Keeping things simple with a smidge of Southern charm
‘Tis the season for all things cranberry! You know it truly is the most wonderful time of the year when those beloved cranberries start making an appearance in holiday recipes! Cranberries are one of my favorite things to cook with – especially during this time of year. Once my favorite supermarket starts rolling these bad boys out onto their produce shelves, I buy them in bulk and keep them stored away in my freezer so I can use them in recipes all year long!
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As we’re quickly approaching the end of the year, I’ve already begun to map out a few of my personal goals to carry with me into the new year that encourage new culinary endeavors that have previously been a little bit foreign to me. It’s no secret that southern-style cooking is something that I love and am very familiar with, but it’s always fun to mix things up a bit and bring a new cultural element into my cooking. Particularly, I want to create more dishes that are not only inspired by other cultures, but fuse multiple cultures together to create really, really awesome food.
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Yesterday I shared an alarming statistic in my Healthy Halloween Smoothie Roundup about the amount of candy Americans buy each year for Halloween. Even though Halloween is a celebration of all things scary, the commercial side is all about the sweets! Now I’m not going to act like I’m not of fan of sugary confections, but I do try my best to ensure that there is a healthy balance of sweet foods as well as health-conscious options in my family’s diet – especially during this time of year.
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Time just has a way of sneaking up on us, doesn’t it? It’s a little crazy to think how quickly the holiday season is approaching! Soon our calendars will be filling up with holiday festivities, and everyone knows the fun doesn’t really begin until someone breaks out the appetizers! That’s exactly where these cranberry cream cheese pinwheels come out to play!
My house is currently bubbling over with excitement as we countdown the days until the official kickoff of our football team’s season! (It’s only 9 days away, in case you were wondering!) It’s no secret that football season is HUGE here in the south, and while my family’s love for the game is pretty darn big, their love for the game day spread is even BIGGER!
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Throughout the entire second and third trimester of my pregnancy, my body constantly craved the juicy goodness of fresh, homegrown tomatoes. Unfortunately, my husband and I were not able to plant a garden like we normally do each year so we could grow our own tomatoes, but we were very fortunate that my mother and several other friends in our community had bountiful crops of tomatoes and other fresh produce that they were more than willing to share with us!
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We’re all cheers over here this morning, because we’re just 40 days away getting to watch the Alabama Crimson Tide kick off the 2018 football season (and also 3 days away from our second child being born…but who’s counting?) 😉
And with the rolling of the Tide comes a rolling in my tummy for some of the greatest game day grub I can think of – and this year we’re going to be switching things up just a little bit!
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With the new year kicking off soon, I’ve been in the process of shifting gears from all of the holiday madness to game day central in my my house. Some of the biggest football games of the year are happening very soon, and my family is pumped to be rooting on our favorite team in a bowl game at the start of the year!
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These few weeks that are nestled right in between Thanksgiving and Christmas day are always the busiest weeks of the year for our family, no doubt about it. Just when I think I can’t squeeze anything else into my calendar, one more event pops up that I really want to attend, so I buckle down, shift gears and do everything I can to make sure our holiday season is a holly jolly one! But it often comes at the price of feeling a little lackadaisical by mid-morning each day, and my creativity tends to tank when it comes to preparing meals for my family that are quick, delicious and simple.
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What seemed like a brief glimpse of glorious fall temperatures here in south Alabama last week has been completely diminished by these not-so-lovely 90+ degree temps this week.  You know it’s hot outside when you break a sweat going out to your own mailbox! And even though we’re still experiencing wave after wave of this horrendous heat, I’m not letting it get me down. Instead, I’ve been feeling a little bit inspired to bring an extra element of heat into my cooking this week, and what better way to add a little spice into your life than by combining it with a twist on a true southern staple dish!
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