Moving to a New Home

Wow, it has been a long time since I've posted here.  I have missed blogging--well, I have missed sharing recipes with everyone.  The bloggy part was always the hardest, trying to come up with some sort of fun story about the recipe to share, so when I realized I wanted to reboot A Dash of Nutmeg that was the first thing I wanted to cut out.  The new site will focus 100% on the recipes and the pictures to make things as easy as possible to follow.

I'm going to leave this site up as a time capsule of sorts, but I'm also going to copy the recipes over to the new site over time. Come check it out:

A Dash of Nutmeg

Hope to see you there!

Hungry Girl Giveaway Winner

My giveaway for the Hungry Girl Diet Book at Flatout prize pack ended an hour ago and I know you all can't wait to see who the winner is, so without further ado here it is:

Congrats, Amanda!  I have your email address and will be sending the contact info over to Hungry Girl this afternoon.  I hope you enjoy the book and flatbread as much as I do!  And don't forget to check out the Flatout Hungry Girl FoldIt Breakfast Sandwich recipe that I featured on my blog last week.

For those of you who didn't win you can purchase the book from amazon here.  It's definitely worth it!

In other news, one of my recipes was featured on BuzzFeed for the first time over the weekend!  Now is the perfect time of year to start gathering recipes that call for strawberry and blueberry so check out the rest of the recipes in the article.

Until next time, happy cooking!

Hungry Girl Book Review - GIVEAWAY

A little over a week ago I had the opportunity to attend a book signing and blogger meet-up with Lisa Lillien, the best-selling author and founder of Hungry Girl.  Hungry Girl started as a site that provides tips and recipes for people who love to eat and also want to keep it healthy.  I've been a fan of Hungry Girl for years so of course I jumped at the chance to attend.

Flatout Hungry Girl FoldIt Breakfast Sandwich

Thanks to the Hungry Girl book tour I was recently the recipient of a lot of Flatout flatbread.  I mean a lot.  Like, think of a lot and multiply it by 2.  That's probably what I had left after sharing half of my stash with a friend.  Luckily for my family I have no shortage of ideas for the bread, and luckily for me the bread freezes very easily.

One of the first things that popped into my head was that the Flatout Hungry Girl Foldits would be perfect for a breakfast sandwich, and I was happy to find that I was right.  Fold-its are a great alternative to bread for sandwiches; they're quick, healthier, and even a little less messy - read: great for kids!

Here's my recipe for a super quick breakfast sandwich using the plain Fold-Its:

Ingredients:
1 plain Flatout Hungry Girl Foldit
1 egg (or equivalent amount of egg substitute)
2 oz ham or turkey lunch meat
1 oz reduced fat mozzarella cheese
1 tbsp barbeque sauce
salt and pepper to taste

Mix the egg with as much salt and pepper as you like and cook it in a frying pan until it's done.  During the last few minutes of cooking sprinkle the cheese on top to get it nice and melty.  Assemble the sandwich and enjoy.

Want to make one of your own?  Check back later this week - I'll be telling you all about the reason I have so much flatbread and giving you a chance to win a prize pack!

Apple Pie Cheesecake

This fall I decided to join a local CSA.  It was such a great decision because it was surprisingly affordable and my husband and I are now eating healthier than either of us have in a long time.  The only down side to it is that sometimes we are inundated with a particular food, and of course with it being fall, we have had apples coming out of our ears.  

While trying to come up with new ways to use the apples I kept dreaming of an apple pie/cheesecake hybrid.  I didn't want a cheesecake with some apples in it or and apple pie with cheesecake mixed in, but something simpler: a layer or crust, a layer of cheesecake, a layer of apple pie, and maybe a crumb topping.  Would you believe there was no such thing on the web?  I searched through pages and pages of google search results and couldn't find anything like what I was after!  I knew I was just going to have to make one myself, but I had no idea that it was going to turn out this yummy on the first try.  My family actually fought over the last piece!

Miss Collins

I am not quite sure what it is about the summertime but it really brings out the gin fan in me.  It must be all those summers growing up spent poolside while the adults in my family enjoyed gin and tonics.

My gin drink of choice is usually a Tom Collins but sometimes I want something a little more fruity so I crafted this drink with a passion fruit tea-flavored simple syrup.  I like to think of Miss Collins as the trendy daughter of Tom.

 

Sweet Refrigerator Pickles

Recently I found myself in one of those moods where I wanted some homemade pickles.  Ever get into one of those moods?  Not necessarily for pickles, but when you just have a craving for something awesome from your childhood?  My grandmother used to make refrigerator pickles every summer.  There were a few certain things I could always count on being in her fridge and homemade pickles was one of them.  Sadly I don't have her recipe, but after a bit of experimenting I think this one comes close.

Breakfast Egg Muffins

I have been pinning a lot of make-and-take breakfast recipes lately because I am not a morning person.  For some reason I decided that I need to wait till I get to work in the morning to have my coffee, so making my own breakfast in the morning at home is just not going to happen.  I have seen the egg muffin  recipe a few times on the internet and it always seemed like a great thing to try - bake them on Sunday night and have breakfast for the whole week ready to go?  Count me in!  So here is my take.

Garlic Lime Tilapia

Happy Thursday, everybody!  As my workweek winds down my life tends to get busier so I always try to have some basic ingredients on hand to throw a quick dinner together when I don't feel like cooking.  Tilapia is one of the things that is always in my freezer.  It's a very mild fish so you can do just about any kind of sauce on it and it will taste yummy.  It's also fast cooking.  So last week when I came home and wanted a quick dinner I pulled some tilapia out of my freezer and had dinner ready in 20 minutes.  How awesome is that?!

Green Pea Dip Two Ways or, The Journey of a Thousand Miles

Happy New Year!  I figured I'd start this year off a little differently and tell you a little story about myself, something I don't often do on this blog, and especially not about this topic.

Throughout most of my childhood and all of my adult life I have been overweight/fat/obese.  Normally I don't write about it on my blog because at the end of the day I want this blog to be about food, but today is going to be one of the exceptions.  Don't worry, you'll still get your recipe.  If this is TL;DR feel free to scroll down to the bottom and follow the jump for it.

For those of you who aren't lucky enough to know me in real life (or maybe that makes you lucky?), I have recently undergone a lifestyle change.  Actually, lifestyle overhaul is more like it.

At the end of October 2012 I went to a Women's Expo event to watch my beautiful niece in her first runway show.  As luck would have it I won a $459 gift certificate to a local gym.  I have never been into gyms, but I figured I might join one if it was free.  The gym called me a week later to set up an appointment for my tour and so on November 6, 2012 I joined a gym.  Something tells me I'm never going to forget that date.

With my membership came several weeks of free sessions with a personal trainer, also something I'd never thought I'd be interested in, but what can I say?  I'm a sucker for free.  So with a healthy dose of skepticism I began working with a trainer. 

I think a trainer was exactly what I needed.  Sure, he was there to show me how to use the weight machines, correct my form, and count my reps for me, but I think the best thing for me was the accountability and encouragement from somebody who does it for a living and knows what he is talking about.

Since November 6 I have been going to the gym an average of 4 times a week, either for training sessions, by myself, or with one of my amazingly supportive friends/co-workers.  It feels weird to be writing that sentence about myself, but it's completely true.  In the past several weeks I have found that I have more energy and I actually look forward to going to the gym.  I have even gotten up early on the weekend (which admittedly is 9am for me) to go workout.  Yep, I've become one of "those people".

The other big factor in my lifestyle overhaul has been my diet.  I started using a free app/website called Lose It!, where I track my foods and exercises daily, and socialize with others who also have goals to lose weight or be healthy.

I don't have any plans to turn this into a fitness blog or one that only features healthy recipes.  Yeah, my daily eating habits have changed, but I still love spam casserole and chicken french, so I'm gonna keep posing recipes like that, even if they are decadent as hell.  I mean, have you seen the series I did on the 12 Days of Christmas Cookies??  Talk about sugar overload!  Occasionally I want to also throw in some recipes that are healthy, too, but A Dash of Nutmeg's focus is still going to be on food that is just plain awesome.

So, now to the food.