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Category: Food & Recipes

YumEarth Naturals Candy: Review and Giveaway

Once in a young lifetime one should be allowed to have

as much sweetness as one can possibly want and hold.

-Judith Olney

I’m not much for sweets on most days, but I’m a firm believer that kids should be allowed to pig out on the sweet stuff a few special days of the year: Easter, Christmas, Halloween and their own birthday.

That being said, I still want what they’re eating to be as harmless as possible. My mother-in-law swears my husband reacts to artificial food coloring, and I’m inclined to agree. I haven’t noticed the same marked effects in my kids, but I presume they’re there.

YummyEarth candies are artificial color and dye free, as well as gluten, nut and dairy free, making them safe options for most kids. They use real fruit juice and fruit extracts for flavor, and each serving is under 70 calories and contains 100% of your daily vitamin C.

But more importantly, they are DELICIOUS.

I’ve bought these before (heads up, the lollipops often go on sale on Amazon), so when YummyEarth sent us some lollipops and sour jelly beans to try and review I hid them until I was ready to take pictures. Otherwise, they would have disappeared like magic 🙂

YummyEarth is the #1 organic candy company in the US, and with good reason. Their flavors include Pomegranate Pucker (Jake’s favorite), Strawberry Smash (my fave), Wet Faced Watermelon (Cassie’s and Mav’s favorite), Blood Orange Cocktail (which I am now obsessed with trying), Chili Mango Mambo and the newest, Perfectly Peach. Candies are available in organic gummy bear, sour worm, candy drops, and Christmas/Halloween/Easter themed varieties in addition to the lollies and beans. Between the variety and the quality, coupled with the certified organic ingredients and the TASTE, they are irresistible.

Jeff devoured the sour jelly beans like they were going out of style. I don’t even like jelly beans and I liked these— just the right amount of pucker before you hit the sweet, and not waxy like traditional jelly beans.

They get the Elton seal of approval from little kids and big kids alike! Perfecto for Easter baskets.

GIVEAWAY!

YummyEarth is offering one lucky family a YumEarth Naturals Sour Beans Family Pack to try for themselves!

Just follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter widget below (subscribers will have to click through). I’ll close this up at 11:59pm Tuesday, April 3rd.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure:
This review was made possible by Mom Spark Media. Thoughts are my own.

March 30, 2012
Listen Up, Philly! Eat Local Year Round: Philly Farm and Food Fest
We are indeed much more than what we eat,

but what we eat can nevertheless help us to be much more than what we are.

-Adelle Davis

I posted this over on our local family-centric blog but wanted to share here too. I’m wicked excited about this event!

The Philly Farm & Food Fest promises to be an inspiration to buying local all year round, but I’m hoping to find local sources of flour so I can really take my summer eat local challenges one step further. I also love getting to know the people behind the local companies that I support.

When:

Sunday, April 1st from 11am -4pm (exclusive wholesale buyers’ reception from 4:30-6pm)

Where:

Pennsylvania Convention Center Annex Hall G

What:

This kid-friendly inaugural event is a collaboration between Fair Food and PASA (Pennsylvania Association for Sustainable Agriculture) and features:
- over 100 local farmers, food producers, artisanal food businesses and other providers of sustainable goods and services from across our region: check out the full list of exhibitors here.
- samples and sales of locally made products like “zip code” honey, cheeses, cured meats, jams, small batch ice creams, organic flour, baked goods
- workshops on seed saving, hands-on seed planting skills, the ABCs of beekeeping, a guided tasting to artisan cheeses, and a healthy foods scavenger hunt for kids
Why:

It’s so important to know where your food comes from, and to support local businesses (keeping dollars in our area). An event like this not only helps you recognize and support local farmers and producers, but introduces you to the people behind the businesses. Remember when businesses meant people you could trust? Plus, a great opportunity to educate the kids about how food gets from farm to table.

Tickets:

General admission tickets are $15 in advance for adults or $20 at the door, children 12 and under are free. Group discounts are available for advance purchase only on the website; group of 15 or more pays only $10 per ticket. (I think I’ve got a group of about 20 area bloggers meeting up for this!)

Find out about local CSAs and farmers markets, and bring your reusable bags for shopping.

Like Philly Farm and Food Fest on Facebook and follow @PhillyFarmFest on Twitter for more updates 🙂
March 26, 2012
Homemade Pumpkin Frozen Yogurt

He who distinguishes the true savor of his food can never be a glutton;

he who does not cannot be otherwise.

-Henry David Thoreau

I’ve pretty much overcome my love of sweets.

Except for a few glorious weeks of the year, when Cold Stone Creamery features pumpkin ice cream.

I like to order it with graham cracker and caramel mix-in. Yuuuuummmmmm.

My mission: to come up with a slightly healthier version that was still rich and creamy, that I could indulge in all year round.

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups plain kefir
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Pumpkin Torani syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla (I use Nielsen-Massey Madagascar Bourbon Vanilla Extract which I buy at Williams-Sonoma; I’ve found a good vanilla makes a huge difference in the richness of taste.)

Instructions:

Mix together ingredients.

Pour into ice cream maker.

Run through ice cream maker until thick and creamy.

Top with warm caramel and crumbled graham cracker (I tried adding caramel “ribbons” at the end of the churning, that didn’t work out as well as I’d hoped; no dramatic striping and made it way sweeter than I like. Don’t bother.)

That’s it! Sooooo easy!

Kefir-only recipe:

I tried this again with just kefir, no heavy cream (which I originally used to get that creamy quality). That ingredient list looked like this:

1 1/2 cups plain kefir
1/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons Pumpkin Torani syrup
1/2 teaspoon vanilla

This is more like fast-food soft serve (more icy) but I liked it better, as it was less sweet. It made two generous servings: one for dessert tonight, and one I froze to be mixed with vanilla protein powder tomorrow for a protein packed milkshake!

Making your own traditional ice cream at home is a bit of a pain— you have to cook the base and then freeze it overnight (although, generally speaking, the results are well worth it). I love that these kefir concoctions can be thrown together on a whim; all I have to do is wash out the bowl and stick back in the freezer for the next time the urge for something cold and sweet hits me 🙂

Any other DIY ice creamers out there?
Do you find it worth the trouble?

March 25, 2012