Vacation time!

Be back soon...

5 for Friday / Princess Half Marathon Edition

1.  The 2013 Disney Princess Half Marathon weekend in upon us!  Good times ahead.  This will be my fourth weekend at Disney for the race.  I am not running this year, but I will be cheering everyone on.

2.  Check out my recaps from 2011 & 2012.  Both years I had a blast!  My pictures are terrible from last year though, so blurry.  It's because I uploaded them from my iPad via some crappy blogger app.  I need to re-upload (is that word?) those.

3. Best tips for a Disney race:  Don't be late, there will be a lot of people / HAVE FUN!

4.  Let's all hope that 30% chance of rain for Sunday morning passes right by Disney World.  I don't want to spectate in the rain and you don't want to run in the rain :)  I happily admit I am a baby about the rain.

5.  Good luck to all you Princesses out there!  Especially Annette, Martha, Sue, Daniella & Kelly!

5 for Friday

1.  Love my Le Creuset tea kettle!  It is the first whistling tea kettle (pot?) I have owned and I love it.  Hearing the whistle makes me so excited.  This is so weird and random, I know.

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2.  I suck at training plans.  No idea what is wrong with me.  I map out a  plan and then don't follow it.  At all.  Awesome.  No running for me right now, I am all about yoga.  It hurts so good.

3.  Anyone wanna buy a Georgia 1/2 marathon bib?  It takes place March 17th.  I registered last year during the super cheap registration blitz, but am now unable to go.  Definitely bummed because I have never been to Atlanta before.  Any interest, let me know! 

4.  One week until vacation!  Who doesn't love a good vacation countdown?  I am going on a tropical vacation, so I downloaded the Bob Marley "Legend" album last night to get in the mood.

5.  How cute is this baby?  I saw this on Facebook and it had me cracking up for hours.

Crock Pot Carnitas & Tamale Pie

So this week I made the most delicious Carnitas Tamale Pie!  It was seriously restaurant quality.
I almost couldn't believe I had made it :)

This amazing dish all started with the Easy Crock Pot Carnitas recipe from PinchofYum.com
I followed the recipe exactly and made approximately 4lbs. of pork.  At first I thought 4 lbs. would be a lot for just one person, but I used the cooked pork in so many ways - tacos, taco salad, nachos and I put two cups aside for the Carnitas & Tamale Pie.  I even have a couple of servings in my freezer for future meals!
I love pork more than beef and definitely more than chicken (I have issues with chicken), so I was happy to have this tasty meat available for several meals.
The carnitas meat is not hot, just very flavorful.

The Carnitas Tamale Pie recipe is also from PinchofYum.com
Once again, I followed the recipe exactly.  I used mild diced green chiles and medium enchilada sauce.  This dish brought the heat and I loved it!  I used a dollop of greek yogurt in place of sour cream to cool it down a bit, and it was perfect.
My only tip would be: once you pull it out of the oven, let it cool down so it firms up a bit.  It's like lasagna where if you cut it too soon, it kind of oozes all over (which is not bad IMO).  Once it firmed up it was super easy to cut up and serve.

Check out these recipes!

Any other recipes for the carnitas pork you think I might enjoy?