Hello,
I hope the weekend rocked for everyone. It was kinda rainy most of the weekend, but the rain did not stop the fun. I scratched another thing off the bucket – a cooking class. Saturday me and some of my girlfriends attended Cooking and Cocktails with Nikki.

Cooking and Cocktails

Nikki Bell has been cooking since she was 7 years old. A self-taught Chef, Nikki was one of 16 home cooks from across the U.S. that competed for a $50,000 cash prize in the Food Network’s new culinary competition series America’s Best Cook. Nikki credits her love of cooking to her grandmother. She shared stories about cooking from the Betty Crocker cookbook alongside her beloved grandmother.

For Cooking and Cocktails, we feasted on chicken breasts stuffed with artichokes, sun-dried tomatoes, and goat-cheese accompanied by couscous. Nikki guided us through this simple, yet delicious and nutritious meal. The chicken was moist and the stuffing was full of flavor. I’ve had couscous at some pretty nice restaurants, but this dish was melt in your mouth good. While preparing this fantastic meal, Nikki gave us tips on finding quality cooking utensils at stores like Marshalls, T.J. Maxx, and Ross – checkout the home section at these discount retailers. She urged us to buy the freshest ingredients from a farmer’s market or from stores like Aldi.

To finish off our meal, Nikki prepared an “ice cream” of frozen bananas, apricot preserves, and almond milk using a NutriBullet. Y’all it was so good – I’m buying a NutriBullet as soon as they go on sale. I topped my ice cream with balsamic strawberries. Oh gosh, so good!

I asked Nikki what was her takeaway from her Food Network experience, “Don’t be afraid to go for it and salt your pasta water!”. This was a good experience and Nikki’s down to earth approach to cooking has me thinking yeah maybe I could whip up some stuffed chicken and couscous. Learn more about Nikki at her website Nikki Can Cook and grab a cookbook and some spices.

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