Thanksgiving is best known for Turkey. It's pretty synonymous and what most of us expect that celebrate a traditional Thanksgiving. Sometimes there's a ham thrown in too, and many family like to add other meats that might be their favorite too. Where does this leave the vegetarian, though? Sure, one would assume the vegetarian will eat one of the traditional sides like Macaroni and Cheese or Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. However, we have a tendency to add meats and broths to those as well. I see … [Read more...]
Roasted Sweet Potatoes, Beets and Carrots
Recently I discovered that Pompeian has a new product in their line up, the Coconut Oil Non-Stick Cooking Spray. Coconut oil has gotten pretty trendy over the last few years, and rightfully so. It has many nutritional benefits and is used in a lot of gluten free and vegan recipes. The Pompeian Coconut Oil Spray contains no propellants in the spray, only coconut oil. It also has a smoke point of 420 degrees, so you can use it in recipes that are cooked at a higher temperature than most. A lot of … [Read more...]
Last Minute Thanksgiving Ideas
If you're looking for that perfect last minute dessert or dish to compliment your Thanksgiving meal, you've come to the right place! I have a long list of recipes that is sure to please and compliment any Thanksgiving meal! Whether you're hosting and you forgot a dessert or you're bringing your own dish to a pot-luck and haven't a clue what to bring, no worries! I've got you covered!(I am apologizing in advance for some of these older photos - if anything, let's just laugh together at how … [Read more...]
Easy Holiday Recipe Ideas for Entertaining!
During the holiday season it's not out of the ordinary for family or friends to come visit. Whether they are visiting for the holiday or just during the holiday season I'm often at a loss of what to make. I love having a few easy recipes on hand that I can whip together and they appear that I spent forever on them. That way my guests can feel welcomed and special! The other day I went to Smart & Final and was inspired by all of the great deals you can find. Smart & Final is great because … [Read more...]
Cheesy Au Gratin Potatoes
Au Gratin Potatoes is originally a french dish that is common in the boxed mix area in your supermarket. It's a dish I grew up eating and another favorite that I consider a comfort food. I've mentioned before that I love to make those old comfort foods and instead of making the boxed mix I like to learn how to make them from scratch and ingredients that I typically can find in my pantry at home, free of preservatives and additives.This was made for Christmas dinner with a beef roast and red … [Read more...]
Pumpkin Spice Bread with Brown Sugar Glaze
Throughout the holiday season, I always enjoy my Pumpkin Spice Bread Muffins and so this year for Thanksgiving I decided to make a loaf instead of muffins.I mentioned in the muffin recipe post that I enjoy these so much with walnuts and raisins, so I decided to include those in the loaf as well. To dress it up a bit, I also decided to do a glaze over the bread loaf, and a brown sugar glaze seemed like the perfect way to go. It took an already delicious base to extraordinary.My husband couldn't … [Read more...]
Savory "Omelet Inspired" Breakfast Casserole
Sometimes weekend mornings can be very busy for me. Even on those days on the weekend when we actually don't have a football / baseball / basketball / softball / cheer / track event. We have a big family, and sometimes making one omelet for each of my family members (or something like that) will leave me in the kitchen for way longer than I like, no matter how much I love cooking. I love to spend time with my family and eat together, enjoying one another's company.So a while back I decided to … [Read more...]
White Chocolate Cranberry Nut Cookies
I'm so excited to share this cookie recipe with you. During the Christmas season, a lot of people love to give (and receive) cookies as gifts. All the stores have various cookie tins and platters, with a wide variety of size, color, and shape. These are wonderful to fill with a variety of cookies for your neighbor, boss, teachers, or host/hostess.This particular cookies screams "Holiday Season" to me. They have Cranberries, macadamia nuts, white chocolate chips and Brandy in them! Leave these … [Read more...]
Mexican Cornbread
A few years back I made a delicious Mexican Cornbread dish for Thanksgiving, but it was using boxed cornbread. I wanted to recreate the recipe, but using my own cornbread recipe. My cornbread is sweet, so I took the sugar down a notch, and removed the vanilla extract altogether. Add a few tweaks in and you have a whole other dish!This is what I love about cooking, most of the recipe's I've posted and shared on this blog are my basic recipes for things, I've posted a good deal of my base models, … [Read more...]
Carrot Cake Cupcakes with Maple Cream Cheese Frosting
For as long as I can remember, carrot cake has been one of my favorites cake flavors. Of course, paired with cream cheese frosting. When I was younger I would just buy the mix out of the box, and sometimes buy one from the bakery. For some reason the bakery carrot cake is always a much different texture than the boxed variety. And the frosting was always much sweeter, almost to the point where you couldn't eat it unless you scraped most of it off! These are kind of in between, it's a bit richer … [Read more...]
