A few weeks ago I entered for a chance to host a P <3 M Wonderful pomegranate dinner party and I was selected! 100 people across the country were chosen and I’m really excited to be one of them :)

You can see where all of the POM parties will be hosted if you check out the link here. I’ll be hosting a party based on pomegranate inspired dishes and then do a demonstration to show my guests how easy pomegranates are to open! The top 10 parties will win prizes.

I’ve already started brainstorming but I am willing to take any ideas or suggestions you may have! Of course I’ll be showing you all my party details when it happens. Fingers crossed for making it to be one of the winners!

I hope everyone has an awesome and tasty Halloween!

We’ve had a bunch of apples hanging around for awhile and I’ve been meaning to do something with them. So today I finally did :)

What to do with so many delicious apples?

Apple crisp of course!!

I looked online at a bunch of different recipes and came up with my own jumbled mixture.

And what better place to cook apple crisp then in an apple dish!

Came out crispy on top and gooey on the inside.

I definitely made the right decision on what to do with those apples :)

Oh, and I also wanted to share something! I had an avocado on my veggie burger today and when I went to cut it…

I noticed that there was a perfect line right down the middle!

Like it was yelling “Cut me! Right here!”

Ok, maybe I’m just crazy but I got excited when I saw this and had to share :)

It took a lot for me to walk through the grocery store the other day and

A) Not giggle when I saw MONSTER cauliflower (s? are more than one still cauliflower?)

B) Not buy one! They were 2/$4.00!

I kid you not when I say that as soon as I put the cauliflower in my basket I had to hustle to the checkout line because that thing was heavyyy! I wish I had weighed it.

Let’s just say it was probably bigger than my head. And I have a huge noggin.

So what’s a girl to do with so much veggie?

I contemplated it for a bit and came up with a great idea…cauliflower spaghetti! I had tried my grandma’s in the past so I decided to give it a whirl.

I winged it so here is my rough recipe:

•1/2 cauliflower, or whole using a normal sized head

•1/2 and onion

•2 TBS olive oil

•1/2 cup Italian bread crumbs

•1 garlic clove

•1/2 box angel hair pasta

-Boil water and steam cauliflower.

-Chop onion into fine pieces. Saute in olive oil. Add minced garlic. When onion pieces are slightly brown, add bread crumbs and cook until toasted.

-When cauliflower is soft, add to onion mixture and cook for several minutes.

-Meanwhile, you can use the same water to cook pasta.

-Combine veggie mixture and pasta! Top with some Parmesan cheese and enjoy :)

I love the way the cauliflower just melts into the pasta.

Now what do I do with the other half of the cauliflower?!

Mangia!

Last week I bought some dough from Trader Joe’s and have been thinking about what I was going to do with it! I really ought to try making my own dough sometime but the convenience of the TJ dough is so perfect and it tastes so good! Oh and I also like the fact that it is… $1!

So after perusing some blogs I found this recipe from Tina. A

prosciutto gorgonzola fig balsamic compote pizza.

I searched my grocery store for some fresh figs, but unfortunately that was not happenin’. So I had to settle for some dried figs. Obviously fresh is always better but you do what you have to when you’re in a pinch with an idea in your head!

I also wound up using goat cheese instead of gorgonzola simply because I am so in love with goat cheese!

The pizza turned out amazing! The crust was really thin and crispy and the flavors were so tasty together. The figs and onions sweetness balanced well with the tang of the goat cheese and the prosciutto added a salty flavor.

I even wound up scooping some of my arugula on the pizza. I love greens on my pizza, mmm :)

Apparently someone else liked my pizza too! I cut it up and wrapped the slices in foil and went to get ready for work. When I came downstairs I saw Sandy sulking and looking mightyyy guilty. I then noticed slices of pizza strewn all over the kitchen floor and a lottt of slices were missing. The little bugger ate about half of the pizza! I would have gotten really made except I’m a big softy and just laughed. She sure has fancy taste for a dog :)

Yayyy there is a winner for my contest! But first, I’m going to share a recipe experiment with you :)

I remember the first time Cate told me that her mom made a dish called orange chicken I was intrigued. Really, what is this orange chicken? But the first time I tried it, I was hooked!

Her mom’s recipe is a crock pot recipe but I didn’t have as much time and really didn’t feel like waiting! So, I decided to create my own rendition.

The star ingredients: chicken, spinach, mushrooms, French dressing and orange marmalade. I added the spinach and mushrooms for some extra flava, texture and nutrients!

First, I rinsed all the veggies and made sure to pat them dry. Then I threw them on the chicken. There wasn’t too much measuring going on. I used the whole container of mushrooms and half of the bag of spinach.

I then mixed the French dressing and marmalade in a bowl. Again, I eye balled it. I made sure that I did it in a bowl so that I could add as much or as little as I wanted and didn’t regret it after I dumped it all on the chicken.

Then I just made sure that everything was covered! I put it in the oven for 45 minutes at 350°.

Once everything was nice and bubbly I decided that it was finished :)

I wound up putting the chicken over some cous cous,which was a good choice. The textures worked really well together!

It reminded me a lot of Cate’s mom’s dish and the veggies were a really tasty addition! I will definitely be trying this again :)

So onto the winner! The winner of the NuttyGuys.com is… Heidi of Basil Vodka. Congrats Heidi! Just email me at allieatfood@gmail.com and I’ll make sure you get your prize :) So much fun giving away things!!

Friday night I met up with my good friend Jess in Philadelphia. We hadn’t seen each other in over a year since we graduated college so a get together was long overdue!

She lives in the city so I headed over there and we went to a restaurant called The Latest Dish. It was a really cute and quaint restaurant. We lucked out because you seat yourself and there was a small table in the corner for us. If we had come any later we may not have had the experience that we did!

I had a glass of Sauvignon blanc.

Jess had framboise, a French raspberry beer. It was THE best beer I have ever tasted! I will definitely be ordering it anytime I see it on a menu!

The menu had so many good things on it that we had a hard time deciding! At first we were going to get our own entrees but then we deciding just to get several things and share. Best idea ever :)

They gave us some tasty bread with an olive oil pesto to start.

To start we had a mixed green salad which included: seasonal mixed salad greens, goat cheese crumbles, herb croutons, balsamic vinaigrette.

Jess and I both confessed our love for goat cheese so we obviously enjoyed this salad.

Next up we had lobster mac and cheese! This was the main reason that we decided to share! It was made with fusilli and a decadent cheese. And of course, lobster :) It was so delish!

And lastly, we shared fish tacos. It was a featured item on a list of their specials and it sure was special. The flavors were perfect and they were a great portion size. And I was glad that they were grilled and not fried :)

After our amazing meal Jess and I met up with Julie and her friend Kelsey in the city for some drinks and dancing!

Jess was really excited about her beer.

I love being so close to Philadelphia and having the opportunity to try new restaurants! And it was so nice to spend time with friends, eat and catch up. I can’t wait to do it again :)

Only a few hours left of the contest!

The other day I was craving some kind of Mexican food but couldn’t decide what. So many creations that could be created! I came to the conclusion that I would just combine all the different things I was craving and a delicious meal would appear.

Yes, that is cous cous. The food so nice they named it twice! I realize that this isn’t Mexican but I thought it would make things more interesting than rice. And it was what I was craving after all. Also included: red peppers, onion, black beans, salsa, sour cream and cheddar cheese.

I sautéed the peppers and onions first.

Next up was the cous cous. If you have yet to try this delicious food I highly recommend it. Especially the Near East brand. This stuff cooks SO quickly!

And now for the fun :)

Cous cous.

Black beans.

Salsa.

Peppers, onions, cheese and sour cream.

This was definitely a successful attempt at going with what my stomach wanted. After all, a happy stomach = a happy Allie :)

Only 3 days left for the contest!