Tilapia and quinoa....and me complaining

I took out some tilapia for dinner, which is one of my favorite fishes since it's a mild white fish and not super fishy tasting. I also made my first attempt of quinoa which is a wheat free, gluten free alternative to rice, oatmeal, breading, it's very versatile.

For the tilapia,
4 tilapia filets
1 tbsp of Adobo all-season salt
1 tbsp of chili powder
then I squeezed to limes over the fish and cooked in a skillet.

Quinoa, I use the two to one method and used 1/2 chicken stock and 1/2 water to boil it like rice. It turned out pretty well. The texture is a bit interesting but it still tasted good. Add a side of asparagus and viola! Yummy meal.

Now for my complaining.

There is nothing that irritates me more than people who spew off at the mouth not really knowing what they're talking about and giving stupid advice. On a message board I frequent, a girl was worried because her husband had not yet received his enlistment bonus(it's only been 6 months).

The advice she received?

1) Call an attorney
2) Contact the military's legal office
3) Call her senator
4) Call the investigative general(IG) who handles issues within a military unit. Like when someone files a complaint against someone in their chain of command.

Now I won't go into all the reasons as to why this is wrong and in so many ways but I will say this. Unless you have been there and done that and know what you're talking about....please stay out of it. If you go and tell your spouse, or worse you yourself, go and do any of the above, it's going to reflect badly upon your service member. If your SM is not sure who to go to, they need to run it up their chain of command. We have the chain for a reason, to solve problems at the lowest level. If my Soldiers come to me with an issue, I do everything within my power to solve it myself, if I can't I enlist help from someone with more rank than me.

So in summary, unless you know what you're talking about, kindly STFU. Kthxbai.

Deer Chili(and some random thoughts)

Those of you who come from a background similar to mine know that it's deer season. And it's this time of year that you switch from the usual ground beef, pot roasts and steaks to ground deer burger, venison, and deer roast. Deer can be a bit tricky to cook since it tastes a little more game-y than regular beef. Easily fixed as long as you know what to do with it. It's not like burger you can just throw on a grill or a steak you broil. It needs to be seasoned and/or mixed with other meats because it is very lean. So I made my first crock pot of deer chili and here's the recipe I used.

1 lb of ground deer
1 packet chili mix
3 tbsp of chili powder
2 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 can of stewed tomatoes
1 can of black beans
1 small white onion
1 tbsp of garlic
1 tbsp of fresh ground black pepper
1/2 tbsp os sea salt
and a dash of Worcestershire sauce.

Now, I love my crock pot and I am a firm believer in not having to cook anything before it goes into said crockpot. So I actually started the chili last night. Let it cook on low until this afternoon and it switched to warm(it has a timer). Served tonight and the husband loved it, as did I.

Random thoughts,
My extension got kicked back because it was the wrong format. NBD. It got redone at drill weekend and has been resubmitted. Apparently they're not worried that I'm less than 60 days from my ETS(the day I get out). *insert nervous laugh*

We played volleyball tonight. It was MUCH more fun this week. "All-Star" seems to have quit, as we guessed, along with our "captain" who broke her wrist. We got 3 new girls all of which are super nice, know pretty much what they're doing and our communication vastly improved. I look forward to the rest of the season now.

I think I've convinced IG to turn our hallway closet into a pantry. My friend Em's pantry looks about the size of our closet so I want to mimic hers. That's what I'm asking for for Christmas! :)

This is going to be long

HI! I'm alive! I'm so not good at this blogging thing. So, let's catch up shall we?

Work is amazing. I LOVE, absolutely LOVE my job. I mainly do case work for SLANT(state-line anti narcotics team) but also help them with busts. When we do a bust I help them go through all the evidence, look for any ties to other cases/suspects we have and so on. Analyst work. The more I see what they do and the more I work with these guys, the MORE I want to be a cop. I'm trying but with one department laying off 21-35 cops next month and the state not looking to hire until next year, it's kinda tough. So I'm working on improving my scores for testing and being as prepared as I can be. I'm also abusing this job and taking all the training, classes, experience they'll give me. I take my POWER(Police Officer Wellness Evaluation Report) next month which is 1.5 mi run(easy peasy) 1 bench press, 31 sit ups and a sit 'n' reach. Once I finish that I will test with a PD in December and hopefully again in Jan. Someday....

Today I ran another 5K. I got a personal record(PR) of 34:47. Which surprised me because it was COLD! I'm talking probably freezing or less, but oh well. I "ran for the athletes" with the Aurora, IL police department. We raised $9,000 for the 2011 IL Special Olympics. The best part was when the last runner crossed the finish, he was a teenage boy with special needs. I had passed him and his mom as she helped him with his inhaler and he gave me a high five. I told him to keep going. 30 minutes or so later, he came around the bend for the last 1/4 of a mile, the police department and fire department ran around and formed a group around him and he started running, they encouraged him the whole way. Every person who was there crowded the finish line; clapping, cheering, whistling and he sprinted. He crossed the finish and threw his hands up in the air in victory. It was amazing. And some race photos.





















Lastly, my spaghetti recipe by request. We like spicy but I wanted to make sure it tasted "italian" so here's the list of what I used.

Jar of generic meat sauce
1 lb of ground beef(browned)
1 bag of pepperonis(chopped)
Now, spices are approximate, I recommend using them to taste.
1 Tbsp basil
1 tbsp Oregano
1 Tbsp Cayenne pepper
2 Tbsp Chili powder
1/2 Tbsp sea salt
1 Tsp black pepper
1 clove garlic
1/2 white onion(minced)
1/4 C of low fat cream cheese to make it creamy(Thanks Maria for the tip!)

I browned the ground beef then threw everything in the crockpot, put it on low for 4 hours then warm until dinner. It was amazing and it got the husbands seal of approval(which is huge b/c he has no taste buds/sense of smell).

Now I'm off to nap then out with friends later. Have a great weekend!

Turkey Crockpot Chili!

Chili in the summer is kind of weird, but still fabulously delicious. After the following conversation, the husband admitted my chili was good. This is a huge accomplishment for two reasons. 1) He almost always makes the chili. 2) He rarely tells me anything is good. The normal response is "It's ok." because he has lost about 80-90% of his sense of taste and smell. So for him to say "It's pretty good!" Is like winning an award. The convo we had was....

Husband: Well it looks like chili
Me: Smells like chili
Husband: But it can't be chili
Me: Why? Because I made it?
Husband: No. But you used that ground turkey stuff instead of hamburger.

So, I completely winged this recipe but it turned out really well. Should be fairly low points since I kinda went off a WW recipe found on www.skinnytaste.com

First I browned some ground turkey.
Then in the crock pot I added...

1 can of whole kernel corn(undrained)
1 can of whole tomatoes(undrained)
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of pinto beans(undrained)
1 can of black beans(undrained)
1 small can of mushrooms
1/2 C of fresh chopped cilantro
1 ea. chopped red, green, yellow and orange bell peppers

Then I added the meat. Stirred everything together and added the spices. Now when it comes to spices, I know how we like things(spicy and lots of flavor) so I go off the taste but here are my approximate measurements.

1 tbsp Adobo salt
2 tbsp taco seasoning
2 tbsp Chili powder
1 tbsp of ground cayenne pepper
1 tbsp of black pepper

Cook in crock pot on low for 8-10 hours then switch to warm. Or high for 6 hours.

My theory is as long as you know your audience, you can pretty much throw anything together. Start off with a little bit of spices then as it cooks, take a taste. A little bland? Add a bit more. It's all about your personal taste and experimentation. :)

MMMM.....BBQ Pulled Pork!

Ok, I know, I know, it's been, like, forever. But, in my defense I work 0700-1630 then go to school from 1830-2000 or later, so I haven't been cooking anything fabulous lately. But I had a craving for BBQ Pulled Pork. So I found a crock pot recipe and it. was. amazing.

I sort of winged it/went off the McCormick recipe but here's mine.

6 lb pork shoulder
1/2 C Brown Sugar
2 packets of McCormick BBQ pulled pork spices
1/2 C. Red Wine Vinegar
1/2 C. White distilled Vinegar
1/2 C. Ketchup

Put everything in the crock pot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. High for 4-6. I cooked it over night and let it sit on warm all day. It's amazing. Seriously. Enjoy!

5 Minute Dinner

Literally, 5 minutes.

Original Recipe is found here.

4 Chicken breasts(I use skinless & boneless)
1 cup salsa
1/2 c sour cream
1 can of cream of chicken soup
1 packet taco seasoning

I also added....b/c we like it spicy in our house.
1 can of chipotle peppers
dash of cayenne pepper

Season the chicken breasts with the taco seasoning. Put in the crockpot along with the salsa, sour cream and cream of chicken soup. Shred the chicken so it all absorbs the flavor. Cook on low for 6-8 hours and viola! I used frozen chicken breasts, for 8 hours and they turned out fine. I shredded the meat about 6 hours in. I served over brown rice and it was fabulous! Enjoy!

Pot Roast

I got this recipe from my mom and it's so easy.

I put a pot roast in the crock pot with the following.

1 packet of onion soup mix
4 celery stalks(diced)
3 carrots(diced)
4 red potatoes(sliced in quarters)

cover everything with water and put on low for 6-8 hours. Ta-da!