Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Driving with a side of CHILI!!!

Fall is here- don't you feel it?
What, it's still 90 degrees outside?
Perfect for a chili cook-off :)
My wonderful workplace hosted a Chili Cook Off fundraiser this week, and I brought my favorite "Taco Chili." Yummers.
(Side Note: I cooked the chili the night before and brought it in the Crock Pot to keep warm for optimal tasing yumminess. I found myself driving SO carefully as to not spill even a drop. It made me think that, really, I should be driving this carefully all the time, especially with the A-girl in the car. She is WAY more important than a Crock Pot of chili!)
Plugged in the Crock Pot, decorated my table (cause I'm a nerd like that), and scooped out the lucious chili :)
Prior to the Cook Off, I was totally talking smack on my competition. I may or may not have even smuggled a bottle of Tobasco sauce just in case someone's was entirely too delicious.
100+ tiny samples of chili later, yours truly was proclaimed the winner of BOTH the judges and crowd favorite!!!
So this is GOOD chili people.
Enjoy :)

Carrie's Slow Cooker Taco Chili
lb. ground beef (or turkey)
1 chopped white onion (or 1/2 bag of frozen chopped onion)
1.25 oz package taco seasoning
1 oz package ranch style dressing dry mix
3-12 oz cans diced tomatoes with green chiles, undrained
2-24 oz cans pinto beans, drained
24 oz can GOLD hominy, drained
14.5 oz can stewed tomatoes, undrained
1/2 cup water (or no water if you like it more stew-ish, more if you like soup-ish)
1 tablespoon of chili powder
Optional- can of corn, drained

Brown meat with a smidge of oil (or cooking spray) and add onion once meat is almost done. Transfer to 5qt. + slow cooker and add remaining ingredients (note drained and undrained cans- it makes a difference!) Stir and set on low for four hours.
I serve this with tortilla chips, sour cream, shredded Monterey Jack cheese and freshly chopped cilantro.
*Notes- I am all about buying generic brands, but I can never find the diced tomatoes with green chiles generic, so I buy the El Monte (or Del Monte) And the GOLD hominy makes all the difference!

I've also been known to serve a Taco Salad before the chili...
Taco Salad
Romaine Lettuce
Shredded Cheese- Mexican variety
Fritos
Sliced Avocado
Sliced Olives
Red Taco Sauce (like La Victoria Red Taco Sauce- I use mild)

Yum-a-licious!!!

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Monday, September 28, 2009

Tutus and Tatas

TUTUS TATAS

It was a weekend of craziness at the Braun house (or rather, outside the Braun house, since we were barely home!)

Thursday: Work :) Dinner with Mel, Tutu Photo Shoot- sounds official, but it's my creative and fun friend Melissa who makes wonderful crafts like bags, photo frames, and now tutus!

Friday: Run with Auntie RaRa, visit Mom for her birthday (Happy Birthday Mom- I love you!) Angel Game with baby but sans husband.

Saturday: Kickboxing, Sprinkles!!!, Sound of Music Sing-A-Long... a whole post devoted to that incredibleness to come.

Sunday: Komen 5K (Here's where the tatas come in), Church, Oktoberfest

Fun, wonderful craziness!
And now, I need a nap. A long one. More like a coma-nap.

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Monday, September 21, 2009

50 down...

So I'm 50 miles into this
self-imposed torture
of doing
365 miles
in
365 days.

And I'm still alive.

Even worse...
I'm starting to...
LIKE IT!
(Collective gasp!)

Okay, I more than like it. Now I crave it. The running bug has bitten me and crawled in like a little tic. Well, that was kinda gross, but in all seriousness this really has become a positive thing much sooner than I thought.
Mind you, it's only positive when the run is over, and I'm sweating out all the toxins and can go write down my mileage in big black Sharpie on the calendar. For the first five minutes of the run, I pretty much want to die and wonder why I ever published the fact that I was doing this in the first place.
The whole family is now into it... well... Nick is into it, and the A-girl goes along because she has to! Nick is enjoying it even more than he lets on, as he is the running expert and gets to train me. A-girl likes watching the world whizzing by from the stroller. Benefits for all!
Hopefully my next 50 miles will be even easier, and before we all know it, I'll need a new goal.
So, anyone want to come run with me?

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Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Lose-A-Palooza, and a Give-Away

Okay Friends...here it is!

The long-promised give away.
And not only are you going to have the chance to win something, you'll have the chance to give back.
I've been on Weight Watchers (WW) since January doing the "At Work" prgram and have lost 30 lbs. Not a hugely significant amount, but more than I would have lost without WW!
Today is WW's "Lose-A-Palooza" and for every mention of said contest on a social media platform, they're donating $1 to local food banks to combat hunger. It's part of their "Lose for Good" campaign, which you can read more about here.
All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, and your comment will earn an extra dollar.
Pretty easy way to give back, right?
PLUS, for every comment you leave on this post (not just today), I will donate a dollar to the OC Food Bank. My goal is $50. (50 comments- can you imagine?) So tell your friends to come on over and comment.
I admit it. I am an official comment ho. "It's what I do...it's what I LIVE for!" (Name that Disney movie.)
In your comment, I'd love to know what all of you, my beautiful friends and family, do to help keep yourself on track, whether it be with weight loss or any other goal you're trying to attain.
Cause right now, I'm struggling.
So TODAY I'm jumping on the Loose-A-Palooza bandwagon and starting refreshed and renewed.
PLUS PLUS (If you've even stuck around to read this far- smiley face) by commenting, you'll be entered to win a $25 Visa debit card!
So friends, there it is. A way to give back, and a little something for yourself in return.
And thanks for reading my blog.
Smiley Face :)

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Monday, September 7, 2009

100th Post and a BIG accomplishment!!!


I've had a few ideas to blog about recently, but wanted to save my 100th post for something special.
Like a cute video of the A-girl.
Or like a big new accomplishment.
RUNNING...
Yes, that's right. Running. I am officially running.
Well, to be fair and accurate (as everything on the Internet is) I'm jogging with the intention of becoming a runner.
Monday (Labor Day) was my first 5k since I kicked off this little running plan of mine- to run 365 miles in 365 days, starting on my birthday. Thus far, I'm a month and a half in and have run over 40 miles, so I'm right on track.
Back to Labor Day- Erin and I threaded up our running shoes and pinned those silly numbers on our shirts and took off with about 1,000 other people in the RSM 5k.
We finished just under 34:00 minutes!!!
The last 5k I ran on July 4th, I was definitley over the 36 minute mark, and my next goal is to be in the 30:00 range for the Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving.

Also, a big accomplishment for the A-girl...she's walking! It's totally and completely changed our lives, and she seems like a real little girl now instead of a baby. Video of that to come soon.

I'd like to do something fun in honor of my 100th post, so I'm going to share my stand-up comedy routine about blogging and do a give-away. Read on, peeps...

Hitting this 100th post mark made me ponder about blogging, and I'm a REALLY bad ponder-er. But it does beg the question of "How many people are reading this thing anyway?" I think that is the eternal blogger question.
I read a lot of blogs. I only follow blogs of people I know in real life because there's something much more personal about reading someone's blog than, say, being their Facebook friend.
There are only a few other blogs I follow of people I don't know in real life, and I found them through their own tragic experiences (plane craches, death of a child, etc. So uplifting, I know) and I'm now so hooked by their lives that they've become my Internet Soap Operas.
Occasionally I blog stalk, mostly people that I "know" or know of through friends or their my friends siblings (but not REALLY my friend, so I feel like I can't follow them without being Dr. Creep-en-stein.) But what's more creepy- following a blog of someone you don't know that well, or going to my friend's blog to find their blog, and then creepily reading every so often? That's a toughie...
I'm also not one of those people who blogs for posterity. I highly doubt that in thirty years I will go back and read old blog posts and "remember when." Not that I'm not sentimental, but this isn't a digital scrapbook for me (hence the lack of pictures- sorry if it's boring.) It's an outlet, and I'm addicted- in the midst of a life event, or while something is happening I'm trying to think of a witty blog title for it.
So, to the give away. I think I tried to do one other give away and only had one person comment, so let's increase our participation rate, fans. (And sorry Rachel, I don't think I ever gave you movie tickets or whatever I promised to my last winner. So I've now put them in my wallet so I can finally fork them over the next time I see you :)!)
Stay tuned for the prize...it'll be a goody.

In the meantime, leave me a message just 'cause you love me :)



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Friday, September 4, 2009

Surprises... an update

I wrote a blog a while back about how I dislike surprises. I'd like to make an amendment.
Nick and I were talking last night about where we should go to dinner with friends tonight. He mysteriously said, "I have an idea!" and then wouldn't tell me what his idea was.
I pestered and prodded and may have even resorted to tickling to get it out of him.
He asked, "Do you hate surprises?"
Which tells me two things.
One- he doesn't read this blog.
Two- it must really seem like I hate surprises.
My first instinct was to yell "NO!" because we're not supposed to hate surprises. What woman doesn't want her husband to surprise her every one in a while? It's the spice of life.
(Well, technically variety is the spice of life. But surprises are a deviation from normal life, which is variety, so there. Its the Pythagorian theory of life.)
So I tried to think about the last time I was truly, honestly surprised. It was on my birthday a few years ago when we went to see Wicked. We started the morning off with breakfast (my FAVORITE meal) with Nick and my bff Hollis. On our way back to drop off Hollis to go to the show, Nick drove right by the turn for her house without stopping. I thought he was just so lost in thought that he missed the street, so I yelled, "Hey, you missed Hollis' street!" (Thanks, Dr. Obvious) Nick and Hollis both burst out laughing, and Nick surprised me with three tickets to Wicked so Hollis could come to.
That memory is one of the most genuinely fun surprise moments of my life. I loved it.
That memory helped me realize that what I hate is not being surprised, but KNOWING that I'm going to be surprised. Like someone saying, "I'm going to surprise you tomorrow, but you can't know what or how or what time." It ruins the surprise for me. I'd rather just BE SURPRISED.
Moral of the story- surprises are good, but they're better when they're a surprise!!!

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