01 Aug 2012 20 Comments

Brown Cow Greek Yogurt Giveaway!

**I am excited to announce the winners of the Brown Cow Giveaway! The winners are comment #11, Elisabeth, and comment #14, Whitney! Congratulations to you both. I am emailing you so you can claim your prize! Thanks to everyone who entered!**

A few weeks ago I got an email from Brown Cow, asking me if I wanted to try their new Cream Top Greek Yogurt and blog about it. I was pretty excited about the opportunity to try a new product and share it with my readers. Now being completely honest, I have never been a huge fan of Greek yogurt. I really want to like it, but haven’t in the past. But I thought that I might as well try Brown Cow’s product!

I picked up the yogurt at my local Whole Foods and tried it as soon as I got home. The flavor I was most excited to try was the Maple. I was definitely not disappointed- it was really good! The cream top was my favorite part of the yogurt- it’s a thick layer at the top of the yogurt that is extra sweet. The Maple tasted just like maple and was perfectly sweet. My mom and I both agreed that we would buy the maple flavor in the store.

Next I tried the Blueberry. I didn’t read the container and didn’t realize that this was a fruit on the bottom yogurt and was expecting the actual yogurt to be blueberry flavored. I am not a huge fan of yogurts with fruit on the bottom- it just has a weird texture. I would much rather prefer a blueberry flavored Greek yogurt, with bits of blueberry mixed in. But it certainly didn’t taste bad, it’s just not my thing :)

And finally the vanilla. I wasn’t sure that I would like it because the vanilla Greek yogurt I’ve had before hasn’t been too great. But I actually really liked this! Again, the cream top was my favorite part but the entire thing was nicely flavored and was sweet enough for my crazy sweet tooth ;)

I tried the Plain yogurt (the one in the big container) and it was definitely not sweet enough for me to eat by itself. But I am planning on making some recipes with it, so stay tuned :)

So not only did I really like this Greek yogurt, but Brown Cow is humane certified. I love finding companies that treat animals well! My one main criticism of this yogurt was that the cream top was broken apart when I opened the yogurt cups so it didn’t look very pretty and made it a little harder to eat just the cream top…but it was still my favorite part of the yogurt! I can definitely see myself buying these at the store.

Brown Cow is inviting everyone to try their new Cream Top Greek yogurt! They are going to have free sampling events at every Whole Foods in the country on August 18th so you can try this product for free and get a $1 off coupon. In addition to that, 2 readers are going to win a weeks worth of free Brown Cow cream top yogurt!

How to Enter:

Required: Leave a comment on this post answering these questions- Are you a fan of Greek Yogurt? What flavor of Brown Cow Cream Top yogurt are you most excited to try?

Additional Optional entries (leave a separate comment for each thing):

-Like Just Everyday Me on Facebook.

-Subscribe to Just Everyday Me by email.

This giveaway will run until midnight (central standard time) on August 18th! 2 winners will be chosen at random and will be emailed on the 19th!

*I was given Brown Cow Greek Yogurt free of charge for this review, but my opinions are my own*

 

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by Amilia @justeverydayme in Breakfast, Giveaway, Snack

05 Jul 2012 9 Comments

Gooey Nutella Bars

You know it’s a good day when you have apple pie and ice cream for breakfast and then go shopping for butter, eggs, cake mix, and cream cheese ;)

Our oven has been broken for the past couple of months, which is why I’ve been making mostly no-bake recipes lately, but this week out neighbors are out of town and offered me the use of their oven. Woohoo! So yesterday I headed over there to bake these delicious gooey nutella bars in their fully-functioning oven.

The original recipe for these bars calls for Biscoff instead of Nutella. Have you had Biscoff yet? I’ve only heard great things about it but haven’t been able to find it in our store. After making these bars I found out from my parents that our Kroger keeps the Biscoff by the bread, instead of by the peanut butter and Nutella. What the heck? That does not make sense! But at least now I know where it is and can buy it next time I go to the store. But I certainly don’t regret making these bars with Nutella- they are incredible! I brought them to a 4th of July get-together and everyone was raving about them- I love it when that happens :)

These bars do require a little bit of planning- they take 40-50 minutes to bake and then need to cool completely before serving them- but it’s worth it! They’re sweet, gooey, and nutella-ey.

Penny really wanted to try them, too! She is such a trouble-maker ;)

Gooey Nutella Bars 

Ingredients

For the Cake:
1 box yellow cake mix
1 egg
1 stick butter, melted

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup Biscoff Spread
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 stick butter, melted
16 ounces confectioners’ sugar, plus more for dusting on top

Directions:

  1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
  2. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cake mix, 1 egg, and stick of butter with an electric mixer until the dough comes together. You may need to use your hand to mix it up completely. Press the dough into the bottom of a lightly greased 13×9 inch pan.
  3. To make the filling, beat the cream cheese and nutella until smooth in a large mixing bowl. Add the eggs, vanilla, and butter and beat until combined. Add the powedered sugar and continue mixing until the filling is smooth. Spread the Nutella filling over the cake layer and bake for 40-50 minutes. It’s a little hard to tell when the bars are done because you want the center to be gooey. After 40 minutes, the center of my bars wasn’t set at all, so I left it in for another 10 minutes and it was perfect.

Enjoy!

Adapted from Live Love Pasta :)

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by Amilia @justeverydayme in Baking, Dessert Tags: , , ,

01 Jul 2012 9 Comments

Just a normal day at 14,500 feet!

Yep, you read that right! I went skydiving the other day with my dad! I still can’t believe that I jumped out of a plane. I had wanted to go skydiving for years, so that’s what I got for my 18th birthday!

This was me getting all strapped in to the harness. I did a tandem jump, so that guy getting me strapped in is the guy I jumped with.

I was pretty freaked out at this point as he was walking me through the whole jump.

The scariest part of the entire experience was just waiting- there was about a 4 hour wait until we jumped and then the ride up in the plane takes about 15 minutes. Once I was out of the plane, I wasn’t scared one bit!

There’s my dad! He used to skydive all the time and has over 200 jumps, but he hadn’t gone in about 16 years.

Here’s the plane parking lot. We didn’t jump out of that yellow plane, ours was a little bigger to fit the 10 people jumping.

The free fall was incredible- it feels like you’re just floating in the air! I liked the parachute ride, too. My instructor made us spin around which was really fun :)

This was an absolutely incredible experience! I would recommend it to anyone. Even though I had wanted to do it for years, I was really terrified when the day came to actually do it, but I’m so glad I did it even though I was scared.

I hope you are all doing well and having all sorts of adventures this summer!

 

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by Amilia @justeverydayme in Family, Week in Instagram

25 Jun 2012 9 Comments

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Whew! I needed to take a break from editing the wedding I shot this past weekend, so I decided to finally finish this post! I have been really busy lately, between a trip to Iowa, lots of photography, teaching piano lessons, and watching Avatar (ahhhh Legend of Korra!), but it’s a good kind of busy, the kind that keeps you entertained all day during the summer.

I made these little treats a couple of weeks ago. Don’t they look cute? They were tasty, easy to make, and you don’t need an oven, which is great if your oven is broken (like mine) or if you just don’t feel like turing it on when it’s so hot outside.

To make these strawberry treats, you have to core the strawberries. I saw a tip online somewhere that showed that you can use a piping tip to hollow out strawberries. I used a combination of a piping tip and a knife to hollow them out- easy peasy!

Once you have your hollowed strawberries, you need to fill them with your “cheesecake” mixture. I put the filling in a piping bag and piped it in. After I piped in the filling, I was impatient and started drizzling chocolate on right away. But this made quite a mess so I would recommend putting the filled strawberries in the fridge for a while.

That’s Penny, out kitty. Isn’t she cute? Don’t let that innocent face fool you, she’s a bit of a demon cat (unless she’s sleeping ;).

My poor puppy hasn’t been able to catch a break since we got her…she attacks him all the time and he’s to wimpy sweet to fight back! I hope they get along better as she gets older and (hopefully) mellows out :)

So anyways, I hope you’re having a wonderful summer! I’d love to hear what’s going on in your life. Oh and make these little treats! They’re yummy :)

Cheesecake Stuffed Strawberries

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb. large strawberries
  • 8 oz. cream cheese
  • 3-6 tbs powdered sugar (depends on how sweet you want the filling)
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • chocolate chips, toffee bits, or whatever else you want to sprinkle on them

 Directions:

  1. Use a piping tip/knife to core the strawberries.
  2. In a large bowl, cream together the cream cheese, powdered sugar, and vanilla extract.
  3. Use a piping bag and tip to fill the strawberries with the cheesecake filling.
  4. If you want to drizzle melted chocolate or top the strawberries with chocolate chips/toffee bits, etc, put the strawberries in the freezer/fridge until the filling gets a little more firm. Otherwise, enjoy!
  5. Store in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

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by Amilia @justeverydayme in Dessert, Snack Tags: , , ,

09 Jun 2012 5 Comments

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Truffles

The other night, my parents, 14 year old sister (Celina), and I watched When Harry Met Sally (love that movie!).

During the movie, my mom and I were getting such a kick making Hugh Grant jokes.

“Hey, Hugh. How Hugh doing Hugh?”

Hahahaha because Hugh sounds like you?!

We thought we were really funny.

After the movie was over, it was late. My mom said to Celina, “Bedtime, it’s after midnight. You’re a Republican!”

We all stared at her. Ummm what?

And then we slowly realized that she had said, “Bedtime, it’s after midnight, you’re a pumpkin!”

But Celina and I were already cracking up. I had to tell facebook about the conversation (of course) and we were hysterically laughing and typing incoherant things. And since I was the only one logged in to facebook, it looks like I commented on my own status 20 times.

Here are some gems from that conversation:

Mom: I wasn’t TRYING to say “pumpkin,” I DID say “pumpkin.”

Me: Hugh said republican!  <-Get it!? ;)

Mom: After midnight hugh turn into a Republican. Documented scientific fact.

Me: Now Celina’s saying “snatus” whatever that is

Then another person commented saying “I may be sleep deprived too but that is sooo funny!!”

Me: you have no idea the encouragment that gave us! Que hysterical laughter

Me: hahhaaa not que, cue! <-is that even real?

Me: I used to be smart once. That’s all I have to say.

Me: Celina just unliked this post just so she could like it again. HAHAHhahahahahaahahahahaha

Now that I’ve already wasted part of your day relating this (hysterical) story, I’ll make it up to you by giving you the recipe for these truffles. I’m not crazy about these photos, but I wanted to share them because they tasted pretty yummy!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Pretzel Truffles

Ingredients:

3 cups pretzel pieces
1 cup creamy peanut butter
8 oz cream cheese
2 tablespoon butter, at room temperature
1/2 to 1 cup of mini chocolate chips
4 tablespoons light brown sugar
4 tablespoons powdered sugar
Pinch of salt
1 package of chocolate bark

Directions:

  1. Crush up the pretzels in a ziplock bag in to very small pieces.
  2. Cream together the peanut butter, cream cheese, butter, powdered sugar, and brown sugar. Add the pretzel pieces and mini chocolate chips to the mixture and mix thoroughly.
  3. Using a small cookie scoop, shape the peanut butter mixture into small balls. Place the balls on a wax-lined cookie sheet. After you’ve finished with all the mixture, place the balls into the refrigerator and chill for 30 minutes (or more).
  4. When you’re ready to dip the truffles, microwave the chocolate bark until it’s completely smooth.
  5. One at a time, dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate and use a spoon to make sure it’s all covered. Repeat with all of the balls.
  6. Return the truffles to the refrigerator and chill again until the chocolate is hard (if you use chocolate bark to cover them, it should only take a couple of minutes).
  7. Store in an airtight container in the refrigerator.

Enjoy!

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