New Years Resolutions - To Make them or Not?

What is it about the start of a new year that makes us all sit down and reflect on the past year and how we can do better? How we can make resolutions to lose weight, take a class, be nicer, exercise more, you know the drill.

Why don't we look at the past year and at the things we've accomplished and build on them instead? Those are the resolutions I'm making for this next year. Not to say that losing weight isn't still going to be a part of my resolve in the new year, definitely after all the Tamales I ate on Christmas Eve and Day and the turkey with all the trimmings that I ate the day after Christmas.

......So sad! I started the above post on January 1st, with all the good intentions in my mind of getting this done and trying to post more often. Here it is the 5th of January and already I'm behind.

But just because I'm behind doesn't mean that I can't continue forward. For instance, there's this game that I play on Facebook called Puzzly Words. I love playing this game and I'm super addicted. So super addicted that I can play it for a couple of hours non-stop. Here's a print screen so you can see what I'm talking about.

So you see that there are 4 rounds and I have 60 seconds to make 3 words out of the letters shown. To the left you can see the smaller screen of the opponents I'm playing, Rob, Cookie and Sharon. I can see them out of the corner of my eye placing tiles and moving them around, but I can't see the actual letters so I don't know what words they are creating.

Now that I'm here, and there is no pressure and no little clock counting down, I can see the words EMERALD and EMERGE and MINERAL and OMNI and GALLON and RAINING...but of course, with no pressure it's much easier to see those words. This is what I came up with. I scored 15 points, Rob scored 22, Cookie scored 22 and Sharon scored 21. They all scored more than me!

You can see that I screwed up big time and placed the word LONED. I don't know what I was thinking, but I'll blame that error on the fact that I was trying to do print screen and save the game boards to show you so it slowed me down and messed up my concentration. Yeah...that's my story and I'm sticking to it!

The moral of the story here is that I could quit at this point. I probably can't catch up so why not just watch TV until the next three rounds go by and then try again in the next game. But instead I look at this and see the challenge and think to myself, "Self....you can catch up. You can not only catch up but you can beat these guys in the next three rounds! Don't quit, go for it!"

And you know what? Sometimes I do beat them and that feels great! But if I don't try, I will always be an underachiever, I will always be a loser. And even when I don't win, when I lose, like I did this time, well I know it's ok because I gave it my all and I have a chance in the next game to win! Right?

And so even though I didn't start my year like gang-busters just blogging like a maniac, I can do this one post, and maybe one tomorrow and I can get my writing mojo back in 2015...you never know. But I will continue to build on this one post! Happy New Year my two faithful readers!

What about you? Did you make any New Years Resolutions?

     

Happy New Year - No Black Eye Peas for Us

I know that for most people Black Eye Peas are the traditional food for the New Year, but that's not the tradition in our family or in most Hispanic households. We usually have Menudo, which is supposed to be great for a hangover, but this year I made Jalapeno Poppers and Meatloaf Pie. I know...doesn't really make sense. There is no rhyme or reason, but hey, it's a New Year and why not start it off being different and unpredictable right? 

 I've written about Meatloaf Pie before, it's my son's favorite dish and you can find the post and recipe HERE.

The Jalapeno Poppers idea and recipe came from one of my favorite food bloggers, The Pioneer Woman. The Pioneer Woman, Ree, is one of the nicest, funniest bloggers online. I have followed her forever and own her books. I've always wanted to try her Jalapeno Poppers so today I did. 

Super easy and you will love them if you try them! Just three ingredients, Jalapenos, Cream Cheese and Bacon! That's it! That's all!

I bought 10, cut them in half and removed the seeds. Here they are all naked and ready to be all dolled up! Oh...important thing to remember, don't touch your eyes with jalapeno juice on your fingers and if you like them a little hotter leave some of the white membrane and/or some of the seeds.

The first step to covering up their nakedness is to fill them with cream cheese....room temperature cream cheese. I found that just using a simple dinner spoon worked best. 

Then you take a package of bacon and cut it into thirds and wrap each pepper with a slice. Warning...use a toothpick to hold them together. I ran out of toothpicks and made the last few without them and the bacon slides off...you'll see that in later photos.

Be sure you place them on a rack so that the bacon grease can drain, that will help to crisp up the bacon. And Voila! You end up with this!

I took all the toothpicks out for the picture but you can see in that one in the middle that the bacon opened up...which is why I say to make sure to use a tooth pick to seal them.

Aren't they lovely? And they are so delicious! I could have eaten them all and I almost did! The great part is they are low-carb! Yes, still doing the low-carb thing. I strayed a bit during the holiday's but tomorrow is Jan 2nd and it's time to get myself back on track!

May the very best of last year be the very worst of this year! Happy New Year!