Category Archives: food

things I’m loving right now.

Posted on 08/16/2011 | Leave a comment

I love finding and falling in love with amazing products. What’s even better, though, is sharing those amazingproducts with others. Below are 5 of my favorite things right now. As a disclaimer, I was not asked to review these products, nor am I receiving anything in exchange for this post. I just genuinely love these things and wanted to share them with you. Now, on to the 5 things!

Nuts About Granola
This granola is out of this world good! Worth a try if you love granola, for sure. My favorite flavor? It’s a tough decision, but I’d have to go with College Staple. Or maybe the fabulous Warrior Crunch, because honestly, who doesn’t like cherries and chocolate?! (Even better, the purchase of Warrior Crunch helps to raise money for cancer research!) And if you’re in central PA, you don’t have any excuse but to try this granola – they’re at markets in both York and Lancaster and at many shops throughout central PA. So what are you waiting for? Try it now!

CurlyQ Cuties
Seriously, these custom-made monsters are adorable! I’ve done monsters with the numbers 1 through 5 and will give them to my daughter each year on her birthday. I also had the pleasure of giving one to my niece who turned 1 this year, too! Do you have a child who is losing teeth? Check out the Design Your Own Fairy Tooth – they’re adorable!

our local farmer’s market
Okay, so this isn’t technically a thing, but it’s worth mentioning anyway. Do you visit your local farmer’s market in the summer? I do, and I love it! If you can, you really should get out there. Not only can you support local farms and businesses, but you can bring home plenty of nutritious produce, meat, and goodies, too!

Toddy Coffee Maker
Our summer obsession is iced coffee. Instead of making hot coffee and chilling, however, I prefer to use coffee concentrate, made with this cold brew system. It makes the most amazing iced coffee! Even better, it has less acid than traditional coffee, making our tummies happy!

My Fitness Pal
I love, love, love this free tool. My Fitness Pal makes it incredibly easy to keep track of your food and water intake, exercise, measurements, and more! Even better, you can use it online and on your phone. The iPhone app is just as easy to use as the website, too!

What products/services are you loving right now?

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Posted in family, food, life, lists, review, shopping, yum

Tagged coffee, favorites, fitness, granola, health, life, local

recipe: autumn chowder

Posted on 02/01/2011 | Leave a comment

.:| autumn chowder |:.

There are hardly words for this delicious soup. I figured it would be good, but I had no idea it could be this good! The original is from the Taste of Home Comfort Food magazine – with the recipe itself credited to Sheena Hoffman. I’ve made a few adaptations, which I’ve placed in parenthesis in the ingredient list. This is exactly what’s needed on a snowy winter day! As a note, the original recipe is only 2 servings – plan accordingly, and don’t forget a little extra for leftovers!

what you’ll need …

2 bacon strips, diced (I diced and cooked a full pound of thick cut bacon. Seriously, everyone loves bacon! The more, the merrier!)
1/4 c chopped onion
1 medium red potato, cubed
1 small carrot, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced (I usually have carrot chips on hand – I just cut a few handfuls of them in half and went with it.)
1/2 c water
3/4 tsp chicken bouillon granules
1 c milk (I used a combination of skim & whole milk.)
2/3 c frozen corn
1/8 tsp pepper
2 1/2 tsp all-purpose flour
2 Tbsp cold water
3/4 c shredded cheddar cheese (Shredded cheese I used was a 3 cheddar mix – light, sharp and Vermont)

what you’ll do …

In a large saucepan, cook bacon over medium heat until crisp; remove to paper towels. Drain, reserving 1 tsp drippings (I used about twice as much for a little extra bacon flavor.). In the drippings, saute onion until tender. Add the potato, carrot, water and bouillon. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the vegetables are almost tender.

Stir in the milk, corn and pepper. Cook 5 minutes longer. Combine the flour and cold water until smooth; gradually whisk into soup (I didn’t whisk – stirring was all that was needed.). Bring to a boil; cook and stir 1-2 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat; stir in cheese until melted. Sprinkle with bacon. (Yield: 2 servings.)

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Posted in food, recipes

Tagged chowder, recipe, soup

the most wonderful time of the year.

Posted on 01/12/2011 | Leave a comment

That’s right, folks. It’s the most wonderful time of the year! Guess what I spotted earlier this afternoon? Let me give you a few hints. They’re oblong. They’re sweet. And I spotted them for the first time last year on 1/27 – and also blogged about it.

Yes, that’s right – it’s Cadbury Egg time!!!

As tradition goes, I always buy 3 the first time I see them each season. (Not 1, not 2, but 3. I have a thing for odd numbers, and 1 just isn’t enough. I suppose I could go for 5, but that might be pushing it. Besides, they’re typically 3/$2.) Well, today was that day!

I’m so stinkin’ excited to bite into my first one. It might be the end of this week before that happens as my insides are still recovering from the stomach flu, but I’m just so happy!

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Posted in food, holidays, humor, life

Tagged bliss, cadbury egg, candy, easter

in the kitchen …

Posted on 10/01/2010 | Leave a comment

Peanut’s latest “thing” is to push me away from the cabinets while I’m cooking. Instead of either giving in or standing my ground, I decided to find a constructive way to divert her energy. I’ve been pulling up a chair and getting her involved!

Last night was the first time she’s really taken to it. The pasta was boiling and I had just finished up the spaghetti sauce – time for breadsticks! While I worked on the remaining breadsticks, I gave her a bit of dough to work with on her own. She was so cute – followed exactly what I did and was so proud!

We rolled out our breadsticks, then brushed them with olive oil. I have a little brush I usually use, but gave that to her and used my finger to distribute the olive oil. She’d look over to see what I was doing, then repeat on her portion. We sprinkled garlic salt and some herbs over our breadsticks and then put them in the oven to bake.

That’s when it … All. Went. South.

She didn’t want to part with her creation. My bad. I tried turning the light on in the oven – seeing them clearly wasn’t enough, though.

Good thing we had some flour tortillas, more olive oil, some parmesan cheese, and bunny crackers! We continued our “assembly” session, only with different ingredients. That seemed to do the trick until dinner! She’d move the crackers around on the tortilla and then eat them. Towards the end, she started tearing off pieces of the tortilla and eating it. Guess working with food was too much temptation! Ha! (Thankfully we didn’t have to eat these …)

Oh, how I love this girl …

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Posted in family, food, life, lily

ch-ch-changes …

Posted on 08/27/2010 | Leave a comment

Today I …

… shopped at a natural food co-op store.

… carried my groceries away in reusable grocery bags.

… bought very local goat cheese.

… ate sticks & twigs that had chia seeds in them and were free of gluten and wheat.

… gave thought to the argument for more calories from a natural product vs. a preservative-laden snack with fewer calories. Natural won.

… used an all natural lip balm – and liked it.

… made a salad with local, organic ingredients (And it only cost $7.29 a lb.! Relatively speaking, that’s not bad! My salad was only $5.09!).

… gave serious thought to whether it was more environmentally friendly to use a recycled paper towel or the hand dryer.

… realized my new, 2-month love for Icelandic skyr may be more like an addiction.

… made a grilled pizza. And if that wasn’t enough, I made it entirely from organic ingredients.

This alternative energy, tree-hugging, sustainability thing is rubbing off on me a bit, I guess. Sounds like a good thing to me!

Green with envy yet???

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Posted in food, life

Tagged co-op, organic, pizza, siggi

mmm …

Posted on 08/16/2010 | Leave a comment

What’s this?

One word: bliss. It’s a beautiful marriage between one of my favorite foods and one of my husband’s. We had it at Brewer’s Alley this past Friday, and I plan on making it – me style – this week. Once I do, I’ll share my recipe with you.

Let’s hope my version is half as fabulous as the one from Brewer’s Alley was on Friday!

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Posted in food

recipe: crock pot mac & cheese

Posted on 02/18/2010 | Leave a comment

.:| crock pot mac & cheese |:.
(Note: This is my adaptation of a Food Network recipe by Paula Deen. Her original recipe can be found here.)

As promised here, below is the recipe for the mac & cheese I made in the crock pot during Snowmageddon/Snowpocalypse 2010! Thanks, Paula Deen!

What you’ll need …

2 cups uncooked elbow macaroni (just over 8 oz)
4 Tbsp. butter, cut into pieces
2 1/2 c. shredded sharp cheddar cheese (I did half with four cheese blend shredded cheese.)
3 eggs, beaten
1/2 c. sour cream (I ended up using more like 3/4 c.)
1 (10 3/4-oz) can condensed cheddar cheese soup
1/2 tsp. salt
1 c. whole milk (I never use whole milk, but I splurged on this recipe – worth it!)
1/2 tsp. dry mustard
1/2 tsp. black pepper

What you’ll do …

Cook macaroni until al dente. Drain. In the meantime, combine butter and cheese in a medium saucepan over medium heat, stirring until the cheese melts. In the crock pot, combine melted cheese/butter mixture, beaten eggs, sour cream, soup, salt, milk, dry mustard, and pepper. Stir well; add in drained macaroni and stir again. Cover and cook on low for 3+ hours, stirring occasionally.

Note: I did this in a 1.5 qt. crock pot, which was filled to the top. Seemed to me to be the perfect size, but if you like a little breathing room in there, you might want to go with something bigger.

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Posted in food, recipes, yum

Tagged comfort food, crock pot, food network, macaroni and cheese, paula deen

blizzard = food.

Posted on 02/09/2010 | 2 Comments

What do you do in 30″ of snow? Well, besides shovel … er, unless you’re lucky enough to not have to. Oh, and stay warm, of course.

Me? I love to cook. When I learned that we were in for more than 2′ of snow, I planned a full menu and shopped it up.

What did I make that I’d be delighted to share with you? How do macaroni & cheese and beef stew sound? I also managed to make homemade bread and cucumber salad, but the bread isn’t all that exciting and while making the cucumber salad, my daughter was into just about everything (Including discovery of the dog’s water bowl … argh!), making pictures a very bad idea.

But … if you want the recipe for the cucumber salad, it’s by Ina Garten aka Barefoot Contessa and can be found here. I could have used a bit less onion (for my taste) and I did add in some extra white wine vinegar, but otherwise, it’s perfect just as it is.

(Note: I’m a Food Network junkie. While the beef stew recipe didn’t come from Food Network, the mac & cheese did.)

I’d say that just about everything I made this weekend falls into the category of comfort food. Homemade bread, mac & cheese and beef stew are givens, but cucumbers happen to rock, in my mind, so that counts for me, too.

So … stay tuned – the recipes are coming! Until then, here’s a snapshot of our crazy weekend. We ended up with somewhere around 30″ of snow, and there’s another storm on the way this afternoon that’s expected to bring another 10 to 20″.

Oh. My. Gosh.

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Posted in food, weather, yum

recipe: taco soup.

Posted on 02/01/2010 | Leave a comment

A dear work friend introduced me to this recipe late last week and I immediately knew it would work for my husband and I. After some minor adaptations, I’d say it’s just about perfect!

.:| taco soup |:.

What you’ll need …

2 lbs. ground beef (would also be great with ground turkey)
1 large onion, chopped
1 can pinto beans
1 can black beans
1 can whole kernel corn
1 can diced tomatoes – zesty chili style
1 can Rotel tomatoes
1 package taco seasoning mix (I also added an additional 1/4 cup plus 2 Tbsp.)
1 package Hidden Valley Ranch dressing mix (dry packet)
approximately 2 cups water (use whatever you like for the amount of broth you prefer)

What you’ll do …

Brown ground beef and onions in large pan; drain off fat. Add all ingredients to crock pot (Note: I have a 6.5 qt. crock pot and it was 3/4 full.) and cook on low for at least 2 hours (I let ours cook for 8 hours.). Serve garnished with sour cream and Fritos.