Foodbuzz Tastemaker: Chicken Viola

I love when I get an opportunity for a Tastemaker of something that I actually use quite often. I have been a fan of the Viola! By Birds Eye ever since they came out in the early 2000's. This is one product that you will always see in my freezer. Even the chef will actually eat these!

Viola! can be found in the freezer section of your grocery store and comes together in a snap.

Once you open the package, you simply place the frozen product, water, and the sauce packet into a saute pan and let it get to work. The meal will be ready in 10 to 15 minutes (and will take some stirring as well!).

This time Viola! has gotten even better because they have come out with a Family Size! The regular size bag is enough to feed two people (or maybe one hungry person).   The Family size can feed 3 to 4 people.

Now for an offer for you! Just leave a comment if you would like some coupons for Viola! by Birds Eye. The coupons are for buy one get one free in both the regular size and the family size.

Disclosure: This post is a part of Foodbuzz Tastemakers. I was given a coupon for a free product as well as coupons to pass out to friends and family.

Yoplait- Save Lids to Save Lives!

It's time for the Pink Yoplait Lids Again!!!! I love supporting causes that help everyone and really hope that you can help Yoplait by tracking and sending in your pink lids!

We probably all know someone who was diagnosed with breast cancer and as a female, I want to do everything I can to help prevent my friends and family if they were ever diagnosed with this disease.

This information is from My Blog Spark and Yoplait:

One in eight women in the U.S. will be diagnosed with breast cancer within her lifetime - our friends, wives, mothers, sisters, neighbors - and this year, the fight against breast cancer starts right next door.

Through Save Lids to Save Lives, Yoplait will donate ten cents to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® for each pink lid redeemed both online at Yoplait.com and via mail by December 31, 2011, up to $2 million. Plus, Yoplait is tracking pink lids redeemed by zip code to make sure funds generated from your lid collection go back to local breast cancer programs in your community. Here´s how you can support your local community´s fight: Look for special pink lids on pink Yoplait yogurt cups, in grocery stores in September and October Save your pink lids and redeem them via mail, or - for the first time - redeem them online at Yoplait.com. Make sure you enter your zip code when redeeming lids online! In addition, you  can visit http://bit.ly/slslcoupon to download a coupon* for $0.30 off any (1) variety Yoplait Yogurt cup (Includes Original, Light, Thick & Creamy, OR Whips!) today! "Disclosure: The Yoplait prize pack, information and coupon have been provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark."   Now for the fun part!!! The Giveaway is for a prize pack just like I received! Use it to collect your pink tops! For the giveaway, please leave your email address and let me know if you plan on donating any pink lids!

Apology

I have three posts that all have to do with items or products that I have received over the last few weeks. I'm sorry that I will be blasting you with these over the next few days but it's stuff I have to do! Two of the three will have giveaway and/or offers involved so please stay tuned for those!

Happy Wednesday Y'all!

Secret Recipe Club-- Banana Nutella Swirl Bread

Woooo!! Time for another round of Secret Recipe Club! This month I had Cindy, from Everyday Insanity.

Cindy loves to bake as much as I do and I loved looking through her blog. She has lots of kids and grandkids and while I can't relate to the grandkids, I can definitely relate to the kids. She also have a huge love of Brownies!

Cindy has been blogging since 2009 and is also a member of Tuesdays with Dorie. She has a great mix of family favorites and treats and sweets and was definitely a blog I look forward going back to again and again to see what she is making!

I kept going back and forth on what I wanted to make. At first, I thought about these Nutty Granola Clusters.However, I also had some over ripe bananas that needed to be used as well so this Banana Nutella Bread won!

Be sure to check out all the other great recipes for this week's Secret Recipe Club!


Banana Nutella Swirl Bread
recipe adapted from this recipe on Everyday Insanity

1 cup mashed very ripe banana (about 3 small)
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup low fat sour cream
1/4 cup butter, melted
2 eggs

2 cups all-purpose flour

1 t. baking powder

1/2 t. baking soda

1/4 t. salt

1/2 cup Nutella

Combine first 5 ingredients in a large bowl; beat at medium speed of an electric mixer until well blended. Combine flour and next 3 ingredients; Add flour mixture to banana mixture, stirring just until moistened.

Spoon 1/2 of the banana bread batter into a loaf pan coated with baking spray. Add 1/4 cup Nutella in dollops. Swirl a bit then top again with remaining batter. Add another 1/4 cup Nutella in dollops on top. Swirl again.

Bake at 350º for about one hour or until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.
Cool 10 minutes in pan on a wire rack; remove from pan, and cool completely on a wire rack.

What's Baking? August-- Tomato Pie

 

 The theme for August's What's Baking was Celebrate Summer. I can't think of a better way to celebrate summer than with all the produce that summer brings us. I just discovered Tomato Pie a few years ago and now it is definitely one of my favorite Summer dishes. There is nothing like the taste that the tomatoes, cheese, and onions all warm and ready to eat! This recipe is also good for those not so good looking tomatoes because they aren't really seen in the pie!

The secret to a good Tomato Pie is getting all of the tomato seeds and liquid out before baking. This will prevent you in having a soggy pie. I bet this pie would even be good with green tomatoes!

 

 Tomato Pie

recipe adapted from this recipe at Simply Recipes

Ingredients

• 1 9-inch pie shell, baked
• 1/2 yellow or red onion, chopped
• 3-4 tomatoes, cut in half horizontally, squeezed to remove excess juice, roughly chopped, to yield approximately 3 cups chopped tomatoes
• 1/4 cup sliced basil
• 2 cups grated cheese
• 3/4 cup mayonnaise
• 1 teaspoon Hot Sauce
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1 Preheat oven to 350°F.
2 Squeeze as much moisture as you can out of the chopped tomatoes. I took the horizontally chopped tomatoes and squeezed them over the sink to get all of the seeds and juice out.
3 Sprinkle the bottom of the baked pie shell with chopped onion. Spread the chopped tomatoes over the onions. Sprinkle the basil over the tomatoes.
4 In a bowl, mix together the grated cheese, mayonnaise, hot sauce, a sprinkling of salt and freshly ground black pepper. The cheese mixture will be thick. Spread the cheese mixture over the tomatoes.
5. Place in preheated oven and bake until browned and bubbly, about 30 to 45 minutes.

Wordless Wednesday

Fried Green Tomatoes

Words cannot express how much I love fried green tomatoes. 

If a restaurant has these little babies on their menu, you can 100% guarantee that I will order them. I almost think sometimes that I have a love affair with anything that is green and fried because I love fried pickles, okra,etc. 

(I think you get the picture.)

I also love when I accomplish making something for myself when my husband isn't home because I am really spoiled in the fact that I can say anything that I want and if he has time to cook, he will cook said item for me. I also do not remember seeing green tomatoes in the store as much as I have this year and thus the reason why I needed fried green tomatoes. I didn't deep fry these but just pan fried them and somehow? this makes them lighter. Hey, whatever works!

Fried Green Tomatoes

Ingredients:

1/2 cup  buttermilk
1 egg
10 drops hot sauce

1 cup cornmeal
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon canola oil
3 large green tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 1 1/2 pounds)

Instructions:

1.Combine buttermilk, egg , and hot sauce in a medium bowl.

2.Mix cornmeal and salt in a pie plate.

3.Dip the tomato slices into the buttermilk mixture, then into the cornmeal, gently turning to coat.
4.Heat 1 1/2 teaspoons oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat.

5.Add half the tomato slices in a single layer and cook until browned on one side.Flip tomatoes over and cook next side until browned.
6. Take tomatoes from oil and place on paper towel lined plate.

7.Wipe the skillet clean and repeat with the remaining oil, and tomato slices.
Serve hot.

recipe adapted from this recipe  on  The Deen Brothers website

Sunday Sampler

So, I love trying new things and I've been playing with the idea of putting some of the things that I  try here on the blog. Hopefully on Sundays you will now be greeted with a Sunday Sampler post of something new that I've tried and what the results were.

This week's Sunday Sampler is actually a sample I received from Foodbuzz. I'm a lucky Foodbuzz Tastemaker and Birds Eye has been giving us some great samples. I was super surprised to see that this was Chef's Favorites (especially being that my husband is a chef and it is really hard to beat his food!). The Birds Eye Chef's Favorites do not come out until September but definitely look out for them!

I received four bags: Creamed Spinach, Roasted Red potatoes and green beans, and then 2 risotto packages. I love having frozen vegetables on hand because then it is something relatively healthy that I can get cooked quickly after work. We tried one of the risottos first and were pleasantly surprised. It's definitely not a fresh risotto but not too bad for frozen.

Disclosure: This post is a part of Foodbuzz Tastemaker program with Birds Eye Chef's Favorites. I received 4 bags of Birds Eye Chef's Favorites and all opinions are my own.

My Peanut Butter Pie (for Mikey)

Last week, while on Twitter, I kept seeing all these Tweets about Jennifer Perillo and the sudden death of her husband. I honestly don't know what I would do if I lost my husband. Every tweet I saw just made me be more and more thankful of what I had.

Jennifer made one simple request last week and that was to make a peanut butter pie. And to make it in honor of the people that are with you now and celebrate the fact that you still have them.

I've made peanut butter pie tons of times. I always use Pioneer Woman's recipe. Except this time I used Peanut Butter and Co Dark Chocolate Dreams PB because I had some.

So here is my Peanut Butter pie and also a feeling that I won't be putting off desserts my husband or children wants.

Foodbuzz Tastemakers: Kodak Gallery

I don't know about you but I really hate to see summers come to an end. Cameron went back to school

last week and Cole's birthday was this past weekend and Labor Day is just around the corner. 

I love spending extra time with my boys and just enjoying lots of fun things with them.

 I love being a part of Foodbuzz Tastemakers because this summer I can put 

of our memories into Photo Book! 

We did some awesome things this summer like Our Trip to Nashville, making Jolly Rancher

lollipops, and even some late night trips to Target! 

You can also join in on the savings by visiting 
www.kodakgallery.com/creativity for your own photobook at 40% off!

Disclosure: This post is a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker program through Kodak Gallery. 

I received a photo book for this program. 

Happy Birthday Cole!

Happy Birthday Coley!

You turn 2 today and yes, you even say 2! 

You amaze your daddy and I every day with what you learn and observe and we are so proud of you.  You are even super cute when you say nnooooo. You also do more sign language than you talk sometimes and sometimes even doing 3 signs at once to get what you want! You adore Cameron and I think he likes you a little bit too. Anything that big brother does you want to do too whether it be cuddled up on the coach or eating your own bowl of cereal. You love to read and BaBa (elmo) is your favorite person ever. You have the most devilish little laugh and I love how all of teeth show when you giggle. You also love to tickle mama! Thank you for not being a super picky eater (yet) as we know it might happen one day.

You don't know what birthdays are yet but that's ok. We can't wait to celebrate you being 2!

Science Experiment-- Jolly Rancher Lollipops

After seeing the Jolly Rancher Lollipops on Pinterest, I knew it was something I wanted to try with Cameron.

However, I wanted to try a different way of doing it. Instead of heating the house up with an oven, one Saturday we decided to take on a science experiment.

We unwrapped the jolly ranchers and let them sit in the 100 degree heat on the driveway just to see what would happen. Well, Cameron loved making his own lollipops. However, they didn't melt all of the way in the sun so we had to finish them in the oven. But it was fun to see if we could do it outside!

Add caption

Sam's Club Gift Card giveaway

Cameron started school yesterday and like many schools, his is also facing a budget short fall. One way that we contribute to his school is through Box Tops For Education. 

For the month of August, Sam's Club will have 6 box tops on multiple items that a family can use not only to get ready for school but can also help out the school!

So Here's the fun part: The Giveaway!

My Blog Spark and General Mills will give one of my readers a $25 gift card to Sam's! 

**Just let me know if you have a child in school and if their school collects Box Tops 4 Education!**

This giveaway will end on Saturday, August 13th, 2011 and the winner will be contacted by email so be sure to leave an email address so that I can contact you.

"Disclosure: The Sam´s Club gift card, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark."

Giveaway Winner!

The Winner of the Seventh Generation giveaway is Michelle! I know she can find a great use for these because she has a little one on the way! She has been emailed!

Coconut Ice Cream

 

I am having a lot of fun this summer with the ice cream maker. I normally make ice cream at least twice a week and the chef is always excited to find out what flavor it is because I don't think I've made the same flavor twice yet. 

Unfortunately, I haven't made any ice cream that is dairy free yet but I need to try. We decided in January to keep Cole on a dairy free diet because keeping him off of dairy has helped him to stay well. The poor thing has had horrible luck with ear infections and after the second set of tubes and his adenoids were removed, he was still getting infections. While not everyone may agree with our decision, it has worked for our child and we were tired of seeing him suffer.

This ice cream was a light, refreshing treat. It came together really easily and used one of my favorite ingredients, cream of coconut. I think I will probably reduce the amount of coconut flakes in the ice cream or replace them with toasted coconut. We didn't like the texture at first but after freezing over night did help the texture of the ice cream.

Coconut Ice Cream

Ingredients:

1 cup milk (I used whole milk because I had some on hand but I think skim would work too!)
1 14oz can cream of coconut (Coco Lopez Brand, this can be found in the drink mixes section of the grocery store)
1 1/2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups sweetened flaked coconut (optional)

Directions:

1.Combine the milk and cream of coconut in the container of a food processor or blender, and mix until well blended.
2.Stir in cream and flaked coconut (optional)
3. Refrigerate mixture for approximately one hour. (I have found that my ice cream maker works better when the mixture is cold. Sometimes I have even let the mixtures sit overnight.)
4.Pour into the container of an ice cream maker, and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

recipe adapted from Erin's Food Files, who adapted from All Recipes

Our Trip to Nashville

My grandparents (and aunt and uncle and cousins and many more family members on both sides of the family) live in Nashville and we decided to take the boys up there for a weekend. Cameron is absolutely enthralled with Greek Mythology and Nashville has an awesome park that has a life size replica of the Parthenon and Athena. It was fun to take the boys here and there had been some renovations to it since I had been as well. In 2002, they added the gold to her but I think I preferred her without the gold. We also made a trip to Las Paletas, which is an awesome little popsicle shop that has been featured multiple times on Food Network and even on an episode of Throwdown with Bobby Flay. At Las Paletas, we tried the Peanut Butter, Cantaloupe, and the Chocolate Almond Flavors.

  (Cameron is in the Middle in the blue!)

Pina Colada Cupcakes

While I love to bake, baking when it is 100 degrees outside is just not my idea of fun. However, sometimes life just calls for a cupcake. I was looking through Pinterest (my latest addiction) when I saw these Pina Colada cupcakes. I'm really trying to actually make some things that I see on here versus just looking and starting at them.

I loved how easy these are and for my work friends they only have 3 Weight Watchers points! I decided not to make an icing but to just top the cupakes with Low fat whipped topping (cool whip) and to toast the coconut. I don't know how I have gone through life without toasted coconut but it is seriously one of my new favorite things.

Pina Colada Cupcakes

recipe adapted from this recipe on Skinny Taste

• 1 box yellow cake mix (your choice of brand, I used Pillsbury)
• 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple, undrained
• 1 container of whipped topping
• coconut or toasted coconut for topping, optional

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Line muffin tins with cupcake liners if desired.
3. Mix together the cake mix and pineapple with the juice. The mixture will be thick.
4. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until toothpick comes out clean.
5. Let cupcakes cool before topping with whipped topping.
6. Top with coconut if desired.

This is linked to Tasty Tuesday at Beauty and Bedlam and Cupcake Tuesday at Hoosier Homemade

Menu Plan Monday

We were talking about dinners this week over Sunday breakfast so I figured I might as well get this up while it is still fresh on my brain!

While I do make this list every week, I do always normally keep food that is “ready to be made” as soon as get home like quesadillas or tacos or grilled cheese just in case we don’t feel like cooking when we get home. I know that everyone has “one of those days” and sometimes I just don’t want to cook! That’s why some meals I put on the plan might get pushed back or up a few days or even until the next week.

This menu plan is also linked up to Org Junkie where you can find many other meal plans.



Monday—Slow Cooker BBQ Chicken and Betty Crocker quick sides (Cameron saw these in the grocery store and wanted to try them)

Tuesday—Chef is off and we are making breakfast for dinner (or rather he is!)—He is making biscuits and gravy

Wednesday—out to eat—Taking Cameron back to his dad

Thursday—leftovers

Friday—Cannellini Tuna Salad