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Pretzel Crack & Other Things

Posted on March 1, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys!

I don’t have long, BB and I are about to head out for our new weekly tradition with a couple of our friends…

Thursday Trivia Night!

They have it at our local Mexican restaurant. If you win first or second place, you get a gift card to the restaurant…and well, if you come in 6th out of 8 teams like we did last week, you get to kick yourself in the rear over each and every question you answered incorrectly.

Before I get on to explaining the title of this post, I’d like to take a minute and welcome any new readers that have come over from Be @ Home! Hey guys! 🙂

For my regular readers, Be @ Home is a home decor blog where you can find just about ANYTHING to fit your tastes…design tips, crafting projects, you name it…if you’ve never heard about it, you totally need to check it out!

I also want to say a BIG thank you to Jennifer for featuring me on The Best of the Web…I am truly honored! 🙂

So, I’m kinda looking forward to Thursdays lately…not just because tomorrow is Friday, and not just for trivia night, but it always seems that by Thursday of each week, I just can’t wait to share something with you guys 🙂

Let’s see what made the list this week!

MUSIC

Am I the only one who gets a little trigger happy after clicking “buy” for the first time?

I swear I only got on iTunes yesterday to download the Phoenix and The Black Keys songs. One hour and twenty mouse clicks later…

Oh and that last song?

I like a pretty wide variety of music, but I would never really consider myself a “country music fan”…

I know, I live next to the country music capital of the world…it should be illegal, right?

But you have GOT to hear these ladies sing!

Pretty catchy, right? Yeah, I’ve been humming it for over 24 hours now! Lol

SPECIAL DELIVERY

Over the weekend, while playing some pool with my rockstar boyfriend and his friends, I posted this on Instagram:

Cinnamon-flavored crack sticks! Seriously people…you can’t have just one ~~handful~~!

Little did I know a certain Insta-ninja started scheming a plan after seeing that pic and these babies showed up on my doorstep yesterday!

Not one, but TWO containers!

Of which I promptly began quality assurance testing…

Yeah, by the looks of the dent I made in that container on the left, I’d say these will last oh about…a month!

PHOTO EDITING

While listening to all my new tuneage that I virtually emptied my wallet on, I turned my attention to something a little more thrifty:

What do you guys think of my new desktop background?

Nothing like FREE photo editing!

I’ve used the free version of Picnik for a while now to enhance some of the pictures I post on the blog, but did you know that come middle of April, Picnik will be no more?

Yeah, yeah, yeah….so sad.

Butttttttttt, did you know that until then, all the “premium fonts/effects/other really cool stuff” that you used to have to pay to use is now…

Totally FREE!?!?

Go forth into the wonderful world of FREE picniking…edit till your little heart’s content!

Just be warned…

It’s easy to get a little carried away! 😉

What is your favorite band?

What was the last thing you received in the mail that WASN’T a bill or junk?

Posted in Photography, Thursday Things | Tagged iTunes, mail, music, photo editing | 13 Comments

Warning: Food Was Harmed in the Making of this WIAW

Posted on February 29, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Happy Wednesday everybody…we’re only that much closer to the weekend!

And you know what time it is!

Be sure to head on over to Peas & Crayons and show some love to our hostess Jenn for another fabulous WIAW!

I feel this post should come with some kind of warning…or maybe I need to come with some sort of warning!

Caution: Highly accident-prone, wear protective gear and keep alert while entering subject’s presence

For example, doesn’t this breakfast look delicious?

Puffed millet, black cherry Chobani, Dulce de Leche Cheerios, banana, and topped with Emerald’s cinnamon sugar nut mix

And this picture was taken about 5 minutes before it went crashing to the floor!

LUCKILY, I only lost the top 1/3 and was able to salvage the rest, but of course it only happened because I was running late to work.

I also had a cup of un-pictured black coffee that I took to go (obviously due to lateness) that was so gracious to start leaking mid-drive and resulted in nice little brown spots down the front of my scrub top…

It’s all about the contrasting colors, I hear it’s all the rage in the fashion world in the UK!
UK readers will remain silent if they know what’s good for them. 😉

A couple hours later, I had one of my favorite bars for a midmorning snack:

I swear it taste JUST like those Oreos covered in white chocolate!

We were really busy at the hospital on Monday and didn’t get to eat lunch until an hour later than usual…which definitely had me grateful that I had that bar on hand.

Mixed greens, sprouts, portobello mushrooms and carrots topped with this dressing

and…

Leftover Seafood Gumbo!

On my way home from work I munched on an apple.

And then I made use of the amazing weather we were having and was off for an impromtu run!

First bit of cardio I’ve done in a week and a half thanks to the LiveFit Trainer and I could DEFINITELY tell a difference…not my best time, but at least it was more enjoyable than this one!

After I got in and got cleaned up, I heated up some of the leftover pizza from this weekend:

I have to say I was a bit sad to see these last two slices go

Let’s take a look at that glorious pie one more time:

I raise my colorful pizza flag in honor of the last WIAW post for Veggie Month! 😉

After a relaxing night of movie watching (this one in particular) and fingernail painting, there was a bit of a massacre…

A chocolate massacre to be more precise.

3 piece of Godiva chocolate were brutally murdered between the hours of 8 and 9pm…along with a glass of unsweetened almond milk.

Please pause for a moment of silence in memory of our fallen comrades…

But man, were they DELICIOUS!! 😉

Any accident-prone, lateness-induced, food-flying instances in your life lately?

What’s the best thing you ate today?

Posted in Breakfast, Entree, Snacks, What I Ate Wednesday | Tagged chocolate, coffee, Greek yogurt, pizza | 19 Comments

BB’s Homemade Seafood Gumbo

Posted on February 28, 2012 by kissmybroccoli

Hey guys!

So, yesterday I alluded to some delicious homemade gumbo finding itself into my weekend…but not just ANY gumbo…

BB’s Homemade Seafood Gumbo…topped with a lobster tail!

After a great weekend of traveling, visiting family, and site seeing, we stopped by the store on the way back to Casa de Broccoli and picked up all the necessities for whipping up a big bowl of comfort.

While BB got to work slicing, dicing, peeling, and stirring, I sat perched on the countertop asking questions and taking notes.

Yep, that’s right!

JUST for you! 🙂

I couldn’t keep this pot of deliciousness to myself now could I?

No, seriously…there’s enough to feed a football team! Who’s up for a belated Mardi Gras party??

Feel free to scale down the recipe as needed…or you could definitely make the entire batch, portion it out, and pop it in the freezer…BAM, gumbo any time your heart desires!

BB’s Homemade Seafood Gumbo

by Heather Powers

Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Cook Time: 1-1.5 hours

Keywords: entree soup/stew seafood

Ingredients (Serves 8-10)

1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup olive oil
32oz chicken broth
1/2lb dark meat chicken (we used boneless thigh meat)
1lb raw shrimp (peeled and deveined)
1lb white flaky fish
3 8oz cans oysters
2 cups diced celery
1 cup sliced carrots
2 cups sliced okra
1 32oz can sliced stewed tomatoes
2 teaspoons minced garlic
3 bay leaves
1/2 teaspoon salt-free seasoning (we used TJ’s 21 Salute)
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

In a thick bottomed pot or dutch oven, combine the flour and oil and allow to cook over medium heat for 20-30 minutes depending on preference (the longer it cooks, the stronger the flavor). This is your “roux”.

In a separate (large) pot combine chicken, fish, oysters, celery, carrots, tomatoes and spices and allow to cook over medium heat for approximately 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Once the roux is to your desired doneness, stir in chicken broth and allow to simmer over medium heat for 5-10 minutes and then transfer to your other pot.

Add shrimp and okra and allow to cook over medium heat until the shrimp turn pink.

Serve as is with cornbread or biscuits or stir in some cooked rice.

The best thing about this recipe is that you can switch up just about any of the ingredients and have a completely different dish each time you make it! You can also spice it up any way you like…we chose not to add spice until it was served due to our different taste preferences.

Quote from BB*

“I think there are 3 stages to gumbo…the first bowl filled with different flavors and textures from the soft oysters, to the firm shrimp, to the crunchy okra…the second day after all the flavors meld and it gets a little softer…and then there’s the third day when it’s just plain comfort food!”

*paraphrased of course 😉

To tell you the truth, before meeting BB, I had never ever had gumbo and now? I can’t believe I went so long without it! Definitely one of my top comfort food dishes!

Have you ever had gumbo?

What is your favorite Mardi Gras themed dish?

This year the hospital had a little celebration and made a pretty rocking king cake…but of course as per usual, that happened to be the ONLY thing that was edible!