Merry Christmas Giveaway

It's the season for giving, so today I am giving back to my readers and offering up a giveaway where one lucky reader is going to win a $20 Amazon Gift Card to help with your holiday shopping!

Up for grabs is a $20 Amazon gift card. The giveaway is open to all, and will run through 12/23/19. I will send an Amazon.com gift card through email, and while this giveaway is open to all, it is the entrant's responsibility to make sure Amazon is available where they reside as no prize substitutions will be made. The winner will have 24 hours to respond to winning email before a new one is chosen. As some participants aren't on all social media platforms, I offer multiple ways to enter, but remember, each one is optional. Enter only the ones you'd like an entry for. Good luck!

Entry-Form

*images used from cleanpng

Easy Chocolate Honey Treats for the Holidays

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


Tis' the season for baking. Sadly, I've been battling a super nasty cold since last week and have a whopping 0 recipes baked so far. Not even for Thanksgiving where I opted to leave the oven off and just make a quick peanut butter pie. In all honesty, the thought of baking anything any time soon makes my head hurt as much as my throat does right now, so quick, easy, no-bake treats is going to be the name of the game for the time being. I was going to make Rice Krispies Treats for Allison's swim meet, but realized I had no marshmallows on hand. Thankfully, I found an awesome recipe on Golden Blossom Honey for a chocolatey version of the famous treats that requires only 4 ingredients and none of them are marshmallows. These Chocolate Honey Treats are every bit (if not more) tasty than the classic version without the sticky mess.

These Chocolate Honey Treats are perfect for those who want to gift treats this holiday season or have to bring a dessert to one of the many functions that seem to go on this time of the year, but don't have a lot of time or energy to dedicate to hours spent in the kitchen baking. It only took about 5 minutes of my time to get this recipe to come together, so I made a double batch to have extra treats to pass out at this weekend's swim meet and the dinners we have to attend. Yummy treats + minimal effort = winning! Tuck some in your cookie exchange boxes this holiday season. They will be a surefire hit with the recipients!

Ingredients

1/2 of a 12 ounce package of Nestle milk chocolate morsels
1/4 cup GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
1 Tablespoon water
3 cups Rice Crispies Cereal

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

Do you participate in cookie exchanges during the holidays?

 

Nixplay Helps You Stay Close This Holiday Season #StayClose

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


Spending time with loved ones is the best thing about the holidays. Baking cookies, decorating the tree, wrapping gifts, singing carols together... that's where the best memories are made. I like to preserve those memories by taking lots of photos throughout the season to reflect back upon throughout the year. In today's digital age, it's so easy to snap a quick pic only to have it remained buried in your phone unseen and practically forgotten about. That's why this year I quickly fell in love with Nixplay Smart Photo Frames. I received my first Nixplay Seed over the summer and it became my absolute favorite product of 2019. It allowed me to upload the photos off of my phone and computer so I could actually enjoy seeing my snaps every single day. If you would like to read my review for the Nixplay Seed and see how simple it is to set up and use, you can find that review HERE. 

Now that the holidays are in full swing, I find myself taking many photos once again. With a new year almost upon us, it was time to add a new smart frame to my collection to hold more of my pictures. I recently added a Nixplay Smart Photo Frame 10.1 to my digital frame collection.

The Nixplay Smart Photo Frame 10.1 is a sleek, sharp, and modern frame that flows perfectly with any home decor, and it is super simple to use. You can quickly pair it with your phone to seamlessly upload photos directly to the frame. It only takes seconds to have your cherished memories on display to admire throughout the day. You can set the frame to portrait or landscape, however you choose to view your photos, but one of my favorite features is with this frame, you have the option to wall mount or leave it freestanding. While I leave mine on the coffee table, I do like having the option to mount it to the wall since it will give me more freedom to display the frame anywhere I please around my home.

 
The picture quality is absolutely amazing. My photos always look perfect on my computer and phone, but when I upload them to social media, I notice that the quality diminishes and looks pixelated and grainy sometimes. When I first started using Nixplay Smart Frames, I was worried that would be the case as well once I got everything uploaded, but that's simply not true. Because of its 1280 x 800 HD screen resolution, my photos are flawlessly displayed.

The Integrated Hu-Motion Sensor detects movement, turning your frame on and off automatically. Or, you can choose to use the remote to power it on and off. Another feature that I love is that with the Nixplay Smart Photo Frame 10.1, the remote is magnetic! Simply stick it to the frame when not in use and you never have to worry about misplacing it. (I stuck mine to the front in this pic, but it would probably be smarter to attache it to the back of the frame. That was a "duh" moment on my part!)

I know that many of us have family members all over the country, and as much as we'd love to be with them during the holidays, that's just not possible. My own daughter will be moving across the country next year once she graduates from college, so I'm preparing myself for the inevitable upcoming holidays that we won't be together. That's where Nixplay comes in handy, by keeping us close and connected through their Smart Frames. You can invite friends and family members to upload photos to the frame, so you are connected even when you can't be together. That's why I think that Nixplay should be at the top of your gift giving list this year, since it gives you the ability to stay close to your loved ones all year long.

Right now, from December 2 to December 8, Nixplay is offering pretty sweet Cyber Monday Deals on their Smart Frames where you could save up to 30% off of your favorite digital frames. If you're looking for the perfect gift for your loved ones, I highly encourage you to check out all of the Nixplay Smart Frames and deals going on now. You cannot go wrong with a digital frame since it's the gift that keeps on giving all year long.

Where would you display your Nixplay Smart Frame?

 

 

Turkey & Pasta Casserole

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


Did you all stuff yourselves silly yesterday? I definitely did! Even with all the chowing down, we still ended up with a lot of leftover turkey. Which is cool, because I always like to find creative and delicious ways to put those holiday leftovers to good use. My daughter is home from college this week and her #1 request for dinner when she's here is always fettuccine. Instead of making my usual recipe that has a very heavy cream sauce, I decided to try this Turkey and Pasta Casserole recipe from Golden Blossom Honey to keep things a little lighter for our tummies. After a heavy Thanksgiving dinner, we definitely need a few days of scaling back on the creamy and fatty recipes around here until we can get our bodies back in check. 

After hosting Friendsgiving last weekend, attending a work dinner for the holiday, then spending actual Thanskgiving at his mom's house, my husband is sooooo over turkey right now. However, this recipe totally breathes new life into your leftovers since there's an awesome medley of other goodies mixed in. My family gobbled this dish right up, so I was pleased to see that our leftover turkey did not go to waste this year. A win for my wallet and a win for their tummies!

Ingredients

1 pound fettuccine, cooked according to package directions (do not overcook)
1 pound fresh spinach, washed, stems removed, chopped
5 Tablespoons olive oil
1/2 cup half & half
1 cup Parmesan cheese, grated
1 bunch leeks, white part only, washed thoroughly and chopped
1/4 pound mushrooms, sliced
2 cups cooked leftover turkey, cubed
1 (15 ounce) container ricotta cheese
1 cup white wine
2 teaspoons tarragon
2 teaspoons GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
salt and pepper to taste

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

 Do you usually have a lot of leftovers after Thanksgiving?

A Quick Stop at Plymouth Rock

On the last leg of our summer travels, Jason had a few days in Boston planned out. I wanted to throw in something a little educational into our itinerary, so I mentioned taking the girls to Plymouth Rock once we grabbed our rental car. It was a few hours out of our way, but after a lot of back and forth, Jason finally caved and added it to our itinerary. I mean, I wasn't going all the way to Massachusetts only to skip out on seeing such an important landmark! While I got my way, I knew we couldn't dilly dally around once we got there. We parked our car in town, then quickly made our way walking towards the harbor. We walked down a cozy little street lined with beautiful historic homes. Each one had its own plaque detailing when the home was built and who lived there.

You'll find lots of little statues and plaques around the area filled with historical knowledge. So, if you don't opt for a guided tour, you can still learn a lot by stopping to read these monuments.

Once we made our way out of the the little neighborhood, we spotted the granite canopy where the famous rock is located. By the time we reached it, there was quite a large tour group crowding around, making it a bit difficult to get a good look.

We eventually made our way to the front of the line for a quick peek and a few photos. I always imagined Plymouth Rock as being a massive rock, so I was quite shocked that is was only a few feet in width and height. Even with it having been broken in half during an attempted move many years ago, I never would have guessed it would be that small.

The whole area of Pilgrim Memorial State Park is quite charming, though it is small, so thankfully we really didn't need a whole lot of time to soak it in. Talking to some of the locals, they did say the best time to visit is in November as it's more decorative and there are festivals to enjoy then. Sadly, we were there in July, so we were a bit early for the festivities, but it was still fun to explore.

We spent about an hour in the park, and even on such a small time limit, I feel like we saw most of what there was to offer to visitors. Unless you want an in-depth tour, an hour or two should be sufficient time to see the important parts of Pilgrim Memorial State Park.

Wishing all of my American readers a Happy Thanksgiving. We'll see you back here on Friday for a recipe for your turkey leftovers :)

Roast Turkey With Herb Rub

Disclosure- I received the mentioned product courtesy of the sponsor for the the purpose of this review. All opinions are genuine, based on my experience with the product, and have not been influenced by promotional items.


For having a mostly foodie blog, I'm going to admit that I have never cooked a turkey myself. It's true that I am in charge of almost every meal that we eat at home because I may or may not get a little snippy over the mess that the family leaves behind when cooking. But when it comes to Thanksgiving turkey, that's one thing that I still need to cross off my to-do list. Jason has cooked the bird every year that we've been together because it's never made its way into our oven. It's either cooked in the smoker or deep fryer, two gadgets that he had to have even though I'm the house chef. But with his purchases, that made him exclusively responsible for turkey duty every year. Fine by me. But with the incredible sales going on this month, I couldn't resist picking up a turkey a few weeks ago and trying my hand at actually roasting one in the conventional oven. Since Jason has his own cooking method down, I needed to find a recipe that even I could handle as a turkey roasting newbie. Since Golden Blossom Honey hasn't failed me yet, I grabbed this Roast Turkey with Herb Rub recipe of theirs and got to work. 

I remember my mom waking up before the sun was even out to get Thanksgiving dinner going. Because of that, I always had it in my mind that actually roasting a turkey in the oven was an all day thing. But thinking back on it now, dinner was always on the table right around the start of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. I'm sure now that her plan was to have dinner on the table as soon as possible, then have everyone kicked out of the house by early afternoon so she could nap off all her hard work for the rest of the day to be well rested for those early morning Black Friday Sales. It only took me about 30 minutes of prep work to get the turkey ready, then just a few simple hours with minimal basting here and there to have a fully cooked, golden bird ready for the table. Definitely not as hard as I imagined it would be, and I'm pleased to say that my first roasted turkey came through with a passing grade.

Ingredients

1 (12 to 15 pound) turkey
2 lemons
1 cup fresh parsley leaves, loosely packed
4 cloves garlic, peeled
2 teaspoons dried rosemary
1 tablespoon GOLDEN BLOSSOM HONEY
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon pepper

CLICK HERE FOR FULL RECIPE

You can find this recipe, as well as many more delicious recipes right on the Golden Blossom Honey recipe page! Be sure to follow Golden Blossom Honey on Facebook and Twitter to stay up to date on new products and promotions.

If you like this recipe, be sure to come back every Friday, where I feature a new recipe from Golden Blossom Honey!

Roasted, deep fried, smoked, grilled... how do you usually cook your Thanksgiving turkey?