The Greek Yogurt Cookbook #Giveaway

My dear friend Lauren Kelly, C.N. wrote another cookbook entitled,  The Greek Yogurt Cookbook and I was honored to have three of my recipes included in this publication as well. Greek yogurt is being touted as "the next superfood" and for good reason--it's delicious, low in fat, and has about 18 grams of protein per serving! The Greek Yogurt Cookbook expands the food beyond the quick breakfast or snack with 125 delicious Greek yogurt recipes for any time of day.

$600 Visa Gift Card Holiday Cheer #Giveaway

Can you believe it's December already? Thanksgiving is over and Hanukkah is under way; which also means that it's officially shopping season! In fact, today is Cyber Monday, the busiest online shopping day of the year. So I rallied some of my favorite food bloggers together and we decided to give someone a little extra spending money this holiday season. A little? Heck...we decided to give away $600! After all, we truly appreciate and love all of our readers!

All you have to do is enter through the Rafflecopter link below and tell us what you would do with an extra $600 this holiday season. Once you comment, you will have over 50 other chances to enter. The giveaway runs from December 2-15, 2013 and one winner will be chosen and notified on December 16, 2013. Please read the complete Terms & Conditions as this giveaway is only valid for U.S residents only (Sorry, rules of the gift card company prohibit us from offering this outside of the U.S.).

Good Luck and Happy Holidays from
Carrie's Experimental Kitchen, Ally's Kitchen, Basilmomma, That Skinny Chick Can Bake, Lauren Kelly Nutrition, Moore or Less Cooking, Chocolate Chocolate and More, Food Done Light, Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen, Cupcakes & Kale Chips, Recipes for My Boys, Knead to Cook, The Fountain Avenue Kitchen and Amee's Savory Dish. 

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Winners of Carrie's Experimental Kitchen Cookbook Giveaway

Thank you all for entering, I loved reading all of your comments. Congratulations to the following 5 winners! Each will receive a signed copy of my cookbook, Carrie's Experimental Kitchen: A Collection of Mediterranean Inspired Family Meals.  

If you would like to purchase a copy for yourself or give one as a gift this holiday season, you can order through the e-Store tab on my website, where I also have Downloadalble PDF's for Desserts and Under 400 Calories: Main Entrees. At this time, I can only ship signed copies to the U.S; however, you can also purchase a copy of the cookbook through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Indie Bound or Tate Publishing.

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French Onion Soup {Cookbook Giveaway Week}

I hope you all enjoyed some of the recipes this week from Carrie's Experimental Kitchen: A Collection of Mediterranean Inspired Family Meals cookbook. The last recipe I'm going to share with you this week is French Onion Soup. This soup is the perfect treat for a cold, rainy day and being one of my early childhood favorites, it seemed fitting that this be the first soup I ever made. 

Haricot Verts with Feta, Cranberries & Pistachios {Cookbook Giveaway Week}

For today's Cookbook Week recipe, I'm sharing this Haricot Vert with Feta, Cranberries & Pistachios salad. Haricot vert is French for “green beans” and are longer and thinner than the American variety of green beans. I like to use these instead of regular green beans on occasion; however, the American green bean would also work just as well in this recipe. 

Garlic & Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms & Giveaway

Day 3 of Cookbook Week continues with my all time favorite appetizer, Garlic & Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms. Do you want to impress your guests the next time you invite them over for dinner? Then these stuffed mushrooms are the perfect solution! This recipe originated about 20 years ago after sampling them at a local restaurant one evening. They were oozing with garlicky, cheesy goodness and I couldn’t wait to replicate the recipe at home. After several failed attempts, I came up with these. 

The best part about this recipe is that they are extremely simple to prepare and can even be made the night before and refrigerated until you’re ready to bake them. Because there is only one ingredient in the filling, these make the perfect last minute appetizer and your guests will think you’ve been slaving all day in the kitchen to prepare them.
~Enjoy!

Garlic & Cheese Stuffed Mushrooms

Prep Time: 15 minutes   Cook Time: 25 minutes      Serves: 8

Ingredients

• 16 Extra Large White Mushrooms
• 1 8-oz. container Light Garlic Herb Cheese Spread, like Alouette®
• 1 c. All-Purpose Flour
• Egg Wash (3 eggs with 1/4 c. milk)
• 1/2 c. Italian Seasoned Breadcrumbs
• 1/2 c. Panko Breadcrumbs
• Cooking Spray

Directions

1. Remove the stems from the mushrooms and discard. Gently wipe off the mushrooms using a damp cloth. 
2. Fill each mushroom cap with the cheese until it is level with the top of the mushroom.
3. In three separate bowls, prepare your flour, egg wash, and breadcrumbs.
4. Coat each stuffed mushroom first in the flour, next in the egg wash, and then in the breadcrumbs.
5. Place on a baking sheet and spray the tops of the mushrooms with the cooking spray.
6. Bake at 350°F for approximately 20-25 minutes or until cheese starts to bubble and the breadcrumbs are lightly browned.

Enter for your chance to win a copy of Carrie's Experimental Kitchen cookbook using the Rafflecopter link below. Five (5) lucky winners will be selected and notified on Monday, November 25, 2013. Please read all terms and conditions as this contest is only valid in the Continental U.S. 

Good Luck!  

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Braised Short Ribs & Giveaway

Cookbook Giveaway Week continues with another of my favorite recipes from my cookbook, Braised Short Ribs. When trying to come up with some new recipes incorporating beef to add to the collection, my friend Cindy suggested I make short ribs. At the time, I had never made them at home, though I had eaten them out numerous times. I was a little skeptical about how my latest experiment was going to turn out, but needless to say we enjoyed these so much, that I’ve since made these several times and in different ways (including an upcoming version with pomegranates and Cabernet wine!). 

Baked Brie with Dried Cherries & Giveaway

Did you know that I wrote a cookbook and it was published? Well, I did! It's called Carrie's Experimental Kitchen: A Collection of Mediterranean Inspired Family Meals and was released December 2012. I love this early compilation of my original, family favorite recipes and the book has received many positive comments. There are over 180 easy to prepare recipes inside and all are definitely worth trying!

You can read more about the book and how to order under the eStore tab, but since this is the week before Thanksgiving and I am so GRATEFUL to each and every one of you that have helped make CEK a success, I'll be sharing a recipe and giving away a signed copy of my cookbook each day this week!

Better It With Benefiber Cook-Off and a Giveaway!

This post was sponsored by Benefiber®. The opinions expressed are my own based on my experience.

When a representative from Benefiber® contacted me to see if I would be interested in a friendly cook-off with two other chefs utilizing the fiber additive in breakfast dishes to be held in the pedestrian walkway of Herald Square in NYC (right outside of Macy's), I was thrilled. Myself, along with fellow food blogger Susan from Girl in the Little Red Kitchen and Justin Mazzola, a NYC restaurant chef, were to create three recipes and incorporate Benefiber into our sample plates that were going to be evaluated by three judges; who unbeknownst to me at the time were Top Chef: All Stars winner Richard Blais, Krysta Rodriguez, who plays Casey in the Broadway musical First Date; and Elisa Zied, a registered dietitian, author, and freelance food and nutrition writer. 

Here is how the day went...

4:30am I woke up and got ready for a 5:30am ride into the city. We had to be there by 7am and even though I only live 45 minutes outside of the city, drive on Rte. 3 after 6am and it is bumper to bumper traffic! Thankfully we sailed into the city with no problems and I arrived by 6:15am. The event company was fast at work setting up and staging their area to hand out mini muffins to the people passing by. 

By 7:00am, Susan and Justin had also arrived and we started to set up our individual work spaces. We were each given two helpers who couldn't do enough for us. Meet Katie and Hassan...Go Team Carrie! :)

And here I am with my two friendly competitors, Susan and Justin.

8:00am Our stations were set up and we we were all ready to go. I would be making three dishes for the judges and placing samples of each of the recipes on one plate. 

1. Cream of Wheat with Tofu, Bananas, Walnuts & Maple Syrup
2. Caprese Egg White Omelette
3. Spinach & Scallion Egg Sandwich on an English Muffin

Here is Richard asking me what I was going to be making and complimented me on my clean work area and organizational skills...and for those that don't know me personally, it's just how I roll. ;)

Ok...REALLY bad picture alert coming up next! (I think that the 4:30am wake up call didn't do any wonders for the bags under my eyes). Anyway...Benefiber® was SO easy to add to my dishes. I added Benefiber to the milk while heating it up for the Cream of Wheat®, and I whisked it into the eggs and scrambled them with a fork before cooking. The superfine powder dissolved easily and wasn't gritty at all. If you aren't getting enough fiber naturally through the foods you are eating, try adding Benefiber to your everyday recipes. By 9:20am, all three of my dishes were ready to go into the warming box waiting to be presented to the judges. 

Then I heard a familiar voice as a man worked his way behind the work tables with a microphone. Greg T the Frat Boy from Z100's Elvis Duran and the Morning Show had worked his way in behind our workspaces to cover the story. If you're not familiar with the station, they play Top 40 music and with one teenager and one preteen in the house, the radio is no longer mine when they're around and this is their station of choice. This one is for my girls; who were very jealous btw.

Now for the moment of truth. The judges sampled all three of our dishes, loved each and every one of them and they were ready to announce the winner.  And the winner is....Carrie Farias! I WON! I couldn't believe it.

My dishes were much simpler than my competitors and I was questioning myself the entire time. Maybe I should have been more elaborate or creative. But simple, easy to recreate at home recipes is what I'm about here at Carrie's Experimental Kitchen so I went with what I know. Good food is good food, no matter how simple it is to make.

Thank you to everyone involved in the days' events including Tessa, Michael, and Ally from the PR and Event Companies; as well as the many workers that helped put this successful event together. It was a really fun day and a great experience!

And now the Giveaway....

Not only did I win, but I also received a lovely basket with Sur La Table kitchen utensils, Richard Blais' new cookbook Try This At Home, and a $100 Gift Certificate to Sur La Table; which as much as I love to shop for kitchen gadgets...I love you guys more!

Enter the giveaway through the Rafflecopter below and tell me what food or drink will you be adding Benefiber to and you can go shopping for YOUR favorite kitchen gadgets!

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Good Luck! 

*Contest valid 10/29/13-11/3/13 to U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY. Winner will be notified by 11/04/13 and will have 48 hours to respond. If the winner does not respond within that time frame, another winner will be selected. 

Product Review: Jolie Ravioli & a Giveaway

This is a sponsored post. All opinions expressed are my own. 

Let me start by saying that THIS is what my almost twelve year old daughter did to her ravioli recently while dining out. Yes. She made her ravioli into a PacMan shape. Has she ever played PacMan? I doubt it, but she wanted her food to have a fun shape nonetheless. 

So when the New York Ravioli & Pasta Company asked me to review their line of kid-friendly ravioli called Jolie Ravioli, how could I refuse. It's true, both of my children are no longer in the toddler stage; however, as you can see above, they still insist on making their food fun. Jolie Ravioli comes in four flavors: Cheese, Mac & Cheezy, Pizza-roli's and Cheese & Broccoli and are 100% Natural. They contain no trans fats, preservatives, artificial colors, additives and are an excellent source of protein, iron and calcium. Each 12oz. package features six fun shapes: teddy bears, cars, dinosaurs, hearts, rocket ships and stars, which is sure to please any picky food critic!  

 

About the Company

New York's Little Italy was founded by people with a dream and a belief in hard work, family and tradition. New York Ravioli & Pasta Co. carries on that dream and brings it right to your home. Dave & Paul grew up in a part of New York where Sunday dinner was when families gathered around the table to talk, laugh and share a delicious home-cooked meal. During their college years the two began dreaming of starting a company to create gourmet pasta that every family could enjoy. They had no idea where that dream would lead them. After college, armed with only great ideas and a willingness to work hard, Dave & Paul began to develop recipes for a unique line of pasta products. And that's how New York Ravioli & Pasta Co. was born. Dave, Paul and the entire New York Ravioli family are proud to share with you the highest quality gourmet ravioli available. 

You can serve Jolie Ravioli with your favorite sauce or top them with butter and Parmesan cheese; which is how my kids used to eat all types of pasta when they were younger. If you're entertaining for the holidays, try dipping the cooked ravioli first in flour, then egg wash then breadcrumbs and fry them for a tasty, fun shaped appetizer the kids will love!

Each 12oz. bag contains approximately 28-30 ravioli (2.5 servings per bag) and can be found at the following retail stores* or online: 

• Akin's Natural Foods Market - www.akins.com
• Associated Supermarkets - www.associatedsupermarkets.com (selected stores)
• Bristol Farms - www.bristolfarms.com
• Chamberlin's Natural Foods - www.chamberlins.com
• C-Town Supermarkets - www.ctownsupermarkets.com (selected stores)
• Gristedes Supermarkets - www.gristedes.com
• Kings - www.kingswebsite.com
• King Kullen - www.kingkullen.com
• Piggly Wiggly - www.pigglywiggly.com
• Stew Leonards - www.stewleonards.com
• Stop 'n Shop - www.stopandshop.com
• Western Beef - www.westernbeef.com (selected stores)
• Wild by Nature - www.wildbynature.com
• Whole Foods - www.wholefoods.com

My kids loved these ravioli and I like that they are all natural and made locally (about an hour away in NY). They were even featured in the September 2011 issue of Rachael Ray Magazine and voted the ravioli 'Best for Kids'.  For my family, our favorite was a toss up between the Cheese and the Cheese & Broccoli flavor. If you would like to try these tasty and fun ravioli for yourself, Jolie Ravioli has agreed to give one lucky winner a chance to win 4 Packages of Jolie Ravioli by entering through Rafflecopter below. 

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Good luck and look for Jolie Ravioli on Facebook and Twitter too! 

*Download Jolie Ravioli Coupon to use towards your first purchase.