Tag Archives: Food

Here’s a short and sweet delicious post about the dinner we enjoyed tonight. We made some delicious pizza using sliced mozzarella and Hormel pepperoni. So. Delicious.

We used the pre made pizza dough and pizza sauce, then sliced thick pieces of mozzarella and placed them all over the pizza. A small bag of pepperoni goes such a long way, so feel free to pile it on the pizza!

Enjoy!

 

This post was part of my involvement in the Hormel Extended Family Blogger Program. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

When it’s time for a holiday get together, Brett usually makes one of two things…mashed potatoes or sweet potatoes. And they are so so delicious. Like, so delicious that I secretly hope that no one eats them and we have a bunch left to take home. Except that never happens

For Christmas Eve, it was mashed potatoes on the to-do list. The bags of potatoes and mounds of butter were ready to be mashed into delicious goodness. But this time, Brett had a secret weapon to make his job easier…the Masha!

The patented ROTOR-CONE technology in the Masha uses a low speed rotor to force ingredients through an outer mesh.

This produces a perfect consistent mix in seconds. The Masha works brilliantly on the following: All types of potatoes, guacamole and refried beans, pastry, cake mixes, baby food and a lot more!

• Patented ROTOR-CONE technology uses a low-speed rotor to force ingredients through an outer mesh, producing a perfect, consistent mash without lumps, in seconds. 380 watts of total power for the heaviest mixing tasks.

• Metal drive gears and a powerful double reduction gearbox provide the muscle to drive the ROTOR at exactly the right speed for the perfect result.2 speed mixing bowl motor to insure efficient mixing of a variety of ingredients.

• A spring loaded mechanism locks the shaft when the power unit is detached, allowing the Rotor Blade to be removed with a simple turn and click.

• The Masha is compact, great to hold and easy to use with a forward-biased, non-slip handgrip and balanced weight distribution.

Normally, mashed potatoes involve mashing using a hand tool and lots of arm power. The Masha cut the prep time considerably and required hardly any effort whatsoever. Like a power tool for the chef.

Brett had his boiled potato pieces in a bowl, ready to be mashed.

You plug the Masha in and just stick the bottom into the potatoes. You’ll immediately start seeing it get to work, turning the pieces into perfectly mashed goodness.

The Masha has a comfortable hand grip and works so well that it never got clogged and didn’t spray any pieces outside of the bowl.

Just move the Masha around to get all the potato pieces and no time, you’ll have a bowl of perfectly mashed potatoes.

To clean, just pop the bottom off and clean in the sink or dishwasher.

The sleek design means it doesn’t take up much room at all in your kitchen. As mentioned earlier, the Masha would work great with cake/brownie batters (as opposed to hand mixers that make a big mess). As a parent that made most of our baby food, this would have been fun to try new recipes and methods of cooking for various baby food. I wonder if this would be good to mix drinks…hmmmm???

 

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I received this product in exchange for my review. All opinions are my own. Especially the one about Brett making the best potatoes…mmm.

Whether you are hosting or attending a New Year’s Eve party this year or simply hanging out at home with close friends and family, ring in the new year with some delicious appetizers. When it comes to party appetizers, you want to make sure everything is tasty, but can also be small enough to grab and munch on while mingling and celebrating. Here are some appetizer ideas from Hormel if you still need some ideas.

We’ll start with one of my favorite appetizer items…Buffalo Chicken Dip!

 

Bacon-Wrapped Risotto Bites

 

Chili Cheese Dip

 

Potato Skins

 

Pepperoni Pizza Dip

 

Pepperoni Sizzle Sticks

 

This post was part of my involvement in the Hormel Extended Family Blogger Program. All opinions are my own and honest. Thanks for reading!

Seeing as Brett is such a picky eater, it’s no surprise that Trent is too…combine that with being a picky toddler and I often feel like Trent doesn’t eat as well as he should. He loves fruits, like peaches, strawberries and bananas, but we also try to sneak in ways to get him more nutrition. One of those ways, especially when we are traveling, in Disney or out and about in town, is to give him those little pouches of fruit from the grocery store. He really likes the applesauce in the pouches, but we also try to get some combo varieties to switch it up and see what he likes. And as he grows older, he eats them so fast and will sometimes eat two at a time!

To stop going through so many pouches that get thrown away, we love the idea of reusable pouches, especially because they hold more food and we can get creative with recipes for them. All in our quest to find more things for Trent to eat and enjoy.

We recently received a pack of Little Green Pouch reusable pouches and made a really yummy recipe for him to enjoy from the pouches…Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie!

Little Green Pouches are like those pouches of food you see in the store, but much better for the environment and easier on your wallet! They can hold up to 6 ounces of pureed food and are made of durable, BPA-free, PVC-free & phthalate-free plastic. They are reusable…they have a resealable top, are dishwasher and freezer safe, and are easy for kids to use. I like being able to fill the pouches with a treat, and have them in the refrigerator ready for snack time!

Here is what you’ll need for the recipe:

Peanut Butter & Jelly Smoothie (derived from this recipe)

Grapes

Banana

Milk

Peanut Butter (or almond butter)

This is really easy…just combine all the ingredients in a blender and blend until smooth.

Open up the pouches and pour the smoothie in each one, then close them up.

You can put them in the fridge or in the freezer for later…but not before letting your little one enjoy some first!

I love how we can now give him these pouches without worrying he’ll squeeze the contents out everywhere. He can run around and still enjoy a delicious, nutritious snack.

And yes, after filling all the pouches, I enjoyed what was leftover. Not just for kids!

 

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For the most recent issue of WDW Magazine, which was an entire issue on Christmas at WDW, I contributed to the section “Bringing the Magic Home” with a recipe for chocolate-dipped Mickey head sugar cookies…with sprinkles, of course!

At first, we tried to take the easy way out and bought pre-made sugar cookie dough…the kind in a tube at the grocery store. Brett rolled it out flat, cut the Mickey heads and then put them in the oven…where they puffed out far beyond being recognizable as a Mickey head. Fail.

After those were consumed (we had to hide the evidence of mistakes, duh!), Brett found this recipe for rolled sugar cookie dough…which was a success! Apparently, the rolled recipe is what you need to make sure the cookies keep their shape. So here is what you’ll need:

Mickey Head cookie cutter

Mickey sprinkles (or any type of sprinkles)

Melting chocolates

and for the sugar cookies (insert the amount of servings on the linked recipe page to determine the amounts you’ll need of each ingredient):

Butter, softened

White sugar

Eggs

All-Purpose Flour

Baking Powder

Vanilla extract

Salt

Once the sugar cookie dough is made, roll it out flat and use a Mickey head cookie cutter to cut out each cookie.

Try to maximize the cuts to make as many cookies as possible!

Place them on a baking sheet and place in the oven. Cook according to the recipe. Once they’re done, place them on a rack to cool and sprinkle with extra sugar (optional).

Once the cookies have cooled, melt the chocolate in a bowl in the microwave. Make sure the bowl is deep enough so that the chocolate will cover the top of the Mickey head when dunked.

Dunk the top of the Mickey head cookies into the chocolate, then lay flat back on the cookie rack.

Sprinkle Mickey sprinkles on top of the chocolate. We got these sprinkles in WDW!

You can let the chocolate harden or eat them soon after the chocolate cools. I think Trent enjoyed them very much….

These are also perfect for our Disney Milk-and-Cookies for Santa platter (also from WDW!).

 

I’m also really excited about the article I contributed to the next issue of WDW Magazine, which is all about the best time to visit WDW. The magazine will be packed with all kinds of great advice and fantastic photos (including many from Brett). You can learn more about WDW Magazine here.