Fruti Natural Fruit Bars and the Ultimate Smoothie

May 14, 2013 by 8 Comments

Fruti Natural Fruit Bars and the Ultimate Smoothie 

I will admit I am a fan of junk food, but I am making a conscious effort to have cleaner options and snacks in our home.  I am cutting out all of the processed junk I tend to purchase.  Easier said than done, I know.

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Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

We made a trip to Sams Club yesterday and one of my main purposes was to shop healthier.  I say this all the time, but conscious shopping is the best way to do it.  My number one priority is to read labels and don’t go to store when we are hungry, or craving junk food.  I had a goal to replace our desserts in our home with a frozen option that is refreshing, healthy and my family would really enjoy.  We found the Fruti natural fruit bars 16 count variety box and I was immediately excited to get home and try these delicious flavors out.  Nothing says summer time more than a cold Pina Colada, Strawberry,  Strawberry Cream and Caribbean Mix.

shopping for the fruti frozen fruit bars at sams club Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

Once home I made a quick purge of my freezer, to see what we should throw out.  My momma always said don’t trash food, but junk food that my family shouldn’t be eating is an exception, right?!  All those guilty pleasures are filled with extra sugar and added colors my family doesn’t need.  We brought home the Chunks O’ Fruti Natural Fruit Bars that are packed with real chunks of fruit in each bar with no added colors, flavors, no high fructose corn syrup and Non-GMO verified bars.  The 100% natural bars are the perfect replacement.

replacing our frozen junk food with fruti frozen fruit bars from sams club Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

Now the taste test!  My littlest was excited to get his hands on a bar and with the weather reaching 80 degrees yesterday it was a nice cool treat for him after coming inside from a tiring playtime.  He decided on the Caribbean Mix.  Check out all that fruit you can see in that bar. My little guy was a little intimidated by the fruit in the bar.  He chose to eat around it at first but soon he did dig into the fruit chunks and chew them up.   The fruit is not chewy and is actually more of the same texture in the frozen bar and broke up quite easily.

Trying out the all natural Fruti Caribbean fruit bars Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

For myself I chose to try the recipe for making smoothies with your Fruti Natural Fruit Bars.  Recipes on the box, but I did cut it down a bit to make a single drink for myself.  With three easy steps and a few minutes I was able to whip up a smoothie.  I made a  16 oz drink to take along with me to my sons late afternoon baseball game.  (The recipe called for 4 bars mixed together).  I decided to mix one Pina Colada and one Strawberry Cream bar with ice and water in a blender.

fruti, frozen fruit bar, natural fruit bars, made into smoothie drink mixes Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

And tada in a few minutes I had this luscious refreshing Fruti Natural Fruit Bars drink.  Perfect for taking along with me in a travel cup.  I was very surprised at how flavorful, sweet and refreshing this smoothie is.  It is the perfect smoothie blend and I shared with my husband and he is now asking for his own smoothie today.  These Fruti bars are proving to not last long around here.  They are a hit in our home.

Fruti Natural Fruit Bars smoothie drink strawberry pina colada

All in all we are very impressed with these tasty treats they are healthy tasty alternatives to the junk I was keeping in my freezer and taste great.

To see my entire experience in pictures and the recipe to my smoothie visit my google + album.

Fruti Natural Fruit Bars

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Key Ingredient Recipe Reader

May 9, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Key Ingredient Digital Wifi Recipe Reader

Just in time for Mother’s Day we are hosting the Key Ingredient Recipe Reader giveaway.
Disclosure: Thanks to Key Ingredient for sponsoring this giveaway. I received product in exchange.
reader-header

The Key Ingredient Recipe Reader is a new age touchscreen digital cookbook.

It’s kitchen safe – no worries if it catches a spill.  The digital cookbook has a number of great options for your kitchen.  It allows you to keep all of your favorite recipes at your fingertips and also has the ability to surf the site and add recipes from the keyingredient.com. The site offers millions of recipes submitted by keyingredient.com users.  With the ability to search for common substitute’s to ingredients you may not have on hand. The recipe reader has a complete list of common kitchen substitutions.The recipe reader also comes complete with three built-in timers and a conversion chart calculator to aid in your meals.   The recipe reader also comes complete with wifi to sync perfectly with your Key Ingredient account.

Connect with Recipe Reader on facebook and twitter.

Just in time for Mother’s Day (1) lucky reader will score there very own Recipe Reader.

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Chicken Fries & Avocado Ranch Dip

April 8, 2013 by 14 Comments

 Chicken Fries & Avocado Ranch Dip

I’m a mom to a pre-teen wah…  between his man-like always hungry eating habits and his busy after school schedule,  my kid is growing up way too fast .  I have to be prepared for 5 days a week of afternoon chaos.

After school snacks, early dinners before practice and then an after we get home meal.

That’s a  lot of eating for a good 5 hour time span, but my active pre-teen is always starving.

Homestyle Chicken Fries with avocado ranch dip

The pressed for time chaos means I need to get creative with meals that will satisfy his hunger and keep me out of the kitchen long enough to do other things.  Enter my monthly trip to Sams Club to restock for the perfect creative snack and dinner meals for my family of five.  I have to say one of my kids favorite parts of Sams shopping is the in-store taste demos.  Friday was no exception to the in-store demos.  We made our way to my favorite part of Sams {the freezer section} for a few pop in the oven meals.  Homestyle chicken fries was all the rage.  They look like french fries and what kid can pass up fries.  The breaded chicken fries makes a great  meal in itself and snack.

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Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

April 5, 2013 by 5 Comments

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin Recipe

My boys and husband love breakfast.  And not a bagle or bowl of cereal, they want a big breakfast with eggs, bacon, biscuits… I’m not much of a breakfast person and am good with a slice of toast at most.  Getting in the kitchen first thing in the morning is not very fun either.  So today I bring you one of my favorite easy meals that combines everything my family loves without all the work.  I have been seeing pictures of these egg style muffins floating around the internet, so I had to try and create them myself.

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

We have been making them here for a few weeks and they are always a huge hit with the kids, maybe more along the lines of epic.  They love the “mini meal” and it reminds them of cupcakes.  I love that it is a throw together style meal and I can whip these together  fast.  The prep takes 5 minutes and cook time is 30.  Cook time allows for you to do all those more important morning tasks instead of hovering over a stove…love!!

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin ingredients

For our family of 5, I make 8 muffins, the little guys only eat one a piece. But you can adjust to how many you want and need for your family.  My husband and older son usually have two maybe three.  You will need a Bacon slice for each muffin, eggs (use  6 eggs -for 8 muffins), shredded cheese of your choice, cooking spray and muffin tin.

Preheat oven 350 degrees.

Spray a good layer of cooking spray on the tin, to keep everything from sticking.  Place one strip of bacon in a ring in each muffin.  (I don’t cover the bottom, just the inner ring.)  Whisk eggs in a bowl and fill each bacon filled muffin tin about 3/4 full.  Sprinkle with your favorite shredded cheese ( I love a good cheddar cheese or mozzarella.

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

Place in oven 30 minutes.

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

And done.  Pop them out with a fork.

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

And serve!  These would be great for a pot luck breakfast

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin

Bacon Egg and Cheese Muffin Recipe.

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Dole Fruit Parfait Cups

April 1, 2013 by 6 Comments

Dole fruit parfait cups review

The temptation of a sweet treat, gets me daily.  I must say my littlest has quite the sweet tooth himself.  We all know I am very conscious of what we eat at home.  I am frequently adding to my families quest on how to stop eating junk food.  Fruit cups are my savior for little D.  He took to fruit quite early in his first year, so I often stash fruit cups in our diaper bag and have them on hand for any constant snack times.

I have come across the DOLE Fruit Parfait cups before, but wasn’t sure how the crème would go over.  We finally had the opportunity to try them out and with the DOLE Fruit Parfaits being all natural fruit cups rich in Vitamin C, naturally low fat, cholesterol free and low in sodium, I was happy to give them a try.

My oldest boys wanted to have nothing to do with them at first sight.  But when I showed them the apple and crème cups opened they both couldn’t resist and gave them a try. My husband and I gave the pineapple and crème a try while D had the peaches and crème.

dole fruit parfait cups

My first thought was the pineapple was a little tart.  But after mixing the crème all together in the cup I was happily amazed with the light and refreshing taste.  I will add that the cups for our family were best eaten cold out of the refrigerator.  Our first tries eating them we all thought they would be better cold, so we stuck them all in the fridge and had them after dinner.   My husband enjoyed his “not mixed” together  also.  He used the crème like an added treat with each spoonful.  D wasn’t to fond of the peaches alone but once mixed all together,  he could tell the difference and went for more.   AJ and Brody loved the apple and  crème most and both agreed they were a great snack.

In all we are adding the Dole Parfait cups to our pantry snacks.  The Apple and pineapple where by far favored more in our home.  Everyone enjoyed them and had there favorite way of eating them.

Dole Fruit Parfait cups review on a thirfty diva surviving mommy hoodDOLE Fruit Parfait cups are available in three flavors and found in the canned fruit section in your grocery store and online.

Pineapple and Cème

Apples and Crème

Peaches and Crème

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Disclaimer: I am part of the Mom It Forward blogger network. Mom It Forward and DOLE partnered in support of this campaign. DOLE compensated me for participation in this campaign. However, all thoughts and opinions are my own. 

Dole Fruit Parfait cups

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What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs

April 1, 2013 by 2 Comments

What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs? We have two-dozen hard boiled eggs sitting in the fridge from Easter. Now what?  We have pulled together 10 ideas to using up all those eggs.  Also a few facts and how do you know if those eggs are good.

What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs? After Easter recipes

The hard boiled egg facts:

Excellent Source: Choline Good Source: Protein and Vitamin D Calories: 72 Total Fat: 5g

Protein: 6g  Vitamin A: 270IU  Vitamin D: 41IU  Folate: 23.5mcg  Calcium: 28mg  Iron: 0.9mg  Choline: 125.6mg

What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs?  Discard bad eggs.

  • If any hard boiled dyed eggs stayed out of the refrigerator for longer than two 2 hours.  If you are unsure it is best to toss them.
  • Any cracked shells should be discarded.

What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs? How to use them:

  • Pack a healthy lunch with a hard boiled egg a stick of cheese and a deli style sandwich.
  • Slice up as a side with any meal.
  • Chocolate chip cookies- Yes a few hard boiled eggs as ingredients to yummy cookies, I am trying this one tonight.
  • Cupcakes – With hard boiled egg whites, Scroll to bottom of cookie recipe, to see how to make this.
  • Bacon and Egg stuffed tomatoes – a take on a deviled egg.  How about a deviled tomato for an appetizer.
  • Cob salad – easy salad, fresh ingredients. 
  • Egg salad – Everyone loves a good egg salad sandwich, make this ahead of time and have an easy after school snack. 
  • Deviled Eggs – Use these for a side dish.
  • Red Potato Salad – I never get tired of a good side dish of potato salad.  Try a fresh take on potato salad with red potatoes
  • Homemade Mashed potatoes – If you have never added a few chopped up boiled eggs to your homemade mash – try this tonight.  The eggs add a great texture.

What to do with Hard Boiled Eggs, what are your go to recipes?

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