mexican enchiladas| vegetarian style

If you ask me what my favorite food in the world is I would answer enchiladas. But  not just any enchiladas, i'm talking about my mom's homemade enchiladas.  A recipe that was passed down to her from my grandma, which I absolutely love and makes me feel so nostalgic every time I eat them. Growing up my mom would make these a lot so of course they became one of my favorite dishes she made. Just recently I asked her to please
 spoil me and make my favorite, except that this time she would need to make them vegetarian style. 

Three months ago I made the commitment to transition from a bacon eating carnivore to vegetarian and have been going strong ever since. So I asked her to please skip the meat and she kindly substituted  with potatoes instead. It turned out amazingly delicious. 

So of course I had to share my favorite recipe with you!

What you'll need

8 tortillas 

1 cup vegetable oil + 3 tablespoons

2-3 squash

2 potatoes  (if you prefer meat use 1 lb of ground beef)

2 tomatoes

 2 carrots

1 onion

1/2 cup raisins

for the chile sauce

3 guajillo chile pepper (dried)

3 pasilla chile pepper (dried)

1 tsp ginger

 1 tsp cumin

1 cinnamon stick

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp cloves

3 tbsp flour

2 small pieces of mexican hot chocolate

2-3 tablespoons of sugar

salt & pepper to taste

for toppping

lettuce

radish 

dry mexican cheese 

Directions

1. In a small pot add gujillo and pasilla chiles covered with water, bring to a boil and simmer 15-20 min until tender.

2. Finely dice squash,potatoes,tomatoes,carrots and onion and saute in 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil until tender add any seasoning you'd like (set aside)

3. For the chile sauce you must "burn" flour (heat flour on skillet with aluminum foil until light brown) add chiles to blender with a bit of water that they were boiled in, add ginger, cumin, cloves, garlic mexican chocolate, flour and sugar. Blend all together, if it's too thick add more water. Add salt and pepper to taste. Heat in skillet until warm and set aside.

4. Add 1 cup of vegetable oil to clean skillet and warm up tortillas.

5. After tortillas are ok to handle carefully cover in chile sauce, fill enchilada up with filling and roll. Add toppings and serve.
the  serving with 8 tortillas is for 2 people, but you will have lots of mix and sauce left over so you can make a lot more

EASY BREAKFAST TOAST

Mornings are pretty busy around here. I have to get the kids dressed and ready for school drop offs, make breakfast for them and get myself ready too. I always "plan" on waking up early and taking our time to do everything but it almost never happens. It's always a rush to get everything done. Especially when my kids are as slow as molasses. That's when days like today happen, I didn't get a chance to eat breakfast until lunch time. I had to whip up something fast and nutritious so I made myself toast with a fried egg, sauteed arugula and some goat cheese spread. It was fast and delicious. Perfect for those fast paced mornings. 

WHAT YOU'LL NEED

bread

spreadable cheese (i used goat cheese)

arugula

egg

Fry your egg, saute arugula, toast bread, and add toppings. I mean we all know how to make toast right? 

Now make yourself a cup of coffee and enjoy! 

This horrible egg is a result of the kids interrupting my cooking session! I swear I know how to fry an egg! haha

Jennie's Delights| Review

I was recently asked to do a review on Jennie's Delights, so of course I jumped at that opportunity! Who doesn't love a bit of sweetness in there lives? Jennie's Delights are gourmet cookies, Ritz to be exact. But they are far more than that, with many flavors to choose from they can be quite addicting to say the least. Jennie's Delights will take your taste buds on a whirlwind! They come perfectly wrapped in a cute box and can make the perfect gift for just about any occasion. With many flavors to choose from it's hard picking just one. 

I received gift package B which included s'mores, peanut butter, cookies & cream, salted caramel pretzel, caramel coconut with almonds, white chocolate mint, turtle, dark chocolate mint and pumpkin caramel. A total of 20 delights priced at just $15 making it pretty affordable.They make great teacher gifts, treat yo self gifts (no judgement here) birthday gifts, you name it. One thing I love is the variety of flavors, there are staple flavors but also limited edition flavors which is great because you can always experience something new. 

They all taste great, but my absolute favorite is S'mores.  

S'mores- Now you can have one of America's favorite with out starting the campfire. This beloved treat taste just like the real deal.

Peanut Butter- Need I say more? Two of my favorite things combined into one and covered in chocolate. The combination of both and the saltiness of the caramel is the perfect blend.

Cookies & Cream- One of my favorite ice cream flavors turned into a cookie. The sweetness is not overpowering, so instead of ice cream indulge in one of these. You'll feel less guilty. ;)

Salted Caramel Pretzel- This is another flavor at the top of my list. The caramel, chocolate and pretzel combined is a perfect blend of salty, sweetness and crunchiness.

Caramel Coconut with Almonds- Ya like almond joy? If you do, you'll love this flavor. Except you won't get none of that soggy coconut here. The almonds give it the perfect crispy taste.

White Chocolate Mint- My kids absolutely love this flavor. White chocolate and peppermint are the perfect mix. The peppermint is light and not overpowering, leaving your taste buds going crazy and breath feeling minty. 

Turtle-Similar to turtle candy but not as gooey and chewy. The Ritz gives it the perfect crunch.

Dark Chocolate Mint- Comparable to the white chocolate mint, except it's dark chocolate. I know not a lot of people fancy white chocolate so this is an alternative.

Pumpkin Caramel- The pumpkin caramel drizzle is the perfect blend to top the white chocolate. Tastes like pumpkin pie!

All of these flavors are from package B.

PROS: the flavors are excellent, packaging is perfect, the variety of flavors is great.

CONS: you may or may not lose control and eat an entire box of delights within 15 minutes. 

This small business is based out of San Diego, but do not fret, they offer US delivery!! 

All in all I have nothing but great things to say about these gourmet cookies, so trust me when I say that they taste fantastic and are worth every penny. 

Use code "anchors" for 10% off your first order. Order your delights HERE

GOAL DIGGER GIVEAWAY HOP

Win a $25 ANTHROPOLOGIE gift card from Anchors & Honey and over 30 more prizes from this amazing blogger giveaway hop! With the grand prize valued at $250! Come join the fun and enter for your chance to win some pretty cool prizes!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

EXPLORING SAN DIEGO| NORTH PARK

Every month I try to go on a little date with one of my kids to spend some one on one time with each other. I like to give them each my undivided attention with out any distractions. I see it as a great way of bonding with each of them and letting them know that I'm there, just us two. This is our second year living in San Diego and I try my best to discover new and unique places. North Park is a little town 10 minutes away from the big city with exceptional shops! One that had always caught my eye was a little coffee shop at the corner of a stop light. The big bold name that is written at the side of the building is what captured my attention the most. COFFEE + FLOWERS. I knew I wanted to stop by and check it out just didn't know when. 

It has been quite rainy and gloomy around here so I wanted to take Aiden out on a little coffee date.  It was cold so coffee was perfect for our little outing. North Park is quite small and popular so parking is a bit of a battle so we ended up parking three blocks away from the coffee shop and soaked up all the fresh air the rain had offered a few hours before. The homes there are beautiful. Plants & flowers everywhere which were  fascinating to Aiden. 

When we finally reached our destination we went inside and it instantly brought a smile to my face.This place was exactly as it described outside. Half of it was a coffee shop and the other a flower and gift  shop! The place was packed with people chatting and shopping, baristas working quickly to get coffee made and the florist arranging bouquets. The atmosphere was great and I was so happy that I had finally decided to pay this place a visit. Aiden ordered a triple berry muffin and I HAD to order the honey lavender latte. I fell in love with this place and Aiden had a blast walking around town being quite the explorer. If you are ever in North Park I highly encourage you to visit Communal Coffee! 

ANCHORS AND HONEY

What does Anchors & Honey mean? I get this question quite a lot. Before Anchors & Honey, my blog was named A bit of Wonderland, Red Rose Vintage & Laras Vintage. I wanted to change my blog name to something I knew was going to stick for a while. And although I love all things vintage I didn't want to be know for just that. So I came up with Anchors & Honey. Anchor for my husband who coincidentally is a sailor, but he's the one who keeps me grounded. Honey, for my sweet, sweet kids whom I adore with all my heart. This blog was started to document my pregnancy with Sophia (my middle child) back in 2012. It then transitioned into a family & lifestyle blog. Much of which I have not been doing. I stopped blogging for some time when I became pregnant with my third baby Aiden, and ever since it's just been an on and off commitment. That is until now. I miss blogging and connecting with so many beautiful people (most of who it still talk to today) like I did years ago when I first started.

Which all comes back to Anchors & Honey and what I'm all about. For some time I used my instagram platform to document my home, which then my account became more of a home decor type instead of a personal one. I would hardly post photos of the kids or my life for that matter and only stick to photos of my styled home, decoration, etc. And although I love home decor, I was getting quite bored with just posting the materialistic stuff and not the real, raw stuff I want to be known for, or at least Anchors & Honey to be know for. I felt like I need to do some changes and switch my whole instagram niche around because I wanted it to reflect what my blog is about. Raw moments of life, motherhood, photos that make me happy,  a fun DIY tutorial, random food recipes, occasional home posts. 

I was a little dissapointed when I noticed that my photos were getting much fewer likes and my account was loosing so many followers whenever I would post a photo of myself or my kids. Not gonna lie, it was a total bummer and it made me rethink about closing my account and starting a fresh one. The one thing I did not want to happen ended up happening, a lot of my followers like the home decor side of things as opposed to the life I want to show. And although I did consider it, I decided to just keep on posting what I LIKE, who cares about the number or followers or likes my photos get.I want things to come organically and get followers because they are curious and WANT to follow me. After all I'm documenting what makes me happy and what I want to be known for as a reflection of my blog and what I love doing. 

I am Anchors & Honey 

EXPLORING SAN DIEGO| LEGOLAND

This past Monday the kids and I took a a little trip down to Legoland. This was our second time going so the kids were pretty excited once I told them where we were headed. I had this trip planned for a few weeks until the day of it was raining and that totally ruined the day. I was totally gonna stay home and snuggle but since I'm not a regular mom, I'm a cool mom (ha) I decided to just go anyway. I made sure the kids wore their rain boots, packed their coats and umbrellas and we were good to go. And boy was it a good idea. There was NO ONE at the park, well maybe a few people, but we pretty much had the park all to ourselves.

 We walked up to rides, not waiting needed. The kids were even allowed to stay on multiple times because there was no one waiting. It was great, something like this is pretty surreal to happen, especially living in the city. But I have discovered the key to going to what would be an overly packed place and that is to go on rainy, gloomy days. The day was perfect, the kids had an absolute blast and I did too.  Over the years I have become a bit of a hermit when it comes to large crowds. They make me super uneasy and I try to avoid them at all costs, so it was great going to Legoland with no crowd at all. I'm super lucky to have a sister that works there and who luckily gets tickets for family members for free. So we will get to go again before we move!