Blog Posts by Maggie Nemser, Shine staff

Karen Hall, of Minneapolis, Minn., tapped into a serious national sweet spot when she concocted a recipe for a Speedy Layered Chicken Enchilada Pie and submitted it to the 2002 Pillsbury Bake-Off. Her recipe has been consistently one of the most popular recipes on Yahoo! Food and continues to get huge praise and high ratings from users. I'm not surprised by its insane popularity as most of us enjoy characteristics like cheesy, easy and super cheap. After a few years of seeing this recipe creep up incrementally in its popularity, I decided to see what the fuss was all about. It was good and pretty awesome for breakfast, cold, not that I would ever eat something like that for breakfast (wink). It is however something that I would like to enjoy once in a while for dinner, but without all the packaged ingredients so I decided to tweak them to be more healthy and wholesome without losing any of the original tastiness.

If you want a piece of the original pie, check out the recipe here and

According to the UK's MailOnline, an aspiring chef died of a heart-attack shortly after participating in a chili-eating contest. "Andrew Lee, 33, had used a bag of homegrown chillies to make super hot sauce." After daring his girlfriend's brother to try a taste, he "then ate a plateful himself." They are still determining if the chilies were the sole cause for his sudden death but according to MailOnline, he had been in perfect health prior to the eating contest. [-MailOnline]



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When it comes to food fights between couples, some of the most common arguments revolve around money, cooking duty, dishes, and can be as simple as choosing a restaurant.

And It makes sense. Food is one of the most prevalent and important aspects of our lives. It represents and elicits so many different emotions including: survival, deprivation, indulgence, generosity, love, utter bliss and comfort, to name a few, so when couples fight about food, it's more than just the turkey talking.

The other morning a friend called me mildly upset about a tense discussion she had with her boyfriend. They were deciding where to go for dinner as he was meeting one of her close friends for the first time. He suggested Balk, Balk Chicken while she mentioned a fancier Italian restaurant. What began as a silly and playful conversation had turned into a heated debate over whether Balk, Balk Chicken gives food poisoning. When I realized that she was in no immediate danger and I had a deadline, I told

According to Gawker, we are now eating more inexpensive packaged foods due to uncertain economic times or as they gently put it, "Now that the wizards of Wall Street have destroyed all hope for your future economic security, it's time to start eating like a pauper." They say that we're reaching for "ramen," "frozen dinners," and "Kool-Aid." [-Gawker]

Come to think of it, I haven't sported a fancy red Kool-Aid mustache since childhood so I'm due for a fix.

What do you eat when you're trying to save?
















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Test your fast food smarts. What three chains did these small orders of fries come from? One hint: They are all from national chains with a drive-thru. I'll post the answers in the comments on Monday evening.

As authentic Japanese cuisine becomes more easily accessible in America, Americanized Japanese or as I now like to call it, New Japanese-Doritos Cuisine is becoming equally familiar and all too common. Generic names like Wasabi and Sushi, Sushi are quickly becoming standard indicators of this new cuisine craze that is hitting cities and small towns all over America.

And it goes deeper than a name. There's a new Japanese restaurant in LA that is calling their omakase, "Trust me," and the restaurant looks more like a Pinkberry meets Beverly Hills 90210's Peach Pit than a sushi joint. It's actually a great spot; fresh fish and relatively reasonable price points, but I'm not sure if it would it make the "transporting experience" category cut in Zagats.

Food plays a starring role in this highly-caloric, Americanized New Japanese-Doritos Cuisine. Just as we were getting comfortable digesting the hearty cream cheesy Philadelphia roll, restaurants are now introducing more creative roll

I just received a copy of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Eating Raw and was surprised to see actor Woody Harrelson quoted on the cover saying, "Recipes so good you may want to eat this book." A strange marketing move, no? Why would someone decide to use a quote that talks about being driven to eat an object when trying to promote a movement criticized for making people hungry?

I think If I ate raw food on a regular basis, I may eat a book too. Are Woody and I having a moment, a connection, if you will?

Humor aside, I am fully aware of the health benefits and the ability to become properly satiated when following a raw food diet, but I can't seem to shake my love for a nice warm dinner. But I must admit, I am kind of curious about all of the hype. If I had a raw stalk of asparagus for all the times people have told me how great my skin would look if I ate raw or how detoxifying it can be, I'd never go hungry again and if I did, I'd just eat a book.

I'm up for a raw foods week

I know, I know, it's not October yet, but that doesn't mean we can't get a head start and make one of the tastiest seasonal quick breads. To get you ready for pumpkin season, here are 5 different and delicious takes on pumpkin bread.

Traditional
Allrecipes' Downeast Maine Pumpkin Bread

Spicy
Epicurious' Spiced Pumpkin Bread

Wild and Wacky
Sassy Radish's Pumpkin Bread with Cranberries & Green Egg (sans ham)

Diet-Friendly
Taste of Home's Low-Fat Pumpkin Bread

Fat-Free/Vegan-Friendly
Fat-Free Vegan Kitchen's pumpkin spice bread

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The ultimate guide to cool fall brews

12 Pomegranate dishes rich in antioxidants