Chicken Pozole and Other News

Hello friends. I'm sorry I haven't posted or been by to visit lately. I had company in town last weekend, and then first thing on Monday we had one of our managers at work go out on medical leave. As always, the rest of us will have to cover. It looks like I'll be totally swamped for a few weeks to come. 

I wanted to pop in tonight to share this very quick and easy Chicken Pozole recipe with you. I made a traditional version for the first time a few of weeks ago. After I mentioned it, my blog friend Susan shared her cheater method with me. I went down a new rabbit hole viewing cheater recipes - out of all the many recipes I've read, both traditional and cheater recipes, no two have been the same. I put this simple recipe together from different methods to make my own version, which is what I almost always do with recipes anyway.

Chicken Pozole

As ridiculously quick and easy as this is, it so flavorful and so good! Nobody would ever guess it's made mostly from cans. We can't get enough of it. This will be a regular on our winter menu here from now on.

You can also use chicken thighs or pork (which are both more traditional), or use rotisserie or any leftover chicken you have on hand. It can be made vegan or vegetarian too. There are so many different options for this dish, but this is a good starter recipe if you've never made it before.

If there's one thing out of the optional toppings I wouldn't skip, it would be the squeeze of lime over the top. It just really compliments the flavors.

Bonus - This is one of those dishes that gets better by the day. If I were making this for company, I'd definitely prepare it a day in advance to give those flavors a chance to meld together.

I probably won't be around much for the next couple of weeks considering my current work situation. Hopefully I'll get a day off soon to at least stop by for a visit - fingers crossed!

Tuesday Tidbits

Good morning! How was your holiday weekend? Were any of you who still work lucky enough to have Monday off? I had a great long weekend with Friday off instead of Monday, a three day weekend is a three day weekend - sold! 

My Friday morning was spent at the dentist, but thankfully I was able to get everything taken care of. I was out of pain and feeling great by the afternoon. Otherwise, it was a relaxing weekend. I did lots of blog jogging, cooked some nice meals, and got a few things checked off my to-do list. 

I had to work yesterday, but it was a quick four hour afternoon shift - no biggie.

We had beautiful beach going kind weather here all weekend, it looks like it will continue the rest of the week according to the forecast. I think those gray days have finally gone away! It's been in the 60s in the mornings and evenings with bright sunny skies, breezy, and temps in the low 80s in the afternoons. Perfect weather for some nice long walks along the beach. 

In other news...

Last year I lost my blog linked Instagram account when I had to do a factory rest on my phone. I've tried several times but have never been able to recover it. I decided to go ahead and start a new account. For those of you who are on Instagram, feel free to leave me your Instagram info in the comments or just give me a follow and I'll follow you back. You can find me here:  @Seaside_Simplicity_ 

Enjoy the rest of the week - cheers!

Cutting the Cord on Cable TV

Last week I had asked all of you if you had made the switch from cable yet and what you use if you have already done so. Responses were were varied and some seemed as baffled as I was about the process and wanted to know more.

This post is for those who haven't made the switch yet. I'm going to try to give you the very basics here today. There is so much information, so many unfamiliar terms and different options that makes it all seem overwhelming, but bottom line - it's a very quick and easy process.

We had a package that gave us cable, internet and a landline phone. We had never even hooked the phone up, but it was cheaper to take the package than to get internet and cable separately. Our plan was going to increase to $300 as of this month - that's when I put my foot down and starting looking into our options. I had to promise my resident TV addict (my husband) that we would go back to cable if he couldn't get everything he wanted. 

I took all our cable boxes back to our cable company and asked them to cancel everything besides our internet. They are charging us $70 a month just to have the bottom of the line internet. Unfortunately they are the only internet provider in our area right now.

I went home, clicked on the YouTube TV app (only because I've heard it's one of the best options) and started our free trial. Boom - done! 

It is just like having cable.

It has all the big network channels, all the most popular cable channels, and even some fun new to us channels that we are really enjoying. There are also tons of on demand movies and it has DVR with unlimited storage to record all our favorite shows too.

If we decide to stick with YouTube TV it will be $65 a month after the free trial, or we can do the free trials on other services that have live TV before making a final decision. Most live TV subscriptions are a around the same price. Switching around to try different subscriptions is as quick and easy as hitting a button or two - no wait, no installation, no dealing with customer service phone calls or standing in lines, and no equipment to deal with.

Our total monthly expense just went from $300 a month to $135. What a difference! I sure wish I would have insisted on making the switch sooner.

What you need to know and where to start...

First things first, you need a smart TV or a small streaming device that plugs into your TV. We already had one smart TV, for the other one I decided to go with the Chromecast device that was recommended by the associate at our local Best Buy store. There are many other device options such as Roku or a Fire Stick, but don't drive yourself too crazy over it, they all basically do the same thing.

With a smart TV, or once your streaming device is plugged in to another TV, you will have all the apps on the screen to choose which ones you'd like to subscribe to. Most of them offer free trials.

If you want live TV, which is what you will definitely want if you want something very similar to cable. You will want to sign up for a live streaming service such as YouTube TV or Hulu Live. Once again, there are many options you can try before deciding which you prefer, but most will give you the same basics.

Using a digital antenna is another option but you will likely only get network channels and possibly a few others, but not much. This is a great option if you don't really watch much TV, but if you or someone in your household watches a lot, one of the live TV streaming services is a much better option. 

I found a very informative website where you can compare all the different deceives, streaming service costs, what's included with each service, and all the channels they carry. You can easily see what your best options would be according to your personal preferences, instead of having to look them all up individually. They even have a matchmaking tool where you can enter channels or even sports teams and it will tell you which services have them. Check out Thestreamable.com. Use the top bar to navigate.

Sorry about such a lengthy post, but I hope I helped clarify how it all works. If you have any other questions, ask away. I'll be happy to help if I know the answers. I'm new to this too, but so far extremely happy with our choice and my hubs is too. Keep in mind that I reply in my comment section not by email if you do happen to have a question be sure to check back.

Have a fantastic weekend! :)