Happy Hour for your garden – worm castings from Texas Worm Ranch

Vermicomposting

A (candy-free) Easter basket from Edible Arrangements

A candy free Easter Basket from Edible Arrangements

We never buy our kids candy for Easter. The countless Easter egg hunts takes care of that. But we do like to give them a treat so when the Easter bunny dropped off this Easter basket from Edible Arrangements, the kids were hopping with joy. Here was a beautiful arrangement of fresh melons, strawberries, and grapes with chocolate dipped pineapple bunnies to boot!

It’s apple season – make a crisp or a pie!

We always think of September as apple season! Lollo’s school likes to start off  parent night with a serving of applesauce made by all the kids. This month we’ve been branching out from our usual suspects and discovering some of the New Zealand apples like the sweet and crisp, Envy apples. I also tried my hand at ‘baking’ an apple crisp … sort of.

Mom Made Foods

School is back in full swing and so are play dates, soccer runs and music lessons. We’re recently discovered Mom Made Foods and tested the USDA organic children’s meals out on a play date.  Created by Virginia mom, Heather Stouffer (no relation to Stouffer’s frozen food), Mom Made Foods is a quick-prepare frozen food line of snacks and meals to sustain little tummies in between their busy schedules.

Peanut Butter & Co + Foodie Freebies from Central Market

Foodie Freebies from Peanut Butter & Co. & Central Market

This week I picked up a jar of peanut butter from Peanut Butter & Co. and got another jar of peanut butter and a loaf of Mrs Baird’s Whole Grain White bread for free! A bargain for $4.49 from Central Market with a $7.11 savings! Peanut butter is a great source of vegetarian protein and since we’re about to start school, it’s time to stock up.

Kaurina’s Kulfi – a delicious summer treat!

“Why do you like kulfi so much?” I ask Pikelet. “Because only Indian people get to eat it,” he replies, giving his pistachio kulfi pop another lick. “Are you Indian?” I laugh. “Yes,” he says definitively. “Although, I also like sushi and I might be Japanese,” he adds.

SodaStream soda maker

IttyBittyFoodies have donned our superhero thinking caps to find ways to reduce our carbon footprint in the kitchen and we’re doing it with a SodaStream soda maker. We never drink soda at home but we do consume about 10 litres of sparkling water a month. Last week, Beefcake had a lightbulb moment and said “Why don’t we buy one of those machines that carbonate water?” Ding!

Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook & America’s Test Kitchen Cooking School comes to our kitchens

The new Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook just might be the last cookbook I’ll ever need but since I’m a cookbook junkie, it won’t be last I’ll buy. After interviewing Jack Bishop (we went to Oddfellows), editorial director of Cook’s Illustrated and co-host of America’s Test Kitchen for the Dallas Morning News in January, I’ve been faithfully consulting the Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook on a weekly basis – salmon, chicken, cod, beef, veal, veggies… in short everything.

Three Happy Cows = Two Happy Foodies!

Let’s do the math! It takes just four ingredients to make Three Happy Cows blueberry drinkable yogurt - organic milk, blueberry pulp, pure cane sugar and live probitoic cultures (L.D Thermophilus and S.S. Bulgaricus) plus one talented artisanal yogurt maker, Edgar Diaz, to equal two happy IttyBittyFoodies!

Central Market at Preston Royal – First look!

New Central Market opens

Central Market throws open it’s doors today! The Preston Royal locale (previously housed by Borders) marks the opening of Central Market’s ninth store. IttyBittyFoodies had a media sneak peak yesterday at some of the innovations and offerings customers can look forward like the new selection of New York Deli-style dishes and baked goods. Think artisanal boiled and then baked bagels onsite and new bialys and New York City based Charlito’s cocina artisan salumi.There’ll be a full service custom sandwich bar with a “Build Your Own” sandwich option as well as a menu of chef created sandwiches.

Healthy Granola Wedge to kick off the New Year!

Happy New Year folks! Pikelet & Lollo are back at school this week and I’ve found the perfect healthy snack to pack in their lunches. It’s the Honey Wedge by Honey Crew gal Denise Bethel Molina who also brought us Honey Crew Granola. Pikelet took one bite of it and said he wanted to save it for dessert because it was so good.

Oh*holidays Oh*Brownie

Oh*Brownie, I think our whole family is collectively in love with you. The crunchy top layer at first bite that dissolves into a soft gooey chew and oh the many flavors. How does one begin? Oh*Brownie, will you give us Good Karmal for a choosing a Dark and Mysterious over a Smart Blondie or should we trust that Smooth Operator ? Whatever we choose, I’m sure it will be just Mochalicious.

Iris McCallister’s new venture Oh*Brownie has scored some serious swoon points with Pikelet & Lollo. It was so much of a treat that Lollo sneaked one into his lunch bag the first time he had lunch at school. McCallister (you may recognize the famous last name if you’re a foodie) is Matt McCallister’s wife of the much acclaimed CampO Modern Country Bistro that opened about a minute ago in Oak Cliff. But the brownie thing is all hers and she’s been working on perfecting her recipe for over four years now.

iCOOLer – lunch bag

Lollo packing his lunch in the iCOOLer

There was an article recently in the Dallas Morning News that 9 out of 10 lunches are stored at unsafe temperatures and they are putting our kids in danger of food borne illnesses. What luck when we received an iCOOLer in the mail. This week being the first week back at school, I thought I would put it to the test.