The BRAND NEW NikkiDinkiCooking.com

The BRAND NEW NikkiDinkiCooking.com is officially LIVE! In addition to a beautiful, user-friendly new look, I've added some amazing features to make your experience that much better.

One of these new features is the recipe card, pictured above. You'll now find cards like this on all of my recipe blog posts.

The cards allow you to easily follow the recipes if you are looking at your computer screen, or to seamlessly print a hard copy if that's what you prefer--the printed version is clear and includes a photograph of the final dish.

Another new feature is the ability to rate recipes and leave comments that I can actually respond to (if you were wondering why you never heard from me before, it was because I couldn't respond to your comments!).

I also love the new search function, which makes it incredibly easy to find what you're looking for. Pictures of the recipes appear with every search result, so you can immediately spot the recipe you're trying to locate!

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And if you’re visiting the Recipes page you’ll find useful categories like Appetizers and Vegetarian--each with pictures of every recipe in that category. I believe that food is best experienced in pictures, so I'm giving you tons of them!

And don’t forget to check out all of my cooking Videos, including my super convenient one-minute videos.

While you're looking around, be sure to visit my Press page, which features all of my appearances.

And the About and Cookbook pages allow you to learn about me and my cookbook Meat On The Side.

Happy surfing! I can’t wait to hear about your fabulous experiences checking out the new NikkiDinkiCooking.com!

 

Find more recipes like this in Meat on the Side!

 

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Damaris + Nikki go Holiday Shopping

 

Find more recipes like this in Meat on the Side!

 

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Wendy William Apperance 10-17-16

Check out Nikki Dinki on Wendy Williams!! She's cooking up Zucchini Noodle Bowls, a Pumpkin Quesadilla + Veggie Chips with Beet Hummus all from her book Meat On The Side.

 

Find more recipes like this in Meat on the Side!

 

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Little Baby's Caramel Apple Monkey Bread

 

 

Today I am 36 weeks pregnant with Little Baby.

 

This is the point when most women excitedly think about their new baby coming home—and they stress over the imminent labor that is coming and plan for the upcoming months of blissful chaos.

 

I am doing many of these things; I feel electric with excitement, I am obsessed with this little lady—but I am also consumed with fear. 

 

 

 

 

We lost our first daughter, Willa, at 40 weeks; she was big, strong, perfect. But she passed away.  After a traumatic labor, we came home to a quiet house and were forced to drastically readjust our visions of the future.

 

Now, two years later, I am having an intense case of déjà vu.

 

I’ve been here before—36 weeks pregnant, waddling around, having everyone and their mother ask when I’m due—but our baby didn’t come home.

 

Slowly we put her things away; we repacked and stored diapers, carriers, and bottles. And now, here I am blowing the dust off these things and feeling hopeful, but also a little bit like a fool.

 

My baby is coming home, right?

 


 

 

You might say “of course,” but the only experience we’ve had is one that ended with pictures, a lock of her hair and remembrances of the softness of her cheeks—things that we cherish, but not the lifetime of memories we thought we were promised.

 

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Wendy Williams Apperance 2-9-16

Check out Nikki Dinki on Wendy Williams! She is cooking up some of her favorite Meat On The Side recipes and talking about the new season of Junk Food Flip!!
 

 

Find more recipes like this in Meat on the Side!

 

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Announcing: Junk Food Flip Season 2

Photo Credit: Ze Jucutan

 

JUNK FOOD FLIP IS BAAAAACCCKK!!!!

 

 

 


I’m so excited to announce that Season Two of Junk Food Flip premieres January 19th at 9 p.m. EST on Cooking Channel! As in Season One, we find restaurants with indulgent signature dishes and re-make them to cut the calories by at least half. Then, through a showdown, we use a group of blind taste testers to hopefully prove that our version is not just healthier, but actually tastes better than the original!

 

 

 

 

This season we took the truck to the West Coast and found the most outrageous and delicious dishes--including one that weighed in at over 2,300 calories! Check out my scrapbook from the shoot below and be sure to tune in!!

 

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Announcing: Junk Food Flip on Cooking Channel

 

 

I am incredibly excited to announce that my new show Junk Food Flip is premiering June 2nd at 9pm EST on Cooking Channel!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

On Junk Food Flip, myself and Bobby Deen travel around the country in a massive food truck (I can now add food truck driver to my special talents) and put our healthy spin on some of the best indulgent dishes this country has to offer.

 

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Announcing: Meat On The Side Cookbook!

 

 

The Meat On The Side Cookbook is coming!!!!!!


I am beyond excited to announce that my first cookbook will be hitting the shelves in early 2016!!!!! For almost a year now, I have been cooking up a storm testing and retesting (and retesting again) recipes for this book. I have been creating meals that are simple, healthy, come out perfect every time, and are just plain yummy!

 

 

Recipe testing photos

 

 

The book will contain over 100 Meat On The Side meals, which means that these recipes will not have more than 4oz of meat and the vegetable will always be the star of the plate. Meat On The Side is all about vegetable-focused dishes that bend and twist veggies in unique ways to create meals that will make even the pickiest of eaters love their veggies.

 

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Willa's Lemonade Cheesecakes

 

 

“Where have you been?”

“What have you been doing?”

“Why haven't you posted a new recipe?”

 

These are frequent questions from my readers. And I’d love to tell you all that I've been busy filming my own show, or that I couldn't come to the computer because I was elbow deep in tomato sauce, but the truth is sadly something very different.

 

 

 

 

At 40 weeks and 1 day pregnant my husband and I lost our little girl. Her heart just stopped, and we don't know why. We never got to hear her voice, or see her smile, or know what she looks like when she first wakes up. We never got to have all those “firsts” that we had excitedly anticipated.

 

 

 

 

We were ready for her: diapers unpacked, tiny clothes in her dresser and a place for her to rest her head right next to mommy. It was supposed to be the week we brought her home, the week we stumbled our way through parenthood, laughing as we put diapers on backwards and figuring out the difference between a “boppy” and a “breast-friend”.

 

But that's just not what happened.

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #9

 

 

 

End Of The Road, Not The End Of A Dream!!

 

 

 

 

 

Well let's just get right down to it...I got sent home this week... 

 

I spent the day dreading 9 p.m., knowing the tears I would inevitably have to watch myself cry. But at least everyone would finally know what happened and I could think about what was next.

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #8

 

 

Another Day Another Donut

 

This week I had the opportunity to spend Sunday night at 9 o'clock with my family watching FNS together. And one of their first questions was..."You really didn't know someone was coming back"

 

 

 

 

The response? NO!!! The production team can be smooth and we really didn't know that when we got down to 5 people we were quickly about to make it 6 again. They just LOVE to surprise you...

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #7

Please take a minute to vote for me!! Click HERE

 

 

Week #7 and down to 6!!!


The vibe has changed slightly. And though I still love all these people and am so happy to have them around during this insane experience- we are all having the realization that we could make it to the end. Suddenly the finish line doesn't look so far away...

 

Of course, once you have that thought you also realize that some really good people are going to have to go home in order for you to reach that goal. All you can do is hope that it's not you. 

 

 

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #6

 

 

This week it's all about selling a product that represents yourself and of course it has to be super tasty (by the way, they have totally done this challenge in past seasons.)

I love to make alternatives to tomato sauce, like red pepper sauces, eggplant sauces, and I serve them over pasta or rice or on top of chicken, fish and pork. So I immediately think of bottling one of these sauces for the challange. I want to show people a new way of eating veggies. 

 

 

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #5

 

 

JULY 4th LIVE!!

 

This week was all about working LIVE and we all knew it would be a challenging week.

For me I knew the main thing I had to do is control my excitement and nervous energy. My goals where to think before I talked and most importantly I had to try to not talk a mile a minute (which I can do as easily as breathing.)

 

 

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #4

 

 

TEAMS!!

 

As we are opening up our envelopes that tell us what genre we are cooking for I am sitting there thinking "just not Western."  

I can fit my POV into a Romance or Musical theme (though I'm not sure what kind of food is musical in nature) but "Meat on the Side" doesn't exactly scream western. Western flavors are more or a Russell thing filled with bacon and smoky meats.  

 

But of course on this show you rarely get the easy route. 

 

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #2

 

 

Here we go again! 

 

As we pull up to this massive set up with grills, a stage, tables and more chairs than were at my wedding I quickly realize that though the day will be spent in the sun, I will definitely not be relaxing and working on my tan.

 

 

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Food Network Star - Episode #1

 

 

Well, episode #1 is done!! Thank god!! It's hard to express how nervous I was going into this week. I had no idea if they would even kind of buy my point of view, I had no idea how I would perform when the pressure is on and worst of all I had no idea how much I could accomplish cooking wise in 45 minutes.

 

The first thing we did was meet everyone and I suddenly realized that there are 11 other people with great personalities, cooking chops and scariest of all, they have my same dream, and will probably run me over to get it!!

 

 

 

 

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