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Saturday, November 30, 2013

(Fast) Food Review: Wendy's Bacon Portabella Melt on Brioche

I normally do not eat anything other than Dollar Menu items from Fast Food places and even those occasions are rare. But a large part of my Thanksgiving vacation was spent cleaning up one of my rentals because my former tenant may not have been familiar with the concept that water can clean up dirt. So after another morning painting, cleaning, scrubbing and taping one last wall for painting tomorrow, I decided that I would splurge and reward myself with some fast food goodness.

The Wendy's on S. Roxboro just got renovated and so I decided that I would give their menu a try. I saw a sign for something called "Wendy's Bacon Portabella Melt on Brioche" and that just sounded good on so many levels, not the least because I love brioche and mushrooms melt sandwiches in general. I ordered only the sandwich, no need to add fries and other stuff to that burger. I planned to make my own salad at home to keep the meal somewhat healthy and also because I prefer my own salads with just an oil/vinegar dressing rather than regular salad dressings.

The nutritional info is kind of scary with 600 calories, 34 grams fat, 1390 mg sodium, 2 grams fiber, 34 grams protein, but this is probably the first full-size burger I have had in almost 6 months.Anyhow, with my salad and the apple as a meal it was not all bad.

The flavor itself was good. The brioche was nice and sweet, well balanced with the smoky bacon and the earth mushrooms. The Wendy's burger is always good size and so the burger is actually just the right size that can bite into the bun and get all flavors with each bite. As the above image shows, there is plenty of bacon and lots of mushrooms. The cheese hold everything nicely together and the brioche is for me the best burger bun right now on the market. It is soft, but still has enough chewy consistency to not melt through if you let the burger sit for a while. I hope that Wendy's decides to offer the brioche as an alternative on more burgers because to me that brioche bun makes the Wendy's Bacon Portabella Melt a real winner.

Disclaimer: All opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own and have not been influenced by any third party.

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Book Review: Merlin's Blade (The Merlin Spiral) by Robert Treskillard

This is a great young adult book dealing with Merlin, King Arthur and playing in early Britain. What Robert Treskillard manages is bring the history and times of King Arthur to life in a way that makes it interesting for young readers and create stories that provide important life lessons to the readers.

available from amazon.com

In this book, Treskillard describes how Merlin, who by nature is shy, must overcome his shyness when placed in the center of a fight to protect his village as well as the ruling king against outside danger. In addition, Merlin is also half-blind and needs to overcome his physical limitations to protect the girl he loves. A hero with weaknesses and is able to overcome them can provide important lessons to young readers who may face their own doubts about abilities and fitting in. Importantly, this book tells the early years of Merlin and King Arthur, making it very appropriate for younger readers.

Rather than retell some of the story here, let me just recommend the book for young adults and adults, who like to read a new take on this legend. Even tough the legend of King Arthur is well known by most , the book provides an interesting introduction to the legend and is written almost like an action story taking place in early Britain. I should caution readers that the book ends with a cliffhanger and most readers will want to read the next book to determine how the story goes on in Merlin's Shadow. It may be a good idea to buy several books from the series to follow the story in one sitting.

Overall, this book and I presume the series overall, tell in an age-appropriate language the legend of King Arthur and Merlin, whose lives are intertwined through battles and experiences. I always have been a fan of the legend of King Arthur and I found this book to be an entertaining read.

Disclaimer: I was provided a free copy through booksneeze.com in exchange for an honest review. The views expressed in the blog post are solely my own and have not been influenced by any third party.

Sunday, November 24, 2013

Trip to Wilmington - nice in the off - season as well

Last week I was able to drive to Wilmington for a conference. It was my first time in this coastal city and I quite enjoyed the historic downtown area. On the first day, we had summer-like temperatures in the 80s, but then it cooled down significantly into the 50s for the next two days and time spent outside was not so pleasant anymore.

Unfortunately my free time was limited to the evening hours because I spent all day at the conference. But I was able to walk to the conference center from the Wilmingtonian, which was a really nice hotel. And this walk led me right along the boardwalk and so I could enjoy the boats every day.

As I stated, I stayed at the Wilmingtonian, which is located just one block of the lively and well lit downtown Wilmington area. While people are encouraged to only venture outside after dark in groups, this hotel is only one block away from the downtown area with lots of restaurants and so the neighborhood is quite safe. The Wilmingtonian offers the advantage of free parking all day and all day they provide snacks and beverages, which is very nice. In the morning they provide freshly brewed coffee and wrapped pastries, such as muffins, and all day long they offer juice, tea and saoda + yogurt and fresh fruit as well as snack bars. I can highly recommend the Wilmingtonian for a stay, especially if you plan to explore the historic downtown area.

from the website of the Wilmingtonian - http://thewilmingtonian.com/

In the evening, you have your choice of various restaurants in downtown Wilmington, several offering local beers and unique dinner options. If you just want a sandwich, they got chain stores, such as Jimmy Johns, in the downtown area as well. But I highly recommend sampling the local cuisine and enjoying some fresh seafood! Overall, even in the off season, Wilmington is a nice place to visit for a weekend and offers a reasonably priced vacation destination.

Friday, November 22, 2013

House Party sampling event: Gevalia Foam - new latte, cappuccino and macchiato beverages for Keurig!

Thanks to House Party we were able to sample new Gevalia beverages specifically for the Keurig brewer at work. I got three different flavors, the Mocha Latte, the Cappuccino and a Caramel Macchiato. The early favorite was definite the Caramel Macchiato; everyone wanted to sample and taste this one.

I also raffled off some of the design stencils because the smiley face was so popular. So it and the heart stencil were raffled off and we will see if we can post pictures later on about the use of the stencils on some of the foamy goodness. To go with the coffee, I had bought some donut holes because what goes better with coffee than some nice sugary donuts?

I also handed out the coupons to everyone and several members in the party already stated that they sometimes buy the regular Gevalia coffee in the store, but now will keep an eye out for the K-cup varieties available in local stores. A couple of people stated that they will just order the K-cup varieties online and the Mocha Latte was in the meantime getting high marks as well for his nice balance of chocolate and coffee flavor!

We were impressed with the fact that Keurig now can be used to create coffeehouse creations in the regular Keurig thanks to the extra froth package available with the Gevalia packaging. It is such an ingenious solution to the problem of how to create coffeehouse drinks at home or, as in a our case, the office.

Overall, everyone was impressed with the coffee samples included, although several people indicated that they value the quality of Gevalia coffee and did not expect anything else from the makers of Gevalia in their attempt to come of up coffeehouse drinks. Several guests grabbed different samples and are now looking forward to trying additional flavors next week.We have a Keurig at work that allows to adjust the amount of water used in brewing, so several people started off with the least amount of water required (6oz) and then added hot water as needed to get to their individual desired strength. We love that Gevalia has now come out with these coffeehouse drinks, so we can enjoy a latte at work or at home without having to spend a fortune or even leave the home or office because all we need now is access to a Keurig. Thanks Gevalia and House Party for providing us with the opportunity to sample the Gevalia coffeehouse drinks!

Disclaimer: I received free samples from House Party in exchange for hosting a sampler party and providing feedback about the products. The opinions expressed in this blogpost are solely my own and have not been influenced by any third party.

Moms Meet sampling opportunity: KIWI magazine, a magazine with tips for healthy and organic living

Through Moms Meet, we got to sample issues of KIWI magazine. This magazine is great for people who want to live healthy and focus on green and organic living.
I hosted another party for Gevalia coffee today as well and figured a magazine would be great to accompany coffee and dessert - the typical European tradition of drinking coffee and reading a magazine or newspaper came to mind.

The guests were really impressed with the nice variety of recipes that were included, especially the beet salad was a hit. Many of us love beets and are always looking for new ways to prepare them.

I saved one issue of the back to school edition for people that were on vacation today, so they can enjoy it next week. But we had enough of the Thankgiving special so that every guest attending or invited could get their own issue. I had two Thanksgiving magazines left over; one I used to share with a colleague, whom I met for lunch, and I also used one to give to a neighbor of mine that is interested in using more organic recipes and adopting a more green lifestyle.

No one in my group had seen KIWI magazine before, but they had heard that Moms Meet and KIWI magazine were sponsoring a lot of the sampling parties that we have had so far. They were excited to look at the craft ideas as well and thought some of the children images were really cute.

Overall, the quality of the magazine, including articles, pictures and writing, got high marks and the guests were happy to have finally gotten to know KIWI magazine.

Disclaimer: I received free issues of KIWI magazine as well as some money off coupons in exchange for holding a sampler party and providing an honest review of the magazine to Moms Meet. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own and have not been influenced by any third party.

Monday, November 18, 2013

eMeals - a year of meal planning plus coupon savings delivered to your inbox every week!

I know that a lot of my friends are like me and still cook meals for their families every day. Growing up with working women in my family was never a reason to not have a home-cooked meal on the table. And while we all have our standby recipes that we can whip together from pantry items, ever so often we all want to try out a new recipe. I am no different. It is nice to fix spaghetti and meatballs or make some warm potato salad and hot dogs, but I am also wanting to try some new recipes. The problem is a lot of the recipes that I find on the usual recipe sides take a lot of work and a lot of unusual ingredients that would then just sit around the pantry.

But I have now come across a great site called eMeals that offers a subscription service for weekly meal planning. Best of all, as part of this campaign, all my readers can get their own subscription to eMeals at a rate of 35% off the regular subscription price. I was surprised to find out that eMeals is the market leader in online meal planning solutions for consumers. They offer a great variety of individualized meal plans and I really mean individualized because you get to choose from over over 50 weekly plans based on your preferred food style, family size and grocery store. They include such meals plan as classic, clean eating, simple gourmet, low fat, low carb, paleo, portion control, organic, vegetarian and gluten-free meals.

yummy recipes and easy to prep with eMeals

Because you can enter your preferred grocery store, consumers using eMeals can actually save a lot of money. On average using eMeals can you around $1,000/year because of the smart meal planning and coupons!That is one reason why Dave Ramsey supports eMeals (http://marker.ly/b/emeals4464/10666/26). And because you can suit your shopping list that comes with each meal plan to the size of your family, there is a lot less food waste because your shopping list fits your meals and your family size.

And if you were like me and figured that some ingredients would be one time only use, do not worry. eMeals makes sure that all the ingredients you buy are used in multiple recipes - what a great idea!

This is the recipe that I immediately wanted to try. Four ingredients and two sides in less than 60 minutes!

I downloaded two plans from eMeals with the subscription, one for this week and one for the preceding week. I looked over the recipe and one came to mind immediately, an apricot glazed chicken with rice.

I modified the apricot chicken a little bit since I had some carrots at home that needed using up. I also skipped on the rice since I had some leftover pie for dessert and figured that was carbs enough. That is what I love about eMeals, they suggest a main dish, but you can be flexible on the sides. I had a vegetable garden, so during the summer I would routinely add veggies from the garden. I have not bought any peppers or tomatoes all year because we had so many in the garden.

So if you are hungry right now and want to try out eMeals, this is the perfect time. If you sign up now at eMeals http://marker.ly/b/emeals4464/10666/23 , you can save 35% of the normal subscription rate. You can find cool recipes such as a Paleo Roast Turkey in time for Thanksgiving here http://marker.ly/b/emeals4464/10666/24

Disclaimer: I received a free subscription for a year worth of eMeals in exchange for a review on my blog. The opinions expressed in this blog are solely my own and have not been influenced by any third party.

Saturday, November 16, 2013

Subscription box review: Nature Box with natural snacks (introductory price was $1)

Recently Nature Box had a Halloween Special and they offered their box as an introductory special for $1 (including shipping). Since Cravebox and Goodies Co recently stopped sending out boxes, I decided to give Nature Box a try. So far, I am quite impressed with the contents.

I got a nice selection of dried fruit, containing cranberries, cherries and blueberries. A bag of mixed nuts with almonds and pistachios is something I am quite eager to try next. Some grain wafer and corn kernels were also included for people that prefer savory snacks. Lastly, I got some macaroon granola that you can use as breakfast or as a snack in between meals.

So far I have only been sampling the kernels and I actually like them. They are crunchy and not too salty. Best of all because they are a good size, you can actually eat them individually rather than having to pop a handful into your mouth.