1. Last week I discovered the greatness of this:

If you haven’t tried this and it sounds like something you might like, I highly recommend you go get a bottle and try it out. You won’t be disappointed – I used mine as a dipping sauce for some chicken nuggets and they were delicious!

2. While we’re on the topic of chicken nuggets: we made some last week with some fries, and it looked like Bentley was all about being patient and looking cute, hoping I’d give him and share my nuggets with him…

3. Have you ever been to an alpaca farm? I got up close and personal with a whole herd of 9 alpacas yesterday! We went on a field trip to a local alpaca farm for our productions class, where we learned how to restrain, give vaccinations, and perform physical exams on them. I must say, as weird as they look, they are pretty cute!

The cria (baby alpaca) was especially cute with with her little fuzzy face…

4. Earlier last week, I decided it would be a good idea to create some business cards for Simple Everyday Food. It’s been about 6 months since I’ve started this, and I’ve really enjoyed watching it grow! I’ve had a lot of people from work and school that have asked me about it, and I figured it’d be a good way to spread the word…. On Monday, they came in the mail! I’ve gotta say, I’m pretty happy about how they turned out!

5. This has got to be the coolest, most awesomest (yes, I just made that word up) mug I currently own in my collection. The moment I saw it, I knew I just had to get it!

Have a good rest of the week, guys! The Minnesota State Fair starts tomorrow! WOO HOO!

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1. In case you missed it, this past Saturday was National S’mores Day! I celebrated this “holiday” by making peanut butter s’mores cookies. These turned out to be a huge hit! Everyone who was fortunate enough to try a bite became instant fans. As I was shooting photos for that post, Brian was able to get an “action shot”:

I’m not sure if Bentley wanted to be part of the picture, or if he was just waiting for the opportune moment to steal some peanut butter cookies…..

And to round out the day, we stopped by Dairy Queen for the first time this summer (I know! Crazy, right?) after dinner and I just had to order their S’mores Blizzard.

Best. Blizzard. EVER! Let me just say that it was about 32498714 times better than what I thought it was going to be. It definitely exceeded all my expectations and then some. Definitely wasn’t disappointed.

2. The sitcom FRIENDS is perhaps one of my favorite shows ever. I’ve probably watched every episode at least 5 times (that’s a conservative estimate), and I can tell you exactly which episode it is by watching the first 30 seconds of a clip. I can also recite many parts of the show word for word, in the character’s exact same tone of voice.

….as if you didn’t know I was a nerd already……..

My best friend Nicky (Hi Nicky!) who was my maid of honor knew I loved the series so much that she got us the entire season as a wedding gift.

Here are 25 facts that you probably didn’t know about FRIENDS. Did you know Ross’ middle name is Eustace? And that during its run, the show actually released 2 soundtracks?

3. I knew from a long time ago, McDonald’s around the world tend to cater their menu to the palates of the country’s population. When we went to Hawaii, their McD’s had menu items involving Spam. In Taiwan, they have shrimp burgers, rice burgers, and some sort of a grilled salmon burger on their menu too. But did you know about these other food items offered at different international McDonald’s????

• Bulgogi Burger (South Korea) – yes, I’d like to try that.
• Spinach and Parmesan cheese chicken nuggets (Italy) – uh, gross.
• Singapore Curry, Korean Chili, and Sesame Miso dipping sauces for chicken nuggets (Hong Kong) – yes please!
• Vanilla chai tea iced frappe (Canada) – these should be sold at every McDonald’s in the US.
• Toblerone McFlurry (Turkey) – as if those chocolates aren’t good enough by itself…

Maybe next time I travel out of the country, it will be my mission to try something different from their McDonald’s.

4. Has anyone read the book Orange Is The New Black? I’ve been seeing the name brought it in various social medias, and was wondering if it’s worth reading or not.

5. Most of these pictures made me smile and feel warm and fuzzy inside. Some of them brought tears to my eyes. It just shows that as cruel as the world may seem sometimes, true love and devotion still exist.

© Simple Everyday Food. All images & content are copyright protected. Please do not use any of my images without prior permission.

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1. I’m the perfect example that when it comes to food, it’s all about the packaging. I’ve never been a big fan of store brands (other than Archer Farms). I know what you’re thinking: they taste the same as name brands. Sometimes they even taste better. And they’re cheaper. Yeah yeah yeah. But to me, the packaging of food is just as important as the presentation of food on a dish. If the packaging isn’t pretty, I have no desire to even try it, even if it’s 20 cents cheaper.

Now, Target just recently launched their own healthy grocery brand, Simply Balanced. According to the Target website:

“…more than 40 percent of the assortment is organic. There are no products with hydrogenated or partially hydrogenated oils, high-fructose corn syrup, synthetic colors, artificial preservatives, artificial flavors or artificial sweeteners…. the majority of Simply Balanced items are made without genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and Target will eliminate all GMO ingredients from the line by the end of 2014.”

Sounds pretty good, huh? Not only are these products super delicious, the packaging is very appealing and eye-catching. A few weeks ago I bought a few boxes of their granola bars to try it out, and then the next time we went grocery shopping, this happened:

Haha… oops. I jokingly told Brian that they should sponsor my blog since we spent 1/3 of our total bill on their products :)

2. My partner-in-crime at school Samantha (hi Samantha!) told me a few days ago that Trader Joe’s has this Cookie Butter thing that’s supposedly really good. As I recall, her exact words were “oh don’t even start”. I’ve been hearing (and seeing) a lot about it lately and figured I should probably see what all the hype is about. Well, while I was waiting for my dinner to cook, I couldn’t resist and had a little spoonful of it. I think my exact words were “oh this is going to be bad“. There might be times this weekend that consist of me sitting on the couch with Cookie Butter and a spoon…..

I’m also currently obsessed with these too. I just finished a pint of the Mediterranean Mint and moved along to my next flavor (it’s amazing).

3. Ever since the last time we ended up picking dinner options out of a hat that were written on pieces of paper due to the lack of meal planning, I’ve decided that’s never going to happen again. I made a fancy table from Word and this week was our first week putting it into use. It worked out great!

4. Today Brian and I had a little lunch date at downtown Minneapolis – we decided to have our first ever food truck experience! I had the lobster tacos and Brian got the pulled chicken sandwich (he loved the barbeque sauce that went with it!).

5. Did you know Campbell’s is now coming out with CheeseburgerOs?!

(photo source)

I guess they’re coming out nationwide in August (that’s tomorrow!)… can I say “ew”? Are people just getting that lazy that they can’t even use two hands to eat a cheeseburger? Or maybe it’s a time-saving thing? I have never ever opened (or touched) a can of the original SpaghettiOs, and don’t think I’d be trying their newest product anytime soon either. Do you think you’d be trying it?

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Yikes. I went a whole week without making anything worth posting.

Now that I think about it, I don’t even think I made anything substantial in the kitchen since last week. It’s been a bad eating week for me, and I only have a hectic work and school schedule to blame. The first week of school was busy – getting back into the school mentality has been a challenge after a whole 4 weeks of summer off. Five classes, 7-8 big projects due in about 2 months, and a ton of reading to do. It’s only the second week and I’m sooooo behind already!

I promise I’ll be more active in the kitchen this weekend. I already have several things in mind to make, so stay tuned!

1. Because life has been so busy, I’ve been falling behind in my blog reading… my life has literally been revolving around school, work, studying, and trying to get enough sleep in between. I haven’t even really had time to spend time with Bentley or the hubs! I took this snapshot a few days ago. Since then, I did finally get most of my emails read, but my Feedly feed now has more than 360 unread food blog articles! Yikes.

2. I found this link called “21 Reasons Why A Dog Is The Best Investment You Will Ever Make“. A lot of them made me smile. Some made me sad. But it really made me realize how much joy Bentley has brought to our lives in the past 1.5 years :)

3. Have you ever wondered why “scratch paper” is called “scratch” paper? It’s not like we use it to scratch anything. We use it for taking notes, making paper airplanes, and do math calculations… why couldn’t it be called “recycled one-sided paper“? The name seems like it makes a lot more sense to me.

4. We went to a local goat farm yesterday as part of our Large Productions Animal class. Baby goats! They were so cute! We learned how to restrain, do jugular blood draws, and trim hoofs. I’m not a farm girl, but I definitely loved those little buggers.

5. I think I want to make these sometime. They seem simple on paper. And they include my favorite berries… so therefore I consider it a healthy dessert.

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