Showing posts with label Kid Friendly. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid Friendly. Show all posts

Feb 10, 2017

More Delicious Mornings with Erin Baker's: A Review

I love getting mail. I also love breakfast foods and mornings. So getting this in the mail was wonderful!

Erin Bakers New Products Review

Erin Baker's focuses on making delicious foods out of whole grains and without preservatives. Whether they're eaten as a standalone snack or part of your breakfast, they're food that nourishes you and fuels you for a great day ahead.

The two new products I got to try were The Original Breakfast Cookies Minis:

Healthy Breakfast Cookies

They taste just like the full size cookies - hearty, just the right amount of sweet, and always fresh (never stale) but they're a smaller size that's great for crumbling over yogurt or oatmeal or slipping into a lunchbox as a sweet, but nutritious, snack. 

Sep 22, 2016

Review: Vitalicious Deep Chocolate VitaTops

Sometimes it can be hard to marry a vicious sweet tooth and the desire to eat healthy. Fruits make a delicious and healthy dessert, but sometimes you just want chocolate!

Deep Chocolate Vitatops

VitaTops Deep Chocolate is the solution. It's whole grain, loaded with vitamins (but tastes way better than taking a multivitamin) and so, so chocolatey. I had tried (and enjoyed) VitaTops before, so I was excited to try the new formula. 

Deep Chocolate Vitatops

Sep 2, 2016

Recipe: Shakshuka (Israelian Poached Eggs in Tomato Sauce with Chickpeas and Feta)

September is National Breakfast Month!

This is clearly my month to shine, because I make breakfast for dinner far more often than is likely acceptable for a twenty-something-year-old. What can I say? Breakfast foods are the best foods and I'm okay with never being a proper grown up if that would mean I can only have breakfast once a day!

Shakshuka Recipe

This dish, an Israelian favorite for breakfast, lunch, or dinner, straddles the line between breakfast for dinner and a sensible grown up's meal. That's a compromise I can live with!

Even better: it's simple to make, full of healthy plantbased nutrition from chickpeas and tomatoes, a cheap meal that beats ramen by a mile (feta is the most expensive ingredient, but the core ingredients are canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, and eggs), and you can eat out of a cast iron pan like a farmer!

I used Nellie's Free Range Eggs to make this a meal that's healthy, humane, and free of residual antibiotics or other icky things from the chicken's diet. I chose Nellie's Free Range Eggs because they're easy to find (I got mine from Whole Foods) and always free range, and free of hormones or antibiotics, and kosher certified. They're also great quality, delicious eggs!

Read on for the recipe. It's a 35 minute dinner!

Apr 19, 2016

Recipe: Spooky Sweet Potato Burritos

It's Halloween's half-birthday very soon, so here's an orange-and-black healthy vegetarian recipe to celebrate!


Burritos are a great meal. You can make them for dinner, they're pretty simple to make and can be packed with healthy ingredients (like the protein and fiber rich black beans and the vitamin rich sweet potatoes. While these are an unusual flavor combo for a burrito (some tasters loved them and some thought sweet potato is too sweet for a burrito, so know your audience) sweet potato lovers typically liked them. They also make easy bag lunches!



Make the burritos ahead of time, wrap them in aluminum foil, and store them in the fridge or freezer (depending on how long you want to keep them - they'll last weeks in the freezer, but just a few days in the fridge). When you're ready to eat them, just pop the aluminum foil-wrapped burrito in the oven to re-warm or remove the aluminum to microwave! Read on for the simple recipe.

Apr 16, 2016

Review: That's It Bars

I love the chewy sweetness of dried fruits and I love the on-the-go convenience of snack bars. That's It bars have both!


Many dried fruits (and snack bars, for that matter) can be loaded with added sugars. That's really just not necessary when you consider how sweet fruit is naturally and that dried fruit has all of that sweetness, but concentrated! 

Many of us eat too much sugar as is, since it's in everything from ketchup to pasta sauce to cereal to yogurt. I was thrilled to see that That's It bars are 100% natural dried fruit with no added sugars or other unhealthy fillers.


They don't need them! The bars are chewy, sweet, flavorful, and satisfying. I tried ten delicious That's It bar flavors and they were all unique, but all delicious.

Mar 23, 2016

Review: BRAMI Beans

Do you know what the most protein-packed bean out there is? Hint: it's not a black bean. It's not kidney bean. It's not a garbanzo bean.



It's a lupini bean!

Have you heard of lupini beans? Unless you're from the Mediterranean, or familiar with Mediterranean cuisine, it's quite likely that you haven't. I hadn't!

Lupini beans are the most protein packed bean in the world and a snack favorite of Roman warriors. They're rich in fiber, as well, so an all around great snack!

Jan 6, 2016

Recipe: Caribbean Coconut Bread

There are so many wonderful reasons to eat coconut oil - it has been proven to improve cholesterol profiles, may reduce heart disease risk, is great for your hair and skin health, may help reduce dangerous abdominal fat, and an improve immunity.

A quick bread baked with Ojio raw organic coconut oil as the fat, instead of butter or traditional vegetable oil, makes a wonderful switch-up from the traditional banana bread!


We're all getting back into the swing of things at work now, after the lovely Christmas holiday break, and sometimes this time of year can give us a bit of the post-vacation blues. While this bread is not quite as good as a Caribbean vacation (who wouldn't love to go to the Bahamas?) it tastes like the bakery-fresh coconut loaves you could find all over by the beaches!!

Read on for the recipe for my Caribbean Coconut Bread, made with healthy fat-rich coconut oil!

Dec 28, 2015

Review: Honey Ridge Farms Artisan Honeys

Where has 2015 gone? I can hardly believe that there are only a few short years until the new year!

2015 has been a wonderful year, full of growth, new career developments, new relationships, old creative passions in new ways, and a wonderful abundance of adventure, travel, good times with loved ones, and learning, I'm excited to see what 2016 brings!

One of the New Year's Eve traditions that I find really cute is the tradition of eating honey to herald in a sweet new year. I love honey, so any reason to eat it is good with me!

This year, I'm going for a gourmet spin with the honey I will give my loved ones and enjoy myself on Christmas Eve.



Honey Ridge Farms has a variety of absolutely delicious gourmet honey products that are perfect to start 2016 off on the right foot - or really for any morning!

The unique flavors of honey cremes include blackberry, clover, lavender, lemon, raspberry, coconut, blood orange, lemon lavender, and my personal favorite, spiced. Honey Creme spiced is the perfect festive blend of warming spices that, paired with the sweetness of the creamy honey, makes for a treat perfect for the holiday season!

Dec 23, 2015

Recipe: Chewy Chococonut Cookies

Everyone loves a good chocolate chip cookie, but sometimes you want to mix it up a bit. If you've had enough plain chocolate chip cookies this holiday season, check these out!


These chewy Chococonut cookies might be a bit of a tongue twister, but the flavors of the dark chocolate chunks and the chewy shredded coconut compliment each other brilliantly and make these a great change from the typical chocolate chip cookie!

They're big, soft, chewy cookies, like the kind you get from the cookie bakeries or carts at the mall. Without further ado, here's the quick and easy recipe! No dough chilling required.

Dec 13, 2015

Healthy Holiday Hacks: Top 5 Tips to Handle Never-Ending Days + A GIVEAWAY!

I love the holidays! Everything sparkles, people smile more, and there's a general sense of happiness, community, and togetherness that is (sadly) not as pronounced during the rest of the year.

Also, decorations!


I know people like to whine about Christmas decorations going up too early and Christmas carols playing on repeat everywhere from the day after Thanksgiving on, but I love all of that!

What I don't love is the hectic that can sometimes be associated with the holidays. No one likes feeling stressed out, but sometimes the happiness of the holiday season can be tainted by hectic back-to-back scheduling.

Read on for my top five tips to survive those inevitable never-ending days without turning into a stressed-out Grinch!

Dec 9, 2015

Recipe: Impossibly Delicious Chocolate Chip Cookies

Happy holidays! Christmas is my absolute favorite time of year and while I go hard all December, I already start prep back in September.

By prep, I mean I start listening to Christmas music, planning Christmas presents, testing recipes, and watching Christmas movies.

Thanks to my obsessive extensive preparation, this Christmas chocolate chip cookie is the absolute best chocolate chip cookie recipe out there. I've tried so many, I know what I'm talking about!


I love to make the dough for these the night before and then bake them shortly before serving, because they look great after the dough has been chilled and they taste amazing warm and fresh from the oven.

Read on for the recipe!

Dec 7, 2015

#HowWeFamily with Tylenol!

have received information from the makers of TYLENOL®. The opinions stated are my own. This is a sponsored post.

There's nothing quite like the holidays to bring families together.

Today even more than ever, a lot of families aren't always in the same place. Or even if we're physically in the same location, we're often worlds away with work, our electronic devices, and all the other things that keep us busy!

One of my favorite things about Christmas is that warm, glowing, loving family feeling that you can only have when you're together with, and truly present with, the people whom you love the most.


I think the Tylenol #HowWeFamily video is so touching, because it shares the stories of 11 real American families coming together for the holidays, including the family of spokesperson Gabrielle Union.

What family looks like is different for everyone. Some of us are born into our families, some of us build our families around us, and some of us have a mix of both or multiple families. Family isn't about who you love, it's about how you love!

I encourage all of you to let the holidays inspire you to focus on what truly matters. The baubles, flavors, decorations, gifts, and travels of the holidays are all absolutely wonderful. But what matters most is the invaluable time spent with loved ones.

We never know how long we will have with those we love, or when we will see them next, so we should take every opportunity to delight in the beauty of unconditional love!

How will you connect with your family this holiday season?

Dec 5, 2015

Happy Holiday Hack: DIY Gifting Made Better

Tomorrow is St. Nicholas Day! 

Since I'm half-German, that was the first official holiday day of the Christmas season for me. I always cleaned my boots the night before, placed them outside my bedroom door, and found them full of candy and fruit (clementines and apples, mostly, though sometimes I also lucked out with prunes and dates) the following morning. It was so exciting!

st nicholas day gifts
These aren't mine (I'm - sadly - not an owner of wooden clogs) but this is an example of a great haul for a few lucky kids!

Tomorrow is also the first night of Hanukkah! Needless to say, gifting season is upon us. 

DIY gifting is a popular way to keep holiday spending in check without missing out on the most significant part of holiday presents - the thought! Since I love to bake, my favorite DIY gifts to give are homemade baked goods. 

This year, I found a way to make my DIY baked good gifts even better! Read on to find out how to take your DIY gifts to the next level!

Nov 25, 2015

Recipe: Irresistible Cheesy Bread


It's that time of year! Happy (almost) Thanksgiving, everyone!

While a lot of us host Thanksgiving celebrations, or celebrate a family Thanksgiving at home, it is also not uncommon to attend a Thanksgiving dinner that someone else is hosting. My family is strewn all around the world and the same is true for many of my fellow New Yorkers!

Attending someone else's Thanksgiving dinner can be a lot of fun. You get to dress up, spend time with some awesome people, and not have the stress of hosting the dinner yourself. That said, it's important to be a good guest. Definitely bring with a host gift and/or a contribution to the dinner!

But what if you know nothing about how to pick a good wine (guilty) and dessert has already been claimed, so you can't bring along an award-winning pecan pie or my classic pumpkin pie? Never fear!

A side dish (or appetizer, depending on how off-schedule the turkey roasting itself is running) is always appreciated.


A dinner bread is especially appreciated, because if it doesn't get eaten at the actual dinner, your hosts can use it for their post-Thanksgiving turkey sandwiches!

This irresistible cheesy bread is a real winner. Everyone always loves it, it's pretty easy to make, the strongly flavored asiago cheese makes it a slightly gourmet (or at the very least, grown up) tasting bread, and asiago cheese is the only ingredient that you may not already have in your kitchen!

Read on for the yummy recipe!

Nov 22, 2015

Choose This, Not That: Holiday Edition!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas Thanksgiving!

Okay - it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, too.

funny-Cinderella-fairy-Godmother-Halloween-Christmas

But I'm trying to restrain myself from going too nuts (Christmas carols 24/7, decorations all over the place, daily Christmas baking, searching for the perfect gifts for all my loved ones, and just generally being a holly jolly elf) until Black Friday. It's a tradition for me to try to exercise a teeny-tiny bit of self-control until that hotly-anticipated Friday when I can dial it up to 95% and then December 1, when I can go 100% Christmas nuts.

I don't even participate in Black Friday shopping, but I'm always really excited for the day because it means Christmas is approaching!

so excited for christmas - so excited for christmas  Red panda

Anyway, the holiday season is a time of indulgence. Holiday indulgences are wonderful and I firmly believe in taking part, but over-indulgence doesn't feel good and doesn't do anyhting to increase our enjoyment of the season - quite the opposite, in fact!

Go for the indulgence on the big days and when you really want them, but when you're just looking for a bit of a festive feeling, try a healthy swap! Read on for three healthy holiday swaps that I recommend!

Nov 14, 2015

Recipe: Crowd-Pleaser '50s Meatloaf

Meatloaf is a classic American dish and one of the first meals people think of (especially when served with mashed potatoes and green beans) when you ask for a go-to comfort food dish or something All-American to serve to foreign dinner guests. 


I made this meatloaf for a mixed group of diners, some German and some American, and not only did both groups really enjoy it, but I also got some recipe requests! 

It's an easy recipe that will impress your guests and trust me when I say it's easy - I'm definitely not very experienced cooking meat, but I pulled this one off without difficulty! Read on for the no-fail recipe.

Oct 26, 2015

Recipe: German Honey Cookies

I'm half-German and absolutely love so many things about Germany - the landscape, the people, the culture, the music, the organization, the country overall, and (of course) the food!

Food is a huge part of culture and it's a great way to take little staycations to far-away places without leaving your kitchen. So you can all enjoy a little piece of Germany in your homes, here's a recipe for traditional Germany honey cookies!


These cookies are essentially the basic 'milk and cookies' cookie. They're simple, sweet, pair perfectly fresh from the oven with a cool glass of milk, and are beloved by children and adults alike. They're also quite simple to make and use only fairly basic pantry ingredients for the most part, so there's no reason not to give them a try.

Happy food-venturing!

Oct 24, 2015

Review: Mamma Chia Organic Chia Granola Clusters and Organic Chia Vitality Bars!

Let me introduce you to my new favorite snack foods. 


Mamma Chia Organic Vitality Bars and Organic Chia Granola Clusters are so deliciously fantastic.


They're both packed with heart healthy chia seeds, healthy fats, and plant-based protein. They're also all organic, gluten-free, and made with 100% whole grains in the case of the granola (the bars aren't grain-based).


Want omega-3 fatty acids (a whopping 1000mg of them) in a sweet, chocolatey, delicious and portable snack? Mamma Chia Vitality Bars have you covered!


They come in four great flavors, each as delicious as the next. 


While my favorite (by a narrow margin) were the Blueberry & Dark Chocolate Vitality bars, every single flavor was amazing. 


Cherry & Dark Chocolate was a close second favorite. The sweet tart cherries worked amazingly well with the chocolate and nuts!

I loved that the bars were healthy, a great snacking size, made with all natural ingredients in relatively unprocessed forms (I could still tell what the nuts and seeds and dried fruits making up the bars were), and that they were coated in chocolate, making them taste much more like indulgent chocolate bars than a healthy snack!


And yet they are a healthy snack with the omega-3 fatty acids you need to keep your brain and heart in tip-top shape. Hooray!

I could rave about the bars all day, but I also want to get to the granola.


Oh. My. Goodness.

Mamma Chia granola won a place among my favorite cereals of all time from the first bite.



It's sweet, it's crunchy, it's hearty, and there are big chunks of granola for from-the-bag snacking as well as smaller pieces for a more cereal-like experience.


How do I love soy-free, dairy-free, gluten-free 100% whole grain Mamma Chia Vitality Granola? Let me list the ways.


With milk, with yogurt, from the bag, on a smoothie, on an acai bowl, from the bag, on ice cream, with peanut butter and banana, in trail mix, and straight from the bag.


I may have mentioned that last way a few times, but it's because the granola is just that good. It tastes great with everything, but it really doesn't need anything to make it delicious!

Oh, and did I mention it's non-GMO, too? Trust me, you'll want to try this granola - any of the delicious flavors will do. You can thank me later!

What is your favorite way to eat granola?

What kind of snack bars do you like most often?

What snacks do you keep in your handbag/backpack/coat pocket?
Is that last one just me?

Oct 20, 2015

Recipe: Perfect Pumpkin Bread

I love winter squashes and pumpkin, so I'm one of the many who is thrilled when all things turn to pumpkin in October! 

Pumpkin yogurt, pumpkin spice lattes, pumpkin soup, roasted pumpkin, pumpkin ice cream, pumpkin smoothies, pumpkin juice - I can't get enough! 


Whether you have an extra can of pumpkin in your pantry and don't want to go the usual pumpkin pie route (or if pies are a Thanksgiving tradition for you, and you're trying not to get ahead of yourself with your holiday spirit), or you have a pumpkin from the pumpkin patch awaiting a fate other than becoming a soup or a decoration, this recipe for pumpkin bread is an autumn delight. 


For quick and easy, use canned pumpkin puree. I've tried with homemade pumpkin puree from a fresh pumpkin, as well! It's certainly more of a process (and a mess) but can be a lot of fun! Read on for the no-fail recipe (listed with canned pumpkin puree, but an equivalent amount of fresh works wonderfully, as well).

Oct 5, 2015

Recipe: Best Ever Blueberry Muffins

Want a muffin recipe that will make everyone want to have breakfast at your place? These blueberry muffins are it! 


Perfectly soft and fluffy on the inside and crunchy on the streusel-covered top, they're melt-in-your-mouth amazing. To make them just like jumbo bakery muffins, use 6 extra large muffin tins instead of 9 regular ones. Enjoy!

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