Bean Recipe

1 tbsp olive oil (I prefer a chili garlic Infused oil)

1 lbs lean ground turkey

2 tbsp taco seasoning

Bush's Sidekicks Southwest Zest Pinto Beans, Canned Beans, 15 oz Can

Bush's Sidekicks Taco Fiesta Black Beans, Canned Black Beans, 15.1 oz Can

ROTEL Original No Salt Added Diced Tomatoes and Green Chilies, 10 oz

Green Giant Simply Steam Honey Roasted Sweet Corn, 9 oz Bag 

Warm 1 tbsp of oil in pan. Brown 1 lb of lean ground turkey. While browning add taco seasoning (measure with your heart).

After browning drain grease if any, if meat is very lean may have to add more oil as it cooks. 

Open bush's sidekicks. Add in both cans. Open one can of rotel tomatoes and to mixture. Open green giants simply steam honey roasted corn (no need to microwave) add to mixture. 

Allow mixture to simmer for ten minutes give or take.

Make as much or as little. Eat with chips or in a taco shell. I bake a sweet potato season with butter and a sweet spicy seasoning, the top with bean mixture.

I throw on some cottage cheese for extra protein and season with tajin.

Soap Box... Laid Off Stereotypes.

It has been nearly a year and half since I posted on this site. A bunch of stuff has happened in that time, for now I want to get on my soapbox which is what led me to update this page....

I loathe the stereotypes that go with being laid off and being forced to be on unemployment. First off I am not lazy, I want to work!!! 

What some see as lazy is called depression. I got laid off from a position I had for six months, I left one other job for this job because I THOUGHT it was a good prospect, but in reality I was going to work for a moron.

I didn't foresee the lay off coming, I had hoped to keep the job longer. Sure I knew the job had no upward mobility, because again I was working for a moron, but I hoped to have more experience and move on at my own will. 

Now I am left laid off and having to pull unemployment and I don't want to, I want to work. Period.

If you do not know (or perhaps do not care to know) how unemployment works, let me give you an example. You get discharged for a job for no cause, basically the boss says he has no money to keep paying you, or makes some comment about sales being too low. You have no disciplinary actions against you, so you are not fired, you are laid off.

My ex boss specifically spoke of low sales and the wish for the (alcoholic) sales man he hired to have stayed on.  He said that he just couldn't afford my continued salary. I go through my states unemployment office, these days it's all online and not a long line of disgruntled people. Thank goodness for that salvation.

With unemployment you have to make at least two employment searches per month and you only get 1/2 of your previous salary. Luckily, I have family to lean on, being a single mother of three, I would be going into serious debt if I was fully out on my own. With unemployment insurance you have the right to refuse a job that is not the same as your previous in the same weekly hours and the same rate of pay. It is your right to search for equal work if you choose to do so. I am willing to take a pay cut, but would like to have 40 hours and eventual insurance.

I have made my job searches and filled out more applications than I can admit.  I have filled out four jobs at the local hospital (for clerical work) which I felt I was qualified and been turned down for each.  I have gone to the local classified ads for our paper and looked for employment. I have sent out emails, written and rewritten my resume. Created cover letter after cover letter.

I was laid off on August 10th, 2012 I have since been called for only one interview. I went on that interview on Friday (September 21, 2012) I was told to wait for a call on Tuesday, it's Monday. 

Being laid off hits the self esteem hard, then the repeated dismissal of your skills with each job inquiry, just is a repeated barrage to the self esteem. How do you not get depressed? 

Okay, I know some people work the system and some people honestly do not want to work, but on average most of the people stuck in the unemployment strangle hold want to get back to work and want to provide for their families.

With the internet, a job search is no longer as simple as printing out a resume and going down to the local shopping center and filling out applications. Everything is online, in search engines and monster type job sites. You have to know something about writing cover letters and creating that stellar resume that makes you look shiny. 

I know of these things and I try to implement all I know in each job inquiry, but still my results aren't very positive. 

I feel that I need a college degree to be noticed. I have been to school, but it was technical training in graphic design and web design. While it is a good school and I learned a lot, it was not anywhere near a degree and because the teachers in my school were naysayers to converting tech credits into college credits my four years (rough estimate) of tech courses equal about 9 college hours.

I just want people to realize that not all people on unemployment do not feel dependent on the government or victimized. I want to take care of myself and do not feel entitled to anything, I am trying to find a job and what you see as lazy is depression which I am fighting every day I'm not going to work.

Quick Post.

Well, I have to get up tomorrow and step on the scale and see where we are in this weight loss battle. I'm crossing my fingers.  I lost a couple of pounds a week or so ago, I'm hopeful that I've done that again or at least not put on any weight.

I've also done a makeover of sorts.  I think with women especially I think it's important to give yourself a change. I know I get stuck in a rut at times, be it hair style, the type of glasses I wear or weight.  On April 9th I got a hair cut, just before my first date with the man that later turned out to be a racist and subjected me to a 35 minute diatribe of his hatred.  Again I don't care how you explain it, hate is hate!

Anyways! Yesterday, April 13th I got my hair colored.  I was sporting a very dark red color, I've had this color since 2006 or so.  Recently I had started to break up the very dark red with highlights which recently had kinda came out a bit orange. Well, yesterday I decided to go back to my 'natural' color (I say it in quotations because at this point what my natural color is basically is anyones guess).

I want to give my scalp a rest. I loved, loved, loved my red hair, I got so many compliments on the hair color, BUT it was very taxing on my hair. Red is a very hard color to maintain, almost as bad as blond. I was putting coloring on my hair each month. The beautician did tell me that with all that I'd been doing to my hair that it was really healthy in spite of what I'd done to it.

I just need to let it rest. I MIGHT go back to my beloved red in the future.

I wanted to get a more conservative hair style, plus I just got bored and needed something else.  It's a reddish brown with highlights.  We'll see what happens with the new color, hopefully it won't let the red show back through and I'm hopeful it'll be close enough to my natural color so I can just let it be.

I felt that a more conservative look would be receptive when on interviews and I believe I was correct.  Today I had an interview for a job. I'm not spilling any details, but I'm a few steps away from nailing it, I hope.

So wish me luck on the weight in. I may post a video of my hair just for the hell of it.  TTFN!!

Vlog 04/7/11 Noonish

4/11/2011

Well, what's been going on.  First thing was that I weighed myself about a week ago and the scales read 248.8lbs.  That brings the grand total of weight lost up to 15.8lbs., I think.

I need to get myself back into gear our official weigh in is happening this Friday. Officially two weeks since we began this little challenge.  The last few days or so I've been a little lax on putting in all my calories, I had a bad date over the weekend and I just felt crappy.

I met a man online (where I usually met 'em) and the first date went great I thought he was a really awesome guy. Then we went out again on Sunday afternoon to a crowded park. The conversation was fine at first, and then for some reason the man got onto a tirade about race.  I'm a white girl and he's a white man.

This man upset me a lot. He told me he wasn't racist several times, but then he used the 'n-word' over and over again. He loudly discusses his opinions for the better part of thirty-five to forty minutes.  I just hate people like this, it makes me so upset.

How can this world ever get to the point that we are all equal and we all get along when you have racist ignorant assholes such as this man running around? I was even more mad at myself. I did argue with his statements, but I did not get up in defiance and out him to the rest of the park as being hateful and wrong. I sat there and took his diatribe and feared that he would be loud enough so that the families (of various races) around us would hear him rant.  I hope no one thought I agreed with him.

I so hate that he put me through that, it was like a flashback to my marriage and it sucked.  I was so upset when I finally made up an excuse to get out of this man's presence I wanted to cry. I was in my car and shaking.

And the worse part was that from last September to January I dated a black man. This man was just so sweet, nice and kind I could never say a bad word toward him, it just didn't work out between us and maybe at another time, another point in our lives I'd be willing to get it another go.

This racist ass that I went on a date with proceeded to tell me about how black men were deceitful and that they would leave their children. He said a black man would hit me sooner than any other man.  He said a black man was just after my money and a notch in the bed post. He said a bunch of other stupid crap that I don't want to repeat.

I took this as a personal insult against my ex-boyfriend, who if he was there with that racist ass he would have been shaking in his boots.  My ex-boyfriend was the stealer opposite off all the things that racist man was spouting.  My ex-boyfriend would be the first to step up and take care of his family, be his sisters, brother or mother. He is college educated and has a good job (better one than racist man) and he doesn't have a whole mess of kids running around. In fact my ex-boyfriend doesn't have any kids running around and I've got three of my own!

It just makes me mad that I wasted my time on this man, that same evening I had been invited to hang out with some friends, I just wished I'd gone.

Well, Mr. Racist has been blocked deleted and ignored. He's gone.  I will mark it up in lessons learned and move on.  Just know if someone wants to step up to this woman you've gotta come up with an open loving heart. I don't need any hatred in my life.  Racist assholes can just step aside. I only want good vibes up in here!

Though for now I think I just need to be single and work on me.

Goals for tomorrow are to track my calories, do one of the work out videos I've saved in my Netflix account (it's actually my father's account but we all share it) to watch instantly and clean the house.  I'm cleaning the house because it really needs it and because it's a good work out.

FIT FOR FALL

FIT FOR FALL

Well, a few girlfriends and myself are making a weightloss challenge.  We were messaging back and forth today and we decided on a weight loss challenge called "Fit For Fall". We figure it's already a bit late to become fit for Summer, so we will become fall fit.

The challenge starts on April 1, 2011 and ends on October 1, 2011. On April first we log into our facebook accounts and visit our group. It's a secret group, so that we can feel free to post whatever we want.  On the start date we go into the group and we weight in.   The first three of us that came up with the idea all have about 100lbs to lose, we are various heights and our end result varies as well, but in the end we all have 100lbs to lose.

So on April first we go to the group and we log our weight along with a photo or a video of us.  The group is secret so if we wish we will be the only ones who see the pictures or the videos.  I may use this site to post some of my videos.

The weigh-ins are bi-weekly. Again we will post our weight and our current photo or video so we can see the before and after.

If you happen to read this, feel free to come along and join with us. Start your own group and join in on the fun. I was inspired by two youtubers (their videos were published on here previously).

Wish me luck!!