Korean Pulled Pork

We love all things Korean and pulled pork so when I saw this recipe, I knew it would be a winner.  It so was, not too spicy but oh so yummy.  This isn't the best photo of the actual pulled pork, but its extremely dark in color.  The only thing I have changed is to leave out the whole star anise.  It is impossible to find whole star anise anywhere and trust me I looked.

Korean Pulled Pork

1/2 cup light soy sauce
1/2 cup hoisin sauce
3 tablespoons ketchup
3 tablespoons rice vinegar
1 heaping tablespoon honey
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 1/2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
2 tablespoons sesame oil
3 heaping tablespoons gochujang
2 pounds pork shoulder

Grease your crock pot add pork shoulder, cutting to fit if necessary.  In a small bowl, combine rest of ingredients and whisk.  Pour over pork and cook on high until tender, 3-4 hours.  When done allow to cool and shred pork.

Church Street Brewing Co. Lemon Continental Lager Beer Bread

Church Street's Continental Lager is strong on citrus, particularly lemon, and hops.  Hoppy beers aren't high on our list of faves.  Maybe because we're new to the beer scene we don't appreciate bitterness as much as other beer connoisseurs would.  That's the only reason for this being our last beer bread recipe from Church Street.  I wasn't quite sure what exactly to do with it to bring out that citrus flavor.

I finally decided to take a chance and add some lemon zest.  Adding the zest turned out to be the perfect!  This bread is incredibly moist, not at all bitter and has an amazing lemony aroma.  Completely delectable toasted with coconut butter on top.

Church Street Brewing Co. Lemon Continental Lager Beer Bread

1 3/4 cups flour
1 cup bread flour
1 cup oatmeal flour
3/4 cup spent grains
1 teaspoon lemon zest
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 egg yolk
1 (12 oz) Church Street Brewing Co. Continental Lager beer
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Traditional Method:  In a saucepan; combine beer, butter and spent grains.  Heat on low until mixture reaches 115-120 degrees.

In a mixer add: flours, yeast, salt and sugar; mix well.  Add heated beer mixture.  Mix on low until dough comes together.  Change to a dough hook and knead for 8-10 minutes.  Dough will be extremely wet.  Don't worry.  :)

Form dough into a ball and place in a well oiled container or bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise till double in size.

Bread Machine Method:  In a saucepan; combine beer, butter and spent grains.  Heat on low until mixture reaches 115-120 degrees.  Add ingredients in order preferred by your bread machine.  I add mine like this: egg yolk, salt, heated beer mixture, flours, sugar and yeast.  Set bread machine to dough cycle and start mixing.  *Note:  I've yet to have to add any moisture to this as its a very wet dough, but I always make sure the ingredients are fully incorporated before I leave the bread machine to do its thing.*

Finishing Directions for Both Methods:  Punch down dough and shape into a loaf to fit in a greased 9x5 inch pan.  Cover with a damp towel and allow to rise until double.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until loaf reaches 180 degrees.  Remove from oven, remove from pan and allow to cool on rack.

*A trick I've recently learned, if your dough seems to wet and sticky after its first rise is to fold all four sides in, cover the bread with a bowl and allow to sit for 5 minutes.  Do this twice in a row.  The dough should then have more structure and be easier to form into a loaf.*

This recipe had strong flavors.  Mostly the lemon overpowered any leftover bitterness from the beer.  So, this turned out as less heavy because of that refreshing lemon flavor.  Certainly, this bread stands best alone. Unless you were planning a citrus based meal, we enjoyed it most by itself.  The strong flavor really does clean our your palate.  

Herbert the Lamb Makes Mariano's Easter Dinner Fabulous

There is one place we go when we want to finish all of our shopping in one trip, Mariano's.  By far it is the best grocery store for when we want to get a little bit of everything, so it was the perfect place to get our Easter dinner supplies.  We celebrated early this year.  Luckily, #MyMarianos had everything that we needed for Easter already in their store.  Check out the rest of our shopping trip on Google+.

The first thing that pops into our minds when we think Easter dinner is ham.  Basically, Easter dinner is an excuse for us to satisfy our ham cravings.  We really do like ham and it allows us to have ham for an entire week.  Ham and eggs, ham snacks and of course, ham dinner.  Mariano's has a deal with their reward cards so that you can get a deal on your ham.

Sadly, ham by itself, even a delicious spiral ham is not an entire meal.  So, we stopped by the produce department and found some delightful fingerling potatoes.  We especially enjoyed the purple ones.  They added substance and color to our menu.

We also picked up a salad mix to cover our vegetable portion.  Salad is an easy way for us to include vegetables without the extra work of preparing them ourselves.

As we wandered through the store, we passed by the bakery.  Into our cart went a loaf of Challah bread which is another holiday food in our family.  Basically, Challah is one of our favorite holiday foods for any and every holiday.  Another excuse to pick out something that is delicious and fresh.

Of course, we needed the loaf of bread to go with our lamb butter.  We've always seen them around Easter but never bought one before.  This time we splurged on the lamb.  Quickly, it was named Herbert.  Sadly, Herbert was less fulfilling than we expected.  He came out of the container a bit lopsided.  Luckily, we put him out his misery on top of our fresh bread.

While we were in the bakery section we decided to pick out a dessert.  Something that we can only find at Mariano's.  The cookies and pies and cakes caught our attention.  Finally, we decided upon a colossal cupcake.  A bright blue which made our meal complete.

After we had picked out our dinner menu, we needed a snack.  We swung by the foods to go section, which happily has a sushi counter.  Finding our favorite spicy tuna roll, we were ready to check out and head home to start cooking.

Rosemary Garlic Pan Fried Sunset Fingerling Potatoes

1 1/4 pounds Sunset Fingerling Potatoes, washed and cut in half
water
2-3 garlic cloves, chopped
up to 1/3 cup c olive oil
1-2 tablespoons dried rosemary

Wash and slice potatoes in half.  Place in a microwave container and just cover with water.  Microwave for 8-11 minutes or until just fork tender.  This makes the pan frying process go quicker.  Drain and dry potatoes on a towel.  Once dry, toss potatoes with olive oil.  Add to large frying pan on medium heat along with garlic and rosemary.  Cook until potatoes begin to brown.  Serve warm.

You can connect with Mariano's on Twitter and Facebook.  They love to connect and talk to their shoppers.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Mariano’s #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Starbucks Mocha Coffee: A Chocolate Waterfall

This week was American Chocolate Week.  One of those events that sneaks up on you.  Or at least it snuck up on us.  Fortunately, we found a good way to celebrate with Starbucks Ground Mocha coffee.  Their new line that utilizes natural flavors.

We were encouraged to try this new flavor after testing it a demo.  Walmart was sampling it at select stores. We had to have some for our very own.  Our mornings are never complete without a freshly brewed cup of coffee.

So, after adding a bag to our basket, which proved more difficult than we expected.  It was flying off the shelves and ours was the last one.  Usually, we buy coffee from a grocery store rather than from a coffee shop.  This Starbucks Ground Mocha will be a new addition to our coffee rotation.  A new flavor to add to our ever growing list of favorite coffee blends.

As we walked through the store we saw a Starbucks display in the bakery.  The coffee was a sign that we needed to stop in the bakery.  We needed to pick out something to go with our coffee.  Obviously, it had to be something chocolate.  Sadly, there were no double chocolate muffins.  Apparently, we're not the only ones that love them.  Instead, we chose some cream cheese brownies.  They're a breakfast food, right?  It didn't matter because we were celebrating chocolate!

All for the love of chocolate we can give up a healthy breakfast for one day of the week.  As we tasted our coffee black, which Alison insists upon.  You don't know what to add until you know how it tastes!  We were glad we picked the mocha because the cream cheese brownies enhanced the flavor.  Twas as if a warm chocolate waterfall poured into our mouths.  The chocolate abounded in our kitchen that morning.  A perfect way to celebrate American Chocolate Week.

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™. #cbias #SocialFabric

Kettle Chips and Basketball

Who doesn't enjoy a good meal with a good game?  I know our family does.  So, why not use a few bags of Kettle Chips as an excuse to get cooking.  Nothing too fancy because we can't spend all our time in the kitchen and miss the basketball tournament!  There's only a limited amount of time and you might miss your favorite team.  Ours happens to be the University of Kentucky.  They have won in the past including last year's tournament.

So, we decided upon the simplest flavors on the shelf.  The Sea Salt and Salt and Pepper flavors are perfect to build up a great time.  Fresh natural ingredients with fewer additives means that we don't have to worry about adding other flavors.  We know exactly the taste we'll get out of a Kettle Brand Potato Chip.  They are real, all natural and the proof is in the taste.

To go with our Kettle Chips we picked a spinach and artichoke dip for the Salt and Pepper and a roasted garlic bacon dip to pair with the all natural Sea Salt.  A winning combination to go with any tournament game.  Perfect potatoes made simply paired with a few extra ingredients and you know that you are getting the best.

We stopped by our nearest Super Walmart to pick out what was on our list.  An easy stop to make as we know we're getting a good deal.  We gathered up a few bags of chips and headed home to whip up a game snack.  We wanted to cut down on the time we spent so one recipe was for the oven and the other cold.  To top it off we put together some roast beef sandwiches on fresh bread from the bakery.  Completing our trip we used our coupon for Kettle Chips which you can find on our blog.

After a little while in the kitchen, we settled onto the couch and cracked open some bottles of hard cider.  Something a little bitter to cut through the richness of our snack foods.  It was a perfect night with all of our efforts engaged in cheering for our favorite team.  We watched the Wildcats as we always do and hoped for victory.

You can see the rest of our shopping trip here on Google+.  Kettle Chips is also on facebook and twitter.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Kettle Chips #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.

Wholesome Wednesday: Whole Wheat Hawaiian Rolls

Here's one of the many recipes from my Bigelow Tea Life of Pi Oscars Party.  I absolutely love Hawaiian rolls but wanted something a little healthier, hence my whole wheat version.  By now you know that I use my bread machine to cut corners whenever I can.  It's amazing to be able to throw all my ingredients into the machine and walk away knowing it will make perfect dough. :)

Whole Wheat Hawaiian Rolls

1 egg yolk
3/4 cup pineapple juice
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup bread flour
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup white flour
2 tablespoons dry milk
2 1/2 teaspoons organic sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons yeast

This is the order my bread machine uses for ingredients.  But if your's lists them in a different order, definitely follow the manufacturer's directions.  Put all ingredients in bread machine and set to dough cycle.

When bread machine beeps, remove freshly risen dough from machine to a floured surface.  Punch dough down, divide dough into 12 equal portions and shape into rolls.  Place seam side down in a greased 9 x 13 inch baking pan.  Allow to rise until doubled in size.  Bake at 350 degrees for 20-30 minutes.  When done you can brush the tops with butter.

Do you have a Dream? Mine is Called #SoFabCon!

Have you ever had a dream?  Open spaces to roam?  And in those open spaces buildings?  And in those buildings people?  And in those people the opportunity to create and share?  A chance to become an even better version of yourself?  I have that dream.  The dream of #SoFabCon in Arkansas. 

Social Fabric is holding its very first blogging conference, #SoFabCon, this year in Arkansas.  A place where small bloggers who dream of becoming better yearn to go.  I am one of those small bloggers.  For about a year now I have been a member of Social Fabric or SoFab as you have probably heard me refer to it.  Social Fabric has really helped me grow and improve as a blogger.  Without them I doubt I would have lasted this long.

I've gotten to work with some awesome brands like Starbucks, Sears and Bigelow Tea to name a few, companies that wouldn't have any interest in a small blogger like me otherwise.  My writing has improved, my photography has definitely improved and I've learned about social media.  Oh who am I trying to kid, social media is still a mystery to me.  

SoFab is great in that they offer classes to help their bloggers grow.  One of these was a food photography class that I was oh so lucky to get enrolled in.  I'm sure you've noticed a difference in my photos.  Here's two photos from my blog.  The one on the left is from pretty early on.  While the one on the right is from last week, can you see the difference?

Arkansas may as well be on the other side of the rainbow as far as I am concerned.  Being in Chicago is great for a lot of things, but its hell and gone from #SoFabCon.  (I so wanted to say Cartagena, has anyone else seen Romancing the Stone, lately?)  Getting to attend would be one of the most awesomesauce things I would get to do this year.

But plane tickets or gas and accommodations are expensive.  That is where the awesomeness of SoFab comes into play.  Not only are they having a conference this year, but they are giving away 12 sponsored tickets to #SoFabCon.  Six are for SoFab bloggers and the other six are for non-members.  How awesome would it be to win?!?!  They wanted creative entries, but I had no time to make a #LuvSoFab cake.  If I get picked you better believe I will be bringing special treats with me to the conference.  I think cookies, everyone loves cookies right?

So why should you pick me?  Being a new blogger, it goes without saying that attending this conference would help me grow.  Do you see the big list of sessions up there?  There will be ones on SEO (which I'm completely in the dark about), Wordpress (where we're moving to shortly) and how to build your brand.

These are all things my blog desperately needs.  Every blogger needs to learn these things to thrive, flourish and grow.  I am oh so anxious to see if I get picked to attend.  This would be my very first conference and I know the things I could learn would so be worth it.  I've heard conferences are crazy/busy and oh so tiring but also a blast to attend because you get to meet all the other bloggers you've been working with online in person.  

Another somewhat silly reason I want to attend is to get away and be by myself for a while.  I don't think I've actually been by myself since attending college.  My sister and I do a lot of things together, including working on this exciting venture (Rosie Discovers).  Is this an awesome reason to attend?  Not really, but it would be a great working vacation.  I've also never, ever been to Arkansas or anywhere in that part of the country.  I've heard its pretty, but I've never seen it.

The last reason I want to attend #SoFabCon is because what I learn there I will be able to pass on to other bloggers to help them grow.  Up till now I have been ever so fortunate to have SoFab in my back corner.  Think of the Social Fabric Community as being the mother of all reference librarians.  Whenever I have had a question, someone there will have the answer.  I want to be one of those bloggers that is able to answer those questions.  This desire to help and learn comes from being a librarian in my past life.  I love being able to help others find things that they need.  I just know attending this conference will allow me to do this.

I am ever so hopeful that my very un-creative entry catches the eye of someone at Social Fabric #cbias.  If you pick me I will have to create a special #LuvSoFab cookie for the conference to share with everyone.  Any flavor ideas?

This post is an entry into a contest to attend #SoFabCon in May.  All opinions are my own.

I Am Oh So Lucky to be a SoFab Member!

About a year ago, I learned about a blogger community called Social Fabric®.   Other bigger bloggers I'd heard of were SoFab members and said it was a great community.  Where bloggers get paid to work with brands.  That sounded awesome to me as I was a fairly new blogger and looking to make some money blogging.  SoFab isn't like a lot of other blogger communities out there because you have to apply and be accepted to join.  I was oh so lucky to be accepted the very first time I applied.  :)

After joining, I started to apply for shops.  I got lots and lots of rejection letters.  LOTS of them.  I still wasn't sure what this blogging community was about and predictably I was getting frustrated.

So I asked for help, something SoFab is great about as a community is offering to help each other out.  I wasn't sure what I was doing wrong with my applications, but I got some feedback and felt better about applying.  I still wasn't getting picked, but early last summer SoFabU held a food photography class.  Sign-ups were on a first-serve basis.  To say I stalked that signup is a tame description.  :)  I completely panicked when the server crashed, sure that I wouldn't get to sign up.

My stalking paid off!  I got in the class!  I was oh so excited.  :D  This was my very first time actually working with SoFab.  It was even better as Sears was sponsoring the class and they bought everyone a grill. Can you imagine being a fairly new food blogger and getting a brand spanking new grill to work with for your blog?  To say I was excited is putting it mildly.

At the time I didn't realize that most of the others in my class were either Campaign Leads or much bigger bloggers.  Then there was little old me, who was still trying to figure out this whole blogging thing.  I learned a heck of a lot about photography.  If you've been following my blog for a while, I'm sure you've noticed the improvement in my photos.

After that I got picked to attend the Illinois State Fair to check out Seattle's Best and Jeff Mauro.  It was a blast and definitely not at all like work.  This was just the first of many campaigns I've gotten to participate in.    Every time I get picked for a campaign its like Christmas!

Being an active member of Social Fabric has allowed me the freedom to work on projects I'm really interested in like my Chicago Breweries Beer Bread Project.  Doing things like this makes me proud to call myself a blogger.  Working with big brands is great, but being able to promote local small businesses totally rocks!

For all these reasons, I count myself LUCKY to be a SoFab Member.  :)

Wholesome Wednesday: Fettuccine with Mushrooms, Ricotta and Riesling

Susie's love for mushrooms is legendary!  She'd happily eat them just pan fried if we'd let her.  :)  I knew when I recently came across a recipe from Nigella Lawson's Nigellisima cookbook that I could definitely punch up the mushroom content and make it more home cook friendly.  Cause lets face it, you can never have enough mushrooms.  :)

This is one of those recipes where you need to prep all your ingredients before you start.  Everything besides the pasta cooking goes extremely quickly.  Think making a stir fry quick.  Which makes it the perfect on the fly meal.

Here's our version of the recipe with things I always have on hand in my kitchen.

Fettuccine with Mushrooms, Ricotta and Riesling

1 cup dried shiitake mushrooms
1/2 cup Riesling
1/2 cup water
1 cup ricotta cheese
freshly grated nutmeg
ground pepper
1 lb fettuccine
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 ounces mushrooms, thinly sliced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup grated Parmesan

In a small saucepan, place shiitake mushrooms, Riesling and water; bring to a boil.  As soon as it starts to boil, turn off the heat and leave the mushrooms to soak for 10 minutes.  Start your pasta water.

In a medium bowl combine ricotta cheese, nutmeg and pepper. When mushrooms are done soaking, drain mushroom water into ricotta mixture.  Make sure to squeeze mushrooms to remove the most liquid possible, whisk mixture.  Roughly chop mushrooms and set aside.

At the same time, melt the butter in a wok or a large non stick skillet.  Add the sliced mushrooms and start to cook.  When they release their liquid, add minced garlic and saute for about 30 seconds or until fragrant.  Add chopped shiitake mushrooms and saute a few minutes.  Add the ricotta mixture and heat till just bubbly.  Turn off heat and set aside.

Reserve a cup of pasta water when draining your pasta.  Add drained pasta to wok with ricotta mixture.  Sprinkle with half of the grated Parmesan cheese.  Toss, adding pasta water as needed.  Serve and garnish with extra Parmesan cheese.

Church Street Brewing Co. Scottish Ale Beer Bread

This beer bread post is way overdue.  All I can say is being sick does not mesh well with being productive.

Here is another tantalizing beer bread recipe featuring Church Street Brewing Co.'s Scottish Ale.  The Scottish Ale is a caramel and malty beer.  We both loved this one and thought it would make an excellent bread.  Turns out we were right! I love when that happens.

Through making countless loaves of beer bread I've learned a few tricks.  One of these is to heat your beer, grain and butter to about 115-120 degrees in a saucepan on the stove.  I heat up the beer mixture first and then get the rest of my ingredients ready.  This way the beer mixture is just the right temperature to help activate the yeast.  This also solves the previous problem of a slow rise with the beer bread.

Starting with this recipe, I'll include directions for using a bread machine to mix your dough also.  Even though I can make the bread without it, I normally take advantage of how easy it makes bread baking.  If you have a bread machine, I highly recommend this method as it will make your bread process much easier.  :)

Church Street Scottish Ale Beer Bread

2 cups flour
1 cup bread flour
3/4 cup oatmeal flour
3/4 cup spent grains
2 1/4 teaspoons yeast
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 cup raw sugar
1 egg yolk
1 (12 oz) Church Street Brewing Co. Scottish Ale beer
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Traditional Method:  In a saucepan; combine beer, butter and spent grains.  Heat on low until mixture reaches 115-120 degrees.

In a mixer add: flours, yeast, salt and sugar; mix well.  Add heated beer mixture.  Mix on low until dough comes together.  Change to a dough hook and knead for 8-10 minutes.  Dough will be extremely wet.  Don't worry.  :)

Form dough into a ball and place in a well oiled container or bowl.  Cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise till double in size.

Bread Machine Method:  In a saucepan; combine beer, butter and spent grains.  Heat on low until mixture reaches 115-120 degrees.  Add ingredients in order preferred by your bread machine.  I add mine like this: egg yolk, salt, heated beer mixture, flours, sugar and yeast.  Set bread machine to dough cycle and start mixing.  *Note:  I've yet to have to add any moisture to this as its a very wet dough, but I always make sure the ingredients are fully incorporated before I leave the bread machine to do its thing.*

Finishing Directions for Both Methods:  Punch down dough and shape into a loaf to fit in a greased 9 x 5 inch loaf pan.  Cover with a damp towel and allow to rise until double.  Bake at 350 degrees for 35-40 minutes or until loaf reaches 180 degrees.  Remove from oven, remove from pan and allow to cool on rack.

As always beer bread remains moist longer than any other bread.  It will still feel and taste fresh for days after baking.  This recipe in particular was much more like a traditional wheat bread flavor.  It was great as toast with eggs for breakfast.  That is if yours lasts until the next morning.  

Kriser's at Kildeer Grand Opening

Today we went to Kriser's.  An all natural pet food store.  Their new location is in Kildeer at the Kildeer Marketplace.  Lucky for us, it's close by so we have a new place to pick up our pet supplies.  This weekend is their Grand Opening.  March 9th-10th and you can find deals such as free nail trimming and ID tags.  Plus you can have a photo taken with your pet.  To top it off you can enter to win a year of free grooming!  There are many more deals to be had.  Including a few month long special prices for certain products.

If ever you were interested in what you are feeding your pet, then this is the place to go.  They carry supplies from foods to treats to supplements to toys.   Everything is all natural and wholesome.  You'll find anything your cat or dog would need to be healthier.

If ever you have wandered into a pet store with questions, then you might have gotten lucky with an employee who knows how to solve the problem.  However, you probably never had the opportunity to talk to someone like Brad who had more than one idea of how to make your pet better and healthier.  Of course, you could say his job is a little easier seeing as they only carry good quality foods.

They carry canned, dry, raw and freeze dried foods.  A bit different from other pet food stores.  You can get your pet something that they might actually eat if they lived naturally.  No by-products, corn, soy or wheat in these products so you know your pet is getting a high quality meal.   All their products are inspected.  You can find out exactly where your pet's foods and toys are coming from.  No more mystery ingredients with unknown sources.  Only all natural ingredients for your pet's all natural life.

We picked out some dog treats with Rosie's favorite flavors peanut butter and sweet potatoes.  Since she has been a bit down the past few days we also got her a supplement to give her a boost.  A kelp based immunity supplement that we know she'll love because any form of seaweed will have her wanting more.

These dog loveys are something Miss Rosie would absolutely adore.  They are so cute!  We'll keep them in mind for a future trip.  :)  If you're going to be in the area, definitely stop by and check out Kriser's.  Your pet will love you even more for it!

Absolutely Nothing Gets Done While I'm Sick!

Do you ever have those weeks where it seems nothing quite goes right?  I'm having one of those this week!

Here's how my past week has gone.

I woke up sick Saturday morning, not incredibly sick, just a sore throat in the back of my mouth on one side only.  I swear it has to do with my sinuses, which are awful here in Chicago.  :(  Just thought I had a cold and it would go away.

Sunday morning, still sick and feeling incredibly tired.  Spent most of the day napping and drinking fluids.  Completely threw off my sleeping schedule.  Epic fail.

Monday, still sick.  My sore throat actually hurts now and I don't have much appetite.  I'm sleeping off and on most of the day and eating hardly anything.  Woozy too.  Another day wasted.

Tuesday, still sick.  Sore throat still hurts and still sleeping off and on all day.  Exhausted from time to time.  My mom, being ever so helpful says well maybe you have a little mono.  I told her you either have it or you don't, you can't just have a little.  :(  Oh and my exhausted self, got dragged all over to the grocery stores on the blizzard day from hell.  Another day wasted.

Wednesday, still sick but feeling better.  Sneezing bunches, which is never any fun.  Ran errands most of the day, came home exhausted had coffee and felt perky enough to make turkey tetrazzini for dinner.  So glad I made regular food, cereal and other quick things are not conducive to feeling better quicker.  Day not totally wasted, but didn't get any blogging done.

Thursday, feeling much more like my normal self.  Cleaned the entire bathroom top to bottom this morning with all natural cleansers.  A mix of baking soda, hydrogen peroxide and dawn used on the tub, shower, sink and counters.  Worked much better than the store bought cleansers I've been using for years.  Rest of the day I plan on tackling a pineapple pie recipe I hope to share soon, a new beer bread recipe, some actual blogging, laundry and making dinner from scratch.  :)

We'll see how I do.  Sorry it has been so quiet around here, but with my sleeping almost around the clock the past few days I didn't get anything done.  I hope by next week to have most of my Bigelow Oscar party recipes posted for y'all.  They were crazy good and so easy to make if you don't go hog wild and make them all at one time.

Need Breakfast? Check your local Dominick's!

I'm lucky that I rarely have rushed mornings.  Being a blogger does have its perks!  :)  I don't exactly punch a regular time clock and my mornings are typically pretty easy.  Miss Rosie works as my alarm clock and she gets me up before 8 am most mornings.  After that its a workout and breakfast or breakfast with email and social media.

There are times that I am in a rush to get out the door and in need of a quick and easy breakfast.  Or more like I need to get Susie a quick breakfast because she isn't a morning person while I am.   Tonight I headed out to Dominick's to hit up their buy 4 save $4 sale to pick up some quick and easy breakfast items.  I also had coupons to make the sale even better.  :)

For early mornings, coffee is a necessity at our house.  It always perks us up and gets us moving faster.  An easy way to make it yummy is to add some Nesquik to your coffee.  For me its a win-win add because I get flavor and sweetener all in one fell swoop.  I was glad to see the Seattle's Best Coffee as part of the 4 for $4 sale, because my $2 coupon made it $2.99 a bag!  What an awesome deal!  :)

When I think breakfast to go, yogurt is the first thing that pops in to my mind.  It's easy to toss a yogurt cup and spoon in my purse on my way out the door.  Dannon Oikos is a great choice because it is Greek yogurt so there is extra protein.  Another plus it comes in yummy flavors like cafe latte or peach fruit on the bottom.  With all the choices, I'm sure you'll find something that tickles your taste buds.

Kellogg's S'mores Pop-Tarts are one of my all time favorite, albeit not exactly healthy, grab and go breakfast treat.  I actually keep mine in the freezer because they taste even better frozen than toasted.  They never ever last long around here.  If you check out our shopping trip on Google+, you'll see most of the items in our cart are chocolate.  :)

Another item that wasn't on my buy 4 save $4 list, but is always on my Dominick's list is Lucerne cottage cheese.  Before moving back to Chicago a few years ago, I lived in the Seattle area and right down the street from a Lucerne dairy.  Safeway, Dominick's parent company, is based out there and I fell in love with their cottage cheese.  I'm not quite sure why, but its my absolute favorite brand.  I buy it so much that I often have a special price on my Just for You personal deals.  I've been known to buy 3-4 huge containers at a time because its my favorite breakfast when you add some fruit.

You can check out some other awesome breakfast ideas here.  Next week is National Breakfast Week, March 4th-8th 2013, an awesome time to start a new family tradition of having breakfast every morning.  Even if its something quick and easy, it's still a great way to get your family off to a great start to their day!

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Safeway #cbias #SocialFabric All opinions are my own.