Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas

For my birthday, Mary Ellen (Ben's mom) got me a cookbook (Taste of Home Cooking School Cookbook), and this is the first recipe that I've tried out of it, and the family approved! Everyone loved it! It was nice and easy and didn't take too long either! 

Turkey and Black Bean Enchiladas 

makes 8 servings

Ingredients: 

• 2 cans black beans, rinsed and drained, divided
• 1 pound lean ground turkey
• 1 medium green pepper, chopped
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 can enchilada sauce 
• 1 cup shredded Mexican cheese
• 8 tortillas 

Directions: 

1. In a small bowl, mash 1 can black beans; set aside. In a large nonstick skillet, cook the turkey, pepper and onion over medium heat until meat is no longer pink; drain. Add the mashed beans, remaining can of beans, half of the enchilada sauce and 1/2 cup cheese; heat through. 
2. Place 2/3 cupfuls of bean mixture down the center of each tortilla. Roll up and place seam side down in two 11-in. x 7-in. baking dishes coated with cooking spray. 
3. Pour remaining enchilada sauce over the top; sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, at 425 degrees for 15-20 minutes or until heated through. 

I served them with a simple mexican rice side dish. You can find different kinds at grocery stores.

YUMMMM!!!

I miss my college friends :(

She was starin' out the window of their SUV

Complainin', sayin', "I can't wait to turn eighteen"

She said, "I'll make my own money and I'll make my own rules

Momma, put the car in park out there in front of the school"

And she kissed her head, and said, “I was just like you”

You're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days

Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Before she knows it she's a brand new bride

In her one bedroom apartment and her daddy stops by

He tells her it's a nice place, she says, “It'll do for now”

Starts talkin' about babies and buyin' a house

Daddy shakes his head and says, “Baby, just slow down”

Cuz' you're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days

Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

Five years later there's a plumber

Workin' on the water heater

Dog's barkin', phone's ringin'

One kid's cryin' and one kid's screamin'

And she keeps apologizin'

He says, “They don't bother me

I've got two babies of my own

One's thirty-six, one's twenty-three”

Huh, it's hard to believe

But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna want this back

You're gonna wish these days

Hadn't gone by so fast

These are some good times

So take a good look around

You may not know it now

But you're gonna miss this

You're gonna miss this

Yeah, you're gonna miss this

Dog Tags <3

Does anybody else have any of these? I keep them hanging around my rearview mirror in my car :)

Job Hunting

Forewarning: This is a rant

Job hunting in today's society really f*ing blows! As a recent college graduate, I have joined the "real world" and with student loan payments knocking now on my front door, I'm starting to freak out a bit. I have been working "three" part-time jobs since I graduated in May. I put the word three in quotes because while I am currently employed by three different companies, I hardly consider them really anything.

I love working with Nick doing wedding photography, but one weekend per month is hardly considered an income. I've also been helping in Mom's office with filing papers and answering the phone occasionally, and this is a nice time killer while getting paid $10/hour, but it doesn't excite me nearly enough to make it a "I want to go in and work EVERYDAY!" kind of job (Gary allows me to choose the hours that I go into work there). So that really leaves me with just DLM. Don't get me wrong, I love the people and it's a great place to work...if it's full-time or you're 16 without any bills. I don't have many bills to pay, right now, I really only have my cell phone bill, credit card bill and car insurance, along with the typical payments for having a car (gas, oil changes, engine problems, etc), and every now and then I pay for some groceries since my brothers don't like eating healthy so Mom doesn't waste her money. Now the problem is I'm still living paycheck to paycheck and I'm living at home, with three monthly bills.

I would like to be able to purchase a nice, reliable car some time in the near future and it's possible through Toyota with their "recent graduate finance program" but the kicker is, you need to have a full-time job to get this great deal. So much for that one since I can't seem to be qualified enough for anything.

Through college, I had to work for every penny I earned and decided (stupid-ly) to go to UD and get myself into some debt (not horrible, but more than I would have if I would have taken that full ride to play softball that I was offered). Now I find myself with a bachelor of arts degree in communications and going nowhere. Every job that I look at requires previous work experience...well my main problem is I really have none that would apply to them. During school, I was on the newspaper staff as a photographer, not a writer (mistake number one) and I couldn't apply for any of the internships in the area during summers because they were all unpaid and I couldn't lose valuable time from a paying job to go to a job where I was making no money. And now it's coming back to bite me in the butt. I believe the worst part about job searching, besides filling out at least 5 applications a day, is reading all of the qualifications and thinking this is perfect! I'd be great at this and then getting down to the last line "minimum of 3 years work experience..."

How do you expect a recent college grad to have anymore then MAYBE a year of real world experience? This is not a realistic expectation.

So after searching for what I like to call my first "big-girl job" for almost 3.5 months now, I find myself wondering if I should just go back to school to get more experience...but wait, that won't help! Because that will just put my further in debt and then I most likely still will be unable to find a job after another graduation. But I also run into the problem that I really don't know what I want to do with myself for the rest of my life. I'm really open to any sort of job at this point because I feel that I didn't have enough time to explore during college into what I really love doing. Yes, I love taking pictures, but starting out is very rough and expensive. I don't mind writing, but how am I supposed to get a job doing that if I can't even get an unpaid internship with a local paper? I love kids and everyone tells me I would be a great teacher, but I really don't want to do that, however, I have recently considered applying for being a substitute teacher this year, just to see if I would like it or not. I love traveling, but it's so hard to find a job where you get paid to do so. I have even started looking into becoming a nanny, but everyone feels like paying somebody $5/hour to watch your two or three children all day is a fair price, and I'm sorry but if you can't put your children in daycare for that cheap, you should expect someone to come into your home to care for them at that price. I feel like I'm just stuck.

We really have to find a way to provide more jobs for people who are needing/willing to work in today's society otherwise, as a friend said the other day, "we're going to have an abundance of really educated restaurant servers in our society." GRRRRRRRR!

Until next time,

XOXO
<3 Marci

Birthday Weekend

As many of you probably know, my 23rd birthday was Monday and boy oh boy do I feel old! I've been joking for awhile now that I was probably going to have a quarter life crisis (which is most likely not true) but I sure can't party the way I used to, that's for sure!

Friday night, I went out with my friends Cecily, Kim and Sarah. Sarah and I started the night at a local bar called Dr. Doodles where we were hit on by a very old gentleman (at least in his upper 50s) and he told us this pick up line that was pretty clever (I've never heard it before), but it was highly inappropriate.

The following line is not for an immature viewing audience:
Man: "You're like my pinky toe"
Us: "Uhh, why?"
Him: "Because I have a feeling I'm going to be banging you on my coffee table all night"

Can you say AWKWARD!?!

Needless to say, we didn't really stick around there too much longer. After Kim and Cecily got off work, we went to The Yellow Rose Nightclub only to ride the mechanical bull! A little background: on my 21st birthday, my mom took me to New Orleans **Here's the video from New Orleans** and we ended up in a country bar where some guy bought me a ticket to ride the mechanical bull and I did it, so after hearing that a club near us had one, I said I wanted to try it again...minus the strapless and short dress, so my friends agreed to go with me (they're the best)! So here I am as an "experienced" bull rider so the guy (with influence from my friends) decided they were going to try really hard to throw me off and make the bull go really fast (ahhh!) **Here's the video from this time** Spoiler alert: I beat the bull! However, the next day, my legs were SOOO bruised from it!

The group for the night!
Left to right: Cecily, Sarah, me and Kim

After we rode the bull, we headed downtown to the Oregon District to hang out at Ned Peppers and had a great time! I'm so glad Sarah and Kim didn't try to recreate my birthday from last year (completely and total death!) since Saturday I was headed to Cincinnati to celebrate with more friends!

Kelsey, Nate and I after his commissioning 

Saturday morning, one of my really good friends, Nate, was being commissioned from Miami University in Oxford into the US Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. It was such a different ceremony from Ben's, but I was so glad I got to be a part of it! Nate was essentially the one that introduced Ben and I so he has become a great friend and I was so glad I could be a part of such a special time for him. It was a very small ceremony (only him and one friend were being commissioned) and it was held inside a chapel on campus with their closest friends and family. And it only lasted about 30 minutes (tops) which was great...however, it was crazy how fast it all moved! They each took their "oath to office" separately, and then had their LT bars pinned immediately and then left the stage and had their first salute...which sort of threw me for a loop since for Ben's commissioning, everything was sort of at our own pace, so I missed getting pictures of everything :( but my friend Kelsey and I did get a picture with Nate afterwards! After the ceremony, we all headed to his grandparents' house for lunch and to hang out until the party bus came to pick us up...that's right, the party bus! Nate has been trying for years, yes years, to get our group of friends to rent a party bus, so he finally decided to take it upon himself to get one for this big event and I'm so glad he did! We had a blast riding down to Newport, KY where we were dropped off at the Hofbräuhaus. We hung out there for a bit before moving on to different bars, but we ended the night at a piano bar which we ultimately took over. There were 18 of us just having fun and celebrating our friends and I couldn't have asked for a better Saturday night of my birthday weekend!

Almost all of the girls from the night!
Left to right: Kelsey, Kristina, me, Meg and Candice
Missing: Kelsey (Nate's fiance) and Amy 

Sunday I ended up getting to hang out with my niece all day which was great! And on my actual birthday, we celebrated my friend Jamie's 21st instead! Caroline and I took her to Elsa's to start her first alcohol tasting with a Bad Juan. The verdict was that tequila tastes like toilet bowl cleaner (which I might have to agree with).

After celebrating all weekend with friends, I received a whopping 167 facebook "happy birthdays" and really realized how awesome all of my friends and family are! They are the reason that I have as much fun in my life as I do and they are the reason I *usually* have a smile on my face! They are also the ones that have gotten me through my 23 years of craziness and put up with my through thick and thin. Thank you all for a great birthday and for always being there for me! You're all the greatest!

Until next time

XOXO,
<3 Marci

One Year Project

So I'm asking for a little bit of help to come up with something to do for a year. I've been thinking about it and after failing at my 365 photo project ( :( ) I'm thinking about trying something once a week for a year. I've got multiple ideas, but I want to see what my readers have ideas about since I will be writing about my progress...any suggestions are welcome!

Get creative! :D The best idea will win something...maybe cookies, or maybe my love and thoughts for a whole year as I do my project. Participation is key here!

FYI, here's a few ideas I've thought of:

1. Photoshoot a week, but I would need subjects to photograph!! (sessions would be free!)
2. New recipe/DIY project
3. A photo theme each week and make a collage (would love ideas for each week)

THANKS ALL!

xoxo
-Marci

TBS Care Package #1

Since Ben has been gone for almost a month, I sort of felt like a jerk of a girlfriend since I hadn't sent him anything yet so I decided to come up with a "back-to-school" theme for the one I sent him this past week. If I do say so myself, it was kind of awesome.

Things included:

• Erasers - to remind you that each day you start with a clean slate 
• Tootsie Rolls - to remind you to always roll with the punches 
• Pack of Gum - so the information you learn in class will "stick" 
• Sponge - to soak up all the new knowledge you'll be learning! It will also help in doing your dishes ;) 
• Hershey Kisses - to remind you I'm always here for you and I love you! 
• Life Savers - for when you feel like you're drowning in information 
• Beef Jerky - because they're not turkey sandwiches (apparently all he eats is cold cut sandwiches because he doesn't really have a lot of places to cook)
• Candle - to burn while you're studying late at night 
• Lemon Heads - when life gives you lemons...be thankful it gave you anything! 
• Suckers - to remind you not be be suckered into anything and be your own person! 
• Sour Patch Kids - sweet and sour so you learn to appreciate the differences 
• Pencils - to always "write" your wrongs 
• Puzzle - you're my missing piece when you're gone, but I thought these doggies could keep you company! 
• Starbursts - for an extra "burst" of energy on days when you might need it most 
• Coloring book and crayons - since I know you won't have time to draw, I figured coloring was the next best thing! It's also a huge stress reliever! (I have to mention that it was a Star Wars coloring book, one of his favorites!) 
• Power Bars - eat this for some extra power before your PFTs! 
• Movies - (Inception, The Dark Knight and Batman Begins): In your spare time, hang out with some super heros for fun! 
• Book - I ordered him In the Shadow of Greatness: Voices of leadership, sacrifice and service from America's longest war which is written by members of the class of 2002 from the Naval Academy: they say we learn from our pasts, so take some time to read from those who have already been there
• Hug - even though we're many miles apart, just remember I always want to be wrapped in your arms 
• CD - just for fun! 

It all fit perfectly in a large priority flat rate box and I even saved a few dollars by sending it this way instead of a normal package! I had some fun putting it together so I hope you all had some fun reading about it! Feel free to steal any ideas if you happen to be sending any care packages to anybody soon!

Until next time,
xoxo
Marci

Chicken Spinach Tortilla Bake

Tonight I decided to start on one of my goals from the list that I started a month ago (for a refresher, here it is), but I started cooking. I've been using Pinterest list a crazy person to come up with all sorts of recipes to try and I made my first one tonight.

The original link is here but I changed it just a little bit to fit my family's picky-ness. 

It calls for:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

4 chicken cutlets (total around 1 lb) I used chicken thighs because they're a little cheaper

Salt and pepper

1 1/2 cups store-bought salsa verde I used mild salsa because my family isn't big on spicy!

3/4 cup ricotta cheese

4 large (8") flour tortillas

1/2 red onion, thinly sliced

3 cups baby spinach 

2 cups shredded pepper jack cheese I used a mexican blend, again because of the spicy factor 

You preheat the oven to 450 and then in a skillet, you cook the chick in olive oil on medium heat. Season the chicken with some salt and pepper and cook until it is completely cooked through (took about 5 minutes). After the chicken is cooked, let it cool and then shred it. 

While the meat is cooling, mix together the salsa and ricotta in a small dish. You will need a 9-inch baking dish to layer everything, so next grease this pan and begin to layer. Put tortilla down then spread the salsa/ricotta mix then I put spinach next, followed by onions and then cheese; repeat this twice and put a tortilla on top to finish it off. 

Bake until golden-brown (15 to 20 minutes) and let stand 10 minutes before serving. Makes 4 servings. 

Everyone (my mom and two brothers) both thought it was really good! I thought it could have used a little less onion, but that was just me. It was also a little hard to cut since the tortillas were hard, but it was delicious! 

Until next time,

xoxo

Marci

Sometimes...

I just need reassurance from you that I'm not wasting my time and that I'm sticking with something that we both want...not just that I want.

And then hearing your voice makes me forget any doubts I had at all.