Snack of the Week!

I don't think I've ever bought any type of yogurt drink you see in grocery stores. There are go-gurt, you know..the yogurts on the go, and all sorts of yogurt drinks and smoothies. Like most flavored yogurt products, I just assumed most were fulled with artificial ingredients, sweeteners, and chemicals. But, I saw these posted on a great new blog, Your Happy Healthy. It's an excellent source of information and tips for finding your happy healthy.

After I saw a post about these, I made an impromptu trip to Whole Foods to grab some ground sirloin for dinner and as I was walking through the dairy section to grab some coffee creamer...I spied the Siggi's yogurt drinks I had just read about. So, I decided to test them out.

First off, they're definitely adorable..these little yogurt drinks are about the size of a medium sized bottle of Advil. They're creamy, delicious, and I've been using them as a snack all week.

I struggle big time with snacking...so at 60 calories a pop, it's a perfect treat without wasting too many calories

Here's a peek at the nutritional information and ingredients...

Snack of the Week...

I'm cheating a little since this was my guest blog post on Living Graciously Blog yesterday...but I really love my guacamole and it's the perfect snack of the week!

So...here we go....

I was surprised to read that when you buy store bought guacamole, that it's mostly made from other ingredients than avocados. In fact, there's about 2% avocado when you buy a tub of it at the grocery store...which makes you wonder, what the heck is the other 98% that I am eating. I was never a big avocado fan and never really ate a ton of guacamole either. At some outing with friends, someone brought a really fresh guacamole that was delicious and I then went on a mission to attempt and make my own.

I can't say that Mr. Allan and I were successful on our first attempt a few years ago. By mistake, I bought lite avocados which were huge, hard and we could barely peel them. At that time I didn't even know you could buy different kinds or that there was this odd large light version of an avocado. So, after our first disastrous attempt, we did tackle it once again and it was a success. This fresh chunky guacamole is a quick, easy recipe that is a sure fire crowd pleaser and it's healthy- full of good ingredients! Here's a little step by step on how to make a fantastic guacamole! (full recipe is below!)

First Step...getting your ingredients. When you pick out your avocados, you want to make sure they're ripe. I always buy Hass Avocados. To tell if an avocado is ripe, give it a little squeeze. You want it to be soft to the touch. If it's hard like a hockey puck, throw it back. It will be a nightmare to slice up and you'll have to resort to a food processor.

avocados, some garlic and tomatoes...the main ingredients!

First, seed and dice your tomatoes. You also want very ripe tomatoes..the riper the better! Just slice the tomato and discard of the seeds inside. Why do I seed the tomatoes...to avoid runny, watery guacamole!

Next up..garlic! I typically use one big clove or two smaller ones. This little blue tube is one awesome little kitchen gadget I discovered. It's made by Martha Stewart and is a garlic peeler. Ever hate sitting there with trying to peel the skin off of a clove of garlic? You just pop the clove into the little tube and roll it between your hands.

and...the skin rolls right off. If you don't have this neat little garlic roller, you can also take a large knife, place the garlic clove under it with the flat side of your knife pressing against the clove, and give the knife a little whack. It will partially crack your garlic open and make it a bit easier to peel it.

Then, throw your garlic in your garlic press and add it to the tomatoes. If you don't have a garlic press, finely chop or dice it.

Next, come the stars of the guacamole...the avocados. Slice the avocado open and first discard of the pit. You can take a spoon and the pit should gently pop out.

Then, take the spoon and gently scrape out the flesh of the avocado. If your avocados are ripe, it should come right out.

Here's all four of my avocados on my cutting board. One thing I love about this recipe...all you really need is a knife and cutting board...makes for an easy preparation and clean up!

I take a large kitchen knife and simply start cutting up the avocado in long horizontal strides.

Then, I just start doing the same thing vertically. You don't need to be precise or perfect here. It doesn't matter if you have some pieces larger than others.

After you throw the chopped avocados in with the tomatoes and garlic, you then need to juice 1 lime. A little trick when you're juicing a lime or lemon...give a good roll on your cutting board with the heel or your hand to loosen up the juices. You can either just slice it and squeeze it..or I have this great citrus juicer. Just your lime in half, throw it in the juicer and press. The lime juice will keep your guacamole nice and green. The citrus juice helps to avoid the avocados from turning brown..because no one likes brown guacamole!

now..for a little zip to the guacamole. I add about 10-12 dashes of hot sauce. Any kind will do..but we always have Frank's in our refrigerator

Here's the guacamole with Frank's hot sauce added and about 1 tsp of salt and about 1/2 tsp of pepper

The final product!

Fresh Chunky Guacamole

4 ripe Haas Avocados, pitted and chopped
1-2 ripe tomatoes, seeded and diced
1 large garlic clove, minced
1 lime, juiced
10-12 dashes of hot sauce
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

Seed and dice tomatoes. Add in garlic. Pit the avocados and roughly chop then add to mixture. Add the juice of 1 lime. Add 10-12 dashes of hot sauce and salt and pepper.

Why do I love this recipe and use it so much..because it's healthy, pretty easy and fast to make. You can also mix it up a little. If you like it hot, add a few more dashes of hot sauce (which I generally do!). You can also adjust the salt and pepper if you need more of less seasoning to it. Some great additions to this recipe--dice up half of a red onion for a little crunch. I've also added a TBSP or so of Hormel's real bacon bits...it gives the guacamole a smoky taste to it.

Enjoy!

Snack of the Week!

This week's snack of the week comes from Trader Joe's...one of my favorite little specialty stores. They have so many unique products to try and I love their Cilantro and Chive Dip. Usually dips are loaded with fat and calories but the Cilantro and Chive dip is yogurt based and isn't horrid on the fat and calorie front. My favorite accessory to this dip...sliced cucumbers. The two are a perfect pair! It's really great with any type of sliced veggie and not too shabby with a chip or a cracker at well!

To find a Trader Joe's near you....http://www.traderjoes.com/ or Click HERE

Snack of the Week!

My favorite snack that I'm loving this week....Organic Sliced Apples from Trader Joes. Could I easily just buy an apple and avoid the citric acid that they use to keep these apple slices from turning brown...probably, but right now the apples are looking rough in my grocery store. We're slipping into the season where they're small, bruised, weird and expensive. Plus, having these on hand is a life saver for me...especially at night when I'm watching my crap reality tv and I'm roaming around opening the pantry closest looking for a little something but I don't want to eat a big snack...then, bam, in the fridge are apple slices, I can grab one or two and tide myself over for the rest of the night. They're also good with a tiny bit of peanut butter, I cut them up in my oatmeal, and throw them in my morning yogurt as well.

I find these in the produce section of my local Trader Joes!

What a great place...The Newport Wine Cellar and Le Petit Gourmet

Ever go somewhere new and the whole time you're thinking to yourself, what a fantastic place this is! How did I not know about it before? Why haven't I been here? What a great place to have a little get together? I didn't know they have events?

I said all these things to myself on Saturday night as we gathered for a wine and cheese tasting for our friend, M's, 40th birthday. We all met up at the Newport Wine Cellar and had a wine and cheese tasting in it's adjacent shop, Le Petit Gourmet.

There were so many things I loved about this night. I loved Le Petit Gourmet. For someone like me, who loves to cook and use good ingredients, there were so many different products to browse. Everything from olive oils to cheese paper to jams, olives and pates.I always want to learn more about cheese and how to pair it with wine, and this tasting was the perfect opportunity to learn a couple of things! Before I go on and on about how much I loved everything, here are a couple pics of our night out!

This was how our group was set up for a wine and cheese tasting in the store

This was my tasting plate that I wanted to gobble up. I'm bad with remembering my cheese names, but I remember the darker orange one in the top right hand corner was a smoke Gouda and my favorite was the cheese in the bottom right hand corner covered in pineapple confit.

And...then the wine started flowing....

 Since we are experiencing "Siberian" cold temps in RI right now, we did a tasting of four different Cabernets

The chalkboard behind the cheese counter....Mr. Allan is going to make that Latin proverb his new motto

 Of course we needed to buy our favorite bottle...a Spanish Cabernet

Once our friends cleared out from the cheese case...everyone was buying a triple cream Brie that seemed like a crowd pleaser

Overall, what a great experience! The Newport Wine Cellar has tastings each week. You can check out their Facebook Page for more information. Click HERE

You can also visit their website at http://www.newportwinecellar.com/ or click HERE

There are weekly tastings Friday and Saturday from 4-7pm and they're available for private tastings (like we did) as well! There are also different wine classes scheduled that are $35/pp. Some that are coming up:

January 26- Yes We Love Beer Too!- Derek Luke from Coastal Extreme Brewing Company (aka Newport Storm Beer) will have a tasting of their beers and they will be paired with different cheeses

February 2- Designing a Menu around your Wine- designed for people who want to enhance their meals or dinner parties with wine. Chef Peter Lucas will pair a bistro style meal that will be enhanced by affordable and interesting wines.

February 9- Cabernet Sauvignon- a sampling of Cabernets from the New and Old World Regions

Here's a cute little blurb from Edible Rhody about the Newport Wine Cellar. Click HERE

I can't rave enough about these two shops. I thought it was a perfect place to get together with some friends to celebrate, learn about some wine, and enjoy some delicious cheese!

The Best Hummus Ever & Snack of the Week!

Growing up in good old Woonsocket, RI, I don't think I ever heard of or knew what hummus was. I didn't think I really grew up under a rock, but it was a food that didn't fit in the hotdog or pasta category, so therefore, we probably didn't eat it as kids. One of the great things about Mr. Allan, is that he introduced me to some different foods, one of them being hummus. He'd do weird stuff, like take half a tub of hummus and mix it with tuna, and I'd look at him like he had five heads. But, once he put the can of tuna aside, the hummus part wasn't so bad. Once I found out it was actually a healthy snack, it's stock went up in my book.

So, I've tried and tested many hummuses since my big discovery that I actually liked it..everything from 40 spices to tomato and basil to plain old garlic. Nothing compares to this hummus...Whole Foods Roasted Red Pepper Hummus. It doesn't have that overly creamy maybe this isn't good for me taste that some hummuses have. It's flavorful, has a great texture and it tastes so good that I can put away my Stacy's Pita Chips and just dip veggies in it.

Every Friday after work, I hit up my local Whole Foods to grab meat and sale items and this goes into the cart every time. One week, they ran out of it and I almost went berserk in the store and probably looked like a lunatic when I marched up to the service desk inquiring if they had any in the back...but gotta have my hummus..and it was scary because I kind of reminded myself of my mom :)...love you mom!

So, my snack of the week...Whole Food's Hummus and these bad boys..Stacy's Pita Chips...I have a love affair with these...I've tried to back off and not buy them because I have no self control when a bag of chips opens and Mr. Allan has less than me. So, one week it's carrots, celery, cucumbers and peppers with the hummus and the next I'll buy some Stacy's Pita Chips.

Stacy's Pita Chips are sold everywhere...from BJ's to Stop and Shop to Whole Foods etc. A healthier alternative if you're hooked on Lays!

Favorite Snack of the Week...Garden of Eatin Chips and Good Neighbor's Salsa

I'm a huge salsa fan..the dip not the dance..anyone who's seen me attempt Zumba classes definitely knows I wasn't born to dance. It's funny to think that I always thought I never liked salsa. I remember when I was growing up that my mom always hated tomatoes. So, for some odd reason, I just adapted the idea that I did as well. I remember my 10th grade boyfriend had a weird obsession with Tostito's chips that had a hint of jalapeno or red pepper..I'm not sure if they were new on the market in good ole 1994. But, he'd buy a bag of these chips on a weekly basis and we'd also bring them if we were going over someones house to watch a basketball game or a picnic..you name it. I loved the chips but could never bring myself to scoop up the salsa. I got braver and braver and would dip the tiny corner of the chip in the jar of salsa but would freak if a chunk of a tomato got on the chip. Yeah, I know, I was, and still probably am, a bit of a weirdo and this story really has no point..except that I used to hate salsa and now 17 years later, I love it. I also can't believe that it's been 17 years since the 10th grade.

So, my favorite snack of the week ......

I really really need to limit the chips in our house. When I do buy them, I look for ones with as few as ingredients as possible. I really like these Garden of Eatin Chips. I was at Whole Foods one day, buying another brand, and the nice man stocking the shelves suggested these. He said they had a more rustic taste. I loved them and they're available everywhere. But, even better...they just came out with a baked version. I love that they're made of good ingredients and now have less calories and fat. Mr. Allan wasn't as big of a fan...he said they broke easily in my home made guacamole. But, I grocery shop, so I get the final say!

 Garden of Eatin Baked Blue Chips on my counter...

Here's a better view of the bag if you're looking for them on your chip aisle...their regular brand is great as well if you're not a fan of a baked chip

Onto salsa...I'm a big salsa fan now. I prefer to buy ones in the refrigerator section that aren't jarred and a bit fresher. I love this Good Neighbors salsa. They have so many different kinds from a peach to a mango, but this black bean and corn is my absolute favorite. It seems to be a pretty popular one, because some weeks it seems to sell out at my local grocery store.

And...just a shout out to another favorite salsa of mine...Sister's Salsa. The Twice the Spice pictured below has a little kick that makes it an interesting snack. I'm not a hot and spicy kind of girl, so its a spice I can handle and enjoy!

On my weekly trip to Whole Foods I'll be grabbing all of the above to get ready for the Patriots vs. Jets showdown...hopefully they'll be no bloodshed in the Allan household as one of us is rooting for the good guys and the other is a Jets fan!

Snack of the Week

I'm always on the look out for quick easy sensible snacks. I love to eat and if I didn't have an admirable amount of self control, I'd probably down about an incredible amount of food each day. So, if I'm attempting to limit myself to one or two snacks a day, I want to make sure they're worth the calories I'm consuming.

One thing I'm guilty of, trying to eat meals and snacks in bar form. It's so convenient and easy.  I can throw it in my purse, no refrigeration required and keeps me from indulging a little more than I should. Sounds easy enough, but the real challenge is finding something in bar form that isn't loaded with a million different ingredients, chemicals and who knows what.

This week, I think I found something pretty good.

Why do I like ProBars...because it tastes delicious and this bad boy is 160 calories, 4g of fiber and 2g of fat. These bars are made with real ingredients, consisting mostly of  blueberries, oats, dates, and chia seeds

I love these as an afternoon pick me up, a snack before the gym where I know I'll be there a little while and I need something to tide me over, or an after dinner snack with a cup of tea at night.

I buy my ProBars at Dave's Marketplace as well as all the Whole Foods near me.

Check out their website at http://www.theprobar.com/ or click here Probar Website

I've only tried the Fruition Probars, but as you can see at their website, there are other lines of Probars as well that I think I need to check out!

My new favorite salsa

I love salsa. I wasn't always a tomato lover, but there's something about a really nice fresh tasting salsa that I LOVE! Not to mention--salsa is a great snack...low calorie and healthy...just watch what you dip in it!

My new favorite salsa....

It's Sisters Salsa. This is a company based out of Blue Hill, ME. I find my Sister's Salsa at my local Whole Foods. They have a mild and this is my favorite...the Twice the Spice. It's perfect for those of you that might not like it hot hot hot, but like a tiny bit of spice!

check out their cool website...

http://www.salsafy.com/index.html

It's fresh, tasty and I feel like I'm eating homemade salsa when I polish off a container, yes, I sometimes eat the whole container. I guess I rationalize that it's better than polishing off a bag of salt and vinegar chips!!!

Here are my two favorite chips to dip in Sisters Salsa...I try and eat food that doesn't have a lot of preservatives, isn't processed too heavily, and doesn't have a million ingredients.

My sister, Heidi, the Whole Foods guru, turned me onto these. I like them because they're all natural and have 4 ingredients. Does that mean I can eat the bag, absolutely not. It just means I'm choosing a healthier chip and still need to watch the portion sizes...so just pile alot of salsa on your Tortilla Strips.

and...Tostitos gets a shout out too...I do like their all natural Blue Tortilla Chips. One downfall--they're a little flimsy if you're doing some heavy dipping!