Featured Product - Bread Bags

I've been testing these bread bags out and I'm excited to tell you that I'm really happy with them! First I did my research and while I couldn't find any statements from Debbie Meyer's website I was able to find info on other websites about them. My understanding is that they are safe when it comes to what they are made out of and that the technology has to do with tiny holes and not chemicals that the bag has been treated with. Several bloggers who are committed to going green, natural living, etc...are recommending these bags.

But do they work? YES. I make a lot of my own bread and being that I don't put preservatives in my bread it can go bad much faster than store bought bread. There is the option of refrigerating the bread to make it last longer but I want to avoid that for two reasons:

1. I heard that refrigeration of bread ruins some of the nutritional content of the bread.

2. It gets dried out in the fridge.

These bread bags have helped my bread stay fresher for much longer than when I use a ziplock.

BUT if anyone knows more information or can share links about why I should NOT use these bags, please let me know. I haven't been able to find anything negative or concerning but I would be VERY interested if there is that kind of info out there.

THANKS!

Featured Product - January Oranges

Don't miss out on January oranges. We used to live in a place where farmers grew oranges and avocados. While living there we learned that one variety of oranges is ripe in January as opposed to varieties that are ripe in the summer. We had such a tree in our backyard there and in January it had the juiciest oranges! Normally I'm very careful about buying oranges because they can be dry and pithy (as my friend, Rebekah likes to call them) but I'm not afraid to buy them during December and January. Yum! God knew we'd need a vitamin C boost in the winter months!

Featured Product - glass storage containers

I researched these and the lids are BPA free! Hurray! Mine were from Costco. This is part of our effort to move away from plastics and into glassware.

The glassware is thick and durable. They have perfect sizes for sandwiches and fit well in our lunch insulators. There are large containers for leftovers and tiny ones for small items.

They come with lids that snap on and have colored seals. The blue seals go to the square containers and the green seals go to the rectangle containers.

I'm really happy with these and am thrilled that they stack so well. Many of the glass containers that I've looked at don't stack well. These stack great! Even once the lid is on them, they have a lip in the lid that makes them stackable in the fridge. For storage in the cupboard they nest well too.

One little tip if you decide to use these...at first I had trouble getting the sides of the lids to snap on. Then I learned that if I used both hands on each side and pressed in at the same time that they snapped on easily.

Featured Product- Debbie Meyer Bags

Thanks to a question from a reader about bread storage, I was curious to research something I've been wondering for some time. I've wanted to try the Debbie Meyer Bread Bags and her other Green Bag products (including cheese bags) but wasn't sure if they were BPA free. Good news, they are!

BPA is in plastics made of polycarbonate but the Debbie Meyer bags are made of polyethylene (which is also recyclable #4).

To read up on BPA click here.
To see more about the Green Bags click here.

Look for the green bags, cold-cut bags, cheese bags, and bread bags at Walmart and other grocery stores.

I know friends that use these and love them. I've also seen GREAT reviews on them. I can't wait to try them.

Featured Product- Blue Moon Pumpkins

This is my something pretty to show you. Isn't it lovely? I love these blue moon pumpkins! They are my new favorite pumpkin. They are a sage green with a light blue tinge to them. They look awesome with the colors in my house and I can't wait to grow more next year! I'll be collecting and drying the seeds out of these. For those of you who live near me, I got my seeds at Zamzows.

These aren't that great for cooking with though....word to the wise.

Featured Product- Heirloom Squash

My parents planted this heirloom squash in their garden and it was so good. See the bulb at the bottom? That's where the seeds were so that long swan neck had no seeds in it, just thick butter flesh. It was amazing and it made great soup! It's great in lasagna as well. No stringy middles, no big seeds, just nice meaty flesh! (Actually there are seeds in the bulb at the bottom but the long neck has no seeds.) It didn't have a name other than "heirloom squash" on the seed packet. They purchased the seeds from Azure Standard. I hope to plant these in the future.

Does anyone recognize this squash? We are calling it the swan squash.

*UPDATE: I finally found out the name of this squash. It's a variety of zucchini. It's called ZUCCHINO RAMPICANTE. It is one of my very favorites now! Yum!

Featured Product- Mini Peppers

These mini peppers are so sweet you can eat them right out of the bag for a snack. I haven't found these organic anywhere yet so I buy the bag at Costco. Oh, I guess this makes this a "Costco Finds" post as well...I haven't done one of those in a long time either!

Anyway, back to the peppers. They are great dipped in your favorite veggie dip or homemade dressing. My daughter loves to eat these as well and since I'm always trying to get my kids to eat veggies and fruit for snacks, this one is a winner!

Featured Product - Real Salt

This is the salt I use. It is unrefined, unbleached, without anti-caking chemicals added to it, with natural iodine instead of being iodized. To read more about why it's a great one to use you can view info about it here.

Featured Product - Organic Natural Peanut Butter

I love this peanut butter because after you do the first stirring and refrigerate it, it doesn't separate again! Gotta love that! I get it at Costco.

Featured Product - Trader Joe's Bleu Cheese

I find that people either love bleu cheese salad dressing or they hate it. I happen to love it. My first love of the creamy bleu was Bob's Big Boy brand. Oh ya, that stuff was good and in S. Cal. I could get it at Costco. Gotta love that!

My second love was Lighthouse brand Chunky Bleu Cheese. Yum and with a lot less preservatives.

Now, I've been introduced to this pretty little bottle....oh my, this is totally different. I'd have to say that even some people who don't like bleu cheese dressing might actually like this! It almost has a ranch flavor to it with all the herbs that are in it. It's not tangy like some bleu cheese dressings...it's just, well, um, I'm speechless.

Bad news is, I don't have a Trader Joe's here, YET that is. I'm still working on getting one here. Yes, I've called the company headquarters and yes, I signed up on their website several times to request a store in our area...but still, nothing yet. Meantime, I rely on my mom to bring me TJ products anytime she travels near one. Thanks Mom!

But, if you live near a TJ and you're into Bleu Cheese Dressing and you shop organic, you might want to try out this little jar.

Featured Product- Asian Pears

This is my new favorite fruit. I had never tried one until this past year with our organic produce deliveries. Yum. I wasn't a big fan of pears to start with but this pear eaten cold and while it is still crisp like an apple is wonderful. My kids love them too! Haven't tried one before? Go ahead and give it a try! I hope you like it!

Featured Product- Bar Keepers Friend

I love this stuff. It works so good on glass top stoves! Unlike other abrasive cleaners like Comet, this is safe for glass top stoves and gets EVERYTHING off.

Some of you might have black marks that have been there forever from water that's boiled over and I'm here to tell you that this stuff takes it right off with a wet sponge.

I like to use a kitchen sponge that has the one side that is scratchy and it works great. Doesn't scratch the glass top though, just leaves it shiny.

Most grocery stores and Wa-lmart carry it (or at least Super Wal-marts do).

I like it so much that I now use it for my toilets, showers, tubs, and sinks. It's good stuff!

Featured Product- Sun Dried Tomato Pesto

Wow, is this stuff good! It really makes a gourmet sandwich with some robust flavor! This stuff would make some really good appetizers....

Featured Product- Potato Wedges

I haven't done a featured product in a long time and I've got a few for you. These mo-jo potatoes are from Costco and they are so good. It says on the package "made with organic garlic"...why it's made with organic garlic and not organic potatoes is beyond me....doesn't make a whole lot of sense to mix something organic with something that has pesticide but who am I......

These are cool cause you can BBQ them right on the grill. I've only done them in the oven so far but my family loves them.....

Featured Product - Mayo

I wanted to share this new mayo with you. It's made with olive oil which brings the fat down to 4g per serving as to where regular mayo has 10g. The olive oil is obviously healthier for you. It does taste a little different but so far my kids haven't noticed at all.

I know that you can also get mayo that is made with grape seed oil at health food stores and mayo that is made without eggs, making it dairy free and 100% vegan.

Brown Rice Pilaf

My kitchen camera has been randomly deleting photos which makes it difficult to have a photographic recipe blog! =0) So, I had to get out my other camera and do some make-up pictures.

Here's a product that I've been wanting to try and also share with you. I tried it and it's good! It's whole grain brown rice pilaf. I'm always looking for healthy side dishes that are easy to make for dinners when I'm tired. =0) This one does take about 45 min. to cook though so you have to have some time available but it's easy because you just start it and walk away. Or you can cook it ahead of time and refrigerate it.

Hope you can find it or something similar in your grocery store. When I have time to really scan the isles, I'm amazed at what I find.

Pizza Sauce

Well, I finally found the sauce I've been looking for. I put out this recipe request and got no response on anything to try in the comments. But, verbally, my friend, Kiley told me that they love Classico and I think she said the five cheese one. So, I decided to try Classico's Organic Tomato Herb Spice Pasta Sauce. It DOES remind me of what Numero Uno pizza sauce tastes like. I highly recommend it. And no, I did not doctor it at all. =0) We've been using it for our pastas and pizza sauce without adding sugar to it but sometimes I still sneak in some pureed veggies (like roasted red bell peppers and zucchini).

Sneaky Oatmeal

Don't tell my family, but I've been sneaking wheat bran, wheat germ, and flax seed into their oatmeal. Shhhhh! When you make it from scratch just add 2 tbsp (or more) of any of the above or combination of the above to the pot of cooking oatmeal. You can add as much or as little that works for you. Just be careful not to put too much wheat bran as to cause abdominal cramping and/or diarrhea.

Featured Product- Roasted Red Bell Peppers

These are great! I first heard about them from Rachel Ray. She purees them and adds them to her jarred spaghetti sauce. So, I had to try it and holy smokes it was fabulous! That fire roasted flavor was like zazing! Yum. They are also very good for you and it's a great way to sneak in some extra veggies into your kids. I also like to add about 1 tbsp sugar to my jar sauce to sweeten it. I find that jar sauce tends to be on the tart side so adding a bit of sugar makes a huge difference. I know, adding sugar isn't the healthiest thing I could do to my sauce but it makes such a huge taste difference that I'm happy to cut back on sugar somewhere else. I also add a dash of anise seed for that Italian sausage flavor even though there is no sausage in my sauce.

I've also heard that some sandwich places like to dice the roasted bell peppers and put them on their italian style sandwiches. They are sweet and yummy.

Featured Product - Whole Grain Pastas

Okay, first one is whole wheat lasagna noodles. Fabulous that they make these. This one happens to be whole wheat blend so it's not 100% whole wheat but it's still a step in the right direction. You can buy them 100% whole wheat.

I have not found whole wheat jumbo shells for making stuffed shells...something I love to make. So recently I tried making those stuffed rolled lasagna noodles so that I could get more whole wheat in.




Next, I found whole wheat egg noodles! I was totally thrilled because pasta just doesn't hold together in soups. It absorbs too much water and starts to swell and fall apart. That's why noodles are in soup and not pasta! Noodles are made with eggs and pasta is made without eggs. I'm so happy to have found whole wheat blend egg noodles. I know this bag says "pasta" on it but they are indeed made with egg. This one happens to be made with just egg whites and not the yoke, which cuts down on the bad cholesterol. I found these at my local Albertsons.


Lastly, my kids love tortellini...especially my son. It's his favorite food believe it or not. So, when I finally found whole wheat tortellini I was again really excited. Costco carried them for awhile here in the fresh deli section. They were fresh which was wonderful but I haven't seen them since. These are frozen which is my second choice. I really don't care for dried boxed stuffed tortellini. Anyway, I found these at my local Albertsons as well.