The Blonde Diaries

Margot’s blog, Joyfully Retired, is one I have made a must visit on Teaser Tuesdays.  There is just something cheerful over there and she always has the best quotes. So as soon as I saw her challenge I knew I had to participate.  That and I have 2 mystery series that are based around food so it is all just perfect!  I would love to try and be a pastry chef this year.

Many of us who love to eat also love to read. But we go beyond that. We love to read about food. If that is you, then you are invite to join us in the Foodies Read 2 Challenge for 2012. This is the second year in which we’ll indulge ourselves with good food writing.

If you are new to a food/reading challenge, you may be wondering – what is a “food book”? A food book is a book which is centered around food and/or drinks. That could be a cookbook, a food biography or memoir, a non-fiction book focused around a specific food, wine, chef or restaurant. Also allowed is a fictional story in which food plays a major role.

Here’s how the challenge works:

1. Decide how many food books you want to read in 2012. Pick one of the reading levels below. Remember, this is a challenge, so try pushing yourself. Participants from last year, please notice I’ve pushed the numbers up a bit. Levels:

• Short-Order Cook: 1 to 3 books
• Pastry Chef: 4 to 8 books
• Sous-Chef: 9 to 13 books
• Chef de Cuisine: 14 to 18
• Cordon-Bleu Chef: More than 19

2. Grab the challenge button and write a post on your blog so we can spread the word. No blog? That’s okay. Sign up in the comments section.

3. After you read each book for the challenge, come back here and tell us about it. On January 1st I’ll provide pages so you can post links for your reviews. We’ll use the same categories as last year: Cookbooks, Memoirs/Biographies, Fiction, and Nonfiction. I’ll also include a page where you link up your Challenge Wrap-Up post.

Guidelines:

• The challenge runs from January 1 through December 31, 2012.
• You don’t need a pre-selected list of books.
• It’s okay to cross over with other challenges.
• Any book format is allowed (print, audio, ebook)

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Hormel Foods. All opinions are 100% mine.

Chili is one of those foods that you can take for granted. It comes on nachos, fries, burgers, queso, hot dogs, etc. and it makes each of those foods even better than they originally were without chili. My absolute favorite is the hormel Turkey Chili without beans because it still tastes great and it is Weight Watchers friendly and I just rejoined Weight Watchers (officially with paid money) this morning.

Since I now have to watch the calories I consume, I won’t be able to freely go to Buffalo Wild Wings each week and have my favorite appetizer – the Ultimate Nachos with chicken and chili. Instead I am going to play around with the recipe this weekend and see if I can come up with a Ultimate Nacho swap. I think it will be fairly easy: buy the light tortilla chips, the Hormel Turkey chili, fat free cheddar, salsa, lettuce, and a few jalapenos. Seems simple and knowing that there are 3 points in 12 chips, 3 points in 1/4 cup of chili (which I can cut to maybe 2 teaspoons), 2 points in 1/4 cup of cheese and then nothing in the rest of it, I think it is doable. Maybe if I save points during the day I can add a little grilled chicken but really it is the cheese and chili that makes the nachos not the chicken. With the Hormel Chili Master’s  new Roasted Tomato Chili with no beans, it might be even easier to spice things up without adding a lot of extra calories. I’ll let you know how my revised recipe goes after this weekend.

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Wheat Food Council. All opinions are 100% mine.

Wheat – it is a food we often hear about and is in just about every food we eat. But do you know where it comes from? Do you know about the different types of wheat and what type is needed to make which item? I’ll happily admit that I do not know these things. I know that it is recommended to eat whole grain wheat and that I need to add more of it into my diet but I couldn’t tell you anything about the actual ingredient.

That is changing though thanks to a fun website called How Wheat Works. This website allows you to learn about the rich history behind wheat as well as picking a type of grain and “growing” it from a seed and then later using it as an ingredient in your favorite food item. I am currently growing hard wheat. Hard wheat can be found in things such as pizza crust, bagels, and all purpose flour. Since I just signed up tonight on the website (for free of course!) I haven’t made it past phase 1 which is the planting phase. I am to go back tomorrow to enter phase 2 and hopefully by the end of the week I’ll be able to make a tasty bagel.

This website, while it is educational for each of us, serves a greater purpose. The website is being sponsored by ADM and ConAgra, two of the world’s largest millers. In this sponsorship, the Wheat Foods Council will donate 2 pounds of flour (up to 90,000 pounds) to Operation Homefront, which is a non-profit organization that provides assistant to needy US Troops and their families. In order to “earn” the 2 pounds, you and I need to complete the wheat program on the website. It only takes a few minutes a day and it is completely free, so you should head over to HowWheatWorks.com and start your wheat harvest. In the time it takes to read this post, you could already have planted your crop and watched it grow. This is a great website, full of educational opportunities, and I encourage everyone to sign up. Even kids are getting into the act with the website dedicated to them: Wheatfoods.org

Tonight I was trying to figure out what to make for dinner. Mike and I are on a strict budget right now to try and recover from our honeymoon spending. One of our budget busters is grocery shopping. We stock up on items but never finish eating them and sometimes they go bad. For the past month, I have been shopping at home and trying to use up these items which we have stocked up on.

Tonight I reached my limit. I think I need to start looking for recipes and shopping from a recipe ingredient list. We are out of things to eat or at least things that go together. We are eating hot dogs with ketchup (out of chili), baked beans, peas, and a small salad. I would have loved to make a large “junk” salad for dinner but Mike insists on having protein in every meal and well, hot dogs won’t cut it and I have nothing else. It is all very frustrating.

I decided that I better start looking for recipes to cook with just a few ingredients as well as coupons to save on our grocery bill. I found a great $1.00 online coupon that will help me save a little money at the grocery store as well as fixing that no protein in the salad issue I mentioned in the preceding paragraph. Budding has developed a new product on sale in Texas, St. Louis, Missouri, and Arizona called Fix Quix. It is a diced meat product that you can add to any recipe or salad to help make a quick and nutritious meal. I have not tried it yet but I will be looking for it this weekend as it is sold at the local HEB and Kroger grocery stores – both available near me. There are three varieties – chicken, ham, and turkey and it looks just like you cooked the meat yourself on the grill and diced it up yourself. I can see using it with salads, pitas, and wraps just to begin with and then venturing out into chicken alfredo pasta and turkey enchiladas. So if you are in a food rut, need to save a few bucks, and want to try a new product look for the Fix Quix kits in your super market. Don’t forget if you live in Texas, Arizona, or St. Louis, Missouri to print that $1.00 off coupon to take with you! Unfortunately the coupon only works in those states/areas but be on the lookout for the product and coupon coming to your area soon.

I don’t know about you but after working 9 hours a day at my full time job, I am plain tuckered out when I get home. My client does a 9 hour M-Th, 4 hour Friday work week and so I find that if I don’t make it in by 8:30 am I do not get home until after 6:30pm making for a long day and late night. I also lose most interest I have in housework and cooking thanks to these long days. Sigh.

Luckily, companies are starting to pay attention to dual working families and trying to help make life easier. Over the past few years I’ve seen a huge upgrade in frozen foods as well as convenience foods. Take Budding for example. This company has developed a product called Fix Quix. Fix Quix is currently available in Texas, Arizona, and Saint Louis. Since it is being tested for further release nationwide, Budding is offering a $1.00 online coupon that you can print and bring to the grocery store with you when you purchase this product. The coupon is only valid in the areas previously mentioned.

Fix Quix is a precooked, prediced meat product which comes in three varieties – grilled chicken, oven roasted turkey, and ham. The diced chunks of meat can be added to a variety of foods such as salads, pastas, wraps, and soups and involve no cooking on your part. Just open the container and mix into your food dish. Hopefully, if the sales and feedback are good it will be expanded nationwide. I can’t wait to try it out because I love to make salads for dinner but never have enough protein to add to it without increasing the fat content. I am also in desperate need for a new item to bring for lunch and a turkey wrap sounds really appealing. I’m planning on printing that coupon and giving it a try this weekend. I’ll make sure to report back.