Review: Barbara’s Bakery

It’s no secret that I love to eat.  However, while I like the occasional sweet treat, I like to keep my foods as healthy as possible.  So when I heard that Barbara’s Bakery was looking for people to review some of their foods that contain no artificial flavors, artificial preservatives, trans fats , or high fructose corn syrup, I jumped at the chance.  Soon enough, a big box arrived at my doorstep containing these goodies:

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For the record, that’s Puffins multigrain cereal, high fiber cranberry cereal, baked cheese puffs, Snackimals and a stuffed puffin.  Of course, the stuffed puffin was the item that my kids initially loved.

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I had to convince them that the review wasn’t about stuffed animals, but about food.  Luckily, they were easily convinced to try the Snackimals.  After all, what kid wouldn’t want to try animal crackers with chocolate chips in them?  The boys split the bag almost in half with B and I snatching a precious few cookies to try.  They were very good.  You could definitely taste the molasses (most likely used to replace high fructose corn syrup or another not-so-good-for-you ingredient), but it worked nicely in the cookie’s taste.  There were definitely no complaints from the boys (other than when the bag ran out of cookies).

The boys weren’t as enthusiastic about the high fiber cranberry cereal.  Then again, this is high fiber cereal.  Not exactly the kind of thing kids rush to!  I, however, really liked it.  The cranberries gave a nice, sweet/tart flavor and the high fiber cereal, of course, was very nutritious.  I could definitely eat a bowl of this for breakfast (and, in fact, have done so).

The Puffins cereal was another favorite of NHL’s.  He kept asking for more and would eat half of each puff just to sneak a peek at it’s hollow center.  I loved this too.  It was quite sweet despite the low sugar count on the nutritional label (6 grams for a 3/4 cup serving).  I think NHL would be quite satisfied with having this for a snack instead of some high sugar treat.

Finally, there were the baked cheese puffs.  Cheese puffs aren’t something we typically have around the house so this was a rare treat for the boys.  They both enjoyed these as did I.  They were light and airy with a good crunch.  I could definitely see buying these for the boys.  (My only disappointment with these was that they weren’t kosher like the other products.  That happens often when one deals with foods containing cheese, though.)

All in all, we loved the Barbara’s Bakery items and will definitely be on the lookout for more of their products the next time we’re walking through our supermarket’s organic aisle.

Disclaimer: This post was written for Family Review Network & Barbara’s Bakery who provided the complimentary product for review in exchange for my honest review.

Cooking With TechyDad: Apple Cheddar Pizza

As I mentioned before, we went apple picking two Saturdays ago and wound up with 29.5 pounds of apples.  Some of these found their way into a big batch of Slow Cooker Apple Sauce, but there were still plenty left.  I saw a recipe online for Apple Cheddar Pizza and it intrigued me.  So, for dinner Sunday, I made four pizzas.  Two were the usual sauce-and-cheese affairs, but the other two…

First, as always, we gather our ingredients.

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That would be pizza shells, shredded cheddar cheese and apples.  Note, that I used more than those two small apples.  Depending on the size of your apples, you might need three or four per pizza.

First, I laid out the pizza shell.

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Note: If you make your own from scratch or buy dough, that’s great.  Just get it to the “ready to top” stage and continue on from here.

Next, I tossed on a thin layer of cheddar.

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I pealed, cored and thinly sliced the apples.  The slices were arranged in a circular pattern on the pizza.

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At this point, you could toss on a little cinnamon or your favorite apple-accompanying spice.  I was in a hurry to taste this so on went a second layer of cheesy goodness.

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It went into the oven for about 7 minutes until the cheese was melted.

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Um, like I said, I was in a hurry to eat this.  So much so that I forgot to take a photo of the whole pie.  Oops.  Want a slice?

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If, like me, you forgot decided not to add a spice before, you could always add it now.

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Or, also like me, you could make a second pie.

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The Verdict

NHL declared this to be the best pizza I’ve ever made.  His exact words!  So I’d say this was a hit.  What’s not to like?  Apples and cheese make a great combo.  And, with about 14 more pounds of apples left, I might be making this again very soon.

Apple Picking and Pumpkins Too

On Saturday, we were trying to figure out what to do.  We had wanted to go apple picking for some time, but weather, Jewish holidays and other things kept getting in the way.  With the weather cooperating and no other plans on our agendas, we finally decided to stop by the local Pick-Your-Own place.

Needless to say, the boys were excited.  They love picking their own produce.  Not only do they get to wander around outside in the fresh air in large fields, but they get to pluck things off trees and put them in bags.  This may sound like a simple thing, but the simplest things are sometimes the most entertaining.  The bonus is that they can eat what they are plucking!

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I tried to get shots of everyone, but I must confess that the photos were a bit JSL-heavy.  That’s mainly because NHL was too quick.  He was off, finding apples, plucking them, sticking them into his bag and running off to the next tree for more.  Meanwhile, JSL was having trouble navigating all of the apples that had dropped to the ground.  This meant he was slower and more photographable (if that’s a real word).

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In the end, we picked 29.5 pounds of apples.

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Our fridge is now packed full of apples and we’re going to need to figure out what to do with all of them.  Slow Cooker Apple Sauce will be made, but we’ll need to come up with some other things as well.  We have some frozen pie crusts…. Maybe apple pie?

During our apple picking, we also stopped by their pumpkin patch to get a pumpkin for carving.  There were plenty of interesting specimens here for us to look at.

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In the end, we decided that these had been sitting on the ground during too many rain storms.  So many were rotting that we were worried that any “non-rotting” one we picked wouldn’t last until Halloween.  On the way back, we passed a place with plenty of pumpkins to pick from.  (Try saying that three times fast!)  Here we picked a 22.5 pound pumpkin which will soon be sliced and diced into a Jack-o-Lantern.

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I plan to save the innards to make something with.  Roasted pumpkin seeds, of course, but I’m open to other “pumpkin innards” recipes.

We headed home with a car 52 pounds heavier and a pair of very happy boys.  Hurray for pick-your-own farms!

What are your favorite pumpkin and/or apple recipes?

Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz Review and Giveaway

Snackerz singleIt’s no secret that I love candy.  Specifically, I love nearly anything with chocolate in it.  So, when I spotted the Butterfinger booth at BlogHer, I was intrigued.  They were handing out samples of their newest product: Butterfinger Snackerz.  Of course, I had to try them.  To quote those Bart Simpson commercials, they were crispedy, crunchedy and peanut buttery.  (All great things in a candy.)  We brought a couple of packages back from BlogHer for the boys.  Of course, they both loved them.  (The only thing they didn’t like about them was that we didn’t have more!)

A nice thing about the Snackerz, versus a full-sized candy bar, was that we could pick up the smaller, bite-sized pieces instead of holding onto a full-sized bar.  It also meant that one package could be divided up more evenly between two boys.  No fighting over “his half is bigger!”

These will definitely be among our top candy choices when we go shopping for a sweet treat for the boys (or ourselves).

Giveaway:

Thanks to Nestle, one lucky winner will receive either four fun size bags of Butterfinger Snackerz (16 pouches inside) or 2 boxes of full size pouches (24 pouches inside) – depending on product availability. To enter, simply leave a comment below answering this question: What types of candy were your favorites to get during Halloween when you were a child?

You can also earn bonus entries by doing any (or all) of the following items. Just be sure to leave a separate comment for each item that you complete.  (Don’t just leave one comment listing everything you did.)

  • Follow @TechyDad on Twitter. (1 bonus entry)
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  • Tweet about the giveaway on Twitter. Be sure to include @TechyDad, @ButterfingerMmm and a link to this post in the Tweet. (1 bonus entry per day) For example: Win Nestle Butterfinger Snackerz in time for Halloween from @TechyDad and @ButterfingerMmm. http://bit.ly/cSSZaG #Giveaway
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To enter, please follow the rules above within the comment section. Contest starts today, October 14th and ends at Noon EST on October 21st, 2010. You do not have to be a blogger to enter, but must leave a valid e-mail address for me to contact you for mailing address once the giveaway is over. I will select the winner using random.org and contact you via e-mail. You will have 48 hours to claim the prize. If there is no response, another winner will be selected. Open to U.S. only.

Disclosure: I received a free fun sized bag of Butterfinger Snackerz complimentary of Nestle in order to facilitate this review. No other compensation was given. The opinions expressed above are my own. Nestle is also providing the giveaway item to my readers.

Cooking With TechyDad: Marinated Greek Chickpeas

As I’ve mentioned before, there’s a Greek restaurant near my parents’ house that had the best chickpeas.  They were marinated in olive oil with onions and spices.  I’ve long wanted to get the recipe or duplicate it, but one ingredient always eluded me.  The last time we were there, though, the chickpeas tasted off.  We suddenly realized the missing ingredient: lemon.

During a Pampered Chef party at CutestKidEver’s house, we found a Greek rub that seemed to contain just the spices we needed.  Score!

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So here’s my recreation attempt.  First, the ingredients:

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That would be chickpeas (2 cans), a small onion, the Greek rub and some olive oil.  Now, we we chop up the onion.

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Drain the chickpeas and pour them into a container.

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Now add the chopped onions.

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And the Greek rub and the olive oil.

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Now mix and marinate for a day or so.

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In the end, this was good, but there’s still more to go before I’ve perfected it.  First of all, refrigerating it only leads to the oil congealing.  Also, the onion taste was way too strong.  I might try a milder onion next time or perhaps sautéing it slightly to soften it up and remove some of the strong flavor.  I might also make smaller batches so that we don’t have a huge container of a slightly off version.  All in all, though, this was a decent first try.

(By the way, this was my first post composed using Windows Live Writer. I’m just getting used to it, but so far I love it!)

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