Juicy rewards not so juicy

Anyone notice the "Juicy Rewards" thing that Tropicana has got going on with their Orange Juice cartons? I am all about doing coupons and rewards programs and anything I can do to save money on groceries, so once I saw Tropicana was doing this juicy rewards thing I embraced it. I dutifully entered my codes for a couple months and kept checking for something worthwhile to come up for my rewards. I am up to 44 points now and have not seen anything I want to click on. To give some examples, the rewards are as such:

Free Iced Latte with the purchase of one Iced Latte at Dunkin Donuts. Eh - I get these coupons already in the paper and don't use them. Save on Addidas gear and free shipping, I wasn't going to order anything from Addidas. Deals at 1-800 flowers, I don't really use them. Deals on Coleman camping stuff, not really things I need. See, not entirely bad rewards, but also not really jumping out at me like "Wow that's a great deal! Gotta have it". So after a while I lost interest and stopped doing it. Is anyone else doing this and having luck with it?


Take my code - you can have it. My gift to you. I'm not going to use it.

You really can make your own brown sugar

I have seen this around a few times - how to make your own brown sugar, you know for in the event that you run out of brown sugar. I thought it seemed kind of silly - in what dire instance will I have no brown sugar in the house? Isn't brown sugar one of those pantry staples? I always have a box of light and a box of dark on hand, being the super prepared and organized domestic homekeeper that I am. Until it happened to me. I did so much baking that I really did run out, I had maybe 1/4 of a cup of dark brown sugar left, and also it was a brick, so I guess I was not properly storing it to boot.

A quick search online turned up this easy formula:

1 cup granulated cane sugar

1 Tablespoon unsulfured molasses

Mix together well, making sure it is totally combined, no molasses blobs or clumps.

Great! Super easy. All you have to do is make sure that the super organized domestic you does not also run out of regular white sugar at the same time. ;)
If you want darker brown sugar, then add another teaspoon of molasses for a total of 2 teaspoons.

Store in an airtight container.

Baked Oatmeal

Here is a great breakfast recipe for a delicious Baked Oatmeal. Oatmeal is a good-for-you heart-healthy food and it is delicious served this way, you can eat it warm or cold. My kids really like it a lot. It makes a big serving so it is great for if you are having people over for a brunch, or take it to a pot luck. It has a good amount of brown sugar and cinnamon in it, so no need to add more on it for serving. Even if you want to drizzle some maple syrup on top this oatmeal bake is way healthier than those add-water packets of Oatmeal that have artificial ingredients and artificial flavorings in them. And it's homemade by you! Total comfort food.

2 eggs, beaten
1 c milk
1/2 c oil
1 c brown sugar, packed
2 t. baking powder
1 t. salt
1 t. cinnamon
3 c. quick-cooking oats, uncooked

Mix all ingredients together with mixer. Pour into a lightly greased 13 x 9 baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 25-30 minutes. Do not let brown. Makes 6 to 8 servings.

Recipe Creations?? Where did you go?

I cannot say enough what a fan I am of refrigerated dough, short of renaming this blog the Crescent Roll Recipe Blog. I *heart* refrigerated dough and I use it all the time, namely Pillsbury Crescents. In fact I have often thought that double ovens must exist for the sole purpose of having a separate oven for the Crescents to cook in.

Last year I noticed Pillsbury introduced a new item called Pillsbury Recipe Creations Seamless Dough Sheet. What this is is a seamless flat of dough, the same dough from the Crescent Rolls. It comes in the same tube and looks nearly identical to Crescents. A lot of times recipes will tell you to use the Crescent dough to wrap around something like chicken or meat, and you have to pinch all of the perforations closed by hand to make it one sheet of dough, and then reshape it to your liking. The Recipe Creations sheet eliminated this step by giving you the dough already in a flat rectangle, no pinching. I love this idea! So useful! I used this a ton for chicken dishes, for appetizers, for fruit turnovers.

Now my dilemma is I can no longer find the Recipe Creations at my local grocery store and I am so upset over it! Now I have to go back to pinching the Crescents closed (Horrors!). This item was and IS a great idea. I went on the Pillsbury website and they still exist, at least there. I guess my local grocery stores decided to stop carrying it? I did mention it to my store manager, so hopefully they will pick this item back up. I cannot imagine that there is not a huge demand for it!

Has anyone else seen these and used them? Post your comments and tell me about your favorite way to use Crescent Dough. In the meantime, I will be on the lookout for my Recipe Creations!

Chicken Cordon Bleu in Pastry

This is sort of a Faux Chicken Cordon Bleu, using Pillsbury Crescents. I love refrigerated dough! What is it about it that makes it sooo good? A recipe that includes Pillsbury dough simply can do no wrong in my opinion.

Worth noting: This recipe uses chive & onion cream cheese. In the Tortellini soup I posted previous to this recipe, you use 1/2 a tub of the chive & onion cream cheese. Make this chicken recipe in the same week as the soup, and you can use the same tub. Economies of scale! Love it.

1 tube (8 ounces) refrigerated crescent rolls
1/4 cup spreadable chive & onion cream cheese
4 thin slices deli ham
4 boneless skinless chicken breast halves (about 4 ounces each)
4 slices Swiss cheese

1) On an ungreased baking sheet, separate dough into four rectangles; seal perforations.




2) Spread 1 tablespoon cream cheese lengthwise down the center of each rectangle.



3) Place ham width wise over dough. Arrange chicken in center of each rectangle. Wrap ham around chicken.




4) At each long end, pinch dough around chicken, forming points (the pastry will look like little boats).


4) Bake at 375 degrees for 15 minutes. Top with slice of Swiss cheese; bake 5 minutes longer or until cheese is melted and pastry is golden brown. Careful not to let the bottoms burn!

Tomato Tortellini Soup

Here is another delicious soup recipe to try. I love this one - I make it fairly often. This one comes to me from my sister. Thanks Sissy!!

2 14 ounce cans reduced sodium chicken broth
9 oz cooked tortellini
1/2 of an 8 oz tub chive & onion cream cheese (room temperature)
1 10.75 oz can tomato bisque soup
snipped fresh chives for garnish - optional.

1) In a medium saucepan, bring broth to boiling. Add tortellini; reduce heat. Simmer uncovered for 5 minutes.

2) In a bowl whisk 1/3 cup hot broth into the cream cheese until smooth. Works best if the cream cheese is room temperature.

3) Return all to saucepan along with tomato bisque soup. Heat through, sprinkle with chives if desired.

Creamy Carrot Soup

It is wintertime here in New England, and lately we have had a lot of very freezing, 20-below days. This is the time of year when I start craving soup, delicious warm soup that feels so comforting to eat and smells like wintertime all over the house when I am cooking it.

I always make lots of minestrone and beef soups, but here is an unusual choice that I tried recently when I discovered a surplus of baby-cut carrots in my produce drawer. This soup is easy to make (less than a half hour), and it is delicious and filling. Now I'm not saying the men and children in your family are going to slurp this up like gangbusters (mine didn't), but it's a nice treat for you on a cold day! I like to top my bowl of carrot soup with shredded cheddar cheese while hot and let the cheese melt in... yumm.

3 cups of carrots, sliced
4 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 1/2 cups onion, chopped
4 T fresh parsley, chopped (or 1 T dried parsley)
3 cups milk
6 T all-purpose flour
1/2 t salt
6 T butter

1) In a large saucepan, boil carrots, broth, onion, and parsley until tender.
2) Place carrot mixture into a blender and blend well.
3) In a skillet place milk, flour, salt and butter, cook as though making gravy. Once mixture is thick, combine with carrot mixture. Makes 4 servings.

Product Review - Trader Joe's

Here is a great product I recently discovered at one of my favorite Grocery Stores - Trader Joe's! If you have not been to Trader Joe's, find a store near you and go immedeately! It is worth the trip.

Before there was a Trader Joe's in my local area, my hubby and I used to drive an hour to go to one in the next state - it is that cool a market.

Onto the cookie - we have our favorite snacky items that we like to regularly get but one time we were shopping at Trader Joe's with our kids and they were cranky and hungry. I am usually packing a few snacks in my bag, but I had nothing to offer them and the situation was quickly escalating, so I literally grabbed the nearest cookie off the shelf where I was standing, opened the box, and let them eat them before we even checked out. They happened to be these Blueberry Shortbread Cookies, my girls loved them ate ate them right up.

It was only later, when we got home and I was putting the food away, did I notice the box and the label. These shortbread cookies contain DHA Omega -3 fatty acids from Fish Oil. Wow! They are healthy cookies! And my kids liked them! I'm ecstatic over this discovery.