Reading Time: 2 minutesI’m fairly new to all this Poké madness. I didn’t get into the series until Sun & Moon, which in case you didn’t know, came out only one year ago. So in the grand scope of things, I’m still a baby to everything Pokémon. Still though, that …Read More….
Reading Time: 4 minutesHumpdate time! How goes it? What’s good in the hood? Oh! Me? I’m fine, thank you so much for asking! Matter of fact, yes, there ARE a few things on my mind. Aww, of course, I’d love to tell you about them. You’re so sweet. …Read More….
This post is sponsored by BabbleBoxx.com on behalf of Alexia
Alright, I’m going to let you in on a little secret. It’s something I don’t go blabbering to just anyone, either. So I hope you walk away from this with your newly found cosmic wisdom and have a better appreciation for the finer things in life….
The truth is…. I’m the biggest cheater of a food blogger you’ll ever meet. What do I mean? I mean, you’d probably expect me to do things like make mashed potatoes from scratch every time we have them. Or make a homemade vinaigrette for an impromptu salad before dinner. Or make pasta dough, roll it out, cut it, dry it, and cook it for family spaghetti nights.
Seriously, if you think I do any of those things, you’re straight kookie-dukes and haven’t been paying attention to anything I say! Yes, mashed potatoes are the easiest thing to whip up. And if you have the ingredients, a homemade vinaigrette is one of the simplest pleasures. And pasta! Homemade pasta is… well, it’s always a pain in the rear and you’d probably never catch me ever saying I made homemade pasta for anything. Like, my mom could ask me for her birthday (which is also Valentine’s Day, mind you) to make her homemade pasta for dinner and it would be hard for me to not laugh in her face.
Why? Why, if things are simple (except pasta), why not take the time to make dinner a little extra special for my family? Here’s the reason, flat out, cut n’ dry, nice and clear:
Time.
I’m a family man, and with that comes a packed daily schedule that revolves around the kids. Being a stay-at-home dad, I have a lot more responsibilities than you might think. On top of keeping the kids from going all Tom and Jerry on each other, and keeping the house semi-presentable, making sure dinner is ready is one of the bigger tasks of my day. And I’d be lying if I told you it wasn’t stressful sometimes. Maybe it’s my experience in the kitchen and always having that strict ticket time I had to adhere to, I dunno. But knowing the clock is ticking and the wife gets off work at a certain time, I can’t help but feel the pressure of making sure her night starts off right.
Queue Alexia Premium Side dishes.
When I’m cooking, a lot of things are being juggled around. It makes dinner worlds easier if I had something that was no fuss, and quick to make. Super ultra bonus points if I can just empty a bag into a dish to cook it. And that’s exactly what I got with Alexia’s sides! Usually, if I’m making a frozen side, I feel like I have to doll it up with extra spices and whatnot so it doesn’t feel so meh. But these seriously didn’t need anything! Matter of fact, it’s kind of weird referring to them as a frozen side. These are complete side dishes, where in less than 10 minutes for each bag, I was able to plate two awesome tasting premium vegetables. They not only showed me how great they were as starch alternatives, that I don’t need to bother with regular mashed potatoes or french fries anymore. They also gave me more time to focus on the main event of dinner.
Speaking of the main event! You can’t go wrong with a grilled steak. Or, however you choose to cook it. Personally, it’s been hard to not grill anything since we moved back to Florida. Heck, I can’t remember the last time I used the oven or stove to prepare a protein. I can’t help it, it’s too nice out to not grill.
Anyway, I made this sauce a few weeks ago because I had some extra mushrooms in the fridge. I used to work in a restaurant where we had a peppercorn sauce for the filet so it all sounded so right for this post. The sauce is insanely simple and can be easily prepared and finished by the time the sides are done cooking. There are a ton more things you can add to the sauce to make it have more depth, but we’re aiming for simple, quick, and delicious. And that’s what the mushroom peppercorn sauce will give you.
Now, I know what you’re probably thinking. This is a sponsored post, so sure these things are “great”. But seriously, I’m going to be buying these on the regular now. The wife and I were both thoroughly impressed with how it all came out.
We’re not the type to have butternut squash risotto or riced cauliflower as sides for dinner. But Alexia made it so incredibly easy to have such things on a regular basis. On top of the ease of preparing, the flavors were great as well. Fresh tasting, creamy, and I just wanted more when I was done. They use organic dairy ingredients (as you can see in the pictures above of the chunks of cream out of the bag), it’s Non-GMO Project verified, and it’s all gluten-free! Like, I’ll go as far as saying these are going to be my default sides from now on!
And the sauce should speak for itself. It takes roughly 15 minutes start to finish, so you have no excuse. If you’ve never had such a sauce touch your steak, then please, do yourself a favor and step outside your comfort zone, Sally. I’m a sucker for caramelized onions on my steak, but this is a nice change of pace and makes dinner feel a lot more fancy than it should. And like I said before, the peppercorns are not as intense as you might think. The slight bite you get from a peppercorn is perfect with the cream, so don’t be afraid, because trust me, I am ultra sensitive to big chunks of pepper and I should be terrified of this sauce. But it’s good!
Here’s to hoping you can give all of this a try! I’d love to hear about it if you do. Let me know what you think!
Reading Time: 4 minutesSo here’s a more recent recipe. Something that I had made a few times already and decided to take pics of because I thought to myself, “hey, self. This would make a good blog post whenever you decided to blog again.” And look! Here we …Read More….
Reading Time: 5 minutesWinter is coming… But first is fall, baby! Best season ever! Don’t sit there and start trying to think of reasons why it’s not, you’ll just be wasting your time. You could think about winter and the pretty snowfall and cozy nights by a fire, …Read More….
Hey! Been a few weeks, I know. I have all these ways of communicating but I haven’t tweeted or insta’d (is that how the kids are saying it today?) or anything about what’s been up. Buuuuuuuuuuuuut at the same time… I ain’t exactly swimmin’ in messages asking where I am..
Anywho. Remember a few weeks ago when I was all like “I got posts all lined up, and I’m blogging again!” Well that train got derailed, as you may have guessed. But it’s not my fault! I… well, here. Let’s get into the humpdate and see what’s up.
And that’ll be that for this week. I know, this was posted on Thursday and it’s supposed to be Wednesday. But you know what? Life happens, and sometimes, when you suffer from extreme laziness and a faulty motivator, things run a day behind. I’m going to start getting stuff out again soon, so until then, adios!
Reading Time: 2 minutesI heard people complaining about the Samus amiibo when it was first announced. Something about it not being a very exciting pose or something. Plain and boring might have been used? I dunno, I don’t see it! It’s such a great looking figure. If you’re …Read More….
Reading Time: 2 minutesIf you were lucky enough to get a pre-order in for this bad boy, then I’m sure you’re enjoying it. I’m a sucker for game soundtracks and that was the main appeal of the Special Edition for me. That was, until I saw the reversible …Read More….
Hi, I’m Los. And I’m a Limited Edition-aholic. For some reason, no matter what sense enters my head, I seem to gravitate towards these boxes of junk you don’t really need.
But this one is totally justified though, I swear! See, the expansion pass is worth $35 by itself. If you’re buying the expansion pass (which, I KNEW I would be eventually if I didn’t get it at launch) then this $99 edition was worth the purchase. I mean, look at that steelbook!
Honestly, I’m glad for that steelbook because the actual Cabal themed box was pretty disappointing. You can tell in the video it’s very.. uh.. boxy and not worth a second look. Previous Destiny LE’s had awesome books that felt worn and weathered.
The book inside the box, however, is a good read and worth having in your collection if you’re a Destiny fan. Despite it not having the presentation of other LE books from the game.
When it comes to Destiny, it’s a very love-hate relationship with me. I absolutely adore the game. I bought the Ghost Edition when Destiny first released, and the Limited Edition for Taken King. I’m no stranger to plopping down money for Destiny and do it happily. But when I’m burnt out from it like I was for a long time, I don’t care to hear anything about it.
Still though, I managed to pre-order the Limited Edition, despite not really wanting to. That meh feeling turned out to be pretty strong because I cancelled that pre-order a few weeks before launch! ….. only to go on a mad hunt for it on launch day because the hype got me hard. And I’m glad it did because so far I’m feeling the hook in me. I can’t wait to continue playing and getting into it like I did before.
Enjoy the game, Guardians!
