My Favorite Things: Canning Jars

Why I LOVE Canning Jars:

• They are made of glass so I don't have to worry about storing my food in toxic plastic.
• They are cheap so I don't care if I break one (although I haven't broken one yet).
• The lids are easy to store and interchangeable so I can always find one.
• They come in a variety of sizes and the smaller ones nest inside the larger ones for easy storage.
• They easily stack in my lunch bag.
• They fit perfectly in the dishwasher top rack.
• I can store so many things in them: prepared soups, food prep, yogurt, dried beans, bulk spices and mixes, craft supplies, you get the picture.

Try some you'll love them too!

Yogurt and Fruit Popsicles ... or Smoothie

The kids and I came up with a recipe for yogurt Popsicles that we have been having a blast making (and eating) together.  It is a great quick treat for the family because it tastes amazing, yet is good for you.  Why? The full fat yogurt provides protein and fat to keep you full, and according the The National Yogurt Association, when frozen yogurt maintains the beneficial bacteria it contains so you are still getting the benefits of the active live cultures of yogurt.  The strawberries are also a great source of Vitamin C.  The honey or real maple syrup are completely optional, these pops still tastes great without the added sugar.

Yogurt Popsicles Recipe
1 Cup Full Fat Organic Plain Yogurt (I prefer homemade, but any yogurt with active live cultures will do)
1 Cup Organic Strawberries OR blueberries (frozen are fine!)
2 Tablespoons of Real Organic Maple Syrup or Raw Honey (Optional)

1. Blend everything together using your blender, or your hand blender.  If you don't have a hand blender, I highly recommend getting one because they will greatly simplify the blending of any soup or smoothie you are trying to make by saving you LOADS of clean-up time.

2. Drink as a smoothie or freeze in Popsicle molds.

VIEW PRINTER FRIENDLY RECIPE



This recipe can EASILY be adapted, double, tripled, etc. to suit your individual tastes.  Try different fruits, try adding a vegetable like spinach or some ground flax seed meal.  Enjoy!

My Favorite Things: Reusable Sandwich Bags

About a year ago I bought this awesome reusable sandwich bag from ReusableBags.com.  Don't you love it?!   This is the sandwich size, but I also bought a couple of the snack size, which I actually use more, because my little man brings them to preschool everyday with his snack inside.  I love that I don't have to continually buy new plastic bags, and that our family isn't contributing extra waste to the environment.

Crinkle Cutter Review

If you know me, you know I LOVE kitchen gadgets; and I just tried out a new one that is great, the OXO crinkle cutter.  I bought it because I thought it would be fun to slice up the kids veggies in a fun way.  I always maintain if food manufacturers can market their foods by slicing and dicing it to look appealing, so can I!

I bought the crinkle cutter to make wavy carrots, but once I got it and saw the package directions, I realized I could also waffle cut things like potatoes.  We don't eat a lot of potatoes in our house, but if we are going to have fries, I will make them myself with this fun tool!

btw...I bought the Crinkle Cutter on Amazon because they have an awesome 4-for-3 deals on a lot of their kitchen gadgets .  Buy four of their gadgets, but only pay for three.

Featured Product:

Annoucing Boardroom Couple in Beta

I am very happy to announce the Beta launch of Boardroom Couple.  For the past few months my husband, Leonard, and I have been working on building a website to support couples who are in business together.  We have been working together for almost five years now and feel that going into business with your spouse can be a successful yet often overlooked option for many couples.

The new website will provide resources to improve the conference table to dinner table relationship of these couples.  These resources will help those considering going into business with their spouse and those who already work with their spouse.  To start, Leonard is getting close to completing a unique online course that will help anyone to How to Build a Website.   If you have noticed the new design of this site it is because the site will also combine my work here into a new feature called The Dinner Table that will focus on helping entrepreneurial couples eat healthy, organic meals despite the busy life of a entrepreneur.

Please have a look around the website.  We welcome any feedback you would like to provide!

Email us at info @ BoardroomCouple.com
Become a Facebook Fan of Boardroom Couple
Follow us at Boardroom Couple on Twitter.

Cooking Whole Foods Fast: Mise en Place

Today I am introducing a new series on aMichiganMom: Cooking Whole Foods Fast.  A series that will focus on different tips and techniques for cooking real, whole foods fast.  You can find all the posts under the tag Whole Foods Fast.


First tip, dinner.  I get home at 5PM from work and we like to eat at 6PM.  I also like to try and rest for 15 mins while the kids was Caillou.  So I usually have about 30-40 mins to prepare dinner.  With a little preparation I can easily make a fast whole foods dinner in this time, or less.  How?  Mise en place.  I try to prep the ingredients the night before.  For example, Tuesday we were having the quick noodle stir-fry from the Steamy Kitchen Cookbook.  So Monday night as I was cleaning up dinner, I chopped up all the veggies for Tuesday's stir-fry, layered them in the order I needed to add them, mixed the ingredients for the sauce, and put it all in a container.  So Tuesday night, all I had to do was boil the noodles and fry up the already cut veggies.  The dish was excellent (it was the first time I made it), and it was ready in just 10 mins.  I used two pans, but I could have easily made it a meal with a one-pot clean up by draining the noodles and stir-frying everything in the pan the noodles had cooked in, while the noodles were in the colander.


Do you have a Cooking Whole Foods Fast tip for the new series?  Email me at jmagro@gmail.com with your tip (and ideally a picture) for consideration.

Door to Door Organics

Door to Door Organics is a service I have been using since the end of summer 2009.  Why?  They deliver fresh organic food to my door every week.

Here is what I really like about the service:

• I don't have to go to the grocery store.  It is delivered to my door.
• All the food is organic
• I can add on an increasing number of other grocery items like oils, coffees, grains to my order.
• I can sub out the items I don't like in my box for items that I do like (I personally am not a big fan of Mangoes)
• No Delivery Fee

The only thing I am not completely crazy about, is that the produce isn't always local.  But, my reality is that I live in Michigan, and I am not going to get fresh local produce in winter.  Banana's from Costa Rica are ok with me (and my family).  I also think this service is awesome for anyone who doesn't live close to an organic grocery store.

Therefore, I am very excited to be able to offer my readers a $5 discount on your first box. 

Sign up for your first box: www.DoortoDoorOrganics.com 

$5 OFF your first box coupon code: michiganmom

Here is what the sign-up screens will look like:

1.) Select Your Box 

2) Enter Your Zip Code



...Here are the Michigan Door to Door Organics Delivery Locations and Days



4) Enter Code -  michiganmom - and Tell Them I Referred You:



5) Enjoy Your Weekly Produce Delivery

Wordless: How to Keep Fresh Lemon & Lime Juice on Hand

A Fun & Healthy Wintertime Snack for Kids

My kids were recently inspiried by an activity they saw on Curious George.  In the little activity section of the show after the cartoon they had kids freezing food in blocks of ice and then melting it (Sid the Science Kid has a very similar activity, choose the "Change Caused by Cold" video).

So we decided to do the same thing, except to make it a little more fun, we put them in freezer-safe pyrex containers and put them outside, covered.  Then the next day after dinner we brought them inside and put them one-by-one into the big bowl pictured above, pouring warm water over them to loose the fruit and veggies (we used oranges, carrots, grape tomatoes, and grapes) and had our investigation for dessert.  They had a great time melting the ice and eating everything as it melted.

Frontier Herbs Review

I really love the herbs and spices from Frontier Natural Products.  I've been buying them a Whole Foods for the past six months, but you can also purchase them online.  I first started buying Frontier when I wanted to switch to organic and it was one of the first brands I chose to try.  I quickly realized they were one of the best brands.

I like a couple of things about the Frontier Herbs.

• Optional Small Packages.  Although you can purchase their herbs in one of those typical small glass jars, I prefer the small package because then I don't have to worry about my herbs getting stale.  A smaller package ensures I use them up quickly.  
• Freshness.  When I am cooking with them they smell and look like their fresh counterpart.  The basil smells like fresh basil, not sawdust.  The oregano looks like fresh oregano. 
• Corporate Policies.  Frontier Natural Products believes and supports things like sustainability, fair-trade, and environmental responsibility and they've been doing it since 1976

I decided to do a little photo comparison.  I compared four Frontier herbs to their Organic Private Selection Brand counterparts.  I am a little disappointed in my camera, but I think you will be able to see the difference. I strongly encourage you to click on the picture and choose to view the large version on Flickr, where the you can really see the differences in color and texture of the herbs.  Also worth noting is that the Private Selection herbs were fresher when I took the pictures.  I went out to buy them all fresh, so they were all unwrapped and photographer, whereas the Frontier herbs were ones I had on hand so some of them had been opened awhile.

Basil
Private Selection Organic $3.99 @ Kroger for .50 oz (14g)
Frontier $2.69 @ Whole Foods for .39 oz (11.06g)

Notice how much greener the Frontier Basil is?




Oregano
Private Selection Organic $ 3.99 @ Kroger for .50oz (14g)
Frontier $2.29 @ Whole Foods for .43oz (12.19g)

The Frontier brand is also more olive in color than the Private selection which is more brown.  You can also see that the Frontier Oregano also has more of the little parts of the plant rather than the Private Selection "flakes."  I didn't notice a big difference in smell.




Thyme
Private Selection Organic $3.99  @ Kroger for .63oz (17g)

Frontier $2.39  @ Whole Foods for .43oz (12.19g)


This is one where they don't look that different, but they smell incredibly different.  When I smell the Frontier Thyme, it smells like fresh thyme.  When I smell the Private Selection brand, it smells more like tea than Oregano.

Parsley
Private Selection $2.29 @ Kroger for .28oz (8g)

Frontier $2.29 @ Whole Foods for .27oz (7.65g)


I couldn't find the Private Selection Organic, so I had to get the conventional version.  The Frontier Parsley is nice and flat and smells slightly lemony.  The Private Selection is kind of curled up.  It also smells a lot like hay (as in the kind you feed to horses).

To my eyes, mouth and nose, the Frontier herbs come out ahead of the Private Selection brand. They look, taste and smell superior and I think they have a very positive impact on the dishes I use them in while cooking.

P.S. Note to other bloggers....be careful when smelling herbs for a taste test, some just might go up your nose :-)

You can purchase the Frontier Herbs directly from The Frontier Natural Products Co-op (20% off with code gimme20) if you don't have a Whole Foods close to your home.