Panko Fried Avacado Chicken

If you are someone who needs 100% measurements when cooking....you should be warned, I am not. Sorry. I am also not famous for blogging about my cooking ventures, and I don't know how to take cool pictures of food. So if you can't handle these things - move along. But you will be sad, because this recipe is scrumptious!

A friend of mine who also likes to make up recipes gave me the inspiration for this meal, and I just tweaked it a bit. To my surprise, I came up with what has been a family favorite for many months now. (Even for the kids...which in this house is saying something! This is the only meal that they ask for MORE of.) 

You will need: 

6 boneless skinless chicken breasts

Panko Bread crumbs (if I HAD to guess, I would say 2 cups)

Taco Seasoning (1 pkg)

Flour

2 Eggs

Avacado (1-2 depending on size)

Pepper jack Cheese (or whatever your favorite is....my younger kids like it with Colby Jack because they think pepper jack is too spicy)

Canola Oil (or whatever oil you prefer. I have used EVOO before, but it seems to burn the bread crumbs quickly)

To Prepare:

Give flour, eggs & panko crumbs each their own dish. Mix taco seasoning in with panko bread crumbs.

Lightly dust chicken (that I'm assuming you have washed) with flour.

Dip in beaten eggs

  

Coat fully with panko/taco mix.

Cover the bottom of your pan (this is my new enameled cast iron skillet that I LOVE!) with oil - just enough to cover the bottom.

Once the oil is heated, place coated chicken breasts in oil. Cook for  8-10 minutes on each side (depending on size of chicken breasts). Just watch carefully toward the end of the time on the second side, as it can burn quickly.

This next step is the most important, and maybe you don't need to be reminded. But just in case-
TURN OFF THE STOVE TOP where your frying oil is sitting!!!!

hehe

Slice avacado (I used 2 because we LOVE the avacado!) and place on cooked chicken.

Top chicken with cheese of choice. (Or if you are lactose intolerant like Aaron - don't use any cheese!) Place pan under broiler in oven until cheese is melted. (I have done this just in the skillet I fried the chicken in, but it makes it really hard to clean.)

EAT!!! I serve with a side of black beans and a big yummy salad (and tortilla chips, not shown).

 Enjoy!!!

Simplify

Do you see the half burned picture hanging over the stove? In its full glory, it said - "Simplify". And with the burning of that sign in my kitchen, apparently so living simply went up in flames with it. Oh...who am I kidding. It's never been a specialty of mine. Maybe the kitchen fire was really an effort to keep me from hypocrisy.

What does it mean to live Simply? I've been trying to find a good blog or stories or SOMETHING that will show real life stories of people living my dream - simplicity (and an added bonus would be a LARGE family living simply IN the suburbs....I like to have my cake and eat it too). Rather than actually finding a blog I can relate to though- I find stories ranging anywhere from extreme minimalism, to the coupon clipping-make everything from scratch-grow your own garden-homeschool your 15 kids-live in the country with no life to the outside world. Nothing is wrong with either of these forms of "simplicity" (or whatever they are). But if I were to follow in either one of them in an attempt to conquer simplicity, I would have to turn into some phantom creature that I am not. I don't "practice" minimalism by definition. However, I don't believe we live in terrible excess either, and the things we do hold on to, I'm not convinced I'm going to hell for keeping. I've tried clipping coupons. Grocery shopping while following my lists of which stores to go to to get the best deal for the week, and needing to flip through my scrapbook of coupons just to find my $.55 cent coupon for 45 bottles of ketchup sorta makes me want to gouge my eyes out. I've tried making things from scratch....and well...see above photo. I've grown a garden the last couple of years, but as of last year, my garden became a breeding ground for weeds and a litter box for my two dogs. YUM! I gave homeschooling a shot for a solid 7 months (give or take those few weeks I decided to not do anything). You know when your child is failing kindergarten and you are the teacher that you are seriously lacking in proper credentials....or at least I was. I live in the suburbs, because to live in the country in Boulder CO, I would have to murder Aaron for the insurance money. Oh wait... his policy isn't that much. I think I'll keep him around. And as for having no life to the outside world...well, I LIKE the outside world. I like to leave my house. I like to people watch. I like to interact with people not me. I get tired of me.

So then what? Have I blown all my opportunities to a life of simplicity? I think as a culture, we love the idea of living simply. Heck...there's an entire magazine dedicated to it. Although, if you've ever actually tried any of their suggestions, even THEY aren't all that simple.

What do you picture when you think of the word "simplicity"?? Is it a houseful of happy, clean children who are well fed, kind to each other, QUIET, sitting around by the fire petting the calm dog playing scrabble with one another while Mom is taking cookies (from scratch) out of the oven and Dad is sitting in the armchair smoking a pipe reading the daily news?? Sounds very....50's. I wasn't alive in the 50's, but I have come to the conclusion that those pictures were lying.

Or maybe you think of a home filled with no toys, white or grey walls, clean kitchen counters, IKEA vomit in every room, pictures on the wall that don't have any meaning to you as a person - but just ooze simplicity?

I don't know what I think of. Obviously from this post, you can see that I've been grasping at straws for a while now....and coming up short. If it's been offered as a way to live simply, I've probably tried it.

Enter reality. I don't know about you, but we have a handful of kids and a couple of dogs. We live in the suburbs. We live in a house that while it has a lot of room, feels far from simple. (Sidenote: We are trying to sell our home AGAIN. I recently had someone say to me - "Don't you think that any house would feel chaotic with five kids and two dogs?" Probably. But darn it - I'm gonna hope I can find that magic SIMPLE bullet just the same!) We have loud children who sin. We are parents who sin. We are messy. We live on a budget that is pretty on paper, but hard in real life. We try to battle the soccer mom mentality of having our kids involved in 48 different sports all at the same time (not only because it is costly, but because hauling my kids to all those activities they won't actually stick with sounds like the complete opposite of simplicity to me). We are middle class.

Where in the world is simplicity though? Somewhere in between the reality of loud, fighting, thankless, naughty children to longing to give our children a good life - full of love, honesty, truth, joy, peace, fun, laughter, and yes...the occasional sport. Somewhere in between life in a large mansion with no one to fill it's rooms or a tiny house incapable of inviting others in because it is already bursting at the seems, to living in a home that is inviting to others and peaceful to us. Somewhere in between racking up credit cards in order to live the American nightmare that promises happiness, to living within our means and being joyful about it (EVEN when living in our means looks VERY different than the American dream). Somewhere in between striving to try be simple, or look simple, or throw simplicity out the window and clinging to chaos, to resting in who we are as individuals knowing that what works for someone else may not work for us....SOMEWHERE in there simplicity is sitting quietly waiting to be found. I just know it. And it's not wrapped up in a pretty little picture that will work for all of us. But it's there. It's not just ONE aspect of life - minimalism, coupon clipping, homeschooling, one car, clean counters and closets....it's GOT to be a combination of every aspect of our life...I just know it. One day I will hang that sign in my home again and NOT set it on fire. I just know it.

All in a day

I'm sad that I haven't blogged in a while. I'm hoping to get back to it soon. And since I didn't do much of anything today, I figured I had the time.... Or not.

Today began at 4:30 am. For anyone who knows me even a little bit, you would know that 4:30 am is still considered the middle of the night to me...not a time to be waking up on purpose. However, I've signed up for my first ever FULL Marathon, and my running buddies needed to head out early today. So I was left with a choice of running 14 miles alone, or waking up early. I woke up early. Yawn.

14 miles later....I DID IT! Marathon training just got real! May 5th is right around the corner, and the miles are just gonna keep growing. Giddy up. The bummer is, my body is wanting to fight this every step of the way. From horrible shin splints (which I thought was possibly a stress fracture), to IT band, to my newest joy - hip flexor PAIN (no really - PAIN), I'm wondering if this marathon thing is for me. I even had a nightmare last night that I was pregnant again, but refused to tell my running coach because she for sure wouldn't let me run, and I was tired of my health issues standing in my way. (Um, messed up priorities much?!?!? Don't worry though. I'm not really pregnant.)

After soaking in an epsom salt bath, my muscles finally thawed and I could move once again. So I headed towards the boys room which needed painting. I've been touching up paint in the house (more on that in a minute) and when I grabbed the paint for their room, I ended up painting polka dots on accident. Either their paint has seriously faded, or it was some random paint color that I never actually used but for some reason was in my garage. Either way - I was left needing to re-paint their entire room. Sigh. 5 hours later, my body wasn't happy with the days chain of events so far. Early morning + 14 miles + hip flexor pain + 5 hours of painting = OW. The good news is, it also equals about 2000 calories burned (or more). WIN!

At the end of my painting party, Aaron comes in asking if I smelled something. Uh...yes. Paint. He was smelling gas, so I walked out of the painted room and agreed. We called Xcel to report it. We were instructed to wait for them to come, and were told leave the house. So we headed down the road to a local pizza place. While we were sitting down to eat, Xcel showed up and Aaron headed right back home. Sure enough - a gas leak. Some valvey thing a ma jigger had broken and gas was flowing into our home. We would have no furnace for the night. Um...it's supposed to be very cold and snowy...this isn't going to work for us. (Not to mention we have a sick kiddo who doesn't need to be frozen in the middle of the night.) At this point we packed up and headed to a hotel for the night. As with our previous household drama's (ahem, kitchen fire & fridge flooding), we found The Residence Inn to come to our rescue. A family of 7 with 2 big dogs is not easily displaced. Thankfully, the kids think we are on vacation. The dogs, however, can't stop freaking out about their new surroundings.

We settled everyone into bed around 9:30....and really, what else would I do other than blog about my day? Why not??? It's not like I'm tired or anything.

Oh wait...I threw out a "more on that later".... why am I painting? We are putting the house on the market (yes AGAIN) at the end of the week. So we are busy getting it all ready to sell. This is our 3rd try over the last several years. Third times a charm, right??? I'm super excited about keeping the house clean and dealing with showings with 5 kids and 2 dogs. This is gonna be fun! Hey...maybe we'll just check into this hotel until it sells. I like it here.

Never a dull moment.

Pressing on

Two weeks ago I ran my fourth half marathon since April (well, since ever). Only for this one, I trained HARD. I started adding in speed work several times a week. My goal? A sub two half marathon (under 2 hours). It just seemed like a good goal. My first half marathon I ran at a 2:12 finishing time, my second was 2:06...so it just seemed like I should go for it. The day of the race came and I was ready! I was so sure I was going to meet my goal. I planned out what pace I needed each mile to be, I studied the elevation map to know where the hills were going to get me, I factored in time to re-fuel and I ran my little heart out (don't even get me started on my quads!). By the end of the race, I was both mentally and physically exhausted. I was so focused the entire race to be sure to follow my perfect plan to guarantee success. Unfortunately, success often times has little to do with how much we plan, or how perfectly we execute a plan - but instead throws LIFE at us. The unknown and unexpected hit, and all my mental energy and training just didn't cut it. I came in at 2:04. (2:02 according to my watch, but that is a different story.)

I was crushed.

I had worked so hard and for so long and still fell short. For the last two weeks, I've battled so many lies hiding deep within that have come to the surface all because of this failure....most of them somewhat to the tune of me not being good enough, or something like that. Comparison, envy, strife, sadness, defeat, and anger were raging within me. And as stupid as it sounds, I was upset with God for not letting reach my goal. I had prayed and prayed that I would succeed....I NEEDED to succeed (on many levels). Why didn't he just make this little thing work in my favor??

I came home so upset that in my haste - I signed up to give it one more try. There was another race set for two weeks out, and gosh darn it....I was GOING to reach this goal. I had trained too hard to only break my record by two lousy minutes. So I paid my fee, and I was determined! What I wasn't prepared for though over the next few days, was how incredibly tired I would be from my previous run (again, mentally and physically). Also, I had two friends/running coaches tell me that in their professional opinion (and as a friend opinion) - I would not have enough time to fully recover to be able to give it everything one more time in just two weeks, and that I needed to probably re-evaluate my goals.

Again, I was crushed. (And annoyed that I had just spent more money on another race that I probably STILL wasn't going to succeed in.)

Over the last two weeks, my body wanted nothing to do with running. I made it out for a total of 4 runs...and while not ideal, that was going to have to do. The night before the race, I wasn't even excited. All four of my other half marathons, I was bursting with excitement and nerves the night before. But this one? I was already feeling that ugly feeling of defeat (not to mention the pain involved in getting there). I just didn't want to do it.

So I went into my run on Saturday deciding to let go of my plan, to let go of my goal, to ignore my watch, and to just run. I would break all the rules and break out of the gate full speed ahead (rather than a slower pace to save up enough for the end), and was fully prepared to just sit on the sidelines crying around mile 10. (Defeatist much??)

Wanna know what I did do the entire race though? Did you catch it before? I let go of my plan, I let go of my goal. I just ran. I chose to be present regardless of the result. (In fact, my mantra for this race...in other words, what I kept repeating myself to get me through the moments I wanted to quit, was just that - JUST BE PRESENT.) That wasn't all though. One other piece... I prayed. A lot.

I'm not one of those people that prays for a parking spot (not that there is anything wrong with people doing that - I'm just not that person). I don't usually find myself turning to Jesus and asking for a good deal at the store, or to sit by someone who doesn't smell bad on the plane. I live more with a general thinking that while I believe God is involved in every detail of my life - I don't often need to communicate with him about those details, I just need to trust him. So when it came to the race, me running a sub two half-marathon felt a little bit like praying for a parking spot. It just seemed silly. How fast or slow I am has nothing to do with eternity. It has nothing to do with who I am. It has nothing to do with Jesus. And yet I found myself pleading with him for 13.1 miles to sustain me, to strengthen me, to fill my asthmatic lungs, and sew my torn little muscles - to just let me break all odds and make my stupid little goal. I obviously wasn't capable of doing it, but could he please just give me this....for some unknown reason (read: pride), it meant a lot to me.

So on my 5th Half-Marathon ever (all since April of 2012) .... I crossed the finish line staring at a time clock that said 1:58:26. I thought about crumbling to pieces and weeping at the finish line. But my asthma kicked in, so I reached for my inhaler instead.

I was overjoyed, and un-impressed all at the same time. I had done it. Mission accomplished. This turned out to be one of my most dreaded races to the most enjoyable race to date. And just as I suspected, it wasn't super meaningful in the end. It doesn't mean much. It's just a time.

Later in the day as I was processing my race, I found myself thanking God for hearing me, for sustaining me, for letting me reach my goal.

Then he spoke. Clearly.

This race wasn't about a time. My race two weeks ago wasn't about failure. Both races he was using to remind me of my desperate need for him. No amount of planning or training will matter much without a reliance on him for the outcome. And not only a reliance on him for the outcome, but a heart that can rest in the outcome.

Remember all those lies I talked about earlier that have surfaced over the last couple of weeks about not being good enough (well, they surface a lot - but the last two weeks, it was almost unbearable)? THIS, these lies, is what he was after. He didn't care how fast I ran, but he does care about all the other areas of my life that I am feeling so defeated in. He heard my prayer that was meant for my fuzzy feelings - and turned them into a revelation that  I NEEDED to hear.

Aaron is often telling me to not be so tied to the outcome of things. (In other words, if things don't go according to plan or in a way I think they should...I throw in the towel and sit at mile 10 crying.)  I don't usually get what he's talking about. :) I had another friend last week, after listening to my woes, encourage me to just try to be present in whatever it is that I am doing (thus my mantra). Just be present?? I decided that was one of those "christianese" phrases that you never really know what they mean, but it sounded lovely. Lately though, I've found myself so tired and defeated that being present doesn't sound all that appealing.

So in my prayers to run fast - God heard me. But He didn't hand me this race because my time mattered to him, he did it because my heart mattered to him - and my heart desperately was needing to know that he still hears me and that he will sustain me in life, not just a race. He showed me through one little race that he has not forgotten me, that he will sustain me....and that he wants me to ask. The end result of my circumstances does not dictate who I am or my worth. No amount of striving, envy, work, sweat, tears, or planning will change what he has already ordained....and that to truly enjoy my journey through life, it would require me being fully present in whatever he has for me (both the failures and the successes). No fear, no clock, no agenda - just be present. He loves me enough to work out the outcome (he's already worked it out). He loves me enough to hear my cries. He loves me enough to not let me succeed at times. And he loves me enough to hand me the moon if he sees fit. And this past Saturday - he handed me the moon.

I know that running a sub-two half-marathon really isn't a big deal, but for me - it was huge. Not because of the time on a clock, or a shattered record or met goal - but because he used my weakness to remind me of his strength. He used my little hobby as a way to reach into the depths of my heart and equate it to my life as a whole right now. He met me where I was over 13.1 miles and reminded me that in LIFE's journey toward the finish line - he will ALWAYS sustain me....not because I've worked hard or planned well - but because since before time through death on a cross to now and for eternity - he loves me that much.

Oh how I long to receive the ultimate prize, to cross the best finish line ever, to see Jesus face to face in all his Glory, knowing that it is because of him that I am there. I needed to know right now that he is still with me, that in my daily life he is hearing my cry, filling my lungs, repairing the tears, and sustaining me every step of the way. So I'm thankful that for this last half, I chose to press into him...to REALLY press into him.... not so that I could meet my goal - but so that God could meet me.

Phillipians 3:12-14 :
¹² Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own. ¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus

Just another night at the Britton home

Happy Autumnal Equinox

Crisp fall air, leaves changing, beautiful mountain drive, Chai latte, pumpkin scones, Octoberfest Beer.....  these are a few of my favorite things! Yesterday - on the first day of fall (Autumnal Equinox if you will), I was blessed to experience all of the above.

The day started with a run through the crisp fall air (which I will take any day over the intense heat we have had this summer!). Then came the drive up the mountain with the family. We picnicked, we hiked, we picked leaves (and we got yelled at by a mad driver along the Peak to Peak Highway. Ba humbug!). Coming down from the mountain, I unloaded the fam and drove to my nearest 'Bucks for a nice hot Vanilla Chai and curled up in the corner with a great book. (I looked at the Pumpkin scones, and drooled. I mustered up enough self- restraint and settled for just the Chai.) I went back to the house and everyone loaded back in the truck. We made our way to the new BJ's on the 29th Street mall, because they happen to make the best Octoberfest brew I've ever had (of which usually sells out before October is even half over...so get there FAST!). And we sat outside as that crisp fall air returned as the sun was quickly setting. It was fantastic. I.love.fall. It settles this anxious soul in a way that few other things can.

Providence, the new resident photographer, captured a few shots of our blessed day.

Happy Autumnal Equinox!

I LOVE this pic that Provi captured. 

"Speak loudly and carry a small stick." What? That isn't right? 

Miss Mya has never had so much fun as running free throught he mountains.

Isaiah 30:15

For thus says the Lord God, the Holy one of Israel, has said,

"In repentance and rest you will be saved,
In quietness and trust is your strength."

But you were not willing ....



Convicted.
I feel a blog post (or three) coming on...