June 21st, 2012
I have a lovely review today that I have been meaning to do for a while now. Do you know that making anything in a blender with a baby is hard? I try to prepare her but the Vitamix sound startles her all the time.
Well, finally I was able to make several recipes with this lovely product. I actually had only been introduced to powdered acai and had been enjoying it in smoothies and in my oatmeal but this product is different.
Do you know where açaí comes from? Amafruits found Brazilian Açaí that are hand-picked and wild-grown. The only way to transport this outside the Amazon is in frozen puree or pulp. This is 100%pure, natural and organic.
The company was generous to send me their 24-pack of açaí frozen packs, which are 6 bags containing 4 packs. Three of the bags were Açaí Energy Mix with Gurana which have four 100 grams individual serving packets.
There are no preservatives or artificial sweeteners and this packet only has a hint of Guaraná syrup. Guaraná is a berry that grows in the Amazon and is considered a natural source of caffeine. Anyone out there need a natural boost? 🙂
The other 3 bags contain pure and unsweetened açaí which I preferred the best. Why is açaí considered good for you? Well, it is considered a superfruit and is very nutritious.
One of the nutritional points I learned was the following: (all info from the website)
“Acai contains several different properties that share the ability to help lower high cholesterol levels:
- Açaí contains the very same balance of Omega-6 and Omega-9 essentially fatty acids as olive oil. Both of these help to lower LDL (harmful cholesterol) while maintaining HDL (beneficial cholesterol) levels.
- Açaí is a great source of phytosterols, plant compounds that provide numerous health benefits to the body such as reducing blood cholesterol along with the promotion of healthy cardiovascular and digestive systems.
- Açaí is also a great source of dietary fiber, which balances unhealthy cholesterol levels and promotes digestive tract health.”
Açai is packed with energy and is one of the world’s superfruits in terms of its nutritional properties. Açaí provides:
- a healthy combination of antioxidants (vitamins A, B1, B2, B3, C and E),
- Omega essential fatty acids (Omega-3, Omega-6 and Omega-9),
- a good source of dietary fibers,
- essential amino acids (19 different amino acids),
- valuable electrolytes,
- plant sterols (B-sitosterol, campesterol and sigmasterol), and
- a rich botanical source of minerals (iron, magnesium, potassium, phosphorus, manganese, copper, zinc and calcium).
Here are a few recipes I made with this puree:
- 1 frozen banana
- 1 packet of frozen pure and unsweetened acai
- 1 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1/2 cup ice
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 Tablespoon flax seed meal
- 1 cup coconut water
- 1 packet frozen Acai Energy Mix with Guarana
- 1/2 cup coconut milk
- 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1 cup oats, semi milled
- 1 packet, thawed Acai pure and unsweetened
- 1 Tablespoon chia seeds
- 2 Tablespoons maple syrup
- 1 cup coconut milk
- sliced almonds (topping)
Does this look good at all?
If you want to buy your own, check the Amafruits online shop. They accept all major credit cards and PayPal too!
GIVEAWAY TIME!!
The company has generously donated a pack of 24 frozen acai purees to ONE winner. The winner would get 12 of each flavor to enjoy.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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June 19th, 2012
Yes, this does not have fish eggs and it is all vegan. This past weekend we were invited to a goodbye picnic and everyone was to bring a dish. I was very tempted to bring a dessert and a salad but with limited time I decided to just focus on a salad.
What kind of salad should I make? I always tend to default to a lovely large green salad and forget that there are lots of options when it comes to salads. What would be a typical salad for a party down in Texas? Yes, I live in Michigan and I asked my self that because potlucks are different everywhere you go.
Bean salads. Yes, bean salads are pretty popular despite the fact that my husband would rather eat a napkin before eating a bean salad, but at least I knew I was not just making this for him but for a large group. I knew some of the group came from Texas so at least I knew the salad would be appreciated.
This salad is pretty quick to prepare. I soaked my black-eyed peas the night before and then cooked them for an hour and took the pot off the heat and covered them for another hour. I drained and rinsed the beans and let them cool.
I then added the rest of the ingredients and let the salad sit in the fridge for a few hours before the party so the flavors would come together. I served it with Tostito scoop chips but it can be eaten as it or even be eaten with lettuce leaves. Enjoy! Perfect for a grilling party.
Texas Caviar Salad
by Noelle Kelly
Prep Time: 20 minutes
Keywords: boil lunch appetizer salad soy-free vegan vegan recipes on recipage vegetarian beans American summer
Ingredients (8-10)
- 4-6 cups cooked black-eyed peas or 4 cans black-eyed peas
- 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 2 cups corn kernels, canned
- 3/4 cup pickled jalapeno peppers, chopped
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
- 3/4 cup red onion, diced
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 cup Italian dressing, use Annie’s Tuscany Italian dressing
- season with pepper and salt
- Tortilla chips (optional)
Instructions
Add all ingredients to a large bowl and mix well. Refrigerate before serving.
Chips are optional.
Option is to cook the black-eyed peas. I soak the night before and cook the next day for an hour. Remove the pot from stove and cover for an hour. Drain, rinse and let beans cool. Then proceed with recipe.
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June 14th, 2012
Can you tell we have been enjoying tofu lately? It is finally summer and all I want to do is grill. I don;t want to grill indoors but outdoors. Do we have a grill?
NO! What do we do? Grill indoors! 🙂 It is totally doable too all we have to do is eat our meal outside to feel as though it were grilled outdoors.
We have been skewering a lot of foods lately. Last month my husband made Persian kebabs and the this month my friend and I skewered some fruit kebabs for a baby shower and now this.
I created my own marinade and added it to really pressed tofu. It make the tofu a little more like meat and it allows it to be more flavorful especially if pressed tofu is placed in marinade.
This is a quick meal so do not be overwhelmed with the steps I have written out. I find that if I leave the tofu pressed the night of then the next day, I simply place the tofu in marinade and then quickly chop up my veggies.
This meal was delicious with brown rice but I am sure it would be great over some soba noodles too!
What is your favorite food to grill?
Prep Time: 45 minutes ( 2 hours tofu pres
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Keywords: grill bake press tofu entree lunch vegan recipes on recipage vegetarian vegan low-carb tofu summer
Ingredients (10 skewers)
- 14 ounces Nasoya extra firm tofu, pressed and cut in 16 cubes
- 1/2 cup soy sauce
- 2 tablespoons mirin
- 1/2 teaspoon ginger powder
- 1/4 cup Spicy Thai Chili Sauce
- 1 tablespoon sesame oil
- 1 red bell pepper, cut in 1-inch squares
- 1 orange bell pepper, cut in 1-inch squares
- 2 cups of white mushrooms, whole
- 1 large red onion, cut in 1-inch squares
Instructions
Press the tofu overnight in a tofu press or by other means or for 2 hours the day of preparation.
Drain the excess liquid, pat the tofu block dry and cut in 4 slices, lengthwise. Then cut each slab into 4 cubes.
In a medium storage bag, add the soy sauce, mirin, ginger powder, chili sauce, and sesame oil and mix well. Add the tofu and marinate for 30-45 minutes.
Remove the tofu and place on a plate. Add the marinade to a large bowl and toss with the red and orange bell pepper pieces, whole mushrooms, and red onions. Let the veggies rest for 10-15 minutes.
Heat your grill on medium.
Assemble the skewers starting with 2 pieces of red onion, 1 red bell pepper piece, a tofu cube, then an orange bell pepper piece, a mushroom, red onion, red pepper, and tofu cube, ending with red onion. Repeat with the rest of the skewers.
As the skewers grill, alternate gently every 3-5 minutes. The tofu will begin to have grill marks.
As you continue grilling the skewers, preheat the oven to 350F.
After the skewers are completed and grilled, finish baking them for 15-20 minutes to finish cooking the tofu a little longer.
*the option would be to cook the tofu first, on the grill then skewer them.
Enjoy with a side of brown rice.
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June 12th, 2012
I love reading and at one point, after having Julianne, I thought I would never get back to reading, for information purposes or even for leisure. Well, as you have been able to tell, I have been reading and it all seems to be about babies. What can I say?
A month ago, my grandmother sent me a newspaper clipping through the mail, or snail-mail, a review on this book called Bringing Up Bebe: One American Mother Discovers the Wisdom of French Parenting. I have always been interested with other cultures so when I saw that this book was written from an American author’s point of view while living in France, I knew I had to read it.
What a surprise when I found out that this book had several holds. Darn. I had to wait!
Memorial weekend came along and I was finally able to check the book out. We headed out to our vacation to Grand Rapids and Detroit so I knew I could read in the car. I offered to read it out loud to Ryan and he was happy to listen. How happy? He was hooked to funny stories and quirky cultural references that we decided to read it as a couple.
Pamela Druckerman, the author of this fun book, is a former journalist for The Wall Street Journal who ends up moving to Paris because of her husband’s job. They end up having a child and so begins her world focusing on the differences between the French and American women and how they handle every stage of pregnancy, motherhood, and rearing of children.
This book is very well rounded because Ms. Druckerman includes a lot of facts given to her by French specialists. There is science included in the history of French parenting and how it compares with American parenting.
Was I at all offended by the writing? Let me preface by saying that I like the French, and their country. It was the first place my grandmother took me and I fell in love with the language, landscape, food and more. What I did not know was the way the French raised their kids.
I always noticed that people seemed slim, especially in Paris, despite all the heavy and rich foods, but because they walked and were constantly moving. Ms. Druckerman devotes a chapter on how French women deal with pregnancy. They do not gain tremendous amounts of weight, they do not do a free-for-all-I-get-to-eat-as-much-as-I-can and then go nuts with losing weight after having the child.
A lot of what she explains and compares, makes a lot of sense to me. It made me realize that I wanted to do things differently with my next pregnancy. Even though we have countless of options and outlets of information for pre-pregnancy and post-pregnancy, it always seemed to spark some sense of anxiety or obsessing on many matters.
Another chapter discusses how to sleep-train your child. Most French mothers have their kids sleeping or how the French say “doing their nights” by the time they are 2 months.
STOP. No way! I did put 2 of the several examples to the test to see if these would in fact work with Julianne. Julianne has been waking up twice during the night. Somehow the putting the pacifier and walking away “seemed” to not work. I did not want my child to cry it out or to not be soothed but I had been told the baby should not be eating during the night. Should I go by instinct or should I stop this eating habit and make sure she eats every 3 hours during the day?
We experimented 3 days into the book, after reading on the section on babies sleeping through the night. Julianne wakes up at 3am. We place her pacifier in her mouth and she does not like it. She cries. She cries for 5-10 minutes and then as I am ready to pick her up, (yes, I just can’t), we hear quiet. She does not wake up until 7am.
Second night she wakes up again at 1:30am. We place the pacifier in her mouth and she cries for 5 minutes. This was 11 days ago. After that second night, Julianne has been sleeping from 7-7:30pm to 6am, with no waking up! WOW! We have been so excited to have uninterrupted sleep and with little crying.
Now, we have to deal with naps. Now that I think she knows she is sleeping through the night, I believe she either is wanting to boycott naps or she is going through a bit of separation anxiety. We are currently tackling this.
The other part of the book we started implementing was a feeding schedule but this quickly waned when I had to go by instinct and feed the baby every 3 hours instead of 4 hours.
What did I not like about the book? The science and history did bore me a bit just because it seemed a bit much thus the reason we could only do one chapter a night. The writing style is humorous and I believe I did laugh out loud at the coffee shop when I was finishing this book.
The book is not wild or crazy but it does give an excellent perspective into French culture and parenting. I actually was shocked at several ideas that I simply would not implement, but that is their culture.
Here is an online review of the book. I hope I have piqued your interest.
If you knew one technique was working for another culture that we as Americans are not using, would you give it a try?
These opinions are entirely my own.
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June 11th, 2012
I love doing reviews and even though I have been getting behind with the list of goodies I’ve been getting lately do know that those reviews will soon be posted.
I recently was given the chance to try Michelob’s new product called ULTRA Light Cider. The sponsor’s site happens to be Anheuser-Busch first cider produced and distributed in the United States so this should be one reason to try this product. When I see “Light” in a title, I almost always assume it has some fake sugar added to the product so I skip it and do not even buy it.
Hard cider is one drink I was first introduced when I moved to Michigan. It was November 2009 and we went to an apple farm in St. John where we drank hot apple cider, consumed donuts and purchased our first bottle of fresh hard cider. Yes, hard cider is an alcoholic drink, for those who have never tried it. When I drank it I knew it had alcohol and it was smooth and crisp at the same time. I also knew it was a combination of apples and grapes with perfect carbonation. How many calories in a glass of that drink? It was estimated that there was about 195 calories per glass.
Why share that information with you? Well I knew that consuming alcohol was not calorie-free so why not choose something that had the minimum amount without the fake ingredients?
Michelob’s ULTRA Light Cider has 120 calories per serving and is naturally gluten-free made with all-natural ingredients and lightly sweetened with stevia. Yes, STEVIA! It has a total of 6 grams of sugar that comes in the form of dextrose too.
What makes cider different than beer? Well, cider’s process is similar to that of beer but it does not use barley or hops. Instead the brewing process only includes apples. Michelob’s ULTRA Light Cider is a great alternative to champagne, white wine and as I stated before, even traditional ciders. Check out this process:
I enjoyed my bottle of cider fresh from the fridge with my dinner. It was delicious with my crunchy cornmeal-crusted white bass. It is even refreshing over ice too! Look how attractive they look in this clear 6-pack of bottles. They come in 12-ounce bottles and are perfect for gatherings and parties. Unfortunately this product will not be available in CO, UT, WY and OK.
Please visit Michelob’s site here;
Michelob ULTRA Light Cider on BlogHer.com
and for more info or even their Facebook page for additional notes.
Which favorite summer meal or activity do you think would go best with Michelob ULTRA Cider?
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