Food

Odwalla Smoothies for Kids Goodness Grove

0 · Sep 12, 2012 · 1 Comment

If you are anything like me you are constantly looking for tasty, yet healthy food options for your kiddos. I know I am! Today I am thrilled to introduce you to a new site where we can share all kinds of tips and tricks with each other. The Odwalla Smoothies for Kids Goodness Grove is a fabulous community where we can share everything from recipes all the way up to great ways to help your family get active and everything in between.

I am so excited to be one of the Goodness Groves Ambassadors along with several other amazing bloggers… Like seriously amazing bloggers, covering all kinds of topics like; active living, creativity, education, play and recipes. I am covering topics about food and recipes. We will be discussion great ways to get that nutrition into your kiddos to help them have a successful day at school or at play. You can come on over to the Goodness Grove and ask questions and share ideas with everyone in the community.

My kiddos have fallen in love with the Odwalla Smoothies for Kids. My little guy who is 2 all the way up to Hales who is 15 love the smoothies. Here's Em getting a Odwalla Good Start to the day…

They taste great and I love that each smoothie contains 100% juice and counts as one serving of fruit. They are loaded with 50% of your daily vitamin C, they are gluten free with no added sugar. They are perfect to pack in lunches or to take on the go to make sure your little ones have energy to get through the day. You can find the Odwalla Smoothies for Kids in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store.

Come on over to the Goodness Grove and ask a question or share a tip to be entered to win a $1,000 shopping spree!! Who wouldn't love that?

You can also reply here with some of your fun tips for giving your kids a good start and be entered to win a $200 gift card. Official Sweepstakes Rules.

Odwalla has asked me to be a Good Mom ambassador through BlogFrog. I am being compensated for my participation in the program but all opinions expressed in the post are my own and not those of Odwalla or The Coca-Cola Company.

Friday Flair Features

0 · Sep 10, 2012 · 9 Comments

Well, happy Monday everyone! By the look of Friday Flair last week, you are all in a fall baking mood as well. So many scrumptious recipes were linked up along with some great fall projects. Here are a few that caught my eye.

pumpkin pancakes /// high heels and grills

fall monogram wreath /// two twenty one

apple pie cookies /// the farm girl

the wedding carnival /// your homebased mom

cookie dough fudge /// cleverly inspired

made to order lunch sacks /// moore minutes

salted caramel swiss meringue frosting /// shugary sweets

vasznak /// eletunk lapjai {she’s from Hungary}

double chocolate zucchini muffins /// the pinterest project

gourmet s’mores /// life is a party

patchwork headboard /// talking time to create

peanut butter cup cookies /// the diary of daves wife

painted drop cloth wrapped soaps /// live laugh rowe

apple spice cupcakes with salted caramel frosting /// heather’s french press

Aren’t they all so fun? I can’t wait to see what you guys are baking up for this week!

Eat Your Greens to Give Some Green

0 · Sep 7, 2012 · 2 Comments

With the 2012-2013 school year now in full swing we’ve all been thinking about how to give our kiddos healthy lunch options while at school. I have a SUPER exciting program to tell you about that I think is FABULOUS! Whole Foods Market has partnered with the organization Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools to help our kiddos get the nutrition they need during the school day. This is a real labor of love for both organizations and this weekend they are looking for some help…

I remember back when I transitioned from elementary school to middle school {just a few years ago, mind you.} My middle school in Colorado, just that year had received a new salad bar. For the first time in my school career I had some lovely veggie options and I was in heaven. I’m naturally a veggie girl anyway, but for some reason eating a salad that I had the opportunity to create myself, at school, was in my 12 year old mind… pretty cool. The salad bar was the pride and joy of the lunch ladies as well. It sat prominently in the middle of the cafeteria and surprisingly enough I would say 75% of the 6th, 7th & 8th grade students ate from the salad bar.

As the years have gone by and I am a Mother rather than a student, it has saddened me to see the quality of food that is being served in the schools at times. I wish my girls had a good healthy salad bar that they could turn to at lunch help give them the healthy nutrition they need to power through the rest of the day. Sometimes it’s hard to pack fresh foods from home, because they just don’t travel well. As a nation we can see that our kiddos are paying the price for this.

Whole Foods and Let’s Move Salad Bars to Schools have stepped up to help remedy this situation with their Eat Your Greens to Give Some Green day at Whole Foods locations in Southern California, Hawaii, Arizona & Las Vegas. For every pound of food sold in the Whole Foods salad and hot bars on Sunday, September 9th they will donate $1 to the Whole Kids Foundation to fund salad bar grants for schools all over the area!

If you live here in Las Vegas, Southern California, Arizona or Hawaii head on over to Whole Foods this Sunday to help raise money so our kiddos to have some healthy, natural options during their school day. Together we can make this happen!

This is a sponsored post for Whole Foods Market

Friday Flair Link Party /// Rhonna Designs Edition

0 · Sep 6, 2012 · 35 Comments

Yippee, it’s {almost} Friday… for some of you it MAY already be Friday! Time for my Friday Flair link party!! I’m soooo excited… I have some news to share.

eeeeek, I am over the moon!! I have been a huge fan of Rhonna’s for YEARS! I’ve been following her design career for quite awhile and was giddy like a school girl when we had a chance to meet at SNAP! She is the sweetest and most creative lady out there. I adore her and everything she does. So… with that said, I will be sharing all kinds of RD {Rhonna Designs} love for the next year. If you haven’t already, you should check out her shop, it’s amazing!!

Now who’s ready to WOW us with your creations?

It’s Time for Friday Flair!!

61 Autumn Pumpkin and Apple Recipes

15 · Sep 4, 2012 · 32 Comments

It’s finally September… This is my favorite time of the year. Even though it’s still in the low 100’s here in Vegas, I just can’t help but bust out the pumpkin and apple recipes and pretend the air is starting to crisp-up. Today I thought I would put together a list of some fabulous autumn recipes for you guys to give a whirl. Here are 61 autumn pumpkin and apple recipes …

Breakfast

1. whole wheat pumpkin waffles /// 2. cranberry pumpkin drop cookies /// 3. pumpkin cream cheese scones with brown sugar honey glaze /// 4. baked pumpkin spice donut holes /// 5. cinnamon crepes with spiced pumpkin mousse and graham crumble /// 6. pumpkin salted caramel blondies /// 7. pumpkin spice donut holes /// 8. petite pumpkin spice donuts /// 9. pumpkin spice pancakes /// 10.pumpkin spice syrup /// 11. pumpkin butter /// 12. pumpkin cinnamon streusel pancakes ///

Breads

13. pull-apart cinnamon sugar pumpkin bread /// 14. maple pecan streusel pumpkin bread /// 15. caramel glazed apple bread ///

Drinks

16. pumpkin spice white hot chocolate /// 17. pumpkin and apple cider fizz /// 18. pumpkin pie milkshake ///

Savory

19. curried pumpkin stew /// 20. creamy pumpkin risotto with bacon and parmesan /// 21. pumpkin seed pesto /// 22. roasted pumpkin and garlic lasagna ///

Cake

23. apple stack cake /// 24. caramel apple cake /// 25. cinnamon apple cake with salted caramel /// 26. apple upside-down biscuits /// 27. autumn delight cake /// 28. apple fritters with ice cream /// 29. cinnamon roll pumpkin vanilla sheet cake /// 30. spiced apple cream cheese coffee cake /// 31. apple upside-down cake /// 32. pumpkin pie cupcake with whipped cream /// 33. salted caramel apple cupcakes ///

Bars & Candy

34. pumpkin chocolate chip bars /// 35. pumpkin cheesecake with ginger & white chocolate /// 36. pumpkin streusel bars /// 37. apple pie caramel apples /// 38. pumpkin cheesecake bites ///

Cookies

39. whoopie pies withy pumpkin buttercream frosting /// 40. apple almond snail pastries /// 41. pumpkin whoopie pies /// 42. cinnamon apple macarons with apple butter buttercream and tart green apples /// 43. chai pumpkin spiced thumbprints /// 44. pumpkin gingersnap cookies /// 45. caramel stuffed apple cider cookies /// 46. pumpkin ice cream sandwiches ///

Pies & Tarts

47. pumpkin ricotta crostata /// 48. cheater baked apple cuplettes /// 49. baked apple pancake with apple cider syrup /// 50. pecan and chocolate tart /// 51. norman apple tart /// 52. quick & easy apple tart /// 53. pumpkin pie spice /// 54. pumpkin pecan dessert in a jar /// 55. tikvenik, bulgarian pumpkin pastry /// 56. pumpkin chiffon pie ///

Pudding & Trifles

57. simple pumpkin cheesecake trifles /// 58. pumpkin pots de crème with spiced whipped cream /// 59. pumpkin pecan cheesecake pots /// 60. pumpkin leche flan /// 61. pumpkin pudding ///

I hope this provides some inspiration for you this season. What are some of your favorite autumn apple or pumpkin recipes? If you’re like me, it’s hard to choose!!