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Easter Chocolate

I love making stuff in the kitchen with the kids and now that my oldest is almost 5 it’s gotten even more exciting. She’s actually able to do a lot of things by herself and supervision means I get to stand by and take LOTS of pictures!

One of the easiest projects I’ve found is the molded chocolate. I picked up a bunch of trays at a yard sale last year and I buy the chocolate when it’s 50% off after holidays so it’s really a pretty inexpensive project. I also got some flavorings over Christmas and we love using those. My husband found the blue cinnamon eggs to be a little unexpected so as long as guests are warned about the flavorings it’s all good.

The purple ones are peppermint and the brown are cherry. My favorite are the brown ones, you can’t go wrong with chocolate and cherry!

I did all the microwaving, but once the chocolate was soft my 4 yr old was able to do all the pouring and tray tapping (to get the bubbles out of the chocolate you have to drop the tray on the counter a gazillion times – which she loved!)

Add some coconut dyed green and you have a great, easy, edible, Easter decoration!

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Simple Truth Organics

This has been one of my favorite bzz campaigns so far! Check out bzzagent if you want to get your own products to try and review.

There was lots of tasty free food with this campaign. All items are free from 101 artificial preservatives and ingredients so you can feel better about the delicious food you serve your loved ones. With a full line of products from meat and produce to dairy and canned goods, you’ll find Simple Truth and Simple Truth Organic exclusively at the Kroger Family of Grocery Stores. Plus, since they’re store brand, they’re cheaper than the name brand organics which makes purchasing organic a lot easier on my grocery budget!

Frozen fruit: I tried a bag of mixed berries. This was delicious! I made a smoothie for me and the kids (which I loved but because of the blackberry seeds the kids weren’t too fond of it). I also thawed the fruit and piled it on top of pancakes, then added some whipped cream. That was delicious! The fruit was just sweet enough to go great with my pancake!

The kids did not want fruit on their pancakes but after breakfast, the they ate whatever fruit was left in the bowl, so they definitely liked it as well.

Sparkling beverage: I just love that this has cane sugar in it – and a few other ingredients that I can recognize. I really like the taste of a drink with cane sugar and the Kroger Sparkling beverage is delicious! A friend of mine compared it to izzy beverages because it’s basically like carbonated fruit juice. Very tasty and something I’ll be buying again as a special treat for me!

Sweet Potato chips: These I wasn’t so fond of. They’re like baked chips so they’re thicker and chewier than my usual lays potato chips. They aren’t bad, they just didn’t satisfy my “I want something salty and crunchy” craving. If you’re looking for a healthy alternative to potato chips these are great though.

Almond milk: I was totally unprepared for the nutty flavor of almond milk since I’ve never tried any almond milk before. I tried the chocolate almond milk and the almond plus the strong cocoa flavor was pretty strong. I didn’t like it cold but it was delicious hot with some marshmallows or whipped cream. Just like a good, strong, hot cocoa!

I have a friend though, who loves almond milk. She prefers vanilla and she really liked the Simple Truth brand. It saves money and is just as good as a more expensive brand.

Health and Wellness bar: I stuck this in my husband’s jar of breakfast bars and forgot to keep an eye on when he ate it. So, I’m really not sure what he thought. He didn’t complain though so it must have been tasty. A breakfast bar with all natural ingredients really has to be tasty, I’m just disappointed I didn’t get to it before he did…

All in all, I really enjoyed this campaign. Pretty much everything was delicious and I love that they cost less than the bigger brands!

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Barley Bread

My 4yr old has been begging me for weeks to make her some barley bread. I think in Sunday School they heard the story of the feeding of the 5,000 and the little boy with the loaves had barley bread. My 4yr old definitely thought there must be something special about barley bread!

So, I found some barley in the cupboard the other day and decided to give barley bread a try. Luckily I have a wheat grinder so turning barley into barley flour was noisy but pretty easy.

Next, I had to find a recipe that only contained ingredients that I have on hand. Fortunately, that wasn’t too hard and this is what I tried:

Ingredients (Makes 1 Loaf)
  • 3 cups barley flour
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 2 tablespoons baking powder
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegetable oil, plus extra for skillet
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk

    • Directions


    Preheat oven to 350 degrees F and lightly grease a 9 inch cast iron skillet with some vegetable oil and place in oven while preheating. (Why a cast iron skillet? It is the secret to a perfect crust.) If you don’t have a cast iron skillet then grease an 8 inch square pan and set-aside (not in oven).

    In a medium bowl, combine the flour, salt, and baking powder. Mix thoroughly.

    In a separate, smaller bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium-low speed, mix together the sugar, 1/4 cup oil, eggs, and milk. Slowly add the egg-mixture to the flour mixture until everything is just moistened.

    Pour batter into the cast iron skillet or prepared pan and bake 30 – 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean (internal temperature 190 degrees F. Cut into squares and serve warm.

    As you can see, it turned out light, fluffy, and crumbly, just like a cake. The barley was surprisingly mild tasting and my kids and I loved it!

    I’ll definitely be making this recipe again.

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    Morning Star Farms Veggie Burgers

    Thanks to bzzagent.com I got to try Morning Star Farms veggie burgers for free. I tried the Grillers Original variety but they have several different flavors. I really wanted to try the Black Bean burgers but since they’re Spicy Black Bean burgers and I’m not a big fan of spicy I didn’t want to ruin my first veggie burger experience with a too-spicy burger.

    I was really surprised, the Grillers Original tastes just like a regular hamburger. It’s a little thinner and a bit less filling than the burgers I usually make but put it on on bun with some mayo, tomato, lettuce, and cheese and you can’t even tell that you’re eating a veggie burger.

    I think the texture is a little softer than a regular burger and these veggie burgers would be perfect for when my next baby is almost ready to eat meat. These burgers would be easy to chew and still provide a great source of protein for a toddler.

    I also tried one of the burgers my favorite way, just cooked and cut up with a little bit of ketchup on the side. On a sandwich I didn’t notice the texture difference but just cut up and eaten plain I did notice that the veggie burgers is a little softer than a regular burger. It wasn’t bad, just a little different than what I was expecting. I may try it with mushroom gravy over mashed potatoes next time, that would be pretty tasty, and the potatoes and gravy would compensate for the texture difference!

    I haven’t tried their veggie bacon yet but this recipe for a BLT and avocado looks delicious!

    I love BLTs and I’ve never thought of putting an avocado on before.

    Morning Star Farms has all sorts of great veggie recipes on their website!

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    Campbell’s Slow Kettle Style Soups

    I recently got to try one of Campbell’s Slow Kettle Style Soups from a product review site called smiley360 both campaigns I’ve gotten to try have been really slow getting to me, but I do get them eventually and I always enjoy trying new stuff!

    I tried the Campbell’s beef stew for lunch the other day and it’s terrific! It filled me up, tasted great, and was easy to microwave. I can’t wait to try some more flavors!

    If you want to try some yourself make sure you print off this $1.00 off coupon.

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    Private Selection Party Foods

    I just loved this bzz campaign! You can go to bzzagent’s website to get into your own campaigns. I got to try all sorts of fun tasty foods from this campaign! My holiday party is coming up next week and I’m looking forward to serving some of Private Selection’s products to my guests.

    1. Greek yogurt – this yogurt had the little fruit cup on the side. It’s mine and my 4yr old’s favorite yogurt style. My favorite flavor is honey. Though, I am picky about which brand of greek yogurt I’ll eat. I was a little worried trying this since I generally only like name brand greek yogurts. I was really surprised. The private selection yogurt was delicious! We tried the cranberry and the strawberry yogurt. (I had coupons for 3 yogurts). I’m definitely buying these again.

    Though, I do wish they had a variety with honey, since this is my favorite flavor. If Private Selection had a honey greek yogurt I’d be buying it every time I was at Kroger. I also don’t know of a good way to serve this at a party but I’m more than happy to tell my guests how much I liked it 🙂

    2. Deli Cheese – I tried the smoked gouda and it was really good. I think the cheese is a little pricey, however, they have unique flavors. I love serving cheese when I host a holiday party! I usually do a cheese tray with 4 to 5 different cheeses and crackers. Private selection has some unique cheeses that aren’t really that expensive if you want something more than just swiss, american, or cheddar. I’m adding at least one Private Selection cheese to my cheese tray this year because it’ll give me some fun variety!

    3. Crackers – I got to try the Classic Water Crisps. I loved the idea picture on the front of the box and it’s the cracker I’m designating for the soft cheese on my cheese tray. I’m going with a sharp cheddar cheese ball because I like the strong cheese with the mild cracker.

    4. Coffee – Not as good as the coffee from the Green Mountain Coffee campaign that I had last month, but it’s still pretty tasty. Though the package in my bzzkit was a regular coffee and I probably won’t serve it to my guests in the evening, I’ll go try one of the decaffeinated varieties so I don’t keep anyone up all night.

    5. Olives – I just love their olives! I like olives anyways but Private Selection olives are my new favorite. I tried the mixed olive jar just to see what I thought of them and they have the perfect olive taste and texture! I’ll get one of the stuffed olives for my party so guests don’t have to spit out pits. These olives are going to taste great with hummus, crackers, and my cheese tray! (or just on their own)

    I’ll post pictures of my party, all our food, and our fun food creations next week. (if I remember to take pictures during the party)

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    Green Mountain Coffee

    My latest bzz campaign was for Green Mountain Coffee. I love coffee and this was such a fun campaign for me!

    They sent 4 different flavors to try, but Green Mountain Coffee has tons of different coffee flavors.

    Green Mountain is a Fair Trade company so their coffee tends to be a bit more expensive than my usual folgers or maxwell house, however Green Mountain has more flavor to it. I honestly don’t buy products just because they’re Fair Trade but I have noticed that Fair Trade products tend to be a lot like organic products, they just taste better. And sometimes, the extra flavor is worth the higher price. The varieties are produced with care and it shows. Of all the 4 flavors I tried each of them was delicious!

    Vermont Country Blend – This one is a blend of light and dark beans, not too strong, not too weak, perfect for any morning. I think it’s pretty much just a straight up regular coffee.

    Columbian Fair Trade Select – This one was really good, nice and strong without being too strong. You know, how some strong coffees are kind of bitter, there was no bitter in this coffee. It was strong but still smooth. Good for a busy morning or a nice afternoon pick-me-up.

    Wild Mountain Blueberry – This one smells so good when it’s brewing! It’s almost enough to wake me up without having to drink it…almost. It’s a nice medium/mild coffee with just a tad of blueberry flavor in it, just enough to taste but not enough to make me feel like I’m drinking blueberries instead of coffee. I honestly, will buy this one again just because I like the smell of it so well!

    Sumatran Reserve – This one is my favorite of the four. A nice bold coffee, perfect for a morning when the kids get me up early. It’s nice and strong without being bitter, It’s now on my list of must have coffees.

    And for more fun info on Green Mountain Fair Trade you can follow Grace Potter and Michael Franti’s Fair Trade source trips, and check out the live stream of their concerts via the Green Mountain Coffee®Facebook page!

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    Potstickers

    I decided to make potstickers the other day. I was greatly surprised at how easy they are to make!

    I made about 50 of them for around $5 which is way cheaper than buying them frozen from the grocery store. I’m planning to make them again and freeze some for using in soup later.

    I did purchase the wrappers but the rest I mixed up from scratch from a recipe from Food Network. I did make a few alterations but I think the original would be great as well! I used beef instead of pork, onions instead of scallions, and green peppers instead of red peppers because I happened to have these on hand already.

    They tasted great in this dipping sauce!

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    Mac and Cheese

    Tried out my Progresso Recipe Starters Cheese sauce for supper last night – Thanks BzzAgent for letting me try this!

    I used the Bacon Mac and Cheese recipe off of the Recipe Starters can and I substituted two cans of tuna instead of the bacon bits (since I didn’t have any bacon bits on hand). It turned out delicious, my kids, husband, and I all loved it!

    It’s tough to find a mac and cheese recipe that we all like and this one was a success! I’ll definitely be making this one again!

    The hardest part for me in making mac and cheese is getting my cheese sauce thick enough without burning it and the Progresso Creamy Cheese Sauce made this so much easier!

    Progresso has some other great looking mac and cheese recipes on their website, and this delicious looking queso which I think I’ll try next time we have company over to watch football.

    All in all, this recipe was a success and I’m loving the Progresso Recipe Starters sauces! Now, should I try the tomato, garlic, or basil sauce next? They all sound so good!

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    Progresso Recipe Starters Creamy Portabella Mushroom

    Trying out Progresso Recipe Starters for my latest Bzz Campaign. I love food campaigns because I get to try out new food products for free! Who doesn’t like that?

    Progresso has 5 new recipe starter sauces. Last night I tried out the Creamy Portabella Mushroom sauce and made one of my favorite meals, beef stroganoff.  I make a pretty good stroganoff from scratch. My usual recipe is more beef gravy tasting – since I start with the gravy- and progresso’s is more creamy but otherwise the flavors were pretty similar.

    This Progresso sauce made a delicious stroganoff (my husband didn’t even notice that I made it different than usual), and it simplified the process just a little.

    I’m not sure that I’ll make beef stroganoff this way all the time since this is a tad more expensive than my usual method but it’s great for a special occasion!

    Progresso has some great recipe ideas on their website as well so I’m looking forward to trying out their other sauces and probably the mushroom sauce in a different recipe as well. Since I love mushrooms!

    I bought the cheese sauce when I was at the store the other day so I’m going to try mac and cheese next. We all like our mac and cheese different ways and I have yet to find a mix or recipe that we all like. Maybe this will be the one 🙂