Giveaway, Product Review

Chocolate Coconut Love + Luna Bar Giveaway!

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Guess what arrived?!?!?!

A giant package from DrugStore.com…………

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

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

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

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I don’t smell anything…

SMELL HARDER!

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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.

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

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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.

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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)!

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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. 

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Recipes

My first attempt at Biscotti

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I don’t recall when I made the life transition from thinking of biscotti as a dry and dull unappetizing biscuit to thinking of biscotti as one of life’s true pleasures that should be savored as frequently as possible. 

Thank god for maturing palates. 

Biscotti now holds a special special place in my heart, and I would eat it every day if it didn’t hurt my teeth so much.

A while back, I decided to try and make biscotti on my own via this recipe for Cranberry Pistachio Biscotti.  I headed to the local grocery store to buy up the necessary goods, and much to my dismay I found pistachios to be outrageously expensive.  $10 a  bag?!?  Come ON!  Then I noticed that the pistachios with the shells still on them were nearly half the price, so of course I scooped them up. 

How hard could it be to crack a few shells? 

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About 45 minutes into my shell husking I was beginning to seriously doubt my frugal decision. …

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Seriously… 

How many freaking pistachios does it take to get 3/4 of a cup???

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When I finally had my 3/4 cup pistachios and my fingers were aching from all the husking, I mixed the following together in a bowl:

  • 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 1/4 cup and 2 tablespoons white sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 1/8 teaspoon orange extract

Then I beat in 1 egg and combined the following in another bowl:

  • 3/4 cup and 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon baking powder

I slowly incorporated the dries into the wets, and then mixed in:

  • 1/2 cup craisins
  • 3/4 pistachios (painstakingly deshelled by hand)

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Looks like christmas!

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Can’t wait to eat you!

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Once combined, I rolled the dough out into a log on parchment paper:

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 Kind of surprising how perfect this looked, given that I couldn’t feel my fingers at this point.

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I baked the biscotolog in a 300 degree oven for 35 minutes.  Then I removed it from the oven and covered it with a dish towel to cool for about 10 minutes.  Meanwhile, I reduced the oven heat to 275.

I transferred the biscotolog to a cutting board and cut into 18 slices:

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PERFECTION!

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Then popped the biscottis onto the cookie sheet again and put them back into the 275 degree oven for 8 minutes.

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Once the biscotti was completely cooled,I drizzled the tops with some melted Bakers Chocolate

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YES!

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Overall, I really loved this biscotti.  I think some of my friends and fam were a little thrown off by the orange extract though.  I’m excited to play around with this recipe.  I’m thinking almond and craisins next time! 

Really any nut that doesn’t require deshelling would be superb….

 

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Recipes

Shrimp & Mac & Cheese

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WOW guys.  WOW.

Drooling yet??

For the big game this past weekend, I was looking for a something a little different to take to the family party… Something a little healthified but that still packed a little somethin somethin.  During my search, I stumbled upon the the Mac and Cheese Light recipe from the September 2010 Cooking Lite, and it looked like the perfect fit!  You can never have too much cheese on super bowl Sunday, I always say.

What really drew me to this particular recipe was that it started off with the “secret weapon” – a puree consisting of one whole LARGE onion and 9 cloves of garlic. 

Hello lover. 

Clearly this was destiny. 

First up, I put a big ole pot of water on the stove to boil, then tossed a large Vidalia onion and 9 cloves roughly chopped garlic into a bowl with 1/2 cup water. 

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I covered this guy with plastic wrap and nuked in the microwaved for 10 minutes.  Prepare to smell like onions and garlic for the remainder of the day.  Don’t worry.  I won’t judge you.

After 10 minutes, you dump this onion garlic goodness out into a blender and pulse until smooth.  It should look like grits, ya’ll:

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By now the water should be boiling, so drop in 8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni and cook until al dente.

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Meanwhile season up you onion garlic puree with:

  • 1 tsp dried mustard
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • Salt and pepper to taste (I used A LOT)

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Once the pasta is done, drain and set aside.  Then heat your onion garlic puree up in a pot (large enough to hold the sauce and the pasta), and once hot and bubbly slowly whisk in 2 cups shredded reduced fat cheddar cheese. 

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It should be gloriously thick.

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Once the cheese is all melted in, take it off the heat and whisk in 2/3 cup fat free plain greek yogurt, then add in the cooked pasta.  Once everything is combined, pour the mac and cheese into a casserole dish greased with cooking spray.

Sprinkle the top with

  • 1/2 cup whole wheat panko bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  • Sprinkling of dried parsley

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Baked at 425 for 15 minutes:

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Cheesy deliciousness:

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Just to balance things out, I also made a big arse salad for the game:DSCF5263

No joke.  Big. Arse.

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Of course I finangled one serving of the mac and cheese to take home with me after the game, and I decided to spice it up a bit for dinner tonight.

I LIBERALLY seasoned up 4 jumbo shrimp with salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne pepper and sautéed them up on a pan:

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I also roasted up some broccoli  that I had liberally seasoned with S&P … and I also microwaved the mac and cheese.  Don’t judge.

VOILA!

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That is a seriously grown up healthified mac and cheese masterpiece!!!

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I havent had roasted broccoli in months!! I practically lived off of roasted veggies last summer, and I had somehow forgotten how friggin delicious they are! 

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The mac and cheese by itself was a little too mild for my tastes – so, at the super bowl party I topped it off with some Frank’s Red hot.  But for tonight’s dinner this spicy cayenne shrimp added plenty of kick:

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Can’t get over how delicious!

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Get in my beeeeeeeeeeeelllllllllllllllllllllllllllllly!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese (no shrimp):  275 calories, 30g carbs, 10g fat, 17g protein, 3g fiber

Stats on 1 serving mac and cheese WITH shrimp:  322 calories, 30g carbs, 11g fat, 26g protein, 3g fiber

 

Mac & Cheese Ingredients List (serves 8 )

  • 1 large Vidalia onion
  • 9 cloves roughly chopped garlic
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 8 Ounces Barilla Plus Elbow Macaroni
  • 1 tsp dried mustard
  • 1/4 tsp cayenne
  • salt and pepper to taste
  • 2 cups reduced fat cheddar
  • 2/3 cup fat free Greek yogurt
  • 1/2 cup panko bread crumbs
  • 1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
  • Sprinkling of dried parsley

 

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Ramblings

Weekend Fail.

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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. 

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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.

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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.

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