A Cooking Demo for Free? Fine by Me.

This evening Ryan and I headed to Whole Foods for a free cooking demonstration conducted by two chefs from Disney World’s annual Epcot Food and Wine Festival, an event showcasing cuisine and wines from around the world.

Cooking Demonstration

We’ve been to one other demonstration at Whole Foods hosted by Season’s 52, my faaaavorite restaurant in the whole-wide-world, so my hopes for this evening were quite high.

As we entered the Lifestyle Center where the demonstration was held, the fresh produce, herbs and spices adorning the countertops immediately sparked my interest and made my tummy grumble.

Ryan and I took our seats and were handed two different recipes to be covered in the demonstration.

We Love Food!

First up was spicy chicken sausage with sweet corn polenta.

Recipe One

The chefs took us through the recipe, and any steps that were hard to see from our seats were showcased on two flat screen televisions. Whole Foods is high tech!

Ballin'!

Once the recipe was complete we were more than ready to give it a little taste test!

Chicken Sausage and Sweet Polenta

While the chicken sausage was a little too spicy for my sensitive tongue, the addition of pure maple syrup to the polenta made the corn mixture deliciously sweet. Ryan and I agreed it was the highlight of the evening.  

The next recipe featured was a mushroom soup.

Recipe Two

The soup was made using lots of fresh vegetables and sour cream, which I never would have known was in the soup had I not seen the chefs add it myself.

Mushroom Soup

One More Time

The soup was topped with truffle oil, which I had never tried before. WOW, was that delicious!!! We gobbled our bowls right up!

The cooking events at our local Whole Foods are wonderful and are typically under $10 a person, if not completely free, like tonight’s event. Ryan and I love learning new tricks of the cookin’ trade and sampling delicious eats prepared by expert chefs is just the icing on the cake (or the truffle oil on the mushroom soup 😉 )!

Question: Have you ever attended a cooking demonstration or a cooking class? 

Goat Cheese Gourmet

My lunchtime pizza, though made in the microwave, tasted muy gourmet and I owe it all to the strong flavor of goat cheese.

Pizza, Pizza!

I made the pizza using a Tam-x-cio’s wheat tortilla as the crust.

Tam-x-ico's Tortilla

I topped the tortilla with tomato basil marinara sauce, a heavy sprinkling of creamy goat cheese crumbles, chopped roasted brussels sprouts and fresh spinach.

Veggiefied Goat Cheese Pizza

I microwaved it for 45 seconds and had a tasty gourmet-tasting pizza in no time at all!

Tasty

Not too bad for a lunch made in the break room! 🙂

Question: What’s your favorite way to use goat cheese?

My Love for Pumpkin is Thriving

I really hope you wonderful readers out there love pumpkin, because my breakfast today is yet another ode to this seasonal favorite.

Fall's Favorite

On the day of our engagement, Ryan and I stopped by Whole Foods for a yummy lunch from the salad and hot bars. The intention was to only stop for lunch… ha! Naturally I wanted to browse, mainly because Whole Foods offers tons of free samples and I’m a sucker for tasty nibbles.

(As my retirement job one day, I secretly want to be the sample lady at the grocery store.I want to prepare delicious bites for shoppers and I won’t give people weird looks if they want more than one sample. I get it. Samples are awesome.)

While wondering up and down the aisles, I stumbled upon a new bar made by Kashi.

Kashi Pumpkin Pie Bar

Couple Kashi with pumpkin and I knew this was a recipe for success.

My breakfast this morning was topped with a crumbled Kashi pumpkin pie bar.

Pumpkiny Good

I blended a half a cup of cottage cheese with a half a cup of pumpkin, several shakes of pumpkin pie spice and a little bit of sweetener.

Pumpkin Pie "Cheesecake"

I topped the mix (which tastes a lot like pumpkin pie cheesecake) with the Kashi bar for crunch and extra flavor.

Bowl of Pumpkin Fun

Breakfast was mmm, mmm pumpkin-good. I served the pumpkin cheesecake mix with a hot cuppa Yogi tea and a Viactiv calcium chew.

Yogi Green Tea

Breakfast is Served

Gettin' My Calcium

I LOVE these calcium chews and could eat them like candy. Mo’ calcium and vitamin D fo’ me!

Question: What’s your favorite thing to do with pumpkin (& yes, carve it is a great answer)?

*Merri, can’t wait for pumpkin carving on Thursday!!! 🙂