The 12 best ways to enjoy food on a stick

Does anything say "summer" more than eating food on sticks? Think about it: the family camp out, the backyard BBQ, the playdate cool-down, they all have one thing in common… food enjoyed right off the skewer or stick! Thank you to Kraft this sponsored post to share these awesome food on a stick recipes I can't wait to try.

FACT: Food tastes better on a stick. No, we can’t explain it. But like love or um, magnets, sometimes the best things can’t be explained with logic. On that note, allow me to introduce the 12 best “stick with it!” foods to eat this summer.

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Thank goodness for HoneyBaked Ham this Thanksgiving

By now you probably know how much I love HoneyBaked Ham and how it made me into a ham-lover after 3 decades of turning the stuff away. These days I’m always looking for another reason to visit the store near me and load up on their ham and turkey, and the fact that Thanksgiving is … Read more

All the reasons I love the Ninja 3-in-1 Cooking System

Sponsored postFall is by far my favorite season. It’s still hot enough here in the Pacific Northwest to wear skirts and sandals some days, but then it’s boots and sweaters the next, all under the gorgeous backdrop of changing leaves and fall colors. Just look at my happy harvester, collecting vegetables for the week.  Hello, FallThe one thing that isn’t awesome? Meal planning. With unpredictable weather and high temperatures nearly every afternoon, it makes it hard to plan what kind of meals to make that won’t leave the house sweltering at the end of the day.

When a friend suggested I try slow cooking instead of heating up the oven and making our house unbearably hot, I couldn’t believe how brilliant she was. It turns out I can still have the hearty meals I’ve been pinning, but without making us all miserable by simply using an appliance I typically reserve for winter meals. 

Hello, Ninja 3-in-1 Cooking System! Ninja Cooking System on counter

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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


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.


Honestly Good at Target

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Get your Fruit & Veggie fix at Jamba Juice the summer


Jamba Juice header
Are YOU getting enough fruits and vegetables each day?  If you’re my daughter, the answer is definitely yes.  But, if you’re my son, the answer is probably no.  Since he only eats a few fruits and veggies in their raw state, we have to sneak nutrition into his meals just to get him to eat them. 

Thank goodness I found out the kid looooooves smoothies.  And, not just the fake fruit smoothies you can get at most restaurants, he likes the good stuff, like Jamba Juice.  We recently headed to our local Jamba Juice with a $10 gift card from Moms Meet to try out the kid’s smoothies, and both kids were very excited.


Jamba Juice visit
Having not been into a full size Jamba Juice store for a while now since we typically visit it at the mall, I was surprised by the fact that they had food as well as smoothies.  Since we hadn’t eaten since breakfast and our next stop was the grocery store for something to snack on until I could make an early dinner, I ended up getting a pretzel with cheese Jamba Kids Meal and the two kids split it along with a Jamba Juice Fruit & Veggie smoothie. 

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Ditching the grocery store with Zaycon Foods

Back when I was pregnant with my youngest, I began to detest grocery shopping.  It wasn’t that I was too lazy to go to the grocery store; it had to do more with time than anything else.  Whenever I did have time in my already busy days of hospitals, doctors, preschool, and work, the last thing I wanted to do was take my almost 2 year old to the grocery store {which always took way longer than it should}.

I was thinking of trying grocery delivery services but was worried about what kind of prices I would be forced to pay as well as quality with someone else picking my food.  I was incredibly worried I would be paying premium prices and getting the items they couldn’t push in retail, Zayconfoodsmaking delivery not worth it in the end. 

Even though I’m not pregnant now, I still don’t get excited about loading both kids into the car and spending an hour grocery shopping, so I was really excited when I first heard of Zaycon Foods on Good Morning America. 

 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.


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We Love the Kiddy Platter by Smarty Parents

When you’re talking gear for young children, all parents want the same thing: quality products that truly last.  Well, four years ago we reviewed something called a Piggy Platter here on the site and to this day it’s still one of our most frequently used items in our home.  Four years, people – that’s a … Read more