How is it Sunday again already?  Wasn’t it just Monday?  My day today started off with me breaking a wine glass before 8:00 AM.  No, I wasn’t going for a cocktail, but my coffee filters.  The coffee filters happen to be in the same cabinet as my wine glasses.  Perhaps it is time for a change.  Nothing like cleaning up glass in bare feet & my bathrobe.  Wake me up when September ends.  This picture of Hannah from a few years back reminded me what is coming up! 

Thankfully September ends this week.  Saturday is October 1st.

Sunday – Rotisserie chicken or Chipotle – the way my day started out, I am placing bets on Chipotle.

Monday – Garlic & dill salmon, coconut baked rice, roasted broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Enchiladas (a GF version of this) and salad

Wednesday – BBQ pulled pork, baked potatoes, green beans & salad

Thursday – Spaghetti with marinutta sauce, roasted zucchini and salad

Friday –MYOP with Kinnikinnick pizza crusts and salad

Saturday – Pei Wei takeout

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Hoping to get some banana bread made later today for breakfast this week.  I am thinking about making them into muffins for easy serving or grabbing & going. 

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Remember to head over to enter to win the Yoplait “do the swap” giveaway! 

Kim

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about Larabar introducing a brand new flavor: Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte.  Just this week I received some complimentary samples to review & I got right to work!  I don’t think there has been a Larabar flavor that I haven’t liked, but I was really looking forward to this version because I love chocolate (duh) and I love cherries.  They just keep coming up with better ideas for these bars and I love every one of them!

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I am here to tell you that this bar is every bit as good as it sounds, if not better.  Dried cherries are one of my favorite dried fruits and chocolate…you know how I feel about chocolate.  The bar is moist & flavorful with chunks of almonds & cashews.  I loved this bar!!  There are just a handful of ingredients:

Dates, chocolate chips, almonds, dried cherries, cashews & sea salt. 

The nutritional stats:

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More from Larabar:

The cherry didn’t fall far from the tree for Chocolate Chip Cherry Torte, whose inspiration (and name) came from a combination of Cherry Pie and our Fair Trade Certified™ chocolate chips. With less than 200 calories and just 6 simple ingredients, this snack carries on a great family tradition of simple, indulgent flavors.

Well done, Larabar, well done. 

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Do you have any weekend plans?  I am probably finishing up my 9 mile as this post goes up and will be getting ready to host a gaggle full of girls for a “Game Night” sleepover.  Something tells me that they will be up much longer than I will be. 

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Remember to head over to enter to win the Yoplait “do the swap” giveaway! 

Kim 

Welcome to Friday.  Today is also the first day of fall, my favorite season.  I love the cool, crisp air and the brilliant colors.  I could do without winter following my favorite season, though.  I am not a huge football fan, but Jon & Aaron are.  Jon sports his OSU jersey when he can, though I think he has outgrown it. Here is one of my favorite pictures of Jon a few years back in his jersey.  I was playing around with my new camera & he wanted to test out the action shots.

I love little quizzes.  This Friday Five quiz is one we do on a forum that I have been a part of since I was pregnant with Hannah.  I think of these women as family & can’t believe that we are all still together 9+ years later!  Anywho, I thought it would be fun to do a Friday Five here today. 

Here is how it works – I will share my answers to the questions & then you can post yours in the comment section.  I look forward to reading them all!!

1. Some friends have invited you over to watch the big game. What do you bring for the snack table? Buffalo Chicken Dip (naturally gluten-free) celery & tortilla chips
2. What do you bring for a potluck lunch at work (or school)? BBQ pulled pork (crockpot) with Sweet Baby Ray’s sauce (also gluten-free)
3. What do you think of the Facebook changes so far?  The new timeline that is coming?  The new changes are not my favorite, but I don’t like change.  It would help if both of my accounts were the same, but they aren’t.  I am not a fan of the timeline as far as I can tell, however, that may change once I actually experience it.  I just don’t think that people need to know that much about each other.  LOL!  
4. You’re going camping for a long weekend with a bunch of friends. Everybody agrees to bring one thing that others often don’t think to bring. What’s your contribution? I don’t camp, so I would bring wine because I am fairly certain that I would have to be intoxicated to sleep outside in a tent.  Nothing against those of you that do it, I wish I could get past my aversion to sleeping with creepy crawlies. 
5. Road trip! The car in which you’re going to spend twenty hours with your closest friends only has a CD player. What do you bring? Counting Crows – August & Everything After.  One of the best albums ever! 

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Remember to head over to enter to win the Yoplait “do the swap” giveaway! 

Hope you all have a glorious weekend! 

Kim

 

A few weeks back I received some complimentary samples of water from Icelandic Glacial.  I know you are thinking “Well, of course water is gluten-free!”, right?  Yes, you are right.  I wasn’t sure what was so special about the water from Icelandic Glacial either, so I began to research.

I am not one to drink bottled water normally.  I typically use BPA-free plastic or stainless bottles to cut down on our trash & recycling.  However, I was game to try this water out, as there are times when I will buy bottled water for trips & such. 

Why is Icelandic Glacial better than other bottled water?

Contaminant free
Our water is microbiologically pure when extracted and free of even trace levels of contaminants. With a TDS – Total Dissolved Solids level of only 62 parts per million and a pH level of 8.4, our water is unmatched in terms of taste & overall quality.

Bottle design
Our high quality award-winning & strikingly designed bottles are entirely recyclable and produced from stable materials to ensure the taste of our water remains unchanged.

Affordable luxury
In comparison to other imported brands of bottled water, Icelandic Glacial is a Super Premium product at an affordable price.

NSF Certified
Our bottling plant and manufacturing processes are fully certified by NSF International, the world’s leading third party validation authority, to ensure full conformance with governmental and local state certification standards

Environmentally friendly
Icelandic Water Holdings ehf. is a CarbonNeutral^® company which accurately reflects our commitment to making a difference to climate change. See Icelandic Glacial Green Credentials

IG’s water is the purest of the pure, coming from Iceland’s Hlíðarendi Spring, part of the Ölfus Spring System, a catchment zone formed during a massive volcanic eruption more than 4,500 years ago. Ölfus Spring is a renewable resource, replenished annually by infiltration of rainfall and snow melt over uninhabited lava fields. Ninety-nine percent of the Ölfus flow releases to the sea below mean sea level. The only outflow to surface water is at Hlíðarendi, where a pond collects spring discharges which then flow for two kilometres before disappearing underground. It is from this system that the Icelandic Glacial water is taken.

Source illustration:
The Ölfus Spring is fed from high in the mountains by a gradual filter of rainfall, snow and ice melt.

Glacially Inspired
Icelandic Glacial is proud of its green credentials and is clear that the water is in no way connected or fed from actual melted or melting glaciers. The ‘Glacial’ in the Icelandic Glacial brand name is derived from landscapes and scenery that are automatically conjured when one thinks of Iceland, and is also a reference to the peak design of the Icelandic Glacial bottle, rather than the source of its contents.
Protected Source
The local government is particularly appreciative of the need to protect this valuable resource and has applied a 128,000 acre exclusion zone around the spring. No farming, animals, or buildings are permitted in the surrounding area .
A Self Replenishing Resource, Certifiably Sustainable Resource
Naturally occurring pure drinking water is a precious commodity in most countries and water bottling companies are sometimes criticised for draining aquifers and groundwater reserves to the detriment of local communities.

Icelandic Glacial is particularly mindful of this fact, and its extraction operations account for a minor percentage of the Ölfus Spring’s daily outflow to the ocean, which is more than double the world’s bottled water consumption.

Icelandic Glacial has been declared by Zenith International, Europe’s leading food and drinks consultancy, as truly sustainable because it doesn’t deplete or permanently damage the source from which it’s abstracted. Icelandic Glacial does not pump water from the spring, but collects what flows naturally to the ground surface, using an estimated 0.1% of the total spring flow annually.

I honestly didn’t expect to be able to detect much difference between this water & the filtered water I drink at home.  I mean, it is water, right?  I have to say that it did taste really clean & light, though I am not quite sure what I mean by that.  LOL!  I am not trying to be difficult or snarky, just honest.  It is hard to describe what I want to say about the water, but I do love the bottle design, which is very appealing to the eye.  Would I buy Icelandic Glacial?  If I were buying bottled water, yes, I would. 

Icelandic Glacial is sold in stores across the US, UK and Canada and can be purchased online.   

Kim

**The products reviewed in this post were sent to me free of charge for this review.  The opinions stated here are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything. 

These are the balloons that I almost beat up this morning on my way out to the gym.  It was dark and there were shadows.  Definitely thought someone was in the house.  If that didn’t wake up up!  They were almost hiding around the corner right next to the garage door.  Go ahead, laugh!  I did all the way to the gym! 

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Remember to head over to enter to win the Yoplait “do the swap” giveaway! 

Y’all know I am a sucker for dark chocolate, so of course I “opted in” when Foodbuzz asked if I was interested in reviewing Ghirardelli’s new line.  Not everyone who “opts in” is chosen.  I am not sure if I was chosen randomly or because they wanted to see me gush some more about chocolate on my blog.  The hows & whys are really irrelevant.  Bottom line is that the chocolate ended up in my hands. 

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First things first; I needed to confirm the gluten-free status of the chocolate.

Dear ms. Bouldin,

Thank you for contacting Ghirardelli Chocolate. Ghirardelli currently offers one product which contains an gluten ingredient. Our Luxe Milk Crisp Squares and Bars, containing barley malt as an ingredient. As a result, the line on which our chocolate bars and Squares are produced, share a common line with barley gluten. The chocolate chips (60% Bittersweet, Semi-Sweet, and Milk Chocolate) line and powder line (hot chocolates and baking cocoas) will remain free of gluten ingredients.

Ghirardelli takes the following measures to reduce cross contamination on our production lines: lines are cleaned between the changing from one product to the next. The first two batches of any product made are disposed of and not packaged.

Sincerely,

Consumer Service

Ghirardelli Chocolate Company

I received 3 varieties of the intense dark chocolate bars and 2 different individually packed squares. 

Twilight Delight – Our Intense Dark 72% cacao is a deep, velvety chocolate with hints of mocha, blackberry and dark cherry that create an unrivaled chocolate intensity. It’s a great match for foods and beverages with a robust flavor.

Sea Salt Soiree – A blend of sweet dark chocolate, slow-roasted almonds and coarse crystals of sea salt make this Intense Dark flavor the epitome of sweet and salty perfection. Its peaks of saltiness create a mouth-watering reaction with a variety of bold-flavored pairings.

Midnight Reverie – With 86% cacao, this luxuriously deep Intense Dark chocolate delivers the ultimate chocolate intensity. Its robust flavor and warm chocolate notes accompanied by hints of dark cherries and dried plums pair perfectly with other strong flavors.

I enjoy finishing off dinner with a square or 2 of dark chocolate, so these are perfect for that!  My only problem is that they are so good that I want more!  Saturday night when we went out to celebrate Aaron’s birthday, I came home, poured a glass of dry red wine and couldn’t keep my hands off of the Midnight Reverie bar.  While I really enjoyed all 3 versions, the Midnight Reverie is my favorite.

To learn more about the Intense Dark Challenge and to get a coupon for Ghirardelli Intense Dark, click here. 

Do you like dark chocolate?  If so, what is your favorite brand/variety?

Kim

**The products reviewed in this blog were provided to me free of charge as part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.  The opinions stated here are mine and have not been influenced by anyone or anything.

Happy Tuesday!!  It is rainy & humid here.  Seems like Mother Nature can’t make up her mind whether or not to cool off outside.  I am sure the cool down is coming soon enough, so I will shut up & enjoy these days – rain or not.  I had a couple of weird number things happen first thing this AM.   First, when running on the treadmill this morning, my final time (including my cool down walk) was 4.11 miles in 41:11. Weird, right?  Then, I headed over to the gas station to fill up and the pump stopped exactly at $57.57.  Hopefully that means a day of good luck!  It is going to be a long one, so I hope it is a good one!!

You can check to see if you won the LUNA Protein bar giveaway here.  The winner was announced earlier this morning.

Lastly, I got a couple of awesome products to sample yesterday that I can’t wait to share with you!  The first is the new gluten-free cookies from Amy’s Kitchen – 3 different varieties!  Also, Larabar sent me their new flavor to review – chocolate cherry chip!  I can’t wait to try it and let you guys know how it is!  In the meantime, click here to enter to win a 16-ct. box of the brand new flavor!! 

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I’ll leave you with this…

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Story of my life! 

If you didn’t win the LUNA bar giveaway, make sure to enter to win the Yoplait “do the swap” giveaway! 

Kim

We all know the gluten-free diet is not specifically a weight loss diet.  Does that mean you can’t lose weight while gluten-free?  Nope.  A diet is what you make it.  You can eat 1800 calories of Twinkies a day and if that is less calories than your body needs/uses in a day, you will eventually lose weight.  Not the healthiest way to lose weight, but bottom line is that calories in need to be less than calories out.

I like to follow a much healthier, well-balanced “diet”, though I am not actively trying to lose weight.  For those who are trying to lose weight, Yoplait has launched a new campaign called “do the swap”!  Read on for more information:

Small changes can make a big difference over time. That’s why Yoplait Light has created the “YoplaitLight Swap” to remind people that by making simple substitutions, like swapping one item from your diet per day for a 100 or 110 calorie Yoplait Light, you can cut unwanted calories and help yourself feel great about daily diet choices. Through swapping tips for food, fitness, and fashion, the “Yoplait Light Swap” can help remind you how rewarding one simple change can be.

• Yoplait Light yogurt offers 33 different options to choose from in fruit, pastry and dessert flavors that contain around 100 calories or less, providing endless swapping options.
• Visit www.Facebook.com/Yoplait to share your favorite food, exercise and fashion swaps, find recipes and quizzes. Alison Sweeney, host of “The Biggest Loser” and author of The Mommy Diet, offers this Top Swap Tip on how she maintains her weight with a hectic schedule.
  • “I’m all about easy solutions, and making simple swaps in my diet helps me lead a healthy lifestyle while juggling everything else. I swap a slice of my favorite red velvet cake after dinner for a cup of Red Velvet Cake Yoplait Light which can save me almost 300 calories, without even thinking about it.”
• Swap your way to fabulous with the following tips from fashion guru, host of the Style Network’s “How Do I Look?” and correspondent for NBC’s upcoming series “Fashion Star,” Jeannie Mai.
  • Swap the bus for a 15 minute walk on the way home, and you can save 60 calories.¹
  • Boost your confidence in seconds by swapping more low-key flats for a pair of colorful heels.
  • Expand your wardrobe without breaking the bank by swapping clothes and accessories with your girlfriends.
• You and your readers can visit http://bit.ly/yoplaitswapcoupon to download a printable coupon* for $1.00 off the purchase of three (3) cups of Yoplait Light yogurt to get you started with the “Yoplait Light Swap” today!

*This coupon offer for Yoplait Light yogurt is not valid in some states, including California, Idaho, Louisiana, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Tennessee.

In addition to Yoplait’s campaign detailed above, I am giving away a “do the swap” prize package here on my blog!  In addition to being a healthier diet choice than many I can think of (cake, pie, etc), Yoplait light yogurts have many gluten-free varieties.  Click here to view the complete list.  The prize package will include the items listed below:

• (1) VIP coupon for a free cup of Yoplait Light yogurt
• Insulated tote bag
• Water bottle
• Sunglass holder
• Hardcover planner
• Ballpoint pen (love this pen!)

“Disclosure: The Yoplait Light Swap prize pack, information and coupon have been provided by Yoplait through MyBlogSpark.”

 

Continue reading →

Yes, it is that time.  Pumpkin season.  That means pumpkin pie, pumpkin bread, pumpkin cookies, pumpkin lattes, pumpkin ice cream & pumpkin oatmeal.  Caribou Coffee has a pumpkin latte that is every bit as good as the one made by the people with the green straws that aren’t gluten-free-friendly.  I had my first pumpkin latte just last week and it was phenomenal!  I wanted another later in the week, but it was hot outside & I don’t see pumpkin making a good iced latte.

I just checked my pumpkin stash and I have 3 large cans in my pantry!  Score!  I knew stocking up last year was the way to go.  After the shortage, I couldn’t risk being without again.  Jon has been begging for banana bread – I think he is going to get pumpkin bread instead.  Perhaps some of this:

Dark chocolate pumpkin loaf.  Enough said.

Or, this:

Pumpkin raisin bread.  A childhood favorite.

Oh, how could I forget, my pumpkin raisin scones!!

Think I have enough pumpkin to make them all?

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Hannah is recovering nicely from her appendectomy last weekend and went back to school on Thursday.  Phew!  Hopefully we are on the mend now.  This week should be a little calmer & easier to cook.  I also planned a little better for meals, so we should be eating better, too.  It is amazing how long it takes to catch up.

Sunday – Aaron’s b-day choice – Lasagna

Monday – Rotisserie chicken, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli & salad

Tuesday – Easy enchilada bake, corn and salad

Wednesday – Inside out burgers, sweet potato puffs, roasted green beans & salad

Thursday – Sweet Thai chile salmon, creamy pumpkin brown rice, roasted beets/carrots & salad

Friday – MYOP with Udi’s gluten-free crust and salad

Saturday –  Leftovers or Chipotle

Baking

See the above information!

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Don’t forget to help spread Celiac Awareness by entering the LUNA bar giveaway!  Contest ends tonight!

 

Kim

This is what I saw as I looked out the door on Friday morning.  Absolutely gorgeous.  It was cool & crisp out, too, which means it is time for fall food.

I wanted to share one of my favorite fall recipes with you guys Cocoa Coconut Chili.  I need to make this again really soon!

If you haven’t had this, make it.  STAT!  So warm & comforting after a chilly day.

While I am not ready for winter to arrive anytime soon, I do like the glimpses of chilly weather we have been getting.

What is your favorite fall recipe?