Turkey Taco Bites are Good

So good we ate all of them with out me getting the pretty "here they are on the plate" final picture. At any rate these are super easy, primarily because they rely on leftovers. Still, they are easy even if you are starting from scratch on the filling.

What you need:
About 2 cups of left over taco filling (I used my turkey taco filling that I will share next time I make it)
1/2c ish Grated Cheddar cheese
Salsa
20-24 wonton wrappers
Muffin tins (ok, not strictly required. You can form these in your hand, seal them and bake on a cookie sheet. Muffin tin is just easier, and if you have a mini-muffin tin that will keep you from overfilling. I don't. I overfill).

How to do it:
Turn the oven on to 350.
Grease the muffin tins (I admit to using the non-stick spray because I am lazy).
Put your wonton wrappers in the tins

Just gently sort of shove them in there. Don't worry about it too much.







Fill with the meat. Ideally you put about a tablespoon of the meat in. To reiterate I overfill...

So pretty much every one in the picture has too much in it. Still tasty.











Sprinkle cheese in next

Yes you can put more than this in. It will ooze out when you bake. You may find this desirable. I like these to be very finger friendly so I at least try to keep it contained.







Add about a teaspoon of salsa to each

Now it is time to seal. I generally just dip my finger in a bowl of water, wet the corners and squeeze together. I am not looking for perfection here. This is the part where I find out that most of mine are overfilled. When that happens I just kind of fold the corners in to cover the filling and call it good.

Into the oven they go for 15-25 minutes depending on your oven and how crunchy you want the wrappers to get. These cooked for 25 minutes in my oven.

In a perfect world they all look like the one on the far left, but I am human so most of them look like the one in the middle.


Last step is to try to not eat all 20 in one sitting. Good luck with that.

And about that NYX make up

Yeah that make up I broke the not buying things to buy because "IT ON SALE," I am not even happy with any of it.

I bought the white eyeshadow primer - it creased, by mid-morning no less.
I bought an auburn eyebrow pencil - to harsh (that could be that my technique sucks to, so perhaps I could give that one a pass).
I bought the crazy ergonomic eyeliner marker. Yeah so not easier. I hated it and the liner drifted everywhere. Perhaps it has a long drying time or something but I was very underwhelmed. It is a shame, I had read such good things about it.

It is too bad. I like the NYX eyeshadows but apparently I should not have tried going beyond that as I really haven't found anything else that I like in there line. I hear the lipsticks are good but I don't really wear lipstick that often anymore so I haven't tried them.

Anyway that is all. Just thought I would share since I mentioned it.

Checking in on the month of not buying...

Yeah...

I bought things. Thing 1 I have decided not to count because it is the pre-order of "The Hollow Crown" which I have been waiting ages for the opportunity to own (Shakespeare fans note: it is very good. I saw it last year in the UK and have been impatiently waiting to buy the DVD ever since). So as that is very the opposite of an impulse buy I have decided that it is okay. However... the make up and the yarn and the 2 apps... well. I bought things.

The make up in particular is interesting for me to reflect on because here is what happen. Last Friday my day went sideways early on and just got progressively worse. The short version is that I ended up in the Bartell's in Bellevue looking for acetone. What I bought was 3 pieces of NYX make-up that I definitely do not need (and the acetone which I did). I got sucked in because "it's on sale" which would be fine if I actually NEEDED any of it, which I didn't. But the interesting bit was on the way home I had my moment of self realization "GAH! I just did the thing. I bought crap I didn't need because I am having a bad day!" This is not something that happens, ever. So even though I broke my rules I am feeling like I was more mindful of what was happening so not all bad. Perhaps next time I can catch myself before.

And then there is the yarn - yeah... I was on vacation for like 10 minutes when I got fidgety and realized I needed a project. Enter nice yarn store... so I will have a lovely new alpaca wool scarf (sooner or later). Better planning could have thwarted this - I know I like to have projects when I am on vacation and I have plenty of yarn (it just happened to be 2000 miles away at the time).

So apps. Funny story. When I was writing the outline for this post, I remembered the apps at the very end and realized I had mentally not counted those as "things" because they aren't physical. But all the same buying psychology applies (at least for me) and they cost money and take up space on my phone... I bought two apps. One is arguable required; it is a signing/voice lesson companion app to help me in practice. The other... fidgety vacation Joanne strikes again. "I don't want to read the books I brought... I have been wanting to read more poetry... BUY APP NOW" I could have just picked up any one of dozens of books in the house. Nope. Want this shiny app.

All that said I have been more mindful in general about my shopping. I haven't really been shopping for the sake of it. I didn't buy a bunch of crap before vacation or random stuff while on vacation. It is not all bad. In fact I think it is mostly good. There is also going to be a September of not buying things since the August of not buying things hasn't been perfect. Plus frankly more to learn about myself.

Urban Gal

This fine week finds me on vacation visiting family in central Wisconsin. It is a small town really a ways from anywhere. Like a 2 hours in the car to get anywhere, ways from anywhere. It makes me feel fairly stupid about "Eh I don't want to go - that is all the way in West Seattle" a whole 15 minute drive. Gasp. Here? Oh you forgot something, well the decent shopping (their words not mine) is, oh, 2 hours away. Oh you want to go to a zoo with your daughter? That is 2 hours south. Oh you want to go out for dinner? Well there are a couple of bars in town... or you could drive to... It really forces me to realize that I have everything at my fingertips.

This is the longest I have ever visited and it has made me realize what a city kid I am. The smallest place I have ever lived is Portland, Or. which while not a big city, it is definitively urban. And I prefer to live properly urban where I can walk to many things from my house. There is this constant white noise of life and it never gets dark really. Last night I turned my light off and it struck me that I could not see my hands in front of my face, it is that dark here at night. On the upside, I saw the milky way for the first time in years (no meteor shower though- It is best pre-dawn & I am not getting out of bed at that time on vacation). Also there is NO noise. None. The quiet is deafening and I literally can't sleep.

It is just interesting to me how different I would be if I had grown up somewhere like this, or it I lived somewhere like this. I am used to no stop, always going everything and that just isn't the way it is here. Or maybe I wouldn't be different. Maybe I would have just been that kid who couldn't wait to get out and never came back. Actually that is probably what I would be... because that is exactly how I feel about suburbs.

The month of not buying things

Yesterday I found & read this via a Lifehacker article (here): A Year of Living Without.

Then I went home to my crazy house that has stuff packed all over the place because we are earthquake retrofitting the basement. Yet again I had the desire to just start systematically getting rid of all this stuff. As I sighed and got on with working out, I was struck with the fact that the stuff everywhere stressed me out, yet I buy things all time. Things I don't need.

Example: last night at the grocery store I bought I special little thing for cooking eggs in the microwave. It is much easier that the stove top to be sure, but I already did eggs in a bowl in the microwave. This egg cooker is just faster & marginally less fuss, plus my egg is perfectly round when I was done this morning... more crap.

So this is the month of not buying things. The rules:

1. I can buy necessities (food, personal items that actually run out, gas, construction items directly related to previously mentioned remodel, etc). I will stay out of the non-food sections of Target, Fred Meyer and Costco. Lead me not into temptation...
2. If something breaks, I will take a moment to think "Do I really need this (whatever)? Or does something else I already have fill the need just as well." If not replace, if so no buying.
3. When I get that "Oh I totally need to go to Target and get (whatever)" desire I will stop and think why do I want it right now? Do I actually need it or am I just seeking the shoppers high? I am willing to bet that 80% of the time it will really be the latter. 
4. Hard one: replacement habit... Um. Go for a walk? Read? Work on one of my many hobbies? I suspect it will have to be a variety of things. I "shop" probably twice a week, and it nearly always results in a purchase.

That is it. On the face really easy. Don't buy crap. But in actuality it is quite hard. That said I am looking forward to gaining understand into what drives me to buy. (Again I point out the egg cooker, it went in with the bits and pieces for dinner with out nary a thought.) It should be interesting to see how I do because we are going on vacation mid-month which always spurs the buying of things. I'll let you know how it goes.