Friday Foodie Finds #22

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Do you like themes? I really like themes for posts. It's fun to have something to center a recipe search around.

I went to high school in New England, I go to college in New England, I've spent summers researching in New England, and I have fond family vacation memories of Canada.

The great Maple!

Thus it is only appropriate that this week's Friday Foodie Finds theme is maple syrup! All of the following recipes feature the woodsy sweetener!

You know, since to me today is the last day of fall (I can't wait to welcome winter tomorrow)! Oh, and today's giveaway is at the bottom of this post. But don't forget to also check out my giveaway page and make sure you've entered all of my current giveaways!

As always, V is for Vegan. On that note:

Amy's Maple Turtle Cake (V)

Yammie's Secretly Healthy Granola

Granola, in general, is healthful - it's packed with nuts, seeds, whole grains, and dried fruits to fuel your day! But depending on your needs, you may want one with higher protein, less added oil, and/or lower sugar than the norm. This one is a great option. It's made with egg whites, no refined sugar, and only 1Tbsp. olive oil (not that oil, sugar, or egg yolks are 'bad' by any means, but some people are overweight and trying to get into the normal range, are diabetic, or have CVD).

James's Maple Walnut Cream Tart

Marly's The Vegan Maple (V)

A savory recipe with sweet undertones? Yes, please - this sounds like a fabulous (albeit complicated) sandwich!

Natasha's Healthy Maple Walnut Apple Crumble

Healthy enough to eat for breakfast (it features oats, bran, flax seeds, and - of course - apples!) but tasty enough to eat for dessert. This would be perfect served with yogurt or ice cream. Or better yet, both!

Martha Stewart's Maple Cupcake

So it seems that bacon is a popular maple cupcake topper. Well, I'm giving away a yummy vegetarian alternative to bacon for you to top your maple (or other) cupcakes with!



Isn't he cute?



Today's 25 Days of Giveaways giveaway is for Crafty Rosy's Edible Christmas Cupcake Fondant Toppers!



Each piece is carefully handmade, they're all 100% edible, and they're vegetarian! No bacon here :)

This giveaway is open to everyone (yay!) and you have until December 14 to enter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to check my giveaways page to make sure you've entered all of my current giveaways! There's a new one every day during the 25 Days of Giveaways!

Have you ever had a maple sandwich?

What's your favorite way to eat maple syrup?

Do you (or have you ever) live(d) in New England or Canada?

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A Super Duper Quick Dessert Recipe

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For whenever you're busy, but still want a special dessert, here's a quick go-to recipe of mine that works with most fruits (except citrus).

Three Minute Blueberry Compote

1 cup frozen blueberries

1 Tbsp. sugar

2 tsp. olive oil

ICE CREAM!!!

1) Warm the olive oil in a pan over medium heat.

2) Add the blueberries and sugar, stir and cook over medium heat for approximately 3 minutes until blueberries are heated through and release some of their juice.

3) Serve with ice cream (pour some the blueberry sauce over the ice cream).

If you find yourself making this every night, *cough, cough, me,* fun ways to mix it up include sprinkling nuts over it or adding granola for a cobbler-like experience. You really can't go wrong, and it's a great way to impress any last-minute guests!

Tee-hee, suddenly everyone thinks I'm the queen of desserts.

Eating them, perhaps. But making them? I'm obviously only able to keep up the facade because my friends aren't familiar with Choc Chip Uru.

Anyway, this recipe also goes great with Stonyfield Oikos organic nonfat greek frozen yogurt, for a healthy treat! 

I recommend Peach Mango:

It's delightful! You can tell that it's not ice cream, as it's just a tad less creamy and significantly less sweet, but it's so amazingly delicious in its own right! It's thick and more substantial than ice cream, just as greek yogurt is more substantial than regular yogurt, and the guys over at Stonyfield really didn't skimp on the fruit chunks - there's peach and mango galore!

But I almost never eat my ice cream (or ice cream-like dessert, in this case) plain.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I never do.

I usually top my ice cream with granola, cookies, crumbled baked goods, nuts and seeds, dried fruits, nut butter, syrups, etc, but this is just made for pairing with the blueberry compote, since it's so fruity.

NOMNOMNOM.

Jealous? :P

Oops, I almost forgot!

Haha, just kidding. I didn't actually almost forget. How could I?

It's time for today's giveaway in the 25 Days of Giveaways series!

Since my recipe has you covered on how to satisfy your guests's sweet teeth (?), here's how to satisfy their savory!

Fries are a fun finger food for entertaining, and they're snack-ish so they're convenient for non-meal gatherings, but they can be time consuming to make from scratch or unhealthy to buy prepared.

Peas of Mind vegetable fries are a healthy solution! For my long-time readers, you probably remember my raving review of their broccoli fries last Christmas.

They're delicious! And they could be yours (x3!) because this next giveaway is for 3 free Peas of Mind products. 

Also (in case fries aren't your thing) Peas of Mind makes pull-apart rolls out of veggies, puffets out of veggies, and even frozen pizza where the crust is made out of veggies!

This giveaway is open to US readers only and you have until December 13 to enter to win. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Don't forget to swing by my giveaway page and make sure you've entered all of my current giveaways - there are thirteen giveaways open at the moment!

Do you like guests?

How often do you entertain?

What's your go-to quick dessert recipe?

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For You Flintstones Fans... (and WIAW #66)

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Before we get to the WIAW part of this post, let's talk Flintstones.

I was quite the Flintstones fan when I was younger and I'm super disappointed that they aren't on TV anymore (are they?)!

Since they clearly got into the holiday spirit, too (see above), today's giveaway in the 25 Days of Giveaways is for all of you hard-core Flintstone fans out there.

I'm looking at you, paleo people.

I'm not paleo (I don't get it) but I figure that if you're paleo you'd probably get on great with the Flintstone families - y'all could have Christmas dinner together!

Anyway, even if you're not paleo, this paleo-friendly giveaway looks so yummy that you'll want to get 

in on it anyway.

Today's giveaway is of a box of Primal Momma Grain-Free Almond Flour Granola Bars! 

Whether you're paleo, gluten-free, low-carb, vegan, (insert your diet here), or you just see food and eat it, these untraditional granola bars fit in your diet!

The only one they don't fit into is the SAD diet. They're too healthy for that. 

But they look so yummy that SADers would probably abandon ship to get their hands on these.

I haven't tried these yet (though it looks like I should order some soon - are those chocolate chips in there? And dried berries? And shredded coconut? All baked into an almond flour based bar, with just honey as a sweetener and no refined sugars? Why yes, that's so!) and sadly for me, I can't enter my own giveaway. 

But you guys can!

This giveaway is open to all of my US readers (sorry international folks - but I am running some international giveaways!). You have until December 12 to enter, so spread the love and share this giveaway with your friends & family! Sharing is part of the spirit of the holidays :)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Okay, now it's WIAW time.

As always, here's a random assortment of some of the foods I've been enjoying lately! They're not all from one day, nor do they accurately depict what I eat in one day. I'm a college student, so obviously lots of sandwiches are consumed. 

And then there's my ice cream habit :) And all the bars that I love! Anyway, here are some of my food pics.

We'll start with this, since I have some form of yogurt-granola-fruit-nut butter parfait at least once a day, if not more.

What?! They're delicious!

As are microwave cakes. And I love tea!

Sprouted nuts are just amaaaaaaaazing. As is caramel with cacao nibs = new addiction.

Peanut butter cups and roasted kabocha will never get old. I had the other peanut butter cup while taking this photo, because it took forever - the batteries died when I turned on my camera, so I had to change the batteries. So annoying.

Wow, did I just complain about having to change batteries? New levels of laziness have been reached, folks. Please excuse me.

I have a good excuse:

Hundreds and hundreds of pages of reading a night (sadly, not all fun novels, like in the pic above - but a girl has to take a break sometime)!

Best enjoyed with roasted kabocha, milk chocolate, and a Betty Lou's Fruit bar. YUM :)

I also tried a new-to-me dairy brand!

Cabot Cheese is a northeastern farm family coop that's been making hard and soft cheeses, yogurts, whipped cream, and more dairy delights for the past 90 years. I'd been craving cottage cheese lately (does that happen to anyone else? Cottage cheese is one of those foods that I don't eat regularly, but I'll occasionally really, really want some cottage cheese with peanut butter and granola. It's just the perfect late night study snack. So I gave Cabot Vermont-Style Cottage Cheese a try!



 It comes in regular and no fat varieties, but my local store was all out of regular and only had two of these left on the shelf. I'll take that as a good sign that they were almost all sold out?

Or maybe my grocery store just needs to do better stocking. :P

This cottage cheese has nice size curds and a nice creamy white color. Sometimes nonfat cottage cheese can be a little water, but this one was creamy and great - no watery layer at all.

The flavor was also quite good. I tend to prefer my cottage cheese on the saltier side, since I like pairing it with sweet granola. This wasn't a very salty cottage cheese. But the good thing about that (other than it being a solid option for people watching their sodium intake) is that you can always add a little sprinkle of salt.

It's a great base for lots of yummy creations :)

Cottage cheese + peanut butter + cacao nibs + honey + crunchy stuff = match made in heaven.

Did you watch the Flintstones?

Do you prefer the Flintstones or the Jetsons?

What's your favorite kind of book?

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Farm Rich Review & Giveaway!

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There's good news and bad news. 

First, the bad news: my camera died. I'll have to have that checked out later today. 

Now, the good news: the 25 Days of Giveaways continue and today's giveaway is for 2 free product vouchers from Farm Rich!

FarmRich makes wholesome snacks to help busy moms (and busy students!) out with the nutrition of home-cooked fare and the convenience of frozen food.

They make snacks for everyone, from Mozzarella Sticks, to Jalapeno Peppers, to Stuffed Pretzel Bites, to mini Pizza Slices, to French Toast Sticks and even Turkey Meatballs!

I tried the Breaded Mushrooms, because I've never even heard of those before, much less tried them. Mushrooms are a favorite pizza topping on my mom's homemade pizzas, and they're the magic ingredients in her spaghetti with cheese sauce, but I just don't really ever eat them when I'm on my own.

Who knows why...?

Anyway, the Breaded Mushrooms are made of whole white button mushrooms that are breaded and seasoned. To prep them, all you need to do is pop them in the oven (at 450F) for 11-13, turning them once. No deep fryer necessary!

Well, that's an option...but I liked them just fine out of the oven! They get crispy, even if you just bake them, and the seasoning brings all the flavor you need. It's actually a really great combo of textures and flavors, with the soft (chewy? you know mushroom texture) mushroom inside and the crunchy breading outside.

They're not too salty, not too greasy (though I can't vouch for them if you go the deep frying route), and are trans-fats-free, unlike many other frozen snack products!

FarmRich gets the thumbs up from me.

So here's your chance to win your own Farm Rich products!

Since you have to live where FarmRich snacks are available, the giveaway is open to US readers only. You have until December 11 to enter!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

You can also find coupons (albeit not for free products) on their site here.

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Vermont Brownie Company Review and Giveaway!

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Today's giveaway in the 25 Days of Giveaways is a 6 brownie sampler pack from Vermont Brownie Company! They come in a cute box, so while they make a lovely treat for you they also make a great gift!
 

I got to review the same treats with my family and we all really enjoyed them - even my dad, who has just started warming to chocolate in the past few years and really isn't much of a sweets guy!

Clockwise from the upper left: Walnut, Peanut Butter, Apple Blondie, Espresso, Signature, Maple Toffee Crunch

I'll start with the Signature Brownie, off of which all of the others (with the exception of the Apple Blondie) are based. It's rich, indulgent, decadent, and delicious. It's not caky or dry at all, it's fudgy, stick-to-your-teeth goodness! I recommend enjoying it warmed for just a few seconds in the microwave and with a glass of frosty milk on the side :)

Next up is our collective favorite: the Espresso Dulce de Leche Brownie. It has a strong coffee flavor, but not overpoweringly so. If you like coffee, you'll love this! And for those of us (ahem, me) who aren't into the bitterness of coffee, the chocolatey brownie base is indulgent enough to sweeten that bitterness away!

Another one that we all really loved was the Maple Toffee Crunch. Who would have thought that maple and chocolate go together well? But they do! We also really liked the toffee crunch topping, because the different textures made this bar really fun to eat!

I'm usually a huge fan of walnut brownies, but this walnut brownie wasn't my favorite of the bunch. Don't get me wrong, it was still delicious. But there just weren't enough walnuts! We divided the brownie up to try it and my dad said he didn't get any walnuts in his piece, at all! The chocolate definitely overpowered the walnut in this brownie and while that's not a bad thing (who doesn't love chocolate) I would have a liked a little more walnut action. What can I say? I'm a walnut-in-every-bite girl!

The Peanut Butter Brownie is in the front left of this picture - the Apple Blondie is the one white one, the Maple Toffee Crunch Brownie is directly behind the Peanut Butter Brownie and the Walnut Brownie is behind it.

The peanut butter brownie had the peanut butter layer inside the brownie instead of on top of it, which I really liked. Flavor-wise, it was a really solid peanut butter brownie and we all enjoyed it. It wasn't, however, as special or unique as the Maple Toffee Crunch or Espresso Dulce de Leche Brownies - but it's a good, simple brownie and chocolate-peanut butter is a golden combination!

For anyone who isn't as chocolate crazy as me and my mom, the Apple Blondie is also a real treat (we enjoyed it, too, but we were so into the fudgy chocolate brownies that this one didn't pop quite as much for us). My dad really liked it and the apple flavor is nice and prominent. It's also not at all dry (all of these tasted super-fresh).

Who wouldn't like to come home to a plate like that?

When natural and preservative-free gourmet brownies taste this fresh, there's no need for any other kind!

And so that you can try these brownies yourself this holiday season (these are a perfect treat to enjoy by a cozy fire with a glass of milk or a mug of hot chocolate, if you really want to push the envelope on chocolatey goodness) here's a giveaway for a 6 brownie sampler pack!

This giveaway is open to readers in the US and Canada, and you have until December 10 to enter. Good luck!

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Enjoy the Moment

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I hope you've all had wonderful Thanksgivings with your families and friends, full of good food, laughter, love, and maybe a little loony shopping on Friday ;)

My Thanksgiving break, though I was unable to go home and spend the time with my family, was still a lovely, restful time. I enjoyed good food (lots of ice cream, nut butter, cookies, chocolate, and bread...unsurprising Thanksgiving foods for LLE, no?), lots of Christmas movies (and the craziness begins), and having the peace and quiet of an apartment all to myself and no hurry to get up in the morning.

How nice :)

There's about a month now between when school starts again tomorrow (and it'll be a wham-bam start, with us all on the brink of finals!) and when I write my last final exam and get to go home for another lovely break, this time with my family.

Yes, the experience of ITSALMOSTDECEMBER(happy!!!) meets ITSALMOSTFINALS(panicky!) is very real.

I'll need all the (safe, legal, natural) help that I can get for final season, so I decided to give EnergyBits a go. EnergyBits are these little algae tabs, kind of like non-minty mints, that NHL, MLB (?), and NFL athletes use, as well as some Olympians, to keep their energy levels high through training. The secret is allegedly in the nutritional powerhouse that's algae. It has 3x the protein of steak (per weight) and is vegan, loaded with beta-carotene, and packed with Omega 3 fatty acids. The company claims that if you eat 30 tabs (one serving) per day, all other vitamins and supplements become redundant.

Quite a lofty claim! Anyway, they're easy enough to eat - they come in a portable little tin, like mints, and don't require refrigeration (though the company recommends it for longer term storage).

They recommend swallowing the tabs, instead of chewing them, since they can look like little green mints as much as they like but they do not taste like mints. They taste, well, distinctly green. And not in a particularly great way - I chewed one just to taste it and it wasn't great. It also made my teeth GREEN. Like The Grinch green! I should have had these on Halloween :) But a few swallows of water later, my teeth were back to normal. So no worries! But you'll still want to swallow them - and swallowing 30 tabs? Not really something I'm into doing.

Anywho, I know what you're all wondering - are they the make energy boost that'll make sleep redundant? For me, no. I didn't really notice a huge energy difference, though I did feel a little more energetic after eating them and ended up not getting as tired later in the day. But was it a crazy huge difference, like some of the testimonials claim? No.

I did only have about one serving's worth of energy bits to try, so I'm not saying that they don't work - maybe they just don't work in one go, or maybe they don't work if you already eat veggies now and then, or maybe they did work but the results aren't extreme enough to be hugely noticeable in the first go.

I'm sorry I can't give a more positive review, but there's no point in having a review blog if you're not going to give a 100% honest review. My policy is always to write exactly what I think in my reviews!

I certainly imagine that they wouldn't be bad for you, but at $115 for 1000 tablets (or 33.3 servings), they're too pricey for me to buy without proof of miraculous results. And since I don't have that, I'll save the $3.45 per serving and buy some tasty SunCakes or Energy Bars instead. Plus, get a little sleep now and then ;)

But enough with the exam talk, it's exactly a month until Christmas!

So instead of giving in to the final exam stress that will inevitably begin tomorrow, I'm going to enjoy this last day of my break just as fully as I enjoyed the first. Tomorrow will come soon enough!

And a month isn't really that long. Especially when there's happy things to keep you going.

Like planning presents. Like making wish lists. Like doing Christmas crafting (when you're supposed to be studying, whoopsies). Like entering (and winning) the 25 Days of Giveaways!

Today I'm giving away a loaf of Radical Culinary's famous Banana Bread with Nuts and Streusel!



Yep, famous. It's been on TV and everything.

Plus it's made by a former Navy Culinary Specialist turned baker. Cool, huh?

You know what else is cool? Sam and Carey bake their banana bread the all-natural, preservative-free way, with only quality ingredients. That's great news for your body!

It's not so great for international readers - sorry folks, this giveaway is for readers in the continental US only. But don't despair, I have more international giveaways coming up!

And for you lucky US readers, you have until December 9 to enter the giveaway!

a Rafflecopter giveaway 

I definitely encourage sharing this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, Pinterest, your blogs, or even the old fashioned way - with friends and family. After all, Christmas is all about sharing love!

And who doesn't love getting a loaf of yummy in the mail?

How do you stay stress-free during finals?

What's been the best part of your Thanksgiving break?

Have you tried algae?

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Win a ProBar Mixed Flavor Box!

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I am going to, ever-so-humbly, admit that I am the queen of bars. And since it's Christmas, I'm the Christmas queen of bars!

But, until recently, I had never tried a ProBar of any sort. How is that possible? I don't know!

Luckily, the situation was rectified.

ProBar makes a variety of bars, but they're all 100% vegan, certified organic, certified non-GMO, and mostly raw. As they like to call it, ProBars are Simply Real!

I didn't try the ProBar Meal Bars, but I tried (and really enjoyed!) their Halo Bars and Fruition Bars.

There are four flavors of Halo bars - Rocky Road, S'Mores, Honey Graham, and Nutty Marshmallow. They're delicious whole food bars in decadent flavors! I'm on board for that!

These bars are chewy and the flavors are spot-on. The S'Mores wasn't as chocolate-y as I expected, but it was sweet and delicious. The marshmallows made the bar!

The Rocky Road was super chocolate-y, though. More than I expected, but I loved it!

You can't have too much chocolate ;)

In case you don't like chocolate, the Honey Graham bar is delightfully simple (I like eating it with a handful of Craisins) and the Nutty Marshmallow is just...delicious. I don't really know how else to put it! It's peanut butter and marshmallow goodness, how can you go wrong?

The nutritional stats are pretty similar bar-to-bar. I was a little disconcerted to see syrup as the first ingredient, but brown rice syrup and agave are quite different from high fructose corn syrup. These bars also don't have more sugar per bar than the industry standard (about 9g per bar).

And there's plenty of other good stuff in there, like oats and peanuts and flax seed!



And vegan marshmallows (surprisingly delicious!) if it's the Rocky Road bar :) I'm going to have to say that Rocky Road was my favorite Halo Bar!

The Fruition bars were really tasty, too.

The fruition bars are more a Lara bar-type bar, with the sticky date base and bits of nuts and other fruits in it. There are six fabulous flavors of Fruition bars, all of which are gluten-free.



Ingredients lists and nutritional stats are pretty similar from bar to bar. This bar is more well-rounded than most fruit-nut bars, because it also includes some grains in the form of oats and oat bran. Also, the bar has chia seeds! Yay! I have become such a chia seed fan this last year :)

As you may have noticed, the sugar content in these bars is higher than in the Halo bars, hovering at just around 20g of sugar per bar (about double that of the Halo bars). A lot of these sugars are natural sugars from the dried fruits, though, so don't be alarmed!

They don't taste too sweet, they taste just right :)

The lemon bar is nice and tangy, the cherry bar tastes like a warm summer day, the peach bar is the fruitiest peach-flavored anything I've ever had - 

- and the strawberry is delightfully strawberry-licious. I love the combination of tart cranberries and sweet raspberries in the Cran-Raspberry, my second favorite of the Fruition bars. The blueberry bar, to my surprise, wasn't blue at all - looking at it, you couldn't tell that it was a blueberry bar. 

But it was aromatic - you could certainly smell that it was blueberry from the moment you opened the wrapper! The flavor lived up to the smell. It was delightful! I especially enjoyed the addition of the big chunks of buttery with the dried blueberries.

I was initially a little disappointed by the comparatively small size of these bars, but they're dense! Since these bars include grains, they're more filling and satisfying than other fruit-nut bars and there's more to chew on. They filled me up as much as a larger bar would have and I didn't find myself thinking that the bar needed to be any bigger!

Anyway, let's get to my favorite ProBar: the Chocolate-Orange Fruition.

OH. MY. GOODNESS.

This bar is a party of flavors in my mouth. Who knew chocolate-orange was such a winning combo? I used to hate it as a kid, but it has seriously grown on me lately! But just as long as it's orange essence, not big chunks of orange. Dare I say that it's beginning to become one of my favorite chocolate combos?

*GASP*

Anyway, these bars are just amazing. They're rich and chewy and predominantly orange-flavored, but with (smooth, flavorful) chocolate chips throughout.

Especially in this bar, I appreciated the addition of oats. This snack bar definitely felt like eating dessert!

Okay, okay. So I know you're drooling over these yummy bars and want to know how you can get your own. Lucky for you guys, ProBar is giving you two great ways to get their bars!

You can either head over to The ProBar Shop and use the discount code 'BLOGGER' to get 40% off your first purchase or you can enter today's 25 Days of Giveaways giveaway to win a mixed flavor box of ProBars!

Or you can do both. More ProBars, yay! 

This giveaway is open to everyone and you have until December 8 to enter. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

And don't forget to make sure you've entered all of the other giveaways so far in the 25 Days of Giveaways!

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