Product Review

Peppermint Almond Steamer with a Chocolate Twist

2 · Nov 5, 2014 ·

+ This Peppermint Almond Steamer post brought to you by Silk® Almond Milk +

I LOVE it when the weather turns chilly… I can’t say that I’m totally in love with deep winter, but I sure love the turning of the seasons. I especially love the warm drink season for sure!

There is really nothing better then curly up with your sweetie by the fire sharing a mug of some kind of warm treat. A few weeks ago I shared a new warm treat that I discovered and fell head-over-heels in love with…

An Almond Pumpkin Steamer made with Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk!

Oh my stars… If you haven’t tried this yet, you NEED to. Run and grab some pumpkin syrup before it’s gone for the season.

Now that we are transitioning from pumpkin season and moving into the peppermint season, I thought I would try a peppermint version of my Silk® Almond Steamer. It’s quite simply… Divine!

I love using Silk® products for my warm drinks. First off, they warm up especially well and you can feel good about indulging in a special treat when you are harnessing the power of plant protein. At 60 calories per serving, Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk is happiness in a glass. You heard right—that’s 1/3 fewer calories than our regular almond milk and still 50% more calcium than dairy milk. With a hint of vanilla and plenty of nutty goodness, our almond milk just got even easier to love especially when you pair it with the flavors of the season.

For those of you with dairy issues… Here is a special treat that you CAN have! I’m sure it becomes quite frustrating when everyone is snuggling with cups of hot chocolate. Here is a dairy-free option just for you!

For those of you who would like to up the ante a bit… You can add a little twist of chocolate to your steamer! This will make it so that it’s not dairy-free anymore, but if you like a smidge of chocolate in your steamer, this is the way to go.

I created some chocolate stirring spoons to serve with your steamers…

+ wood bead trivet by the little red cabin +

Won’t these be super cute to serve at a steamer bar?!

I added some holiday embellishments that I found at Target in the gift wrapping section on top of the wood spoons along with some Washi tape. Those are the extra special touches that take your simple treat and elevate it to something EXTRA special!

Chocolate Spoon Directions

Just make up a few of these chocolate spoons by melting some chocolate chips and dipping your spoon in the melted chocolate. On a baking sheet lined with wax paper, place your chocolate dipped spoons and then place the tray in your freezer for 10 minutes, so the chocolate will harden. Then place the spoons in a bowl for your guests.

Then all they have to do is swirl their spoons in their warm Peppermint Steamer to give it a touch of chocolate!

Peppermint Almond Steamer Recipe

2 cups Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk

1/4 teaspoon Watkins Peppermint Extract

Warm the almond milk slowly in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Remove from the heat as soon as you see steam, after about 3-4 minutes. Make sure you don’t over heat. Add the peppermint extract and serve immediately.

Garnish with crushed candy canes and serve with chocolate spoons.

For more ideas on how to use the family of Silk® products this Holiday season, visit the Silk® Facebook page and sign-up for the Silk® Club for all kinds of ideas and special offers!

This conversation is sponsored by Silk. The opinions and text are all mine.

How Target Store Pickup Changed My Life

8 · Oct 21, 2014 ·

Ok, you may think “changed my life” may be a stitch over stated, but Target Store Pickup truly has!

It’s kind of funny, I get approached to write post like this all the time. Some fit into my normal life and I accept the gig, others aren’t something that I would use or participate in naturally, so I turn down the offer. Regardless, when I am challenged to write a post of this nature, I have to go out and in a way, contrive the experience so that I can photograph and document the experience to share with you all.

NOT THIS TIME!!

I naturally fell into this post and it is such a cool story!!

A few weeks ago, an article caught my eye over at the Today Show website, What to Buy For your Home at Target. I am honestly Targets number one fan, so naturally I clicked on over to the article. This photo of some of the most beautiful lamps just jumped off the screen…

Aren’t they just divine?

I knew I needed them! I didn’t even read the article, I needed those lamps!

I jumped on over to Target.com and there it was…

The price was great, but criminy… it was out of stock online. SERIOUS!?! What am I going to do? I had been to my Target just the day before, and they didn’t have any of these beauties. What they heck am I going to do? I needed them! Then I noticed the find in a store button. I was a little deflated knowing that it wasn’t available online, so I almost didn’t bother. I clicked on the button and sure enough. The Target that is just a few more miles away from me and 2 in stock.

Now… Here’s where the story get’s exciting.

I had 2 choices… I could drop everything and run over to Target that second with my crazy hair and in my lovely PJ’s OR I could try out this Target Store Pick-Up option. It was kind of a lazy Saturday morning, but we had a packed day ahead. If I were to drop everything and run over there it would have really messed up my busy schedule for that day. BUT I NEEDED THOSE LAMPS! I remembered the post that I was scheduled to write about Target in-store pick-up. I knew that was something that was available to Target customers, I just hadn’t ever used it before. I decided to give it a go.

I added the lamps to my shopping cart and added a lovely matching gold pillow to the mix and selected the store where I wanted to purchase it from.

I selected the free store pick-up option and completed my purchase.

Check this out… I completed my purchase at 8:22 am

then at 8:55 I received a text from Target…

How COOL is that!!

Now, with this service, I had four days to pick-up my purchase. I didn’t have to stop my busy day and run to Target. I knew that I could run over there when I had some free time, or when I happened to be in that part of town and not worry about this purchase messing up my schedule.

I LOVE THIS!! SERIOUSLY LOVE THIS!

I knew that I had secured those amazing lamps, no one was going to run off with them, and I could get them on my own time.

Monday morning I had some errands in that part of town, so Gage and I headed to that Target location and picked up my loot!

There they were… tucked away safe and sound for the rest of the weekend, just waiting for me to pick them up and bring them home. The cool thing is that they don’t charge for this service, nor do they charge your credit card until you pick it up. If you change your mind, they restock it after four days. No worries!

Now check one of them out…

She gets to live on this aaamazing desk that my friend and business partner created. It’s an old piano that no longer worked that she transformed into a desk and then painted with BB Frösch Chalk Paint Powder!

Doesn’t she look happy!!

Now do you understand why Target Store Pick-Up has changed my life? I will never view shopping at Target the same way ever again. Think about Christmas shopping… Yea! Kind of mind blowing right?

Give it a go… I have a feeling you are going to fall in love as well!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Target. The opinions and text are all mine.

Brownie Ghosts

2 · Oct 12, 2014 · 9 Comments

+ This spooky Brownie Ghosts are brought to you by Pillsbury Baking +

I love the whimsey that this time of year brings. There is just something special about Halloween and all of the cool little treats you can make for your little ghouls and goblins. This super cute treat is so easy to make, you can even do it with your kiddos.

All you need is a box of Pillsbury Brownie mix, some Cool Whip topping and some of the super cute candy eyes.

Mix-up your brownie mix according to package directions and then bake in cupcake liners rather than your typical brownie pan. Reduce your baking time a bit to account for the smaller size. I baked mine for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.

Next, fill a pastry bag that is fitted with a jumbo round tip with Cool Whip. (I order all my baking supplies from Sweet Baking Supply, love that shop!) Then I pipe the ghosts on top of the brownies. They don’t have to be perfect. Ghost come in all shapes and sizes, don’t ya know.

Then I place the candy eyes on my cute ghosts.

Isn’t it so cool how you can whip something up so easy with your kiddos and feel like a ROCKSTAR! No advanced skills needed here, just a little box of Pillsbury and a little spooky love!

For more fun baking ideas, visit the Pillsbury Baking site or their Facebook, Pinterest & Instagram feeds. Each of these sites are packed full of ideas that can turn your ho-hum cake mix into something aaaamazing!

Disclaimer // This post is sponsored by Pillsbury Baking. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own. However, I want you all to know that I will never promote a product or company that I do not love and use in my normal day to day life.

Roasted Pork White Chili Recipe

50 · Oct 6, 2014 · 9 Comments

Roasted Pork White Chili Recipe sponsored by Pompeian OlivExtra Premium

Oh my stars… this is by far my favorite time of the year, SOUP season!! We finally had a super chilly weekend this weekend and it was a perfect time to ramp up my soup, stew & chili making skills. We have chili cook-off coming up here in Lincoln, so I thought I would start working on a fantastic white chili recipe. One of my favorite recipes is a White Chicken Chili that I crave year round. This time I used a scrumptious roast pork that I browned in Pompeian OlivExtra® Premium Mediterranean Blend.

Pompeian OlivExtra® Premium Mediterranean Blend is a unique, healthy blend of canola, extra virgin and grapeseed oil, representing key components of the Mediterranean Diet. This innovative blended oil provides the robust taste of extra virgin olive oil and the high smoke point of grape seed oil, making this the perfect oil to brown my pork roast.

Doesn’t that look scrumptious?! Because of the oil blend it’s perfect for the higher temperatures required for browning and frying.

This recipe is perfect for using left-over roast pork. Make up this same pork recipe and use it for tacos one night and chili the next, it’s perfect!!

Roasted Pork White Chili Recipe

Roasted Pork White Chili

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

5 mins

Total time

15 mins

This hearty white chili full of all kinds of rich flavors will make you want to say red chili, who?

Author: Heather // WhipperBerry

Recipe type: Chili

Cuisine: Southwest

Serves: 6-8

Ingredients

2 lb. pork roast
salt
5 tablespoons Pompeian OlivExtra® Premium Mediterranean Blend
Pepper
¼ cup minced garlic
3 tablespoon cumin
1 chipoltle pepper + adobo
1 chopped yellow onion
1 clove minced garlic
1 tablespoon of Mexican oregano
48 oz. low-fat, low-sodium chicken broth
1 small can of white navy beans
1 small can of Cannellini beans
1 small can of hominy
1 small can of green chili
2 cups shredded pork
2 cans of evaporated milk
salt & pepper to taste

Instructions

In a large, heavy bottom dutch oven, heat Pompeian OlivExtra® Premium blend over high heat until hot. Salt your pork roast generously and place in the dutch oven. Reduce heat to medium and brown on all side of the roast turning every two minutes until nice and brown.
Once roast is nice and brown, remove from heat and cover with cumin, garlic and adobo sauce. Add the chipoltle pepper to the pot. Cover and slow-roast in a 300˚ oven for 4 hours.
After four hours, remove from oven and place roasted pork on a separate plate to rest.
Reserve any pan drippings in a small container. Use a fat-separator to remove fat from the pan drippings.
Using the same dutch oven which is packed full of good flavor, add 2 tablespoons of OlivExtra® over medium high heat. Add chopped onions and cook until tender for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add minced garlic, additional cumin and oregano and cook for an additional minute.
Add chicken broth, beans, hominy. Place over high heat and bring to a low simmer.
Shred pork and place two cups of shredded pork to the pot along with the pan drippings
Simmer for 10 minutes.
Remove from heat and add your evaporated milk. At this point taste and see if you need to add anymore salt & pepper.
Garnish with lime, tortilla strips and either a queso fresco or shredded pepper jack cheese.

Disclaimer // This post sponsored by Pompeian OlivExtra® Premium Mediterranean Oil Blend. I am a member of the 2014 Pompeian team and have been compensated for my recipe creation. All thoughts, ideas and opinions are my very own.

Product Review

An Almond Pumpkin Steamer made with Silk® Light Vanilla Almond Milk!

Chocolate Spoon Directions

Peppermint Almond Steamer Recipe

Roasted Pork White Chili Recipe

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