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The Perez Family @KidFreshFoods Super Duper Chicken Nuggets Review #SuperDuperKids

28 Aug

My New Year’s Resolution this year was to stop giving my family and myself included processed foods and cook more from scratch. With so many words I can’t even pronounce, nor know the meaning of in these packaged foods I just thought I was going to lose my mind. Anything that begins with sugar, or high fructose it stays on the shelve. If I want something nutritious and healthy for my kids it has to say 100% all natural. That’s where Kidfresh comes in. They put up a post on Twitter asking bloggers if they would like to review their healthy kids meals with hidden veggies. I quickly signed up with no hesitation. I’ve seen celebrities, and chefs purée veggies into brownies, lasagna, and different types of meats and I used to purée food at my job. I always said I’m going to purée veggies in my kids food but never got around to it. Everyone has picky eaters in their families and if we don’t start them early they will always say “that’s nasty.” Vegetables are very important and it would be nice if everyone ate them or at least had one favorite one they enjoyed. To those that don’t eat them you probably are and don’t even know it.

Kidfresh came up with these Super Duper Chicken Nuggets that has hidden veggies in them like cauliflower and onions. How many kids can you say absolutely loves onions? Maybe onion rings. Cauliflower maybe. I’ve seen kids go crazy when used on a veggie platter with ranch dip.

There are no artificial flavors or preservatives. All natural. 40% less sodium, and 73% less trans fat than the leading brand. Made with white meat chicken, and whole grain breading. The ingredients are simple, nutritious, and to the point. They also have a variety of meals that my kids are Definitley going to try next like: Easy Cheesy Ravioli, Muy Cheesy Quesadillas, and Spaghetti Loos & Meat Sauce just to name a few. These products are available nationwide in over 5,000 stores. Kidfresh.com/find-a-store
Suggested retail price is $3.49-$3.99
Follow them on Twitter @KidfreshFoods

The same day I received the chicken nuggets my kids were ready to taste them. I made them for lunch. I baked them for about 12-14 minutes in the oven and they came out nice and crispy. I had to try one first because I would know right away if my kids would like them or not. They were very delicious I wanted to eat all of them. You couldn’t even tell veggies were in them. I started with my son who is 10 yrs old and I have to force him to eat vegetables. He took a bite and said “its just another nugget.” He did eat it though. My daughter however who is 6 yrs old was very impressed and wanted to eat them all like her mother. She said “let’s go buy more.” She’s been putting ketchup on all of her nuggets lately so she dipped them in ketchup and ate about 6 nuggets. I even gave my 17 yr old one to taste. No comment from him. Lol.

These cooked up fast and came in handy especially with everyone’s busy schedule. I will purchase these Super Duper Chicken Nuggets again as well as the other products.
I was not compensated for this post but I was given the product to test and a few goodies in a gift bag. I was also given coupons for a giveaway which you can click on the link below to enter. These are my opinions and they are 100% genuine.
Enjoy the pictures!

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/share-code/MzNkODJiMTBlNDdjMGM2N2JjN2FlMjhjNDU3NzI2OjE=/

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Taste Buds Kitchen Open House Tuesday, May 7 NYC

7 May

The Taste Buds Kitchen, which offers creative & unique cooking events for kids and their families will hold its Summer Camp Open House. Drop by meet the staff, and sample a yummy culinary creation. 5-7 p.m. 109 W. 27th St., 10A. (212) 242-2248. RSVP: tastebudskitchen.com

 

Questions about our Summer Camps? Come to our free Summer Open House/Cookie Decorating tomorrow from 5-6pm! http://tastebudskitchen.com/event/summer-camp-open-house/ …

Muy Bueno Cookbook Book Signing @MuyBuenoCooking @LaCasaAzulBooks

14 Apr

I took my kids to a book signing @LaCasaAzulBooks bookstore located in East Harlem to hear about and get the fabulous cookbook Muy Bueno Three Generations Of Authentic Mexican Flavor. First let me start by saying this is the best looking bookstore ever!!! I would live there if I could. Lol. The owner is beautiful and sweet and they have so many events and cooking classes.They’ve only been around 10 months so they have a 1 year anniversary coming up in June. It is so neat and quiet, set up is amazing, gorgeous stove that I wanted to take home, and my daughter immediately ran to the kids section where I purchased 2 books and stickers for her, a Spanish/English dictionary for my son, and for me the cookbook that was featured.

A family that cooks and eats together stays together and this amazing cookbook proves that. Three generations giving their audience delicious recipes through their grandmother’s eyes for her Mexican cuisine, their mother’s South of the border home style dishes, and the Latin fusion from the 3rd generation authors and sisters Veronica Gonzalez Smith, and Yvette Marquez Sharpnack.

I come from a mixed family so I grew up learning the Spanish recipes from my father whose parents are from Spain, Comfort foods from my grandmother who was from North Carolina, and my mother whose not too much of a cook I paid attention but taught her a lot as I got older. To this day she prefers my cooking over her own. I cannot stress enough how much I absolutely love cooking, baking, and enjoy having my kids in the kitchen with me learning and getting dirty, also paying attention, and asking questions. Kids grow up so fast and they need to know how to cook and not depend on anyone or fast food restaurants. I’m not saying they should ever turn down a meal if someone wants to cook for them or if they want to go to a restaurant but it’s very important to have this skill.

What made me want to attend this book signing was I wanted to try some new recipes that were authentic and any recipe that you can remember or still have on paper from your grandmother you know it’s gonna be good. I also love the fact that it is created by three generations who will also pass it down to their kids. The pictures are beautiful and makes you want to dive right in. I always wanted to write a cookbook but never knew where to start. Maybe one day.

Veronica and Yvette had a dish prepared for the audience to sample. It was their amazing Mushroom, Jalapeño, and Cilantro Salsa. I’m not a fan of mushrooms but when I tasted it you couldn’t even tell they were in there because the other ingredients were so good as well I forgot about them.

I want to make the Cilantro Lime Rice and the Coconut Flan because my father used to always give my sister and I flan. All the recipes are simple and I can’t wait to try them. I will post pictures when I do. I urge you to purchase this warm and inviting book for your collection and visit La Casa Azulejo Bookstore located at 143 E. 103rd Street between Lexington and Park in East Harlem NY.

Enjoy the pictures!!

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KIDS FOOD FESTIVAL IN BRYANT PARK PART 2 @KidsFoodFestNYC

3 Mar

Continuation of pictures from Cricket Azima Salsa Class and raffle goodies I won and some of the toys I purchased for my daughter at the Festival.

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KIDS FOOD FESTiVAL IN BRYANT PARK PART 3 @KidsFoodFestNYC

3 Mar

Okay last post of pictures from Festival. I live the shopping cart for my daughter.

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KIDS FOOD FESTIVAL IN BRYANT PARK @KidsFoodFestNYC

3 Mar

Let me just start by saying Saturday at Citi Pond in Bryant Park was a busy day for my two kids and I. We attended the Kids Food Fest which teaches our kids to eat healthy well balanced meals and help to reduce childhood obesity. They showed the kids how to eat healthy meals by food demos, sampling of foods, healthy snacks, and hands on experience with cooking classes for families courtesy of the James Beard Foundation. We got to the festival early and stayed the whole day. Our first stop was Organic Valley where hot off the grill was grilled cheese sandwiches made wi the best cheese on earth because it is unprocessed, organic, produced without antibiotics, synthetic hormones, and toxic pesticides. Can you ask for a better healthier cheese? They also were serving chocolate milk which was just right. We snagged up a few coupons as well because I love me some coupons.

My daughter’s eye quickly found the Kitchen Crafts for Children play area with toys by Alex and wanted everything in sight. There were so many cooking toys, games, and crafts we went on a shopping spree. Wen it comes to toys like these I don’t mind giving my daughter because I know his is her future and it will help her when she becomes a chef. I have plenty of photos that you will see what I’m talking about. There were also arts and craft where she made necklaces and decorated her own lunchbox.

My daughter also enjoyed getting tattoos from a lot of the sponsors and taking pictures with the performers and dancing with The Little Clubheads.

Next stop was HoneyMaid. They were handing out their new HoneyMaid grahamfuls strawberry yogurt creme which do not contain high fructose corn syrup, and is 100% whole grain which is a big plus for me. They were very good. These are going to be a new snack item in my kids lunches especially since they also handed out coupons.

We picked up a Cooking Light the ultimate Kid-Approved cookbook for my mini chefs.

We headed to the trail mix station where we made our own trail mix where goldfish was a popular item. Next to that was the cheese station by Kerrygold which was tasty. There was also a station by GNT EXBERRY where you can build your own a hummingbird Feader. Exberry is a natural food coloring that do not contain any preservatives or or chemical solvents.

Plum Organics/Kids was letting kids spin the wheel for prizes and offering yummy snacks like Jammy Sammy’s.

Honest Tea were giving out their fabulous pouches like a fruit punch, grape, and lemonade. They also had the Ice Tea bottles as well.

Happy Family is where you picked up your goody bags which had goodies from Whole Foods, Bola, Crunchies, and Wreck It Ralph, once you completed your Balanced Plate Scavenger Hunt. You had to collect stamps on your map from all the food groups like fruit, grain, protein, vegetable, and dairy while sampling foods as well. They also were handing out Happy Squeeze pouches in Coco Strawberry and Super Kiwi Banana and Apple.

Scrapkins station let you build your own monster out of tissue rolls.

Probugs gave out samples of Kefir pops for kids.

Clean Well was on deck for sticky little hands and clean ups.

I entered the raffles and I won a 10 piece cookware set from Circulon Gourmet Cookware, and a Craft Set from Alex Toys, and a one -year subscription to Chop Chop a fun cooking magazine for families.

There were food demos on the main stage and performances by Songs for Seeds, Super Why had a meet & greet, Little Club Heads performed, Super Sprowtz, and Terry Walters made Apple Squash Soup. There were performances all day but we made our way to the carousel and the kids went on twice. Our cooking class didn’t start till 4 pm so we went to lunch, then saw a few more performances before the day was almost over but not before our Fresh, Flavorful, Fun Salsa Class with Cricket Azima from The Creative Kitchen. This was an amazing class where the kids got to make salsa with all types of fruits and vegetables. They used melon, strawberries, kiwi, corn, red peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, cilantro, lime, salt, and olive oil. They chopped everything up then put in a ziplock, added a pinch of salt, squeeze of a lime, and olive oil and shook it up. Salsa!!! It tasted amazing. My kids and I enjoyed it very much!! That was the best fruit and veggie salsa I ever tasted.

Whole foods provided an amazing amount of food to make all of these wonderful dishes. Love Whole Foods!!!

We left with so many bags I had to get a cab.

I have a lot of pictures and I hope you enjoy them because we had fun taking them. I’ll have to make another post with more pictures. To be continued….

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COOKING UP A STORM!!!!

22 Jan

I’ve been cooking up a storm and wanted to share a few of my dishes I cooked thanks to some fabulous recipes I came across and might have kicked up a notch with a few extra spices of my own.

The first dish I made was Onions and Pepper Smothered Round Steak. Can I just say this was beyond deliciousness. This was a recipe from none other than Emeril Lagasse. I found it on Food Network.com. I would write out the recipe but it’s so much so just go on website and type out the title. Prep time is 15 minutes and Cook time is 1 hr and 30 minutes. Serves 6. Pictures are below.

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Before and after shots.

My next dish was Chicken Chili also found on Food Network.com by Barefoot Contessa. Another fabulous dish. This dish is spicy and we loved it. It’s good to always keep spices handy in the pantry because I find myself using them over and over in recipes so I recommend Costcos for bulk and Whole Foods for hard to find spices. I also told you I’m on a mission to find even hotter spices from different countries.

This was another easy recipe with 15 minutes of prep time and 1 hr and 45 minutes of cooking time. Pictures below.

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I added peeled cherry tomatoes instead of whole peeled plum tomatoes which worked just as well. I also added cherry tomato topping with basil which was very delicious. I won those items from a Barilla Twitter party. They are from Academia Barilla specialty products. I don’t think you can find these in the supermarkets but I will ask them. Then I decided to make corn muffins to go with the chili.

My last dish I will post is a breakfast dish. French Toast. This recipe is by Robert Irvine of Food Network of course. There were so many but this was simple with a prep time of 20 minutes and 10 minute cook time. It says 4 servings but I got 6 servings from it.

At first I had to brain storm about what bakeries I thought had Challah bread and I began surfing the web and making calls. I found one on east 86th street called Hot and Crusty. They have a small loaf for about $4.00 and the big loaf for about $5.00. With a large family I took the big loaf.

My kids and I devoured that’s how good it was. I also let my kids put powdered sugar on top of theirs.

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Sorry I don’t have a shot of it on a plate with syrup and sugar. We couldn’t wait to eat!!

One more thing. My kids and I made cupcakes and my daughter wanted me to post pics because she decorated them. Hope you like! 🙂

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If you can’t find the recipes and need me to post I would kindly do so. If you make these recipes let me know how you like it.

ON A MISSION TO FIND THE HOTTEST CHILES AND SPICES @spice_station.

15 Jan

I’m on a mission to find the hottest peppers and spices. As some of you know I love cooking and I started cooking from scratch so now I want to have all types of spices, seasonings, and dried peppers in my pantry. I don’t like to see a recipe I want to make then find out I’m missing one item. I want to be prepared.

My family and I love seafood and chicken a majority of the time and depending who I’m cooking for it can be a spicy dish or not. I know habanero chiles are the hottest but I discovered even more. There’s a shop in California called the Spice Station and I wish I lived by this shop. They have all types of spices and chiles.

I want to try spices that Chinese use and Mexicans because these are used in certain dishes. There are these Schezuan chiles and spices that a chef used on the cooking channel to make a four spice chicken. I want to make that dish.

I found their website spjcestationsilverlake.com, and Twitter page @spice_station, and I will probably have to order online. There are so many to choose from. I can’t wait to order online and create in the kitchen. I will post pictures and recipes when I make these dishes.

COOKING FROM SCRATCH WITH MY KIDS

4 Jan

Since my mother in law was so kind to purchase me my dream appliance the  KitchenAid Mixer I decided it’s time to do what I got to do and make everything from scratch. As time goes on I will purchase the different attachments that go along with my mixer for different types of foods that I want to make. I definitely want the pasta attachment and the ice cream maker so far. I’ve always wanted to make fresh pasta and the kids would definitely enjoy homemade ice cream.

My kids and I have been in the kitchen baking cupcakes, cookies, and biscuits in the past but there’s nothing more exciting and fun than doing it from scratch. As much as you try to stay clean and organized it ain’t gonna happen. Even on television. That’s why they have commercials so they can clean the mess they made before they come back on the air.

I love messes with my kids because it just let’s me know we are all enjoying ourselves. I need their help more than they know it. I want them to learn because they want and they want a career out of this.

The first thing we attempted to make were our favorite. CUPCAKES!! Like I said we always did it the easy way out of the box but I did always make my frosting homemade. This day was special. My daughter and I went grocery shopping and got all the ingredients. I found a great recipe on my favorite website Food Network and printed them out and we were all set.

We made vanilla cupcakes with chocolate ganache frosting which was very easy to make : 2 cups heavy cream 8 ounces of semisweet chocolate chips, or 1 1/2 pounds of bittersweet chocolate chopped into small pieces. Heat cream until it comes to a simmer. Remove from heat. Place chocolate in a heat – proof bowl. Pour cream over chocolate. Allow to sit 10 to 15 seconds, then whisk until the chocolate is melted and mixture is smooth. Allow to cool slightly, stirring occasionally. Mixture should be a little thick but still pourable.

I just dipped my cupcakes into the ganache instead of pouring it onto them. Less work and the kids enjoyed doing that.

We also made vanilla frosting with confectioners sugar, vanilla, and whipping cream. Recipe on website as well.

We all tore those cupcakes up! You can see and taste the difference. They were delicious. I guess this year it’s really on with the kids selling their lemonade and cupcakes. I’ll keep everyone posted on Twitter.

I also made fresh buttermilk dressing to go with my salad. That was amazing!! My family loved it very much!!
The recipe is easy :

1/4 cup sour cream
3/4 cup buttermilk
2 cloves garlic finely chopped
3 tablespoons finely chopped red onion
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Salt and pepper

Mix all ingredients together and season with salt and pepper to taste.

I added a little extra seasoning to mine and some red pepper flakes for more of a kick. Very, very good!!

I will continue to post different creations my kids and I make in the kitchen. If any of my readers make any of the recipes please let me know how you like it. Thank you!

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The cupcake pictured by itself is a mixed one. I put a hole in the middle, filled it with chocolate ganache and covered the outside with vanilla frosting. Yummy!

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@barclayscenter #BrooklynHOOPS #HolidayInvitational pres by @MuscleMilk

23 Dec

I had the privilege of taking 3 of my kids to the Brooklyn Hoops Holiday Invitational Men’s College Basketball tripleheader at Barclay Center on Saturday, December 22nd. I won 4 tickets courtesy of Barclay Center.

There were 3 different games that took place from 3:00 to 8:00 p.m. The first game was Tulane vs. Hofstra. Tulane won 83-62.
Next game was South Carolina vs. Manhattan. South Carolina won 63-57.
Final game was Seton Hall vs. LIU. Seton Hall won 89-58.

We had a great time and the Barclay Center is beautiful and we had awesome seats 6 rows from the court. Bathrooms are clean, food is good even though we ate at the mall across the street before we went in then just purchased popcorn and fries at Barclay. That saved me a lot of money.
The seats are very roomy especially for tall people.

My daughter got to be on camera during break showing her muscles because Muscle Milk sponsored this event. She was very happy seeing herself on the big screen.

I definitely want to go back and see a lot more. Concerts, NBA Basketball, Circus, Family Events, etc, etc.

I took pictures. Hope you enjoy them!

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