Honey Dijon Mustard

My whole life I have chosen mustard over ketchup. I eat mustard with my fries, chicken nuggets, and on sandwiches. I LOVE mustard! I recently got this product: 

It is now one of my new favorite dipping sauces! Naomi even likes it on chicken! This is different than the normal honey mustard I get because it's got a little more zing from the Dijon and isn't AS sweet. 

Jeff and I love to grill out when the weather gets nicer. I've got a great recipe to use this sauce in! This recipe is for Honey Mustard Mozzarella Chicken (adapted from an All Recipes recipe)

Ingredients:

-4 chicken breasts

-1(8.1 oz) bottle of Maille Honey Dijon

-2 tbl. mayonnaise

-1 tsp. steak sauce

Directions:

Mix all ingredients together in a Ziploc bag. I pour all of it into the bag, zip it closed, and then squish it until it's completely mixed. I then pour a little into a separate Ziploc bag to use as dipping sauce later! Next marinade the chicken for at least 1 day. Once fully marinated grill for about 18-20 minutes turning occasionally. It's a good idea to baste the chicken while you're grilling. While this is grilling slice 4 pieces of mozzarella cheese. Once the chicken is done cooking place the mozzarella slices on the chicken for about 2 minutes until it is bubbly on top. Then enjoy!

Jeff and I really like this meal with grilled squash or grilled corn. Go here to get some of this delicious honey dijon mustard to try this recipe for yourself!

Wasabi Edamame

I’ve got another great afternoon snack for you, especially if you like spicy things! Jeff and I were fortunate enough to go to Hawaii for our honeymoon and a tour guide introduced me to wasabi peas. I absolutely loved them and stopped to get some for the ride home. Since then I’ve gotten them a couple times as a special snack for myself. I found a new treat:

Spicy Wasabi Edamame. It tastes very similar to the wasabi peas, but with some different benefits. The Edamame has 11 grams of protein in just one serving! I like snacks with protein because they help me to feel fuller for longer. The serving size is ½ the package, but that’s about all I can personally eat. These pack a spicy kick and after ½ the package I’ve had my full and ready to down some water. If you’re a person who REALLY likes spicy food you may be able to eat the whole package and could get 22 grams of protein! There’s also iron, fiber, and low sugar (only 1 gram). Another thing I like about this product is it is Non-GMO. The full ingredient list is: soybeans, sea salt, and wasabi powder (wasabi oil, dextrin). That’s it- just 5 ingredients with no harmful chemicals. 

If you'd like to try some click here to order from Amazon. Happy Snacking!

The Complete Cookie

I had the opportunity to try The Complete Cookie. Why is it called the complete cookie?

As you can see it is all natural, vegan, has high protein, no dairy, no eggs, Non-GMO, good amount of fiber, no Cholesterol, no trans fat, no sugar alcohols, no high fructose corn syrup, and it's Kosher! This would be a great choice for those who can't have dairy or eggs.

Be careful though-the serving size is 1/2 a cookie. This makes it a little high in the calorie department for me. But look at all other good things- 8 grams of protein and 3 grams of fiber.

The cookie is HUGE-almost the size of my head!

So I found a good solution so that I'm not eating to many calories or too much sugar- split the cookie in half. I either share it with someone or put it in a baggie and save it for later. 

The flavor I tried was white chocolate chip and macadamia nut. I really enjoyed these because they were quick (I didn't have to spend any time baking) and pretty yummy for a pre-baked cookie. I also knew there wasn't any bad 'stuff' in the cookie so I shared some with Naomi and she liked it too! Another thing I liked is that you can order these in a huge pack! Jeff actually took some to our neighbors-hope you guys enjoyed them! :)

Go here to order some white chocolate macadamia nut.

There are other flavors too!

Pumpkin Spice- Need I say any more!!!!!!!

Peanut Butter- a classic!

Double Chocolate- sounds delicious!

Lemon Poppy seed- perfect for summer!

Snicker-doodle- another classic!

Oatmeal Raisin- one of my favorite cookie flavors.

As you can see-there are so many flavors to try! Enjoy! 

Toddler cookies...or are they?

So friends...you may know that I try my daughter's food just to see how it tastes. I have found my new favorite indulgence-Happy Tot Toddler cookies!

I know! This sounds crazy! These are chocolate pumpkin cookies-2 of my favorite flavors on this Earth! Some great things about these cookies:

1. They are delicious! I've given some to other people (I won't mention names) and everyone likes them!

2. They are organic.

3. There are only 2 grams of sugar in 3 cookies. That's pretty good cookie wise! 

Here's some other cookies on the market to compare sugar content to:

• Oreos: 2 cookies have about 13 grams
• Chips Ahoy: 1 cookie has about 5 grams

So 2 grams for 3 cookies-not bad at all!

Here's the size of a cookie you'll find in this bag:

4. They are in the shape of cute dogs!

5. They are a good treat for baby and mommy! :)

I don't feel bad giving Naomi a couple of cookies every once in a while because these are a healthier treat that taste yummy!

Mighty 4

I've blogged about Plum Organics before because I absolutely LOVE their products. I know I can trust their food and it's all organic! Today I'm going to tell you about a product called mighty 4.

All the mighty 4 pouches have the same ingredient-Greek yogurt. 

Pouches are my new favorite thing for Naomi. They are convenient, travel well, and easy for Naomi to eat. 

The purple pouch has purple carrot, blackberry, quinoa, and Greek yogurt. I like that it has purple carrots because it's kind of a hidden vegetable in this pouch. The blackberries make it sweet, and the yogurt and quinoa gives it protein. Quinoa is also a super-food! This one in particular is Naomi's favorite flavor.

The red pouch has kale, strawberry, amaranth, and Greek yogurt. Kale is a great dark green vegetable, strawberries are for sweetness, and yogurt again has protein. Amaranth...what is that you ask! Here is a great article about what it is and why it's so good. Basically amaranth is stocked full of protein, has good stuff for your heart, and is gluten free (like quinoa).

There is another flavor which comes in a blue pouch and it has blueberry, Greek yogurt, sweet potato, and millet. Again..what is millet? It is very similar to amaranth and quinoa.

These pouches are stocked full of healthy and delicious items that keep Naomi full longer than other pouches that we've tried. These have become a snack before lunch or dinner whenever Naomi is hungry before meals.

Here are some other reasons I love these pouches in particular:

1. Their twisty top can be put back on. Some of the other pouches we've tried don't do this. So if Naomi doesn't eat the whole pouch it makes it a little more difficult to store in the fridge.

2. There are no genetically modified ingredients in these pouches.

3. They are actually yummy! Even though Jeff makes fun of me I try everything that we feed Naomi just out of curiosity. :)

4. The packages are BPA free.

5. There are 3 grams of protein, 2 grams of fiber, and omega-3s in each pouch.

Sometimes I wish Plum Organics made stuff like this for adults like me! I would totally be on board with buying all of their food! 

Click here if you'd like to get some for yourself! 

Biokleen

Recently a friend of mine told me about some chemicals in antibacterial soap that can cause skin issues. So I decided to look into our dish soap we have at home. This is the kind we were currently using:

I looked up the ingredients and here's what I found:

Sodium Laureth Sulfate: can cause skin irritation (Livestrong and EWG)

Sodium Dodecylbenzene Sulfonate: can irritate skin, eyes, and nasal passage  (NJ Department of Health)

Lactic Acid- Can cause irritation and can be made from animal by-products (EWG)

Dyes- I don't know why you need this

Do you see a pattern though- irritation? 

I found this new soap:

Here are some of the things I like about this soap:

1. It includes all natural ingredients.

2. No dyes are put into this soap.

3. All the fragrances are natural (grapefruit, orange, and aloe).

4. I like the thickness of this soap compared to our other soaps. (see below)

5. I don't have to worry about using this on anything Naomi touches or puts near her mouth.

 Here is a test I did to show you the difference in the viscosity of the two soaps. I put the same amount of each soap on a cookie sheet and laid it vertically in our sink. I then let it sit for a minute and here's what happened:

The Biokleen was much thicker and stayed closer to it's original shape compared to the Palmolive soap. The reason I like this is because it makes cleaning our dishes a little easier because the soap doesn't wash or run right off the dishes. 

Needless to say I'm switching our dish soap in the kitchen and will be looking at the other soap around our house!

If you'd like to try some for yourself go here. 

Pecan Pancakes

Ever since Jeff and I got married we have had a tradition of making a HUGE Saturday breakfast. I mean the whole works: eggs, bacon/sausage, pancakes/waffles, grits/potatoes, and coffee. It has been a fun way to bond as a family-Jeff has his things he makes and I have mine. After a good amount of cooking we sit down and enjoy our Saturday feast! 

The other week we tried a new pancake mix:

This was a little different than our normal pancake mix because it had chunks of pecans in the mix. We decided that we wanted waffles, but I was a little nervous to see how the pecan bits would do in our waffle machine. 

Fortunately it worked great and the waffles turned out fluffy, flavorful, and pecan-y. 

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We had the waffles with maple syrup and the combination of these two flavors was fantastic! I highly recommend this mix! This company also has blueberry and apple mixes which I'm dying to try after trying the Pecan mix!

Go here to try some for yourself!