Marzia – Houston Food/Travel Blogger

@littlespicejar

Partnerships → [email protected] Personal: @thislittlespicelife ↓all recipes here↓
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Here’s how I keep my cilantro fresh for two weeks and sometimes even longer! All you want to do is unwrap or take off the metal twist or ties then wipe down the cilantro when you purchase it. Don’t wash it, don’t do anything else do it. Pop it into an airtight plastic or glass container and add a raw egg to the same container. Place a lid on top of the container and make sure the lid is on tight. Then pop it into the fridge and keep it as usual! This works like a charm! Follow: @littlespicejar Follow: @littlespicejar Follow: @littlespicejar #littlespicejar #kitchenhacks #hacks #f52community #cilantro
70.9k 1,136
1 year ago
Shepherd’s Pie isn’t hard to make but there are a few different things I like to do to elevate my shepherd’s pie recipe and it is honestly one of the BEST! There’s something so magical about this easy shepherd’s pie recipe. Sure, every family has a version, and sure with every version, you’ll find something that is a little different. Most of the time, I find shepherd’s pie to be a little on the bland side. It’s your simple mirepoix with ground lamb and mashed potatoes on top. And yes, that does sound comforting, but I like to use a few additional ingredients to amp this dish up to a whole new level. Shepherd’s Pie? Yes. Bland and boring? Heck no. 🍴First of all, shepherd’s pie is made with ground lamb, not ground beef. The lamb elevates the flavor significantly! If you use ground beef, you’ve made a cottage pie, not a shepherd’s pie. Not saying you can’t make the swap, just saying it’s called a different name! Make sure to use lean ground lamb or drain most of the grease once it browns so you don’t end up with a greasy pie! 🍴We go heavy on the seasonings. I often get told that my shepherd’s pie has a few unusual seasonings, like cinnamon and nutmeg, and these ingredients work so beautifully with the ground lamb – don’t knock it till you try it! It makes such a unique and flavorful shepherds pie. 🍴For the potatoes – I skip the russets and use something a little more flavorful, like Yukon gold potatoes. You can use russets but I do find that Yukon golds provide a better flavor. And the second thing – add Irish cheddar cheese or white cheddar cheese along with cream cheese to the mashed potatoes. I also toss in a couple cloves of garlic as the potatoes are boiling and then mash the garlic in with the potatoes once they’ve softened. *CHEFS KISS* This truly makes one amazing dish! For the full recipe, click the link in my profile or like this reel and comment “PIE” below and I’ll send the recipe right to your DMs! #shepherdspie #stpatricksday #irish #casserole
1,366 434
11 days ago
Perfectly broiled miso ginger salmon with veggies! This recipe has become a go-to on busy nights. The salmon broils in the oven and gets golden brown on the outside but still maintains that perfect tender center. That ginger miso marinade doubles as the sauce for the veggies, and that this meal is weeknight friendly! This meal will make the whole house smell delicious, but it’s easy enough to put together on a weeknight and fancy enough to serve company or to put together for a special occasion. The fam won’t believe you didn’t just pick up the phone and order takeout. Full recipe linked in my profile and on littlespicejar.com. You can also like this post and comment “SALMON” and I’ll send the recipe right to your DMs! #salmon #miso #easyrecipe #weeknightdinner
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1 month ago
Best Garlic Parmesan Wings! Here are 3 things to do to make the best homemade oven baked chicken wings!! ⬇️⬇️⬇️ 🍗 It’s important to really spread the chicken wings out on a wire baking rack. Using a rack ensure that the wings will have air circulating all around. This will help brown them rather than steam them in the oven. If you happen to have really small wings, they may not fit on one baking sheet. In this case, I recommend baking them on two baking sheets, baking one sheet pan at a time for optimum golden and crispiness! 🍗 Baking powder is alkaline, which means that it raises the pH of the wings’ skin, causing the Maillard reaction to occur between the reduced sugars and amino acids. So when we bake the wings, you get wings that are perfectly golden brown, crispy, and full of flavor! 🍗 If you are planning in advance, season the chicken with all the seasonings, then place them on the wire rack and pop the rack into the bottom shelf of your refrigerator (uncovered) as long as time permits. Doing this overnight yields better results, but even 45 minutes to an hour helps! This helps dry out the skin further, creating the most delicious golden and crispy oven baked chicken wings! Click the link in my profile for the full recipe or like this reel and comment “WINGS” and I’ll send the recipe straight to your DMs! Questions about the recipe? Ask them below! ⬇️ #superbowl #chickenwings #garlicparmesanwings #bakedwings
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1 month ago
Chicken and Wild Rice Soup! Warm and cozy instant pot chicken wild rice soup takes under an hour to make! It’s creamy, snug, and studded with celery, onions, mushrooms, and carrots. The perfect meal for chilly winter nights! The hardest part about this whole instant pot chicken wild rice soup is waiting for 45 minutes. But here’s the thing – it’s simple, humble, feel-good food. It’s also perfect for those of us that want a warm bowl of soup for lunch every day of the week as this recipe makes enough for 6-8 servings. Quick to throw together, straightforward, easily adaptable to your preference. Instant pot chicken wild rice soup is perfect to meal prep on Sundays and enjoy all week long! Full recipe linked in my profile and on littlespicejar.com. Like this reel and comment “SOUP” and I’ll send the recipe straight to your DMs! #chickensoup #soup #soupseason #wildrice #chickenwildricesoup
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1 month ago
My secret ingredient tomato basil soup doesn’t contain even a drop of cream! … and yet, it’s the most luxuriously creamy tomato basil soup you’ll ever have and it’s one secret ingredient that really make takes this recipe over the top! …and no, it’s not milk, half and half, a flour-based roux, butter or anything weird. I’m not over here telling you that you need to add cottage cheese to your creamy tomato basil soup 😂 …. The secret ingredient for my tomato basil soup is basil pesto. That super concentrated flavor of basil pesto makes this tomato basil soup NEXT LEVEL STUFF. The pine nuts and parmesan cheese from the pesto add such nice depth and creaminess that you’ll forget about adding that heavy cream or half and half in and opt for this more flavorful/ healthier option instead. The parmesan in the pesto also adds just the right amount of cheesiness to the soup without overpowering it. My recipe has over 165 ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ reviews and is totally worth trying! The full recipe is linked in my profile. Comment “TOMATO” below and I’ll send the recipe straight to your DMs! You can also search the web for “little spice jar tomato basil soup” #tomatosoup #grilledcheese #soup #tomatobasilsoup
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2 months ago
Crispy edges with chewy centers; these are the best extra chewy chocolate chip cookies I’ve ever made! I’ll explain everything you need to know to make the BEST chocolate chips cookies EVER! Here are 4 tips that always result in the perfect chocolate chip cookie! 🍪 Start with melted butter! Not semi soft, not half melted – we’re talking about liquid butter! Once the butter melts, we’ll combine it with the sugar and whisk, whisking and pausing in between allows the sugar to melt into the butter, creating an even chewier cookie. 🍪 Using a higher ratio of brown sugar to granulated sugar produces a chewier cookie. It also aids in giving these cookies a deeper more intense butterscotchy flavor. You’ll also notice that I use a lot less sugar than most chocolate chip cookie recipes. Since we’re melting the butter and allowing the sugar to melt into it, we can use less sugar while still makes these cookies perfectly sweet. This is something that doesn’t happen when you cream the butter and sugar together. Less sugar dissolves and thus you need more to get the right consistency! 🍪 Let your dough rest! I know, this is the hardest part! But allowing the dough to rest in the fridge for 3-72 hours allows the flour to absorb the moisture from the butter and sugar and prevents the cookies from spreading too much in the oven while they bake. It also helps ‘marinate’ or ‘age’ the dough gives the cookie a more intense flavor than if you were to just combine the ingredients and bake. 🍪 Bang the pan when the cookies are hot out of the oven! This helps knock out the air from the cookies and stops the cooking process. This will ensure that you have a soft and chewy center with the perfect crispy cookie rim! ✨bonus tip: use a large bowl or cookie cutter to gently swirl the cookie around when they’re hot from the oven! This helps give them a picture perfect shape! ✨ #cookies #chocolatechipcookies #cookie #baking
1,970 430
2 months ago
Cozy, creamy, and comforting Roasted Garlic White Chicken Lasagna Soup! A hearty and warm bowl filled with tender mushrooms, lasagna noodles, protein-packed chicken, and so much more! Sure to be a hit with the whole family! INGREDIENTS: 🧄Roasted Garlic: Many grocery stores sell roasted garlic on the bar in the deli section of the grocery store these days. If you can’t find it at the grocery store, it’s also very easy to roast a few heads of garlic at home in the oven. 🥫Alfredo sauce: You can use any brand of store-bought Alfredo sauce that you like for this recipe. 🍗 Chicken: I like to dice up a few boneless skinless chicken breasts and cook them with black pepper, basil, and Italian seasonings. 🧂all-purpose flour: adding a tablespoon of flour will help thicken the soup. 🧈Butter: we’ll use the butter to saute the mushrooms. Sauteeing mushrooms in butter brings out the natural umami in mushrooms and gives the soup a more delicious flavor as it simmers. 🍄 Mushrooms: I like to use baby bella or mini portobello mushrooms for this recipe. You could also use button mushrooms if you’d like. 🧅Onions: We’ll saute the onions in the butter and allow them to cook down until they are translucent. They’ll continue to simmer in the soup and lend tons of flavor. 🥛 Half and Half: or milk works too. This gives creamy white lasagna soup the silky smooth, creamy broth texture that we like. 🧂Seasonings: I like to use a ton of seasonings. All of these are pretty common for a lasagna recipe. I have garlic powder, dried basil, Italian seasoning, ground nutmeg, and some red pepper flakes. You could also use other seasonings if you’d like. 🍝Pasta: though broken lasagna noodles are the most common type of pasta used in a lasagna soup recipe, you don’t have to use lasagna noodles if you don’t want to. 🧀 Parmesan: Finishing the soup with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese adds a nice, nutty flavor! Full recipe linked in my profile, and on littlespicejar.com. Search the web for “little spice jar white lasagna soup” or like this reel and comment “soup” and I’ll send y”the recipe to your DMs! #soup #soupseason #roastedgarlic #lasagnasoup
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3 months ago
Thai Shrimp in A Blanket is an easy appetizer made with less than 10 ingredients! We use peeled and deveined shrimp, roll them up in a crispy spring roll wrapper, and fry them until golden! Serve with sweet chili sauce! INGREDIENTS: 🍤 Jumbo shrimp: I like to use this size because there are typically 21-25 shrimp per pound. Size wise they work well in the wrappers. But also, since our shrimp roll wrappers have 50 sheets, we want to be able to use up all of them without having leftover spring roll wrappers. 🧂 Seasonings: You can play around with the seasonings on this Thai appetizer. I like to let the shrimp and the sauce do all the talking. I use a bit of kosher salt, black or white pepper, and some garlic powder. You can skip these if you’d like. The Thai shrimp rolls turn out fine without them too! 🥠Spring roll wrappers or pastry: If you’ve had crispy Vietnamese egg rolls or spring rolls, that’s exactly the pastry you need for these easy appetizer of whole shrimp! This recipe won’t work as well if you use the thicker egg roll wrappers. Large egg white: Just like for my mom’s samosa recipe, I use lightly beaten egg white as ‘glue’ to seal the firecracker shrimp rolls. the egg whites just pin one side of the spring roll wrapper to the other and keep it from coming apart in the fryer.🛢️Oil for frying: You can use any oil that has a high smoke point for this recipe. I typically don’t deep fry anything, nor do I own a deep fryer. I just add oil to a skillet until it’s about halfway full and gently lay the shrimp rolls away from me. They fry up in no time! 🥫Sweet Chili Sauce: this is the perfect dipping condiment for this recipe. Full recipe linked in my profile and on littlespicejar.com. Search the web for “little spice jar firecracker shrimp” or like this reel and comment “shrimp” and I’ll send you the link to your DMs! Private accounts will NOT receive them. #shrimp #appetizers #crispy #crispyshrimp
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3 months ago
Homemade Candied Pecans! Can I just say that my house smells amazing? Let’s talk ingredients for these candied pecans. You need a total of 8 ingredients. And a lot of these are pantry staples. – Pecan Halves: You’ll want to use 3 heaping cups of pecans halves, which is in the ballpark of 12 ounces total. – Large egg: Separate the egg white from the yolk. Keep the yolk for something else and beat just the egg white for this recipe. A quick tip, separate the egg while it’s cold from the fridge. The egg white separates much more easily when it’s cold! – Granulated Sugar: You’ll need equal parts granulated and light brown sugar for this recipe. – Light Brown Sugar: We’ll use equal parts granulated sugar or cane sugar and brown sugar. Make sure to use a ⅓ of a cup of packed brown sugar. – Vanilla Extract: A splash of vanilla gives these the most delicious scent. – Cinnamon: I like to use 2 teaspoon ground cinnamon for this recipe. Feel free to use a bit more if you’d. like. – Ground Nutmeg: A pinch of nutmeg adds a delicious aroma. You can swap this for a number of other spices, see below for the full list of substitutions. – Kosher Salt: or use fine sea salt or table salt. Make sure to use a bit less as table salt will pack a bigger sodium filled punch! I use ½ teaspoon salt if it’s kosher or flaked sea salt. Full recipe linked in my profile and on littlespicejar.com. Search the web for “little spice jar candied pecans” or like this reel and comment “pecans” for the recipe! #candiedpecans #candiednuts #homemadefood #sweettreats #pecan
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3 months ago
The easiest, thumbprint cookies you’ll ever make! Lightly sweet, shortbread cookie style dough filled with your favorite jam. These cookies are melted in your mouth delicious, and the icing on top is completely optional. My jam, thimble cookies require just 6 ingredients and are ridiculously easy to make! Ingredients : ½ cup salted butter ¼ cup granulated sugar 1 egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1 cup flour ¼ cup, raspberry or apricot jam ½ cup powdered sugar ½ tablespoon half-and-half or milk ½ teaspoon vanilla extract Directions: CREAM: Add the butter and sugar to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on high speed until creamy and whipped, about 2-3 minutes. ADD: Reduce the speed of the mixer to medium low, and add the egg yolk. Let it mix in before adding the vanilla extract. Once mixed, stop the mixer, scrape down the sides and bottom of bowl. ADD FLOUR: Turn the mixer off, add the flour. Turn the mixer on low and slowly allow the flour to mix in and forms a soft dough. It will be crumbly at first, but it will come together.
SHAPE: Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Using 1 tablespoon of dough per ball, shape into round balls. Place 1-inch apart on the prepared baking sheet. Using a small melon baller or your thumb, gently make an indent in the dough. CHILL THE DOUGH: Place the baking tray in the freezer for 30-45 minutes or in a refrigerator for at least 1½ hours. PREHEAT: Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350ºF. FILL: When the oven has preheated, remove the dough from the fridge or freezer. Using the same melon baller, fill each thumbprint with ¼ - ½ teaspoon of jam. Recipe Continued in comments… #cookieexchange #christmascookies #cookiedough #thumbprintcookies
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3 months ago
Garlic Bread Dip?! Yes! If baked ricotta and garlic bread got together and had a baby it would be this garlic bread dip. Cheesy, golden and delicious Baked Garlic Bread Dip! This is a delicious holiday recipe for garlic bread in dip form! Start with roasted garlic and add a few key ingredients and of course, five different kinds of cheeses to make the most delicious dip your guests will go nuts for! We’re talking bout layers of layers of flavor. We’ll use garlic in three different forms, fold in some delicious ricotta and cream cheese, add fresh parsley, sprinkle with parmesan cheese and mozzarella and bake this dip in the oven until it’s golden. As an added touch, I love to drizzle it with a little white truffle oil. Because we’re fancy like that! And trust me when I say this – it tastes exactly like garlic bread but in dip form! The idea comes from an Italian restaurant here in town that serve whipped ricotta with their truffled garlic bread. And can I just say that I’ve modeled my garlic bread after theirs? As if that wasn’t enough, now I’m serving it up to in dip form. I’m obsessed! Full recipe linked in my profile and on littlespicejar.com. You can also search the web for “little spice jar garlic bread dip” or LIKE this post and COMMENT “GARLIC” and I’ll send a link to the recipe straight to your DMs! #garlicbread #garlicdip #appetizers #snacks
273k 3,552
3 months ago