Blah!

Do you ever have one of those days where you just wanna climb into bed and have the world stop, so you could gather yourself together. I do! I am having one...right now! I have to go to the store to get some things, but who wants to go out in the rain? Not me! Plus, my belly has been aching for the last week. Yes, a whole week! It started last Thursday...major....major PAIN!!!! Norco, you are no match for this pain...you are so ill equipped to handle what I got going on! Yes, I take you thinking that all the brujaja that the doctors make about taking such a strong and powerful dangerously addictive drug means you can in fact handle the job and relieve me of the pain....lol...you are a joke! You are painted out to be the Iron Man of a pain killers, when in fact you are his thrice removed goofy wanna be cousin Blankman. Norco, you are FIRED!

Anyways, thank GOD, I only get pains like that every 6-8 weeks.  It is just a jolt of reality, after having felt HALF WAY decent since Thanksgiving. But, the show must go on and it shall. I gotta get this house cleaned, go buy some lashes, nails, eyeliner, bobby pins, hairspray....hmmm....whatever else I need to transform myself from looking like I have been feeling (which looks pretty similar to this character above) to someone halfway presentable. Where is my fairy Godmother when I need her????

Bacon Wrapped Smokies in Brown Sugar & BUTTER!!!

I know, the holiday season of gluttony has since passed.....but thank goodness for our American culture which encourages us to celebrate every and any occasion, so we can flex our strong and well developed consumer muscles. What's next on the list??? Super Bowl.....uh, yeah....I sooooo don't care about the game....BUT I AM SUPER INTERESTED IN THE SNACKS!

 

So, we have all had bacon wrapped hot dogs...aka DANGER DOGS! Muah, muah....muchos besos to the street vendors in Tijuana who have coined this term! Love eating street food in Tijuana, Mexicali or any other city! Can't wait til drug lords stop ruining my travel agenda with their petty little war. I need a San Marcos Mexican blanket! It has been so freakin cold! I need an awesome tigre cobija (tiger blanket) to warm me up! Sorry, that's off topic. Well as I was saying, I think that these lil pups are way more dangerous than an ordinary danger dog....being that they are BATHED IN BUTTER!!!!! Sound over the top? Well, it is amigos! Okay lets enter this delicious weenie wonderland so that we may devour their delishuz greezyness!

 

 

BACON WRAPPED SMOKIES IN BROWN SUGAR AND BUTTER

 1 lb bacon cut into thirds

1 pack Lil Smokies

1 stick butter~yes 1 whole stick of butter

2 cups of brown sugar

 

Preheat oven to 345 degrees. Cut bacon into thirds, wrap around lil smokies and arrange in a 9x13 baking dish in a single layer. Gently melt stick of butter and brown sugar, until smooth and well incorporated. POUR THIS MIX OVER THE SMOKIES CAREFULLY. Now take the other cup of brown sugar and sprinkle it over the smokies. Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes. Then turn heat up to 400 degrees for approximately another 5 minutes or until they are crispy.

 

Crispy like this! :) Actually added this pic hoping it would be the one that shows in the thumbnail.

 

Your mixture should look like this. Now, there should be smokies in this pan, but I was making 3 dishes at once and got side tracked. Don't worry...it still worked out!

Place bacon wrapped smokies in a single layer and then sprinkle with the other cup of brown sugar.





Now take them out and eat one quick....hurry because they wont last long!

 

Next time I am going to add chili flakes to the brown sugar & butter mix, like I do to my spicy brown sugar bacon.....oh yeah! I will do a post on that soon...been making it for a few years now but it has been a while since I made some...no bueno!!!

Enjoy this recipe my friends! Let me know if you try this!

Exercise pain

So, this exercise thing is pretty painful. That is why I totally love Zumba, because the music makes me smile and I want to move! I have to face the ugly facts and that is, that change IS painful! I can't expect things to change unless I build some muscle in this body. I just want to feel strong! I want to have strong abs!

Remember how I mentioned on my bucket list that I want to be able to run a mile this year...yes, I know it is a small goal, but I am setting a foundation people! Like they say, how do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time! Right! So, I will add to my goal once it is achieved. Anyhow, today I did this work out that is supposed to build your running endurance for newbies. I look forward to seeing how I progress in this little endeavor!

However, I do have a side note of sadness to add to this story.....while I was running...well...let's start by saying my trunk is empty..lol. I was not blessed with any junk in the trunk. No, bodonkadonk, this baby has no back! Lol, yes a sad, sad truth! My gordura (fat) goes straight to my tummy. Believe you me, if it did head to my tush, I would be saying pass the doughnuts PLEASE! Anyways, so there I am doing intervals of running and walking, only when I get to the running part, my non existent backside feels like its jiggling. WTH!!! How can it jiggle if it is empty? Holy crap! This sucks, now I think I am gonna have to add Brazilian Butt work out to the goal list for this year........damn! It never ends!


But you know what???? This heart holds a lot of love and these arms are always looking for a reason to hug the kids.......so I guess it is just fine that I jiggle like Jello.....

                  Are those of you that set weight loss as a resolution working out? Any progress?

New year...still old me...ugh!

So the New Year begins and there is supposed to be some magical transformation that  propels us to shed our old bad habits and into embracing all the new exciting prospects we have set for ourselves.

DOES IT HAPPEN THAT WAY? NO!

Take me for example, I was feeling so good and so excited about getting started on my "New Me" phase, and then all of a sudden, my enthusiasm left....didn't say goodbye, didn't leave a note....just....GONE! I keep hoping it will "Call me maybe" lol....but no, no such luck! Ugh, so here I am stuck and wallowing in the good times and dreaming of what could have been, if my enthusiasm for my "New Me" hadn't up and deserted me. Oh, boo hoo and it is only January 9th! I fell off the juicing wagon pretty hard. Not one vegetable has been ingested in a whole 9 days!!!! I feel the ickyness creeping in......oh, lets face it....it busted the door down and has had me hostage.

BUT.....this stops, it stops now! Why? Well, partially because I have to be in a wedding in just over 2 weeks. Let me tell you, this tummy has had 5 babies in it...only 4 made it out. :( Yeah, it looks like a deflated balloon, it has battle scars (4 c~sections), but it's nothing a good set of Spanx couldn't handle. Plus, today I vow to do an exercise routine everyday to help with excess jiggles and tone up said tummy. I am going to keep it simple.

Ready to get my workout on!

 

By simple, I in no way wish to imply that this is a walk in the park. I am starting at ground zero here! I can't even recall the last time I went to Zumba....wahhhh! Found this on Pinterest. I had been doing a set very similar to this for almost 4 weeks and then...um....um...(shhhh, I am trying to think of a good reason for stopping) darn, I give up....no good excuse for quitting. I had gotten so far too!

Okay, so I will start today! Remember that scene in Jerry Maguire, after he flips out and is saying the fish is going with him and he is asking who else is coming with him? (yes, I love movies and my family talks to each other and or refers to movie quotes on an all too regular basis and I love it. Feels like we have a secret language sometimes...lol) Okay, so I THINK that is what just happened here.....I had my little melt down and I wanna know, who besides flipper is going to join me on this excercise journey? Anyone? Anyone?

El Dia de Los Tres Reyes Magos~ Champurrado Recipe

El Dia de los Tres Reyes Magos

This is a celebration held 12 days after Christmas, January 6th. On January 5th children put their shoes under their beds and fill them with grass for the camels of the Tres Magos (Three Wise Men). In the morning when they wake up their shoes are filled with candies. They are also given a small gift or two.
This is a day to commemorate the Tres Reyes Magos who visit Baby Jesus and bring him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh. In celebration a gathering is held and all those invited are served a piece of a pastry known as the Rosca de Reyes. Inside the Rosca there is a small plastic baby (for safety reasons most stores no longer sell it with the baby baked inside.) and whoever gets the piece with the baby inside is supposed to host guests at their house on Feb 2 and serve Champurrado and Tamales. The baby is baked inside to symbolize the need to hide Baby Jesus from the decree sent out by King Herod, to kill all new born babies because he had been told the messiah had been born.

Rosca de Reyes~ See the plastic baby is on the outside now.

Champurrado Classico~ 8 cups milk, 1 cup water 1 cone piloncillo, 1 star of star anise, 2 tablets of chocolate, 2 cinnamon sticks, 3 tablespoons of  harina de maiz . If you like a thicker consistency and a stronger corn flavor, add an extra tablespoon of harina de maiz at a time and mix in thoroughly. I thought it came out supersweet, so you may want to **omit the pilloncillo** I knew it was gonna be sweet, but I followed the recipe!

 8 cups of milk and immediatley whisk in the harina de masa. 

 



Add chocolate and piloncillo.** I won't put piloncillo next time**, the chocolate made it sweet enough for my taste.

It took forever for the pilloncillo to melt! But this is the color it looked when I was done. I added another 3 tablespoons of masa de harina.
 

So that is the classic recipe for Champurrado also known as Atole. There are many versions! You can use the same ingredients and just swap the harina de masa with the same amount of cornstarch, which thickens the chocolate without giving the corn flavor. Or, you can get the same amount of milk and get a sleeve of the Maria cookies and break them up into desired size and add that to your milk AFTER you bring it to a boil along with the other ingredients listed, let the cookies just sit in the mixture and they will absorb all goodness. Last way I know of is to pulverize that sleeve of cookies and add that as your milk thickener......THIS IS WHY I LOVE COOKING, THERE IS NO RIGHT WAY OR WRONG WAY! THE RIGHT WAY IS ALWAYS THE WAY YOU LIKE IT! So, if it's too sweet, add more milk, not sweet enough, mas chocolate!