Tuesday, September 30, 2008

Healthy Tostadas!!



In case you haven't learned, I just love Mexican food. I have a high tolerance for it as well as high expectations of what it should taste like. The bad side to Mexican food is that it's usually pretty high in fat and calories and here in the Midwest, good Mexican food is very hard to come by so I often resort to making it from scratch...well almost scratch.

Tostadas are one of my favorite Mexican dishes and since DH doesn't like Mexican food, I thought I'd make tostadas for dinner since he's out of town on business!

FYI: I make my own beans that are very good, very simple and you don't miss the 'refried' part at all. I'll share in detail on another post next time I make them.

2 corn tortillas
1/2 cup homemade unmashed pinto beans (or good canned ones if you don't make your own)
green leaf lettuce, shredded
lowfat mexican cheese, shredded
1/2 avocado, sliced
hot sauce or salsa (not chunky kind)
salt
2 tablespoons light sour cream (optional)

Keep in mind this recipe is very open to add whatever you like on your tostadas. I just grew up eating bean tostadas so that's what I like.

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Place corn tortillas on a cookie sheet and spritz with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Just as the tortillas are starting to crisp, flip halfway through and spritz with olive oil again and sprinkling with salt. Bake until tortillas are crisp.

Heat beans and spoon a thin even layer on each tostada shell. Top with lettuce, avocado, sour cream, cheese, and hot sauce.

Just say yes to yummy, and no to booty!

Sunday, September 28, 2008

Beauty Bombshell

I just love trying new things but I hate the cosequence of having to either throw it away or return it if I don't like it. Somehow yesterday I was doing some beauty product homework and stumbled across this great website, www.totalbeauty.com. This website has reviews from real customers on their likes and dislikes of almost any product on the market. I'm so excited to use this website!

Friday, September 26, 2008

Yummy Chicken Chili

My husband is a Midwestern boy and he likes things PLAIN!! As plain as plain gets too--no veggies, nothing green(i.e. no salads, no peas, no spinach, no Chile, no tomato, no lettuce!!) only corn, potatoes, meat, cheese and bread. I on the other hand am the girl from the Southwest who loves spice and flavor. I also try to eat healthy most of the time (except on my mexican food splurges).

One of my favorite blogs is Katie's. She's always making some wonderfully yummy dish. So when she posted a chicken chili recipe a few weeks back, I decided to try it. So please check out the recipe. You won't be disappointed. It's got just enough flavor for me...as for the husband, he's picky Pete and says it's weird but okay. (don't listen to him, try it.) Who doesn't love chili that's easy on the booty?

Wednesday, September 24, 2008

Prada Me!

Okay, I know I am not the most diligent blogger but hopefully I'll never put up a crazy dumb post. This one is definitely not crazy dumb, well maybe crazy...

In order to hold true to my blog title, I feel I need to share some of my diva ways. So lets start from the beginning. Before I moved to the Midwest, I had some shops in the Phoenix area I grew quite fond of--actually they're stores I can't live without, so whenever I'm home I just HAVE to visit these places. While I was visiting the family, my mom and I took a venture to one of these shops and I found not one but two great pairs of shoes!!

Yes I found these oh so cute signature Coach slides...

and these super cute Prada mary jane, wingtip, heels!

So what's so special about these? Well I contribute their "specialness" to many different things:

1. They're gorgeous
2. They're brand name
3. I got them for WAY less than retail.
4. THEY WERE BOTH IN MY SIZE!!!!

So let this post kickoff the Fashion tag

Monday, September 8, 2008

Cheddar Ale Fondue


With the help from Katie, I made a menu for Saturday's gathering for the UFC fight. Katie suggested I do some sort of Cheddar Ale Dip with pretzels etc. Well since I have a deep love for soft pretzels, I decided on soft versus the hard. So here I was scurring around Costco Saturday morning, on the phone with my mom who was searching for a great Cheddar Ale dip recipe, and looking for soft pretzels and any other yummy goods to serve to my friends coming over who don't like anything crazy different. My mom kept coming across cold dips but I was on the hunt for a warm cheese for the soft pretzels. She finally came aross this super easy one that was very yummy and was a big hit!!


8 oz. neufatchel cheese (or any low fat cream cheese)
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
8 oz. mozarella cheese, shredded
3/4 c. beer
1 tsp garlic salt (or to taste)
freshly ground black pepper

Add all ingredients into a rice cooker (or crock pot if you have enough time) until melted, stirring occassionally. After mixture is melted or nearly melted, turn the rice cooker to "keep warm". Serve with soft pretzels.

Oh so German!!