Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters Sampling from Crowdtap!

Thanks to Crowdtap, I was able to try a snack by Brookside for free to try and review! I was pretty excited to have the opportunity to try this. I really like trying new foods, and I had never heard of this brand before. They sent me Brookside Dark Chocolate Crunchy Clusters in Berry Medley Flavors. The package describes them as, 'Clusters of crispy multigrains and soft fruit flavored centers, all covered in smooth dark chocolate.'

When I opened the package I was a little unsure what to think when I saw that I was sent Dark Chocolate. Dark Chocolate is not something I normally buy for myself or even really like. I tried these small crunchy clusters, that are in funny lumpy shapes of varying sizes, and was pleasantly surprised. They are rather tasty! The lightly bitter taste of dark chocolate is quickly evened out by the sweetness of the berries inside. They are the perfect balance of flavor. The crunchy-ness inside gives it a fun texture and makes it a rather enjoyable snack.

These Brookside Crunchy Clusters remind me of the brand Pringles chips... You know? "Once you pop, you can't stop." It's true. When you start eating these you have to put the bag far out of reach when you decide you're done, or you will keep opening and eating them. The bag is resealable, which is nice. I had never heard of this brand prior to this sampling, but since I have received these, I have seen them at just about every store with grocery that I have been to. I recommend trying these for a decadant treat. They would be great to pair with a strawberry yogurt, put on top of an ice cream dish or just to eat alone like I have been doing!

If you'd like to check out more Brookside Chocolate products, CHECK THEM OUT HERE!

English Food for an American Girl: Part 1

As some of you may have read before, I am a leader in an awesome clan on the phone app game Clash of Clans. In playing that game, I have been blessed to meet so many awesome individuals! I look forward to "seeing" them every day! One of those wonderful people have happen to become one of my best friends, or as I call him, best mate. Oh so British! His name is Don. Don and I had been talking, along with other members of our clan, about food a lot. I mean, what else do gamers talk about? Games and food. They go together like peanut butter and jelly. Oh look, a food reference... Anyways, we quickly realised that there were some differences in food over in the United Kingdom and the United States. So like any rational food lovers, we decided that a swap was in order. This blog will be the first of a series of blogs based on the food adventures best mate Don has provided me with.

I started out trying a lot of the food that seemed pretty normal to me... Though, I was thrown off a bit by some of it. Everyday I will be trying one or two more things until I go through it all. I am trying to savor everything and go slow with it and really take time to enjoy it all!

The first thing that I tried was some crisps. AKA: Chips. The brand is Walkers. I've come to find out, that Walkers is basically the British version of America's Lays brand. Check out the Wikipedia for more information on the two brands HERE if your'e interested in reading more about it. Don sent me a variety bag of crisps. It is basically the size of a standard party bag of potato chips, except it has several mini bags inside of it. Like the bags you would send in your kids lunch box. There were two of each flavor in this bag. The flavors were Cheese & Onion: with cheddar from Somerset, Ready Salted: with salt from Cheshire, and Salt & Vinegar: with real British vinegar.

The Cheese & Onion flavor was my favorite! It tasted as expected, very flavorful. Delicious. All of the flavors actual tasted as expected. My son Hank ate both of the bags of Ready Salted and loved them. I did get to try some though! Normally I would never have eaten Salt & Vinegar on my own. But - since Don sent it to me. I was going to try it! I actually liked it! It had a distinctive vinegar flavor. It was not too intense and strong where it was overwhelming, luckily.

The box of food was so overwhelming to me at first, I wasn't sure what I should try. So, another safe choice. I tried Nik Naks crisps. The flavors were more interesting. Rib N Saucy, Hot N Spicy and Scampi N Lemon. So far, the only one I have tried was Rib N Saucy. The first thing I noticed about these when I opened them, was that they are basically the shape and consistancy of our Cheetos. That pleased me. I had been trying to explain Cheetos (crunchy Cheetos) to Don before. Well, there you go. They're like Nik Naks.

The next thing that I decided to try were English Scones.

These are amazing! I love them so much! They are very versitile... I will be the saddest (so far) when these are gone. I only have two left! The first time I tried them, I cut them in half and spread some fresh homemade jam (Thank you Aunt Maggie!) on top of them. The scones look small, and I can eat a lot. Believe me, these guys are super hearty, delicious and filling! They are lightly sweet, mildy buttery. Just delicious! That's the best way to describe them.

After eating my scone and having a side of fruit, I quickly realised that these scones would make excellent "strawberry shortcake" desert. So naturally, later on in the day when it came time to eat a snack, that's exactly what I made! Strawberries and whipped cream paired with a scone. A perfect pairing. Another wonderful creation. I really really love these scones.

Today I tore myself away from the last couple of scones and decided to try another new breakfast treat. Orange Marmalade. I know we have that in the United States, but I doubt we have the same brand. Also, I have never tried it before today either way, so it was a new experience. The first thing I noticed was that it was visually appealing. I liked the color. When I opened the jar, I noticed that it smelled great! I want my house to smell like orange marmalade. I popped a few pieces of wheat toast in the toaster and waited. Okay, time to spread on this marmalade. The texture was kind of funny, it was like little jelly balls all stuck together almost. It has little pieces of orange peel in it. I took my first bite. Sweet at first, then mildly bitter. Not so bitter where bitterness was an issue. It was good. I ate both of my marmaladey-goodness covered toast in a flash. I have 60 days to use the jar of marmalade. I will use it.

The last food item I will be covering in this blog was something that I had always wondered about and wanted to try. I thought that this food was possibly fiction. Turkish Delight.

I had only ever known about Turkish Delight from the cartoon movie 'The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe', when I was a kid. Well, it exists!!! Best mate Don to the rescue. Over the past few days I have picked up the package of Turkish Delight and stared at it with wonder. In too much awe to open it. It was like a treasure.

Tonight I got brave and needed to see what this Turkish Delight was all about... Well, I opened it and if I would have known they were individually wrapped, I would have opened it sooner.

Okay, so this Turkish Delight. I had no clue what I should expect. I just remembered that the kids in that movie loved it and it was super decadant and wonderful. Don told me that traditionally, Turkish Delight is not chocolate covered. The kind he sent me, is chocolate covered. Which is fine with me. Twice the tastyness, right? So I open it up and it has a sweet chocolatey fruity smell to it. I bite in to it. That is NOT what I was expecting. I don't know what I was expecting. But it was NOT that. Not saying that it didnt' taste good, because the flavor was fine. The texture on the inside is what threw me off. Big time. The inside is like hard jello. Not rock hard, but firm, solid... Jello. I have eaten half of it so far. I need to muster the strength to eat it and try to get over the texture. My son has since noticed it sitting by me and has taken a few bites off of it. At just 2 1/2 years old, he does not have any preconceptions about what things should have what textures. He's game.

Thanks for reading about my English food adventures! I will be posting part two very soon!

Holiday Treat! Sweet N Low Nog Blog

Sweet N Low sent me a goodie pack just in time for the holidays to try for free and review! The sweetness included: Sweet N Low packets, an Eggnog Recipe card, a Sweet N Low packet carrying case and a cute tote bag.

I was happy to make the Sweet N Low "Not So Naughty Egg-Nog", but as some of you may know, I cannot eat eggs! So, I was unable to taste the egg nog myself. Luckily, my husband plays guinea pig from time to time for me.

The recipe was super simple. All you need are:

*4 pasteurized eggs
*12 packets Sweet N Low zero calorie sweetener
*1 teaspoon vanilla extract
*5 cups cold skim milk (I did substitue the cows milk for Silk Original Almond milk this time!)
*Pinch of ground nutmeg

For easy mixing the recipe suggests making this in a blender. I just used a whisk. I think the blender would have been a lot easier, but I am a rebel!

First you place the eggs into your blender or container.

Next, add in the Sweet N Low packets and the vanilla extract.

Cover and blend on medium or high speed for ten seconds or until foamy. Or whisk if you're also a rebel! Add milk. Cover; blend five seconds.Pour into 1 1/2 quart pitcher. I just saved some dishes and did it all in a big punch bowl. It felt festive.

The last step is to pour and add a pinch of nutmeg to each individual serving, but I just sprinkled it on the top of the whole batch in the punch bowl to make it look fancy.

My husband Casey tried it, and I think he wasn't really aware that there are actually raw eggs in Egg-nog, but he is aware now. He said it tasted pretty good but he would have preferred the actual milk. (He is not used to Almond milk like I am!) He also said that it is not thick like the Egg-Nog he buys in the store. But, it tasted good and he did like it. Again, I could not try it, but I did smell it! It smelled just like any other Egg-Nog that I've ever smelled before.

Inside the little carrying case for individual Sweet N Low packets they included some Sweet N Low recipes for boozy drinks. "A-List Lemon Twist", "Pret a Pink-Tini" and "Little Pink Dress". For these recipes and more, please visit Sweet N Low on Facebook HERE!