Gevalia Giveaway!

Coffee... a great way to start the morning. I was sent a couple samples of Gevalia coffee (and a mug) from Kraft via MyBlogSpark to review for you.  Gevalia "has been refining the art of luxurious coffee since 1853 and has a deep history of finding and blending the finest Arabica coffee beans from locations around the world." Soon Gevalia will be available at Safeway with some new flavors. Their flavors include Gevalia Traditional Roast (ground and whole bean), Gevalia House Blend, Gevalia House Blend Decaf, Gevalia French Roast (ground and whole bean), Gevalia Colombia, Gevalia Espresso Roast, Gevalia Vanilla, and Gevalia Chocolate Mocha.

Personally, I am not a coffee connoisseur. Still, I can say that I enjoyed the Gevalia samples I received (pictured below).

Does it look good? Well, you have a chance to win the above package for yourself! You will receive 1 sample of the House Blend and the French Roast Blend from Gevalia Kaffe in addition to a Gevalia Kaffe branded coffee mug!

Simply visit Gevalia's beautiful website and share one thing you learned in a comment below. Please include your email address so I can contact you if you win. 

For another entry, please comment below with the flavor of Gevalia Kaffe you are most interested in trying.

For one more entry link to my blog post on your blog and comment with a link to your blog post below.

Best of luck! This giveaway will end on February 16, 2012 at midnight.

* Kraft Foods has provided sample product to me and is providing the prizes for this program at no cost to me.  This program is not administered or sponsored by Kraft Foods or its affiliates, but solely by Food, Fotos, and Fun!.

Hail Merry Review

Greetings all! I hope your weekend is off to a great start! Last week was the first week of my last semester of graduate school. I really can't believe it. It seems like just yesterday I was beginning my grad program. Let's just hope I'm all ready for the real world by May.

I've got a great review for you all today courtesy of Hail Merry. The lovely folks from Hail Merry sent me a few complimentary samples to review for you (pictured below). Hail Merry is a raw, vegan, gluten-free snack food company with delicious products. Read more on their online brochure. They have a beautiful website you should check out too.

Blonde Macaroons: 10 of 10! These were so tasty with a strong coconut flavor. They were soft, chewy, and melted in my mouth without being crumbly. I loved their slight sweetness.

Orange Cranberry Grawnola: 9 of 10. This raw granola was hearty, rich, crunchy and chewy (interesting combo, I know). It was slightly sweet and cinnamonny. The dried fruit was a nice touch, as were the seeds/nuts.

Vanilla Maple Almonds: 10 of 10! Wow - such sweet almonds and soo flavorful! They had a smooth texture and made for a very satisfying treat!

I must say these snacks really were delicious. If you have not tried raw, vegan, or gluten-free foods, then you should. You won't sacrifice flavor - I can promise you that.

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Tisano Review

I hope your new year is off to a good start and that you are sticking to any resolutions you made. I've been doing fairly well with my resolution to eat more mindfully, so let's hope I can stick to that! 

I recently received a couple samples (pictured below) from Tisano to review.  Tisano is "a family run chocolate herbal tea company that lives by three simple truths: - integreiTEA - qualiTEA - sustainabiliTEA." I think those three truths are both clever and noble. I can personally attest to the high  quality of their tea.

100% Organic Cacao Tea: 10 of 10. This tea has a rich, smooth flavor and is a delicious calorie-free treat. I was impressed!

Dark Chocolate Cacao Nibs: 9 of 10. These nibs are slightly bitter, which is to be expected I'm sure. There is a soft, smooth chocolate coating concealing a crunchy chocolate inside.

Chocolate is one of my guilty pleasures, so this was definitely a fun review for me. I never thought chocolate tea would be so satisfying, but it was!

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Somersaults!

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with friends and family.  I enjoyed spending the weekend with family in Wisconsin where there was a beautiful dusting of snow. 

I recently received a package of Somersaults to review, and I am very excited to share this snack company with you!  Somersaults "are the result of our quest to create healthy, tasty snacks for people who want more than just empty nutrition."  They use absolutely nothing artificial in their snacks, "staying far away from trans fats, hydrogenated oils and high fructose corn syrup, so you can feel as good sharing Somersaults with your family." 

Here are my reviews of the various flavors:

Santa Fe Salsa: 10 of 10. Hot and spicy, but not too salty. Very flavorful and satisfying.

Pacific Sea Salt: 9 of 10. Thick, crunchy, and lots of delicious seeds.  It was a bit too salty for my liking, but packed full of flavor and slightly addictive.

Dutch Cocoa: 9 of 10. Rich, deep chocolate flavor and slightly sweet.  Crunchy and crispy outside.  This makes for a great dessert snack, though it could have been even sweeter for me.

Salty Pepper: 9.5 of 10.  A bit too salty, but a great, full flavor with pepper and other spices like garlic and onion.  It was like a flavor shot for my mouth.

Cinnamon Crunch: 10 of 10.  Sweet, rich cinnamon flavor.  A great dessert that was like mini cookies.

I loved these!!  They are such a tasty and healthy snack.  You do have to watch your portion size (around 140 calories for 14 pieces), but they are so good. ^_^

Pumpkin Bread AND Winter Break!!

Fall semester is over!  I turned in my last final project yesterday and can finally breathe again.  Winter break is such a blessing, and I will definitely miss it once I'm working full time.  I have to say I'm still extremely pleased with my new home state of Illinois.  While we did get a dusting of snow a couple days ago, we have yet to truly experience winter, and it's already mid-December!  Back in Iowa that is most definitely not the case. 

The lack of snow and reasonable temps in the 30s have also allowed me to keep biking to class and work!  I'm trying to hold out longer than I did last semester, and so far I am succeeding!  Once the ice and snow arrive though, I'll resign and take public transportation again.

I baked some pumpkin bread recently too.  I decided to try a lower sugar and fat recipe, and it actually turned out to be quite delcious.  Here it is:

Ingredients (Makes 10 servings)

1/2c. sugar
3tbsp. olive oil
1/4c. applesauce, unsweetened
1 egg
3/4tsp. cinnamon
1/4tsp. nutmeg
1tsp. vanilla
1c. pumpkin
1tsp. baking soda
1/4tsp. salt
1 2/3c. flour
1/3c. water

Directions

Preheat oven to 350°F. Cream sugar, oil and applesauce together. Add egg and mix well. Add spices, vanilla and pumpkin. Mix flour, baking soda and salt. Alternately add flour mixture and water and mix well. Pour into 3 greased small bread loaf pans or 1 greased large bread pan. Bake at 350F degrees for 30 minutes for smaller loaves or 45-55 minutes for large loaf.

Enjoy!!

I hope everyone else is having a wonderful holiday season so far with good food and minimal stress.  Take care!

Thanksgiving Bread

Happy Thanksgiving!!  I hope you all had a wonderful day yesterday and were able to spend it with friends and family while eating scrumptous foods.  I decided to bake some bread, which is something I should do much more often since it is oh so delicious!  It's not that difficult either, especially when you make "Easy No Rise Bread" like I did (pictured below).  It's always the best right out of the oven - warm with a crisp crust.

Did any of you hit the stores to do some Black Friday shopping?  I went to CVS under the impression that their sales started today at 6am (I just wanted a hair dryer for $5.99), but when I got there I noticed the parking lot was empty.  It turns out that their sale started on Thursday and the hair dryers were gone :-(.  That will teach me not to rely on those Black Friday aggregator sites.  I should've actually looked at the CVS website...  Oh, well.  I ended up purchasing what will likely be a higher quality hair dryer from Amazon.

Now I must do homework - the end of the semester will be here soon!

Autumn in Illinois

Greetings everyone!  Fall is slowly (and at times quickly) transitioning into winter here in Illinois.  I am sad to see the warm temps go because that means I will need to retire my bike for the winter soon.  I am going to see if I can keep riding it for the remainder of November though since it is such a convenient and fun means of transportation.

My last post promised some beautiful Autumn pictures, and I shall not disappoint. 

Illini Union

Lovely street lamp at night

Main Quad

Rose on the Main Quad (in November!)

Rose on the Main Quad

I thoroughly enjoyed taking the above pictures and also adding special features to some, like the sepia coloring to the rose.

Also, did you all make a wish at 11:11 on 11/11/11?  I did :-).

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Taco Tofu

I purchase tofu every once in awhile but rarely use it to make anything all that interesting.  I decided to try something new and scramble my tofu with taco seasoning.  The result was delicious, and it was super easy to make!  I only needed tofu, a pan, some oil, and a packet of taco seasoning.  Here's the gorgeous result:

Do you know of any easy, delicious tofu recipes?  Tofu is so versatile, and relatively cheap too :-).

And I must say I have been loving the extended fall here in Illinois.  Our temps our still in the 50s and the trees aren't bare yet.  I've definitely taken some gorgeous pictures, and I'll be sure to share them with you soon!

Crazy Dog Halloween Costumes and T-shirts!

Halloween is right around the corner!  Do you have a costume yet?  If not, Crazy Dog offers a variety of custumes, and they are letting me share some discounts with you.  When you check out, you can use the coupon code TRICK for $5 off any costume order, OR TREAT for 10% off any costume order. 

Crazy Dog also sent me a couple of their awesome t-shirts to review for you.  I chose the Hugs Not Drugs shirt, which is featured in their New Tees category, and also their super fun Duck Duck Goose t-shirt that can be found in the 80s T-Shirts category.  Regardless of what you find funny or adorable, you are sure to find at least one (and probably a lot more!) t-shirt designs you like.  I personally enjoy the 80s T-shirts category the best since I was born in the 80s.  The school house rock shirts are super (ie. I'm Just a Bill).

Here are the two t-shirts I received:

I just love the quality of each shirt.  They are soft, fit well, and each has a unique, fun design - what more could I want?!  I'm even going to be wearing the "Hugs Not Drugs" t-shirt to a dance tonight.  I'm curious to see if it'll work like a "Free Hugs" t-shirt.  I've never been one to turn down a hug :-).

Have a wonderful evening everyone!

Easy Sugar Cookies

Good morning all!  I had a wonderful weekend enjoying the beautiful autumn weather here in Illinois.  I also took some time to bake some sugar cookies.  I don't bake very often, so this was a fun treat. 

Easy Sugar Cookies (Makes 10 servings)

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2teaspoon baking soda 
• 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

Directions

1. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla extract. Combine the flour, baking soda, and nutmeg; gradually add to creamed mixture.

2. Drop by rounded teaspoonfuls 2 in. apart onto ungreased baking sheets. Bake at 350 degrees F for 8-10 minutes or until light brown. Remove to wire racks to cool.

You can find the recipe with nutritional facts here.  They were tasty :-).

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