It's Actually Fall In Utah

 In Las Vegas, they keep telling me that fall is going to start. It's going to start to get chilly and I'm going to be able to tell that the season are changing...Well I'm not so sure that I believe them.

 

I have been home now for nearly an entire week, and it is definitely fall here.  For the past week, my whole family has been together under one roof and we've needed some quick and easy meals to throw together that feed lots.  Because it's actually in the 40s and 50s here, I decided to make some Chicken Taco Soup.  I also figured I might do something I have yet to do on the blog: Share a recipe. It's never too late to try something new right?

 

 

This soup is probably the easiest thing I have ever made. 

 

To make it you'll need

 

1 can of pinto beans

1 can kidney beans

1 can black beans

1 can of corn

2 8oz cans tomato sauce

1 can of Rotel or stewed tomatoes

2 limes

1 bunch of cilantro

1 package of taco seasoning

1 rotisserie chicken (pre-cooked by your local grocery store)

 

It almost seems silly to provide you with cooking directions, because it is truly so easy.  Carve rotisserie chicken and chop up into small pieces. I usually end up making it more like a shredded chicken taco soup. Combine all of the canned ingredients and chicken in a large pot. Add water as needed. If you like a little bit thicker soup, add more tomato sauce, less water. Add taco seasoning, cilantro, and limes to taste.

 

Of course, if you'd like, you can take a lot of extra time and soak beans over night, grill chicken, substitute with hamburger, throw together all of your own seasonings and such, but this tastes just as good and takes half as much time.

 

I like to serve this with Spanish rice and tortillas.  I also always top mine off with sour cream, cheese and extra cilantro, because to me, you can never have enough of it! I've made it many times and every time, no matter the size of the pot, every drop is eaten. Give it a shot. You can't go wrong!

Foods That Make My Heart Sing

So here I am again, linking up  joining in on this linky party without linking because I like to do it late :/ hosted by BlogLoveTherapy.

Today's challenge is to talk about 5 foods. So, it's a great opportunity to say how thankful I am for all the food on my table. 

Let me tell you something about food and me...We used to have a very...minimal relationship. I liked food. eating was great. We're not talking eating disorder or anything.  I was just picky and didn't eat much at all.

Then, I broke my arm.

Immediately after breaking it, I didn't like any food. Nothing sounded good. But after a few weeks, when I stopped taking the pain meds, I developed this appetite that was...ravenous. I was hungry for everthing. If I was writing this a little over a year ago, it would be boring and the only thing on the list would be...Spaghetti, but today, I love food.

I love enchiladas. The kind with creamy soupy filling with lots of green chilies and rotel. 

Pizza....I have a bit of a relationship with pizza. 

 Taco soup. My newest love. I made it a couple of days ago and it might be my favorite soup I've ever had. It's perfect for fall and had just enough of everything. It probably could have been a little bit spicier, but it was soo delicious!

I cannot stay away from the $8.36 salad...it's just...too good.

And my first love of all foods. Spaghetti. Oh man. I freaking love spaghetti...wow. I don't like American foods. WTH? Oh well! I hope you liked today's link up!

Don't forget to check out my awesome sponsor! Click the picture! I know you want to!

It's Time To Grow

First of all, have you liked my Facebook page? No? Well there's a cute lil' icon to the left that you can click to like it!

Are you following me on Twitter? Well there's an icon for that too! Follow me. :)

Instagram? That one is my favorite! Follow me! And I want to follow you too. It's the bomb.

And that's all the shameless promotion for today!

Usually, this number on the scale would be one that people would see and be like "Wooooo! I'm awewsome!" Not me. My minimum is 107 for my height and it's definitely a problem that I'm weighing about this much on average.

When I originally enlisted this was my biggest problem. I was running like a maniac and not eating enough food.  Well, it looks like we meet again!  I think that it's probably even worse this time...Before, it was just kind of natural, but this time, it's different.

When J and I broke up almost two whole months ago now, I stopped eating. Not by choice. It wasn't anorexia...It was just hard to eat. I didn't ever want anything. Nothing looked good and when I started to eat, I couldn't finish anything.  It's getting a little better and my appetite is returning, but I'm still working out more than I'm eating.

It also doesn't help that I've become insanely competative. I don't know where it came from, but all of a sudden, it's not enough for me to just be good or okay. I have to be the best. I must be the fastest, strongest, most motivated person in the world in order to come out on top. So I spend all of my free time in the gym burning calories...

This is how I'm going to fix it!

I bought myself a little present a few days ago.

Yes, I bought a fridge. I got the toaster over for Christmas. So I basically just installed a kitchen in my bedroom.

The idea is that I'll be able to have all my own food that won't get eaten by my family. It will be more accessible, and uh, I can toast things without leaving my bedroom. I toasted myself some lil' bagel bites last night just to be awesome.

I know, I'm awesome ;)

I also downloaded the app MyFitnessPal. I am in love with it.  It tracks my calories and it shows me how long it will take me to reach my goals if I eat as much as it tells me to.

I freaked out when I saw this after I finished my food and excercise entries for that day.

I was like....AHHHH! Bad bad bad...So. I now know what I have to do to get heavier. Basically triple my calorie intake and never stop eating.

It's a good thing that it's payday!

Photo Dump...(Aka: not creative enough to make these items work together)

Hey guys! How's it going today? I'd be better if I hadn't slept this whole day away. Whoops!  Today's post is basically a bit of a photo dump. I have a whole bunch of pictures and no idea how to create a nice little copacetic post about them so. Here is goes! 

On the way home from work yesterday, I spotted this ridiculous column of smoke. Holy fire on the mountain (again!), Batman...This one is at Camp Williams.  I haven't been listening to the radio to know if it's contained or what is going on, but the whole valley is filled with smoke and the smell of fire. Way too scary. 

Did I ever tell you I got my ears pierced a second time? Well I did and on Tuesday I got to change the earrings in the second hole. I got all excited a took a picture. So here it is!

You can ignore my less-than-stylish hair-do. Or make fun, whatever. 

The next few photos are to announce that I am now on Instagram! I got an account when I first got an iPhone but I majorly neglected it, so I just quit that account and created a whole new one. You can follow me @camocolored. I decided to keep all my names the same. I am a bear of small brain and I forget everything so I try to keep things simple. 

So there's my profile picture! It looks like my ring is on my right hand because I used my front camera...dumb. It's on the left.

Last night, I made sloppy joes for dinner and I couldn't resit taking a photo of them. Isn't that what Instagram is for? Taking picture of your food? Might as well be, because that is most of my photofeed.

Last night I hit the gym with a big goal in mind. I need to be able to run 2 miles in under 20 minutes to pass the Army Fitness Test and I want to freaking destroy it, not just pass it...well I didn't achieve that goal, but I did force myself to run until I hit two miles, which I never do. I always quit after one or sometimes 1.5 when I feel ambitious.

And here is your proof. And yes, those are both instagramed. So go and follow me! I like to have people to share with! 

Also, don't forget to go and follow me on Twitter (Katie Nay @ camocolored) I'm still getting used to it, but I'm really liking it and figuring out how to use it. It's a lot more fun than I expected it to me. (I always thought the only point of it was to tell people when you were taking a poop. I'm being proven wrong.)

And that's all I've got for you today! Yay for actually blogging on my day off. 

Happy Thursday!

Celebration!

  

Today was an excellent day! I'm really glad it was too. I was needing a lazy day of awesome and that is what I got. I don't work on Tuesdays, so I usually make plans to do a bunch of crap I've been meaning to take care of. Usually I do it. Not today. Typically, that wouldn't be a happy thing for me. I like to be productive and I like to make accomplishments. There are only a few feelings I like more than crossing something off of my to-do list. 

This morning I took care of some Army business then I came home to my ridiculously messy room and turned on some Gossip girl. It's not my favorite show ever, but I'm totally in love with the Chuck Bass/Blair Waldorf dynamic so I keep watching it...That means that my room didn't get cleaned (I did do laundry though! I can stop looking like hobo at work and I can quit wearing my sister's clothes!) 

Also, my birthday present from my sister finally came. My birthday was May 14th...so it's pretty late. But it was totally worth the wait! Check out my brand-spanking-new Gem Wallet.

I have been waiting for this thing forever and I'm so excited. I carried it around everywhere I went today even though I barely left my house...

After I discovered my wallet and did some more procrastination and Gossip Girl watching (totally absurd what's going on by the way...) my mom reminded me that we had plans to go out for dinner to celebrate my joining the Army. She also informed me that she and my aunt had already picked where we were going. Luckily, it was BBQ place that was delicious so I wasn't annoyed :D 

We went to Famous Dave's. That must be Dave on the menu, but I'm not exactly sure.

I had this thing with two meats (I picked chicken and pork mmm...) and these mashed potatoes that were to die for delicious and potato salad. And that corn bread? Might have been the best I've ever had. 

My sister and my cousin thought they might try the extra hot BBQ sauce...Bad idea. You can see my cousin in the background (not posing!) with that holy-crap-this-stuff-is-hotter-than-I-would-have-guessed look on her face. 

Basically, it was just a really awesome family filled day of laziness that was a long time coming...And we all celebrated me being able to join the Army. That is a far cry from the crying and head-shaking that came with me joining the Marine over a year ago... 

Love it when I can come home and write a post like this.

Love Hate Realtionship

There are a lot of things that I love. On the flip side, there are several things that I hate. And sometimes, I both love and hate things.  All of the below photographs are things that I both love and hate.  

I really love to cross stitch. But it makes me horrible sat when I make a mistake and I have to either cut my thread up and waste a bunch, or I have to un-stitch  inorder to save the thread...It drives me crazy and makes my very relaxing hobby stressful.

Even more then having to un-stitch or waste thread, I hate knots. Because the floss is stored on small rectangle bobbins, the thread gets kinked in that shape. It's also three strands of thread, so if you aren't paying careful attention to every single stitch, you get a huge messy knot that you have to untie. And if it isn't fixable, sometimes you have to cut it and yet again waste thread...ugh.

I also love projects. I think it's fun to find something that needs improvement and make it better. But sometimes, I bite off just a little bit more than I can chew. My latest project is called "Operation find the missing socks spread all over my home". This is just the first basket of socks that I found and then folded. Currently, the room I took half a day cleaning has about 50 pairs of socks without buddies spread across it...and I have a whole other basket and then some left. I hate that

If I'm being completely honest, there is nothing that I hate about this little vacuum. I love this thing. I have hard wood floor in my room and it is just a pain to sweep. but this little guy picks up everything. I love it so much that I instagramed it...Yes, I love a mini vacuum cleaner...

I absolutely love cooking and eating my delicious meals...but I hate that I can't just eat a small portion, I have to eat half of the Cream-a-Soup concoctions. It's not helping the whole negative body image issue that I've got going for me...

Don't ask why this picture is upside down...because I'm not really sure why. But these three beauties are my biggest weaknesses. I can't stay away from them and they are making me gain weight...all that extra sugar is no good so I really love and hate them a whole lot.

What I Learned At Work Today

I have been neglecting this  little dealy so here I go!

Lately, I've been working really hard to get healthy (okay, so I've been fantacizing about how I would get healthy and not really doing what needs to be done...) so I have been learning some stuff about healthy eating habits, cooking, and more fitness stuff.

I've had an extremely negative body image lately and I feel like getting healthy would help that to go away.

So this is what I've learned about healthy eating and fitness:

1. Bake things instead of frying. It takes out the oils and is typically just as good as if it had been fried.  I think that I'm going to try these baked cheese sticks for a snack instead of picking up the kind from Arby's. It will not only save money, but it will be heathlier.

2. Cook! When you don't eat out, you will eat healthier. That's just the facts.

3. Don't ban certain foods. Instead wean away from them to where you don't crave them. When you ban food, it automatically makes it more desiralble.

4. Eat more fruits and veggies. In general, they are better for you. They have nutrients that you need and are the foundation of a healthy diet.

5. Try more protien instead of carbs. It give you energy for longer.

(#s 3-5 found here)

FITNESS

1. Work out 6 days a week with one rest day.

2. Focus your work out on certain muscle groups, don't just wander the gym and expect something to jump out at you.

3. Set goals. They make it easier to get up and go and you feel accomplished when you reach them.

4. Don't give up. When you give up, you have to start all over.

5. Fight to be healthy, not to be skinny.

I'm going to try really hard to pound these lovely facts that I learned today into my skull so that I can actually life a healthy lifestyle. :)