Giveaway: Tuttorosso Prize Pack

With the holidays coming up quickly, I thought it would be fun to do a couple giveaways as my gift to you. This is the first of two I have planned.

Tuttorosso is owned by Red Gold, a family-owned company focused on creating great-tasting tomato products through growing local in the Midwest, which has ideal conditions for tomato growing. Every day on Tuttorosso’s Facebook page, you can enter to win daily prizes until Dec. 22. The prizes include Rachael Ray stock pots, Wustof knives and Good Grips garlic presses.

Tuttorosso sent me a prize pack of some of their products and cooking accessories, and offered a pack to one of you. Details are at the end of this post. I was really excited to try their products and whipped up a couple easy weekday recipes using their products.

Spaghetti with Mozzarella and Basil

I really wanted to try simple recipes that brought out the favor of the tomatoes. Because this recipe is so simple and requires so few ingredients, it’s important to get fresh ingredients for the most flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1 pound spaghetti
• 1 can Tuttorosso tomato sauce (29 ounces)
• 2 ounces of fresh mozzarella, cubed
• 1 cup fresh basil, chopped into confetti
• Salt

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add a generous amount of salt to season. It’s important to really salt the water. Since fresh mozzarella has less salt than packaged mozzarella, the salt in the pasta water seasons the spaghetti and rest of the dish nicely. Add spaghetti and cook to al dente.

Drain the spaghetti and add back to empty pot. Pour the tomato sauce into the pot and over the pasta and heat over low heat until sauce is heated. Transfer to a serving bowl. Fold in most of the mozzarella cubes and basil (set aside some of both to garnish). The mozzarella will melt from the heat of the pasta, and the basil will wilt slightly.

Garnish with remaining mozzarella and basil.

The tomato sauce is pretty simple and provides an easy base for pretty much any pasta dish. It’s easily dressed up with the fresh mozzarella and fresh basil. This dish reheats really well. The sauce soaks into the pasta, and fresh mozzarella melts so nicely, even upon reheating.

Baked Chicken with Crushed Tomatoes and Vegetables

Ingredients:

• 2 chicken breasts (about 1 pound)
• 1 can Tuttorosso crushed tomatoes with basil (15 ounces)
• 1 ear of sweet corn with kernels cut from cob
• 1 small yellow squash, diced
• 1 small zucchini, diced

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Mix together corn, squash and zucchini. I highly recommend using a fresh ear of sweet corn for the best flavor and texture.

Add crushed tomatoes and stir to incorporate.

Line a small baking dish with part of the vegetable and tomato mixture to create a thin base layer. Place chicken on top of layer then spoon over the rest of the tomato and vegetable mixture.

Bake in over for approximately 30 to 45 minutes (depending on how packed your baking dish is) until chicken is cooked through.

The crushed tomatoes are nice and thick and well seasoned thanks to the basil already incorporated. It pairs well with hearty vegetables. While baking, the chicken soaks up all the juices making it incredibly moist. You could really swap out any vegetables you want in this dish.

Giveaway

Don’t forget to visit Tuttorosso’s Facebook page to enter their daily giveaway. In addition, enter to win your own Tuttorosso prize pack full of tomato products and cooking accessories here. You have two chances to win:

1. Leave a comment below with your favorite dish that has tomatoes
2. Tweet (be sure to leave a second comment with your Twitter handle saying you tweeted): I just entered to win a Tuttorosso prize pack through @sushiandsitups
   http://bit.ly/tKlXT7
   

You have until this weekend to enter. I’ll pick a winner next weekend right before Christmas! And don’t forget to come back soon for my second holiday giveaway!

Pillow talk

Let’s talk pillows.

I love pillows, especially throw pillows. I was thrilled to win a giveaway on Brittany’s lovely blog for a Technogel pillow. Technogel is a company that combines two of my favorite things: sleeping and technology. These are not your run-of-the-mill pillows. They are specially designed for the way you sleep, and a lot of innovation goes into this. I sent all of my honest feedback back to the company, and they asked if I would share my opinions on my blog. I won the pillow for free, but my opinions are not compensated and are my honest thoughts.

I recruited the king of napping to serve as my Vanna.

When it came to choosing my pillow, the primary criteria came down to how you prefer to sleep. I’m a back sleeper most of the time, so opted for the Contour model. Once in a pillow case, it looks like any normal pillow.

However, once you touch it, you realize it’s not a typical pillow. First of all, it’s a lot heavier than a typical pillow. The outer layer of the pillow is made of memory foam combined with a cooling gel that molds to your head.

The pillow took me a couple nights to get used to. It’s a thicker pillow, which is just a change from my normal pillow.

However, the initial laying back into the pillow is very comfortable. The memory foam is so soft, and the shape of the pillow cups the back of your head. The most comfortable use of this pillow is if you stay laying on your back.

Sometimes throughout the night, I’ll roll onto my side. Because of the shape of the pillow, it’s not as comfortable if you simply roll because you end up on a slope of the pillow. It’s most comfortable to stay in the center of the pillow. The gel contained within the pillow also gives off a cooling effect, so you never have to flip your pillow to try to find the cool side. It always stays cool.

Kevin is a stomach sleeper, so this pillow was not comfortable for him. However, they offer a thinner pillow just for stomach sleepers. They also have travel pillows and neck pillows.

I recommend playing around Technogel’s website to see what pillow is perfect for you. They also offer mattresses and bases for your bed.

How many pillows do you have on your bed? With throw pillows and sleeping pillows combined, I have eight. At one point, I had about 16, so I think I’m easing off my pillow hoarding.

Sunny

I can’t believe how quickly this past weekend came and went. I was definitely dragging back at work today. On Saturday night, I ventured out for bachelorette party festivities to celebrate my good friend Erica who is getting married next month.

For the sake of all related parties, I’m going to spare you all the photos. We had a great time, and I think Erica enjoyed her night out with the girls.

In breakfast news, I’ve reached the end of another jar.

I have to admit that I really didn’t enjoy MaraNatha, but I hate wasting food. I had heard so many great reviews of the almond butter, but I think it’s the added salt that I didn’t enjoy. I don’t put a lot of salt on foods, so I may be more sensitive to the taste than most.

I was excited for some overnight oats in a jar, but I was more excited to move on to the next jar.

So far, I’ve been loving the jar of Sunbutter! I love the texture much more than the no-stir MaraNatha. I think I found a winner!

What was the best thing you did this weekend?

With a little help

I haven’t been able to cook as much or as elaborately lately since I started studying, so tonight’s dinner was courtesy of Williams Sonoma. Every time I venture into Williams Sonoma, I just want to buy everything.

I picked up a bottle of Williams Sonoma’s Bolognese sauce. It’s definitely more expensive than the jar sauce at Publix, but it sounded delicious.

I knew the sauce would be tasty when I poured it into the pot. It was very thick and chunky.

I paired the sauce with pasta from Publix.

Our appetizer was also from Williams Sonoma. My boss bought me their dipping oils for Christmas, and I was very excited to try them out.

I’m pretty sure these are going to up my bread consumption drastically. I tried the pesto flavor tonight, and it was flavorful and had a slight kick from chili flakes. You could tell that the olive oil was high quality, and it was just as delicious as what you’d find in any nice Italian restaurant.

I would consider dinner a success and minimal cooking skills were required. The Bolognese sauce was really good. There was a lot of spices, and it was definitely a step up from the jar sauces I usually buy.

Dessert was also made with a little help…this time from Pillsbury.

I’m such a sucker for cookies straight out of the oven.

What are your favorite dinner shortcuts?

Drink Chia!

Kevin’s brother Stephen received some samples of a new superfood beverage to try called Drink Chia, and he passed one along for me to check out. Drink Chia is an Orlando-based company that promotes healthy and active living. Each bottle of Drink Chia has 880 milligrams of Omega-3s for only 4 calories and 40 grams of sugar and a list of all-natural ingredients.

I tried their strawberry citrus flavor. They also have honeysuckle pear and mango tangerine.

I chugged a bottle after my workout this morning.

Can you see all the chia seeds floating around? Chia seeds, which are popular in the health community, are rich in omega-3 fatty acids, antioxidants and other nutrients. They are flavorless so easily added to dishes for nutritional benefits; although when soaked, they turn gelatinous so they’re often used as a thickener in smoothies or soups.

The texture of the drink was pretty normal and the little gel seeds went down easily. You barely notice they’re there. The flavor was very subtle almost like flavored water, and it was not overly sweet, which is great for after a workout.

I’m excited to try the honeysuckle pear flavor, and I would definitely recommend Drink Chia for some easy Omega-3s.

I hope you have a great Thanksgiving tomorrow! I have so much to be thankful for, including my fiance, my family, my friends, Parko, my job and my health.

Have you ever had chia seeds before? What’s your favorite way to consume them?

What are you thankful for?