Tropical Fruit Juice #Recipe #MillionSteps #Juicing

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
January 4, 2013 by 1 Comment

Here’s another super easy recipe we made using our Cuisinart Juice Extractor from Best Buy. As you can see above it makes about a half pitcher full (we were making drinks for 4 of us). Because I was making roughly four cups I decided to just keep juicing in the small container and then dump it into the pitcher and mix it. For this tropical fruit juice we used:

1 whole pineapple
1 mango
1 apple
2 oranges
2 carrots

Combining the above drink provides the following nutrients:

Vitamins: A, B1, B2, B6, B-complex, C, E, K, biotin, folic acid, pantothenic acid, niacin, thiamin, riboflavin

Minerals:  choline, potassium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, silicon, sodium, sulfur, calcium, flourine, zinc, selenium

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,

Quick Fruit Juice Recipe Using a Juice Extractor #MillionSteps

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
January 3, 2013 by 2 Comments

Did you get a juice extractor for Christmas? Or maybe just as a New Years Resolution to eat healthier? Last summer my husband and I started juicing but then we moved out of state and just never unpacked our juicer. We recently received the Cuisinart Juice Extractor from Best Buy so decided to start juicing again! Not only is it extremely healthy for us but it’s extra healthy for our kids too! I will be sharing my recipes with you as I create them since I know many people are interested in juicing! Vegetable juices are extremely healthy but finding the right mix of veggies can be tough. For today we just did a simple fruit juice. Today for 1 glass of juice at lunch I put in my juicer:

2 Gala apples
2 kiwifruit
2 carrots

These 3 fruits provided the following vitamins & minerals:

Vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, C, E, K, biotin, folic acid, pantothenic acid
Minerals: potassium, calcium, phosphorus, carotene, choline, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phsophorous, silicon, sodium, sulfur 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , ,

Pre-Made Dry Ingredients Pancake Recipe

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
November 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Want to save some money by making pancakes from scratch but don’t have time? Have a family member with food allergies? We like to pre-mix our dry pancake batter so that it’s easier to grab during the week for breakfast and then throw it into the freezer for storage! Plus we make triple batches so that we have some to freeze!

 Before adding your ingredients write the rest of the recipe on the bag as you see above so you will know what else to add to each bag when you pull it out for breakfast. Write: Mix 3 eggs, 3 cups milk and 6 Tbsp. oil, then mix it with the dry ingredients bag.

Then I pour ALL of my dry ingredients directly into a quart sized bag.  I have added into each bag:

3 cups all purpose flour
3 Tbsp. sugar
3 tsp. baking powder
3/4 tsp. baking soda
3/4 tsp. salt

That’s it! Throw it in the freezer until you need a triple batch of pancakes!! When you’re ready for breakfast mix the 3 items listed on the front of your bag, dump your dry bag ingredients into the bowl, then make your pancakes! It’s that easy!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With:

Family Fun at the Iowa State Fair #RedCupShowdown

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
August 16, 2012 by 2 Comments

 

As you know we are OFFICIALLY Iowans! (is that how you say it?!) And when I heard the Iowa State Fair was coming this week I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to attend! Not to mention that we wanted one more fun fling before school starts next week! The kids have been such troopers traveling around the country with us this summer on our road trip and then for our move they definitely deserved a fun reward. Aside from all of the awesome nostalgic carnival rides and food I was also looking forward to checking out Seattle’s Best #RedCupShowdown with Food Network celebrity Jeff Mauro (host of Sandwich King).

DSC_0039

At the Seattle’s Best booth there was a LOT going on! How awesome is this huge red coffee cup? They even had fun carnival props to use for the photo opp! PLUS they emailed me the photo in an “I Got Mugged at the Iowa State Fair” virtual frame! Want to hear some HILARIOUS!? SH! Don’t tell – but my son grabbed his cotton candy prop to take his photo, and he thought it was REAL and took a bite….he quickly realized that it did NOT taste like cotton candy!

DSC_0040

From where we entered the Iowa State Fair I was easily able to spot the Seattle’s Best bus from across the fairgrounds so we decided to stop there first before the kids went on all of the rides! Besides – we heard there was some sort of chocolate moose that I thought would be cool to see.

DSC_0042

Everyone at the Seattle’s Best bus was SUPER friendly! Maybe it was all that delicious coffee that was being passed around? They had several different flavors including state fair – inspired flavors like Elephant Ear latte (my fav!) and Cotton Candy Mocha. Look how INCREDIBLY tasty their drinks looked – PLUS they were FREE!

DSC_0045

And if that doesn’t look amazing this one sure does!

DSC_0047

OH it’s making me want to go back just for these delicious treats!

DSC_0056

And if handing out FREE coffee wasn’t enough there was another super friendly person handing out FREE bags of coffee to take home! They had this bus VERY well planned out! In addition to the cool photo opp spot, the FREE coffee and FREE coffee bags there was also a prize wheel section where I won……..

DSC_0091

a $5 Subway gift card and MORE coffee! :) How fun! Guess what we ate for dinner on the way home that night?

After visiting the Seattle’s Best coffee bus we took the kids over to the other side of the fair (it was HUGE) for a few hours of rides. We bought the kids the unlimited wrist bands since it was the best deal and let them ride till their hearts content. There was SO much to see at the fair! Petting zoos,  places for the kids to plant seeds and take them home, microscopes, bee keepers, baby livestock area, show arenas, gardening contests, recipe contests, SO many things we didn’t even make it to. I would love for you to check out the photo album I made of our day at the fair because I couldn’t possibly squeeze all 79 pictures into this post! We had an AWESOME day!

DSC_0238

To finish out our day we headed over to the #RedCupShowdown hosted by Jeff Mauro – Food Network celebrity and host of Sandwich King!  This was actually REALLY cool – I’m SO glad that I went! Three contestants at a time were up at the front table (you can see more of the photos from the showdown in my photo album!) and they had 5 minutes to come up with their own coffee creation. It was actually very interesting as each contestant had a very special story behind the flavor they were creating. One lady was creating a Red Velvet Sunrise coffee because she saw a red sunrise after her husband had a stroke and thought it was beautiful. One lady lived in Syria for a while so she added special spices to remind her of being over there. One busy mom (shown below who also won 3rd place) missed the pre-kid days where you had time to sit down and have a big breakfast so she made a blueberry pancake & bacon coffee.

DSC_0265

The lady who won made a coffee called “How to Win a Guy in One Sip” which I’m pretty sure had chunks of bacon in it! She won $500 AND a trip for 2 to New York! Wow!! And OH….OH you KNOW I had to post a picture of the chocolate moose!!!

DSC_0025

Check out the SIZE of that thing! It smelled SO heavenly! I seriously wanted to run up to it and just take a huge bite! :)

DSC_0152

Another really cool thing at the Iowa State Fair was an entire area set up with pregnant animals – if you were lucky enough (or unlucky haha) you could actually watch the animals giving birth. We were able to pet the goats that were just an hour old, see tons of piglets, ducks, chicks, and other livestock!

DSC_0166

And there was even a pumpkin growing contest! Check out this PRIZE winner which was 933 pounds!! WOW!

DSC_0200

And it wouldn’t be a day at the fair without going on the ferris wheel would it?

You can see more photos from other state fairs that Seattle’s Best has toured at on their Facebook page!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias Social Fabric Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and Seattle’s Best Coffee. #Cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Filed Under: Travel Tagged With: , , , , , ,

A Little Bit of Iowa & We’re Headed to the Iowa State Fair #RedCupShowdown

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
August 12, 2012 by Leave a Comment

 

Isn’t this beautiful? Yesterday we went down to explore our new favorite nature spot in Iowa – Lake Red Rock. The past few days we’ve spent the time to explore new places, thrift stores, bakeries, and all sorts of neat things in our area! I know once school starts at the end of this week we will be so busy that exploring will certainly be at a minimum!! On Wednesday, the day before school starts for the teachers, we are headed off to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines which is about an hour away. My kids can hardly wait!! This will be our first big fun event since we moved up here last week! I can’t wait to see what Iowa has to offer!

While we’re there we are going to check out The Red Cup Showdown hosted by Jeff Mauro and Seattle’s Best Coffee! I’ve been checking out the previous fair photos on the Seattle’s Best Coffee Facebook page and it looks like a blast! Although my kids are not allowed to drink coffee (nor do they like it!) they might perk up at new carnival flavors like “Elephant Ear Lattes” and “Cotton Candy Mocha”! Mmm – they certainly sound interesting – I can’t wait to try them! Not to mention meeting Jeff Mauro will be a lot of fun!! I know I sure could use some coffee with all of this unpacking that I’ve been up to the last week!

Another one of my favorite parts of the fair believe it or not is the animals! I love the agricultural lessons my kids learn and the hands on opportunities to touch cows, pigs, chickens, bunnies, and more! Here’s a picture of the 2 ponies in the yard behind us – my kids will spend hours just sitting out there feeding the ponies anything they can get their hands on!

Aren’t they cute? I know some of our new friends here in Iowa will be going to the fair the same day we are – are any of my Iowa readers going to the State Fair this week?

 Keep up with Seattle’s Best and the Red Cup Showdown on Twitter!

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Seattle’s Best Coffee #CBias #SocialFabric

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: , , , ,

Slow Cook Your Turkey in the Crock Pot to Save Time

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
June 3, 2012 by Leave a Comment

MMMMM! Every year at Thanksgiving we buy several smallish turkeys to use throughout the year as the deals are the best on turkeys then. However we have come to realize that we tend not to use them just because I don’t always have the time to watch them in the oven, so I decided to try putting it in my crock pot and slow cook it!

To save time cleaning afterwards I also used crock pot liners which I am in love with!! EASY clean up & less mess!

For this recipe you’ll need:

7 quart crock pot

4 lbs. (or less) turkey

2 cans Wolfgang Puck Roasted Red Pepper with Tomato Soup

fresh basil, cilantro, thyme

Directions:

If you’re making your turkey for lunch you’ll be prepping this in your crock pot the night before. If you are planning on using your turkey for dinner you will need to place it in the crock pot very late at night (midnight or later) or very early the next morning (about 4-5 am). You can also pre-prep your crock pot by putting it in the fridge overnight all completed so that all you need to do is place it in your crock pot in the morning.

After making sure that your thawed turkey is properly gutted and there are no strings in place place it inside your crock pot.

Pour both cans of soup on top of the turkey making sure that you cover the entire top surface of the turkey.

Finally add your fresh herbs on to the top of your turkey making sure that you place some of them into the surrounding soup. I used approximately 4 stems of cilantro, a Tablespoon of thyme and about 15 basil leaves – all pinched off into tiny pieces.

Place your slow cooker on low, replace lid, and let your crock pot do all the work! Don’t bother bringing out your carving knife! Your turkey will be SO moist & delicious just grab a pair of tongs and serve!

TIP – If you don’t have access to fresh herbs you can use dried ones. I have a spice garden growing in the wood pallet we set up in the backyard which is where I picked my herbs. Herbs are for the most part easy to grow and a delicious addition to your meals!

Filed Under: Recipes Tagged With: ,

Make Your Own Homemade Tortilla Chips

This post may contain affiliate links, view my disclosure policy.
January 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

If you have the time a great way to save money on a nice splurge is to make your own homemade tortilla chips! My husband loooooves chips to munch on, but we hardly ever buy them because our budget does not allow for that-not to mention that most of them are just plain not healthy! So he decided the other day that he wanted to make his own tortilla chips.

 

A bag of tortilla chips cost about $2-4 depending on what brand you buy. If you make your own for $2.50 you can make over 6 bags or MORE for that price! AND they are a lot healthier & tastier too!

 

He went to the store & bought a bag of corn flour. It was $2.48 for the bag.

 

He just followed the directions on the bag but he mixed the flour with water, and the tiniest bit of salt.

 

For a while we were hand pressing out the dough to make the chips, but soon realized how long that took! So we went on Amazon and bought a tortilla press for $14 to make things go quicker! It’s very simple to use. Just put a very small ball of dough on the press……….

 

And close it up! We put some wax paper on one side of the press so that the dough didn’t stick so much!
Here’s what it looked like after we pressed the dough with the tortilla press.

 

It worked best for us to make a little assembly line. I pressed the tortillas & placed them in a plate like you see below.

 

My hubby threw them in the frying pan (no oil) and let them cook on high for just a minute or so.

 

Then he put all the semi-cooked dough discs on a separate plate.

 

When he got a plate full he would dump them in his deep fryer. We use canola oil or olive oil due to my son’s allergies.
 
And after about 3 minutes we would check them & pull them out. I was a little concerned at first because look at all that oil-ick!
 
 But after we patted the chips with a napkin & placed them on a plate- voila- the oil was gone! (well, mostly!) Seriously though, the chips were absolutely delicious.  They were much better than bagged chips for sure! WOW! I wasn’t sure how they would do if we left them out overnight so we experimented. Left overnight on a plate like this with no cover was actually not bad-just the tiniest slight bit of staleness, just barely. We also put some in a ziploc bag overnight and those were absolutely delicious- they tasted like we had just made them!
  
As you can see we just made round chips, they were quicker to make. If you want to make the triangle chips it is very easy- after pressing your dough down you just take a pizza cutter & slice up a triangle!
Making your own tortilla chips does take some time, but it is definetely worth it when you taste it! If you’ve got a family that has some munchy problems and wants a lot of chips- this is a great idea to try out. It’s very simple. We made about double the chips shown in this picture with 1 cup of flour- and our bag of flour has barely been touched! We have a LOT more flour to make chips with….we’ll be making our tortilla chips for my boys birthday party in a few months which will save us a good amount of money on snacks!

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: ,