Tag: food

Posted on

Eli’s Cheesecake Giveaway


Eli's Cheesecake2

Eli’s Cheesecake came up with the perfect recipe by selecting only the finest ingredients to hand-decorating and staying up all night to bake their crisp all-butter cookie crusts. Eli Schulman believed baking was an art. So when he created the very first Eli’s Cheesecake as the signature dessert for his award-winning restaurant, Eli’s the Place for Steak, a legend for 39 years, his customers proclaimed it “Chicago’s Finest.” With the same care and dedication demonstrated by Eli himself, The Eli’s Cheesecake Company, a family owned business, has been baking up delicious cheesecakes and other desserts since 1980.

Eli’s Cheesecakes come in a variety of flavors, decorations, and even shapes. This is the perfect way to say I love you to your family. Have a delicious Eli’s Cheesecake delivered directly to your home, the perfect way to say “I Love You!”.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Participating Blogs were not compensated for this post. No purchase is necessary to enter. One entrant per household, per address. Void where prohibited by law. Winner(s) will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. Eli’s Cheescake will be responsible for product shipment to winner of this sweepstakes. This event is in no way administered, sponsored, or endorsed by, or associated with, Facebook and/or Twitter, Google, Pinterest. Contact Joie@networkingperks.com if you have any additional questions or comments.

Posted on

Feed Your Cravings Guilt Free with Tandoor Chef

thefivefish.com, tandoor chef, indian cuisine

I love the new year. Chock full of resolutions most of us cannot keep past February. Most of us fall off the wagon because we start craving the foods we love, ache and sneak in to eat hoping no one saw that whip cream at the edge of our lips. Sticking to your resolution goals shouldn’t be the challenge, you can feed those cravings guilt free with Tandoor Chef. Personally I love great Indian and Thai food…my husband can nail me for it any day of the week, but I can overdo the eating feeling bloated and killing my meal plan. Tandoor Chef is a great on the go, frozen meal option that can help you stay on track with counting those calories without falling off the “diet” wagon. Continue reading “Feed Your Cravings Guilt Free with Tandoor Chef”

Posted on

Spark People Gorton’s Realistic Resolution Challenge Giveaway

gortons, gortons seafood

Gorton’s Seafood is working hard to help start the New Year off right with their Realistic Resolution. With this Resolution it’s a win win situation. You can eat healthier and enjoy Gorton’s Seafood recipes. To kick off the Realistic Resolution they are providing a giveaway on lucky winner with:
2 full-value product coupons, an insulated tote, the SparkPeople cookbook, the Spark book and the SparkPeople Boot Camp DVD

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclaimer: Participating Blogs were not compensated for this post. No purchase is necessary to enter. One entrant per household, per address. Void where prohibited by law. Winner(s) will be contacted by email and have 48 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen. Gorton’s Seafood will be responsible for product shipment to winner of this sweepstakes. This event is in no way administered, sponsored, or endorsed by, or associated with, Facebook and/or Twitter, Google, Pinterest. Contact winterwitch@networkingwitches.com if you have any additional questions or comments.

Posted on

#EatInChallenge Crock Pot Roast Beef Dinner Recipe & Amazon Gift Card Giveaway

TheFiveFish.com, roast beef recipe

January is the month of new challenges, goals, adventures and reboots with our lives. The Five Fish is happy to announce the launch of Networking Perks and their blogger program. With that being said, we are promoting their launch by sharing a great dinner recipe as part of the #EatInChallenge to encourage healthier meals, family time and money savings. Below are the details of the giveaway as well as a wonderful crock pot roast beef dinner recipe to share in your home.

Networking Perks is challenging more families to eat at home with the Eat At Home Challenge. Sitting down and eating together as a family is important; we take this time to disconnect from all the daily noise, technology, and social media, while reconnecting as a family. Meal time is also important that we provide delicious and nutritious meals to eat. Finding the balance between work, day-to-day activities, and meal planning isn’t easy, which is why we at Networking Perks want to start 2015 with the Eat At Home Challenge.

Enter to WIN a $25 Amazon Gift Card while at the same time building your recipe archive with delicious meals. Make 2015 the year of the family. a Rafflecopter giveaway

Winter is in full swing and temps are only dropping further into January. We reach for comfort foodsroast beef, thefivefish.com, #eatinchallenge that are warm, soothing and in some cases are not the best for us health wise. Cold weather does not have to be the bane of our waistlines, this dinner recipe is sure to be a hit and guarantee leftovers for days. Think warm sandwiches.

Roast beef is one of my favorite dishes as it is so tasty and versatile for a variety of meal options. Beef is also easy to prepare and packed with protein and low in fat if chosen under the proper cut. I made this roast in the crock pot and it was divine! Your ingredients are even easier.

  • Top Sirloin Roast (preferred cut with fat still in tact if possible) otherwise a Chuck Roast will do
  • 1 can of diced tomatoes
  • 1 onion, finely chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, diced
  • 3 TBSP gravy mix
  • 3 celery stalks, chopped
  • 3 rainbow carrots, chopped
  • 5 red potatoes, quartered
  • 1 TBSP olive oil
  • No salt seasoning
  • Salt and pepper

TheFiveFish.com, roast beef recipePreparation of the meat is what really makes this dish. Pat dry the roast and then season with salt and pepper and let sit for about 30 minutes to reach room temperature. This allows the blood to settle into the meat and keeps the roast extra juicy.

If your roast still has the fat attached, score it. Criss-cross score the fatty side to ensure that the fat is browned and can maintain the tenderness and taste of the meat.

Heat a pan on medium heat with oil and brown each side, focusing on the fatty side. Once the meat is browned place into your crock pot. Sprinkle the gravy mixture over the meat. Pour the entire contents of the tomatoes can into the crock pot over the meat. Add in the vegetables minus the potatoes, cover and allow to cook for 3-4 hours on high heat, reduce heat the last two hours and add potatoes.

Serve with bread and butter for that true comfort food feeling. Leftovers for days, make a wonderful roast beef sandwich, get creative!

We served our roast beef accompanied with mashed cauliflower and sided with fresh baby spinach. Enjoy! Please be sure to enter the giveaway for a $25 Amazon Gift card.

Posted on

The Wellness Kitchen

As we embark into the new year many of us are gearing up to execute on our new resolutions. One of your resolutions may be to wrangle your health which means taking hold of the foods we eat. Wellness begins in the kitchen. We do not lose weight by fitness alone, our bodies are living machines that process foods for optimal performance. However, we often go on fad diets for quick results and then experience a boomerang affect where the weight returns. Continue reading “The Wellness Kitchen”

Posted on

$25 Amazon GC Giveaway Eat At Home Challenge #EatInChallenge

January-Eat-In-Challenge-877x1024Networking Perks is seeking bloggers to join the Eat At Home Challenge. Sitting down and eating together as a family is important; we take this time to disconnect from all the daily noise, technology, and social media, while reconnecting as a family. Meal time is also important that we provide delicious and nutritious meals to eat. Finding the balance between work, day-to-day activities, and meal planning isn’t easy, which is why we at Networking Perks want to start 2015 with the Eat At Home Challenge.

We are looking for bloggers to sign up for a January Eat At Home Challenge – Blog Hop; if successful, this event will be repeated monthly. Here’s how it will work:

Each blogger will provide their own recipe for a meal (any meal) or dessert along with their own, original photo. From there we will supply you with the post, linky for the hop and HTML for the giveaway. You got it! A giveaway! We will be providing a $25 Amazon Gift Card for Giveaway.

This is a FREE Event with a single Twitter link. If you would like additional links included in the giveaway and event, they are available for a fee (purchase).

Sign Up Here! http://bit.ly/1zNTmAy

Dates: 01/05/15 to 01/31/15

Open: USA/Canada excluding Quebec

Must provide a recipe to Mr. Linky with original photo for participation and post on time. Must promote a minimum of 3x weekly using #EatInChallenge hashtag.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Posted on

Make Your Own Peanut Butter with Blendtec

Since our society has become all about convenience and fast food many of us have strayed from making our own goods. Needless to say a good portion of time goes into making and manufacturing our own foods and food items. However, something can be said for homemade without all the added chemicals, preservatives and sugar. One of our favorite appliances to use is our Blendtec blender; fabulous for smoothies, salsas, and I even made a cake in this little machine. So I wanted to make something a bit extra special this year in my blender, I fancied making my own peanut butter with my Blendtec. Continue reading “Make Your Own Peanut Butter with Blendtec”

Posted on

Al Fresco Gourmet #ChickenAndTheEgg

Some decisions are truly hard to decipher. For example, what came first, the chicken or the egg? Luckily we have super geniuses like Neil DeGrasse Tyson to answer our questions of the cosmos. So for the more down to Earth questions concerning food choices and better for you foods, what do you look to put on your table? My family is all about organic, some gluten free (I like to expose my kids to a wide variety of flour and food options), and whole foods that are minimally processed without chemical additives or preservatives. We have found that many meat products have the most amount of processing and additives, but we found a real gem: al fresco all natural.

al fresco all natural has over two-dozen gourmet, healthy chicken products, ranging from Wild Blueberry breakfast sausage to fully cooked Sweet Italian chicken sausage to Tomato & Basil chicken meatballs. Each of the chicken sausage varieties has 70% less fat and 35% less sodium than pork products, and they’re all gluten free.

chicken sausageMy family received a package of the frozen, fully cooked, breakfast chicken sausage links in Country Style and Apple Maple. Needless to say the maple was a real hit with The Chad and the twins. Big G was a fan of the country style and preferred this for sure in his brinner.

Oh yes, did I mention we made brinner with these? Brinner = Breakfast +Dinner

A family favorite for dinner, breakfast. Why slave away making an extravagant dinner when you can have all the excellent food groups in dinner. We made a breakfast scramble of which the pictures I tried to obtain were limited because dinner was such a hit in my house. We warmed these frozen links in the frying pan (just a preference over heating in the microwave) and cut them into bite size pieces.

Here is our full recipe:

1 package al fresco Country Style frozen chicken sausage
4 whole eggs + 1 c egg whites, all scrambled together
Diced red and green bell peppers
Diced red onions
Spinach (optional, but I love me some raw spinach!)

Heat links in pan until warmed thoroughly, remove from pan and dice into bit size chunks. Pour egg mixture with diced vegetables in the pan, just before eggs are completely finished cooking add in the chunks of sausage to rewarm. Toss around in pan until all egg is completely cooked and serve atop a bed of spinach. VOILA! Enjoy.

Upon further inspection of the ingredients here is the low down to really solidify the minimally processed, all natural, whole foods aspect:

SKINLESS CHICKEN MEAT, CONTAINS 2% OR LESS OF WATER, SALT, SUGAR, SPICES, SAGE, THYME, NATURAL FLAVORINGS.

That’s it! Those are all the ingredients which I can get behind when feeding my family. I know exactly what they are eating and I am not having to try to decipher some scientifically assigned  word for the creation of my food. If you need a PhD in chemical engineering to read your food label we might have a problem.

While I said that’s it, we really aren’t done yet! You see, al fresco launched a recipe sweepstakes called #ChickenAndTheEgg that runs until December 31 of this year. All you need to do is submit your all star recipe to be entered to win on January 5, 2015 a free breakfast for four ($200 value) AND a year’s supply of al fresco chicken sausage (16 packages). Here’s how you can enter to win:

  •  Share a photo on Instagram of your best al fresco chicken sausage and egg breakfast recipe with #ChickenANDtheEgg.
  • Tag the @alfrescogourmet Instagram account.
  • Follow the @alfrescogourmet Instagram account.

Want to know where you can find al fresco products? Just do a quick search of retailers in your area. Take advantage of the #ChickenAndTheEgg recipe sweeps we would love to see your recipes and photos all over Instagram. I know a lot of you visit us for recipe ideas, let’s see your hidden gems for recipe ideas. al fresco keeps laying on the awesomeness (ha ha get it…laying…laying eggs…I digress) to have you share your recipes. Until the end of January, if you buy two packages of al fresco breakfast chicken sausages at any store, you will receive a FREE carton of eggs. Chicken sausage + free eggs allows you to make breakfast (or dinner) better.

Posted on

Vegan Snowman Snacks

Holidays are my favorite time of year for baking and cooking. My kids are always wanting some sweet treat for themselves or to share. Mix up a bag of fun for the holidays – no cooking required! With just a few vegan candies and snacks, plastic baggies and a festive tag that you can download and print, you can make these cute snack bags that are perfect stocking stuffers, secret Santa bonuses or class treats!

Supplies

plastic baggies

label/gift tag (free download)

Ingredients

Dandies vegan mini marshmallows

pretzel sticks

vegan chocolate chips

red licorice

almonds

goji berries

Instructions

Toss a handful of each ingredient into a plastic baggie. Seal the top. Download, print, and cut out the gift label. Fold, and staple the label to the top of each sealed baggie.

Posted on

Monk Fruit In the Raw

monk fruit in the raw, #intherawparty

As a mom who is extremely health conscious of sugar intake in my kids diet I am always on the look out for healthy alternatives. Plant based sweeteners and naturally occurring sweeteners like honey, agave, and maple syrup are a go to with my recipes. I recently signed up to review Monk Fruit in the Raw sweetener as an alternative to sugar.

monk fruit in the raw, #intherawpartyI really had no expectations for the product. To be honest I am out of touch with a good portion of mainstream so I was okay going into this totally blind. More so were my guests who were also blind to the fact I was having a party featuring the product. We held a dinner party where Monk Fruit in the Raw was the guest of honor, showcased without a tremendous production, that’s how we roll.

My honest opinion was that it resembled Splenda. Light, fluffy, not very sugar like, with the exception of the white color of standard bleached sugar and I didn’t get that feeling that this was a solid sugar alternative. While the packaging indicates that it is a plant based, my opinion wasn’t that this was “all that” for plant based sweeteners. The ingredients are monk fruit extract and dextrose which is grape sugar.monk fruit in the raw, #intherawparty

Even though this is not a “Splenda” or sugar alternative like saccharin, the overall consistency reminded me of Splenda, saccharin, not anything I would probably use on a consistent basis. I am a texture person and if the texture looks processed and unnatural I just cannot get behind it.

The product overall was great and easy to use. Measuring spoon for spoon like sugar.

monk fruit in the raw, #intherawpartyMy guests were ever gracious and asked the same questions I did about the Monk Fruit and were willing to give it a go. The packaging was great and the men had a blast tossing it around like a football. The Monk Fruit in the Raw branded bags were also a hit for my party goers to take home with their sample, recipe cards and coupons.

Overall the party and product was a hit and definitely room for conversation with the fact this is a plant based product that resembles Splenda. I want to thank In The Raw for the great samples of Monk Fruit In the Raw to share with my party guests and family.

Disclaimer: The Five Fish was not compensated for this post, while product was received opinions shared here are my own or were obtained at the permission of those who attended the event. This event is not administered, sponsored, endorsed by, or associated with, Facebook, Twitter, Google, Pinterest. Contact karie@thefivefish.com if you have additional questions or concerns.