cleveland – Fervent Foodie

Giveaway, Product Review

Chocolate Coconut Love + Luna Bar Giveaway!

February 11, 2011 28 Comments

Guess what arrived?!?!?!

A giant package from DrugStore.com…………

I currently have 15 strike that 14… ok 13 CHOCOLATE DIPPED COCONUT LUNA BARS in my possession 😀 😀 😀

As soon as the package arrived, I tore into the box.

Immediately, I tried to smell the chocolate coconut goodness through the wrapper.

I don’t smell anything…

SMELL HARDER!

This game didn’t go on long before I ripped open the package and took the first glorious bite of the new luna bar flavor.

HOLY CANNOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Almond Joy lovers hold on to your seats. This was so DELICIOUS and so worth the wait not to mention risking my life in a Cleveland ice storm.

See all the flaky coconut goodness?

Lucky for you all, I’m ready to share my goodies! So, I’m going to give one reader TWO Coconut Luna Bars plus a Blueberry Bliss Luna Bar (one of my all-time favorite flavors)!

Here’s how you can enter:

1.) Leave a comment including a link to the BEST healthy or healthified recipe you’ve ever tried.

2.) Tweet about the giveaway (my twitter ID is @Fervent_Foodie) — make sure to leave a comment here letting me know you tweeted. Here’s a shortlink for you: http://wp.me/pW6Qg-1f0

3.) Like the Fervent Foodie page on Facebook and leave a comment here saying you did so.

I’ll let this run through Midnight eastern time on Tuesday Feb 15, and then I’ll use a random number generator to find out who I get to share some Luna Bar love with. I hope you are as excited as I am… I know.. I’m obsessed. It’s ok.

Ramblings

Weekend Fail.

February 7, 2011 8 Comments

Going into the weekend, I had one goal: to find the new Luna Bar flavors and devour mass quantities of them. For those who aren’t maniacally obsessed with luna bars …. For those who have been living under a rock!!! … ahem… for those who aren’t aware, the new flavors are Chocolate Chunk and the highly coveted Chocolate Dipped Coconut.

Saturday afternoon I was out running errands when I got wind of a winter storm a brewing. So I decided to high tail it to Whole Foods in Cleveland so that I could snag the new Lunas. I even called the store ahead of time to make sure that they had the new flavors in stock. As an added bonus, I planned to swing by Trader Joes which is right down the road from Whole Foods. It’s not often I make this trip up to Cleveland, so I had already started mentally drafting a lengthy list of goodies to pick up.

About 20 minutes into my drive the freezing rain started. No worries I thought. I’ve got this. Zoom zoom Mazda, zoom zoom.

A few miles passed.

Ok Mazda, perhaps a little less zoom.

Let’s creep like a turtle instead, shall we?

The closer and closer I got the Cleveland the WORSE AND WORSE the weather got. At one point traffic was stuck at a dead stop for a good 15 minutes, which I soon realized was due to an accident that had resulted in a car completely flipped over on the snow embankment. I counted four accidents on my journey north. And I’m not talking fender benders. I’m talking the kind of accident you drive by and say “holy cow! how the heck did that happen!??!?”.

Perhaps this was a bad day to go to Cleveland…

When I finally arrived at Whole Foods, I was literally shaking. I bolted inside and headed for the Luna Bars. I quickly spied the Chocolate Chunk and grabbed two with gusto. As I reached victoriously into the Chocolate Dipped Coconut box I realized, to my utter horror, that the box was empty. They were sold out. They were sans coconut goodness, if you will.

I had just risked my life, and they were sold out.

I stood in front of the Luna Bars motionless as defeat washed over me.

As I turned to leave, I remembered that I was also super excited to try out the new blueberry muffin LaraBar. Just as I headed to grab one, an old lady swerved her cart into the aisle and picked up the ENTIRE last box of blueberry muffin Laras and dumped them into her cart.

I kid you not. It was like a scene from Walmart’s toy aisle on Black Friday.

I turned away concealing my internal rage, bought my 2 chocolate chunk bars, and headed to the car.

I immediately tore into the Chocolate Chunk Luna Bar.

This Luna Bar was definitely tasty, like a big chocolatey chewy graham. It reminded me of the smore Luna a little too much though….

After all that nonsense, I decided to just go home. No TJ’s shopping spree. That’s right. I drove all the way to Cleveland in an ice storm for 2 Chocolate Chunk Luna bars.

Fail.

Ramblings

Athena Awards — Success in Sisterhood

June 30, 2010 1 Comment

Tonight I attended the Athena Awards dinner in Cleveland, which honored local women helping women. Those who know me know I’m all about female empowerment. There’s just something amazing about getting the opportunity to surround myself with strong successful women in leadership roles, and tonight’s dinner was one of those events where I left feeling like I can tackle anything that comes my way!

This was the first business function I have whipped out my camera to take pictures of the grub… I got a few funny looks, but I simply told people I was working on an article for the company newsletter 😉

None of these pictures are very good, as I was more concerned with snapping quick pics than getting clear images (due to all the staring).

Pretty vase on table:

Salad with goat cheese:

Pecan crusted chicken (tasty, but too sweet so I scraped it all off) with potato wedges and green beans:

Also had a few bites of dessert, which tasted like a big fancy fudge round 🙂

Some thoughts from the dinner to leave you with tonight:

“It’s important to have an enthusiasm for life.”

“Simply be the best that you can be. It’s usually enough to get you where you want to go.”

“I hope that when we ask the next generation of women what challenges they face in their workplaces, that they will look at us with quizzical eyes and say ‘Challenges? What Challenges?’ “

My personal favorite:

“Wellness and balance are just as important as growing huge brains.”

Goodnight friends! 🙂

Fitness, What I ate

Getcho run on!

June 30, 2010 5 Comments

What is it about running first thing in the morning that makes me feel like I can tackle anything the day brings me? This morning I completed Day #3, Week #2 of my interval training plan. Woo hoo! That means Friday I’ll be up to 2 minutes walking, 4 minutes running… and still no knee pain in sight 🙂

Breakfast #1

In honor of the fabulous PB2 GIVEAWAY, I decided to make a grilled fruit and nut butter wrap using Chocolate PB2.

I took 2 tbsp of powdered chocolate PB2:

Then added 1 tbsp water:

Then smeared it on a Mama Lupe’s low carb tortilla and topped with 1/4 cup each of strawberries and blueberries

I wrapped everything up, and put it on the george foreman for 5 minutes. Then wrapped in foil and stuck in my purse:

And enjoyed at my desk at work:

Mmmmmmm…. love love love the grilled fruit and nut butter wraps!!!

Stats on the wrap: 145 calories, 21g carbs, 4g fat, 9g protein, 7g fiber

Make sure you post a comment on the PB2 giveaway by midnight Sunday July 4th!

Breakfast #2

Bowl of overnight oats consisting of:

1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond breeze almond milk
1 packet Truvia (stevia)
Cinnamon
Fresh Strawberries & Blueberries (added this morning)

I <3 overnight oats.

Stats on the oats: 203 calories, 39g carbs, 5g fat, 6g protein, 7g fiber

Lunch

Last night when I was packing my lunch I was really craving a sandwich. (The carb tooth strikes again!)

Sunday night I grilled up a big batch of chicken breasts seasoned with McCormick’s Montreal Chicken Seasoning. So I packed one of the breasts (about a 2.5 ouncer), 1 cup spinach, tomato, onion, a Pepperidge Farm 7 grain deli flat, and 1 tbsp Trader Joe’s Spicy hummus.

Can you say YUM? Yum. 😀

Stats on the sammy: 230 calories, 29g carbs, 5g fat, 22g protein, 9g fiber

Women Power

Tonight I’m headed up to Cleveland for the Athena Women’s award dinner. This opportunity came up through my involvement with the Knowledgeable Network of Women through the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

And I’m taking my camera. First time for me to let my inner food blogger out at a business function… should be interesting 🙂