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Showing posts from October, 2016

Kasandrinos Organic Olive Oil - Add This to Your Pantry [Review + Giveaway]

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I love olive oil. I think it's one of those things that aren't in my diet enough. I put it on everything too! Beans and rice meals, variety of rice dishes, pasta, you name it.  So I had the chance to try some by Kasandrinos. It comes from South Eastern Greece and their olive oil is Certified Organic. What I like about them is their olive oil is fresh. They only sell from the current year's harvest. And I also appreciate that they describe their process in vivid details on their site . Plus, it's a small family business! Made by brother and sister team, Tony and Effi Kasandrinos. Read more about their story as well.  The flavor of this olive oil is excellent . It tasted wonderful and I really appreciate that the bottle was dark (this helps protect the olive oil! The bottle is supposed to be dark to help protect it from the light!). The grocery store olive oil just doesn't compare to this, I can tell you that's for sure.  The 500ML is about $2

Peanut Butter Recipe Round Up [Plus a Giveaway!] #SantaCruzOrganic #Recipes

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Anyone else really excited about this time of year? I swear I get so much more inspired to try new recipes and things like that when the weather gets cooler and all these fun holidays start coming up! So I had the chance to try out some of Santa Cruz Organic's amazing peanut butter and fruit spreads and I can't wait to share some great recipe ideas with you guys! Santa Cruz Organics is really one of my favorite brands of peanut butter. It's organic and I love the fact that the ingredients are really healthy, no strange oils or added sugars. This means so much to me as I really strive to eat healthy. Plus it just makes for a better experience, especially if you use peanut butter in a recipe. Amazingly enough Santa Cruz Organic doesn't JUST offer peanut butter, they have over 60 organic items  ranging from fruit juices, lemonades to sauces, syrups and fruit spreads. Isn't that amazing? Plus, it's also Non-GMO Project Verified. That's VERY import

Wild Friends Foods - Tasty Peanut Butter!

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I had the chance to try out a couple of different types of peanut butter by Wild Friends Foods. I was so happy to try something new like this, I hadn't heard of this company before. The pretty cool thing is that it's semi-local to me, based in Oregon. The owners of Wild Friends Foods made peanut butter due to a craving they had one night in college and rather than going out to buy some, they made some! How's that for inventive? One cool thing is that they are organic and non-GMO. I am gluten-free so that was the only small tiny bummer that they have the little warning that they make their peanut butter in the same place where they process wheat. So just keep that in mind if you are really impacted by cross-contamination. But I had the chance to try out their regular peanut butter and my brother tried out their Honey Pretzel Peanut Butter. I really enjoyed their regular peanut butter! It's creamy and I appreciated the fact that there isn't anything extra wei

Stock Up Your Gluten Free Snack Stash with Glutino!

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Glutino is such a staple for gluten-free brands and offer a great variety of snacks! I had the chance to try some of their snacks and some we're new, even to me! Here's a look at some of the loot I got to try out - I really enjoyed these snacks! By the way, if you haven't tried it, I highly recommend their gluten-free english muffins. They are amazing and they taste just like regular bread. Also I ended up making canadian bacon and swiss cheese sandwiches (put in the oven or toaster oven for a few minutes!) with these for breakfast and they were SO good. Also I got the chance to try their fudge covered pretzels and their salted caramel pretzels. The salted caramel pretzels were so good I forgot to take a picture of them. They were that amazing. I can't wait to see them in the grocery store. I also enjoyed the fudge pretzels but not as much amazingly enough. They also offered up some really tasty cookies that I put in the fridge for a wh

Gluten-Free Snacks & Rice Entrees by Lundberg [Review + Giveaway]

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I've long since been a fan of the Lundberg's brown rice, but I really had no idea that they had so many other products out there that I should try! So I couldn't wait to share about my experience with a few products of theirs that was very new for me.  First of all, I loved LOVED their Sweet Dreams Chocolate Covered Rice Cakes. This is my new favorite treat and I highly recommend trying these out. I slathered some peanut butter on top and YUM YUM YUM. There isn't too much of a layer of chocolate and I appreciated that (I didn't feel too guilty afterward!). It's just enough to satisfy your taste buds. The Sea Salt Rice Chips made for an excellent snack. I love the texture of the rice chips, not that heavy and also very light.  Also I tried the Lundberg Thin Stackers Rice Cakes and since then I've bought them a couple of times. I'm usually not too keen on rice cakes in general, but I liked these way more than I expected. These kinds ar

Stubb's Barbecue Sauce - Excellent Sauces for Cooking! [Review]

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I had the opportunity to review some barbecue sauce by Stubb's BBQ sauce. Well, you've likely seen this sauce in the store and if you have ever wondered what it was like, well I hope I can convince you to try it. This is good stuff. Did you know there's a pretty cool story behind the sauce? Well, C.B. Stubblefield (or also known as Stubb's) got his first chance at cooking for other people as a "mess sargeant in the US Army." After the Army, he moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he created the official Stubb's Legendary Bar-B-Q. It wasn't long until his restaurant and food and sauce drew a following. In the 80s, he moved his restaurant to Austin, Texas, and his restaurant became a famous stomping ground for celebrities, singers, and even presidents. When he went to perform on the David Letterman show, he handed out the sauce and told Letterman it was made from "Love and happiness." I paraphrased a lot of this story so I highly recommend you

Celebrate Fall with Hallmark [Review + Giveaway] #LoveHallmark

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Fall is officially here! Doesn't it feel like the summer just started? Well, I really enjoy this time of year a lot and I'm so happy that it's year. This season is definitely one of my favorites - it reminds me of new starts (cause of the school season) and just good times with family (Thanksgiving!). It's also such a pretty time of year with the leaves changing. It always smells good this time of year too, a lot of good cooking happens and it makes everything smell so good. Speaking of scents, I had the chance to try out some amazing things by Hallmark that I can't wait to share with you. Best of all, I get to giveaway a 16 ounce fall scented candle to one of my lucky readers. I had the chance to review the Crafters & Co. Tabletop Wax Warmer and Wax Melts . I did this on a night that I decided to make oatmeal muffins and so when I got the wax warmer, I set it up and put it one of the wax melts. I loved how this smelled - LOVED IT. You know, it just m

Luv Michael Granola - A Tasty Snack Option for Your Day #luvmichael #luvmichaelco

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I love granola. I swear thanks to gluten-free oats, Granola is a hugely important part of my day. I had the chance to try out a little bit of this new kind of granola and I was so happy to give this a try! The company is called, "Luv Michael" and it's a pretty special company too. You'll see why.  It started on as a home business almost a year ago, September 2015, to make gluten-free and nut-free granola. Now they are in 30 stores across the New York area. I think that's so impressive! They train, educate and hire people with Autism. They work with autism specialists to develop a curriculum (based on the New York State food handler's license) and are dedicated to teaching all aspects of a small business to those they employer. Like their site says, this is a labor of love! I love supporting companies that do good works like this, so be sure to read up about them on their website. So, I had the chance to try out a little bit of their granola and I wa

Kinnikinnik's Gluten-Free Donuts - Amazing Things Are Happening [Review & Giveaway]

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So, following a pretty stressful day, I came home and got a pretty cool delivery. And you know what they were? Donuts! By this company called Kinnikinnik. Not feeling the donut vibe, I put them in the freezer and didn't think about it. Several hours later, as I made an extremely late breakfast, I took the plunge. So I heated them up in the microwave for about a minute. And plopped a couple next to my scrambled eggs. Oh my goodness you guys. These are some amazing donuts. See, the funny thing is, these donuts came at the weirdest time. Two days prior a coworker told me, "Gluten-free donuts aren't good!" And you know what? They were SO wrong. These donuts were amazing. Just adorable little rounds of goodness.  They weren't the usual HUGE donuts you may see in the bakery, but that was fine by me, because I think they tasted awesome. You get about 6 donuts that are about the size of a mini bagel in one package. And they taste amazing. I am SO hap