Oh say can you see…a simple dessert idea for July 4th festivities

My favorite holiday is this week! I’ve always loved the 4^th of July – the parades, the patriotism, the fireworks, the flags, the friends…and of course, the food!

Typically, our Independence Day starts with our local parade, which anyone in our community who is not at the cabin attends. (Some people – myself notincluded – reserve their spots the night before.) When the veterans go by, I can pretty much guarantee Max will turn to me and say, “Mom, you’re crying aren’t you?” Yes, Max I am…can’t help it.

After the parade, it’s off to my friend Ann’s house for her family’s annual 4^th of July party. (Ann is practically a party-throwing professional and also probably the most organized person I know. She will be making future appearances in this blog.)

Anyhow, back to the party: While you don’t have to bring anything to this event, most people do…so this year, I’m planning on bringing my super-easy, crowd-pleasing dessert. (It’s so easy it’s almost embarrassing, but like I said, everyone loves it so I take all the credit for preparing such a delicious sweet treat.) And because of my generous nature, I’m giving you – my loyal blog reader – the secret “recipe.” Let’s call it “Angie’s Incredible Independence Day Delicious Delicacies.” What? Too much? OK, how about “Brownie Bites with Berries.”

Here’s what you need to be the star of your 4^th of July festivities:

1. Brownie bites
2. Cream cheese frosting (white)
3. Raspberries and blueberries

Put a bit of frosting on each brownie bite and top with either a raspberry or blueberry. That’s it. Then, you put them on a cute red, white and blue plate and get ready to hear the most oohs and ahhs…until the fireworks, that is!

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Izzy’s Ice Cream named one of the best in America

Our beloved Izzy’s Ice Cream, the one we cherish so dearly, has been named one of the nation’s nine best by MSN.com!

Ever since we started carrying Izzy’s, it has been a favorite among customers. My wife learned of its grandeur early on. Now at our customer Open Houses she bolts straight for the Izzy’s table, and yes, they know her by first name. Me, I’m a traditional ice cream kinda guy, and I have to say their vanilla is the best I’ve ever had. Is it bad to crave ice cream at ten in the morning?

Anyway, we love Izzy’s, they are one of our Local Favorites, and kudos to them for being recognized.

Read the article

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My “Alice” arrived in a yellow truck

I’ve always wanted an “Alice.” You know, like Carol Brady’s Alice. The Brady’s house was always clean, meals were prepared, bag lunches were made each day. But the beauty was that Carol still felt like she was contributing to the cause; she would tag along while Alice bought the groceries (or the meat from the butcher shop), or stir the spaghetti sauce (that Alice had made from scratch.)

It’s in this way that I’m like Carol Brady. It’s not that I don’t want to doanything. I just don’t want to doeverything. I like to cook for my family. I like knowing that I’ve given them healthy, fresh meal and snack options. I even like making the kids their bag lunches. It’s just that sometimes I’d like a little help.

Well, today my “Alice” arrived. No, Alice didn’t wear a frumpy blue smock. Alice drove a bright yellow truck…and his name was Brent.

My very first CobornsDelivers.com delivery arrived today!

Because I was home, Brent helped me unload the groceries from the bins (very Alice-like, if you ask me.) Had I not been home, no worries, because the bins are insulated and come with dry ice for the frozen foods – so even on a scorcher like today, my food would have been just fine.

Just so we’re clear, my house in no way resembles the tidy Brady abode at 4222 Clinton Way. Yes, my house could stand some cleaning, there’s still laundry to be done, but now there’s one less thing on my to-do list this week.

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No Recall Worries Here

Food recalls…not fun. As a consumer, they totally throw me for a loop: did I buy that product? What exactly were the dates? In the past, when in doubt I would throw it out.

With the recent recall of Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough – even though I haven’t baked a cookie in well over a month – I started thinking about that uneasy feeling you get when you’re not quite sure if your purchase was recalled.

Well, guess what? If you use CobornsDelivers.com, you do know if you purchased a recalled item…because CobornsDelivers.com tells you! How cool is that? They keep track of all of your purchases, so if you did purchase Nestle Toll House Cookie Dough recently, you would have received an email from CobornsDelivers.com alerting you that you should dispose of it.

So, even though this most recent recall didn’t affect my family directly, just knowing that food recalls don’t have to take up any of my (already-limited) brain space is a wonderful perk.

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Betty’s Pies Featured in Gourmet Magazine

Betty’s Pies of Two Harbors, MN was recently featured in Gourmet Magazine! We love it when our Local Favorites get the attention they deserve. If you’ve never stopped into Betty’s Pies on your way up to Grand Marais or the Boundary Waters put it on your to do list. Not heading north anytime soon? You’re in luck, we carry them, and they’re on sale!

Shop Betty’s Pies

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Baby Ruth’s and Scottish Cheese

I’ve taken enough ECFE classes to know that engaging kids in meal planning and preparation has many benefits – not the least of which is that they’ll be more likely to eat what’s served – and hopefully, try some new things. It’s something I know I should do, but until now, hadn’t.

So my big idea last night was to spend dinnertime with the kids talking about our new meal/grocery shopping strategy to get their buy-in on the whole meal planning thing. This is the kind of thing that they could get excited about so I was optimistic about this exercise.

It started out a little rough: My almost 10-year-old son’s food suggestions consisted mainly of candy bars and the occasional frozen food. The more outlandish his suggestions were, the more hilarious he became (in his own mind.) Yes, Baby Ruths for dinner…always a good choice.

So, I decided to move to the 7 year old: OK Maggie – what are somehealthy foods you’d like for lunch, dinner or snacks? Her response: “I love Scottish cheese. Can we order that?” Um…I don’t even know what you’re talking about and I’m pretty sure we can’t get it here in Minnesota. Well, in a matter of minutes we realized she was talking about cottage cheese, which led to some intense teasing from her brother: “I can’t believe you thought it was Scottish cheese!?!”

Hey – at least it’s healthy.

But believe it or not, we came up with a pretty good menu for the week – which included quite a bit of fresh fruit and veggies and even grilled salmon on tap for Monday night. Ordering was a breeze…I think I might just be getting a hang of this planning thing…

P.S. I did not order any Baby Ruths. I did, however, purchase the cottage cheese.

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Making a Plan to Plan

By nature, I’m not a planner.  While spontaneity and flexibility can be fun, I’m realizing that now more than ever, I need to take the time to plan certain aspects of my life. One area that I know I can do better is with my meal planning and grocery shopping.

On any given day, the scenario in my house looks something like this: I get home from work, I’m hungry and the kids are hungry – and since I don’t have anything prepared or planned for dinner, we’ll eat out or run to the neighborhood grocery store and pick up some items for dinner. And again, every once in a while this can be fun, but as I started to take a closer look at my budget and how much my lack of planning was costing me, I decided to make some changes.

I’ve also found that just getting to the grocery store has become increasingly challenging for me – hence, the last-minute trips. I’m a new CobornsDelivers.com customer and I’m hoping that by shopping online, I will have to plan ahead and will save myself the time and money spent on those trips to the store. It means that I won’t be walking around the store hungry (with two hungry kids) grabbing whatever looks good. (Those impulse buys really add up!)

Signing up was a cinch…and I’m placing my first order today. Be sure to check in on future blogs to follow my progress as a meal-planning, budget-watching, trying-to-put-something reasonably healthy-on-the-table mom.

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Grocery Shopping in the Airport? Why Not?

Like most busy moms, multi-tasking is just part of my everyday routine, and last Tuesday was no different!  I was on a business trip to Denver when I found myself in complete frustration because my plane was experiencing the dreaded “mechanical difficulties.”  Knowing I now had an unscheduled 4-hour block of time, I immediately logged onto my computer and took advantage of the wireless network at the Denver International Airport.

In the midst of returning emails and phone calls, I realized that this unforeseen delay was going to mean that dinner was going to be up to my husband.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s a great guy and fixes stuff around the house, but aside from the grill he can make three things: grilled cheese, scrambled eggs and an omelet.  So, on short notice, rather than consulting the The Joy of Cooking cookbook, he typically loads the kids in the car and hits the local burger joint.

Knowing all that, when I leave on trips (usually once a month), I try to make sure that there will be a warm dinner on the table in lieu of a “night on the town”.  In this particular instance, my delay was unexpected and as I quickly did a mental inventory of what he could do in a pinch, the realization quickly hit me that Mother Hubbard left the cupboards pretty bare.  A night out was totally legit!

With plenty of time to fill before my departure, I decided to at least address the long range meal planning dilemma from my computer in Denver!  I logged on to http://www.cobornsdelivers.com/twincities and began shopping.  How thrilled was I to use my “spare time” so constructively!

I finally boarded my plane 4 hours to the minute of the delay, which was none too soon in my book. Best of all, I had a sense of accomplishment that another work day was almost coming to an end, my grocery shopping was finished and there were four big, warm hugs waiting for me on the other end of the flight.

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Deal of the Week! Free Coborn’s Signature Smoked Brats

People rave about these brats, and in honor of Father’s Day (yes, it’s less than a week away) we’re giving away select brats for free. Grill ‘em, smoke ‘em, dress ‘em up then, of course, devour them!

Get the Brats

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Juggling Kids Calendars with Healthy Food Choices

I don’t know about you, but in our house, we’re in the thick of the spring sports season and these days I feel more like a taxi service, portable cheering section, health clinician and referee more than anything else.  If you’ve got, or had, kids in sports then you know EXACTLY what I’m talking about!

Don’t get me wrong, I love the games and being there to watch my sons get a hit or my daughter chase the soccer ball around the field, but the sports schedules put our “normal” dinner schedule totally out of whack.  We’re a family that tries to eat together 7 nights a week, but this time of year we’re like ships passing in the night.  The challenge is making sure your kids eat well even though they may only have 15 minutes to inhale something.

We all have our little tricks of the trade, but here are a few things that I like to do to keep the fast food wrappers out of my car and the grease out of my kids stomach.

Plan ahead

Try to anticipate what your day looks like the night before and prep some meals in advance.  Okay, I know, we’re all busy and some of us work, but sometimes I’ll stay up an extra 20 minutes (or get up a little earlier than normal) and make a meatloaf that I can throw in the oven when I get home from work.  Spaghetti is also really easy to take care of in advance.  Prepare your sauce at night and stick it in the refrigerator.  That way, the next day all you need to do is heat up the sauce and boil noodles.  Plus, your kids get great carbohydrates which they need for their games!  If you think of it, make enough for leftovers, it’s an easy way to have an after game “snack” or another meal later in the week.   If you want more great ideas AND recipes, check out the “Easy Eats” section at www.cobornsdelivers.com/easyeats.  You’ll be stunned by the number of things that you can put together in 10 minutes or less.

Frozen Foods

Last night, my oldest son had a baseball game and I didn’t have time to get something together between when I got home from work and when he had to be at baseball.  Without time for a “real” dinner, I threw some chicken nuggets in the toaster oven, put them in a paper bag and sent him off to his game.  Okay, so it’s a little crude, but the guy had to eat on the run and he had a more substantial meal after the game.  Best of all, the Bakebrush white meat chicken nuggets are way better than fast food chain nuggets.  They’re just 9 grams of fat per serving (4 pieces per serving), 0 trans fats and they’ve got some carbs and 12 grams of protein, which is rockin’ for a quick snack.

A Good Old Fashioned Sandwich

I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid, my mom went back to school and quite often I’d need to eat something before swim practice and in most cases a peanut butter and jelly sandwich is all I needed.  It wasn’t glamorous or sexy, but it worked.  With the protein in peanut butter and the carbs in the bread, it was all I needed at the time.  Best of all, if your kids are old enough they can make it themselves.  If you want to be real “high end,” get some turkey breast or other meat from the deli and put together some sandwiches and stick them in the refrigerator until the kids need them.  Remember the old fashioned picnics?  They need to make a comeback!

Fruits and Vegetables

What’s that you say?  You don’t eat enough fruits and veggies in your house?  Before games and practices can be a great time to get the kids going on these.  In our house our kids are just starting to get hungry around 5pm, which is right about when we’re out the door for sports.  We like to bring some bananas, grapes or carrot sticks in the car and it’s a great way for the kids to get something healthy in their bodies that will get them through their hour and a half of practice. I find that if I make a conscious effort to have fresh fruit washed and prepared, they are more likely to reach for it than if it sits in the refrigerator waiting to be cut up.

The hardest part in putting these ideas into practice is making a commitment to the belief that you want your kids to eat well and there’s no reason they can’t do that even with a busy schedule. Remember, aside from it being better food they are putting in their bodies, chances are they’ll feel stronger and perform better in games an practices when they’ve had a healthy meal or snack ahead of time.

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