Lisa Jeffries Nobling – Raleigh, NC

Tag: manfriend

  • Kitchen Hacks: Crock-Pot Sweet Potatoes, InstaPot, and More

    Happy day-after-Christmas, everyone – I hope you all enjoyed a very merry long weekend of downtime with loved ones!

    Yes, Delta's toboggan reads "CHILL". Also, check her legwarmers! ;-)
    Yes, Delta’s toboggan reads “CHILL”. Also, check her legwarmers! 😉

    At the Jeffries Casa de Chaos, we had a very foodie round of gift giving and receiving. Manfriend and my parents both gifted me new attachments for our KitchenAid Stand Mixer… I’m one of those people who actually use it a few times each month, if not weekly. Manfriend selected the Vegetable Sheet Slicer:

    I’m pretty excited about all the vegetable lasagnas in our future, but also the breakfast casserole options using thin sheets of vegetables!

    Mom and Dad sent me home with the Spiralizer attachment:

    You may remember I already told you about my smaller spiralizer and how much I love using it, this is only going to ante up my spiralizing game. I’m also gearing up to use some apple recipes with this guy! I’ll share our best successes here in future updates.

    Last, Little Sister (who is currently living overseas serving in the US Army… thank you, Mandy!) shipped an InstantPot Ultra for my enjoyment in 2018. I have already been diligently googling “Vegetarian Instant Pot” recipes this morning and can’t wait to get more experienced this this handy kitchen device. I’ve never used a pressure cooker before, so I have a mild case of anxiety about totally destroying my kitchen, but I have a feeling I’ll be able to watch YouTube videos to fill in any questions I have that the user manual skips over.

    And no matter the distance, nothing could keep me and Mandy from sharing Christmas mimosas with each other. Thank you, technology!

    Last, if you’re like me and working this week and won’t have a ton of downtime for healthy cooking to head into the new year, please try this foolproof recipe for baking sweet potatoes in the Crock-Pot: http://paleomg.com/stupid-easy-perfectly-cooked-sweet-potatoes/!

    I *love* filling up the Crock-Pot when I pop home for lunch and have dinner ready to go when I walk in the house… because I rarely make it home “on time”. I experimented with this sweet potato option just before the holidays and it was amazingly simple and way better than running the oven for-ev-er just to bake a single sweet potato or two. I sauteed a few pieces of vegetarian sausage and served them with the baked sweet potato for a perfectly satisfying quick dinner.

    PS: The above are Amazon.com affiliate links – many of which showing some deep after-Christmas discounts on some of these items. I appreciate you using these links if you’re considering purchasing as I’ll receive a small credit or commission based on any purchases you make.

  • First Days in Antibes

    First Days in Antibes

    Can I take just a second to brag on my wonderful manfriend who accompanied me over the pond for the first week to help me get adjusted to life here in Europe – and to enjoy a mini-vacation, too?

    While I was joining 41 other NC State GLM students here in the south of France, I elected to rent a private apartment for myself, so it was nice not to feel incredibly alone and have Johnnie here while the rest of my classmates were all arriving on different dates and getting settled themselves. Luckily, we found out quickly that many of my GLM gang are all staying in apartments super close to my place, which makes it easy to get together for brunch, shopping, bar hopping, day trips, sight seeing and the like.

    Back to the topic of this post, Johnnie Bud and I spent our first two days here just sight-seeing in Antibes – where I live and will be spending the most of my time. This place is stunning and approachable at the same time. Dripping in old world charm on the exterior, everything is visually beautiful but has all of the comforts of home easily available – great wifi in my apartment, lots of shopping and dining, and a store called Monoprix that is basically Euro Target… it’s short walk from my apartment and every time I walk in, I spend at least $75 on all the random things one collects at a wander through Target.

    We’ve also found lots of great food, but Antibes really feels like a vacation destination in that a lot of smaller businesses are currently closed for an entire month for holiday and vegetarian menus aren’t the most widely available. However, there are several markets, including an open air farmer’s market within steps of my apartment, so I’m doing lots of cooking now that I’m settled and shopping several times a week for fresh food rather than a weekly stock-up trip like at home. (That’s also partly due to the fact that most apartments here have refrigerators that are a fraction of the size of one back home.)

    Up Next: Pics from Sunday Funday in Cannes and a Monday in Monaco/Monte Carlo!