Shamrock Farms is gearing up to celebrate Halloween in a hauntingly healthy fashion with a family-friendly event down on the Farm. Aside from meeting 10,000 cows, guests are invited to wear their costumes, trick or treat and enjoy chocolate milk, all while meeting Roxie, Shamrock Farms lovable spokescow, and famous Peanuts characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Sally! Especially since chocolate milk is the official drink of Halloween. Treat your bones with Chocolate Milk, the Official Drink of Halloween, a nutritious beverage in disguise that Mom can feel good about during this candy-filled holiday! As with any sweet indulgence, in moderation and mom’s can feel better about a cold glass of calcium filled chocolate milk as opposed to tooth rotting sweets that can wreak havoc on our kids.
This Halloween event falls on Saturday October 29th, and at Shamrock Farms in the southeast valley heading towards Tucson we will be honoring our “kids ride FREE†deal (with adult admission) so this is an awesome added value event for families to enjoy with kids being FREE. Attendees will also receive a FREE milk and will be able to trick or treat along the tour.
Roxie Costume Party at the Farm: Saturday, Oct. 29, 2011 (3 tours offered)
Visit the Cold Room – Not counting school milk, Shamrock Farms stores 930,000 bottles of chocolate milk in its Cold Room on a WEEKLY basis where 1,330 pallets are loaded and over 1.8 million chocolate school milk containers (stored weekly) are handled at the farm.
Production – Shamrock Farms produces more than 200,000 gallons of chocolate milk every week which equals to about 3.2 millions cups of milk each week.
In addition to celebrating the Halloween special, come celebrate Arizona’s 100th birthday, we’ll be having special Centennial activities at the Farm! There’ll be an enhanced tour featuring Arizona’s history and every guest during our 2011 season will receive a commemorative band with admission celebrating Arizona’s Centennial and Arizona’s hometown dairy.
More than 10,000 cows are standing by, ready to make our farm tour a real hands-on experience for kids of all ages. With interactive displays, games and a tram ride, it’s a cornucopia of family-focused and educational activities for the whole herd.
Sunday mornings are my time to give the man of the house a break and I whip up some of my culinary favorites in the morning for the family. Albeit egg nog french toast or pumpkin pancakes for the coming of fall, but lately we have tickled our taste buds for a bit more of the boring meets eccentric type of cuisine.
A little cafe by my office serves up a WICKED breakfast pizza, it is all sorts of unhealthy with garlic, olive oil, bacon, you name it and this breakfast pizza is topped with the heart stopping additives. While I wanted to copy this recipe of sorts I did not want to steal their thunder nor the replica of the food, I wanted to put a Herring organic spin. Of which I did!
Half dozen organic flour tortillas (super easy to make with organic flour too!)
Morning Star Vegan Sausage
Diced/cubed ham
(yes this is available in organic, you have to hunt for it)
Six Eggs, scrambled
(I add a touch of water while scrambling to make these babies extra fluffy)
Shredded Cheese (to taste)
On a large baking sheet or baking stone, place tortillas flat, topping with the above and add cheese to taste. You can mix up the ingredients and add bacon and or pork sausage, we went for a lower calorie and I love Morning Star sausage due to the vegan component for my kids. Place in oven at 350 degrees until the cheese melts to be sure not to overcook the eggs and meat and serve. My kids loved this new spin on pizza and breakfast.
But what I can tell you is how you can avoid food poisoning which is by avoiding the famed Taco Mac restaurant. Curse you Taco Mac and your 130 beers on tap and your buffalo wings. But those cursed wings are what made me ill. Next time I am in Atlanta, I will be avoiding Taco Mac, sad….they were so good going down.
How do you get your kids and family to eat more fiber in their diet? How do you get more fiber in their diet without all the nasty taste?
The answer is Barilla’s Piccolini Rich in Fiber Pasta.
Personally I love and adore whole grain, whole wheat, off colored pasta, but I am not alone in my household and let’s face it, I am outnumbered 4:1 when it comes to choosing what is for dinner.
NEW Piccolini Rich in Fiber – White.
It looks and tastes just like regular
pasta but with 3X more fiber!
Play hide and seek with fiber!
Piccolini created a whole range of white fiber pasta that looks and tastes just like regular pasta but with 3x more fiber.
Introducing Piccolini Rich in Fiber – White
• Contains 3x more fiber than regular pasta
• Provides 30% of daily whole grains (per 100g serving)
• Looks and tastes like regular pasta
Creating your favorite pasta meals without adding additional vegetables and or fiber additives is a great way to get your daily dose of fiber without the after taste or off taste that may be accompanied by whole grain, whole wheat types of pastas or the gripes and complains that come from picky eaters.
One of my favorite recipes is a chicken de Provence with pasta, fresh grilled chicken and summer vegetables tossed with a dash of olive oil and Parmesan cheese. Not only do my kids love to eat this dish, but little do they know it is loaded in great nutritional value.
So try Piccolini rich in fiber pasta for your next meal and share your tastes and recipes. Visit the Barilla site for more details and recipe ideas.
This is a sponsored post on behalf of Barilla, I was compensated for my time by posting this information and in no way were my personal views compromised or altered.
My husband took my family’s favorite household meal, Mexican food, and put a new spin on our favorite of chicken enchilada’s. I have been making this recipe for years. Our dear family friend Mary Herrera, taught me authentic Mexican cuisine. Salt over the shoulder, a small prayer to God and she won my heart by showing me that cooking is about love and making wonderful food for the ones you love. However my love for culinary adventure has been limited due to my working schedule which does not permit me the opportunity to cook as much. The Chad has been taking over the role as family chef and when we made my recipe,”lazy girls way to make enchilada’s” as Mary called it, I was in heaven, as were the kids.
My husband made “Man-chilada’s” as we called it that night, they were the best grilled chicken enchilada’s anyone could ask for and I hope you enjoy as much as we did that night for dinner.
4 large chicken breasts, slow grilled
Tortillas, small, corn or flour, about 8 0r so
1c. Sour Cream
1 can Cream of Chicken soup
1/2 can of Green Chile Enchilada sauce
2 small cans green chile
2c. shredded Colby Jack cheese (or more if desired)
1/2 c. chopped red onion, black olives (to taste, if desired)
My husband’s beautiful secret is the slow grilling of the chicken in this recipe as well as topping with onions and black olives to really give this dish some zing!
After the chicken is cooked all the way through, shred, and mix together the wet ingredients (sour cream, soup, sauce). Slowly add the chicken to the mixture. Shred the tortillas to cover the bottom of the baking dish. We like the 13×9 baking dish for lots of food to go around. Spread around the tortillas, spread the sauce and chicken mixture creating a layer, add a bit of shredded cheese to the top. Do this again and again, creating layers until all of the sauce and chicken mixture is used. Top finally with tortillas again and cover with cheese. Bake at 350 degrees until all the cheese is melted. Cut and serve. Garnish with chopped cabbage, red onions and black olives.
So I have become more of an aficionado for the raw and vegetable based meals. Blessed be my love affair for organic, supporting local food co-ops, and VOILA! Fabulous family meals. My last offering with Bountiful Baskets pleasured my palette with an assortment of fragrant and beautiful baby peppers. These baby bell peppers are crunchy, sweet and a wonderful snack. Here is a great recipe for a snack, lunch or dinner option.
Now I have seen these little vitamin C filled cuties all over Costco and the farmer’s market and I see folks purchasing them and I knew a recipe had to exist outside of a Cacciatore. Don’t get me wrong, I love a hearty Italian meal, but the Irish in me screams for rich, filling, sticks to your bones where you didn’t know you had bones meal for very little. Something I have become accustomed to as a single income household is how my strong Irish descent has offered me creative ways of making a lot out of a little. Or maybe that fact that I am a finance guru with a way to dissect the bits and pieces. Oh I digress.
The peppers. The sweet, full of bite, tangy, orange, yellow and red baby peppers. What to do. So I sought out the net to expand my palette of culinary fare. But I did not want an extravagant amount of time exerted to make a delightful dish either as a light main summer meal or lunch time snack. Furthermore, I wanted to utilize my refrigerator and pantry to it’s fullest in order to stretch my ever weakened dollar. And my creation was such:
1-2 dozen baby peppers, washed and seeded
2T. red onions sauteed and caramelized, add more if desired
1 clove of garlic (because I big puffy heart garlic)
2 breasts of chicken (I had some left over in the fridge and wanted to use it up)
3T mayonnaise
1/4 c. Gorgonzola cheese, or to taste
I love cheese. I am a giant mouse stuck in the aura of a Leo so cheese of any sort is a staple in my house, and especially a great form of a blue cheese.
So saute and caramelize the onions and garlic, add them to the mayonnaise in order to maintain the flavor without being overly pungent. Finely dice or shred the chicken, you can substitute canned chicken, but I love grilled chicken, it has a slight smoked taste which is wonderful for this dish. Begin to mix together all the ingredients and to ensure all the chicken is coated with the mayonnaise mixture, then slowly add in the Gorgonzola, continue to stir until all the ingredients are mixed thoroughly. Add small amounts of mayonnaise as needed but I found this was the perfect amount. Then begin to stuff the baby peppers, place in a Tupperware container to chill and serve later, or for a few moments in the oven melt some cheddar cheese over the peppers for a warm delight.
The chicken mixture can be served alone as well, we served all the excess on toasted French bread baguette slices with cheddar cheese as sandwiches and the kids loved them. Bon Appetit!
Sunday mornings are a ritual family breakfast for our family. Generally a large breakfast and one we all enjoy together. This last Sunday was pancakes, I love pancakes and I love to mix up my recipe ingredients to try a new spin. My newest addition made this batch, light, buttery, and fabulous with some fresh fruit. Even better….these pancakes are not out of a box and the cost is less than $2.00 for the these tasty delights! I have even updated to include vegan, gluten free and dairy free pancake options. Continue reading “Organic Pancakes Recipe”
Proud to say I have detached myself from the mommy blog cancer that explodes rather cyclically with the mud slinging and pettiness. I admit that every now and I again I will hop on Twitter anxious to maintain connections I have made only because I have had the opportunity to interact with some truly amazing women.
But when I log on and see women, acting like little girls, and encompassing their family in their small-minded attacks on trivial life items. The title should tell you what situation I refer. Come on ladies…first it was stay at home versus the working mom…now this?
I suppose a scattered number of posts have gone up on blogs recently regarding HFCS – High Fructose Corn Syrup. Then I saw the attacks go up with women who are stoutly against this food dominating additive.
Then I did some research….and then I had my last laugh.
In particular, I saw a mom try to laden her entire Twitter stream with #organic hash tags and  minutiae and just laughed harder. Why?
Do you see where my bus is rolling? Oh yes, right over the top of the bullshit I caught a whiff of, where a mom and “influencer” made a weak attempt to state that she feeds her family NOTHING but organic. Really?
When did PF Changs and Whip Cream in a can go Big O?
Let’s take a gander at the ingredients of the new PF Chang’s Home Menu haute cuisine that was overlooked in the organic revolution:
Holy heart stopper Batman! Can you read this? If not I can send you some phonics that spells out nothing in this package suggests “organic,” furthermore can you NOT see the sodium levels in just ONE, yes ONE serving of dim sum. Over 65% of your daily allowance in that tasty treat. Excuse me….I must go hurl over the bullshit ingested in that. Oh and the fact that this qualifies under “pre-packaged and boxed meals” only makes me want to shove my wrist in my throat to induce MORE vomiting. Add the ogenated, preservatives, gluten and other miscellaneous non-organic and non-natural items. Hurl-a-licious baby. Makes me want to run out, buy it, eat it, and then lie that I never bought it, ate it, and gained some extra poundage to my weight loss venture. Gag me with a spoon Valley Girl. Seriously that meal could make me bulimic reading the ingredients.
Moving on now to the whip cream in a can. I love this topic, because the same mom boasting #organic like the Dems and their “ObamaCare” had NO IDEA, or maybe she did and she was too much the beguiler. Which yes, I used that word from my mostly online university education you whoreson. Ah, I digress. Task at hand, yes the ingredients of the CANNED whip cream.
So the cream is generally sweetened by…wait for it…wait for it….corn syrup. Please refer back to the first picture so you can see the canned goodness derived from cream and corn syrup.
Proof is in the…err…cream. Copyright of ReddiWhip
There I said it. Now this mother was let me state again, a STOUT Boswell, or better a beguiling backer. She supports without merit. For those still in the 10 year undergraduate program, this is an unsupported citation. Citing information with no merit or with fault. Again, I digress. Regardless, she is pushing the fact that she ONLY, Â yes ONLY goes organic. How can you say you ONLY do organic in your home but then post a picture of your shopping cart that supports high fructose corn syrup in your diet? Because you are full of shit, that is why.
So I beg the question? Why the hell if you are such a strong opponent to high fructose corn syrup and GMO (genetically modified) foods are you eating the strongest offenders of shit in your diet?
Oh did I mention the heart stopping sodium which also leads to obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure which also leads to kidney failure among other health issues? Oh and alcohol consumption…did you know there are over 760 calories in one margarita? Drink on ass wipe. It’s not high fructose corn syrup making you fat you fuck, its the margarita and canned whip cream. Why are you going on the offense to attack other mothers who are embracing capitalism at it’s finest by agreeing to sponsored posts on behalf of the Corn Refiners and Mom Central?
Because you think you have a soap box, so let me show you some critically acclaimed information for your soap box next time you get on a rant. Which is clear your Twitter stream of posts about eating junk food, drinking high calorie alcoholic beverages, clear the fact you are a high school drop out, haven’t held a real job in years, and that your real job is as an amateur blogger..yes…I said amateur. Because when you ramble on and contradict yourself, you are a dumb fuck. Period.
If you want to know more about genetically modified foods, organic (which is merely a matter of marketing because at the base of the matter, everything is organic, everything is “organic” matter. In closing, next time you try to step up onto a soap box and preach your higher living be sure to check your soap box is not a steaming pile of bullshit.
Yogurt should be a staple to just about anyone and everyone’s diet. My family THRIVES on yogurt as a snack, a dessert, or even a quick breakfast addition.
“New Simply… Go-Gurt is made from simple ingredients moms look for and contains no high fructose corn syrup or artificial colors or flavors. Each convenient portable yogurt tube contains a good source of calcium and vitamin D. Simply stated, Simply… Go-Gurt is a good-for-you, low fat yogurt snack that you can feel good about giving to your kids.
New Simply… Go-Gurt is available in two kid-friendly flavors, Strawberry and Mixed Berry.” (MyBlogSpark.com, 2010)
I can tell you that the former Go-Gurt was a HUGE hit in my house, but since we have switched to almost 100% organic on all our products I cannot say we have tried the new Simply… Go-Gurt, however, knowing Yoplait, the yogurt is delicious! So here is how you can try it for free and or enter to win a Simply… Go-Gurt prize pack courtesy of Yoplait and My Blog Spark:
Tell me what you love most about yogurt or your favorite flavor (any kind!):
Extra Entries:
Tweet this giveaway being sure to use my name  (@KariewithaK) so I see your tweet
See all adittional entry options where you can blog, tweet, fan, you name it for extra entries. Also be sure to click the link for your free coupon provided on behalf of Yoplait.
Contest Ends May 1st.
*I was provided a Yoplait Simply… Go-Gurt free coupon and prize pack on behalf of My Blog Spark and Yoplait. While I have not tried the product, I cannot make any claims to the taste or enjoyment in my home, but will attest to receiving the goods in exchange for writing this review and giveaway.”
When I was taking part in my CSA this last fall and winter my kids and I had a BLAST picking out all of our foods and figuring out what they were. Honestly I was not introduced to a lot of foods as a child. My mother is a very picky woman as for tastes in foods. She likes asparagus but we were never fed this wonderful delicacy, nor artichokes (which are a personal favorite with drawn butter and capers), nor any family of squash that I can recall offhand, and my list can go on.
But in our CSA basket we received fennel, and I searched for recipes that would be fabulous for my entire family. My search was a failure. So I resorted to the old melon above my shoulders and came up with this FABS meal that your kids, husband, and you will LOVE!
4-5 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless are preferred)
sea salt and fresh ground peppercorn (regular pepper is also fine)
fresh grated lemon zest (the rind of a lemon)
fennel bulb, sliced thinly (reserve stalks to be frozen or used later)
2 T olive oil (or butter)
1/4 c. chicken stock
1 t. corn starch
4 T herb seasoning (I like Frontier Coop, but you can use the Mrs. Dash equivalent)
Wash off chicken and pat try. Cut into bite size chunks, set aside. Mix together all dry spice ingredients, salt, pepper and herb seasoning in a bowl with the corn starch. Add chicken to dry spice mix making sure the chicken is dry to be coated well with the spices.
Shamrock Farms is gearing up to celebrate Halloween in a hauntingly healthy fashion with a family-friendly event down on the Farm. Aside from meeting 10,000 cows, guests are invited to wear their costumes, trick or treat and enjoy chocolate milk, all while meeting Roxie, Shamrock Farms lovable spokescow, and famous Peanuts characters Charlie Brown, Snoopy and Sally! Especially since chocolate milk is the official drink of Halloween. Treat your bones with Chocolate Milk, the Official Drink of Halloween, a nutritious beverage in disguise that Mom can feel good about during this candy-filled holiday! As with any sweet indulgence, in moderation and mom’s can feel better about a cold glass of calcium filled chocolate milk as opposed to tooth rotting sweets that can wreak havoc on our kids.
