Beverages

Fair Time Cotton Candy Art Print Buy at AllPosters.com

 

 

I received an e-mail from a lady this weekend who was looking for “Pink food” for a party her workplace was giving for breast cancer survivors. What an absolutely inspired and beautiful idea! The premise touches me so much that I thought I’d create a post in its honor AND in honor of the individuals who have fought this demon and are having the last laugh.
 

According to Breast Cancer.org, breast cancer survivors AND those of us wishing to never fight the battle on our home turf should cut out as much fat from our diets as possible. We should most definitely eat more vegetables and fruit. If one’s overweight, they should lose it and keep it off. Exercise is also highly recommended. I guess if a person cuts out fat, fills up on fruits and vegetables, and gets plenty of exercise - the weight will pretty much take care of itself!

My own aunt (Penny) stared it in the eye and I can honestly say that one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever witnessed in all my life is the grace with which she did so. I remember her once saying how that a lot of people say, “Why me?” when they’ve been diagnosed with cancer - but that she thought, “Well… Why not me?” She always said that she had God on her side, so she knew she was in good hands. Apparently the best!

Below are some ideas for “pink foods,” including links to recipes, more information, etc. I’ve researched what foods experts have said are especially healthy foods for people dealing with breast cancer and/or those trying to keep it from showing up on their doorstep. These foods/drinks are in bold. If you have any other ideas to add, I’d love for you to leave them in the comments!

• Baked Sugar Cookies with Cream Cheese Icing.  (I’ll be writing my own favorite recipe for Sugar Cookies as well as a recipe fro the BEST Cream Cheese Icing you ever tasted in the next post.  I’ll include a picture of how they look wearing their pink bling!)  You can either tint the icing to pink using a little red, buy pink food coloring in a cake decorating store or craft’s aisle, or do as I do (simply because I HATE food coloring with a colorful passion) - sprinkle on prink crystals from the baking aisle.
• Pink Grapefruit!  Cut into chunks and chill.  A fruit salad could be created by adding strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and grapes.  Sure, it allows a little more colors in than pink - but it also allows a LOT of antioxidants and healthy vitamins in.
• Serve Milk made Sexy with Nestlee’s Quick Strawberry Pink Mix.  You get your Vitamin D, it’s a beautiful shade of pink AND most of our mothers used to make this for us a lot, trying to sneak milk past us - so it’s a beautiful comfort food.  Experts say that Vitamin D curbs the growth of cancerous cells.
• Salmon - Granted, salmon may prove a bit of a challenge for luncheons - but if you can manage to grill, broil, or steam your salmon steaks right before it’s time to eat, they’re beautifully healthy and marvelously pink. (Salmon’s also a good source of Vitamin D.)
• Shrimp -  Again, you’d have to be very careful to keep it on ice, but shrimp cocktail would be a great thing to serve at a Pink Party.  It’ delicious, healthy, and pinkish.  If you add a little horseradish to your cocktail sauce, you can even make it a little pinker. (Shrimp’s also a good source of Vitamin D.)



• Hot dogs! - When I told my husband what I was doing when he caught me thinking (rare things always draw attention), the first thing he said was, “Hot dogs.”  And right he is!  A delicious way to serve them is to cut the weiners (traditional or “veggie”) into thirds.  Wrap uncooked bacon around each and fasten to the weiner with a toothpick.   Do so with the entire package.  Place all of them, toothpicks up,  in a large crockpot.  Sprinkle generously with brown sugar.  Cook on Low until they’re “done.”  Healthy?  Not particularly.  Delicious?  Decidedly so.
• Ham slices - About as pink as it gets.
• Pink Lemonade
• Pink Cotton Candy - You can usually find some pre-packaged in a department store. Another option would be to buy a Cotton Candy Machine and make your own!
• Strawberry Ice Cream. - Served either alone or in pink ice cream cones. You could even tie an all-important and symbolic pink ribbon around each cone.
• Create Chocolate Covered Strawberries and Color them pink!  After I exhausted my brain power (I heard that!), I googled, “Baby Shower food ideas” - knowing that they often focus on blues and pinks.  I found the following recipe for Chocolate Covered Strawberries and am now craving one big time! -
• Don’t forget about the beautiful reds that are, after all, in Pink’s family. They’re one of her parents, after all! Pomegranates, strawberries, cherries, raspberries, red pepper, red onion, etc. Each of these, when combined with other foods will more than serve as stand ins for pink.
• Strawberry Soup
• Japanese Fishcake - Granted, you may need a Japanese Restaurant for this one, but just look at the picture below. Gorgeous!

Keep in mind, when your plates, napkins, and collective mindset is PINK, even foods that don’t look particularly pink by themselves will appear pink. You can also think about and focus on the meanings of the other colors as well. For example, White stands for purity, Blue stands for loyalty, and Red envokes thoughts of bravery, boldness and power.

If you go to your local bakery and tell them you’re preparing a special “Pink Party,” I know they’ll be able to offer up some amazing advice and pink delicasies. People love to feel helpful and to feel like they’re part of the battle - fighting on the side of the brave! It’ll also be the winning side.

Pink Poster Buy at AllPosters.com

Some Fun Pink Ideas:

If you have enough time, buy (or rent) a cotton candy machine and make your own pink (of course) cotton candy.

When buying napkins, toothpicks, etc - don’t just check the nearest department or grocery store.  Hit up a special Birthday, Party or Card outlet store.  Don’t just check the birthday section either - head over to the baby shower supplies.  Lots of girly pink!

Go to your nearest Hot Topic and buy pink coloring for your hair - I double dog dare you!

Play Pink’s music. Hang her posters around and shake your fist in breast cancer’s face! Tell it, “You think we’re weak? We’ve got your weak!”

Useful Links:

How Do They Make Cotton Candy?

Buy Cotton Candy Online in Bulk

Pre-Made Cotton Candy and Cotton Candy Machine Rentals

NSAID’s Might Lower Breast Cancer Risk

Six Foods That Fight Cancer!  (A MUST READ)

The Breast Cancer Diet (Another MUST READ) This diet heralds the importance of whole grains, nuts, fruits, vegetables, beans, citrus fruits (bodes well for our pink grapefruit, right?), dairy products, soy, garlic, herbs and spices (for their cancer-fighting phytochemicals), evoo, fiber, and green tea (the author of the Breast Cancer Diet drinks almost as much green tea as I do!  She writes, “I make a half-gallon pitcher of iced green tea every other day. I drink it for the promising anticancer activity of a compound it contains called epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG).”)  If you know someone who is a breast cancer survivor or are interested in increasing your protection against the demon, read this article.  It’s very well-written and wonderfully informative.

*** I’ll be adding more recipes throughout the day including my favorite Sugar Cookie recipe that I almost always frost with the BEST Cream Cheese Icing on earth. I also have a few other recipes I rounded up. The problem is, my much beloved and adorable 20 year old cat Prissy (who recently suffered another stroke) has decided to go to sleep right on top of the recipe books I had laid out. Needless to say I’ll be waiting for my little antique girl to wake up and move. Time with her is so precious, I let her do what she wants to do, when she wants to do it. And right now, she wants to sleep on mommy’s work!

Your orders for the day: Find the Starbucks nearest you and get thyself to it Godspeed. Walk in like you own the place (that’s my M.O. anyway) and order a Salted Caramel Signature Hot Chocolate. Don’t let the word “salted” trip you up. It’s just a little perfectly Heavenly salt ground on top. It compliments the whole shebang in a way that ought to be illegal in 49 states. We’ll let Texas get away with it, they’re bigger than we are.

Starbucks regular Hot Chocolate is completely delicious, itself. In the fall and winter, I go back and forth between Hot Chocolate, Apple Cider (delicious!) and one of my greatest addictions - Chai Tea. But since I tried the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate, I’ve kind of been stuck. Funny, but I seldom actually get coffee at Starbucks. I guess it’s because I always have coffee made at home (and often with Starbucks coffee beans), so getting it out doesn’t make a lot of sense.

Of course, my husband would say I don’t order coffee at Starbucks because it’s cheaper than the other drinks, and that goes against something I stand for.

*Sniff* I love how he knows me so well.

By the way (or “Buy the way”), the link below will take you to a site called Coffee For Less. I’ve used the link that’ll hook you up with one of my favorite coffee beans: Starbucks Caffee Verona. It’s bold, aromatic, and makes you happy to be alive.

Try the Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate! - It’ll blow the roof off your mind.

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My oldest daughter, Emily, loves hot drinks. Coffee, tea, apple cider, hot chocolate - when she has a hot mug of something special, she’s in her own little personal Heaven. So when comes home from either work or school, I like to have something waiting on her when she walks through the door. The drink lights up her world at that moment and her smile does the same for mine.

Yesterday was a long day for her - school AND work, so I thought that called for hot chocolate. You know how it is, some things just go down better with chocolate. I altered my favorite Hot Chocolate recipe a little bit and we were both tickled silly with the outcome.

JIGGY HOT CHOCOLATE
4 ounces unsweetened baking chocolate (4 squares)
1-3/4 cups water
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp Imitation Brandy Flavoring
dash of salt
4-3/4 cups milk

Heat the chocolate and water in a saucepan over medium heat - stirring constantly, until the chocolate’s melted. Stir in the sugar and dash of salt. Stir. Heat to boiling, then reduce heat to low. Simmer (while stirring constantly) for 3 minutes and add the teaspoon of Imitation Brandy flavoring. Simmer and stir for 1 more minute..

Stir in the milk. Heat, slowly, until hot. DO NOT BOIL. Beat with a wire whisk until foamy and serve to a delighted recipient.

I actually just lost myself in a world of chocolate last night. In addition to the hot chocolate, I made chocolate cupcakes with chocolate chips, served with chocolate frosting with chocolate sprinkles. That had all three daughters and one husband in chocolate Heaven.

Food Tv.com (a.k.a. Food Network.com) has a delicious section filled with the most amazing Memorial Day recipes you could hope for.  But don’t take my foodaholic word for it, see for yourself.   Be warned, though, if you’re on a tight grocery budget (Aren’t we all these days?), you’ll be extremely tempted to throw the budget out the door.  I honestly want to make about 20 different recipes right now!

My printer’s trying to catch its breath and my own budget’s scratching its head, wondering if it ever really had a chance.  To answer its question, “No.  Not really.”

Some of the recipes you’ll want to seek out first:

Corn, Avocado, and Tomato Salad

Coconut Lime Pudding Cake

Grilled Bread

Summer Pudding

Blackberry Lemonade

Blueberry Lemonade

Grilled Chicken Sandwich with Grilled Mushroom Vinaigrette

Zesty Grilled Tilapia

Crab Cake Burgers

Mini Chipotle Burgers with Fire-Roasted Garlic Ketchup (!!!!!)

Mini Chipotle Burgers with Fire-Roasted Garlic Ketchup.  I just had to fixate on it a little longer.

 

Two words that’ll put a smile on my face every time are Doughnuts and Coffee… or Coffee and Doughnuts…. I guess it depends on which is winning out at the time - my sweet tooth or my caffeine fixation. At the moment, I’m going to go with the sweet tooth. Of course that may be because I have a huge mug of coffee right in front of me. So, for now I’ll name “Doughnuts” first.

Whichever comes first, Dunkin Donuts just keeps giving me more and more reasons to love them. As if they didn’t have my heart already - I mean, the two things they’re famous for are two of my absolute culinary addictions.

But, it’s a great relationship we have and they just keep wooing me and wooing me.

Tomorrow, mark it on your calendar, when you buy any size coffee - Dunkin Donuts will give you a free doughnut! It’s their way of saying, “We’re sorry it’s Tax Day…here have a doughnut.”

Shouldn’t someone build them a shrine or something?

Visit their web site to find the stores nearest you. Yes, “stores” - so you can hit one up….then another…then another… Thinking. All. The. Time. (Thinking while I drive.) https://www.dunkindonuts.com/

I’ve come across two new addictions this week I thought I’d share with you.

First of all, you know how much I love tea. You probably know that within the past few years I’ve fallen hard for Green Tea (…and I have no idea why I capitalized it - showing reverence, maybe?). Fortunately there are plenty of tea companies now who are making tea bags for Green Tea lovers, so with the right sweetening, I’m good to go.

However, I also love the convenience of bottles that I can grab and take with me, especially when the weather is nice. Lipton makes several varieites, but I wish they’d come out with one that wasn’t flavored so heavily. Don’t get me wrong, they’re delicious and you’ll find both the citrus variety and the berry variety in my Kroger cart regularly, but that’s just it - they taste like “the citrus variety” and “the berry variety” - you forget about the Green Tea even being there…for haters, I guess that’s a good thing.

I recently bought a bottle of Arizona Diet Gren Tea with Ginseng and I’m hooked. They’re flavored slightly with honey, so diabetics are advised to check with a physician first. I’m in love with the flavor….the pure GREEN TEA FLAVOR. It’s also amazing warmed up with a slice of lemon floating in the cup. Very, very nice. I was surprised just how good it was.

Something else that surprised me this week was a new cereal I tried. Cereal fanatic that I am, I won’t stop until I’ve tried them all. This particular cereal didn’t get my hopes up when I brought it home with me. I thought, “Okay, buddy, I’m going to give you a shot one evening (that’s when I eat my cereal - late at night), but I’m not expecting much.” I wasn’t being unkind, but how can your taste buds get their hopes up when the word Fiber is in the title? Hmmm?

So, Mrs. Doubtful grabs her favorite purple ceramic bowl - famous for introducing all new ceral to my world - and pours a bowl of FIBER ONE. THe picture on the box has strawberries and blueberries in the bowl, but I only have strawberries, so I go with that. Blueberries, bring your price down some and we’ll be friends again. I poured my milk on top, grabbed a spoon and sat down in my favorite rocking chair to watch Good Eats and see if I was going to experience any in the process.

I was totally surprised. This stuff is very, very good. A serving’s only 60 calories, with 0 grams of sugar….and, get this, it provides 57 percent of our daily value of fiber (or 14 grams). All of us are constantly searching for ways to add more fiber, vitamins, iron, and calcium to our diets. But it can get kind of confusing and tricky to work everything into our meals. The answer is actually just a bowl or two of cereal away! After all, if this cereal provides 57 percent of our daily value of fiber in one bowl - if we have a bowl in the morning and one in the evening with Alton Brown, we’ll be as set as Humpty Dumpty was before the fall.

Why should we be so stoked about Fiber? Read on!

According to Fiber One’s website, the following are healthy benefits from having enough fiber in our diets:

Digestive Health
The most recognized benefit of fiber is its important role in keeping the digestive system running smoothly by promoting regularity. Fiber adds bulk to help move food through the digestive tract.

Along with regular exercise and plenty of water, fiber plays an important part in maintaining digestive health.

Heart Health
Fiber – specifically soluble fiber – may also help lower blood cholesterol levels, thereby reducing the risk for heart disease. Fiber appears to lower cholesterol by interfering with its absorption in the digestive tract.

Diabetes
Fiber may also be important for people who have diabetes. Diets high in whole grain and fiber have been shown to help people with diabetes manage their blood sugar and cholesterol levels.

Weight Management
Getting enough fiber can also help curb your hunger and help you feel satisfied, which can help with weight management. Research suggests that people who have higher intakes of fiber tend to have healthier body weights.

High fiber foods, like Fiber One cereal and Fiber One Honey Clusters®, may help with managing caloric intake.

Also on the website you’ll find coupons, recipes, more healthy advice and information, and even a Free Sample offer for Caramel Delight Fiber One Cereal. Look alive purple bowl!

These fall into the “Oh, man! You’ve gotta try these!” Category:

First of all, if you’ve never tried the Ferrero Rocher candies, go to the top of your To Do list and write Buy Ferrero Rocher Candy at the very, very top and write Find a quiet place to eat them just below it. They’re elegantly delicious - see, they’re so good, I had to come up with a phrase just for them. Rerrero Rocher is my daughter Emily’s favorite cand, hands down and mouth open. With every gift we ever give her, we tie a three pack of Rerrero Rocher on the bag or box. Once I gave her a really hot purse and filled it with Ferrero Rocher candies. I also like to surprise her every now and then by having a few sitting on the desk in her room when she gets home from school or work.

I have to admit, when I can get to them first, I love these candies just as much. Emily’s favorites are the original and the Ferrero Rondnoir Dark Chocolates. My favorites are the original and the Ferrero Raffaello Almond Coconut candies - are you kidding me< almond and coconut together. With one of these candies in my mouth and one in my hand, I'm in a whole other place.

I also love the showmanship of Ferrero Rocher candies! They're like the supermodels of candy - all decked out in their designer clothes. Like supermodels know there's something that separates them from other models, Ferrero Rocher knows there's something that separates them from other candies. They know it, they show it.

Work it, Ferrero Rocher!

Second of all, if you have a Panera Bread within reach - let’s say, within 399 miles of your home (that’s reasonable, right?), you have got to try their Iced Green Tea. It’s not what you’d expect - it’s absolutely heavenly and, I dare say, a little addictive. I’ve driven out of my way twice, five times, ten times, countless times for it, alone.

My taste buds first came into contact with it about a month ago (and, yes, I’m all ready up to countless - I’m just that good) when my husband came home with a little left in his cup. He said, “You have to try this…” When I asked what the green, iced liquid was - he told me it was Iced Green Tea. Basically, the only Green Tea I’m familiar with is the Green Tea Frap from Starbucks that I get, like, three times a week - with whipped cream on top and Raspberry syrup drizzled over it. Even though this green tea didn’t have the same presentation going for it, I took a drink. It was love.

A little detective work revealed that Panera Bread uses Republic of Tea. I remembered that one of our local bookstores, Books-a-Million, carries these teas in their Joe Mugs coffee shop. So, I made my way to the store, had a Coconut frap for good measure, and bought a few of the Republic of Tea Green Teas to try. My favorite was the one pictured above, Kiwi Pear. Deliciously refreshing and refreshingly delicious. If you go to the Republic of Tea’s web site (just click the link), you’ll find lots of other teas as well as the Kiwi Pear Green Tea. You should also look around the site and read about the benefits of tea - green tea as well as the new Queen of teas, White Tea.

Did you know that white tea is actually considered healthier than green tea? White tea has 10 times more antioxidants than vitamin E and 20 times more than vitamin C?

Something else I learned about white tea - when making it, the water should be just short of boiling and the tea bags should steep for only 30 to 60 seconds.

To purchase Ferrero Rocher…..
Ferrero Rocher 48 count gift box

Ferrero Raffaello Almond Coconut Treat Candy 45 count

Ferrero Raffaello 15pc. Box

Have you seen the Globo Teapot yet? Well, before this post had you seen it?!

Is it a cool looking teapot or what? Drinking tea will never be boring again because, frankly, this isn’t your grandmother’s teapot….it isn’t even your mother’s teapot.

From the website:
Add a bit of cool style to your daily tea routine. Recipient of the prestigious IF design award, the Globo Teapot is surely a teapot for the new millennium. Yet it is very simple. To infuse tea, the pot is stood on its handle, with infuser fully immersed in water. Once complete, a simple tilt onto its front leg will lift the infuser out of the water. Allowing you to enjoy a great cup of tea without attending to spent leaves. These are now safely out of the way. And may be dealt with when it is more convenient. Now that is progress.

Take a closer look at the Globo Teapot, you just may fall head over leaves in love.

In the last post, Dr. Jonny Bowden talked us down off of our Diet Soda ledge. We humans can be so ridiculous, can’t we? I’m really just speaking for me, of course, but I get frustrated by the fact that I can KNOW full-well what’s good for me vs. what’s bad for me - then will go merrily off in the “bad” direction.

Diet soda is one of those areas. The drinks I enjoy the most (and do so frequently!) are coffee, tea, and Diet Dr. Pepper. ALL the experts extole the wonders of tea - red, black, green, and white, they are precious to our plight. They also tell us time and time again that diet sodas…ALL sodas…are bad news for us. Yet, here I go…marching off to my nearest Kroger for a bottle of Diet Dr. Pepper as soon as mine’s halfway gone.

A while back I started cutting back on Diet Dr. Pepper - right around the time I fell so in love with tea. I honestly think that I’m so totally and completely smitten with tea right now that I can quit the DDP all together. Maybe. Okay, I know I can’t - but I can cut waaaaay back. Maybe even one a week.

Tazo teas are available in most supermarkets, but the biggest selections are in Starbucks - or on Starbucks.com. Experiment with the different flavors, you’ll be surprised at just how amazing they are. The one pictured above, Berryblossom White, is wonderful iced. It has a light, fruity taste that you can’t help but love.

The Passion Tea is also perfect iced, as is the Wild Orange. What I love to do is make a pitcher using three of the Orange and one of the Passion. Amazing!

This past summer, the Starbucks stores featured a Blueberry White tea that blue me away. I’ve been waiting for them to come out with those filterbags, but so far it’s a no go. I found one brand of Blueberry White at my grocery store but I don’t remember if it was Lipton or Celestial Seasons. I used the bags all up in two days! I’m definitely getting more - it made some amazing iced tea.

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Iced Tea: A Better Choice!

By Dr. Jonny Bowden

Many people see diet soda is an innocuous, harmless beverage that can’t possibly cause any harm to their waistline since it doesn’t have any calories. Think again.

Research published this summer in the medical journal Circulation shows that people who drink more than one soda a day — whether it’s regular or diet — have an almost 50 percent increased risk for metabolic syndrome, which doubles their risk for heart disease and diabetes.

Two years ago, a study at the University of Texas Health Science Center found that there was a 41 percent increase in the risk for being overweight for every single can of diet soda a person consumed daily.

But how can something with no calories increase the risk for obesity and heart disease?

There are several possible ways.

First, my own theory is that the sweet taste works in the brain to create a conditioned response. The body responds as it usually does to normal sugar — with insulin, the fat-storing hormone. Those circuits in the brain are pretty primitive and ancient, and they can’t immediately distinguish chemical fakery. As far as your brain is concerned, sweet means sugar. It’s entirely possible that physiologically, you would respond to aspartame in the same way as you would to table sugar. It’s only a theory, but it makes sense to me.

Second, sugar creates its own cravings. Just as a taste of rum creates an unstoppable craving in an alcoholic, it’s entirely possible that the taste of sweet, even if it’s fake, creates the same cascade of cravings in a carb addict that regular sugar does, leading to overeating and binging and all the rest of the reasons people put on weight.

Third, many people think that by drinking diet beverages they’re “saving” calories. They subconsciously allow themselves to eat more, figuring it’s not doing as much harm since they’re drinking a diet drink. The diet drink gives them subconscious “permission” to eat more.

What’s worse than making you fat, aspartame may be toxic. Aspartame is made primarily from three ingredients: aspartic acid, phenylalanine and methanol. Methanol, an alcohol, breaks down in the body to formaldehyde, a poison if there ever was one. Apologists for aspartame say that it doesn’t create enough formaldehyde in the body to cause any damage, but I’m not so sure. Exposing children to formaldehyde levels as low as .75 mg daily for several months has been shown to cause gradual toxicity. Plus, diet soda is frequently stored in hot warehouses, causing chemical breakdowns that went undetected in the original safety studies that looked at “ideal” conditions.

Soda is bad news, whether regular or diet. Period.

[Ed. note: Dr. Bowden is a nationally known expert on weight loss, nutrition and health. He's a board certified nutrition specialist with a Master's degree in psychology. Dr. Bowden is also a life coach, motivational speaker, former personal trainer and author of the award-winning book, Living the Low Carb Life. For more information, click here.]

“This article appears courtesy of Early to Rise’s Total Health Breakthroughs, offering alternative solutions for mind, body and soul. For a complimentary subscription, visit http://www.totalhealthbreakthroughs.com”

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