bon Appétit
Plate up and enjoy! I have a separate plate here for my 3 year old, I just sliced his piece up and mixed a little egg with the French toast (spoiler, he didn’t eat the egg)
This is a really nice and simple way to make yummy French toast in the morning and takes very little time or work, and goes wonderfully with a nice hot cup of fresh roasted coffee, or ovaltine milk, in my sons case!
I hope you try it out! Let me know what you thought!
P.s. it’s really good with some powdered sugar on top if you want an extra sweet start to your day!
Photo credit : Helwicks @ Etsy; literally the best products!
All throughout life I have had a strong connection with the energies around me. Whether it be people that enter the room, the animals nearby, or feeling the life in the trees on a hike.
Energy is everywhere and in everything. We are energy, life is energy. It’s what we are made of. And most animals are in tune with it, and all plants are. But us humans have lost our feel for it. And I believe that has a lot to do with why our mental health as a whole, is less than ok.
I have noticed though, that many of the young people now are really trying to better themselves and be more in touch with the energies of life. I also know that the only reason this is occurring is because it’s an internet trend!
Regardless, I think it’s great!
Now on to my journey. When I was a kid, my aunt always was a rock hound, and I loved it, we would go camping dig up some big rocks and when we would get back we would cut them open to see what we found. And at that time I never knew names of rocks besides granite, because well, that’s the easiest one to look at say, yeah that’s granite when your a kid. So needless to say, we found some really awesome stones, and I was oblivious to the properties. I just did it for fun!
Looking back though, I’m pretty certain we found lots of red jasper, which I only have a small stone of now. But man, is it pretty!
When I was a bit older my aunt gave me a lot of different small polished and tumbled stones, like; amethyst (my birth stone), rose quartz, green aventurine, tigers eye, hematite, onyx, and some that I still don’t know the names of!
My personal bowl of polished stones and crystals
I never followed any meditation guides, but I do meditate. I do it to calm my body. A calm body allows for clearer thoughts, better decision making. But just because I meditate, doesn’t meant that I don’t have anxiety, occasional depression. I do.
But let me say, being aware of your reactions, your triggers, the way you body feels, makes calming yourself so much easier. Regulating yourself is key. And I have come to realize the power of self regulation here recently.
My 3 1/2 year old son with suspected autism, is in occupational and speech therapy. The absolute best thing, has been teaching him how to self regulate. To show him how, and give him the tools, and knowledge, to calm himself mentally and physically during times of stimulus overload.
So I’ve come to understand, first hand, how helpful this is.
If my toddler can use these tools to calm himself enough to start speaking, then why can’t I use similar tactics to calm myself out of stressful situations or emotions?
The answer to that, is I can, and I do. What does this have to do with spirituality? Well, a lot actually. Meditation is a form of self regulating. It’s a tool to calm yourself. Once you are as calm as you can be in that moment, you can begin to feel the energies that surround you. You’ll notice how it feels in your body, and where the flow of energy may be disrupted. If you have tight shoulders, you may not be able to feel the energy flow in that spot, because it can’t.
If you’ve heard of unblocking you chakras, that’s what that means. Your flow of bodily energy is disrupted somewhere.
No going back to the stones and crystals, each one has different “properties” or energy. So for me, when I pick up some stones, I feel a sort of current, if you will, in my hand and forearm. And that is just my bodies energy, interacting with the energy of that stone, some have more than others. But you won’t feel that, or notice it, if you can’t tune in to your own. You wouldn’t know what feeling to, well, feel for.
The internet is full of information on the properties of stones and crystals, some are said to have healing properties, some are grounding, some ward off negativity. I can’t really speak to if any of that is true, or placebo, but I do know that everything gives off its own feel.
The great thing about “spirituality”, you can believe in any religion, or non-religions that you want! It’s all about you, how you feel, how you connect with the world and the other life around you. Whether you choose to believe in one god, many, or none, it doesn’t matter, this isn’t a religion, this is you, connecting with the energy you have, and sensing the energy that the earth possesses.
I won’t dive in to my own beliefs on this post, we will save that for another time. But I will say, that since I’ve been able to really harness the feeling for the world around me, and the way that my body and mind feel, I’ve felt so much more free.
I don’t feel as trapped in my own mind. I don’t want you to think that I don’t still struggle, or that I don’t still feel stress or overwhelming emotions, because trust me I do. But being able to recognize the situation, and just breathe, use the tools I’ve gathered, and bring myself back from chaos, has been a tremendous leap on helping my sanity!
I can help others even more by understanding how I feel. Have empathy, have calm, have compassion, and you’ll find peace. Even if only for a while.
Have a wonderful day my friend, I’d love to hear your thoughts!
The smell of smoke, dust, and cat urine. The sound of loud drums that rattled my chest, and a rumbling pain in my belly. The music stopped, and I was told to go away, it was time for the adults to be alone. So I went outside, crawling around on all fours on the rough stone I barked at a passerby who stared at me concerned.
I’m sure he wondered why a small 3 year old girl was barking, but he kept walking.
I searched around for food, the older lady near by would sometimes have cat food left in front of her door, so I crawled my way over. It was filled to the brim! Her cats hadn’t eaten yet so I dug in to the bowl. I soon heard shuffling inside the house near the door so I ran. I had only managed a couple bites, so my belly still grumbled at me.
I walked around the houses that snuggled up to ours, only small pathways in between. I ate some grass, and tried to eat a stick or two, but they didn’t help much. It was then that I saw the older lady look at me and set down something near the cat bowl. She went back in after waving me over. I quickly and cautiously crawled to her door, to see a big piece of bread just waiting for me. I ate it quickly. Covered in crumbs, I finally felt satisfied. What a wonderful woman, to spare what she had for a mangy looking child. I will never forget her, but I’ll never know who she was either.
I decided then to go behind the houses to see if I could pet the horses over the fence. I was so close to touching this very handsome bay, when they ran off. Behind me, a skinny pale man stomped his way across the grass.
“ What the hell do you think you’re doing?!” He yelled.
Without giving me a chance to understand what was happening he grabbed me by the arm and yanked me towards the house claiming that I was told not to go outside and that they had been looking for me everywhere.
I knew that wasn’t true, even then, because I always could go wherever I wanted and no one ever noticed or cared. Well no one except my brother, but in this instance he was at a friends house. He was gone often, to escape the filth we lived in. I wish he were here now, but I know he is staying the night at his friends. And I certainly don’t blame him.
This man, a friend of my mothers, threw me in my room and told me to pull my bottoms down because he was going to teach me a lesson when he got back. He slammed the door and didn’t return. I waited like I was told, but I pulled my bottoms back up and went to open the door. It won’t open. I pulled and pulled and it didn’t budge.
I went and sat on my bed to wait for someone to open my door, but no one came and now it was dark, no light except for what shown under the door. I tried to open it again but I couldn’t so I yelled out, and said I really needed to pee. The man’s voice from the other room told me to shut up, I was in trouble and not allowed out. I climbed up on the bunk bed that my brother and I share, and I cried and cried. Afraid of the dark, alone, not understanding what I had done wrong, I curled up under a blanket and fell asleep.
I woke up to my brother calling to me from the crack under the door. “Sissy??” He whispered, worry in his voice.
I jumped off the bed and crawled to the door.
“What happened? Are you ok?”
“I need to potty….and I’m hungry.” I said in tears
I heard the door knob turn and I saw my brothers face for a moment but the man in the other room with our mother yelled at my brother.
“Did I tell you to open that door?! She isn’t allowed out until she learns her lesson!”
The door shut, I could hear my brother hold back tears as he said “I’m sorry…”
“Get away from the door!” Yelled the man.
I don’t know how much time passed while I was stuck in that dark room. But I know I held in the urge to pee until I couldn’t anymore… I tried to cover it up, knowing that I’d be in trouble if anyone saw.
My brother stayed by my door, slipping pieces of bread through the crack underneath. He hid in the doorway of the room adjacent so he wouldn’t be seen.
I don’t know how much time had passed…
But there was a moment when other people came over and were sitting in the common room, my brother opened my door and I snuck out. It seemed as though no one even remembered that I was gone. Out of sight, out of mind. And I was always out of sight. I spent most of my days hiding behind the furniture or running outside. I was just one of the neighborhood dogs, and I acted like it.
This book is pieces of my life, my past, and the events that made me who I am today. I will be using different names, places and also a different setting/time period/universe, to tell my story. There will be possibly triggering events, but, this is life, and this was my life.
My sweet baby girl, you’re only 6 months old right now (which, believe me, that 6 months flew by as if it were only days.) but I have some very important stuff to tell you. I know most children don’t want their parents advice, but I hope that you will at least try to understand what I say, and take it to heart.
This is important, my little love.
This is hard truth.
And this is also hard to say. It it is necessary, so that you will be able to learn from my experiences, so that you don’t have to.
So here it goes…
Not all people are good. In fact a real good person is far and few between. And even more so when you’re looking for a life partner.
I grew up watching wonderful love stories, where the men were romantic and sweet, and selfless, they did everything out of the love they had for their woman.
But from my experience, that just isn’t the case. I’ve met many, many selfish people, and selfish men were no exception. Many men only want one thing. Sex. And a clean house, dinner done for them, laundry not only washed, dried, and folded, but set out in more than plain sight. They want you to be sexy all the time, fit, and looking perfect. Yet it doesn’t matter if they let themselves go.
But sweetie, that’s not at all how it should be. Don’t ever let yourself feel like you have to be stuck with someone who doesn’t treat you like a goddess. You are beautiful no matter what, whether you just rolled out of bed with wild hair and groggy eyes, or you’re in you best dressed going to a fancy restaurant. You look perfect all the time, and you will look you’re best, if you feel happy and confident.
Never let anyone take advantage of you. Never let anyone push you over, or shove you aside. But humble, but stand your ground, and have the courage to say when it’s enough. This world can be harsh in a thousand different ways, but you will always be able to overcome.
Even if you feel at your lowest, like nothing can get better. Life will ALWAYS, always get better. Nothing is permanent, things will always change, and that can feel scary. But change can lead you amazing things, and amazing people.
Things can also seem wonderful for many years, and then after some time things might change, or you might change and it no longer feels wonderful, it may feel wrong to you now. And that’s ok, changes can take a very long time to happen, and you may not notice. Other changes are instant, and those tend to be the most overwhelming at the time. But don’t let the fear of the unknown scare you, just remember that you have many things in life that are always the same. Gravity will always keep your feet on the ground, the skies will always be above you, to show you a bright warm sun, or beautiful stars, and even if you can’t always see them, they are always there. Just like me.
I will always be with you, whether you’re in my arms or miles away. Whether your happy, sad, or anywhere in between, I will always be with you, because you are a part of me, and I a part of you.
I want nothing more than to give you a wonderful start to life, so that you can create a wonderful rest of your life. To help you be able to choose the good over the bad, love over hate, and wisdom over naivety. I want to give you the tools to build a better life. Because that’s what mothers are meant to do. To love their children with every ounce of their hearts, and to help them build a better life than they had.
No matter how hard things get, just know that we are both doing this for the first time, you and I are growing together, learning together, and getting to know each other more everyday, and although this is the first time I’ve had you, held you, and loved you, just know that my love for you has never faltered, and though it seems impossible it grows more and more every day.
I look at you and can’t believe how lucky I am, but the future scares me. To think that you could end up being in situations that I have been in, it terrifies me. So please know that if I seem like I’m interfering with your life, all I really want to do is protect you, to keep you from the horrors I’ve had to face. I want only to show you what true love is.
So my sweet little miss, I love you, more than I will ever be able to say.
As a mama of two very young children, (3 1/2 year old and 6month old) I’m usually the last person who gets to eat. And since my son is extremely picky, I usually just make him what he will eat. That means we don’t normally eat the same thing, or I am busy feeding my baby girl her milk and only have time (and arm strength) to make his food while holding her.
So today I decided to do a simple egg bake. We had a surplus of fresh eggs from our backyard chickens, some baby spinach, and mixed peppers that needed used up, and I needed easy to grab food in the mornings to keep up with busy mornings, and my milk supply! This is all a win win!
What you’ll need:
12 eggs
Baby spinach (to your preference)
Peppers if your choosing (to preference)
Mozzarella shredded cheese
A baking dish or sheet pan (I used a casserole dish)
Parchment paper *optional* ( but makes for super simple clean up! And who doesn’t love that?)
Pre heat your oven to 350°, line your pan with the parchment paper, be sure to make it bigger than your pan so that the egg doesn’t leak out (that just would defeat the purpose of using it haha!
In a large bowl, whisk your 12 eggs (I’ve seen other recipes use a blender for this but, nothing a good ol’ whisk with a fork won’t do!)
Chop your spinach roughly, and slice up your peppers to you desired size.
Now I needed up mixing everything together in the bowl before pouring in the pan, thinking it would just be all throughout the eggs when done, but honestly if you just want to sprinkle it all on top that’s fine, because in the end all of my added ingredients rise to the top anyway!
Now pour your egg mixture evenly in your pan (or sprinkle peppers, cheese, & spinach on top) it should look a bit like this.
Bake at 350° for about 18 minutes or so, until cooked all the way through. If they are jiggly then the aren’t done!
Let cool for 12 minutes
Take your eggs out of the oven and let them sit for about 12 minutes before you remove them from the pan. After the 12 minutes I lifted the parchment paper and set it all on a cutting board to cut into little individual squares, that way I could put some in the freezer for later and some in the fridge. (I did eat a couple right off the bat, I mean, how could I not?! They were delicious!)
I set them in the fridge to cool completely before I wrapped my squares in foil and put them all in a freezer bag. And there you have it!
You can either eat them as they are, or put them on an English muffin with cheese and sausage (I plan on doing that!) Take them out of the freezer and into the fridge the night before so that you have a ready to heat up breakfast just waiting for you and your busy day!
You can add anything you’d like to these, like mushrooms, cheddar cheese, or literally anything, it’s basically an omelette, so sky’s the limit!
Ink & Embers 