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Monday, November 10, 2008

Feeling stressed!

I'm feeling like I have too many hobbies, and I don't know how I'm going to get everything done. I hate having so many unfinished projects, but it always seems like something else more important comes up. Now that it's almost Christmas, I'm practically hyperventilating because I don't know if I'll get to everything in time, not to mention my fun, personal hobbies. :P Does anyone else ever feel this way? How do you handle it?!?!?!

Chicken Tortilla Soup

Last night I had the BEST chicken tortilla soup I have ever had. Seriously. It was just a simple recipe in my crock pot cooking book, called "Fix It and Forget It", but BOY was it good!!!! I didn't get any pictures, but I wanted to share. It's super easy, and super yummy!

2 chicken breasts
1 can black beans, undrained
1 can Mexican stewed tomatoes or RoTel
1 can diced green chiles (I used the fire-roasted kind)
1 C salsa (hot, medium, mild - your choice!)
1 8oz can tomato sauce
1 t cumin
tortilla chips or tortillas
1/2 C shredded Mexican cheese

Put all ingredients in the crock pot and cook on low for about 8 hours. Before serving, take out chicken breasts and dice into bite size pieces. Return to crockpot. Serve with crushed tortilla chips (I used torn pieces of flour tortilla) and cheese.

This could be easily customizable...serve with avocado, sour cream, cilantro, etc.

Mike and I both thought it was amazing last night, and I am still raving over it after eating leftovers for lunch!


Sunday, November 9, 2008

New Blog Name!

As you may have noticed, I have renamed my blog! I figured that since I don't update all that often, it really made no sense to keep TWO blogs. From now on, I will be combining my fun random posts with my cooking posts all here on the same blog.

Why the vanilla bean? I LOVE vanilla. I have never been much of one for chocolate...I have always preferred vanilla. And once I discovered that fresh vanilla beans are affordable on ebay, I was hooked! Now for the clincher - my favorite flower is an orchid. I discovered that vanilla beans are produced by orchid plants, and the vanilla orchid is the only orchid that produces a fruit. I figured that this is just way too much of a coincidence, and orchids/vanilla are definitely meant to be my thing!

Please point your browsers from now on to http://alannasvanillabean.blogspot.com.

Stay tuned for more! :)