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A Bite into the Bright Side {sponsored by Fruttare}

June 30, 2013 ·

Thank you Fruttare for sponsoring this post. Bite into the bright side with Fruttare, a new line of delicious frozen fruit bars bursting with real fruit taste now in stores.

Summer is a time to enjoy the bright side of life:  blowing bubbles, riding bikes, running through sprinklers, and cooling off with frozen fruit bars.  We have been enjoying some sweltering hot days lately, and nothing hits the spot quite like biting into a frozen fruit bar (and another run through the sprinkler, of course).

Recently we were given the opportunity to bite into the bright side with Fruttare, a new line of delicious frozen fruit bars bursting with real fruit taste.  With so many delicious flavors to choose from, we had a hard time deciding which to try first.  Here are some of the mouthwatering flavors:

  • Fruttare Fruit and Milk Bars are made with creamy milk and real fruit, and are available in four varieties – Strawberry and Milk, Coconut and Milk, Banana and Milk and Peach and Milk.
  • Fruttare Fruit and Juice Bars are made with real fruit and refreshing juice, and are available in four varieties – Strawberry, Mango, Orange and Lime.

We chose strawberry, and it was perfectly refreshing after a long day of playing in the heat.  While it tastes like a splurge, Fruttare’s strawberry frozen fruit bar comes in at only 60 calories.  Gotta love a delicious sweet treat that is also diet-friendly!  Adam has embraced his bite into the bright side and told me he wants to try the Coconut and Milk flavor next.  I’m looking forward to trying Mango!

What’s your favorite flavor of frozen fruit bar?    

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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easy vegetable frittata

Easy Vegetable Frittata

May 9, 2013 ·

I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! Breakfast After Dark

 

 

Thank you I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter! for sponsoring this post. Visit www.icantbelieveitsnotbutter.com for more information about Breakfast After Dark.

easy vegetable frittata

We love breakfast for dinner (or “brinner” as it’s often called), whether it’s waffles, pancakes, egg scrambles or frittatas.  This Easy Vegetable Frittata is a frequent “go-to” dinner because it’s quick, easy, and we can easily use up whatever vegetables or cheeses we have on hand.  Mike can make it too, which is another plus!

easy vegetable frittata

 In this frittata, for the veggies, I used sliced red pepper, chopped broccoli florets, chopped red onion, and some garlic, and I used cheddar for the cheese.  It was such a delicious combination and so colorful!  I paired my frittata with a mixed green side salad, because that’s generally what I have with any dinner.  Mike skipped the salad and enjoyed his with a beer ~ it is dinner after all!

With Mother’s Day just a few days away, this frittata would be an excellent dish to enjoy at your celebratory breakfast/brunch or for a breakfast for dinner.  Tomorrow I will be sharing another great brunch recipe…and it’s even easier to make!

easy vegetable frittata

 

Easy Vegetable Frittata
 
Print
Yields: 4 to 6 servings
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! spread, divided
  • 4½ cups sliced/chopped vegetables (I used red pepper, broccoli, onions)
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • 1 teaspoon Italian seasoning
  • 8 eggs (or 4 eggs and 8 egg whites)
  • 1 cup shredded cheese, divided (I used cheddar)
Instructions
  1. In a large oven-proof nonstick skillet, melt 1 tablespoon I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! over medium heat. Add your vegetables and cook, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are tender (about 5 minutes). During the last minute, add minced garlic and Italian seasoning, stirring to combine.
  2. Meanwhile, melt the remaining tablespoon of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter!
  3. In a large bowl, whisk the eggs, melted I Can't Believe It's Not Butter! and 3 tablespoons water for about 1 minute, or until frothy. Stir in ½ cup cheese.
  4. Pour egg mixture over vegetables, stirring gently, and cook over medium heat until eggs begin to set. (Occasionally lift the edges of frittata to allow uncooked mixture to go to the bottom)
  5. Top with remaining cheese and broil for 2 minutes, or until cheese is melted and golden brown and eggs are set. Cut into wedges and serve.

Source: I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter!

 

For  more tips about making this delicious frittata, check out the Breakfast After Dark Episode “Fabulous Frittata with Lisa Vanderpump“

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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Silk’s Tastemaker Challenge

May 1, 2013 ·


I have been selected by Silk and DailyBuzz Food to be an ambassador for Silk Soymilk.  While I have been compensated for my time, all opinions are completely my own.  

When I told my kids that the new taste of Silk Soymilk left me speechless, their reaction was, well…you can see for yourself.

 

Indeed.  While I did not capture photographic evidence of Mike’s reaction, it’s safe to assume the refrigerator is going to be well stocked with Silk.  Ha!  I didn’t remain speechless for long though.  Let me tell you how Silk Soymilk transformed two of my everyday staples into something so extraordinary that it almost left me speechless!

I began my Silk Tastemaker Challenge with the most important meal of the day: breakfast!  I enjoy the same old breakfast day after day: oatmeal, unsweetened cocoa, and flaxseed, all cooked in water and topped with a sliced banana.  It’s basic, it’s simple and it’s tasty!  I decided that replacing the water with Silk Soymilk would be a good way to test the new taste of Silk.  And now enter the speechless moment.  My (slightly) boring old breakfast became something different; something better! 

For my next Silk Tastemaker Challenge, I decided to use Silk Soymilk in my favorite mixed berry smoothie.  I replaced the usual juice with Silk Soymilk.  The result?  Let’s just say this post-workout smoothie did not last long.  In fact, the only thing slowing me down was the ice cream headache.  You know, when you consume something icy cold so fast that your head literally hurts?  I think some people call it a brain freeze.  Anyway, I  have not had an ice cream headache since I was a child!  I told Mike ‘This is the best smoothie I’ve ever had in my life.  You have to try it!’  Mike took a sip and his eyes lit up.  I could tell he wanted more, but he politely declined since he knew how starving I was after a long run.  However, the next day, when I got back from my run, I found two glasses innocently placed next to the blender.  I guess I’m not the only one who was left speechless by the new taste of Silk Soymilk!

  Be sure to visit Facebook.com/SilkUS for a chance to create your own taste description and to be a part of Silk’s Tastemaker Challenge!


This post is brought to you by Silk. Take the Tastemaker Challenge on facebook.com/silkUS.

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Happy Pi Day!

March 14, 2013 ·

 

COCONUT CREAM PIE

Happy Pi Day!  Today is March 14 (i.e., 3.14).  A day to celebrate math and the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter…by indulging in pie!  Since I already shared a savory pie with you, now it’s time for a sweet one.  There’s no rule against having pie twice in one day (or even one meal)…especially on Pi Day!

Since I didn’t have time to make a my own sweet pie, I jumped at the opportunity to try a Marie Callender’s pie.  The biggest challenge here was selecting which flavor we wanted!  It was a tough decision given all of the tempting fruit and cream pies available (they offer savory pot pies too, but I definitely wanted sweet).   I decided to go with a common flavor that I’ve never had before – Coconut Cream Pie.  (The Banana Cream Pie was a close second).  Of course, we had to sample the pie before actual Pi Day…just to be sure.  We enjoyed every bite of this pie while pondering the ins and outs of Pi (or perhaps we were just pondering another slice of pie!)

While eating pie is everybody’s favorite activity to celebrate Pi, visit Marie Callender’s blog for several neat Pi-related activies, as well as other party ideas, how-to’s and more.

What is your favorite Marie Callender’s pie?  Share your experience!  You can rate and review any of Marie Callender’s products here.

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective, and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

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healthy blueberry strawberry blackberry yogurt smoothie

Diet Mixed Berry Smoothie

March 11, 2013 ·

healthy diet mixed blueberry strawberry blackberry yogurt smoothie

This Diet Mixed Berry Smoothie is quick and easy to make and perfect for breakfast on a busy morning, a post-workout recovery drink, or an afternoon pick me up.  Made with just a few healthy ingredients, it’s a vitamin-packed smoothie that can be enjoyed anywhere, anytime (and portable too for when you’re on-the-go!).

 

Recently, I was given the opportunity to try Ocean Spray’s Diet Juice Drinks and thought it would a tasty addition to this smoothie recipe.  At only 5 calories per serving, swapping out full-calorie juices in favor of Ocean’ Spray’s Diet Juice Drinks can help save calories (and carbs, if that’s a concern), while still tasting delicious.   For this recipe, I used Ocean Spray’s Diet Cranberry juice and it went nicely with the berries used in the rest of this smoothie.  For next time, I have my eyes on the Diet Blueberry Pomegranate!

To learn more about Ocean Spray’s Diet Juice Drinks, visit http://www.oceanspray.com/Products/Juices/Diet-Light/Diet-Cranberry-Juice-Drink.aspx.

 

 

Diet Mixed Berry Smoothie
 
Print
Yields: 1 servings
Ingredients
  • ½ cup Diet Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Drink, any flavor
  • ½ cup frozen mixed berries (strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries)
  • 1 ripe banana, frozen and cut into slices
  • 3 ounces fat free plain or berry-flavored Greek yogurt
  • 1 tablespoon flaxseed (optional)
Instructions
  1. Combine all ingredients in a blender (or Magic Bullet). Blend on high speed until ingredients are thoroughly combined. Pour into a chilled glass. Enjoy!
Notes
Tip: slice banana before freezing...it's much easier!

 Adapted from Ocean Spray

 

I have partnered with Ocean Spray through DailyBuzz to help promote their new Ocean Spray Diet product. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product, however my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

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The Green Giant: A Giant Surprise #AGiantSurprise #spon

March 7, 2013 ·

In general, people consider me a trustworthy person ~ especially with their secrets. I’m always good to keep a secret. Well, almost always, unless for some reason disclosing a secret would be for the greater good…like now. The Green Giant has a very giant surprise that I must share with you!

Green Giant has a new line of Veggie Snack Chips! Good news for you snackers ~ a great tasting chip you can feel good about. Adam kept asking to try the ‘new veggie chips,’ he was very excited. It was nice to be able to offer him some chips that are made with real vegetables and with whole grains.

We sampled the Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt and the Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips (Zesty Cheddar flavor). I’m a huge sweet potato fan and less fond of flavored chips, so I assumed my preference would fall accordingly. While I did enjoy the sweet potato chips, the veggie tortilla chips were by far my favorite. Adam loved the sweet potato chips. So I saved the sweet potato chips for him and used the rest of the tortilla chips in a tasty recipe (after eating several chips, of course) to be shared soon.

In the meantime, here are some fun facts about the chips:

The Green Giant Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt:

  • The Green Giant™ Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips – Sea Salt Flavor are made with real sweet potatoes and made with 14 grams of whole grain. Plus, they contains 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips*!

*Green Giant Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips (6g per 28g serving) have 40 percent less fat than regular potato chips (10g per 28g serving).

The Green Giant Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips – Zesty Cheddar Flavor

  • The Green Giant™ Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips – Zesty Cheddar Flavor are made with real vegetables, 17 grams of whole grain per serving (48g are recommended daily), and are naturally flavored.

The Green Giant has more surprises!

  • You can find a printable coupon for 85 cents off Veggie Snack Chips here.
  • Check out the surprise talents the Green Giant has unearthed here.
  • Even more of the Giant’s favorite surprise talents at the Green Giant YouTube channel.

Thank you to The Green Giant™ for being a sponsor. Show the Giant your surprise talent at www.facebook.com/greengiant

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Soup’s on at Panera!

December 19, 2012 ·
A couple weeks ago, we got blasted with snow, and it’s been a chilly December ever since.  Definite soup weather!  Fortunately, I was given the opportunity to check out Panera Bread’s soup line…and am so glad that I did.  While I’m not generally a soup person, I found a soup that I not only love, but have been dreaming of ever since!

 

 

I’m always trying to find a soup that I like, so thought it best to test out a few different flavors.  Mike and I made a weeknight dinner of it and shared 3 different soups:  broccoli cheddar, French onion and low-fat garden vegetable pesto.

Mike and I both liked all three soups, though Mike’s favorite was the broccoli cheddar.  There were actual chunks of broccoli, as well as a generous amount of carrots, all in a smooth cheese soup.  It really was delicious…especially for dipping the baguette.

Hands down my favorite soup was the garden vegetable pesto. So many delicious fresh vegetables, including Swiss chard, chunks of zucchini, and bell peppers, swimming in a light tomato broth, topped with a nut-free pesto. It’s one of those things I would happily eat every.single.day. (hint hint, every day please Panera!) 

Panera Bread has a new website (panerabread.com/soup) devoted to their soups, which hosts the daily soup schedule, as well as other fun facts about their soups.

 

Disclaimer: As part of the DailyBuzz Food Tastemaker program, I received a giftcard and stipend to try Panera Bread Soups.  All opinions are my own.  

 

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RedLaser – the secret weapon for smart shoppers!

December 16, 2012 ·

 

For several weeks now, I have been sharing favorite recipes for cookies, bars, and cakes to help make your holiday celebrations a little sweeter. In lieu of a recipe today, I am excited to share with you a secret weapon designed to help you save money and make your life a little easier ~ all with ease using a free app on your smart phone, called RedLaser.  I tested out several of RedLaser’s features, including price comparison, loyalty cards storage, and scanning food items to get allergen and ingredient information and more. Here are some of the highlights:\
Welcome to Red Laser!

 

Save Money with Price Comparison and Deals! 

This feature is by far my favorite, and what I found most useful (and timely with holiday shopping).  I was shopping for a few Christmas gifts for Adam and wanted to save money by getting the best price possible.  I powered up RedLaser, entered “b symphony.”  The handy app let me know the lowest price was just down the street at my local Target store.  Easy!


To locate a product, simply enter the product into the search bar (left) or scan a barcode (right).  I entered B Symphony and easily found what I was looking for in the search results (left).

The search results for B. Symphony in B tells me the best price is at Target. Later that day, we drove to our local Target down the street and picked up this toy…happily knowing we found it at the lowest price!


Whether I was at home searching or scanning a product at the store, RedLaser helped me find the best price available for toys, toiletries, clothes, etc.  I was able to easily verify if an in-store price was better than online since RedLaser did the research for me with one quick scan.  The app also pulls up current deals associated with each store (powered by Retail Me Not), which saved me yet another internet search.

Consolidate Your Loyalty Cards!  

Mike was most excited about the ability to scan all of his loyalty cards into his smart phone.  With so many cards, his wallet is out of control.

How nice is it to be able to just whip out a smart phone (you always have it with you, right?) to access your card.  There are pre-loads, such as CVS, Walgreens, Panera, etc, where you can just scan your card. You can also scan local grocery cards, and I even scanned my fitness club card ~ all easily accessibly on a smart phone.  Your wallet will be a little lighter, and you will never be without your cards again!

Allergen Information:

As a person with a tree nut allergy and a mother to a child with a peanut allergy, I was most interested in this feature of RedLaser.  I had very high expectations for the ability to scan food items and get allergen information.  I did some test scans with various food items to see how this feature works.

First I scanned pretzels. As you can see, the details (left) show nutrition information as well as allergen information. I expanded the allergen information (right) and it gives a nice snapshot of allergens associated with these pretzels.

Next I scanned peanut butter to see how allergen information would appear for a peanut product.  It was consistent with what I would expect.  The allergy information is informative and helpful.  So far so good!

As I continued additional scans on a jar of peanuts and a bag of whole wheat pastry flour, I expected both to be flagged for allergens.  Unfortunately there was no allergen information for either item.

So while the allergen information is useful when present, the inconsistency makes me uneasy.  People without allergies or folks with newly discovered allergies always have lots of questions about what foods are safe.  I was hoping to be able to point them to RedLaser.  However without reliable results, I just can’t do that…yet.  I see great potential here and am interested in seeing where RedLaser goes with this.  Like I said, when it does work, it really is an amazing feature.

 
RedLaser is available for download on iPhone, Android and Windows smart phones and has been downloaded over 22 million times. Clearly the secret is out!


This post is brought to you by RedLaser. Get the free app at RedLaser.

Disclaimer:  As part of the DailyBuzz Moms program, I have been compensated for my time on this post for RedLaser, however the details and opinions are completely my own.   

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Cookies for Kids’ Cancer ~ Cookie Exchange

December 5, 2012 ·

Every year I have a list of must-make holiday cookie recipes, including Peanut Blossoms, Pretzel Kiss Candies, something with ginger, as well as several others.  It’s always fun to add new recipes to the mix, and that is where the genius idea of a Cookie Exchange is great.  You get the benefit of trying several new recipes without a) having to do all that work and b) the risk of making several dozen of something that you wished turned out differently (or sadly wished you never made!).

This holiday season, I had the privilege of hosting a Cookie Exchange, courtesy of GLAD, to help raise awareness for the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer campaign.  And I was GLAD to be a good cookie!

Cookies for Kids’ Cancer is a non-profit organization founded by parents inspired by their young son’s fight against cancer.  Pediatric cancer is the number one cause of death by disease of children in the United States, due in large part to the need for funding research into new and improved therapies.  It is unthinkable, yet according to the National Childhood Cancer Foundation, one in every four elementary schools has a child with cancer.  While many children are cured, there are still many children who will not survive.   

In the spirit of holiday giving and in being a good cookie, I made a personal donation to the Cookies for Kids’ Cancer program.  I have also created a Cookies for Kids’ Cancer Donation Page so that you too can be a good cookie and help fight pediatric cancer!

Thanks to GLAD, you can also join in the some fun by exchanging a virtual cookie with a friend at www.glad.com/Glad-Cookie-Exchange. GLAD will donate up to $1.00 to Cookies for Kids’ Cancer for each cookie sold, exchanged or given this November and December 2012 – up to $100,000! Encourage your friends, family, coworkers, anybody and everybody, to do the same!   

As far as my Cookie Exchange, I am very excited that GLAD is generously donating $1 per cookie that was exchanged.  How awesome is that!  There were several dozens of cookies sampled and packaged, recipes printed and exchanged.  As a result, I have many recipes to share with you!


I have partnered with The Glad Products Company through DailyBuzz to help promote their Food Storage products. I have been compensated for my time commitment to work with this product.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments. Thank you GLAD!

Diclaimer: The donation page is my personal page that I set up to offer an option for people to assist in the fight against pediatric cancer.  It is not affiliated with the sponsor(s) of this post. 

 

 

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