Herbalicious | More Herbs, Less Salt Day

Posted on August 29, 2013 by Jennifer FIsher

Herb-a·li·cious [erb-a-lish-uhs]

Adjective: Highly pleasing to the senses, especially to taste or smell created by herbs: the herbalicious flavor of basil on ripe tomatoes; an herbalicious aroma of mint wafted through the room.

Can you believe the word herbalicious is actually in the dictionary? Okay, we’ll maybe it’s not in the tomes of traditional vernacular; but it does deserve a legit spot in my vocabulary because anything about an herb is the word. It’s the word that you heard – it’s got flavor, it’s got groove, it’s got meaning. Yes, I know I’m being silly dilly here, but before you accuse me of sniffing too much sage or overdosing on oregano, I have something else to announce – today is an important holiday called “More Herbs, Less Salt Day.” I’m serious.

You heard it here! I’m also blogging about why you should embrace herbs and give salt the shake off in more detail at Living Litehouse. Herbs can flavor up your recipes while reducing the need for less-than-healthful ingredients relied on for flavor – like excessive salt, butter and cheese. I use herbs every day in every way in my kitchen; check out my herbalicious recipe for Asian Flair Flat Iron Steak or for Mojo Sauce, a tasty choice for marinating, dressings and dipping. Why not spruce up plain bread and baked goods with herbs? I love to put an Italian blend of herbs on buttermilk biscuits – yum!

Fresh herbs are fabulous when you have the time and talent to grow them or don’t mind the expense of buying them down at the fancy-schmancy grocery store. Traditional dried and ground herbs tend to be boring, bland and one-dimensional; it’s no surprise they get pushed to the back of the pantry for years. But, Litehouse Foods has a genius product line of freeze dried herbs that can be stored for anytime use, yet rehydrate at warp speed in recipes. These Instantly Fresh Herbs are available in 15 different varieties including tried-and-true staples, such as parsley and basil, and also other unique flavor offerings such as lemongrass, cilantro and jalapenos.

Check out my post at Living Litehouse to find out more herbalicious details about how to use less salt and more herbs.

Egg-celent School Morning Idea! Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker Giveaway

Posted on August 28, 2013 by Jennifer FIsher

I have a keen sense of smell and an uncanny ability to track down delicious food being made anywhere, anytime. I’ll run faster than you to get there, elbow you out of the way to nab the last piece; all while smiling politely, of course. Survival of fittest, right? This past June at BlogHerFood, my food sample seeking senses were in major overdrive. In the expo hall, every nook and corner of this epic epicurean event was filled with all the latest food products and gadgets on the market. I kept making the rounds over to the Hamilton Beach booth, hoping that they wouldn’t recognized my variety of disguises – like the greedy trick-or-treater kids swapping Halloween masks in the bushes by your front door.

Hamilton Beach was cooking up breakfast sandwiches in a really nifty looking machine. Take a look. Take a good look because I am giving one away! You’ll need to keep reading down to the bottom of the post to enter.

What I loved about this little breakfast sandwich machine is that it wasn’t just another use-once-and-then-stick-in-the-cabinet gizmo. It was a lean, mean breakfast sandwich-making machine that I knew I could train my ‘tween and teenage boys to use. I feel it’s important to start off the day with a good breakfast, especially one that is packed with protein – about 20 -25 grams of lean protein is the best way to start the day. Last year I met Dr. Heather Leidy, an expert in nutrition and exercise physiology from the University of Missouri, and learned about her recent research that shows how eating enough protein at breakfast can prevent unhealthy snacking in the evening and thus help control weight.

That’s why I like to get my brood of breakfast eaters off to school with something of more substance in their stomachs than Lucky Charms or a Pop Tart. Eggs are always a favorite, and I’ve tried my hand at making breakfast sandwiches by making an egg patty in a custard cup in the microwave and then putting it on an English muffin. Actually, that technique works pretty well, but then the remaining steps to get the sandwich finished up can be a chore. Enter the Hamilton Beach Breakfast Sandwich Maker. In one fell swoop, this gadget toasts your bread product of choice, melts cheese and warms veggies and meats – all while cooking up your egg scrambled or sunny-side up!

It’s the perfect little machine for streamlining the back-to-school morning chaos. It only takes 5 minutes to make a sandwich and an on-off indicator light lets you know when everything is done. Then, with a pull of the lever, your egg is released between the bread and other fixings – ready to eat! The non-stick finish makes everything easy to clean up.

To make sure we had a handle on this machine before school started (goodness knows I didn’t want to decipher an instruction book on the first-day-of-school morning), we tried it out at our last hurrah of summer at the beach. With six hungry boys in the condo, I had no trouble selling these sammies – here’s my cute nephew giving it the thumbs up.

There really isn’t a recipe to follow for this machine; you just add the ingredients you like. We used whole-grain sandwich thins (those skinny buns), bagels, sourdough bread cut to shape with the top of a glass, and even waffles. Inside, I offered up a selection of cheese and meats ranging from bacon to deli-style turkey. And, don’t forget the egg – it is recommended to use real eggs, not those from a carton (especially with egg whites). You can see my personal Turkey, Spinach, Tomato and Egg Breakfast Sandwich creation in the first photo of the post. Hamilton Beach has some official breakfast sandwich ideas, if you are interested.

I’m excited to be giving away a Breakfast Sandwich Maker to simplify one of my reader’s morning routines. Trust me; you’ll appreciate not being tempted to hit a greasy fast-food drive-thru. Follow the simple Rafflecopter instructions below to enter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Camping Kaboom | Buffalo Chicken & Blue Cheese Onion Bombs

Posted on August 26, 2013 by Jennifer FIsher

Forget about roasting hotdogs and warming up beans from a can on your next outdoor adventure; that is just so . . . uh, terribly untasty. I created a simple recipe that creates a complex, crazy explosion of flavor that will appeal to even the most discriminating of culinary-centric campers. Check out this recipe for Buffalo Chicken and Blue Cheese Onion Bombs at Living Litehouse, the blog of a fabulously fresh food company that has been supporting my love for creating tasty, healthy dishes for a variety of occasions – today, camping!

These “bombs” are made from lean ground chicken breast that has been stuffed with blue cheese, kicked up with hot pepper sauce and then “wrapped” inside two cross-sectioned onion halves. You could call them stuffed meatballs in onions or even inside out mini-meatloaves – but they are totally the BOMB because they are dangerously delicious and wrapped up in foil like little grenades. Toss these bad boys on the grill or nestle in an open campfire to cook up quick as a short-fused firework. For you that don’t like to leave the comforts of your kitchen, I’m not going to stop you from just baking them in the oven. From mess kit to mouth, your every sense is going to be blowing up! Just as you would Buffalo Chicken Wings, balance these spicy bombs with the tangy coolness of blue cheese dressing. Oh, and don’t forget the celery!

Check out the whole recipe and see lots of other yummy pictures at Living Litehouse.

Healthy Travel Snacks + What is a Mangosteen Anyway?

Posted on August 21, 2013 by Jennifer FIsher

I love traveling because it means I’m most likely off for a new adventure. However, I don’t like being out of my normal healthy eating routine while en route to my final destination. I recently got back from a trip to the beach. We traveled by car and I packed baby carrots, celery sticks and almonds for the car ride. With four adults and three teen boys in the car, my stash didn’t last long and I regretted not stowing away more sustenance for the road – like many of the travel-friendly snacks from my post on healthy purse snacks.

Of course, with all the man-sized appetites in the car, it was only a matter of time before we hit one of the Whataburger fast-food establishments that are so prolific in the one-stop light towns of Texas. As my mom and I found out, even Whataburger has begun to offer some healthier options including an Apple & Cranberry Chicken Salad with Low-Fat Pepper-Honey Vinaigrette. There is also the no-top bun burger trick that I’m fond of – take off the uber-bready top bun of my hamburger – cut the burger in half and then re-sandwich together for a double-decker ½ burger. All of these tricks kept me lean, mean and in fighting shape for some bad a$$ery on the beach.

Today I am travelling by plane to Seattle to meet with my Hood to Coast Relay teammates and sponsor, Nuun Hydration, before we hit the van for our 200 mile race from Mount Hood in Oregon to the beach of Seaside. I did this same race last year (read all about it) thanks to the fine folks at Nuun Hydration, a Seattle-based company that makes a sugar-free electrolyte tablet in tons of delicious, yummy flavors. These electrolyte tablets are perfect for runners, triathletes, golfers and other people who are working hard and sweating all day in the sun. By the way, my team is named after one of the new flavors – Cherry Limeade! Follow the adventure on the thefitfork’s instagram feed. #nuunhtc #teamcherrylimeade

Since most airlines don’t serve meals anymore (would you really want to eat these high-sodium, high-fat, highly unappetizing meals anyway?), a traveling girl such as myself is either subject to what she can find in the airport concourse (again, usually yucky) or what she brings along. I think I have just enough time this morning to make a delicious recipe I found at Cooking Light in a collection of their 75 Healthy Snack Ideas — Honey Glazed Almonds. These spiced nuts are made quickly on the stove top rather than being baked for an eternity in the oven. Plus, the sweet-spicy nuts (kicked up with Chipotle powder) store well in an airtight container for several days, although I’m sure they’ll be gone before my plane change in Salt Lake City.

I’m also taking some of the new products from SunRype, including the Mango Mangosteen Fruit Source Bar made with all natural ingredients and no preservatives whatsoever. Each 100% fruit bar features 2 servings of fruit with this particular flavor featuring the Mangosteen. So WHAT is a Mangosteen anyway? I thought it was just a cute name for “mango,” but, in fact, the Mangosteen is actually a purple super fruit indigenous to Indonesia and now grown in warm, tropical environments including South America and South Asia. The exterior of this uncommon fruit is purple, but only the white inner flesh and juice is edible. But, it’s well worth eating the Mangosteen as studies have shown that it has super-powered antioxidant properties (especially high in xanthonoids) that has anti-inflammatory properties and may reduce the risk for cancer. While the juice has high astringency value properties and has been used topically to treat acne, I would not recommend rubbing the fruit bar on your face!

What Salad Dressing Says About You + Litehouse Foods Giveaway

Posted on August 18, 2013 by Jennifer FIsher

So many of our daily habits, things you or I would never think twice about, offer greater insight into our personalities than we realize. For example, consider how you install your toilet paper on the roller. The science of toilet paper orientation says that if you put the roll in so it pulls “over,” you are a logical, rational traditionalist who likes order. If you put the roll so it pulls “under,” you are more of a spontaneous, carefree and enthusiastic person. And, if you can’t be bothered with putting the roll on at all, then . . . shame on you!

This post really isn’t about toilet paper. Keep reading on to find out about salad dressing and your personality and don’t miss the Litehouse Foods coupon giveaway.

The way you use salad dressing also provides insight into your inner being. In a recent blog I wrote for Living Litehouse, called Pour on Personality, explains the differences in disposition between “toppers,” “mixers,” and “dippers.” So, how do YOU use salad dressing? Maybe you have your own unique style – a “spritzer,” “forker” or maybe you use salad dressing as a condiment on other foods. Lately, I’ve been on a kick of combining ranch dressing and salsa together and then mixing it into my salad. But, then again, sometimes I just use it on the side to dunk my chunks of veggies into. Oh no – I have multiple personalities!

Don’t miss reading the entire post on Pour on Personality at the Living Lighthouse blog for Litehouse Foods.

Speaking of Litehouse Foods, I just love their products – that’s why I blog for them. Many of the healthy, fit foods I make at home are inspired by their fresh products. Litehouse Foods makes so many tasty things, from artisanal cheeses and fresh salad dressings (found in the produce section) vegetable and fruit dips . They also have a really unique product line of freeze-dried herbs, called Instantly Fresh Herbs, which taste amazing, rehydrate quickly within a recipe, and can be kept conveniently on-hand in the pantry. No more tossing away expensive fresh herbs that wilt away by the end of the week.

A few of the Instantly Fresh Herbs

To share the love, I’d like to give away three (3) free coupons for any Litehouse Foods products the winner selects. To enter, just follow the simple Rafflecopter instructions below.