#FreshTastyValentines Wrap Up

As you might have noticed, the past week or so has been all about #FreshTastyValentines on my blog. And now Valentine’s Day is upon us! I hope you have a great day with your loved ones! Maybe with one of these tasty recipes?

Grapefruit-Walnut Snack Cake

Tangy Sweet Potato Hash

Apple Peanut Butter Pancakes with Sauteed Cinnamon Apples

Or maybe you want to read about my nursery here. 🙂 I wouldn’t object to that either! Haha.

The giveaway from #FreshTastyValentines is over, but I wanted to thank Camilla of Culinary Adventures with Camilla for all her hard work in organizing this great event! Also a big thanks goes out to our wonderful sponsors! You can find some of the many delicious recipes here.

Over the past couple of weeks, my recipes [and my everyday life in the kitchen] has featured products from these sponsors… which I just love! Though I wasn’t able to try items from every sponsor [all the bloggers got to share the love!], everything I did receive was awesome! If you check out the recipes I shared, I got to use products from many of these wonderful companies in my dish and in my prep. Though I didn’t manage to write a post highlighting all the items I tried, I wanted to give a shoutout to a few special companies.

First, Casabella. They sent us two toys to play with–a garlic roaster and clip ‘n strip shears. These will BOTH be super handy in my kitchen this summer. The garlic roaster is perfect for roasting garlic without a mess–and in an environmentally friendly way [no more wasting aluminum foil!]. Plus it’s silicone so it’s light and tucks away small in the drawer. The shears are great for cutting herbs. Right now I’m just using grocery store herbs, but I always have a big back porch herb garden every summer, so these will be handy for running outside to cut a snip or two of herbs for dinner. Thanks!

Second, Mann Packing… a wonderful produce company! They sent me some product coupons and I have to admit I haven’t found them in the Nashville area [but maybe the stores have just been out of stock… I’ll keep looking]. Whenever we visit Ben’s family, I always hit up Meijer since we don’t have one where we live… and it’s a good place to get some snacks before our 8 hour drive home. I usually pick up some trail mix for me, beef jerky for Ben, and Mann’s delicious Stringless Sugar Snap Peas for us to share. This is not an ad–this has been my tradition for a long time. We’ve been married for almost seven years, folks. Ben and I can seriously demolish a bag in like 5 minutes flat. It’s crazy… they are SO GOOD–and such a treat on a road trip… so refreshing and addictive. I hope I can find them in Nashville soon. 🙂 No other kind of snap peas compares. 🙂

Third, T.Lish. You may remember this dressing from #HotSummerEats last year. This stuff is still as good as ever! Lately salads haven’t sounded that good to me, so I’ve been getting my veggies through one dish meals like my beloved sweet potato hash and lots of raw snacky veggies, like carrots and peppers and cucumbers. To help me enjoy these veggies a little more, I’ve been a-dipping in ranch–and also T.Lish’s chipotle dressing! So yum. I love how much T.Lish has expanded–you can find these delicious dressings at Publix now! 🙂

Lastly, BenBella Vegan. Just the other day, my copy of Dining at The Ravens appeared at my doorstep… and it’s beautiful, intriguing VEGAN cookbook. How fun is that?!? I don’t do a ton of vegan cooking [though we do eat a fair amount of vegetarian food so vegan isn’t too far of a leap]. This is a lovely cookbook. I haven’t gotten a chance to play around with it much, but there are several recipes I want to try asap–like some Wild Mushroom Crepes, Mushroom Pesto and Sun Dried Tomato Burger, and their signature Kale Salad. I also love how they have a section of vegan pantry basics… sour creams [two types!], ricotta, cashew cheese… great tips for vegan newbie cooks like me. 🙂 If I ever find myself along the Medocino coast of California, you can bet I will be visiting this restaurant!

I hope you’ve enjoyed this week of #FreshtastyValentines. Thanks for reading! I’ll be back with a delicious recipe tomorrow so don’t go too far, friends! Happy Valentine’s Day!

Disclosure: I received complimentary products from Casabella, Mann Packing, T.Lish, and Ben Bella Vegan for my participation in #FreshTastyValentines. However, I was not required to write a positive review and I was not otherwise compensated for this post. The thoughts expressed above are entirely my own. Thanks to Casabella, Mann Packing, T.Lish, and Ben Bella Vegan for their sponsorship of this event!