Giving Up on Perfect

Monday Morning Mmmm: Tortilla Chicken

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Mon, 21 May 2012 09:10:26 +0000

If I had it a little more together, I would have made this dish a month ago and then posted it before Cinco de Mayo. Alas, having it together is not really what I’m known for – and that goes doubly for the past two months. (Remember January? Oh, I do. I was so together for those few weeks!)

Oh well. As I like to say when it comes to sending birthday cards and posting holiday-themed recipes, better late than never. Right?

It’s no secret that I love Mexican food. I always laugh when, while choosing a restaurant for a night out, a friend says, “Are you up for Mexican?” Please. I am always up for Mexican. I may have eaten tacos for lunch and have plans to make enchiladas for tomorrow’s dinner, but believe me, I am up for Mexican.

Until recently, I would have said that nothing could come between me and my love for the Mexican food. My attempts at a low-carb diet, though, have kind of changed my tune. That’s because the way I eat Mexican food has, in the past, involved a lot of tortillas. Burritos – wrapped in tortillas. Tacos – served in crispy tortilla shells. Nachos – piled on tortilla chips. Tortilla chips – served with a side of tortilla chips.

[I love tortilla chips.]

So when it came time for Cinco de Mayo and I wanted to try a new recipe for a festive Mexican dish, I was stuck. What could I eat that wasn’t heavy on the carbs and my beloved tortillas?

Thanks to the world of Pinterest and Tasty Kitchen, I actually found several options. And a chicken recipe from A Pinch of Yum was the winner.

The chicken is breaded in panko and tortilla chips, but other than that, it’s a great low-carb option. (“Low-carb” as I define it, that is, which is “eating less carbs than I used to.” No, it turns out I’m neither your doctor nor a diet expert.)

I served the chicken with a sweet corn cake (that is not low-carb, but is gluten-free [I think] and therefore will make a great dish to have one night when Smitty is over for dinner) and a tossed salad. It was a great fresh, festive Cinco de Mayo dinner.

Tortilla Chicken with Salsa Verde

4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 egg
1/2 cup tortilla chips, crushed
1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
1/2 cup salsa verde
1/4 cup pico de gallo
4 slices or 8 tbsp shredded white cheese

For cilantro sauce:
Bunch of cilantro
2 tbsp oil
Ripe avocado, chopped
1/4 cup salsa verde

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Combine panko and chips. Season the chicken with salt and pepper, then coat with egg. Dip chicken into panko mixture until well-coated. Fry the chicken in a couple tablespoons of oil over medium heat (just a couple minutes on each side, until browned). After chicken is fried, place in baking dish and bake for 15-25 minutes. Sprinkle cheese on chicken and bake for a few more minutes until it melts.

While chicken is baking, combine cilantro, oil, avocado and salsa. Mix with food processor (or, sadly, with electric beaters if you are currently without a food processor. I do not recommend this, as it may result in avocado being sprayed all over your kitchen. Beware.).

Pour a couple tablespoons of salsa verde onto each plate, and place chicken on top. Spoon cilantro sauce and pico de gallo over the top, and enjoy!

A few notes: The original recipe was for just two pieces of chicken, but I found that I had plenty of ingredients for four. Also, the original recipe suggests Mexican cheese or provolone; I used monterey jack because it’s my favorite. Finally, I don’t love avocado and might forgo the cilantro sauce next time. But all the flavors mixed together really was delicious!

(Not that my family would know, since they both turned up their noses at the thought of green salsa, avocado anything or fresh pico de gallo. I loved it, though. And Mark and Annalyn both thought the crispy chicken with cheese on top was good!)

What is your favorite holiday-themed food?

This post will be linked to Mouthwatering Monday, Made by You Monday, Tasty Tuesday, Tuesdays at the Table, Tempt My Tummy Tuesday, 33 Shades of Green, Works for Me Wednesday, What I Whipped Up Wednesday, I’m Lovin’ It, Foodie Friday and Show and Tell Saturday.

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Weekend Links: Compassion in Tanzania

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Sat, 19 May 2012 13:37:05 +0000

Did you follow the Compassion bloggers’ trip to Tanzania last week? I missed the whole thing when I was out of commission for several days, but as soon as I could, I caught up. In case you missed it, too, here are all the posts!

The Nester

Gussy Sews

Minivans are Hot

Resourceful Mommy

Homeschool Creations

Big is the New Small

Shaun Groves

Click here to sponsor a child from Tanzania today.

This post will be linked to Saturday Linky Love at Vanderbilt Wife.

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Three Cameras & a Technology {and Mom} Fail

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Thu, 17 May 2012 21:11:24 +0000

Three weeks ago, we rushed through dinner, said goodbye to Mark and jumped in the car. It was Annalyn’s last night at Awana, and we had to get there early for a program. She had her vest and a new skirt, and I was armed with not one, not two, but three cameras.

After dropping her off at her classroom, I headed to the auditorium to stake out the best seat with the best view. Of course, I had no idea where she’d end up standing on the big stage, so I just sat by my friends. As we chatted and watched a slide show of photos, I fiddled with my cameras.

I had my Nikon DSLR, my shiny new smartphone with camera and a new-to-me Flip video camera. I knew how to work one of them well.

When Annalyn’s class walked into the auditorium, they sat in the section next to me. I was able to snap a cute picture of her walking by – and then I was able to hear her say, “Hey! Mommy! Here I am! Mommy!” over and over for the next 45 minutes.

I thought I’d picked the prime seat, but of course, when she walked on stage with her fellow students, she ended up on the complete opposite side of the stage. No problem, I thought, and I walked up to find a seat in the front row that was reserved for Parents with Cameras.

Juggling my three cameras, I realized all the seats were taken, so I plopped down on the floor in front of the stage. I snapped a few photos with my DSLR, made sure my camera app was pulled up on my phone and practiced hitting the record button on my Flip one more time. As I was looking through the lens of my camera, waiting for the perfect shot (and mentally debating whether it would be quicker to do camera first, phone second or vice versa), I noticed my sweet little girl grabbing the front of her skirt.

And by “grabbing the front of her skirt,” I mean she was making the universal sign for “I’ve gotta go!”

Being the concerned mom I am, I decided to ignore it. I was certain she wouldn’t be on stage long and surely she could just hold it. Oh no. She could not. What she could do, however, was yell down to me, “Mommy! I’ve got to go potty!”

Yeah, that was MY kid.

I asked her, as quietly as I could (not that I was fooling anybody), “Can you just wait?”

Of course, you know what she said. “No! I’ve got to go BAD!”

Right. Right. Of course she did.

Thankfully, her teachers are used to dealing with 4-year-olds and called her name first. As she walked across the stage – to the OTHER end of the stage, of course – I fumbled my stupid cameras, trying to get a shot of something, anything.

That’s when I realized that my DSLR battery was dead. And my camera’s flash wasn’t nearly strong enough for the lighting in that room. And the Flip? Oh, please. After I’d missed getting the potty announcement on video, what on earth was the point in trying to catch a two-second hand-off of a certificate?

In the end I did get a few cute photos. And I recorded the 37-second song she sang with her class to show her dad. But overall, it was pretty much one technology fail after another.

And really, it was kind of a mom fail. Because when my little girl wanted to talk later about the song she sang, I could not for the life of me remember anything about it. And all the nice words her teachers said about her class and their hard work during the year? Yeah, I missed that, too. I was so busy trying to capture the big night that I missed those important moments. And, since I bombed the videotaping part of the evening, I can’t even refer back to the video for the details that are so much more important than posting another cute pic on Instagram.

I’d love to tell you that I’ve learned my lesson about missing life’s moments when I try so desperately to capture them on film (or whatever today’s digital equivalent of film is). But I’m going to be honest. Annalyn’s preschool program is tonight, and I’m taking all three cameras with me.

I’ve got a better strategy, though. First of all, my camera battery is charged. Second of all, the phone is staying in my purse. And third, I’m only videotaping the songs. Then it’s just me, my camera and my kiddo.

Hmmm. Maybe that should be me, my kiddo and my camera?

Have you ever tried to hard to capture a moment on film [or whatever] that you missed it entirely?

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Inappropriate

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Wed, 16 May 2012 18:25:35 +0000

“Mommy, what does appropriate mean?”

My answer to that loudly whispered question was the same one I’d given to her other 473 questions that day: “We’ll talk about it later.”

When my husband told me he wanted to speak at his brother’s funeral, I just knew it would go badly. And when he said his oldest brother and dad also wanted to speak, I was convinced the whole thing would be a train wreck. After all, I’d been watching these stubborn, proud men fall apart from the moment I walked into the hospital waiting room. How could they possibly expect themselves to stand next to a casket and speak about the person in it, a man they loved, who died too young, who should simply not be dead?

I don’t know how they did it. But my husband and my in-laws stood behind that podium and spoke beautifully. I was so proud of them, even as I had to admit that I was completely wrong in assuming they couldn’t do it.

You know how sometimes you use a word or you hear a word and it just sticks with you? And the next thing you know, you can’t stop yourself from overusing the word until you begin to question the actual meaning of the word? That happened at my brother-in-law’s funeral.

Mark spoke first, and he said what we’d laughed about in the car earlier that morning. He said he wanted to share a funny story about his brother, but he just couldn’t think of one that was appropriate. His oldest brother and dad echoed that sentiment, mentioning inappropriate memories without actually sharing them until my squirmy, confused little girl whisper-shouted, “What does appropriate mean?”

It wasn’t as awkward as her repeated requests to look at the body during the visitation or even her promise to “not touch it.” And, I suppose, the comic relief was much easier to deal with than when she started crying, again, and saying, “I don’t want Brian to die!”

[Some might say that taking a 4-year-old to a funeral is inappropriate. Some days, I might agree. Honestly, I have no idea if anything we've done over the past week and a half is right or wrong or proper or not.]

But just like the word, “appropriate,” got stuck in my husband’s and in-laws’ head during the eulogies, the theme of appropriate – or not – has been stuck in my head ever since.

There is nothing appropriate about a 36-year-old man dying in an accident.
There is nothing appropriate about a 14-year-old boy losing his father.
There is nothing appropriate about a father losing his son just years after losing his wife.

Death is inappropriate.

My understanding of the book of Genesis is that God never intended for death to enter this world. But our sin ushered it in and offered it a seat in our earthly lives. So, while it isn’t right and wasn’t in the original plans, death is part of life. It feels wrong. Because it is. I think death is inappropriate.

When I started thinking that, I looked up the word to make sure I wasn’t misusing it. Based on the list of synonyms associated with “inappropriate,” I’m okay with my statement. After all, who could disagree that death is improper, incongruous, incorrect, perverse, unfit, unhappy, unseemly, unsuitable, wrong or out of place?

So many things happened last week that I could easily label as inappropriate. From our assumption that Brian was driving irresponsibly when the accident happened to our mixed emotions when the highway patrol confirmed that he was not, to the awkward combination of distant relatives and estranged ones, ex-girlfriends and co-workers, to white socks under a charcoal suit and Hank Williams, Jr. as background music – it was all so inappropriate.

But how could it not be? Death is inappropriate.

At one point during the emotionally charged week, I got really upset with Mark. He said, “I’m sorry. I’m not handling this right.” That immediately took the wind out of my hurt feelings and righteous anger, because, as I told him, there’s no right way to handle something like this. There’s no right way to grieve. There’s no way for any of us, for any of it, to be appropriate.

When I was in high school, my family experienced a particularly traumatic and confusing situation. Though it wasn’t directly related to me, I was thrust into the middle of things and expected to participate in the whole mess. Later, when I tried to express how it made me feel, I was told, “I don’t know why you’re upset. This doesn’t have anything to do with you.”

I was told that my feelings were inappropriate.

Last week, I found myself placing that same judgment on my husband, myself and so many others. But the truth is that our feelings, unlike death [or white socks under a charcoal suit], aren’t quantified like that. Feelings aren’t appropriate or not. Feelings just are.

I guess the same argument could be made for death itself, even when it happens to a healthy young man in the prime of his life. But my feelings aren’t having any part of that rationale. This? This death? It isn’t right. It isn’t proper. It isn’t appropriate.

- Falling to my knees and crying while my baby girl watches.
- Shooting daggers at the person demanding comfort from my grieving father-in-law.
- Jealousy at being left out of meetings and conversations.
- Relief at being told, finally, that we’re leaving the hospital.
- Keeping track of who called or messaged or emailed or visited.
- Being told I was awfully sad for someone who didn’t get along with him.
- Being asked to navigate family feuds and snapping when I couldn’t handle it.
- Feeling thankful for time spent with family, for afternoons of cousins catching frogs.
- Snickering at the number of ugly shirts in his closet . . .
. . . and shuddering at the thought of what I might find in his bedside table.
- Forgetting for a split second why I was cleaning out his bathroom . . .
. . . and being happy to take home an unopened box of white strips.
- Enjoying watching my husband drive his brother’s Corvette . . .
. . . and making jokes that included “over his dead body.”
- Telling the pastor that the service shouldn’t be “too Jesus-y.”
- Thinking I should make cinnamon rolls and crying because he would have loved that.
- Suggesting the worst songs ever for the visitation CD – and laughing about it.
- Forgetting the CDs at my father-in-law’s house and driving like a maniac to go get them.
- Not minding Mark’s expensive new suit because he looked so darned good wearing it.
- Wishing, just for a moment, that someone was there to stand by me, to hold my hand.

All of it was inappropriate. And that’s not even all of it.

You probably know. You’ve probably lost someone close to you or close to someone you love, you’ve sat in hospital waiting rooms and walked into funeral homes and stepped over neighboring graves in the cemetery. If you have, then you probably know. You know how it feels to say the wrong thing, to laugh – or cry – at the wrong time, to be hurt because someone else said or did the wrong thing.

There’s no right way to react, no right way to feel, no right way to grieve. Almost everything we do and say, in the face of death, is wrong when examined through someone else’s lens. And I think, in these moments, that just has to be okay.

There’s just nothing appropriate about death.

Thank you SO MUCH to everyone who commented, messaged, called, emailed, sent cards and prayed. I appreciate you so very much. And that will always be appropriate.

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Monday Morning Mmmm: Taco Seasoning

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Mon, 14 May 2012 09:52:41 +0000

A lot of my friends are extremely healthy eaters. I’m not sure the technical term, but I call them “whole foodies.” Or, sometimes, “weirdos.”

{I’m kidding. I don’t call you weirdos. Really.}

So while I used to think it was bizarre to make your own crackers, salad dressing or bread, now it seems completely normal. I’m not saying I do all these things, but I understand the reasoning behind it and have been taking baby steps over the past couple of years to make more things myself and buy fewer foods that have lots of preservatives, sodium, sugars or other bad-for-you stuff.

I’m not saying I’m milling my own wheat or anything. I’m not even saying that “milling wheat” is a thing. Now that I typed that, it feels wrong and I’m pretty sure I will be soundly mocked after I hit publish. But that’s kind of my point. I’m not an expert on this kind of healthy eating (as opposed to the counting-points variation of healthy eating).

But one thing I have done is start making my own taco seasoning.

I said I’m taking baby steps! (Then again, you know how often I eat Mexican food, so it’s not the tiniest step I could take.)

I asked my whole foodie friends what recipe they used, and I tried a few out. This recipe from Food Renegade was the winner at my house.

Homemade Taco Seasoning

1 tbsp chili powder
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp onion powder or minced onion
1/4 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp cumin
1 tsp salt

Mix all the ingredients together. Add to one pound of browned hamburger with about a cup of water.

Now, a word of caution: This seasoning is a tad bit spicy. And if you happen to use enough for three pounds of hamburger on only two pounds? Well, you’re going to need some milk. Or water. Depending on your level of mouth-on-fire tolerance.

Do you make anything “from scratch?” Are you a whole foodie?

Monday Morning Mmmm: Taco Seasoning is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Can't get enough of Giving Up on Perfect? Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

Family emergency

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Mon, 07 May 2012 00:34:42 +0000

My brother-in-law was in a fatal motorcycle accident over the weekend. I’ll be taking time this week to be with my family. I hope to be back next week.

I am not going to share all the details on the blog for now. If you know my family personally, though, please feel free to email me for information.

Thanks to all of you for understanding.

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Weekend Links, 5.5.12

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Sat, 05 May 2012 09:59:35 +0000

Remember how I complained about having too many unread posts in my Google Reader a couple weeks ago? Well, you’ll be happy to know that I a) cleared all those posts out of my reader, may they rest in peace and b) I unsubscribed from several blogs that either didn’t interest me anymore or simply posted too much content for me to keep up with.

Also, a side note. I just realized that I titled that links post “Weekend Links, 4.21.11.” Clearly I need to spend more time with a calendar.

Now that I’ve de-cluttered and re-organized my blog reading, I’m not overwhelmed anymore. (Well, I’m overwhelmed by some other things right now. But reading blogs is, thankfully, not one of them.) Here are my favorite posts from the past couple of weeks:

for those of you who don’t comment on blogs | chatting at the sky
{I love how Emily shows her readers such grace here.}
Marriage Needs Community » Sarah Markley at Allume
{Mark and I have been talking about this a lot, so I love Sarah’s take on the topic.}
Game Night & Hosting In the Midst of Fibro :: Learning to Trust
{This is a perfect example of giving up on perfect from my friend Rochelle.}
Boston calling. | Annie Blogs
{I adore Annie and pretty much everything she does, but this post spoke to my heart more than most anything I read last month.}
15 Things I Want to Do Before My Daughter Leaves Home | Moosh in Indy at Babble
{I love the way Casey included both her own accomplishments and goals with things she wants to do with or teach her daughter. Great bucket list!}
In which I wonder about Pinterest :: Sarah Bessey
{“Pinterest is the fantasy league of consumerism . . . we pin the life we wish we had.” Brilliant. Thought-provoking. True.}
Implausibles, Assemble!: Other Hollywood Character Pile-Ups We’d Like To See :: Monkey See – NPR
{I would totally go see The Advisors. This weekend.}
The Crumbs We Haven’t Been Waiting For :: Josh Riebock
{Small victories are worth celebrating. The end. Um, except he writes it way more eloquently than that.}
Compassion Bloggers In Tanzania May 6-12 | Shaun Groves
{I’ll be following along and supporting the Compassion bloggers next week. Will you?}

So, who has festive plans for Cinco de Mayo? (That’s today, if you are also calendar-challenged.) Nothing exciting going on at our house, other than a meeting for church, a possible shopping trip for a baby pool, and a marathon viewing of the last four episodes of Missing. (Are you watching that? We love it.) I’m sure we’ll eat Mexican food at some point this weekend, but that’s no different than any other weekend in my life.

In case you decide to be a little more festive than that and need ideas for Mexican dishes to make, here’s a list of several that I’ve made and here’s a super easy recipe for homemade salsa. As the most-annoying-high-pitched-voice-ever Dora would say, delicioso!

What are the best posts you’ve read and written lately? Please share it with us in the comments!

This post will be linked to Saturday Stumbles at Vanderbilt Wife.

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Celebrating small victories

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Fri, 04 May 2012 02:56:15 +0000

When I started my low-carb adventure last month, I had high hopes of dropping huge amounts of weight in a short amount of time. I should know better, but I really envisioned a much slimmer me shopping for a brand-new swimsuit – and even wearing it in public – this summer.

Instead, as of Monday morning, I’ve lost 10 whole pounds.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m really excited about this! It’s a fraction – a small one, at that – of my overall goal. But it’s a step. And there’s no way I can get to that end goal without losing the first 10 pounds.

And, as my friend Jill pointed out, that is 40 sticks of butter. FORTY STICKS OF BUTTER!

Several years ago, I joined Weight Watchers with two girls I worked with. One of my co-workers had lost weight with the program before, and she told me that when she lost a certain amount of weight, she and her friend celebrated by going to the grocery store, putting the number of pounds of ground beef that they had lost in their cart – and then pushing it around the aisles like little kids playing hooky.

As I lost weight that time, I just made a chain of paper clips in my cubicle. I’m not really a “make a scene in the grocery store” kind of girl, I guess.

This time, though? I have even more to lose, and I’ve been trying – and failing – for even longer. So a few pounds seems to deserve great celebration at this point!

In the middle of writing this post, I followed a link to a blog post called, “The Crumbs We Haven’t Been Looking For.” [Thanks, Leigh, for the recommendation!] I love the entire post, but this part really spoke to me:

“I am victory, and I am much smaller than people think. So unless you develop eyes for the puny, you’ll spend your life believing that you’re going nowhere, that I’m distant from you, that you have no reason to celebrate.”

That’s good stuff, right? And besides, forty sticks of butter? That is not puny!

I can’t guarantee that I’ll lose another stick of butter, much less hundreds of them. To be honest, I’ve had at least one leg off the wagon this week [and, again, there were those pesky M&Ms from last week]. But I’m not giving up. I’m choosing my hard.

And I’m celebrating this first 10 pounds.

What small victory are you celebrating today? Share in the comments, so we can celebrate with you!

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I’m going to break your heart.

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Tue, 01 May 2012 09:21:41 +0000

Inviting people to a party (especially from the comfort of my computer) wasn’t hard. Baking cupcakes and making centerpieces that don’t look like something my 4-year-old made at preschool was a bit harder, but still not that difficult.

What’s hard is getting past the “hi, how are you,” taking off our shoes and our masks, and really getting to know one another. That part? It’s HARD. It’s hard because intentionally gathering women into community (and joining them there) is choosing to reach out, to connect, to love even though you might get hurt.

It’s possible – no, probable – that one of your friends is going to let you down. She’ll ignore too many phone calls, she’ll ditch your weekly happy hour for dinner with her new boyfriend, she’ll believe a lie she hears about you, she’ll roll her eyes at your story, she’ll invite all the other girls but you, she’ll hurt you. She may not mean to – or maybe she will – but your friend will probably hurt you at some point.

So what is the point? Why should we let people in, when they’re just going to hurt us like those other people did? And, to be fair, why should they let us in, when we might end up hurting them?

For my answer to those questions (and the rest of this post), visit (in)courage.

I’m going to break your heart. is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Can't get enough of Giving Up on Perfect? Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.

God’s Heart for You {GIVEAWAY}

Monday Morning Mmmm: Grown-Up Goldfish

Mary @ Giving Up on Perfect — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 09:03:59 +0000

Even though I’ve been a part of (in)courage for more than two years and have visited the actual beach house (and have been hearing about (in)RL for months now), it only occurred to me a few weeks ago that my (in)RL meetup should have a beach theme.

[And yes, even though I wrote a book about planning parties, I didn't start my actual planning until two weeks ago. Like I said, it's been a rough month.]

So when I decided to get my act together and plan this thing, I was looking for simple, cute ideas to go with the beach theme. I knew I didn’t have time or patience to do anything elaborate. Mark actually suggested making snickerdoodle cupcakes (with cinnamon sugar sprinkled on top to look like sand), and I figured a bowl of Goldfish crackers would be a good salty companion to cupcakes and the requisite M&Ms.

But then I went to Annalyn’s preschool family day, where kids and grown-ups alike were served tiny paper cups of Goldfish. They seemed more seasoned than normal and I started wondering what I could add to the crackers to fancy them up just a tad. I thought garlic salt or perhaps grated Parmesan cheese, but after a quick search, I found this great recipe on Taste of Home.

Seasoned Goldfish Crackers

3 packages (6.6 oz each) Goldfish
1 envelope ranch salad dressing mix
3 tsp dill weed
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp lemon-pepper seasoning
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2/3 cup canola oil

Put the crackers into a large ziploc. Mix together remaining ingredients, then pour over crackers. Zip the bag, and shake until crackers are coated. Pour crackers onto two large baking sheets. Bake at 250 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Cool completely before storing in an airtight container.

I think they turned out pretty well. Well enough that I had to give away the leftovers so I wouldn’t eat them all – and I don’t even really like “normal” Goldfish!

What’s your favorite salty party snack?

Monday Morning Mmmm: Grown-Up Goldfish is a post from Giving Up on Perfect. Can't get enough of Giving Up on Perfect? Subscribe here, follow me on Twitter and join my Facebook page.