Food & Cooking Archives - Page 12 of 12

The Zaycon Foods experience

Enough people have asked me about my Zaycon Foods experience this fall that I thought I would share it here so you can see how the whole thing works.

Missed my first post and don't know what Zaycon is? Here's what you need to know:

Zaycon Foods is a fairly new company started here in Washington State two years ago as a means of offering natural, hormone free meats at bulk prices all across the US.Instead of traditional delivery services, Zaycon calls itself a “drive thru” meat market that allows you to order online and then pick up during one of their many events across the US in a matter of minutes – no unloading kids or searching through the grocery store to find the best deals.

Now that you have a bit of background, here's my Zaycon story:

We placed an order with Zaycon for 40lbs of chicken to be delivered in October.
I cleared out freezer space like a mad woman in preparation of 40LBS OF CHICKEN. My family dined on some crazy meals in my clearing spree.
A few days before the chicken event near us, I got reminder emails so I wouldn’t accidentally miss it.
The day of the chicken event, I drove my car to the church where the event was taking place where there were maybe 2 cars in line in front of me. In about 3 minutes I was talking with the Zaycon reps, confirming my delivery, and then accepting my chicken, which came boxed and covered in plastic sheeting to contain any juices that may seep out of the internal packages. I never even got out of the car, and my kids stayed buckled.
Within 5 minutes of arriving, I was leaving the parking lot with my order. That's roughly 10x faster than any grocery store trip with two kids if anyone is wondering.
I drove home and began a 2 hour process in which I packaged the chicken into smaller portions, cleaned up after myself, and then I split the chicken packages in between the fridge and two freezers to store them. All in all, I washed my hands over 50 times in this process because I am absolutely crazy about raw meat – especially chicken.

The only part that I did not like about the process was the last step, as 2 hours is far too long to be dealing with raw meat. If I had to do it all over again {and I definitely will}, I will make sure I have someone here to help me with the chicken once I get it home. If one person had the designated clean hands and the other handled the raw meat, this process would have taken about ¼ of the time as most of the 2 hours was honestly spent scrubbing my hands in between tasks.

Maestro Dobel Tequila for the holidays

During my teens and early twenties, I used to stress about the perfect birthday presents for friends and siblings. But, after age 21, nearly all birthday presents were given in drinks or shots at the bar and gift giving was as easy as hanging out with friends. Then, at some point in the past few years, a few drinks at the bar was replaced with full bottles of the good stuff and we would just swing into a liquor store on the way to celebrate birthdays so we didn’t have to show up empty-handed.

See, growing up isn’t all bad.

Now that I’m coming up on birthday season for our group of friends as well as the holiday season, I know that I can make it as easy or as complicated as I would like. I could go around store to store looking for something for the friends that have everything, or I could do a one-stop shop and grab a few bottles of Maestro Dobel Tequila – no stressing and no wrapping required.

Enjoy a hot lunch anywhere with Lava Lunch

I’ve become quite the expert lunch packer in the past 6 years. I have my method down to an exact science to make sure everyone always has a healthy lunch with all the food groups in it.

My planning starts on Sunday when I wash fruits and veggies, prep cheese and yogurt, and place each into reusable containers in the drawer of our fridge, as well as pre-portion items from the pantry for every day of the week. Then, on the morning of, I’ve got ice packs, a container in the fridge for each family member, and loads of insulated totes at the ready to make lunches only take a few seconds.

But, sometimes those lovingly packed lunches come back to me just exactly as I sent them because hubby or the kids was offered a hot lunch instead. Not that I blame them, there’s something really satisfying about a nice, hot lunch. If I’m being truly honest, I prefer hot over cold lunch any day of the week, especially during the winter.

In fact, I’ve even attempted to send hot lunch once or twice… and, unfortunately, haven’t succeeded yet. So, when I read about Lava Lunch, I was immediately excited about the idea of hot lunch on the go.

Melissa Zimberg, the owner of Lava Lunch, explained that in addition to just being nice on a cold and rainy day, hot foods are also more nutrient dense, have more flavonoids, and are easier to digest. She also described how hot food signals the satiated response sooner, so it also prevents overeating, which makes a lot of sense.

Lava Lunch makes sending a hot and hearty lunch possible without worry of spoiled food or cold and tasteless food. Instead of ice packs, Lave Lunch offers you something not available in other lunch bags – warmth. By combining proprietary insulation and Lava Rocks that provide additional heat, Lava Lunch bags can keep food warm for up to 6 hours, which allows you to pack all sorts of healthy and flavorful foods that were never possible until now.

Gift giving made easy with Uncorked Ventures

More and more of us have friends that are far away these days and I find I’m often sending gift baskets long distances to celebrate weddings, birthdays, and big events. The problem with this is that you usually need to handpick the items yourself, package them in a way that looks beautiful but still ships well, and then pay huge postage fees on top of the cost of the gift itself.

Or, you could go with an Uncorked Ventures gift basket and let them do all the work for you while you accept all the thanks. With collections specifically for chocolate lovers, those who love to cook, and wine lovers, it’s easy to find that perfect set for even the hardest to buy for.

Who doesn’t want an Honestly Good meal in just minutes?

This post is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Pollinate Media Group™ and Lean Cuisine, but all my opinions are my own. #pmedia #HonestlyGood #ad http://cmp.ly/3/8vNxcO.

Back when I had a corporate job, I brought lunch almost every single day. Some days lunch was just what I grabbed as I was running out the door, and some days it was leftovers and lovingly made lunches.

But, the days I really looked forward to were my Lean Cuisine hot lunches, which always felt like a special treat. I would find myself craving Lean Cuisine meals and would even *gasp* opt out of restaurant meals in favor of my favorite meal: Lean Cuisine Pizza.

In addition to being delicious, these Lean Cuisine lunches taught me a lot about portion control and the idea of "not hungry" vs. "stuffed". They ended up being a great tool for me back then and even on the days I ended up eating out or we ordered in, I had trained myself to stop eating when I hit the point I wasn't hungry anymore instead of eating everything I was served.

But, while my days of corporate office life are behind me now, and these days I work from home right next to a fully stocked kitchen, I feel like I need Lean Cuisine meals more than ever. Sitting next to kitchen with a full refrigerator and pantry tricks you into thinking that you will prepare gourmet lunches every afternoon and that you will be able to eat better than ever before, but that hasn’t been the case for me. Instead, I find I’m more rushed than ever with two kids, a job, and a website to run, so lunches for me almost always take a back seat.

This typically means that I skip breakfast most days, graze throughout lunch, and then am starving when dinner rolls around. Even though I’ve made an effort to make healthy choices, I haven’t eaten foods that fill me up enough or feel like a meal. This means I tend to snack in the afternoon and eat more at dinner, which takes a toll after a working at home for 5 years now.

When I heard about the Lean Cuisine Honestly Good meals debuting this year, I decided I needed to make Lean Cuisine part of my weekly meal plan again. With gourmet choices such as Plum Ginger Grain-Crusted Fish and Pomegranate Chicken, I knew I had found a great solution for enjoying a hot lunch in my busy day.

Udi’s gluten free foods for morning, noon, and night {review}

Udis selection
Chances
are you know someone who has gone gluten free, whether it is celiac disease or simply because they feel better without gluten in their diet. My mom and aunt went gluten free back in 2010 and since that time I have met more people than I can count who also made the switch.

For this reason, I always try and keep some gluten free foods on hand when I know I might be entertaining guests with dietary concerns and I always choose Udi's Bakery. With so many gluten free selections ranging from breads and rolls to pizza and tortillas as well as desserts and cookies, Udi's really does have most of the foods I normally serve as well as some decadent treats that we all love.

For instance, this jelly toast, which was supposed to be gluten free peanut butter and jelly toast until someone omitted the PB. Hello, dessert.

Roasted corn appetizer with manchego cheese and lime recipe

A few weeks ago, my cousin took me to one of her favorite Seattle restaurants, Señor Moose in Ballard, to try a corn dish that she adored. The description said roasted corn and epazote with cream, and I had a hard time imagining how that would taste, but I decided to trust her and take a chance. I’m glad that I did, because one bite of their famous Esquites appetizer, and I was sold.

I'm not normally one who likes creamy flavors mixed with citrus, but somehow in the Esquites, it just all blended together perfectly with the sweetness of the corn and the hint of spice. And, even though it's been weeks since I tasted it, I still dream about how delicious it was.

We’ve been playing around with creating a similar recipe here at home by looking up other fresh corn recipes now that our neighbors bring us ears of corn each week. We came up with our own version of the corn appetizer that uses manchego cheese instead of epazote and doesn’t have a cream base and wanted to share it so you can try it with all the fresh corn of the seaon. It’s not as amazing as what's at Señor Moose’s, but I must admit it’s pretty darn good.

Interested in trying it out? Let's get started: