Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 3!

Greetings friends!

Welcome to the Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 3!

 If you missed last week’s post, you can click here. Here’s how this works:

Because it’s really easy to get into a food rut and get bored with eating the same thing over & over, I thought it would be great to actually try the recipes from my pin board. Everything looks so yummy on Pinterest that I figured I couldn’t go wrong. So all you have to do is pick out one recipe that you’d like to try each week, takes pictures, blog about it, then come on over here and add your link to the linkup at the bottom of the post! Sounds fun, no? Don’t forget to give me a shout out in your post and if you’re on Instagram use the tag #PFC or #PinterestFoodChallenge so we can all find you!  

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Well folks, it's been a fairly busy week for me! I did however manage to cook my Pinterest meal and so did my co-worker. She made Coconut Chicken, Jasmine Rice, and it was served with a Sweet Chili Sauce. Very good. Click here for the recipe if you'd like to try it yourself!

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This week, I made a Tater Tot Casserole and I chose it because, I wanted to be done in one shot. Sometimes you just don't want to put forth the effort of making sides in addition to a main dish. So needless to say, I was so excited to have dinner just waiting & ready when I got home! No more assembly required. I was a little concerned at the stability of the tots and whether or not they would hold up. They didn't... (lol) but they still tasted great! This was probably one of the best meals I've made! Here's the rundown of ingredients:


~Tator tots (frozen) ~ Grilled Chicken ~ Bacon ~ Onion ~ Garlic ~ Sharp Cheddar Cheese (Shredded) ~ Butter (to sauté said onions & garlic) ~ Milk ~ Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing (dried packet) ~ It also called for frozen mixed veggies, but er um... I think those are gross, so I nixed them! ~



I actually did most of the prep at 5:30 am before I went to work so that when I came home for lunch, I could just throw everything together. Surprisingly enough, the instructions called for only four hours of cooking. I was so enthralled in getting everything done that I forgot to take a lot of pictures of the process. My bad.. I'll do better next week! :)

 



 

 

The finished product. :)

It didn't come out as aesthetically pleasing as I had hoped for. However it's so good that it'll make you hurt yourself! I will be making this again next week, if not this weekend. That's how good it was! So what did you make this week?!? Did it turn out well? :) Share it with us and add your blog post to this weeks linkup! :) Bon Appetit!

Ciao! 

Pinterest Food Challenge: Week #2

Greetings friends!

Welcome to the Pinterest Food Challenge: Week 2!

 If you missed last week’s post, you can click here. Here’s how this works:

Because it’s really easy to get into a food rut and get bored with eating the same thing over & over, I thought it would be great to actually try the recipes from my pin board. Everything looks so yummy on Pinterest that I figured I couldn’t go wrong. So all you have to do is pick out one recipe that you’d like to try each week, takes pictures, blog about it, then come on over here and add your link to the linkup at the bottom of the post! Sounds fun, no? Don’t forget to give me a shout out in your post and if you’re on Instagram use the tag #PFC or #PinterestFoodChallenge so we can all find you!  

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I hope everyone is having a good week so far. As per my Weekly Wishes, I'm actually writing this prior to needing to post it. Yay, for reaching another goal! Speaking of accomplishments, I feel pretty good about conquering my chosen meal for this week. Before we get into that I wanted to share with you the Pinterest meal my co-worker made! 

It's three cheese tortellini with Italian sausage all made in a crock pot. Good stuff I tell ya.. Good stuff! I totally plan on making it.

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This week,  I felt like I was being a bit ambitious with trying this dish. I mean... it's a Martha Stewart recipe for crying out loud! That in itself makes it somewhat intimidating, ya know? I digress though.. I was pleased that true to what it said, the prep only took about 25 min, and probably less if you don't have to look at the recipe every five min to see what the next step is. It was pretty easy to follow too!

I was inspired to cook these cute little pies, because well.... they're cute, I liked and had most of the ingredients, and I wanted an excuse to use my new rolling pin. Plus it's called a Pinterest Challenge for a reason! Click here for the recipe.

Here's the rundown of ingredients:

• Flaky Pie Dough, recipe doubled and 1 cup shredded cheddar added with flour, or store-bought
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
• 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
• 1 leek (white and light-green parts only), halved lengthwise, cut crosswise 1/4 inch thick, and rinsed well
• 1 small bunch black (Tuscan) kale, tough stems removed, coarsely chopped
• 1 teaspoon fresh thyme, leaves
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup cooked chicken, torn into bite-size pieces (about 5 ounces)
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten

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Instead of making my own dough from scratch, I cheated and got the pre-made pie shells from Wal-Mart. The only thing I didn't follow in the recipe was using cheddar cheese. I am a cheese fanatic so I love cheddar just as much as the next person, however I just didn't have any on hand. I thought provolone would do just as nice. The next time (and yes there will mos def be a next time) I will make it with the correct cheese.

Did I like this dish? Hell yes! And I added some mac and cheese on the side as well. When in doubt, have mac and cheese as a side dish. ::: wiggles eyebrows ::: I will admit that something was missing from my rendition of this recipe. I think it will taste even better with a handmade dough instead of the already made stuff. All in all I would call it a success!

So what did you cook/bake this week? A gloriously yummy meal or a scrumptious to-die-for desert? Share it with us and add your blog post to this weeks linkup! :) Bon Appetit!

  

Ciao! 

 
    

Weekly Wishes #13

Greetings! 

Its that time again for weekly wishes! Did you set any goals for last week? If so, how did they go? Are you just joining me? Let me explain what happens for Weekly Wishes..

The Happenings: You share your weekly, monthly, or yearly goals/wishes/achievements and you get to be a part of this big group of people that are doing the same thing. Yay! Wanna join in? Check out The Nectar Collective and add a link to your blog!

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Happy Monday everyone! I'm probably a little cheerful for a Monday, but it's for a good reason. I'm feeling especially creative these days and I'm going to ride this wave for as long as it wants to last. I must admit something to you... I've been cheating on Blogger with WordPress! I know..  I know..  Oh! The horror.. I see a ton of blogs as well as websites hosted through there, so I figured why not check it out. I'm not moving or anything (yet), but I have started another blog for writing short stories. Here's a little excerpt. 

"Her hands were cold. The kind of cold that seems to seep way down deep. Deep into your

veins, your blood, and your bones and encompass your whole being. Vie despised the cold and had immediately ordered a cup of black coffee when she sat down at the small cafe. No sugar and no cream. She liked things classic and simple. It’s the way she preferred to dress herself and to live her life. As Vie bounced her crossed legs and sat looking out of the window of the cafe, she contemplated leaving even though she had just gotten there no more than ten minutes ago.

Things could get very ugly if she did. Complications could ensue and that would threaten the Classic & Simple life motto that Vie wanted to live by. It was just one complication really. His name was Claudio Ubenski."

Are you intrigued? Click here to read more! Okay, on with the show! Let's talk about Last Weeks Wishes. 

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Last Weeks Wishes 

* Research Colleges - Okay so, I did research some schools. I however didn't get any further that I already was. I really wanted to find a school that would work for me and one that I could go tour and sit down and speak with a counselor. So I'm going to keep on looking and in the meantime I'll be taking some internet training courses. 

* Food Prep - I totally nailed this one! I'm actually pretty proud of myself for this one, especially since I'm a procrastinator extraordinaire. I chopped, bagged, and set out items I needed ahead of time. It came in handy, because I woke up 30 minutes late one day, but because I did that prep I didn't have to scramble to be on time for work. I've even started picking out my clothes the night before. It saves SO MUCH time in the morning. Yay!

* Send Packages - I finally finally finally got this one done!! It feels good knowing that that is done. I literally gave an exhale of relief when I left the post office! I've also sent off a letter to my pal and two greeting cards. I'm on a roll folks!

 

 

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This Weeks Wishes
 

* Write! - I know I've had this one on the list before, but now it's for the new short story I'm working on. I'm really digging the vibe it gives and I've gotten positive feedback so far. Feel free to tell me what you think too! :o)

* Complete a Crochet Project - I've been working on a couple sparkle babies as of late and I can't seem to finish any of them. I keep frogging the project and redoing it in an attempt to make it better. I just found a new pattern that I'm going to try and I hope it's easy enough to understand. Wish me luck!

* Blog Prepping - I really want to start writing my blog posts before the day I need to post them! I've just got to bite the bullet and decide that I'm going to start writing on a certain day and time. Like right now... I'm at work in the break room, trying to finish this up. Crazy. (pause for time elapsed) Now I'm at home really finishing. Got to do better!



So these are my wishes for this week and I'm excited about them! Is that weird to say? Ever since I started writing them down on a Post-It, it has made all the difference in me getting them done and remembering what they are. Speaking of exciting, if you missed the last Pinterest Food Challenge, then you can still participate this week and the weeks to come! I've decided to make this a weekly event (I will be posting on Wednesdays) and the challenge is to cook something from your pin board that you've been telling yourself you're going to cook and you just haven't. Take pictures of the process and the meal, write a blog post about it, and then you can add your link to the Link Up and share it with the world! And let's be honest here.. Who doesn't love to self-promote their blog? :)

That is all for now friends! Have a great week and good luck on your weekly wishes!

Ciao!

I Challenge You!

~Photo Source~
 

Greetings!

I'm excited to talk about today's blog post! I pretty much like anything that involves being creative and cooking is no exception. I don't know about you, but I like sitting down and watching cooking shows. They make me feel inspired to cook lavish and extremely tasty meals. I was talking with a co-worker last month (Ok, we were lollygagging because we didn't feel like working) and I came up with the idea to do a Pinterest Challenge! A lot of times, I pin quite a bit of recipes yet I never bother to cook them. There are plenty of  Pinterest challenges for clothes or DIY's, so why not food too?

So here's the deal: We decided to cook one recipe from Pinterest per week and bring the other person a serving of it. So it's kind of a double whammy of trying the foods of Pinterest.. Bam!

Because I'm in love with all food that is Latin/Mexican/Tex-Mex, my first dish is Chicken Tortilla Soup. Here's what it calls for:


1 lb of raw chicken 1 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes

1 medium onion, diced

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chile peppers
1 cup frozen corn (optional)
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups water
2 cups (or 1 can) of chicken broth
1 T cumin
1 T chili powder
2 tsp oregano
1 tsp salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
2 T chopped cilantro

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All the ingredients got thrown in a crock pot on low heating and left to cook all the day is long. I did all of my prep last night as far as chopping up the onion and garlic and I pre-measured all of the spices. Looks like I'm getting at least one of my Weekly Wishes done! (yay) I used canned chicken by Tyson because well.... it's my go to chicken for everything. It needs no seasoning to taste good and who really wants to deal with raw chicken. Not I! Blech...

Can I just tell you that it turned out awesome! Did you really have any doubt that it would though? I didn't. Haha! You can't really go wrong with a crock pot meal unless you under season.

 

 So are you in this with me??? Go ahead and try that recipe that you salivated over. Share it with friends or like me with co-workers. Share it right here with me too. I wanna read about about it! Until the next time.. 

Ciao! 



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