Better-For-You Snacks to Debut at Winter Fancy Food Show

Lake Champlain Chocolate Snack Bites with Crunchy Quinoa, Audrey’s Chia Cookies, and Gourmet Treats’ Vegan Breakfast Cookies are among the specialty snacks that are set to debut at the Winter Fancy Food Show, taking place Jan. 13-15 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Lake Champlain’s Milk and Dark Chocolate Snack Bites with Crunchy Quinoa are organic and Fair Trade Certified, free of preservatives, additives, and are non-GMO.

“Positioned as a grab and go product, these bags are best merchandised alongside energy snacks like trail mix, power bars, and other snacking chocolates,” says Allyson Myers, director of sales and marketing for Lake Champlain Chocolate.

 Audrey’s Chia Cookies are crisp and crunchy and include chia seeds. They are available in Lemon, Peanut Butter, Almond, and Chocolate Chips varieties. Each contains antioxidants and Omega-3s.

Gourmet Treats’ Vegan Breakfast Cookies are egg and dairy free and made with 100 percent whole grain wheat flour and nothing artificial. They are available in Cranberry Almond, Banana Date Coconut, and Peanut Butter Cocoa Nib varieties.

from Food Trends http://bit.ly/2F482om

Veggie Burrito Bowl with Cauliflower Rice

Best of 2018

Another year, come and gone.

Which means, it’s time to rehash and review the best recipes of 2018! (And if you want to take a trip down memory lane, you can check out the most popular posts from 2017, 2016, 2015, 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, 2010 and 2009 (phew).

This post is always a fun one to make, as often times the most popular posts will surprise even me! It’s also interesting to see just how differently things perform on the blog versus on Instagram.

2018 was a year of growth… literally. I feel like my posts grew longer and my standards grew higher, which led to fewer published posts than any previous year. But what do they say, quality over quantity, right? I find myself testing and retesting recipes more, reshooting dishes more often because the first batch of photos just doesn’t meet my standards. Am I getting pickier with age? It sure seems so. And yet, I feel like this year’s batch of recipes include some of my best yet.

I’m excited for what 2019 has in store, including a brand new look for this little blog of mine (now you know how I spend my Christmas vacation, lol). I’m full of delicious ideas, in fact I’ve already shot a few recipes for January that I know you’ll just love! I’m also planning some non-food posts including a look back at our trip to Portugal this past fall (one of my favorite places I’ve ever traveled) as well as lots more free downloads and printables for your enjoyment! I’ve also made it a personal goal to me better about sending out my newsletter regularly (so if you’re not subscribed, definitely get on board as I plan to send out some exclusive content and recipes that only email subscribers will receive!)

Lofty goals, sure, but I’m ever so optimistic about the year to come!

(Also, because I don’t mention it here often enough, if you have’t yet joined our facebook group you’re really missing out! It’s becoming a tight-knit community, not to mention a valuable resource and for anyone looking for cooking tips and recipe inspiration. Join us, won’t you?)

2018 by the numbers:

• Posts published: 77
• Comments received: 1,209
• Words written: 68,581
• Photos taken: 16,493
• Most popular: Soy Sauce Noodles from 2015 is still going strong!
• Most commented: Ultimate Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting (79 comments)
• Most liked: Nutella Brownie Mousse Cake (8,173 likes!)
• Most pinned: Soft Amaretti Cookies (1.6k repins)

Without further adieu, here are most popular posts from 2018 (be sure to click through to see all of them, including your favorites from this year, from all time, and the most popular images from Instagram!)

Your Favorites From This Year

These are the most popular posts published in 2018, based on total pageviews. I limited this group to only posts published this year, since total views across all posts is usually quite different (see the next category if you’re curious about that!)

1. Ultimate Chocolate Cake with Fudge Frosting / 2. Blue Moon Milk / 3. Out of This World Cocoa Brownies / 4. Soft Amaretti Cookies / 5. Blueberry Mousse Cakes with Mirror Glaze / 6. Homemade Elderberry Syrup / 7. Crunchy Peanut Butter and Chocolate Tart / 8. Cheesy Chicken Parmesan Pasta Bake / 9. Puff Pancakes

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from Love and Olive Oil http://bit.ly/2s2ieoV

12 Easy Dutch Oven Recipes

Homemade Hot Drink Mixes: 3 Ways

Homemade hot drink mixes make a perfect holiday gift, in 3 delicious flavors including sakura matcha latte, salted vanilla hot cocoa, and unicorn white hot chocolate. Just add hot milk!

If you’re looking for a cute and clever homemade gift idea, these sweet drink mixes are just the ticket! Packaged in cute glass jars with colorful gift tags (free printable download at the bottom of this post!) they’ll warm the hearts (and stomachs) of anyone lucky enough to receive them.

For these adorable and giftable drink mixes, I took 3 of my most popular drink recipes (including the infamous unicorn hot chocolate as well as my sakura matcha latte and salted vanilla hot chocolate) and remade them as powdered drink mixes that are super easy to make (the hardest part is tracking down the various powders and jars) and perfect for gifting!

As easy as the mixes themselves are to make, they are even easier to turn into a delightful hot beverage: just add hot milk! You can even use almond, soy, or coconut milks… whatever your heart desires (do note the unicorn mix does have milk powder in it so it is not dairy free).

Personally I like to mix the powder with about 1 ounce of the hot milk first (you’ll make something like a thin paste), and then whisk in the remaining milk. This keeps the mix from getting clumpy (this is especially helpful for the salted vanilla cocoa, the others dissolve quite a bit more easily).

For iced versions, you can also pour over ice (I love me an iced matcha in the summer), or even blend it up with some ice or vanilla ice cream (hello frozen hot chocolate!)

The unicorn hot chocolate was perhaps the trickiest recipe to convert to powdered form, since it originally called for pink gel food coloring as well as white chocolate syrup.

I played with a few different options for the powdered coloring, including powdered food color (which is oh so messy and hard to come by in pink), as well as ground beet powder and raspberry powder. But what ultimately gave me the best color was powdered dragonfruit. It does make for a slightly speckled appearance, but the cotton candy pink is exactly what I was going for. The quantity in the recipe is so minimal that it really doesn’t affect the flavor of the drink at all (the same was true for the beet powder, thankfully, and you could certainly substitute that if you prefer, it just results in more of a light red color vs a cotton candy pink).

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from Love and Olive Oil https://ift.tt/2SbECaV

Sweet Potato Hash Browns

Veggie Dippers with Yogurt Dill Sauce