Food Stuff

Last year (wow, that seems like forever ago!) my mom, Mike's mom, and Mike's sister, and I took a road trip to Shipshewana.  We had one purpose of this trip: eating and shopping!  Our first stop was at Rise and Roll Bakery for some delicious breakfast treats.  I got a fabulous cinnamon roll :)  I of course, had to bring some goodies back home. 

Peach Butter....oh so very very yummy!!!

Dried Cataloupe...I wanted to try something different.  This was delicious!

Our next stop was at E&S Sales.  Oh. My. Word.  This was totally my kind of store.  Aisles upon aisles of fun foods, some I'd never seen before.  We spent a lot of time in this store.  My mom and I filled an entire shopping cart of fun items, and the prices are awesome!  Here are some fun things I bought:

Christmas Tree shaped pretzels.  I dipped these in white chocolate and covered them in sprinkles for Christmas for my youth group girls.

This is the product I was most excited about...dehydrated marshmallow bits, like the ones in hot chocolate packets.  I love to eat these plain, but I've made a few recipes with them too.  Keep your eye out on my food blog for them...soon!

Dried Pineapple...I love dried pineapple!

Yeast donut mix...so delicious!

 

 

Peanut butter filled pretzels.  They're such a delicious snack!

Mike will tell you that I always snatch a few marshmallows from his bowl of Lucky Charms.  I found this bag of marshmallows and I bought them so I don't have to steal his any more!

Bacon cheese.  Enough said!

Friend Makin' Mondays: In the Kitchen

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section at: All The Weigh so we can all see your FMM questions and answers.  The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!

In the Kitchen

1. How often do you cook at home? I cook at home at least 5 days a week.  Definitely 4 days during the week (we go to Mike's parents on Thursday nights) and it depends on the weekend if we go out or have leftovers.

2. Do you eat more fresh produce, frozen or canned produce? Definitely fresh produce.  My fridge and counter are covered.  I don't buy any canned veggies except chick peas and black beans.  Sometimes we'll have some frozen vegetables.

3. What are a few unusual staples that can always be found in your kitchen?  Mangoes, coconut oil, pickles...not sure how unusual those things are!

4. Look in your fridge, then tell us about the healthiest thing in there. A ton of fresh fruit and veggies--strawberries, blueberries, bananas, watermelon, grapes, tomatoes, and cucumbers.

5. Now share the most unhealthy thing in it.  Oh boy, let's see--frosting, Pillsbury biscuits, pepperoni...lots of fun stuff :)

6. Do you eat leftovers? Not usually.  I'm not a huge fan of most leftover, however, Mike loves when we have leftovers so he can take them for lunch!

7. Do you use coupons at the supermarket?  Yes--all the time!

8. How often do you try new recipes? At least 2 or 3 times a week.  We don't eat the same thing too often :)

9. Do you make grocery lists? Do you stick to them? Yes, unless I'm just running to the store for a couple things, I always make a list.  I typically stick to it pretty well, but some deals I just can't pass up!

10. If you could buy one food item that would magically be calorie-free, which item would you choose? Brownies!!!

Cutting Back

Source: thehealthychange.tumblr.com via Jenny on Pinterest

I've been reading a bit lately about eating healthier. A few articles I've read make a good point--if you don't eat healthy, no amount of exercise is going to give you the body you desire.  I can bust butt at the gym for an hour a day 6 days a week, but if I go home and refuel with donuts and cake, I'm not going to see results.  That might seem obvious, but what about refueling with white bread and jam, or oatmeal with a heap of brown sugar?  Those also might seem healthy, but the more I read about processed foods, like white flour and sugar, the more I wonder about removing them from my diet.

Source: tumblr.com via Jennifer on Pinterest

I don't plan on going all or nothing.  I think moderation and balance (see this awesome post!) is truly the key here, but over the past few weeks, I've become more conscious about what I'm eating.  Yesterday was my first "sugar-free" day, and it went surprisingly well.  Instead of adding my usual brown sugar to my oatmeal, I sweetened it with stevia.  I avoided a piece of tempting fudge at youth group, and I was overall cautious about sugar.  I will not cut down on the amount of fruit that I eat, because I believe it is still healthy, even though it contains sugar (in its natural form though).  I did however (and plan to continue) avoid/limit any added sugars.  My goal is also to avoid white flour as much as possible also.  I know that I won't be able to avoid all processed foods 100% because there are times that I have no control over what is served to me (like a party tonight, and Sunday dinners).  Like I said, I believe in moderation.  If I deprive myself, I'll be more likely to binge on the unhealthy foods. 

Mike and I have a vacation coming up with his family in May, and so I have just over 3 weeks before we leave.  I'm curious to see how avoiding processed foods will impact my body in the next few weeks.  While I don't plan on overeating and making a pig of myself, I do not intend to deprive myself of anything on our cruise.  It's my first experience, and I'm not going to miss out!

Are there foods that you avoid?

Cleaning up

Over the past few weeks I've really been thinking about how I'm fueling my body.  I do a great job with exercising daily, and I do okay with eating, but I feel like I should be doing more.  If I spend so  much time working out (which I love!), I think I should also be more conscious of what I'm eating.  I know that because I'm a runner and currently doing the Bootcamp program (which is fairly intense!), I need to fuel my body with healthy food to encourage optimal performance and muscle growth and repair.

I feel like I lie to myself about what I really eat.  I tell myself I eat healthy, yet I hear of people who limit themself to one sweet snack/treat a week, while mine is more like one a day.  I don't feel like I have to measure up to those people, but I think I can do better!  Most of the time, I really do eat a healthy and balanced diet, but like most people I have weak spots.  I can go an entire day eating healthy foods, but if you were to put a piece of cake in front of me, I would eat it.  I'm not saying eating cake is bad, but I do think that some of the ingredients could have a negative effect on my body.  I know I eat way too much processed food (thought I eat very few of the ones listed below)! 

Source

I've looked into doing cleanses, or diets, but I don't want to be on a diet.  This needs to be a way of life, not a temporary thing.  I've looked into Paleo or Vegan diets, but I feel like those are so restricting.  I'm definitely not ready to cut out entire food groups, especially ones that do still have health benefits.

I'm going to begin focusing on eating whole foods. Mostly fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. I'd like to completely cut out processed foods, especially those that contain refined sugars and high-fructose corn syrups. I know there are arguments for and against all kinds of sugars, but I'm trying to find something that works for me. I think this is going to be a bit of a challenge because I do use sugar and white flour in a lot of my blog recipes, so I'm going to have to either control how much of that I eat, find substitutes, or not eat what I bake!

Source

I'm curious if you follow a Paleo, Vegan, or Whole foods diet... What kind of advice do you have for me?  What kind of challenges do you face?  And, most importantly, do you have any good recipes to share with me?

If you don't follow one of those diets, do you watch what you eat?  Does it matter to you?

Summer Breakfast Swap

Earlier this summer I participated in Uncle Sam's Summer Breakfast Swap.  I first heard about it on Kenlie's blog and the thought of a healthy and filling cereal intrigued me, so I joined her team.

The rules were simple, swap out your typical breakfast for Uncle Sam's cereal for a week and then share your thoughts.

I was really impressed with the cereal.  I ate Uncle Sam's Strawberry Cereal for breakfast for a week.  At first I was doubtful that a serving (just 3/4 of a cup) would be enough to keep me full until lunch.  I was pleasantly surprised to find that it did!  One serving of this cereal has 8 grams of fiber, 7 grams of protein, only 7 grams of sugar, and 240 calories.   I appreciated that the ingredient list was short and contained words I could actually read...all natural ingredients, not processed junk!  I also had my first experience with flax seed, and I really enjoyed it.

I would definitely recommend this cereal if you're looking to maintain a healthy lifestyle.  It's definitely a great start to the morning!

Disclosure: I received a coupon for free Attune food products, but all opinions are my own. 

A Taste of GR

Last week Mike and I went to a foodie's paradise!  A nearby town holds a 2 day event called Taste of Grand Rapids. It features local restaurants in sample-sized portions.  You buy tickets from a main booth and then each vendor has their products for certain tickets so you don't have to deal with money.  The food was fantastic and we were able to try food from new restaurants!

Not pictured:  We had a chicken empanada from Cafe San Juan...it was so good!  I didn't have time to take a picture before we ate it all! I definitely want to go there for dinner some time!

Our next stop was at the booth for Chez Olga.  I was really excited to see that they had a booth because I just got a gift certificate from groupon so we'll be eating there soon.  The food did not disappoint!  We had jerk chicken with red beans and rice.  It reminded me of our honeymoon!

Here's how the venue was set up...Booths around the edges, tables in the middle, and a big stage with live music in front.

For dessert we went to Grand Traverse Pie Company's booth.  I got a piece of strawberry rhubarb pie.  It was the best I've ever had!

Mike got his favorite--apple pie a la mode.  He said it was delicious!

My new favorite blogger, Janae, always shows amazing pictures of her frozen yogurt.  So for the past month I have been craving fro-yo, but I didn't know of anywhere around here that I could get it!  Then my brother-in-law told me about a place downtown Holland so after Taste of GR we headed there.  I got a combo red raspberry and vanilla topped with heath bars, brownie pieces and strawberries.  Yum!

Tulip Time

Holland, MI is well known for their annual Tulip Time Festival in May.  I grew up going to this festival and my high school marching band was even in the big parade one year.  Last week, Mike and I went downtown with some friends to participate in the festivities.

Every year hundreds of thousands of tulips bloom in various gorgeous colors!

You can't go downtown and not get junk food!  We had corn dogs, French fries, and raspberry lemonade for dinner.  Then we walked a bit and saw a sign for chocolate covered bacon.  It wasn't quite what we expected, but we all really liked it.  Then we walked a bit more and got an elephant ear with Bavarian cream! I think we all had a bit of a stomach ache by the end of the night!

Perfect setting for a picture!

When life gives you lemons...

...make lemonade!  Right?

I found out last week that one of my favorite summer restaurants won't be open this summer.  It's become a tradition that Mike and I visit his mom on the beach every summer and we always go to Pronto Pups for a Pronto Pup and fried dill pickles.  Mike's mom posted on Facebook about the situation, and so many people commented how disappointed they were that they couldn't get Pronto Pups or pickles there anymore.

Mike and I were among the disappointed.  We moped around for a few days (lol) and then I got busy.  I figured that if we couldn't buy our fried dill pickles, I'd just have to make them!  I came up with a really good recipe, we were both quite pleased with it!

You can click on the picture to get the recipe!

Next recipe to remake...Pronto Pups!

New Freezer

Mike and I decided it was time to invest in a chest freezer.  We have a side by side fridge/freezer in our kitchen and it gets full so quickly that it's hard to buy things because I don't have room (such as we can't even fit a frozen pizza in the freezer!)  We'd looked at different stores and one day I came across a great deal.  I called Mike and he said to go for it.  Free shipping and everything!  So 2 days later our new freezer was dropped off, the delivery guys even set it up for us in the basement.  So now it's nice because I have a place to put the bigger items that took up so much room in our other freezer, like bagged chicken, bread, and pizzas!  Plus, I'm really excited to freeze blueberries and strawberries when it's picking season for them.  I'm on a huge smoothie kick right now so I'm going through frozen fruit like crazy!

But I've run into a problem with our freezer, and I'm sure many people face the same issue.  It's about 3 feet deep, 1.5 feet wide, and probably 4 feet long.  It came with 2 wire racks that sit on top and it has a small built-in shelf on one side.  My problem is this:  how do I arrange the food so that I can see everything in my freezer and the items toward the bottom don't stay on the bottom and go bad?  Have you had that predicament?  Have you solved it?  I'd love to hear any advice you might have for me!!!

Going to class literally "pays" off... :)

"Put more trust in nobility of character than in an oath.” –Solon

“You may be deceived if you trust too much, but you will live in torment if you don't trust enough.” –Frank Crane

Remember those two quotes...they were worth $20 to me!!!
Each week in my Hospitality Managment class, we have to write a paper for the "word of the week". This week's word was Trust. We have to define it, find 2-3 quotes about it, and write a personal anecdote related to our work about the word. Yesterday, our paper was due. I almost skipped the class, because we never do anything on Monday's but I've only skipped one class before (a whole 'nother story!), and didn't really want to make it 2. So off I went. Then Mr. Hogan told us he was going to bring the papers home and look over them and whoever had the best quote, he would bring in a prize for that person. So at the end of class today, he read the quotes from his favorite 2 papers (he couldn't choose a top one, so he chose between 2) and the quotes sounded familiar! Then he said it was mine! My prize was $20 worth of gift certificates to Carino's Italian Grill!! Now I just have to find the time to go...