Terra Breads Artisan Granola...Product Review...And Give-away!

     You know what happens when you get ready to go to the grocery store...You check the cupboards, you make the menu, you make your list, you ask the rest of the family what they want to add to the list, and then you grab your shopping bags and you go.  Right.  So what about the things YOU like to eat?  Do those things get on the list?  Not the things you know you should eat, like fish and fruit and vegetables and chicken breast.  But the things you like to eat...Like some of Liberte Yogurt's yummy Mediterranean Cafe flavoured yogurt that comes in the teeny tiny container (the size that your husband or teenage son would eat in one sitting), or a carton of fresh squeezed orange juice (when really the nutritional value of the frozen stuff from concentrate is just as good).  Those things you don't buy because no one else in the house really notices if you buy that kind or the bigger cheaper brand that is really just as good, and since we are all trying to manage our grocery bill these days.  But really, don't you deserve a little treat too?  Once in awhile.

  

   A couple of weeks ago, I did just that.  I had made my list and was heading off to Thrifty's for a weekly shop.  Part of my list included all the ingredients for making some homemade granola.  I have a fabulous recipe for making cranberry almond granola sweetened with Quebec Maple Syrup (sent to me by Dear Ole Dad, because you cannot bring any real quantity of it on the airplane anymore with the quantities rules for liquids).  This was going to be my treat.  However, Rob was moaning that it meant that he was going to have to eat granola for two weeks straight and he wasn't so keen on that.  (the only drawback to homemade is it really doesn't keep so well).  While I was in the cereal aisle, I found Terra Breads artisan granola with the other granolas.    Quickly, I shelved my plan to make some and purchased the Terra Breads one instead (even though it was a little more than I was thinking of spending).  You see, my husband and I had always frequented Terra Breads bakery on West 4th in Kitsilano while we were living in Vancouver .  It was one of our favourite places to stop for bread or to pick up sandwiches to take with us on bike rides or to the beach.   Standing there in the cereal aisle that day, I could almost taste those sandwiches we had eaten on those trips to Jericho beach or Kits beach or on a bike ride out to UBC.   And while I was pretty sure the granola wouldn't taste like sandwiches, I was convinced that I wouldn't be disappointed.

     I showed my husband what I had bought when I got home, and reminded the kids (all four of them) that it wasn't for them.  A treat just for us, so of course my 7 year old wanted a bowl.  For the next four days, I enjoyed the delicious sweet granola with tart cranberries over vanilla yogurt for breakfast.  And I did let my 7 year old have a small bowl full.  And she liked it as well (of course).  It has lots of cranberries and raisins too (which I think are a nice surprise mixed in with the cranberries.  Pieces of almonds, and cashews and sweet clusters of rolled oats and barley, with crunch but just a touch (so you don't end up with those hard pieces that sometimes can scratch the roof of your mouth).  Just delightful.  We ate it with yogurt mostly, but my hubby had his with milk.  And we both ate our share straight out of the bag.  The only thing we were disappointed with was the size of the bag.  It was a little on the small side, and it was gone too quickly!

   We were so pleased with our granola treat that I emailed Terra Breads and asked them if I could review the Granola for my Blog...And they were very pleased and happily agreed to send a couple of bags of Artisan Granola that I could give away to a couple of local followers (of which I know there are quite a few of you out there, you're just the silent types).
The bags arrived this morning, via Grayhound Bus so they didn't get stuck in the looming Postal strike.
So, here is what you do for a chance at the giveaway...Post a comment at the end of this entry telling us what you like about granola, and how you enjoy your granola (like trail mix, with yogurt, etc).  And if you have already tried Terra Breads granola, please go to Thrifty Foods Website and tell them how happy you are to have found it on the shelves and that you hope they keep carrying it.  Anyone from here can tell you, you find something great on the grocery store shelves and then you fall in love with it and then it is gone.   So we are hoping that that doesn't happen with this yummy treat.
I will choose two local readers at random to receive this great breakfast treat.


And yes, I put vanilla yogurt and a container of granola in my dear daughter's lunchbox, and she loved it.


Happy Packing!

...what Terra Breads has to say about their Artisan Granola...
                   

Artisan Granola

We make our specialty granola by hand in our artisan bakery. We mix quality ingredients —
including whole grains, oats, cashews, almonds, coconut, cranberries, raisins, dates and honey — many of them organic, then toast them until
golden brown in our bakery ovens.
Enjoy our fresh granola for breakfast with yogurt, milk or cream — or just on its own as a great trail mix snack. 

 

 

H is for ...Hungry...

Ack!  Nothing like a weekend of marking and report cards to put a girl behind!  No, not my marking and report cards, my husband's.  He has only left the computer desk to eat all weekend.  And he finally finished last night just after 10 pm.  So, I have been single-parenting and doing Daycare paperwork all weekend.  (and now he is reading this over my shoulder and calling it "the fictional world of Kim's Blog" because he did use his laptop for some of his work, while I was sorting tax paperwork for Daycare, and my dear daughter decided it was time to play on the Webkinz website!)  Needless to say, it has been very difficult to get near the computer!
However, here I am and H is for Hungry!  (If this were a "P" post, it could be Paperwork)

As soon as the kids get in the van after school, I can tell by their voices if they ate all their lunch.  Whiny and impatient means one of two things: 1. They didn't like what was in their lunch and therefore didn't eat it or 2. There wasn't enough of something, either food or time.  "Baby Bear, did you eat your lunch?"  "Well, yeah," is the mumbled response.  "Did you eat all of your lunch?"  And she launches into some sort of elaborate excuse as to why she didn't eat all of something ..."Why not finish it now?"  Some days, when we are running to skating, I pack her an extra lunch or a yogurt-protein shake and a granola bar.  She eats on the drive from the school to the rink.  The key with her hunger (and with most of the members of our family it seems) it ensuring there is a source of protein in that snack.
An oatmeal cookie and an apple is a great snack, but unless I have added some protein powder (or at least a good dose of skim milk powder) to the oatmeal cookie dough, that snack will only hold her through about half of her ice time.  That means we are dealing with a grumpy bear again when we return to the rink to collect her.  And (as all parents I am sure would agree) one of my pet peeves is, "Can I have some money for the machine?  Pleeeeeeeassssseeeee!"  Just like my father, I never have any money when this question is asked.  Or I only have a twenty dollar bill.

Nutrition experts will tell you that your young athlete needs to be eating those complex carbohydrates, like those found in whole grains and fruit and veggies.  And yes, that is very true, but my children are both the same, without that added bit of protein at snack time, they won't make it to the next meal (not in a good mood anyway).  I am not talking about a piece of steak!  But rather a whole grain roll-up with a smear of peanut butter and a banana, or a half a cup of cottage cheese, a rice cake and an apple.  This is where those dear little "cheese strings" come in handy!  I cringe at all the packaging, but the serving size and the portability make them a staple in our house, for things like lunch boxes, long car rides or as part of a quick snack before soccer or baseball, or skating.         

Happy Packing!
                                  

Earthquake Emergency Preparedness at Home

 It is a bit of a running joke amongst members of my family when they visit our home..."Nobody gonna go hungry in this house any time soon!"  I don't know how often I have heard my parents mutter this phrase over the years.
Well, in my defense, I do feed upwards of 10-12 people over the course of a given day, and my experience is that those said people like when there is food in the house!  However, it could also be said that I could feed the whole neighbourhood for a week if I had to.
So, when I began to prepare my "Emergency Preparedness Plan" for Daycare (all licensed facilities in BC are required to prepare and maintain both a full emergency kit as outlined by the BC government and a full facilitiy Emergency Plan for a variety of Situations), the food part was easy!  As was much of the "kit", due to the fact that as a family we do our share of camping and therefore have things like a camp stove and fuel, a large selection of flashlights, wind-up radios and flashlights, extra blankets, first aid, water and so on (visit Canada's emergency preparedness website for a full list of items both necessary and suggested, www.getprepared.gc.ca ).
But last Friday, in the wake of the horrific events unfolding in Japan, and then a Tsunami alert announced for much of Vancouver Island, as well as just about all of the Coastal areas of the Pacific Ocean, I spent a good part of the day and into the weekend, thinking about our emergency kit and plans, and went looking for holes.  I discovered that I only knew for certain where one flashlight was (without going into the emergency kit in the Trailer or the shed); that there were no toothbrushes in the "to-go" bags, and that it was time to replace the water (12 litres each for 10 people!).  The next thing I did (which might sound strange to some folks) was start making a list of what we would eat as we worked our way through three days stuck in the house.  I plan to stick a copy of this list into the emergency kit as well as tape one to the shelf in the crawl space where we keep much of our bulk pantry items. 
One of the things to remember, if you are in a situation where you can cook (either on your gas bbq outside or over a camping stove), begin by using the food in your fridge or your freezer.  The first day, the food in your fridge will still be good, but you will need to cook it that day.  The next day, the food in your freezer (as long as you have not been opening the door of the freezer) will still be good, but again, you will have to ensure that you can cook it!  Just remember that any food that would need to be refridgerated after cooking (so those leftovers you would normally use for lunches!) need to be eated up that same day.  By the second morning, you will be ready to move on to your dry goods, as well as any bread or baking that is in your freezer.
Some suggetions for Emergency meals at home that don't require heat (for when you run out of gas for the bbq or the camp stove, or if you don't have access to either of those items): Dry cereal with tetra pak milk or canned milk, or powdered milk if you have that much water.  If it is the first day, you may have some yogurt to use up in your fridge.  Eat the fresh produce you have in the house like bananas or berries, save apples for the end as they have a much longer shelf life.  Use up any lettuces you might have on that first day, and have a salad with canned tuna or sardines, and some cheese.  Canned, ready-to-eat soups can be eaten cold, and if you are feeding more than one person, it is great to lower the sodium of these items by using no-salt-added canned tomatoes, to the soups to stretch them to feed a group of four or six.  Canned fruit is a great way to get vitamin c and fibre into everyone, so keep things like canned pineapple, mandarins, applesauce and fruit cocktail in your emergency food kit.  Dried fruit, like raisins and cranberries or apricots are great sources of fibre.  Canned or bottled 100% juice is good too.  Be sure and add some low or no-salt canned vegetables to your kit.  Things like canned peas, corn and beets are full of nutrition and can be eaten cold as long as you remember to include a manual can opener.  Packaged oatmeal cookies or granola bars are great if you are stuck in the house, but also if you get told you have to leave, these are things that can travel well to your next destination.  Energy bars are good too, but often need to be eaten with water or juice.
Something else to think of when you are preparing your emergency food kit, include some candy or chocolate bars (altho these need to be eaten up about every 3 o 4 months as they don't have a long shelf life).  Fruit gummies are great for the kids, and (as will the colouring books and crayons and story books) will help them feel like things are sort of normal (unless of course, you never give them those!), just like when you tell them to go and brush their teeth after they have eaten them ! (because you remembered to include toothbrushes and toothpaste in your emergency kit!)

Thanks for stopping by!
Happy Packing!










http://www.pep.bc.ca/hazard_preparedness/prepare_now/prepare.html

Tasty Lunch box treats

Yum Yum Yum!  Who doesn't love to find something sweet and homemade tucked into their lunch?  I bake a lot, although apparently not often enough, given that there is "nothing" to eat again.  We have a few regulars (altho none made currently!  Just our regular recipes): banana bread, pumpkin loaf, blueberry-spelt muffins, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies and ginger molasses cookies.  Oh yes, and applesauce cake.  All recipes that have been tweaked enough that I feel good about my kids eating any of them for breakfast!  Whole grains, fruit, low in fat and many with added yogurt to increase calcium and protein.  But, every once in a while, I hear my mother's voice in my head saying, "Oh gee whiz, can't we just make something without worrying about whether it is good for us or not?  Just make it with white flour for a change."
So, last night, I set out to do just that...I had found a fabulous recipe for Chocolate chip cookies on The Sisters Cafe.  I loved Melanie's tips for making cookies, especially the one about making big cookies!  So, I printed the recipe and headed for the kitchen.  My kids were going to be so thrilled, Mum was going to make BIG Chocolate Chip Cookies.  I stood in front of the baking side of the pantry, reading through the recipe.  Well, there it was, the first problem.  The recipe called for 2 cups (less 2 TBSP) of cake flour.  Okay, yes, I had cake flour, but it was whole wheat Cake flour.  Oh well, whole wheat would have to be it, as I wasn't heading to the grocery store at 8:30 at night.  Next item?  1 2/3 cups of bread flour...eh mm...I know, you have already figured out problem number two...Baking soda, baking powder, coarse salt.  Got em all.  Butter?  Yes sir.  Probably should add a little extra given all the whole wheat flour.  Sugar...1 1/4 cup light brown sugar...Nope, gonna have to be "Best Brown"  which is lovely and rich and in no way "light" in colour.  And we will have to increase the brown sugar just a little, because I have just discovered that there is almost no white sugar left.  Perhaps there is some left in the sugar bowl?  Eggs: well, we have one large and many many extra large.  Since I have used whole wheat flour, I figure that the cookies can handle one large egg and one extra large egg, and I make a note to remember to go the long way after school the next day and hope that the egg stand has eggs left when we get there!
Vanilla extract?  Got it!  (2 large bottles in fact...Friends keep going to Mexico and bringing it back for me.  I am so spoiled!)
And, no we don't have any fancy 60%  cacao chocolate disks...Hershey's Chippits are going to have to do.
I can feel my Super Mum star slipping away before it even rises...Must make BIG cookies!  That should overshadow the whole wheat flour...That and lots and lots of chocolate chips (and why not?  The recipe calls for 1 1/4 lbs!)
So, I make up the dough (and it makes a lovely dough, in spite of the whole wheat flour!)...stick it into the fridge (chill for a minimum of 12 hours, ideally 36 hours).  If I left chocolate chip cookie dough in the fridge for 36 hours in this house, there would be none left at the end to make cookies!  12 hours it will be.
Then, I slept in this morning!  Nothing to get into a panic about, however, it doesn't leave any time for baking cookies before going to school.  So, lunch treats were: yogurt (the vanilla plus kind that tastes like pudding, because Thrifty's has it on special: 3 big containers for $7.00), carrot sticks and cucumber rounds, apples, and granola bars...Both kids are looking for strawberries, but I explained that those went in their lunches the day before.  "What about the cookies, Mum?"  "They aren't finished yet, we can make them tonight."  And I successfully distract them with scrambled eggs and toast.
After supper tonight, I got the dough out of the fridge and set about making some BIG cookies.  Until I got out the 1/3 cup measuring spoon and took a really good look at it.  Those are going to be REALLY BIG cookies.  And I couldn't do it.  Ended up, I got out my "large" food scoop (really an ice cream scoop with a fancy name), and used that (I think the measurement of it is close to a 1/4 cup).
Turns out the large food scoop was the perfect size, and the cookies got rave reviews (including some chocolate smiles because of all the chocolate chips). So yummy! "Mummy, they're so big!"  my daughter said and my son wanted to know if he could take them in his lunch.  "I guess so, " I said.  "I won't tell my teacher"  he smiled.  Apparently, my children didn't even notice the whole wheat flour...
I will make sure and pack him some extra carrot sticks to hide the cookie with!
And for lunch tomorrow, my lovelies will enjoy leftover quiche and salad, as well as their BIG cookies!
Happy Packing!

To enjoy the Perfect Chocolate Chip Cookies, find the recipe at
http://sisterscafe.blogspot.com/2011/03/secrets-to-perfect-chocolate-chip.html

Was that really the best price?

Ah, another impending trip to the grocery store.  It involves the usual chores of checking the fridge, the pantry, the freezer and the opinions of other household members (the cat's request was that Grandma and Grandpa's dog be removed from the house and returned to wherever she came from...apparently, he wants to go back to eating on the floor and hanging out in the big play room during daycare time...In a few days, Emmy, it will all be back to normal, and you can run away from the lego cars to your heart's content...In the meantime, go back to enjoying your newfound Cat-tertainment of the fish swimming in the aquarium)...But I digress...
   When it comes to packing lunches, in our house, we try and take a "litterless" approach whenever possible.  Sandwich boxes (I like the Lunchbots stainless steel ones), thermoses, containers for yogurt and cookies, carrot sticks and dip, water bottles.  You know the drill.  We have some great sandwich containers: beyond the stainless steel Lunchbots, we also have Tupperware sandwich boxes, and some snackTAXI's.  They are great when you need to take your lunch, but don't want to carry around the bulky box afterwards.  They are fabric velcro closing snack or sandwich bags (2 sizes), that have a nylon easy-to-clean lining.  All great gear for saving on garbage creation and for saving money.  Saving money, because we all know that it is cheaper to make your own snacks and pack them than it is to let someone else pack them and sell them to you prewrapped and then boxed up in groups of  5 or 6 or 24!  However, while I stand firm on the pre-packaged "Lunchables" or lean cuisine type meals, I do give in and stock (both for their enjoyment and my sanity) cheese strings or Babybels, applesauce, granola bars and small yogurts (the deal being that the yogurt and applesauce containers have to only be used for lunches and that the empty containers come home to be washed and used for daycare paints, glue or other craft helper uses).
    So, I did a little homework this week and investigated where you get the best value for your dollar (and your nutrition) when buying the standard lunchbox fillers.  The yogurt was the easy one:  watch for the sales, as long as you have a few different brands that your family will eat, and aim not to pay more than 0.50 per serving.  Most yogurts are the same, when you compare similar fat contents.That and the sugar content, those are the decisions that you have to make for your family.  The ideal being about 2% mf (for younger children or teens who are maintaining a healthy weight, go 1% or no fat for adults), and the lower the sugar the better, staying away from artificial stuff.  Best is creating your own: plain yogurt and adding your own fresh or frozen fruit, and using honey or maple syrup as your sweetener (if you brought back a bottle of vanilla extract from your last trip to Mexico, add that too!  Mmmmm!).  Bottom line, the less ingredients in your yogurt, the better, both health-wise and taste-wise.  However, if your family will only eat somebody's 2% fruity yogurt, go for it and feel good that they are eating yogurt.  Yogurt (plain or fruit filled) will give your loved one a serving of dairy (and for your kids, that means you are only looking for one or two more servings to meet the RDA).
   Granola bars is another one: we buy Nature Valley crunchy ones or the Kashi chewy ones (altho these are probably the most expensive if you go regular price).  Comparing sizes and prices and nutrition values, Kashi gives you the best bang for your buck.  The key?  The same as the yogurt: the fewer ingredients on the list, the better.  And the Kashi ones had no added palm oil, and I could pronounce and recognize everything on the ingredient list.  However, regular price around here, they go for 4.99 a box (so 6 bars), when you compare with other store brands, you can get the same number of bars for half the price.  The Nature Valley crunchy bars (the ones in the green package containing 2 bars), sell at reg price around here for 3.99 a box, but regularly go on sale for 2 for 5.00 or even 1.99 a box.  They too have a reasonable ingredient list (pronounceable and recognizeable), and average about 4g of fat per bar (so 8 per package).  My suggestion?  Buy what your kids will eat (because it's no deal if it goes in the garbage), but stay away from long ingredient lists (and I won't mention the one big name that I left off of here, that tends to be a big seller because they advertise that they have "Peanut Free" bars...they are filled with puffed rice and all kinds of other ingredients...their bars are smaller than both the other brands I mentioned earlier and when you compare same size servings, they have more fat and sugar, and less fibre).
   The third and last item I compared was Applesauce...Unsweetened (albeit they make a variety of mixed flavours like berry apple and peach apple etc)...Motts, Presidents choice and Compliments (owned by Sobeys) were the three brands of applesauce cups I compared, all unsweetened, and all offered similar nutritional information.  The big thing for me was that as far as I could tell, both Presidents Choice and Compliments are really Leahy (available some places as Applesnax).  Mott's is a US company that began in New York State as a Cider company.  It has been through a variety of changes over the 100 plus years of existance and is now owned by Cadbury-Schweppes out of England.  See their website for more info http://motts.com/ 
Leahy is a Canadian company, based in Franklin, Quebec.  Growing up in the Chateauguay Valley, Franklin was (and still is) "Apple Country", and therefore close to my heart.   Leahy offers both organic and regular unsweetened apple products (both of which are available as Compliments and Presidents Choice across Canada), and are made with Canadian apples.  Price-wise, both of the store brands are slightly less expensive than the name brand, altho Motts is the one available at Costco. Both of the store brands are availabe in larger jars (700ml) and if you go to Zellers, you can find Applesnax (Leahy) in both organic and regular unsweetened varieties in the large jars.
So, while Motts may be the name brand on the shelves, in this case my heart is with the store brands, and my daughter's taste buds are too. 
To read more about Leahy, http://applesnax.com/EN-CA/index.html
The Leahy company is also Apple Boost another interesting concept:
http://www.appleboost.com/index.php

Now, to get back to that grocery list!  But first, take Grandma and Grandpa's doggy for a walk!
Happy Packing!