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Happy Holidays {goodbye 2015 and hello 2016}

Dec 21, 2015 · 23 Comments

First and foremost, from the bottom of my heart I wish you Happy Holidays! As we say goodbye to 2015 and hello to 2016 I wanted to reflect on some of the highlights and failures of the past year!

Christmas ornament this image

First of all, the holidays, they’re amazing! What are your plans? Are you traveling or doing anything fun, I’d love to know! This year I really want to enjoy them so I’m taking a little break to unplug and recharge, you can follow me on Snapchat, username: Sweetphi or follow me on Instagram for the latest updates, I’d love to stay connected and I’ll be back the first week in January with a bunch of new recipes and travel adventures!

Oven mitt Christmas ornament

There are close to 600 recipes in the recipe index, so you have plenty choose from. Need some additional inspiration? I’m pinning like crazy over on Pinterest.

The best recipes of 2015 from @sweetphi

Also, here are the top 20 most popular recipes of 2015 (these are the ones that had the most views in 2015):

  1. How to make a mimosa bar – it’s perfect for New Years!
  2. No bake coconut date energy bites – I’ve made these more times than I can count, they’re great!
  3. Chicken feta spinach tomato pasta – this one is great for a quick dinner, and it’s the first meal I ever cooked for my hubby!
  4. Egg salad sandwich with bacon and what to do with leftover hard boiled eggs – sometimes a simple classic is all one wants.
  5. 5 ingredient peanut butter cup ice cream cake – why had I never made ice cream cakes before? They’re so easy and everyone loved it!
  6. 5 ingredient ramen with an egg – even though I literally just posted this, it has quickly shot to the top of the list of most viewed recipes on my blog, it’s AMAZING and I’ve had readers send me pictures of them making this dish, I promise I’ll update reader recreations soon!
  7. Creamy cashew curry chicken and cauliflower rice – this is a healthy recipe that honestly is sooooo good, totally worth making. And cauliflower rice? Who knew how easy it was!
  8. The best salted caramel chocolate chip cookies – these truly are THE BEST cookies, I make them pretty much all the time, they’re simply amazing!
  9. Coca-Cola brownie crinkle cookies – brownie meet cookie, enough said
  10. Chocolate chip oatmeal stout cookies – these are a very fun cookie to make for the beer lover in your life
  11. 5 ingredient goat cheese and egg souffle cups – this makes for one delicious brunch menu item!
  12. Banana caramel swirl cake – it’s like banana bread, but in cake form, it’s such a great cake!
  13. 5 ingredient green power smoothie – green smoothies are still all the rage, and this one is delicious and doesn’t taste ‘green’ at all
  14. Roasted kale and salmon detox salad – this one is perfect for a healthy start to the new year – and it is made on one pan so it’s easy clean up!
  15. Roasted vegetables and sausage – this is one recipe I make all the time, one pan roasted vegetables and sausage are delish!
  16. The best nachos with pulled pork and green chiles – this is my hubby’s recipe and is perfect for game day, or any day really, nachos rock, don’t they?
  17. 5 ingredient raw honey and goat cheese appetizer – looking for a super easy last minute appetizer recipe? This is it my friends, it’s one of my faves too!
  18. Strawberries and cream icebox pie – for when you don’t feel like baking, this pie is the one to make, it’s super easy and super delicious!
  19. Vietnamese chicken rice noodle salad – I always love salads that don’t taste too ‘salady’ and this one is amazing, it has lots of veggies and great flavors!
  20. 5 ingredient Mexican shredded beef and beef tostadas – if you follow me on Snapchat, username: SweetPhi you’ll know that I just made this again last week, it’s such an easy and delicious recipe for busy weeknights, make one batch and you’ll have meat for 5 meals all ready to go!

Did your favorites make the list?

@sweetphi travel in 2015

Some of the the highlights this year were the travel I got to do! I loved getting to travel with my hubby (we got to go to along the coast of Oregon and to Portland) and all the travel I got to do with my bestie Lynn (we got to go to Portland, California,  Arkansas and Chicago together). Whenever I travel I buy a little ornament for our Christmas tree, like the below sea lion from our trip to Oregon (in the background you can see a little whiskey barrel ornament from our trip to Louisville and a little lobster from a trip to Maine my hubby and I went on years ago), or the ornament we got a few years ago from our honeymoon in Alaska.

Ornaments from @sweetphi travels

I have a serious case of wanderlust, always, so I cant wait to share all the exciting trips that will hopefully take place in 2016!

Other highlights this year were of course the announcement of my cookbook that is coming out in 2016-I can’t wait – and my new website design, it’s a work in progress and there will be some additional cool features (like a menu planning feature) in 2016!

@sweetphi five ingredient recipes cookbook

Now on to some of the failures, oh boy this one is always funny… so last year I shared some fails and the big theme last year was name fails – Starbucks kept giving me very funny names (maybe they saw the post because this year I don’t think I’ve had a single name fail!). This year there were a few funny failures, like that time I tried to make cookie crumble iced coffee from Cosmo magazines snapchat, or that time I was recipe testing cookie truffles and put way too many cookie crumbles in and they were hard as rocks (hey-it looks like I have issues with cookie crumbles LOL). Another failure (that luckily wasn’t worse) was when I put carafes from the ‘how to make a margarita bar‘ post into the dishwasher and they melted. In my defense, I had no idea they were made I out of cheap plastic, they were hard like Tupperware!

Recipe fails of 2015

Another one of my failures I have to share is my endless requests of my amazing hubby to hand model. He deserves a medal, or some extra cookies or something. LOL, I captured the moment on the far left during one of our photo shoots when I was telling him to spread the butter ‘more naturally’ and the middle picture was captured by Lynn when Nick was demonstrating to her how I asked him to hold salad tongs. He’s amazing that man.

Food blogger husband hand model

I’d like to finish the post by saying THANK YOU for reading my blog, happy holidays and I hope to see you in 2016!

The @sweetphi Christmas tree

 

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Comments

  1. Little Cooking Tips says

    January 4, 2016 at 3:34 am

    First of all, we hope you had an amazing time, surrounded by all the people you love.
    We went to Evia ourselves (of course) and stayed there for a week. We took the opportunity to visit a village right under the peak of Dirfys mountain, called Steni (perhaps you saw a couple of photos we put on Twitter that morning). We also got the chance to cut the vegetables and fruits ourselves, straight from the plants and trees.
    These holidays we baked and baked and baked. We baked 3 batches of kourabiedes, 2 batches of melomakarona, our own homemade vasilopita, tried some cookies…We also bought a new stand mixer, so we were very happy to put it to the test:)
    We also cooked some hearty meals, like beef kokinisto, bolognaise etc, and tried many many Greek and French wines.
    Now; regarding your list: No3 is definitely one of our favorite recipes! And you just reminded us that we need to make it again:)
    As for the cookbook, we’re really so HAPPY FOR YOU! We honestly can’t wait to see some sneak-peek pages when it’s ready!:)
    The failures part was so funny!:) We do remember the post with the Cosmo recipe:) Our worst failure was when we tried a new idea for stuffed cucumbers in the past year. It was a total disaster:) Water from the cucumbers and stuffing everywhere, and a very strange flavor as a result. You should’ve seen our faces when we tasted those canapes:) Of course it never got published. But we all do learn from our mistakes. And if you don’t try you want succeed.
    Thank you for a great blogging year, it is always a pleasure to read your posts, we learn so much and we do have a great time reading them!
    Lots of hugs from both of us!
    Panos and Mirella
    xoxoxo

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      January 8, 2016 at 9:44 am

      Happy holidays Panos and Mirella! I hope you are adjusting well to the New Years and having a great start to the year. Your trip (and certainly the wines) sound absolutely lovely! The stand mixer will for sure see some fantastic recipes made, what a great gift to yourselves!
      I’m so glad you like the recipes and that one your faves made the list too 🙂
      Aren’t failures funny? I love the story you shared about the cucumbers…HAHAHA!
      Best of luck for the coming year, and thank you so much for all your support and encouragement and your lovely comments!
      xoxoxoxo
      Phi

      Reply
  2. Dannii @ Hungry Healthy Happy says

    January 4, 2016 at 1:02 am

    Happy new year! You have had a great year and I hope 2016 is even better for you 🙂

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      January 8, 2016 at 9:04 am

      Thank you so much Dannii, I hope your 2016 is off to a great start!!

      Reply
  3. Sarah says

    January 1, 2016 at 9:26 am

    Happy Holidays Phi! Can’t wait to see what you’re cooking up in 2016 🙂

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      January 8, 2016 at 9:02 am

      Thank you so much Sarah, happy start to the New Year 🙂

      Reply
  4. Denise E. says

    December 22, 2015 at 6:00 pm

    Merry, merry Christmas to you and yours!

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:14 pm

      Thank you so much Denise, I truly appreciate it and hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!

      Reply
  5. Andrea Rentea says

    December 22, 2015 at 12:34 pm

    Cute ornaments. I have made more recipes from this blog than any other this past year. Keep up the good work! and THANK YOU for this past year of your incredible blog!

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:13 pm

      Your comment truly made my day, thank you!! I hope you come back and enjoy the fun new recipes in 2016 🙂 Happy Holidays!

      Reply
  6. Bridget says

    December 22, 2015 at 12:30 pm

    Congrats on such an amazing year, love following your adventures! Merry Christmas!! ?

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:07 pm

      Thank you so much girl, thank you for your constant encouragement and for following my adventures! I hope you have a fantastic holiday season and awesome start to 2016!

      Reply
  7. Ashley says

    December 22, 2015 at 10:31 am

    Enjoy the holidays!!! I’m taking some time off this year too and man, am I excited! Cheers to 2016!

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:06 pm

      Isn’t a little time off the best?!? Hope you have such an awesome holiday season and break!

      Reply
  8. Cailee says

    December 21, 2015 at 9:38 pm

    Aww! This is so fun! I love it. What a great way to look back on the year. Also, that’s so cute… always asking your hubby to be the hand model!! 😛

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:05 pm

      Haha, my hubby is an awesome hand model isn’t he? Hope you have an awesome holiday season 🙂

      Reply
  9. Rebecca@Figs and Pigs says

    December 21, 2015 at 3:31 pm

    Have a wonderful Christmas Phi and a well earned break. x

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:03 pm

      Thank you so much, I’m totally looking forward to a little break 🙂

      Reply
  10. Shawnna says

    December 21, 2015 at 2:57 pm

    Hey girl Love the post! And your tree is amazing! Y’all have a merry Christmas!

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 12:03 pm

      Thank you so much Shawnna, hope you had an amazing Christmas and hope your New Years is great!!

      Reply
  11. Inger @ Art of Natural Liivng says

    December 21, 2015 at 8:59 am

    Sounds like you’ll be enjoying the holidays. Just wanted to stop by and wish you a very Merry Christmas!

    Reply
    • Sweetphi says

      December 26, 2015 at 11:58 am

      Thank you so much for stopping by and for the holiday wishes Inger, hope your holidays were fantastic!!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. Sun dried tomato walnut tapenade with garlic crostini says:
    January 12, 2016 at 8:50 am

    […] have to say, this year I had an exceptional holiday. I shared some funny failures and successes in my post wishing you all Happy Holidays, but what I didn’t mention was that the first part […]

    Reply

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Save this for the best CANDIED NUTS recipe!! - 1 Save this for the best CANDIED NUTS recipe!!
- 1 cup sugar
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- 1/2 cup water
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- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or wax paper. Have 2 forks handy to separate nuts.
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Find the full recipe with notes at https://sweetphi.com/candied-nuts-recipe/
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