HP Hood’s Fourth Annual Holiday Recipe Contest
January 10, 2009 - Written by Diana
HP Hood sent Deb some eggnog for the holidays that she brought to Mom’s for our weekend gathering and it was simply delicious. One nephew who adores eggnog was living off of it that weekend. HP Hood encourages us to use their products in all of their cooking and his mother(another sister) made an eggnog pie, so she’s well on her way. HP Hood has a recipe contest to encourage our readers. All you have to do is submit a recipe using one of their Hood Holiday products: Hood Eggnog (any flavor), Sour Cream, Cottage Cheese, Instant Whipped Cream (must be used in conjunction with another Holiday product to be eligible), Hood Cream, or Country Creamer (Original or Fat Free). The contest ends on January 16th, so get your recipes out and start entering because we’d really love it if one of you guys won the contest. The winner receives a chef prepared dinner party for the winner and 10 friends plus three runners up will get a 200.00 gift card. The contest is only open to legal U.S. residents of Massachusetts, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Rhode Island, Connecticut and New York (Territory) who are 18 years of age or older at the time of the contest entry. This means Deb and I aren’t eligible, but my sister with the eggnog pie is. How about it Desiree, are you going to try and if you don’t can you still send us the recipe anyway to share?
We also received recipes from HP Hood using cottage cheese in place of other cheese with higher fats. HP Hood has developed a series of healthy—and budget-friendly—family recipes that simply substitute its award-winning cottage cheese for higher fat cheeses like mozzarella, cheddar and ricotta. Since it’s diet resolution time I thought it would be great to share these healthier recipes with you.
Italian Chicken Servings: 4
Grana Padano – PDO Cheese
December 4, 2008 - Written by DianaI used Grana Padano in my Smashed Cauliflower Potatoes. It is a really tasty cheese that added a great flavor to my dish.
An interesting bit of information is that it is a PDO cheese. PDO – Protected Designation of Origin. When a cheese has the PDO Mark, this indicates that it comes from a certain area, and that European Union Law protects specific foods that come from a certain region. This mark protects the reputation of regional foods and eliminates any misleading of consumers by non-genuine products, which normally are of inferior quality. Grana Padano is made with milk from the Po Valley in Northern Italy, following a traditional recipe first created by Cistercian monks that lived in the region around 1000 AD. The monks originally started producing Grana Padano as a way of using leftover milk. The result was a hard cheese with a granular texture that retained all of the nutritional properties found in milk.
I enjoyed using Grana Padano in my cooking. It’s a lot like Parmigiano-Reggiano, only maybe not as salty but it comes through really well. It’s great in Risotto and grated over salad or pasta. This …
Which is Better? Depends on Your Mother. Kate’s Pure Butter & Smart Balance Butter Blend
November 12, 2008 - Written by DianaMy mother came to visit. My son asked if she wanted butter for her toast. She said,"No one should eat butter, it’s bad for your cholesterol." My mother in law came to a family function. Her son(not my husband) was about to pick up the butter blend and she shoved real butter under his nose and said,"We prefer the real butter for our bread." GAH! Neither of them is really ever at the same table with the other, so they aren’t confronting each other, they are just both opinionated when it comes to butter. I have both in my refrigerator. I use them both equally or maybe not – you can’t make butter cookies without real butter. However, I do use them both when I feel the need. So which is better? Depends on which mother is visiting.
My Mother’s Quest for Ice Cream – Turkey Hill
August 12, 2008 - Written by DianaMy mom comes to visit once a year. I live 500 miles away, so I make my yearly pilgrimage in the winter and she comes in the summer and helps out with the kids and chores. Mainly, she’s there so if they need an adult around for shuttling or so their friends can come for a visit, she’s there. This year she rode in the passenger seat as my son drove back and forth to band camp. She’s a good sport, my mom. There is only one problem; the quest for ice cream. She loves ice cream, but desires store bought ice cream to be fat free and sugar free. I KNOW – is it still ice cream?
So we go to the store and we search back and forth and back and forth among the dairy cases searching for the elusive fat free, sugar free ice cream. Oh, and it has to have nuts (fat free nuts?) or be anything but chocolate. I stopped by stores a couple of times on my way home from work and told her I bought ice cream. Of course, I hear -” Is it fat free, sugar free?” My response was – “You’ll eat what I got and be happy.” Where have I heard that before? Then there’s the time I go on the weekend after church with her in tow – or maybe it’s the other way around. While my family is sweltering in the car, we’re searching the aisles for the one box of fat free sugar free ice cream that MUST be there.
I can shop the whole store in less time than it takes to find my mom one box of ice cream. Finally, she gave in and found something that was Vanilla and Free something (Fat Free Vanilla). When we were visiting with the cousins, we were talking about ice cream. My mom said she knew she bought a Turkey Hill (Are you listening Turkey Hill?) ice cream that was fat free and sugar free at home (500 miles away) and also the last time she visited. My cousin-in-law agreed and said she searches for it too. So somebody, please stock up our store with Fat Free, Sugar Free Ice Cream with Nuts so that my mother will continue to visit. I know they won’t let her on the plane with it – and it wouldn’t last even if they did. I think her next visit is contingent upon finding just the right one.
Lifeway’s Probugs & Kefir Products
July 23, 2008 - Written by Diana
For Healthy Snacks week, I’d like to introduce you to Probugs kids drinks and Kefir products. Probugs is a drink for kids, that has the consistency of yogurt drinks, with natural fruit flavoring. Even though my kids are older, they tried the Probugs drinks, enjoyed them, and went back for more. They said the blueberry, had a slightly sour blueberry taste like you had real blueberries in it, not the fake blueberry taste. The drinks came in individual pouches with a no spill spout kids could drink in the car or for a snack. My kids had to try squeezing to see if they could get it to spurt (they’re teenagers, what do you want?) and while they could, it was much easier to control and didn’t cause a big mess like holding a juice box often does. The pro bugs name stands for the probiotics contained in the kefir based drink.
It’s On the Box! Philadelphia’s Black Forest Cheesecake.
April 23, 2008 - Written by Robin
I find myself cutting out cardboard recipes from the sides of boxes, and they just seem to collect in little piles and never get made. I was sorting through one such pile and rediscovered Philadelphia’s black forest cheesecake and just had to try it.
And wow it was good!
