The Nifty Foodie

A Bunch of Randoms

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Hi y’all!

I guess I should catch y’all up on a few things that have been going on. Y’all will probably realize just how unadventurous my life has been lately!

Randoms
(FYI, this was taken in a parking lot…wasn’t driving)

Earlier this year, I was starting to freak out over the amount of gray hairs that were happening, so I went with a drastic change: RED. As you can see, my hair is no longer red. Now, don’t get me wrong…the red was gorgeous, and I loved the way it looked on me. However, the maintenance was crazy…I had to do it every 4 weeks, otherwise my blonde roots would look gray and well….NOPE.

So, I went back to a salon to go blonde (as you can see in a glimpse of that picture), since there was NO way I could DIY bleach my hair…and oh man…it took 5 hours to go back to blonde. It was worth it…it’s good to be “back”!

Randoms
Pumpkin everything is back in stores, and while a lot of people are like ENOUGH PUMPKIN…I’m sitting here like…more please? 🙂 H actually found that cookie butter at Trader Joe’s…he knows me so well, right?

Randoms
Earlier this fall, my work had a happy hour. It was at a beer-centric bar, and my sad self was trying to like beer, but it didn’t happen. I don’t think I’ll ever like beer…I’m weird.

Thankfully, I later found out they offered mini bottles of wine at the bar, and I was a happy camper. Helloooo, mini bottle of Prosecco! I felt like the little creature in Finding Nemo who is all about the bubbles. 😛 I need to repurpose this mini bottle somehow…I just think it’s adorable.

Randoms
Currently, I’m working on my first knitted stuffed animal. Knitting the pieces of the toy isn’t so bad. I’m mostly intimidated by the assembly after everything is knitted up. I’m REALLY hoping it comes out as cute as I’m imagining, because I’d love to make more of these for gifts.

Randoms
I know I mentioned that we’re building a house, so I thought I’d show y’all how things are progressing. I’m super excited that things are really starting to move along. It seemed like the land grading/foundation took the longest, but now that our house is more than a large concrete slab, it’s just so great to see the next steps happening.

I’m especially excited to eventually see these tiny samples come to life in our house…LOVE.

Randoms
I hope y’all have a good weekend!

Chicken Pizzaiola with Mozzarella and Pepperoni

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Chicken Pizzaiola

Since we moved out of our house and into where we temporarily live, I find that we’re cooking a lot more than usual. As much as I love cooking/baking, doing it on weeknights was always a chore. One of the last things I want to do after a busy work day is go straight to the kitchen and spend an hour or so cooking. So, I’ve been looking for recipes that are on the simpler side, but are still delicious and comforting.

When I cook, I usually go by what meat is on sale at the grocery store. The week I made this, chicken breasts were on serious sale. I’ve had this recipe bookmarked for a while, so I thought why not give this a try? I really wasn’t expecting much, since there weren’t that many ingredients. However, this was absolutely delicious! The parmesan and pepperoni flavored the chicken breasts so well, which is usually a challenge with boneless chicken breasts, and then topping it all off with mozzarella? Oh man…this recipe is definitely a keeper.

Chicken Pizzaiola with Mozzarella and Pepperoni
Source: America’s Test Kitchen (as seen on Pinch of Yum)

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of spaghetti sauce
  • 1 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
  • 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
  • 2 oz. sliced pepperoni
  • 8 oz. spaghetti
  • salt and pepper

Directions:

  1. For the chicken, preheat the oven to 450 degrees F. Evenly spread the tomato sauce into a 9×13 inch baking dish (one that can withstand higher oven temperatures). In another shallow dish, spread the parmesan cheese.
  2. Prepare the chicken by pounding the meat to an even thickness (don’t pound it thin, just make the thickness even) and pat the chicken dry with paper towels. Sprinkle some salt and pepper on the chicken and then coat with parmesan cheese. Lay the chicken on top of the spaghetti sauce and bake for 15 minutes.
  3. While the chicken is baking, bring 4 quarts of water to a boil in a large pot. Add the pasta, as well as a tbsp. of salt and cook the pasta (stirring often) until it’s al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup of cooking water, drain the pasta and return it to the pot.
  4. Once the chicken has finished baking for the 15 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven, and raise the oven temperature to 475 degrees. Place pepperoni slices over the chicken breasts and sprinkle the mozzarella sauce over the chicken. Bake the chicken for about another 5 minutes, until the cheese is melted.
  5. Add some spaghetti sauce from the baking dish into the pasta and toss well to combine. If necessary, add the reserved pasta cooking water as needed. Serve the pasta with chicken and the remaining sauce.

 

Mixed Conference Ticket Giveaway!

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Disclosure: The wonderful folks who coordinate Mixed Conference are hosting this giveaway. I purchased my ticket on my own. All opinions are 100% my own.

One of my favorite things about having a food blog is meeting others who have the same passion for cooking and baking as I do. I’ve attended two different food blog conferences before, and I feel like I’ve left each one with new friends and a new way to approach my blog. I usually try to attend one each year, and this year, I decided to attend Mixed.

mixed_logo

Image Source: Mixed

While I’ve never been to Mixed, I have read recaps and always wanted to go. However, it always seemed like the date conflicted with something, and I just couldn’t swing it. This year, the stars sort of aligned for me. Not only is it on a good weekend for me, but it’s also just outside of Houston (which makes it driving distance for me). I saw it as a sign and immediately purchased my ticket when registration opened. 🙂

I honestly can’t believe that it’s in less than three weeks! The conference will be taking place the weekend of October 2-4, 2015 at The Woodlands Conference Center and Resort.

The line-up of sessions (and speakers) sounds fantastic! There will be sessions on food styling, food photography, videography, Pinterest, working with brands, how to make your own backdrop boards and a demonstration on how to add flair to your desserts.

The schedule is jam-packed with great sessions, delicious meals (thanks to generous sponsors) and of course, plenty of opportunities to hang out with other food bloggers. 🙂

The amazing folks who are coordinating Mixed are offering ONE conference ticket to TWO fellow bloggers who read The Nifty Foodie! Each ticket is a $199 value. (Crazy generous, right?!)

The conference ticket includes:

  • admission to the sessions for the conference
  • meals during the conference
  • admission to conference parties/entertainment
  • SWAG bag!

Before entering, please make sure you are available to attend (October 2-4, 2015 at The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center in The Woodlands, Texas) and that you understand that this contest is just for the tickets to the conference. You are responsible for your travel, hotel accommodations and incidentals.

To enter the giveaway, check out the Rafflecopter widget below:

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by the folks who coordinate Mixed Conference and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until September 20th, 2015 at 11:59am (central standard time). Must be 18 years of age or older to enter.
The conference ticket includes admission to the sessions for the conference, meals during the conference, admission to conference parties/entertainment and of course, a conference SWAG bag!
Please make sure you are available to attend (October 2-4, 2015 at The Woodlands Resort & Conference Center in The Woodlands, Texas) and that you understand this contest is just for the tickets to the conference. You are responsible for your travel, hotel accommodations and incidentals.
If you have already purchased a ticket for Mixed, you would not get a refund on your already purchased ticket. This is for those who haven’t purchased a ticket yet.
Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Carnival Dream’s Dr. Seuss Book Reading and Brunch

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Disclosure: Carnival Cruise Lines invited us to this event at no cost to us. All opinions in this post are 100% my own.

Last month, my husband and I were invited to a Seuss-themed event aboard the Carnival Dream, celebrating the release of Dr. Seuss’s latest book, “What Pet Should I Get?”. It’s crazy to think that the last book by Dr. Seuss was published 25 years ago…I grew up reading Dr. Seuss books, so it’s wonderful that this generation has a new book to read, especially one celebrating pets. 🙂 To celebrate the event, Carnival Cruise had dogs up for adoption and also generously donated $10,000 to the Louisiana SPCA.

The event included a celebrity book reading, a Seuss parade and a Seuss-themed brunch. 🙂 We brought our nephew with us to enjoy the event, and he had a blast!

It was so wonderful to be back on the ship for the first time since last December. It felt like our last cruise was just a couple of weeks ago, and I have to admit, I was pretty darn jealous of those who were on the ship for the actual cruise! We can’t wait to go back! 🙂

Once we got on the ship, we were guided to the celebrity book reading. We were told it was going to be a local celebrity, and when I found out it was Angela Hill, I have to admit that I was a bit star-struck (like a dork..). While I no longer live in the New Orleans area, I grew up watching Angela Hill on the news. She did a great job (of course), and it was so fun to watch her, along with the Carnival Dream staff, make this a wonderful experience for the children who were there!

Carnival Brunch

After the book reading, we went to the dining room for a fun brunch!

Carnival Brunch

Our table decor was absolutely adorable! The dining rooms usually have all white tablecloths/napkins/etc., so to see everything transformed was so awesome! You could tell that the kids really loved it!

Carnival Brunch

Here’s a close-up of the table setting. I love how they made the napkin look like the Cat in the Hat’s tie. 🙂

Carnival Brunch

The menu items ranged from stacked mini pancakes to look like the Cat in the Hat’s hat, to of course, Green Eggs and Ham. I couldn’t resist!

Carnival Brunch

Also, during the brunch, some of Dr. Seuss’s famous characters came around to visit the children at the brunch, including Thing 1 and Thing 2, Sam I Am, and of course, The Cat in the Hat. It was such a cute, fun brunch. 🙂 I’m so glad we got to bring our nephew along.

A huge thanks to Carnival for also gifting all of the children in attendance with a copy of Dr. Seuss’s latest book, along with some other fun Carnival and Dr. Seuss goodies. I think our nephew was the most excited about his fun Dr. Seuss pencil and eraser, since the school year was about to start haha!

Seuss

I know when we have kids someday, if they still have this around on Carnival’s cruise ships, I’ll definitely bring our kid to Seuss at Sea. I love that Carnival offers so much for families…while we don’t have kids yet, it’s really great to know that there’s so many kid-friendly activities on the ship, like Seuss at Sea. 🙂

Hi Again!

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Untitled
Happy Tuesday, y’all! I hope everyone had a nice, long weekend. 🙂

As you may have noticed last week, I made a couple of changes around here. A full re-design of my site! I love how much cleaner the site looks. What do y’all think?

Anyway, I mentioned in my previous post that I would explain some life changes at a later date, and now that things are settling down for me/us, I’m so excited to get back into blogging again!

Sometime last year, we started casually house-hunting again. I know…we’re professional movers by now, right? We just moved four-ish years ago haha. Well….we started thinking about the future…with kiddos and out of town family and just in general, something bigger. Our house at the time was really nice, but ultimately, we decided to keep our eyes peeled.

After about a year of searching, a couple of close calls for potential houses and well, just exhausting home visits in general, we decided to build a house. We signed the dotted line and then listed our house, thinking we’d have a little time anyway before it sold. Well, our house sold after being on the market for a few hours. Funny how that works, eh?

So, we hustled to pack all of our stuff (holy cow, we had a LOT o’ stuff), and we were out of there by the next month.

Untitled
(Isn’t it sort of crazy how different a house looks when it’s almost empty?)

Anyway, we’re now between houses (as I call it) and just watching our future house take shape. We’re hoping to be all settled and moved in soon (I can’t wait to show y’all the kitchen!).

Mamma Chia Vitality Granola Review (+ GIVEAWAY!)

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Disclosure: Mamma Chia provided me with free samples, and they are also providing the prize pack for the giveaway, in exchange for a post. All opinions are 100% my own.

Mamma Chia Review/Giveaway

This has been one of the craziest years of my life, thus far. I know I haven’t been around much to share, but between a full time job and this new potential change in our lives, well…I just hope you understand. And of course, I’ll explain it all at a later date (no worries, it’s all potentially positive…I just don’t want to jinx anything!).

Lately, with so many hectic things going on, I’m all about quick and easy meals and snacks. Also, with it being ridiculously hot and humid outside, I’m avoiding my stove and oven as much as I possibly can.  One of my favorite breakfasts lately is something fruit-related. Whether it be a smoothie, yogurt, or fresh fruit, I just can’t get enough of it.

So, when the folks at Mamma Chia reached out to see if I’d be interested in reviewing their new Mamma Chia Vitality Granola, I didn’t hesitate. 🙂 I love granola, but chia granola was completely new to me. I immediately opened the wild blueberry clusters when I got my samples in the mail, and I had to get the bag away from me. Oh man…I think the first morning I ended up having yogurt with my granola (instead of granola with my yogurt, haha). It’s SO tasty. It’s perfectly crunchy, has great flavor, and it makes me happy knowing that this granola is full of nutrients.  

  Mamma Chia Review/Giveaway

Each serving of Mamma Chia Vitality Granola has 1500 mg of Omega-3s, 10 grams of protein (soy-free and dairy-free) and 5 grams of fiber. They’re available in three flavors: Wild Blueberry, Vanilla Almond, and Cinnamon Pecan.

While I enjoy it for breakfast with yogurt, it’s also perfectly good on its own. I imagine it would be especially tasty on top of frozen yogurt or smoothie bowls, as well.

The generous folks at Mamma Chia are offering one lucky reader of The Nifty Foodie a prize pack, which includes their new Chia Vitality Granola, as well as other great Mamma Chia product coupons!

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below (continental US readers only):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by Mamma Chia, and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until July 23th, 2015 at 11:59pm (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

 

Easy Turkey Burgers (+ GIVEAWAY)

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Disclosure: Butterball provided me with a turkey gift check, as well as two other turkey gift checks to giveaway, in exchange for a post. All opinions are 100% my own.

Easy Turkey Burgers

I feel like the weeks are just flying by lately. For some odd reason, it’s almost summer, and I’m still finding random ornaments around the house (I was failing at being Pinterest-y last holiday season). Last night, we decided to cut the grass, and it was the first time of the year where I was wiping sweat like crazy. Only a few short months until fall, right?

Since it’s been heating up outside, I’ve been cooking less and less. I’m just drained after a long work day, and even though I don’t spend much time outside in the summer months, it somehow tires me out. I’m all about quick, simple recipes that don’t involve heating up the entire house right now, and these burgers are it. They come together very quickly, and involves very little ingredients.

Easy Turkey Burgers
Source: an original

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. 97% lean Butterball ground turkey
  • 1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 tsp. cajun seasoning
  • 1 tsp. garlic powder
  • salt and pepper
  • Optional toppings, such as Butterball turkey bacon, sliced cheese, and sliced avocado (my favorites).

Directions:

  1. Mix the turkey, Worcestershire sauce, cajun seasoning, and garlic powder  together by hand in a bowl. Be sure not to over-mix the ingredients.
  2. Split the meat into four portions and flatten them into patties. Top each side of the patties with a sprinkling of salt and pepper.
  3. Cook the patties in a grill pan over medium heat, flipping once, until cooked all the way through. If you want a cheeseburger, during the last minute of cooking, add the slice of cheese on top of the burger, allowing it to melt.
  4. Add toppings as desired and enjoy!

Now, another about these burgers is that they are a lot more calorie-friendly than a typical burger. I love that Butterball definitely offers some options for healthier cooking with their turkey products. I know it’s normal to think about Butterball in the cooler months (for Thanksgiving and Christmas meals), but they also offer products like ground turkey, turkey burger patties, turkey bacon and turkey sausage, which you can use year-round.

The generous folks at Butterball are offering a $20 gift check (good for turkey products and groceries) to TWO readers of The Nifty Foodie.

Enter the giveaway using the Rafflecopter widget below (continental US readers only):

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Note: This giveaway is supplied by Butterball, and is open to readers in the continental US only. Entries will be accepted until June 26th, 2015 at 11:59pm (central standard time). Winner will be emailed (make sure you leave an email address in the form), and will have 48 hours to respond or another winner will be chosen.

 

April Showers…and May Showers…

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Disclosure: This post is sponsored by OXO. I received gardening tools, in exchange for a fair review on the blog. All opinions are 100% my own.

About a month ago, we took a weekend to basically spring-ify everything around the house. I cleaned out the beds, and planted annuals and vegetables/herbs. I also purchased a new blood orange tree. We have a whole mess of citrus trees in the backyard now. 🙂

Spring Gardening

I planted cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, poblano peppers, jalapeno peppers, and of course, basil. I’ve found over the years that these plants are no-fail for me. I wanted to plant green bean seeds, but I just haven’t found the time yet. It’ll happen soon, though! I love roasted green beans in the summer months.

In fact, since I planted everything a month ago, I haven’t done anything to the garden. We’ve had quite a bit of rain around here, and so I haven’t really gone in the backyard to give everything a closer look. Well, after rain, rain and more rain, I need to clean everything out again.

Thankfully, OXO sent me a fun package of outdoor gardening tools recently.

Spring Gardening

Included in the package was their trowel, plow, hand rake, outdoor pour & store watering can, cultivator, and bypass pruners.

…

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Frozen Mango Margaritas

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Frozen Mango Margarita
Please drink responsibly. 🙂

The past couple of weeks have been full of April showers. I think we had 9 days of rain in a row…it was gloomy and all I wanted to do was curl up on the sofa, eat ice cream and take a nap. I thought this week would be different, but Monday, nature threw a nasty storm our way. It was the first time I went through a tornado warning at work (thankfully, there was no tornado there.) However, most people in the area lost power, fences and trees fell down and there were apparently a few tornadoes in the southeast area of the state (which doesn’t happen very often).

A nice surprise after all of this bad weather is an unusual cool front. It feels like fall weather outside right now, which is a nice change away from 80 degrees and humid. So, to celebrate the lovely weather, I made this margarita. My usual favorite is strawberry margaritas, but since the grocery store near me had mangoes on sale, I had to make mango margaritas. I even bought extra mangoes to make some sorbet (SO good!).

The great thing about margaritas is that they really aren’t that complicated….your fruit of choice, tequila, orange liqueur, a bit of sugar or agave, lime juice and ice. Then, just blend it all. It takes minutes to make a pitcher full of these (for this recipe, you will want to double the recipe to make a pitcher full), and your guests will love you for it.

Frozen Mango Margarita
Source: Epicurious

Ingredients:

  • 1 1/2 cups diced, peeled ripe mango
  • 3 oz. white tequila
  • 1 oz orange liqueur
  • 2 oz. lime juice
  • 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
  • 2 cups ice cubes

Directions:

  1. Place all ingredients in a blender, and blend together until smooth. Enjoy!

 

Skillet Baked Ziti

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Skillet Baked Ziti

Even though I’m back to calorie counting, I just love a good, comforting meal sometimes. I try to limit my splurges to one splurge meal per week, eating something I normally wouldn’t want to admit to MyFitnessPal :-). I made this dish for the first time last fall, and I was shocked at how flavorful it was for being a fairly simple recipe. I ended up making two batches of this ziti, one for us and one for my dear friend, who had just had a baby. She and her husband absolutely loved the dish, as well and ended up asking for the recipe! I consider that the biggest compliment of all!

This dish is a dream for clean-up…you make everything in the skillet from start to finish. I ended up making this in a braiser pan, and it worked just fine. This also makes a good bit of food…we had leftovers for a couple of days between my husband and I (and we totally went for seconds the first night). It was SO good, and I shouldn’t be surprised…it was from America’s Test Kitchen, and also, one of my favorite bloggers, Pink Parsley, blogged about it before (which is where I originally read about the recipe first).

Skillet Baked Ziti

Skillet Baked Ziti
Source: Pink Parsley, originally from America’s Test Kitchen

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. sweet or hot Italian sausage, casings removed
  • 6 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1/4 tsp. red pepper flakes
  • kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 (28-oz.) can crushed tomatoes
  • 3 cups water
  • 12 oz. ziti
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 3/4 cup Parmesan cheese
  • 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
  • 4 oz. (about 1 cup) freshly grated mozzarella cheese

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F. In a 12-inch oven-safe skillet (I used a 3 1/2 qt. braiser pan), brown the sausage over medium-high heat, breaking up the large pieces with a wooden spoon, until no longer pink (about 4 minutes). Stir in the garlic and red pepper flakes, cooking for about a minute (until fragrant). Add in the crushed tomatoes, as well as 1/2 tsp. of kosher salt. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer everything gently for 8-10 minutes.
  2. Add in the water and ziti, then carefully stir everything to combine. Cover the pan, increase the heat to medium, and cook at a simmer, stirring often for about 15-18 minutes, until the pasta is just tender/al dente in texture.
  3. Remove the mixture from heat, and stir in the cream, 1/2 cup of parmesan cheese, and 3 tbsp. of basil. Season with salt and pepper, to taste. Sprinkle in the mozzarella, as well as the remaining 1/4 cup of parmesan on top of the pasta. Transfer the pan to the oven, and bake until the cheese has melted/browned, and the sauce is bubbling (about 10-15 minutes). Before serving, sprinkle with the remaining tbsp. of basil. Enjoy!