Fresh Food Perspectives

Gourmet Garden January Guest Chef and Giveaway!

I am thrilled to share with you some great news this week. This month I am featured as a guest chef for Gourmet Garden! Please check out the link to their homepage where I am featured. I had a lot of fun working with their awesome product line of fresh herb pastes to create my Creamy Garlic Cauliflower and Dill Ricotta Stuffed Tomatoes. You may not have used Gourmet Garden products before, but chances are you've seen them in the grocery store and you could benefit from having a tube or two in your fridge. 

I love the variety of flavors that Gourmet Garden offers like chunky garlic and lemon grass. I also like they store in your fridge well and don't go to waste. I encourage you to give them a try. Click here to see all 11 herb flavors and the spice collection.

To celebrate my month of guest chef-ness, I am giving away a cooler of all eleven flavors, courtesy of Gourmet Garden. This is the same collection I was sent to play with and develop my recipes. You are going to love it! So enter daily below and win a cooler full of flavor. 

On a personal note, I'll give you a house update. It's been a challenging two weeks for our family as we have gone up and down in every way over the approval of our new mortgage. Folks, it's just really hard to get a mortgage these days. We are still living with our in-laws (thank you Mom and Dad) but are hopeful that we will be in our new home by the end of the week. Your prayers and encouragement have been a huge support to me. Thank you to those who sent me encouragement and posted comments. I have realized how blessed I am to have you all in my life. 

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Disclosure: I was not compensated for my time to write this post or for reviewing products. Giveaway is provided by Gourmet Garden.

December Giveaway - Snazzy Gourmet Gift Card

Over the past month, you've seen me blog about Snazzy Gourmet. I've really enjoyed the many fun, gourmet foods they've sent me to try out. My Thanksgiving turkey also came out beautifully, thanks to their brine kit. 

Now I am excited to offer my December giveaway for a $20 gift card to www.SnazzyGourmet.com. This is a great place to get some holiday gifts for the food lovers in your life. And the good news is, the gift card will be provided to the winner as a code they enter online immediately! No waiting to get your Christmas shopping done. Enter below to win!

Need some ideas for Christmas presents? What about anything from their chocolate page (there's antioxidants in drinking chocolate), dipping oils with heart healthy fats, pasta sauce loaded with veggies, or unique vinegars which help with blood flow. These are just a few ideas to get you started.

I'm also excited to let you in on a little surprise for my blog starting in January. I'm lining up some interviews with some pretty neat people to feature their advice and inspiration for healthy living. I've confirmed a London Olympian, my favorite yoga instructor, an experienced mom RD and more. I think this will be a fun way to get us all motivated for healthy living in 2013 without any gimicks or diets. (Amen!)

Lastly, may  I ask a favor of you? Please spread the word about FFP to your friends and family. Use this giveaway as a great way to tell someone about us (we are community after all). And then please tell me what you would like to be reading about on FFP. Sometimes I just need a little direction for my posts and I know you have some for me.

Have a healthy day everyone!

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Discloser: The $20 gift card prize was provided by www.snazzygourmet.com. I was not compensated for my participation in a giveaway, blog post or comments. 

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How to Brine Your (Hopefully Local) Thanksgiving Turkey

Product Spotlight: PB2 and Indian Spices

5K Giveaway Winner and Color in Motion Jacksonville Update

Congratulations to Allie O. of Simply St. Augustine for winning free registration to the Jacksonville Color in Motion 5K on December 29th! 

There is still time to sign up for this fun race. Fresh Food Perspectives readers can get 15% off their registration by entering coupon code FRESHFOOD15 at checkout. This is just the thing you can use to keep you motivated and active throughout the holiday season. This looks to be a really fun race and is open to anyone, regardless if you are walking or running.

Due to parking and safety, the race location has been changed from the Equestrain center to this address:

 

Nocatee

110 Marketside Ave

Ponte Vedra, FL 32081

 

I really hope to see some of my Northeast Florida friends at the race! My hubby and I will be out there running and getting colorful. Join us!

Meal Plan Monday - Preparing for a Successful Thanksgiving Week

I didn't really feel like meal planning this week. I think it's partly due to being lazy and partly due to being so focused on the Thanksgiving menu and planning. Anyone else feel this way? But I know that if I don't meal plan, bad things will happen with my eating. 

I went to the grocery store knowing what I wanted to do for dinner tonight and that was it. I quickly jotted down some more ideas while sitting in my car in the parking lot. I knew I wanted to eat light for dinner this week with lots of veggies. And yet, I knew my hubby would not be cool with salads every night. So here is what I came up with.

Monday: Spaghetti with frozen sauce from an earlier week (which I tend to do often), salad

Tuesday: Vegan Southwest Stuffed Peppers. I would love to do quinoa but the hubs is anti-quinoa. It's terrible. 

Wednesday: Salads and roasted sweet potatoes

Thursday: I am making the turkey, a chocolate chip pecan pie and a vegan apple crisp

If you want to read about how I became the official Braddock Family Turkey-Maker, read about it at my old blog site. Please check out my Pinterest Fall Ideas Board for some fun, healthy ideas for your big meal. 

Let me encourage you to not let every day be a holiday eating day this week. One day is all we need. But you have to plan in order to make this happen. Also, check me out on Good Morning Jacksonville this Wednesday during the 6am hour to learn some tricks for cutting a few calories on Thanksgiving without sacrificing ANY flavor. 

Lastly, there's only a couple more days to enter my 5K give away. Please enter if you are remotely near Jacksonville. I would love for you to win!

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Related articles

• How to Brine Your (Hopefully Local) Thanksgiving Turkey
• "What is the average number of calories a person consumes at Thanksgiving dinner?" - Thanksgiving Help Line - NYTimes.com
• 5 Thanksgiving Menus: Traditional to Vegan

Inspiration for the Holidays and November Giveaway

The holidays have begun. Are you ready? 

I'm a parent now (well I was last year too but J is a little more with it this year) and am starting to see how the holidays can be a bit overwhelming. To top it off we are hoping to be in our new home sometime in late December. Yay!! By the way, here's the latest picture from this past weekend:

The holidays can be a tough time for the healthy eater. Temptation lurks around every corner - busy schedules, parties, holiday baking, and exercise can get kicked to the curb pretty quickly.

Exercise is one of my life balance anchors. It seems to keep many other things in line. When I don't get some sort of exercise in, a lot of things feel off.

One of the best ways I've found to keep my exercise a priority during the holidays is to have a goal. Usually, I try to do some sort of race during the month of December. Not only does it give me something to work towards, it always ends up being a really fun event too.

So I encourage you to take a minute and make an exercise plan for the holidays. What are you going to do, what goal do you have and who will be a helper to make sure it happens?

Think about it. Right now.

To help you out, I am offering a really exciting, really fun, giveaway this month on FFP. The prize to be won are 2 entries into the Color in Motion Jacksonville 5K on December 29th courtesy of Color in Motion 5K.

That's right. One lucky winner will win 2 entries into this Jacksonville Florida race (one for you and one for a friend). The contest is running from today till Wednesday, November 21st at midnight and is open to anyone who is able to be in Jacksonville on December 29, 2012 for the race.

If you don't end up winning, a 15% discount on your registration is available for FFP readers using the code: FRESHFOOD15. This looks to be a super fun event and I'm really happy that it will benefit Hubbard House. 

 

Good luck and here's to a healthy holiday season!

 

Here's a little more on the race:

Color in Motion 5k organizes 5k’s across the country that have a surprise at every kilometer; COLOR!

The difference between these 5k’s and other 5k’s is that they jazz the race (and the racers!) up with bursts of color. You start out all fresh and clean in your white t-shirt, and by the end of the race you are covered in vibrant springtime camouflage.

Color in Motion 5k is coming to Jacksonville on December 29th, 2012. A portion of all registration fees will be donated to the Hubbard House.

Find out more information at: http://colorinmotion5k.com/event/Dallas

 

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Disclosure: The prize was donated by Color in Motion 5K. They have also given me a free registration for the race. All words, except for the italisized blue wording under the 5K picture, are my own. That paragraph was provided by Color in Motion 5K to give readers more information about the race. 

Simply Soy Cookbook Give Away!

In honor of this week dedicated to soy and tofu, I am hosting a soyfoods cookbook, Simply Soy, giveaway, courtesy of the The Soyfoods Council. 

I am really enjoying the tofu challenge this week. My mind is going wild with ideas of all the different ways I can use this versatile foods to make delicious, and healthed-up creations. 

Let me tell you a little more about why soy foods are so good for you. Soy is one of the richest sources of phytoestrogens, specifically isoflavones. Isoflavones have a similar chemical structure to estrogen but are very different and definitely NOT equal. In fact, isoflavones have antioxidant power and have been associated (through research) with a lower risk of breast cancer. Soy is a safe and beneficial food to include in your eating style.

So let's celebrate health and vitality with this cookbook giveaway. This contest is open for one week only, running from Wednesday, October 17th - Wednesday, October 24th. Enter below.

I have also selected a winner for the Justin's Nut Butter give away. As soon as I hear back from the winner, I will announce them to all.

 

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Disclosure: This cookbook was provided by the Soyfoods Council in conjunction with the "How to Tofu" recipe challenge. I was not compensated for offering this contest. All words are my own but I was provided a document from the Soyfoods Council that summarized the research findings from soy and breast cancer studies. Prior to this contest, I had done my own research hunting on soy and its connection to breast cancer. At that time, I identified research studies on my own and had no connection to the Soyfoods Council. 

TV Appearance Tomorrow and 3 Days Left to Enter Give Away!

Happy Friday! I'm sorry it's been quiet on the blog front. I attended the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Food and Nutrition Conference and Expo Saturday to Tuesday. It was a whirl wind event that was full of networking, learning, fun and not enough sleep. I'm still recovering and catching up. I have lots to share with you about my trip and plan to get to that soon.

Next week I am participating in a tofu recipe contest and am hoping to post two awesome recipes. Well, at least in my head they seem like awesome ideas. Make sure you subscribe to my blog so that you never miss a tasty recipe!

Lately, I've had several opportunities to review new products and give stuff away on FFP. I'm trying to space these posts out as I don't want to overwhelm you. I never want this blog to turn into one big advertisement but I do love telling you about cool new products, companies and events that I enjoy myself. If for some reason it ever gets too much, please email me and let me know at JBraddockRD@gmail.com. I always want to make sure you, the reader, are enjoying FFP.

ANOUNCEMENT TIME:

Tomorrow morning I will be live on Good Morning Jacksonville  at 8:20am to talk about foods you should be eating more of. I'm excited about this segment as I think the topic is really fun and certainly tasty! A word of disclosure - I will be talking about  products that are paid placements.

Lastly, my Justin's Nut Butter give away ends in 3 days!! Enter now and spread the word. I want a lucky reader to win one of my favorite snack items.

I hope you all have an awesome weekend! What will you be cooking up?

Justin's Nut Butter Give Away!

October is my favorite month of the year. I love fall and everything about it. To celebrate, I am excited to offer another great give away from a company I also love!

Thanks to my friends at Justin's Nut Butters, I have a variety box of their single serve nut butters to give away. These to-go packs have become a regular in my work lunch box. In fact, there's one in my desk drawer today that will ensure a happy snack time later.

The contest is open until October 16th at midnight with several ways to enter. Sorry, only open to those living in the US. (Hopefully FFP will go more global soon.) Good luck!

 

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Disclosre: I received the product for this giveaway from Justin's Nut Butter. Opinions are my own.  

And the Winner (of the Justin's Give Away) is in...

Congratulations to Lisa L. of Miami Florida! She is the winner of the Justin's Nut Butter give away.

Thank you to everyone who entered and has joined my Fresh Food community. I am so grateful for all of you. 

Justin's Nut Butter Give Away!

A few months ago I stumbled across something wonderful while searching for a chocolate hazelnut spread alternative at Whole Foods. Why did I need an alternative? Well, I had recently realized that my former favorite chocolate hazelnut spread had a big problem. The first ingredient was sugar! Not hazelnuts or even chocolate, but sugar. Ugh. 

So there I was, searching for something that would give me hazelnuts as the first ingredient when I saw it -- Justin's Hazelnut Butter Blend. This product contains hazelnuts and almonds (as the first two ingredients) all the while boasting only 180 calories and 7 grams of sugar (compared to 200 calories and 21 grams of sugar in the "other" brand). Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, I realized that it is also came in single use packets.

It was true, nut butter love. 

Since that day I have tried all of Justin's six other delicious flavors: classic peanut butter, classic almond butter, honey peanut butter, honey almond butter, maple almond butter, and chocolate peanut butter. They are delicious not just because their combinations of flavors are terrific but also because of their committment to high quality. Justin's uses organic ingredients, contains no hygrogenated oils, is gluten free, and as I mentioned, they come in convenient single use packets! 

Justin's is a company that also sincerely cares about how their product impacts the world around them. Check out their mission, which is another reason why I'm so impressed. You can even track the carbon footprint of their ingredients through the Going Green section on their website.

I'm excited to have the opportunity to give away a jar of Justin's to one lucky Fresh Food Perspectives reader. Click the Rafflecopter link below to enter. Entries are earned for tweeting, following on twitter or liking on Facebook. The give away will run from August 1st- 8th at midnight. Spread the news and may the odds be ever in your favor. 

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Disclosure: This giveaway is sponsored by Justin's Nut Butters as they provided the product. I was not compensated for my time beyond receiving free samples of the products mentioned.  All opinions stated are my own.