What To Do With Turkey Leftovers-Turkey Bolognese

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving! I am excited that the season is upon us and I am gonna do what I can to make this the most economical Christmas season ever. I am also going to try to be a little more crafty this season, God help us all. 

My Turkey Day ended too soon with a bout of stomach flu. To save you the details, the last thing I want to do is think about eating Thanksgiving food. Ever. So, I am on the search to find things that are non traditional with my turkey and its leftovers. Be sure to check out Skinny Taste and her Turkey Pot Pie Soup here. She is a rockstar at low calorie recipes and she is from my family's hometown of Oceanside, NY and I thought this looked really good. When I was watching The Today Show, they gave me the idea of taking my turkey and making a Bolognese sauce. I grabbed Giada's recipe and can't wait to try it!! I am able to take the leftover carrots, turkey, onions and celery and make an Italian favorite with turkey.

Check out her video here!!


Turkey Bolognese
Recipe courtesy Giada De Laurentiis

Ingredients
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 carrot, peeled and finely chopped
1 celery stalk, finely chopped
1 pound shredded cooked turkey (preferably dark meat)
3 cups marinara sauce
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil leaves
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 pound spaghetti
Freshly grated Parmesan

Directions

Heat the oil in a heavy large frying pan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic and saute until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the carrot and celery and saute until the vegetables are tender, about 5 minutes. Add the turkey and saute 1 minute. Add the marinara sauce. Decrease the heat to medium-low and simmer gently for 15 minutes to allow the flavors to blend, stirring often. Stir in the basil. Season the sauce, to taste, with salt and pepper. (The sauce can be made 1 week ahead. Cool the sauce completely, then transfer it to a container and freeze for future use. Bring the sauce to a simmer before using.)

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti in a large pot of boiling salted water until just tender but still firm to bite, stirring often, about 8 minutes. Drain, reserving 1 cup of the cooking liquid. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to coat, adding enough reserved cooking liquid to moisten as needed. Serve with the Parmesan

Copyright 2012 Television Food Network G.P.
All Rights Reserved

Credit:Culinary.net

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Socially Acceptable....Morning Pics

The holidays are upon us. This year, I haven't exactly started to feel it. My last year in my thirties are about to begin and I just can't believe another year is about to close. It has been an amazing year but how do you grasp time and make it hold still? One think I am thankful for is thanks to social media and its many platforms, my pictures and the memories that go with them are usually a click away. I have sent all my pictures from my phone to Google Plus and Instagram just makes everything so pretty...doesn't it?? I have started following a couple of people on Instagram that embody my love for NYC and I just love how an okay picture looks dynamic in Instagram. One cute program that I get a chance to visit every morning in my inbox is Morning Pics. According to their website, Morning Pics are memories delivered daily to your inbox.Wake up every morning to a small reminder of a special moment you captured and shared on Instagram.

It is awesome and I highly suggest it for a good pick me up each and every morning. I will warn you, however some mornings your heart will tug a little as you realize that it has been 72 days since you have seen your darling niece, 112 days since you visited your favorite place on Earth...and that night, THAT night happened 179 days ago. 

But, isnt that what reflection is all about??

Sign up for Morning Pics here

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It;s Spicy Guacamole Day!

Yay! Today, November 14th is National Spicy Guacamole Day! Timely, it was also my turn to make a meal for my Junior League Board members. so I took the lead from Wholly Guacamole and made my girls Chicken and Guacamole Salad. This recipe idea originally came from Kalyn's Kitchen here, but I reworked it a little to accomodate my love for Spicy Wholly Guacamole. Because I have to celebrate! It is an official no guilt time to enjoy the goodness of guacamole!! 

Here is my recipe:


Ingredients:

2 cups cooked chicken, shredded into large pieces

1 7-oz container of Wholly Spicy Guacamole 

1 bunch of cilantro

1/2 bunch of green onions

1 bad of lettuce

Salt and Pepper to taste

Sour cream

Mexican cheese shredded

Wholly Guacamole Salsa

Instructions:

In a food processor, chop up cilantro and green onions, add the chicken in a medium mixing bowl. Based on your company, you can either add the guacamole now, or can add it later as a layer. Salt and pepper chicken mixture to taste. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 20 minutes to blend the flavors.

The healthiest way to pull this off is to layer lettuce on the bottom and your chicken mix on top. Now add sour cream, salsa, cheese and guacamole to your liking. Let me know what you added to make it great in the comments! 

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Amazon Introduces Wine. I am in Trouble

I was having quite a case of the Mondays yesterday....it just started off bad! Until I started going through emails and I had to do a double take. Amazon Introduces Wine. According to the press release,  just in time for the holidays- Amazon is offering customers more than a thousand wines crafted by wineries around the country. The new store features easy-to-use shopping tools to help customers explore great wines and offers access to rich details directly from winemakers, such as tasting notes, recommended food pairings and total case production.


Starting today, customers can ship up to six bottles of their favorite wine for $9.99. At launch, shipping will be available to California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming and the District of Columbia, with more coming soon. Customers can find more information about shipping at www.amazon.com/wineshipping.



Click here for more details and remember your friends and family and certain birthday girls (ahem) this holiday season! Pin It

Skinny and Clean: Eating on the Go!

Rickland Orchards Has Saved Me! Ok, that is a little dramatic but I am a tad obsessed with Rickland Orchards Greek Yogurt Coated Granola Bars. I am the worst at making sure that I eat something before yoga or a run. I know that it is important to keep your metabolism solid blah blah...but I am just not very good at it. This was until I was introduced to the awesome of Rickland Orchard Bars. They come in a ton of different flavors, and they are just what you need to get great protein and some balance any time of the day. Rickland has a good blog about it here.


The Greek Yogurt craze has become a national phenomenon over the past few years, and Rickland Orchards Greek Yogurt Bars have taken it to the next level! They are the first shelf-stable Greek Yogurt product, and combines all-natural ingredients (fruit, Greek Yogurt, nuts and granola) to create a delicious and nutritious on-the-go snack. They are a low calorie, low fat, filling and delicious snack that is perfect for parents, children, busy and on-the-go professionals, or anyone that wants to munch on a travel friendly snack without the guilt. Rickland Orchards Greek Yogurt Bars contain all natural ingredients, 5g of fiber, 7g of protein, and probiotics.

Apparently I am not alone in this worship! One of my favorite foodies Hungry Girl has been raving about Rickland Orchards and Maria Menounos has recently signed on the be the face of the Rickland Orchards Brand! She will promote healthy living and well-balanced lifestyle through a variety of videos, images, health tips and will even create her own flavor!

Just in time for the holidays, Rickland introduces two new flavors: Strawberri and Peanut Butter According to Hungry Girl Lisa-The Strawberri bars taste like Strawberry Pop-Tarts, and the Peanut Butter flavor (with dark chocolate) is predictably delicious! Packed with protein and fiber, each bar has 150 - 170 calories and 4 - 8g fat (PointsPlus® value 4*). Buy 'em online -- they'll be launching in stores soon!

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The Social Media Political Hangover

Credit:Mashable

Wednesday, I got up and started working at 5:30...normal for me and by 10am I was so tired I took a bed day and spent the rest of the day horizontal working with computer on a lap desk and remote in hand. 

I am politically hungover.

I do love the political season....it is a good chance to get involved, pick up some new clients and make some money. This year, I struggled with my sanity a little bit more because in '10, social media was sort of new to us on a personal level, much less known on a business perspective. My business was just six month old and I picked up a US House of Rep client (he won, thank you!!!) and my new friend Cyndi and I figured out very quickly what belonged on social media and what belonged cluttering your mailbox, your ears or your eyes during the nightly news. 

This election season was a little more intense and I learned a lot. Some things I removed off my candidates FB page would defy your belief in the human race. So sad....but using social media in a campaign gave me an opportunity to promote happy positive news and keep each candidate branded and top of mind. 

This year I had six clients, only one didn't make the primary, but I thankfully picked up his opponent. I had a Sheriff, a Clerk, a County Council candidate. a Judge and another House Rep. (all W's!!)

Some takeaways for the next time I venture into doing social media for politics, although probably good tips for any Facebook campaign (pun intended!):

1. Set Up Google Alerts for the race your candidate is in, the area they are running in and their opponent (s). Feed it into Google Reader to keep it all in one place. This will give you an arsenal of Facebook posts and lets you be on top of articles that you may have missed. Also, make sure your custom url for Facebook is on all your marketing materials. You should be constantly sending people to your Facebook instead of your website and use FB to push material from your website. This way, once they like you...they are hooked and will constantly receive your updates. Its hard to get people to keep visiting your website at that frequency.

2 When you set up your Facebook page, use your Google Reader to get your Notifications. Unless you want to refresh every five minutes, this is a convenient way to respond to comments, observe chatter and monitor your presence. Get your RSS notifications here.

3. Warm and Fluffy Rules-Social Media is the place to make the candidate appear full of nothing but unicorns and rainbows. Do not attack your opponent, discuss anything negative or bash. Promote your candidate's good-doings, great news in their district, endorsements, volunteer help needed, events where you could use support, etc. Those negative ads? They belong in print, radio, direct mail...not social media!  

4. Time and Frequency-Besides you, your team and your mom...no one cares about this campaign for as long as you do. You should post once a day every other business day until ten days before the election, you can then post once daily. Please keep the posts short and sweet, no more than two lines or you will lose them. Please post only during business hours. People do not want to see your rhetoric at 10p at night. Be the source for the election as a whole, posting general voting information. Your content should be not always about the campaign, mix it up a little. You can also talk and share any good news that organizations the candidate is involved in does. 

5. Remove the Haters-Keep your eye on the notifications and ban the haters. Just be careful that you are not playing God when someone writes a fair balanced opinion. But definitely remove the yuck that talks ill about your candidate or supports the opponent. Stay on top of it, the notifications will help. Also, make sure you answer questions when people ask...the worst thing you can do is leave an unanswered Facebook message from someone looking to help support the campaign.  

6. Hyperlink other businesses to bring them in. When you do an event, the next morning you should thank the business or organization that held it, if possible by tagging them. How to do that is here.

7. Hire a professional. Of course at some point I was going to mention this! It just makes a lot of sense because it really is work intensive to be a success on social media for your campaign. It helps that you have a member of your team paid or not to do solely just this. Staying on top of it and being consistent can be very hard to do when you have other campaign aspects to worry about. It is also helpful to have an impartial person that isn't emotionally connected to the campaign to post. That way it really can stay fair and balanced. 

What did you like about this political season that you saw on social media?? Be sure to leave it in the comments!

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Skinny and Clean-Beau Monde Chicken Lollies

I was watching the Cooking Channel the other day and I saw a recipe for Chicken Lollies. They looked so good, but I searched and searched and couldn't find the recipe! So, I decided to make them on my own with some help from Spice Islands and their fabulous spices. I have been wanting to try their Beau Monde spice and I thought taking ground chicken, where you need to be creative with your spicing would be a good match. Beau Monde Seasoning is a perfect balance of celery, onion and salt with a touch of sweetness, Spice Islands® Beau Monde® seasoning enhances the flavor of virtually any savory dish and is great as a rub for roasted meats. This was so easy and it looked really fancy when I presented it, as you can see: 

Ground Chicken 

Diced Onions, one container-precut

Spice Islands Garlic Powder

Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning

Spice Islands Oregano

Salt and Pepper

1/4 c Breadcrumbs 

Blend All Ingredients 

Shape Into Balls, Insert a Skewer 

Set oven for 375 degrees. Time to make a quick marinade before you stick them in the oven. 

In a small bowl mix:

2 TB Spice Islands Allspice 

2 TB Spice Islands Thyme 

2 TB Spice Islands Oregano 

1 TB lime juice 

1 TSP Spice Islands Cayenne Pepper 

1 TB Spice Islands Beau Monde Seasoning

3 cloves Garlic 

2 dashes Soy Sauce 

1/4 Olive Oil

Whisk well and pour over Chicken Lollies. Bake at 375 degrees for 20 minutes or until cooked, the Chicken Lollies will no longer be pink.  

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Wholly Guacamole Homegating Website is Live!

So excited! Remember, when I told you about the Wholly Guacamole blogger fun I will be having this football season here and here?? The website is up and it is so awesome! Wholly Guacamole Headquarters has awesome products, recipes and HomeGating ideas to make this the best football season ever! It is a one stop Game Day destination for recipes, decorating and more using all your favorite Wholly Guacamole Products like their guacamole and salsas! Check it out here!

Look, I made the Blogger Playbook! So fancy! 

 

Let's celebrate and get you in the Homegating Mood with a Wholly Guacamole Cooler of Goodies! This will be a good start to try all these great recipe ideas! The winner will receive one Wholly Guacamole Cooler similar to the one I received! Click below to enter!

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