Taste of Tuesday: Pumpkin Cheesecake

Hi everyone!

I made pumpkin cheesecake for the first time last week and it tasted so good so I have to share this recipe that I got from Martha Stewart but I changed it up a bit.

Ingredients

Crust:
1 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
1 stick butter
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp cinnamon

Filling:
4 (8 oz) packs cream cheese
1 1/4 cup sugar
3 tbsp flour
1 cup pumpkin puree
2 tbsp pumpkin-pie spice
4 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 tbsp cinnamon
1/2 tbsp salt

*I made this for a large group so the recipe could easily be cut in half to feed less people. 

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Pumpkin Cheesecake Crust: Melt the butter and mix ingredients until moist. Press firmly onto the bottom of a greased 9 inch baking dish.

 Pumpkin Cheesecake Filling: Soften cream cheese and beat with sugar using an electric mixer until smooth. Add in flour and mix gently on low speed. Add in the pumpkin puree, pumpkin spice, vanilla, salt and mix until smooth. Add in the eggs one by one and mix on low speed until well blended.

Pour filling onto pie crust and bake for 45 minutes

Turn off oven and let it sit in there for 15 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool completely before refrigerating.

Optional Topping: whipped cream sprinkled with either cinnamon or pumpkin-pie spice.

Enjoy!

Joining Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesday.

Let The Holiday Festivities Commence

The craziness that is the holidays has officially begun for the Martinis & Bikinis household.

Friday was nice & quiet. K and I went for dinner at Carrabbas and then rented the movie "This Is The End" to watch at home.  I thought the movie was weird and zoned out after about 20 minutes so I don't recommend it.

On Saturday, we went to our first holiday party for the year which was so much fun. This is my absolute favorite time of the year and I love nothing more than spending it with good friends/family along with delicious food and, of course, copious amounts of alcohol.

Sunday was gloomy & overcast so it was the perfect lazy day to catch up on my blogs, cook food for the week and nurse my hangover.

Joining Sami for Weekend Shenans.

Also, big congrats to Bella from Dateless in Dallas for winning my Beauty Bag Giveway and thank you to everyone that participated!! I truly appreciate all of my readers :-)

Is everyone excited for Turkey Day this week?

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Friday's Favorites: Potlucks & Giveaways

Happy Friday!

I've felt like a sleepy zombie all week ~ wake up, traffic, work, gym, dinner, go to bed, repeat, repeat, repeat ~ BUT last night I had a nice little sushi date with one of my besties for her 30th birthday. We had a fun time catching up so that helped break the mundane weekly routine!

Joining Lauren & Darcie for Five on Friday.

#1: Sushi dinner date

#2: Gifts for the birthday girl

#3: Pumpkin Cheesecake
Baked this for a potluck at work. Recipe to follow next week for Taste of Tuesday. It was delicious!

 

Thanksgiving Potluck spread at work. Food for days!

#4: Friends-Giving (potluck) last weekend...The girls and I being silly :-)

#5: My Beauty Bag Giveaway ends tonight. Don't forget to enter to win it ALL! I'm soo excited to see who the winner will be!

 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Hope you have a fab weekend!

Thursday Trends + Sephora Giveaway

I'm loving army and olive green colors recently so here's some mix & match outfits plus accessories for Thursdays Trends:

LOFT Petite Sweaters · Express Leggings · Express Scarves & Wraps


Today is also Day #4 of Sweet Silver Lining's 25th Birthday Giveaway. Enter to win a $25 Sephora gift card!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
- Only open to U.S. residents.
- Must reply to e-mail within 48 hours to claim prize or it will be given to someone else.
- If you are not honest with your entries, all of your entries will be deleted. Honesty's the best policy!
- Each giveaway will be open for 3 days, so get your entries in! 

Giveaway: Sweet Silver Lining's Birthday Bash

Happy hump day!

All these lovely ladies & myself are joining Breanna @ Sweet Silver Lining this week to celebrate her 25th birthday. She's giving away something new every day and today is a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Enter today and everyday for the rest of the week to join the celebration!

   

a Rafflecopter giveaway
- Only open to U.S. residents.
- Must reply to e-mail within 48 hours to claim prize or it will be given to someone else.
- If you are not honest with your entries, all of your entries will be deleted. Honesty's the best policy!
- Each giveaway will be open for 3 days, so get your entries in!

Good luck!
 

Taste of Tuesday: Thanksgiving Corn Casserole

Hi everyone!

Another successful recipe cooked this weekend for the "friends-giving" dinner I went to on Saturday night.

I got this delicious recipe for Cheesy Corn Casserole from here thanks to Denise for sharing!

Ingredients:
1 (11 oz) can whole kernel corn
1 (11 oz) can cream style corn
1 (8oz) sour cream
1 egg
1 pack dry corn bread/muffin mix
1/2 onion
1 cup grated cheese

Use Pam or butter to grease the 9x13 inch baking dish. Mix all ingredients in a large bowl leaving behind 1/4 cup cheese for the topping.

Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees. Remove from oven and top with remainder of cheese.

Bake for another 25 minutes until inside is cooked and cheese becomes golden brown.

Enjoy!

Joining Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesday.

Friends-Giving Weekend

Hope everyone had a great weekend!

I had a much-needed relaxing Friday. K and I went for dinner & drinks at Outback and then rented a movie from Redbox.

Saturday was hectic ~ gym, grocery, Christmas shopping & baking for our "friends-giving" dinner.

 

On Sunday, I put up our Christmas tree and spent the day at home "relaxing" aka laundry, cleaning, cooking and preparing for work on Monday

Joining Sami for Weekend Shenanigans.

How was your weekend?

Friday: Oh So Fabulous!

It may seem repetitive being this ecstatic every time Friday finally rolls around but I think we all agree that we live for the weekend so who cares! I'm happy and here's what I'm loving about this past week:

#1: Hairdressers = Magicians:

How is that 2 days after my appointment my hair still looks fabulous (exhibit A) but when I wash and style it myself (exhibit B) it looks flat & boring? Hairdressers have magic fingers and I can never recreate it.

#2: Fall Flowers

K came home with these beauties. Not really sure why but I love sunflowers and the pretty fall colors in this bouquet. 

 #3: Turquoise Nails

Okay, I know it's Fall and I should be going with red and orange nails but this gel nail color has become my favorite to get at the salon.

#4: Homemade Martinis

I decided it was about time to finish up the olive juice and martini stuff I had in the fridge so last night I made my favorite cocktail - a dirty martini with blue cheese olives - and it was fabulous.

#5: My Beauty Bag Giveaway

If you haven't entered already, go enter now to win all of these goodies. It ends next Friday and I'm excited to find out who the winner will be.

Also, I'm excited to be guest posting today over at Kate @ Green Fashionista's blog today while she's off to the Bahamas. Go check out her blog and read my two sense on why cruising to the Bahamas is so much fun!

Joining Lauren and Darcie today for Friday Fives.

Have a great weekend!

What to Cook For Thanksgiving?

I have 3 different Thanksgiving lunches/dinners this year - one this weekend with friends, a potluck at work next week, and then actual Thanksgiving day with family - and really don't know what to bring to the table. 

Of course, this is where Pinterest becomes my creative thinking cap and I've found some new recipes to consider.

Starters:

Sweet Potato Croquettes with Pumpkin Seed Chipotle Cream
via this site

Garlicky Butternut Squash & Pumpkin Soup
via this site

Side Dishes:

Chipotle Smashed Potaotoes
via this site

Cornbread Casserole
via this site
I've actually cooked a different version of this casserole for our family Thanksgiving 2 or 3 years in a row but this recipe looks so much better so I will probably experiment with this one this year.

Butternut Squash & Apples
via this site

Bacon Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Honey Mustard
via this site

Drinks:
Spiced Apple Cider Sangria
via this site

Do you have any fun thanksgiving recipes to share?

Almost Friday!

Health Challenge Complete & Nutrition Tips

Back in May, my company opened up a 6-month health challenge that we could opt to participate in along with your spouse. When I heard that the prize for successfully completing the challenge and meeting your target weight was a night at the Gaylord Palms resort in Orlando, I definitely wanted to be in.

Now, I'm naturally a "smaller boned" person so I didn't have a huge amount of weight to lose but you can set your own goal so mine was to tone up by replacing some extra fat with muscle and K's goal was to lose 15-20 pounds.

To complete the challenge you had to attend the gym at least 10 times/month for 6 mths and do weekly check-ins with a Nutritionist, which they paid for both the gym membership and the nutrition counseling so what did I have to lose?

The end of October marked the 6 months and K & I both hit our goal so last weekend was our trip to the Gaylord Palms resort.

I can't share the complete diet plan that you would pay to get from a Nutritionist but I thought I'd share some huge tips that have helped K and I change our life/diet around and really keep the weight off:

Diet Tips:

~ Limit sugar intake (check the back of labels and opt for salad dressings with less than 3g sugar)

~ Milk is liquid sugar

~ Coffee drinkers, try to use non-dairy creamer

~ Green vegetables have less sugar so opt for these when you can (broccoli, zucchini,etc.)

~ Packaged/processed foods such as instant rice and pasta meals = no bueno

~ Workout out as much as you can, even a quick 15-20 mins of cardio is better than nothing

~ Some good, low cal snacks are protein shakes, cottage cheese, string cheese, almonds, yoghurt.

~ No carbs after lunch or at least none at dinner.

Need some ideas for low carb dinners?

~ Baked parmesan-crusted pork chops with fresh veggies

~ Chicken stirfry

~ Baked tilapia topped with shrimp & asparagus

~ Chicken & mixed veggie kabobs

~ Steak & shrimp with mashed cauliflower and broccoli

~ BBQ jerk pork chops with vegetable medley (zucchini, carrots & onion)

I'd be happy to share any of these recipes with anyone interested. 

Joining Jenn for What I Ate Wednesday.

Happy hump day everyone!

Here's the link to my Beauty Bag Giveaway going on now ;-)

Taste of Tuesday: Chicken Taco Soup

Another successful recipe accomplished this week!

Ingredients:

 

4 chicken breasts (cut in halves)

1 onion, chopped

1 (8 oz.) can tomato sauce

2 (10 oz) cans diced tomatoes (undrained)

1 small can chopped green chillies (undrained)

1 (15 oz) can black beans

1 (15 oz) can whole kernel corn

1 package taco seasoning

1 can or bottle beer  

Yup. Beer is needed for this recipe.

Add the onion, tomato sauce, diced tomatoes, green chillies, black beans, corn and taco seasoning into a crockpot and mix together. Pour in the beer and mix.

Add the chicken breasts to with mixture and cover. Set the crock pot to high for 2.5 hours

 

 After 2.5 hours, remove chicken breasts from the crock pot and allow to cool so that you can shred the chicken by hand. Stir the chicken back into the soup and allow to cook for another 30 minutes before serving.

Optional ingredients are sour cream and shredded cheese for the topping, which both have low-fat options so you can keep this a skinny soup recipe.

Joining Ashley and Jessica for Taste of Tuesday.

 

Enjoy!