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She Loved to Read Cookbooks and her Favorite Color was Green

Published: Nov 4, 2019 · Last updated: Nov 4, 2019 by Marissa

Hello, friends.

I’d like to talk a little about one of the strongest women I’ve ever known. She was a Greek immigrant who moved to the states at a very young age. She was in the top 10% of her graduating class in high school. She adored any movie with Doris Day, Audrey Hepburn, or Marilyn Monroe. Whenever the song “Unforgettable” would play, she’d close her eyes and sing along with Nat King Cole. Collecting and reading cookbooks was her favorite hobby (and she enjoyed watching just about every cooking show in existence). She was sweet and sometimes stubborn. She would do absolutely anything for the people she loved.

She was my mother. And on April 16th, she died from cancer….

Tobago Dreaming

Published: Apr 15, 2018 · Last updated: Apr 16, 2018 by Marissa

In March, Jay and I hopped on a plane and met up with some friends down in Trinidad and Tobago for some solid beaching, eating, and liming.

Hello, friends!

I’m so glad to finally share some photos from my trip to Tobago with you. If you were following my Instagram stories, I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did!

If you weren’t following along (ahem, you can follow me here b-t-dubs) and you have no idea what I’m talking about, Jay and I went to Tobago with some friends! I had lots of photos to sort through for this post and it was tough to decide which ones to actually use. I ended up going with the “why not post more?” option, which means I’ll be sharing photos and stories across a couple of posts, and I’ll be including recipes in some of them too! I’m sharing a mixture of photos that were taken by all of us on the trip.

Because everything is better with food, yeah? I knew you would agree.

This post, however, is basically going to be a semi-giant photo dump. So get ready and get hype!…

A Weekend in Maine

Published: Aug 29, 2017 · Last updated: Aug 29, 2017 by Marissa

Earlier this month, Jason and I went up north with some friends to spend a relaxing weekend away from the city.

A few weekends back, some friends invited me and Jay to a house on a lake in Maine, and it was exactly the mini-getaway we needed!

We got into the car and headed for Fryeburg, a small town in the western part of the state. We had little to no phone service, which was such a refreshing break; I only had my phone out to take some pictures. I realized I didn’t get a chance to share many of these on Instagram, so I thought I’d share them here.

Surprisingly, I didn’t have many photos of food, and the ones I managed to take didn’t come out all that great, but here are the photos worth sharing….

Antipasto Pasta Salad

Published: Jul 28, 2017 · Last updated: Oct 5, 2018 by Marissa

This post is sponsored by Simply Organic. All opinions are strictly my own!

Happy Friday, friends!

It’s been a hot minute since I’ve shared a tasty recipe with you, and let me tell you, I am excited to share this antipasto pasta salad with you today! Also, I’m eating it for lunch as I write this. Om nom nom.

I love pretty much antipasto anything and recently became obsessed with it in pasta form after trying it at a friend’s BBQ. Since then, I’ve made my own version and it’s become a go-to favorite for parties and also to have for lunch throughout the week.

It’s a win-win all around.
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Part One: The Anxiety Backstory

Published: Jul 26, 2017 · Last updated: Jul 26, 2017 by Marissa

Part One: The Anxiety Backstory | omgfood.com

Oh, hi! It’s been a while (what else is new, right?).

Back in June, I shared an intro post to what I’ve not-so-creatively named the “Getting My Act Together” series (if you have no clue what I’m talking about, check it out here). And this is part one.

If you’ve been following the blog for a while, you probably know that I was laid off from my full-time job in January 2016 and it was quite the downer at the time. I mentioned my struggles here and there with job hunting and feeling sad, etc. I didn’t really go into more detail than that; it was basically me repeating “wah, job hunting is hard,” and it was!

What I didn’t go into were the other struggles I had. Struggles that stemmed from this little thing called anxiety and branched out into something much bigger. It got to the point where I lost interest in things I loved, including blogging.

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Getting My Act Together: A Three-Part Series

Published: Jun 4, 2017 · Last updated: Jun 4, 2017 by Marissa

Hi, friends.

I’m sitting here trying to figure out how to write. By that, I mean, there’s a lot on my mind I want to share – and I don’t quite know how to do it without just blurting everything out. If I did that, this would end up being a really long post. And you know what? Long posts are boring.

I’ve been struggling with motivation to blog for a while. It’s not because I got bored with it or stopped loving it. The quick explanation is simple: My anxiety decided to kick it up 50 notches in the last several months and it eventually led me to fall into a deep depression.

I feel it’s really important to get these thoughts out there. I think ignoring them would just feel dishonest and I owe this to myself.

Also, feeling dishonest is pretty awful.

So this is the deal: I’m going to have a few posts coming up soon. The plan is to blab a bit about anxiety, depression, blogging responsibilities I’ve abandoned, and what I’ve been doing to help find that inner peace I’ve desperately been craving.

None of these posts will include recipes, but I promise I’ll be back to sharing those with you soon. <3

And there you have a quick preview of the little blog series I’ve dubbed “Getting My Act Together.” Consider this a teaser of sorts on what’s to come!

Oh and also, there will be many GIFs. Get hype!…

OMGfood 3-Year Anniversary Week + Giveaway!

Published: Feb 22, 2017 · Last updated: Feb 22, 2017 by Marissa

It’s been three years, friends! Can you friggen believe it? I mean, can you even?

I know, right?

On February 20th, 2014, I clicked that giant “LAUNCH” button and I suddenly had a blog out in the world. Two recipes were posted and they were full of annoying ramblings (probably) and awful photography (definitely).

The blog was OMGFOOD and an awesome friend of mine made this logo for me:

At the time, I was living a paleo-ish lifestyle and decided I would share mostly paleo/gluten-free recipes and occasionally include foods outside of those realms. I was maybe 70/30 on the paleo thing and had been for over a year. I figured that lifestyle would stick and blogging about it would too….

2016 Reader Survey

Published: Dec 19, 2016 · Last updated: Dec 19, 2016 by Marissa

Hello, friends!

I’m doing something a little different today. I’m sharing my first-ever reader survey with you! I want to make OMGfood a kickass place for you and I need your help to make that happen. I want to know what you really think of this blog. Is it rad? Is it the worst? Do you actually cook any of these recipes I post? Is there anything you want to see on here I haven’t done yet? I want all of the feedback. ALL OF IT. *maniacal laughter*

In all seriousness, if you could take a few minutes to fill this out, I will be forever grateful and would pay you in sweet treats and hugs if I could. With 2016 coming to a close, I want to focus on starting the new year off right, and make this blog one of the best places to visit in Internet Land. I wouldn’t be doing this blogging thing without you and it’s important to me that you’re getting what you want out of it. The info from the survey will help me learn what you like or don’t like about the site. (You’re all so mysterious!)

Fun fact: the survey is totally anonymous; there’s no way of me finding out who you are by answering these questions. Also, each question is optional, but the more you can fill out, the better I can make this site for you! True story.

Click here to get to the survey:

https://omgfood.com/2016-reader-survey

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OMGFAIL: A Tasty Cake Gone Wrong

Published: Jun 24, 2016 · Last updated: Jun 24, 2016 by Marissa

Ahh, failed recipes. We’ve all been there, no? It’s been a while since I’ve shared a post like this. The last time before this one (also the only time) was back in early 2015. That definitely doesn’t mean that was the last time I effed up in the kitchen, but I don’t always talk about it here. And I think I should change that! So we’ll see how long that idea sticks. If it’s another year+ before the next fail post goes up, well, don’t be surprised, I guess!

Do you remember back in May when I posted the mandarin orange tequila smash? In that post, I talked about my original plans to bake a cake, but I didn’t have enough sugar, so I made the cocktail instead. Then I went to try it again, but realized I didn’t have enough walnuts for the cake, but I did have enough to make the chocolate espresso pie bars, so I did that instead. After that? No mention of cake! I moved onto things like decrystallizing honey and grilled caprese sandwiches.

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I Had A Job And Now I Don’t

Published: Jan 26, 2016 · Last updated: Jan 26, 2016 by Marissa

Hello, friends.

Today, I have something a little different for you. There’s no recipe or giveaway. There’s no traffic or income report (and there hasn’t been for a while because I’m lazy, but we’ll get more into that later). There isn’t even a kitchen-related tip for me to share with you! I recently got laid off from my full-time job and I’d like to talk a little about it.

It’s been a weird couple of weeks. I wanted to write a post sooner, but I didn’t really know how. It happened a couple days before I posted about the recent giveaway I participated in and I wasn’t about to be all like, “YAY LOOK AT THIS AWESOME GIVEAWAY OMG! By the way, I lost my job this week. Okay, byeeeee!”

Then I thought I could share the news with a comforting recipe. You know when you have a rough day and only a certain type of food can really hit the spot? I have a friend whose go-to is spaghetti and meatballs; mine is usually Chinese food. But I struggled even with the idea of cooking and photographing. To be honest, I haven’t felt inspired to cook much of anything these last couple of weeks. Which brings me to ask myself: what the hell have I been eating lately anyway?…

It’s A New Year! Time For A Giveaway!

Published: Jan 13, 2016 · Last updated: Jan 12, 2016 by Marissa

Happy New Year to you, friends!

It’s been a crazy and busy few weeks. I just got back from vacationing in Orlando last week. I went to Disney World and Universal Studios and it was awesome. A couple other things went down as well, but I’ll go into all the details later this week and/or next – with recipes too!

I don’t have a recipe for you today, but I did team up with a group of awesome bloggers again to give away an Amazon gift card worth $700! The holidays are over and you maybe have some bills to pay because of it, yeah? I imagine this would help.

You can put in one entry or multiple ones! Totally up to you. I definitely encourage you to check out all of the awesome blogs participating in this giveaway. Maybe do it on a full stomach; looking at tasty food photos while hungry is arguably worse than grocery shopping while hungry….

Food Blog University + Vacationing in Cancun

Published: Nov 8, 2015 · Last updated: Oct 23, 2018 by Marissa

Some of you know by now that I recently went to Cancun for a food blogger conference and had a mini vacation with Jason. Well, I’m finally talking about my trip and how it all went!

I didn’t get to take nearly as many photos as I wanted to. I broke my phone at Logan airport an hour before take-off! That was fun (okay, not really). I brought my DSLR, but only for conference purposes; I didn’t bring it around with me at the resort, though I do wish I had because the views were just gorgeous. Some of the photos below were taken with my iPad or Jason’s phone when the fancy-cam was unavailable.

Let me just say: the whole trip was amazing. UH. MAYYYY. ZING. I went to Food Blog University, a conference founded by Melissa Llado of Serendipity and Spice and Diana Johnson of Eating Richly Even When You’re Broke. They formed FBU earlier this year and I got to be one of the lucky few who attended the first conference at Dreams Riviera Cancun, an all-inclusive resort. I admit, because FBU was in its first year, I wasn’t sure what to expect, but Melissa and Diana nailed it. I’ve been to many conferences in the past; most of them video game related and one other food blogger conference. This was the best of them all and for a few good reasons:…

10 Slow Cooker Recipes to Make this Fall

Published: Nov 1, 2015 · Last updated: Nov 1, 2015 by Marissa

Do you own a slow cooker/crock-pot? It’s one of my favorite cooking tools. It’s especially great for easy meals that require little hands-on time. You can usually just throw your ingredients in the slow cooker and not look at it for hours. Sometimes, you have to pay attention depending on the meal, but even then, the required time to “pay attention” to what’s cooking is limited and that’s pretty nice. Especially if you have a busy schedule and/or work full time. I love starting a meal before leaving for work and coming home to a hot dinner.

I don’t have many slow cooker recipes on my own blog. In fact, I only have one right now, but I’ll be adding more eventually! Too many recipes to share and so little time.

My go-to slow cooker meal is jalapeño garlic beef; it’s, hands down, my favorite recipe to make in the crock-pot. I’ve had people tweet to me when they make this recipe and it’s always great to know they’re enjoying it….

Seattle and PAX

Published: Sep 7, 2015 · Last updated: Sep 7, 2015 by Marissa

I can’t even. I don’t. Wha? Um. Words. Ha ba ba? Blergh. Ftttttzzzz-

That is how my brain functioned every night after working a full day at PAX.

In my last post, I mentioned I was in Seattle for work! Rock Band 4 is coming out really soon (October 6th, to be exact) and I flew out with a bunch of awesome co-workers to work the event, showing off new features in the game, answering questions about the game, etc. PAX is basically a huge gaming festival and the event is hosted in a few cities across the country, with one being all the way in Australia, and thousands of people attend. Seattle is the birthplace of the festival and so it’s normally called PAX Prime. I usually go to PAX East because it happens right in my home city, but I never pass up an opportunity to travel with awesome colleagues to show off the games we work on. It was my first time in Seattle and I was able to enjoy a little of the city by exploring some before giving all of my energy to the convention….

42 Super Tasty Summer Cocktails

Published: Aug 23, 2015 · Last updated: Oct 23, 2018 by Marissa

August is almost over, but that doesn’t mean that summer has to be! I don’t know about you, but when it comes to lounging outside during this season, I love to have a good cocktail within reach.

My more recent obsession is the blueberry basil bourbon smash, which I’ve made a few times now with fresh Greek basil from my garden. Sweet basil can also be used; there isn’t really a taste difference when used in the cocktail. Either way, it’s a great, refreshing drink!…

Traffic and Income Report – July 2015

Published: Aug 20, 2015 · Last updated: Dec 30, 2018 by Marissa

And now for something completely different…

Welcome to OMG FOOD’S first traffic and income report of 2015…and ever! You won’t find a recipe here today, so if numbers and the technical side of blogging bore you, feel free to take the day off; I’ll have a tasty recipe for you next time. For the rest of you nerds, read on!

Here’s the deal. I’m joining the transparency movement. I think a business being open and honest about how things are working behind the scenes is pretty rad. I’ve been doing my best to keep you up to date via facebook posts and newsletters when I sign on with new ad networks and such, but I want to do so much more to grow my blog and I want to share that journey with you! The highlights, what I might have done right, what I did terribly wrong, how monetizing is going, etc. I’m learning as I go and really, I have no idea what I’m doing outside of the food thing (insert proper “dog in kitchen” meme here.)…

9 Simple & Tasty Recipes For Your Next BBQ

Published: Jul 2, 2015 · Last updated: Jul 2, 2015 by Marissa

It’s grilling season! You planning on hitting up any BBQs? Maybe hosting one? This quick guide has got you covered for a few simple and tasty recipes. Sure, burgers and hot dogs are standard BBQ fare, but mix it up a bit with these tasty foods! Below, you’ll find 9 simple & tasty recipes for your next BBQ. All recipes by yours truly. <3…

Freezing Bananas

Published: Jul 1, 2015 · Last updated: Jul 1, 2015 by Marissa

Today, I’m going to talk about bananas! Cool!

You probably know about this tip, but in the off-chance you don’t, I’m going to tell you that if you are throwing your overripe bananas away, you’re doing it wrong.

Overripe bananas are messy to eat as is (and not all that appealing really), but the sweetness you get from them being so ripe is great for baked goods, smoothies, ice cream, and more probably!

But you might not have time to bake a banana bread once they hit that stage, right? So your options might be to throw them away or leave them on the counter or fruit bowl thinking you’ll be able to do something with them at some point, but you might continue to forget or not have time and your bananas just sit there until mold is all over the place and blech….

OMGFAIL: A post about failed recipes!

Published: Feb 11, 2015 · Last updated: Feb 19, 2015 by Marissa

You may have noticed I didn’t post anything in the last two weeks. What gives?

I actually had three recipes planned for the week before last. I normally aim for two posts a week, sometimes one, depending on my schedule. But a few Sundays ago, I made all three! The problem is nothing came out the way I wanted it to.

To give you a little insight on how I work on recipes for the blog, I do all my cooking and photo-taking on the weekends because I like to take advantage of the natural light when I can. My full-time job doesn’t allow me to do all that during the week. I’m still learning how to use my DSLR and if you go back to older posts from not that long ago, it shows! I used to work on food photos at night after work, but I have a mediocre setup as far as lighting goes and my photos never turned out that great…which reminds me that I should update some photos for older blog posts soon….

Whole30 Day 0: What It’s All About + Prepping The Kitchen

Published: Apr 27, 2014 · Last updated: Mar 10, 2015 by Marissa

Updated 11-26-14: This post was originally written for a Whole30 program I was unable to complete on the blog due to technical issues that prevented me from making new posts.

I’m doing a Whole30 starting tomorrow and I’ll be blogging about it while sharing some new recipes with you! No clue what the Whole30 is? Read on. You might become interested in doing one at some point and I’ll have the info here for you to come back to!

In a nutshell, Whole30 is 30 days of eating food that’s unprocessed, free of dairy, added sugar, legumes, soy, booze, and grains.

Before you freak out and get all like, “EFF THAT,” calm down. It’s okay! As someone who loves all foods and has completed a Whole30 a couple times, I can safely tell you it’s really not that bad. The first few days are hard – I won’t deny that! Once you’re over that slump, though? You’ll feel absolutely amazing and the pay-off is huge….

What’s In My Pantry: Cooking Fats!

Published: Apr 6, 2014 · Last updated: Apr 1, 2015 by Marissa

Since switching over to a paleo-ish lifestyle, I’ve ditched the junky canola/vegetable oils from my pantry. These items are a staple in my kitchen now:

Coconut oil is one of my favorite cooking fats because it’s great for baking, stir-frying, and high temp cooking. I always look for the unrefined kind.

Butter isn’t paleo because it’s dairy, but I’m no purist! Though I’ve ditched the “regular” grain-fed kind and now I’m all about Kerrygold butter.It comes from grass-fed cows which means better nutrients for you …