Chicken Empanadas

As mentioned on this week's meal plan, if the chicken empanadas turned out well, I would post the recipe. Well, I am glad to say that they did. Next time I make them, I will try to make some changes, which I will note at the end of the recipe.

Yesterday during lunch time:

B: "These are yummy!"
Me: "I know!" :p

Byron laughed at how humble a response I made to his compliment.

Chicken Empanadas
Taken from Food Network Magazine, slightly modified by myself.

- 2 11-oz packages pie dough mix (I made my own since it takes no more than 3 minutes to do)
- 1 1/2 cups of shredded chicken *
- 1 cup of chunky salsa
- 1 cup of shredded Mexican cheese blend (I used cheddar since that's what I had)
- All purpose flour for dusting
- Bread crumbs for sprinkling on top

Instructions:
1. Preheat the oven to 400F. In a medium bowl, combine the chicken, salsa and cheese.
2. On a flour-dusted surface, roll out the dough to a 1/8 inch thick. Using a 3-inch-round cutter (I used the lid of one of my pans), cut out as many possible circles. Place about 1 tablespoon chicken mixture in the center of each circle (I added more since my circles were bigger). Moisten the edges with water. Fold the circles in half and pinch to seal. Pierce the tops with a fork. Top with bread crumbs for texture.
3. Place the empanadas on a baking sheet and bake 15 minutes, or until golden. Serve hot.

Future modifications:
Next time I make these I'll probably put less chicken and instead add some black beans. I think some cream cheese would have been good in it as well.

* I like to keep a small ziplock bag in the freezer where I can put any leftover, already cooked, shredded chicken from previous meals. This allowed this recipe to be little to no hassle for me to make since the meat was already taken care of. All I had to do is take the bag out of the freezer the night before and let it thaw.

Tia Miriam

Tia Miriam (tia = aunt) is the oldest of seven children - my dad's oldest sibling. She spent the first part of her life being her dad's right hand, and later part of her life nursing and caring for the sick. She claims to have nursed and taken care of a total of 10 people. Her two major ones being my grandfather (her dad) for 12 years - who suffered a car accident and became paralyzed, and my father for 14 years - who had Multiple Sclerosis and was also paralyzed for a number of years. She was never married and never had children.

Her favorite thing to do in life is spoil her nieces rotten, myself being one of them. On my last day in Merida she cooked one of my favorite dishes - calabacitas rellenas en labne - a lebanese dish.

Meal plan

This week marks a new beginning in regards to meals for us. Even though we've made financial choices over the past 4 years that would allow me to stay at home when children came, quitting my job does comes with it's sacrifices. One of those sacrifices (for Byron in particular) is that he is now going to begin coming home for lunch during his work day. He used to go out to eat every day for lunch, and even though that the money he spent was in our budget, I think we've now agreed that that money could be better used elsewhere.

So here it is. After what seemed an hour of racking my brain, this is our menu for the week:

Wednesday and Thursday:
L: Chicken Mini Empanadas. New recipe. It they turn out good, I'll post the recipe.
D: Spaghetti, garlic bread, salad and apple sauce.

Friday & Saturday:
L: Egg salad sandwiches. I have a ton of eggs that I got on sale and that I need to finish.
D: Magluta with hummus and pita bread (Lebanese dish).

Sunday:
L: Out with family.
D: Freebie - I like to leave a day open in case something comes up during the week, which usually does.

Monday:
L: Grilled pitas with cheese.
D: Hamburgers with french fries

Tuesday:
L: I have a doctor's appt, so we may use a Groupon to go out to eat together. We usually do this before my appts.
D: Hamburger with french fries.

Daniela - the Canadian Yucatecan

My childhood friend Brenda married a Canadian man and moved to Canada. They recently had a little girl named Daniela who is cute as can be.

I post this picture because it shows a few things that our little girl is most likely going to go through:

- Note her outfit - the hipil. This is the typical female yucatecan outfit. I already have about four or five of these for our little girl.
- Note her pierced ears. This is something that all girls have when born in Mexico (they get this done in the hospital when born). Byron has agreed to get our little girl's ears pierced as a newborn.
- Note her features. She has dark hair, tan skin and blue eyes. We all wonder how mixed our little girl is going to be and what American, Mexican or Lebanese features she will inherit from mommy and daddy.

Morris family vacation

All 14 (and a half) Morrises spent a week at Moon Palace, Cancun during the first part of June. It was a fun and relaxing week, and we are very thankful for being able to do this. Thank you Mr. and Mrs. Morris for such a special treat :)

Family and friends baby shower in Merida part 2

Two of my co-workers at Blas Pascal when living in Merida - Ivonne and Ayve.


My friend Karina and I.


My friend Diana and I. I do have to mentione that she gave the cuuuuuuutest little terno for our little girl. Can't wait to put it on her.


We played loteria, but the "baby version" (loteria is the mexican style bingo).


My aunt Susy called out the cards for the game.

Family and friends baby shower in Merida part 1

My cousin Velia and aunt Susy threw me a baby shower last night and it was wonderful! The company, the decorations, the games, the smiles, the gifts - everything was perfect. The theme for the shower was "tipical Yucatecan," with salbutes and panuchos for dinner, and dried fruit, black beans and cotzitos for botana. They even gave out mestiza keychains for gifts for the guests.

My cousin Velia and I.



A few of my female cousins who came.



More and Diana - two wonderful ladies who took me under the wing as a young Christian growing up.



Oma, Velia, my aunt Susy, myself and aunt Miriam.



Oma and I with silly party glasses.

Conono

Conono is a man who served my family for more than 20 years. He is a "modern Maya" who spent his younger years of life growing Henequen - the "green gold" of Yucatan between the late 1800s and mid 1900s. He and his father were slave-like workers who served plantation masters.

At the age of 19 he married his wife, who was 13 years old at the time. He fathered nine children, and to this day has 18 grandchildren and one living great-grandchild.

In his late 40s, he decided to try his luck in Merida, the main city in the state of Yucatan. He was one of the labor workers who helped build the home I grew up in. When the home was finished, my dad asked him if he wanted to stay and work for my family full time. He said yes.

Just like Graciella did, he would leave his "pueblo" (hometown) every Monday morning to come to Merida and then return to it early Saturday morning.

One of my favorite memories of Conono was that he loved to play UNO. The four of us (Graciella, Conono, my sister Alison and I) would get together in his room every night and play cards. We were never able to catch him cheating, but we were all sure he would often steal the WILD card and use it on another hand.

This morning we drove to his pueblo to go visit him. This is the picture of the shoes he wears. The bottoms are made with car tires. The ones he has on are his "good" shoes.



On our way back to Merida, we had a mexican-style popsicle together.

Breastfeeding 101

Yesterday we invited Roberta over for lunch to get us intruduced to breastfeeding. She is the mother of my dear childhood friend Shirin who just happens to also be an International Board Certified Lactation Consultant.

I invited Valerie to come join us. It was a great intruduction and I am looking forward to the much promised gift my mom has told me she is going to give me - The Art of Breastfeeding by the La Leche League.

Graciella

I know that this is going to sound really weird to a lot of people, but Graciella was (for the lack of a better word) our maid growing up. She began working for us and helping my mom around the house and with my sister and I when I was 6 years old and left when I was 12. She would travel from her hometown every Monday and live with us until Saturday morning, when she would then return to her town.



She later got married and had a family. Her only daughter was named Lauren after me. The girl is so cute and so well behaved.



My mom and I drove to her "pueblo" (hometown) yesterday to visit her. I think it had been about 6 years since I had last seen her. She is still very nice and always laughing. For a living, her husband, children and herself bake bread and sell it around the town. As a thank you for our visit, she gave us some bread, which we highly enjoyed for dinner last night.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day, papa!

My dad passed away five months and one day after Byron and I got married. He was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis when I was one year old and passed away 21 years later.

He was a great dad! When I look back at my life circumstances as a child - father sick for so many years and parents separated and divorced when I was young - I am amazed of how well my parents raised us in spite of those things. He was always supportive of my mom and of our American culture, to the point that he would send us every year to the States (mother's ticket and full expensis included) to visit my family in Illinois.

A few memories that stand out about my dad:
- When I was very little, maybe 3 or 4 years old, he would put me in the car and take me for a ride every morning and look for dogs.
- When my parents were already separated, he would come EVERY afternoon after work to visit us. He would park the car outside and we would go out and visit with him. I would sometimes take my homework with him and he would quiz me with questions. I was always amazed of how intelligent he was and how he could still remember so many trivial facts from school
- My sister and I would go on "daddy dates," which consisted of him taking us out on Saturday evenings to a mall. He would each hand us $20 pesos, which today may be the equivalent to maybe $80 pesos ($6 dollars) and have us go find something to buy for ourselves. He would then sit in the food court and wait for us with a coffee cup in hand. And then when we were done, we would eat dinner together there.

The thought of him not meeting his grandoughter brings tears to my eyes. I know he would have been so happy and loved her so much. I can just see him as I bring her to his bed for him to look at. He cannot hold her, but his smile says it all. He is in love with her.

A dream come true - my dad walking me down the isle to get married.

Oma

Though most people compliment me when they see me pregnant, my mom's first reaction when she saw me for the first time last week was this: "Loli, you are so fat and huge!" Me: *sigh*

The funny thing is that every day (or every few hours), my mom will forget I am pregnant. So I'll walk into the room where she is at and she'll smile and say: "Oh Loli, I forgot you were pregnant!"

My mom has decided that she wants our little girl to call her Oma, which means grandmother in German. And our little girl has really warmed up to her Oma. I think Oma has felt our little princess wiggle and kick more than her own daddy has.

Oma and I have also spent much of our time together in the kitchen this summer. I wonder if our little one will grow to love the kitchen as much as her mommy and Oma do.

Cousin gathering part 2

Yesterday night, a few of my cousins came over for dinner. There were 8 of us cousins, plus spouces. Our dinner menu was lasagna, salad, garlic bread and brownies with ice cream, all of which my mother and I joyfully made.

I think there was a little confusion and a few of them thought I was throwing my own baby shower - LOL. Needless to say, my mother and I had fun opening the gifts once everyone left. Thank you!



My cousin Fary is also pregnant with her first baby. She is 4 months pregnant and having a little girl as well.

Cousin gathering part 1

Yesterday I spent most of the day with my cousins. I am thankful that my dad was one of seven children growing up, and as a result of that, I have a large family, 20 cousins in all.

My cousin Sihan and her husband Joaquin were unable to make it to dinner last night with the rest of my cousins, so they took me out for lunch instead. They said it was a private baby shower :)

Who would have thought?

Monday, June 13, 2011

Though married three and a half years apart from each other, my dear friend Valerie and I are pregnant together... who would have thought? Who would have thought we'd get to take this picture together, both pregnant with our first child!

June 16, 2007

Happy Anniversary, Honey!

As promised on June 16, 2007, I love you more today than I did yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that...

Kibis for lunch

This past Sunday, in response to B's request, my mother and I spent some time in the kitchen preparing a Lebanese dish - baked kibis with garbanzo (hummus) and labne. Needless to say, it was delicious and with enough for leftovers the next day.

A reading date

On a slow weekend night, if both B and i are reading a good book, we'll go out on a "reading date." It ususally consists on each of us ordering a coffee drink, chatting for a bit, and then spending a good amount of time across from each other reading our own book.

While in Merida last week, during some down time one afternoon, we went out on one of these dates. We went to The Italian Coffee Company, which serves, hands down, the best frappes I've ever tried.

Unbroken - highly recomended by Dr. Robertson

& a moka frappe.

The Professon and the Madman - a nerdy book B found at my mom's house

& a frappe frioreo (moka frappe + crushed oreos)

28 weeks

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Baby pics

On B's last night in Merida, my mom took out my newborn photo album. It was so fun seeing my parents get ready for me and then seeing myself as a newborn. A few things that stood out:

- I was born 10 days early.
- B noticed how dark my skin complexion was as a newborn.
- Based on my baby pics, i was already smiling and very aware of people by the time i was 3 weeks old.
- My mom was back into her regular body DAYS after giving birth to me.

It'll be interesting to see how similar an experience i have with our little girl compared to my mom's experience with me.

Familiar faces

For the past 11 days, both B and i have been in Mexico. For the first part of our trip, we were in Cancun with the Morrises, and then took the bus up to Merida for the second half of our trip. During our Merida stay, we were able to see a lot of old friends. I soon realized i had not taken as many pics as i had thought i did, so if we saw you and your pic is not here, we are sorry :p

Miguel and I at church.

M was one of my 12th grade math and and also Calculus students my second year teaching. I am a proud former teacher of a rising third year engineering student.

Byron and Ramon.

Great Christian, father and friend. Proud parent of a soon-to-be medical student. FYI - getting into the medical school here in Merida is close to imposible. Depending on the school year, there are about 2,500 - 3,000 seniors who apply to med school and only about 80 get in. FYI 2 - Students begin med school right out of high school.

The Glory family.

Pastor Chucho and his family took very good care of B during his 5 years as a missionary in Merida. Every Wednesday they would have him over for lunch. Chucho gave the homily at our wedding and remains a good friend of ours inspite the distance.

Their two boys were my students during my two years teaching in Merida.

Luis and Byron.

Luis was/is one of B's good friends from his 7-year stay in Merida. He was also one of his groomsmen at our wedding.

Daddy feels her kick

Yesterday was the first day B was able to clearly feel our little one kick.

Our little girl is 28 weeks old today, and she is not the wiggler that i would like her to be. It took her a while to move enough for me to realize it was her who was moving and not my stomach just growling.

B has been able to feel her a little here and there, but not enough to get him all excited. Last night, while spending time with the Morrises, i felt her move. I had B put his hand on my belly, and sure enough, kick after kick. B's eyes got so big and words such as "goodness!" kept coming out of his mouth.

So happy our little girls is warming up to her daddy <3

My teaching days...

Today was the last day i walked into a school as a paid teacher. It's weird to think that four years have gone by since i graduated from college and began to teach. Even though these past four years have met me with more challenges than i would care to number (or share), i still think that there is no other profession i'd rather do than to teach math.

So the question of the hour is -- will you ever go back to teaching? And the answer to that is "yes." Starting January 2012 i will begin doing private tutoring, maybe between 5 - 10 hours a week. Once all of our children are school age i would like to go back into the classroom. I would like to be at a high school or college, teaching upper level math.

Also, part of staying at home to be a mom means that i'll be a teacher to our little girl. I don't want anyone else to raise her. I want to make sure she learns her numbers and colors from me, i want to make sure she learns both English and Spanish, i want to make sure she is read to, and i know that no daycare can do that for me.

Byron claims to have known all of his times tables by the time he started kindergarten. It only makes sense that the daughter of a math teacher mom and a genius dad starts school already knowing her numbers and times tables :p

Pizza sauce recipe

Whether you are going to make mini pizzas using English muffins, or go all out and make pizza from scratch, you should never use store bought pizza sauce. After you try this simple recipe, you'll understand why.

Homemade pizza sauce

- 1 14.5 oz can of crushed tomatoes
- 1 clove of garlic, minced finely
- 1 Tbsp of olive oil
- 1/4 tsp of dried oregano

Mix together in small pan and simmer for about 1 - 2 hours.

It's aroma is outstanding! And if you are having guests that day, i can guarantee you that they'll ask for the recipe :p

27 weeks

27 weeks and 19 lbs later...

Today we had our monthly doctor's appointment. Our little girl is doing great! Her heartbeat was unlike other times -- it sounded just like mine! It's strong and at a very steady rate. She likes to move a lot, though she is still a stinker and whenever her daddy puts his hand on mommy's belly, she'll stop moving.

After the appointment i came back home and celebrated with a 2 hour long nap. I cannot believe how tired i get these days. Third trimester is sure sucking out all of my energy.

Memma celebrated her "birthweek" with 2 cupcakes at our doorstep. Mommy and daddy enjoyed them with some ice cream after supper tonight.