Coach Kirstin

My Dad makes the best salsa.  I grew up in New Mexico.  We are a bit picky about our salsa.  It is hands down my favorite.  And not just because he is my Dad.  Its actually brilliant in in its simplicity.  The ingredients are: Green Chiles Onions Canned diced tomatoes (petite if you ask his opinion) Cumin Salt Olive oil (for cooking the onions The important thing is to start with good roasted chile's.  The roasting is what gives them their flavor and allows the skin to blister and peel off.  I was lazy when I put up my chile the last time and just bagged everything with the skin on.  It actually tends to be a little easier to get the skin off once its been frozen.  For this batch I used 2 quart bags frozen chile's, 6 - 14.5 oz cans of diced tomatoes, 2 onions and seasonings to taste.   First step is to clean the chile's and chop them.  I could probably normally tolerate the chile's but now I have a little perso...

The struggle is real.  Between working and them finding time to eat some thing other than takeout pizza, do my physical therapy, spend time with the baby and the husband it is seriously hard to fit it all in. Oh and sleep.  The older I get, the more sleep becomes non negotiable. We are also trying to eat with McKenna so she sees us eat and follows suit. It also allows me to give her things off my plate, which she definitely is more interested by.  This has actually been a huge struggle as our window in the evening is so limited with her, I don't want to spend it cooking and not spending time with her.  So the goal is to keep our meals simple and do as much ahead of time as possible. The downside to this is the Husband and I usually spend time chatting and relaxing during our meals as it’s always been our alone time together. But sleep. So I came up with a plan for the week and cooked the majority of our food on Sunday.  I really only made salsa because my freez...

Maybe I'm lazy or just always short on time.  Either way I decided that it's easier to make a big batch of my breakfast for the week on Sunday's and the warm it up throughout the week.  It started when I started fighting.  I used to be really neurotic and I would measure out each portion in a pan cook it individually to ensure I got the same amount in each serving....time and life has gotten my neurosis to calm down a bit.  I now just cook in a bit batch.  I also have learned some ways to make save time and money.  I like to keep my veggies extra fresh, well dead of winter that is always possible so I use frozen, also saves me from having to chop all that up.  I just dump the bag in and voila!  I also use Trader Joe's Bacon Ends & Pieces.  Its about $2.99 here which is about $5 less than a package of bacon of the same size (1 lbs) since I just chop it anyhow, I don't need pretty strips of bacon for frying up with my eggs and laying on pla...