Giveaway, Product Review

NuGo Slim Bar Giveaway!

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I’ve been on the hunt for a tasty low-sugar bar for months… strike that.  YEARS.  I am hypoglycemic, so I’ve been making a real conscious effort to regulate my daily sugar intake in an effort to avoid peaks and valleys in my sugar levels.  Every low sugar bar I’ve tried to date has come up short.  Quest Bars, Think Thin Bars, Atkins Bars… all absolutely horrible in my opinion.  The most common failures for these low sugar bars are the texture and that horrible taste fake sugars give things.  Blegh!  I hate that… just thinking about it makes my teeth hurt!  Not to mention that the sugar alcohols always seem to upset my stomach and make me regret eating the low sugar bar in the first place.

A few months back Shanna from Shanna Like Banana told me about a new low-sugar line of bars from NuGo.  I was super excited to try them out, but I was cautiously optimistic.  I’d had SO MANY failures that I’d kind of reached the conclusion that low sugar unavoidably resulted in an awful taste.

Enter The NuGo Slim line, which consists of three flavors:  Roasted Peanut, Brownie Crunch, & Raspberry Truffle:

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Fitness, Ramblings

14-Day Fitness Challenge–Turkey Trot Edition

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I don’t know about you guys, but my level of motivation to exercise is dwindling downward along with the temperatures.  Add to this the impending holiday of gluttony, and I’m a wee bit concerned my pants aren’t gonna fit come the new year.  Let’s just face the facts.  I’m not one to turn down delicious grub, and my food intake around the holidays can be downright excessive.  That’s just me.  I love food.  I definitely make an effort to be “conscious” of what I’m eating, but when you give me fifty options there’s no way I’m walking away from that buffet line without a mounding plate of glorious home cookin’.  There will be pounds of turkey slathered with cranberry sauce.. and several hot buttery rolls…  and potatoes in every fashion:  mashed ones, and cheesy ones, and sweet ones topped with melty marshmallows and brown sugar, and a potato salad… or three.  Let us not forget about the dessert table.  I can hear the angels singing now….  I have to sample everything.  It’s tradition, and not doing so is just, well, downright rude in my family.

Hence the aforementioned pants fear. 

Since I function best in life when I have goals to strive towards (Type A?  Moi?!??), I’m rolling out a personal fitness challenge to get me amped up to exercise over the Thanksgiving holiday.  This isn’t just ANY fitness challenge, this is the 14-Day Fitness Challenge – The Turkey Trot Edition.  The goal of this fitness challenge is to exercise every day for the next 14 days.  Yes, that includes Thanksgiving… and my beloved Black Friday. Every.Day. For 14 days.  Here’s the kicker:  I’ll also be running my first EVER race — The Cleveland 5 mile Turkey Trot on Thanksgiving Day. 

Can we all keep our fingers crossed for no snow, please?!

I WILL EXERCISE EVERY DAY.

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Who’s with me?

Feel free to add this badge to your blog!  Just copy and paste the code below:

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Recipes, Slow Cookin

Slow Cooker Sunday: Sausage & Peppers & Apple Crisp!

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Geeze.  Can’t believe it is Sunday.  Strike that.  I can’t believe Sunday is practically over.

Waaaaaaaa!!!!!

I feel like life is moving along at crazy fast speeds and I’m just flailing my arms about trying to stay afloat.  The good news is I’m taking over a week off of work for Turkey Day. So hopefully that helps to revive me!

This lovely Sunday I woke up and got straight to work destroying my kitchen.

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When will I learn to clean as I go?

Never.

This week I pulled BOTH of the slow cookers out of the pantry for some slow cooked sausage and peppers and slow cooked apple crisp deliciousness!

We make sausage and peppers pretty regularly and don’t really get crazy with them.  We simply throw some grilled sausages in the crockpot with a jar of tomato sauce, green peppers, onions, and some seasonings.  You know, garlic garlic garlic and maybe some oregano.

Then we just let everything simmer together until we’re ready to feast.  Soup was BOGO at Harris Teeter this week (HOLLA!), so I nabbed some Chipotle Chicken soup I’ve been wanting to try.

Altogether:

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Since I had to pop into work for a few hours today, Jarrod was in charge of throwing everything together.  Holy cow these sausage sandwiches were DELICIOUS.  Absolutely delicious.  I asked Jarrod what seasonings he used for the sauce… his response?  “Ummm… nothing?”

Men.

Thank you Ragu, thank you. Smile

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The soup was great as well—way to hook a sister up, Harris Teeter.

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The Slow Cooker Apple Crisp was a wee bit more involved, but totally worth it.  I used this Allrecipes.com recipe as my guide, with a few tweaks.  I used three granny smith apples and three red apples.. I always get confused on the red apples.  What are these?  Galas?

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First up, mix the following together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid:

  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice

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And give it all a good shimmy shake.

Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

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THEN, in a medium bowl, combine the following:

  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp  salt
  • 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces

Use a fork or your hands to combine everything until the butter is dispersed throughout.  I recommend using your hands, of course.  Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Ta-da!

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Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more.  And you’ll get….

A big fat gloppy mess. 

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This is NOT ok.

Luckily, my crockpot is oven safe (up to 400 degrees).  So, I popped the crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes.

Hooray for crispy topping!

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The apples of the bottom of the crock disintegrated down into a delicious chunky applesauce.  A spoonful of the steaming sauce, some chunks of apple and crispy topping from the top of the crock, and a dollop of slow-churned vanilla ice cream….

O…. M…G….

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DELICIOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The swaps I made to the original recipe nearly cut the calories in half.  Next time I’m going to reduce the sugar more to further healthify the dessert. I’m willing to do several trial runs if necessary 😉

 

Slow Cooker Apple Crisp

  • 1/3 cup white sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
  • 6 apples peeled and sliced (I used 3 granny smith, 3 gala)
  • 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/4 cup light brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup white sugar
  • 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  • 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp  salt
  • 1/4 cup butter, cut into pieces
  • Vanilla ice cream

Step one:  mix the first five ingredients (through lemon juice) together in a large ziploc baggie or large bowl with lid.  Shake the bag/bowl to coat the apples.  Spray the crock with cooking spray, then toss in the apple mixture.

Step two:  in a medium bowl, combine the next seven ingredients (flour through butter).  Use a fork or your hands to crumble the butter into the flour mixture.  Then sprinkle over top of apples.

Step three:  Cook on low for four hours, remove lid half way then cook 1 hour more. 

Step four:  Verify your crock is oven-safe, then place uncovered crock into a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes to crisp the topping.  Serve with vanilla ice cream.

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What I ate

Classy Mac

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I’ve got this pressure in the front of my head.  It feels like there is a tiny angry gnome in there pushing his thumbs into the backs of my eyesockets.  The pain makes it hard to see and hard to think and hard type, gosh darn it.

He’s been there all week.

I named him Stan.

As I was trying to squeeze an idea for dinner out from behind this irritating pain, one thing came to mind.  Shrimp and mac and cheese.  I blame Stan.  Only problem was I wasn’t about to make this mac and cheese from scratch….

Enter one two-year-old packet of easy mac:

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A mere 3.5 minutes later I had one small bowl of aged cheesy delight:

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Then it was time to take the Easy Mac up a notch.  In the words of Emeril, add a little **BAM**… you know what I mean?  So, how bout some precooked shrimp sautéed in a pan with S&P, garlic, and cayenne?

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Sounds like a plan, Stan.  Sounds like a plan.

And so was birthed Classy Mac:

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Don’t even pretend this doesn’t look tasty.

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I’m off to watch Wheel of Fortune.. and research gnome extraction.

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Recipes, Slow Cookin

Slow Cooker Sundays: Cheesy Sausage & White Bean Chili

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Happy Sunday, Sunday, Sunday!  This football season, we have purposely and sincerely dedicated Sundays to slooooow cookin.  This week my crockpot was graced to the brim with Cheesy Sausage and White Bean Chili (adapted from Sandra Lee’s Cheesy Chorizo Chili Recipe).

Isn’t it pretty???

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Despite how beautiful the final product might appear, the process of slow cooking usually results in some sort of mess in the kitchen.  Well, actually it’s all cooking.  Me merely stepping a foot into the kitchen should serve as fair warning of impending disasters.  One dish usually results in a few sauce splatters on the wall, some chopped onions on the floor, no less than 7 dirtied utensils, a burner or two accidentally left on, and every inch of counter littered with various cooking debris.  So, I’m not exactly organized in the kitchen… What can I say?  I like to become one with my food Smile

The key to any successful slow cooked meal is a few glasses of wine to pass the time.  You might suggest that I use all that waiting time to clean the mess I’ve created in the kitchen.  To that I say, “I cook, you clean.  So quit your yapping and get to scrubbing.”

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To assemble this chili, you’ll first want to brown your sausage in a skillet.  Any turkey or chicken sausage will do—I prefer a spicy variety like Harris Teeter Hot Chicken Sausage or Jennie O’ Hot Turkey Sausage.

Next gather up your ingredients:

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Don’t mind the Limited bag in the background… I partook in a bit of retail therapy this weekend.  I scored a few sale items and am feeling MUCH better, thank you.

Toss all your canned goods, spices, and cooked sausage into the crockpot and mix to combine.  Then, let the chili cook for 6 hours on low.  When it’s time to chow, I like to top my chili with a dollop of Trader Joes fat free Greek yogurt, some sliced green onions, and a few corn tortilla chips:

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This chili is a beautiful rust orange color, pretty darn thick, and extremely tasty.  Even though this chili doesn’t have the standard tomato sauce chili base, it hit all the right notes on the seasoning scale.  Jarrod and I both gave this chili two thumbs up… We had some for lunch… and then some for dinner… and between the two of us devoured the entire batch in a period of six and half hours.  Don’t judge.

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Total cheesy comfort in a bowl.

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Cheesy Sausage & White Bean Chili Ingredients List (serves 5)

  • 5 links hot chicken or turkey sausage (such as Harris Teeter brand)
  • 3 15 ounce cans white cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 10.75 ounce can condensed cheddar cheese soup
  • 1 can mild Rotel Tomatoes
  • 1 can diced green chilis
  • 1 tbsp + 1 tsp burrito seasoning (McCormicks)
  • 1 tsp cumin
  • 1 tsp chili powder
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • Chopped green onions

Stats on one serving:   366 calories, 49g carbs, 7g fat, 35g protein, 14g fiber

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