Philly Tomato Basil Dip

Ok, so I've made this dip that I've been talking about for 2 days now. It turned out AMAZING. I made some changes to the recipe, so I didn't follow it exactly like it said, but it still turned out great. Here are the different stages.

I used basil that I grew myself. Yes, I washed it before I chopped it. Just wanted to illustrate that it came directly from the plant I grew, and it's the last of it.

I mixed the basil in with 8oz softened cream cheese. The recipe says to sprinkle it on top at the end, but I felt that mixing it in with the cream cheese would have provided more flavor. Also, I only used 1 tbsp of fresh basil at this stage. After mixing this, I pressed it into a lasagna dish. The recipe says to use a pie plate, but I didn't have one. 

Next, I chopped one green onion, and two Roma tomatoes. The recipe calls for plum tomatoes, but I couldn't find any at the grocery store last night. I like Romas better anyway. 

Next, I added 2 tbsp of Kraft Tuscan House Italian Dressing to the tomatoes and tossed it around in the bowl shown. I then spooned that on top of the cream cheese mixture in my lasagna dish. It covered it completely, without any cream cheese showing through. After that, I sprinkled on the green onions, 2 tbsp of grated Parmesan cheese, and 1 tbsp of dried basil. 

It was beautiful. The photos really don't do it any justice. 

Anyway, the recipe stops there. But that didn't work for me. I don't care much for cold dips at all. It's just..not natural to me. So, I went a step further, and put it in the oven. I baked it, uncovered, for 20-25 minutes (or until the sides were bubbling) at 350. It made the kitchen smell amazing. Here is the finished product. 

I served it with Dill & Olive Oil Triscuts. It was pretty freakin' amazing. 

And now that I think about it, I could make even more revisions to the recipe. I thought about roasting a couple of cloves of garlic, then chopping it up and adding it to the cream cheese mixture, and maybe even adding the Parmesan to the mixture instead of using it as a topping. Also, maybe some mozzarella on top of it. The possibilities are endless!! 

Eat up, y'all!

Snowin' like hell.

So according to BCPS, this is the 9th snow day of the school year. The last day of school has been extended to June 6th. It's probably safe to say that there wont be any school tomorrow either because it's snowing right now. Why even bother having a summer break? Just send em all year round. Fuck it.

I'm not in the best mood. I've not had any coffee. I'm going to try to give it up for a day or two, and see how I feel about it. I dont like it so far, so it probably wont last. I have a headache from lack of caffeine.

So I didn't make that tomato basil dip last night. We got home late from the grocery store and I was too wore out to make it. I'm doing it today though.

Oh, and stupid Mercury is officially in retrograde. TJ was late for work this morning because my phone died, therefore the alarm didn't go off. Grr.

Let's all hope this day gets better.

J'adore

This just in..

I'm getting the J'adore Voxbox!!! DAMN I'm excited!!! The pre-qualification survey was very revealing. These products are going to be awesome! Face masks, moisturizer, hair products, etc. Shit YES!

Sorry for being so vulgar. Lol. I'm just so excited.

Insert witty blog title here.

Today is yet another snow day. I stopped counting how many days they've been out so far this year. It's at least a week, maybe 2. I got an email from the school district yesterday saying their last day of this school year has been extended to June 4th. Since they're off today as well, I guess that makes it June 5th. I really wish they'd use some of these holidays as make-up days. This summer is going to be really fucking short. Can we just have warmer weather already??

Dinner tonight is a total mystery as of right now. I have no idea what to make. I still need to separate the giant log of hamburger in the refrigerator into 1lb sections and freeze them. They last a lot longer that way, and it's so damn handy. I know for sure I'm making the Philly Tomato-Basil Dip tonight, but that's not going to count as dinner. I'm making some adjustments to it, too. It calls for 2 tbsp of fresh basil, and I have only one..so I'm gonna have to use some dried basil as well. Best part about that is that I grew all of it. The bad part is that I've used my last surviving basil plant. Poor thing hung on this long, and all it had left on it was about a tbsp. But as I said before, come spring, I WILL be planting more.

Oh yeah..the recipe.

It doesn't say to bake it, and that kind of bothers me..so I will be baking it. I dont think I have a dish large enough though, so idk. I have a Ramekin that it might all fit into, but I hope it doesn't bubble over. I'd hate to lose any of it. :/ Oh wait..I have some lasagna dishes I swiped from Bearno's like 10 years ago. That will suffice!! :D

Also, I gotta get the stuff to make pizza dip tonight. The BF's been craving it (and so have I) so it's about damn time I made some.

This still doesn't solve the dinner dilemma. Ugh. I'm not feelin' meatloaf at all, or burgers. Totally burnt out on brinner. If I eat any more eggs I"m gonna start clucking. Seriously considering sandwiches. With some nice bread and fixin's. Yep. That's it.

I'll post some pics of how my tomato basil dip turns out. That's the main thing I'm lookin forward to tonight. Til then..

Eat up, y'all!

Ton 'O' Freebies Monday.

I don't normally get anything decent in the mail on Mondays. Most Mondays, I don't get any mail at all. However, today I got the motherload.


My 2014 Calendar from Delallo. Ordered this baby back in December. I LOVE it and it has amazing pictures of food inside!!

I ordered a Mustang calendar for the bf. Normally I wouldn't because it has a bunch of ladies on it that look way better than I ever will, but I figured what the hell.

Zarbees Children's sleep aid.

Two Equate brand pads and four panty liners from Walmart.

My Hada Labo Tokyo Replenishing Hydrator that I won from Allure back in October. I thought it was hair stuff when I first got the email, but upon inspection of the product, it's for fine lines and wrinkles. :) Woohoo!!

My Kroger TimeSaver Bzzkit from BzzAgent. I didn't know they were sending me this cool shopping bag!! I can't wait to use all those coupons! :D

And as always, these photos can all be found on my Freebies post. :D

Kroger Freebie Friday Digital Downloads

I'm not sure if I've mentioned this before, but EVERY friday, Kroger offers a coupon for a free product. I've been collecting their freebies every friday for several months now. I have three Kroger cards, meaning I get three free items from them every friday.

In order to take advantage of this, you must have a valid Kroger card, and have an account set up on the kroger website to access the card. From the website, you can add/download digital coupons to your kroger card. This saves a lot of time, and keeps you from having to use paper coupons at the checkout. Every friday, log into your kroger account, locate the digital coupon, and download it to your kroger card. You don't physically download software to your computer or anything, and it's silly that they call it a 'download'. It's basically just adding a digital coupon to your Kroger card. It's pretty much awesome.

They've offered several awesome, free products. Some of them I have started buying after trying them for free. This past friday, I had several freebies saved up on my kroger cards so I cashed them all in at once. Look at THIS beautiful haul.

Now, the shave gel and the extra Aquafina Flavorsplash water came from other promotions. I got a coupon for a free shave gel with my Schick Hydro Silk Sensivtive care bzzkit, and the Aquafina coupon came directly from Aquafina. So for ALL those items above, I paid .21 cents. Yes, 21 cents. 

Skeet skeet!! Hahaha. I love a good bargain.

Eda's Sugarfree Candies

A while back I got an invite from Swaggable to try Eda's Sugarfree Candies and write a review on them. I was pretty much ready to give up on even getting them in the mail, but then I finally got them Friday afternoon.

I was expecting a full size bag, since swaggable has sent me full size products in the past, so I was disappointed immediately. On the bag it says not to eat too many because the candies can have a laxative effect on certain individuals. That's a little unsettling, so I tried two of them. 

The flavor just wasn't there. If you closed your eyes, and put one in your mouth, you wouldn't be able to tell what flavor you were eating. They just tasted sugary, which was weird because they were sugar-free. I didn't really care much for them, and ended up leaving them at my mom's house for her to try. Maybe she'll like them better than I did.