Tag Archives: cooking

Trade Em Up Tuesday: Back from ACK

Just wanted to say a quick thank you for your support in response to recovery the Instagram I shared this morning. Your support helps me keep on keepin’ on!

Man, it’s good to be back in Boston. I had fun Friday and Saturday in Nantucket for the Nantucket Wine Festival, but when I woke up Sunday I was so happy that I had an early ferry booked. I wanted to get back home and back to reality! So as you can imagine, I have a few trades for Trade Em Up Tuesday.

I would AND wouldn’t trade…barely having any photos to share from the weekend. I did a lot of Snap story updating, but plain old pictures weren’t really something I was feeling. The would trade is the fact that I continue to have a lot of body image issues when it comes to photos. It probably doesn’t seem like it since I post what many consider to be a lot of pictures, but I probably delete about 10 for every 1 that I like. And taking that many photos would have been exhausting, so I just kind of gave up. I even posted one photo that bothered me so much after the fact that I ended up taking it down. It just wasn’t worth trying to “fake it” at that point.

Comfy roomy dress on point for day one.

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Giveaway Winner and Off I Go!

I’m popping in to say hi and quickly announce the winner of my giveaway five free product coupons from Dr. Praeger’s. Congrats to Alex! I will be emailing you about claiming your prize!

I’m on the road again, or shall I say the water? Likely when I hit publish on this pre-written post I am either about to leave on a drive to Hyannis, or on the ferry itself to Nantucket. I’ll be pouring wine for 90+ Cellars at one of tomorrow’s Nantucket Wine Festival Grand Tastings, and aside from that will be hanging out on that wonderful island, likely collecting material along the way for another event recap!

The remnants of last year's festival.

The remnants of last year’s festival.

It’s been a week of night out, night in, night out, night in. Monday I stopped by a Boston Bloggers event at Audubon – a last minute decision but an easy one once I found out my dear friend Emily was going. I kept things chill with a couple glasses of Rose, finally met Christina, got a chance to photobooth it up, and grabbed Whole Foods takeout (for the first time ever I was disappointed by it) on the way home. I felt reassured by my ability to go out and not GO all out.

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Dr. Praeger’s Veggie Burger Zucchini Boats (GIVEAWAY!)

 

Thank you all for your awesome feedback on yesterday’s post! The advice I received definitely helped remind me last night at an event to stick to a couple of glasses of wine and just Go. Home. once I was done. As a result the event did not exhaust me and I’m also happy about the fact that I have no plans the next three nights! Maybe something will come up, maybe it won’t, but I know that tonight I’m staying in and making meatloaf. Party! And now, on to today’s post, and a necessary disclaimer…

I received veggie burgers free of charge from Dr. Praeger’s. This is not a compensated post and all opinions are my own.

I’m no vegetarian, but I love plant-based products, including veggie burgers! Dr. Praeger’s recently reached out to me to see if I’d like to try out their new Super Greens burgers, made with teff, hemp, collard greens, kale, swiss chard, and quinoa. Yes please! I love having veggie burgers on hand in the freezer to either use in recipes or eat by themselves.

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Trade Em Up Tuesday: Quickie

Not much time to write but I’m in the writing mood (funny how that happens…Sunday I had plenty of time to write but wasn’t in the mood). So let’s do a quick Trade ‘Em Up Tuesday – written last night between Mad Men viewing. Which, by the way, I would not trade.

Including an appearance from the ever-evil DAN SCOTT!

I also would not trade…the wonderful dinner I made myself last night. I made Julie’s Kale & Turkey Sausage Breakfast Casserole to have on hand for the week. It wasn’t very pretty but it was delicious and really quite easy to put together. The only difficult part was waiting for it to finish cooking! Big ups to Julie for this one.

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Five Foodie Finds Friday

Before I get into today’s post, I’d like to announce the winner of my Redpack Tomatoes prize pack giveaway! The randomly generated winning entry number is entry #12, from Lisa! Congrats, lady – I’ll be reaching out to you about claiming your prize!

tomato-winner

Hello hello, it’s time for Five Things Friday. I am taking a half day at work today so that I can beat traffic when driving home to Connecticut. I can’t wait for an evening of friends, family, and my good friend the J. Gilbert’s barrel-aged Manhattan. He’s just so dependable. Anyway, this Five Things post ended up unintentionally becoming a post about foodie products and dishes that I’ve enjoyed as of late. So I figured I’d theme it around just that! Let’s get down to it.

Link up with Clare if you’re sharing five things today too!

1. It’s been a week of recipe wins! First that fantastic chickpea salad, and then Running with Spoons pumpkin chili Mexican scramble. This tasted great freshly made as well as leftover last night.

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Trading into March

Remember to enter my Redpack Tomatoes prize pack giveaway – it ends tonight at 11:59PM EST!

I can hardly believe it’s March. It sure doesn’t feel like it! I can only hope that once I get back from the cruise my family and I are going on in a couple of weeks (my first cruise!), spring will have arrived in Boston. For now there is no sign of the weather warming up, which I’d certainly trade. But there are also a few things I wouldn’t trade, so I’m here to update you guys on life via Trade Em Up Tuesday.

I would not trade…a baller spin class last night. Just had to mention that one straight off. It felt great. Thank you Danielle Dee for starting my week off with a kick-ass workout.

I would trade…my free week at CorePower Yoga ending. I got in four classes – three Sculpt (heated with weights) and one Hot Power Fusion. I decided to purchase a Groupon for a month of unlimited classes, and am going to activate it once I’m back from the cruise. I seriously am so excited about how much I have enjoyed these classes. It’s been awhile since I found a workout that left me undoubtedly satisfied once completed. No question about whether or not I did enough, no consideration of going to the gym to do more. I just walk out feeling refreshed and strong. I can’t wait until I’ve returned to Boston for a full month so that I can get back to the mat!

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You Say Tomato, I Say Giveaway!

I received Redpack Tomato products for use in this review/giveaway. This is not a sponsored post.

I know some of you don’t think my “product posts” are authentic, but I can assure you, I only accept products that I actually use. Perfect example – canned tomato products. This is my third post about my using – and also giving away – those very kitchen staples. And I could never run out of recipes in which to use them! Redpack asked me if I wanted to do yet another giveaway for one of their canned tomato product kits. Who doesn’t love free stuff? I said yes, jumping at the chance to a) get some dinner ingredients and b) give my readers another chance to win the same ingredients.

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I Would Trade WINTER.

I’m blogging two days in a row thanks to working from home. I refuse to thank the thing responsible for me working from home…snow. Winter. Freezing temps. Huge messes. That’s because I would rather work EXTRA than have winter stick around and keep acting the way it has. So I’ll start Trade Em Up Tuesday with that – I would absolutely trade winter.

I would not trade…this incredible tempeh and black bean casserole I had for dinner last night. There was not a lot leftover, despite my plans for it to last me 2-3 dinners this week. I’m so glad I chose to use corn tortillas instead of flour. So much more satisfying!

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New Year, New Trades

Hope you guys found yesterday’s sponsored post at least semi-relevant. Living in Boston means a tighter budget, and living in Boston in the winter means taking ALL of the Ubers. So bear with me while I try to fund said Ubers with some paid opportunities.

Also must continue to fund my cocktail habit…mine (on the left) is a bellini from Five Horses Tavern, made with Four Roses Bourbon and local balsamic! Don’t be fooled by the rock candy, this was not sweet.

And here I am today with a “real” post, in the form of Trade Em Up Tuesday. This isn’t about what I want to trade or not trade in the New Year. Rather, it’s just my first Trade Em Up Tuesday post of the New Year.

I would not trade…some successful recipes cooked at homeI’m continuing my quest to make some delicious dishes from my Pinterest boards and it’s mostly going great. A few hiccups here and there as I learn some cooking-related lessons, but that’s what living in my first apartment is all about.

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Tuttorosso Tomatoes Giveaway & Stew Recipe!

I received complimentary Tuttorosso Tomatoes to use for this post. This is not a sponsored post and all opinions are my own.

After doing my post for Redpack Tomatoes, I was approached by another brand from the Red Gold family – Tuttorosso Tomatoes, to do something similar. (That includes a GIVEAWAY at the end of this post by the way.)

Special delivery!

Special delivery!

That means I received another tomatoe-y gift pack – but this one with a nifty tote, which has since then obviously been used to tote around wine.

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