Oxo Mandoline

I bought this mandoline quite a while ago and didn't use it much.  I have used it a lot lately and I love it!  I slice sweet potatoes for dog treats and although the orange in the sweet potatoes stains the white plastic, I'm okay with it.  It's easy to pull apart and clean.  I wash it by hand.  There are numerous blades to use.  It's very sturdy although it's plastic; it's lightweight too. Everything stores neatly on the mandoline, except the fairly large hand guard.  One small downside is taking the other blades off the gadget when I clean it.  It may not be neccessary for me to pull them all off, but I do.  I don't want water to get trapped while it's drying.  I think I paid about $40 for it at Target.  It's worth the money if you want and easy way to slice fruits and veggies.

Here is the company website for more information:

OXO

Nesco Dehydrator

I had my first experience with a dehydrator.  They sure are easy to use!  My only critique is there isn’t an on and off switch; it’s either on or unplugged each time I move the food to a different tray.  I used a mandoline to slice the sweet potatoes and loaded up the dehydrator.  Super easy!  Although, I followed a suggestion in the booklet to microwave the sweet potatoes to do whatever it said – I can’t remember the fancy reason why.  It made the sweet potatoes sweat, so I’m not sure if it shortened the dehydration process or not.  The sweet potatoes took FOREVER in the dehydrator!!  I expected them to take about 6 hours since the booklet said carrots take 6 hours.  I think they were in the dehydrator for about 8 hours.  The oven only takes 3 hours, but there is less user error and I don’t have to think about it if I use the dehydrator.  I guess depending on the amount of time I have to make more Ruger (our dog) treats will determine the method of drying I use in the future.  PS I bought a bag of “Natural Sweet Potato Rawhides” for $7+ to see how different they are to what I make for Ruger. 

The bag I bought only has about 10-15 “rawhides”, they are soft, not crunchy at all (not a good or bad thing, just a difference) and only last about 15 seconds when Ruger gets a hold of one.  I’ll stick to making them myself.  For only a few dollars I can make dozens of treats; 3 sweet potatoes filled the 4 trays in the dehydrator and 2 pans for the oven.

(This is before the shrink up)  If you want to try the oven version - Cut the sweet potatoes into rounds or the long way for longer treats.  We like the "chips".  Cut them about 1/8-1/4 inch thick (a mandoline is very helpful as sweet potatoes are tough to cut).  200 degrees for 3 hours, flip at 1 1/2 hours.  Make sure to watch them towards the end of the cook time so they don't burn.  I've tried different thicknesses and cook times, so you may have to tweak the temperature and/or time a little.

Trader Joe Joe's cookies

These cookies are DELICIOUS!!! Imagine a Minty Oreo cookie with candy cane pieces in it. YUMMM

Here is the description: Trader Joe's website

A rich cocoa cookie sandwiching an intense peppermint filling and crushed candy canes.

Move over Thin Mints, your cousin visiting for the holidays is way hotter than you, and with her pink and brown colors of the season, a much snazzier dresser as well.

Fans of Trader Joe Joe's cookies already know that this stand-in for an Oreo has the unique ability to be both better tasting and less expensive than its Nabisco inspiration. The filling is lighter and fluffier, and in the case of the creamy vanilla flavor, has obvious flecks of vanilla in the filling.

Candy Cane Joe Joe's are a seasonal offering -- same great, dark cocoa wafers as the existing Chocolate Joe Joe's, but filled with a very bracing peppermint vanilla filling, which has crushed candy canes throughout.

The crushed canes are finely crushed enough not to shred your gumline, but gritty enough to still stand up and be noticed.

This is one "minty" taste combo; very strongly mint flavored, but very much candy cane at the same time. This means it doesn't taste or remind me of toothpaste -- my litmus taste for all mint flavored foods. It is strong enough you won't likely eat an entire handful or a box (a good thing), but not so strong it will create a hip rumor, like Altoids.

Set two out for Santa with a cup of Hot Cocoa, or give them to carolers this season.

Two Candy Cane Trader Joe Joe's are 140 calories, 6g fat, 19g carb, 1g protein.

**And 100% delicious!! **My added note. All the ladies in my office went crazy for them!

Jack's Urban Eats

You should really take a break and stop at Jack's for lunch. They have delicious food. You can create your own salad, have a Thai Salmon Salad, Hot Pastrami Reuben, or have a BBQ Tri Tip sandwich - there are many more items as well as garlic french fries and sweet treats. Doug and I stopped in for lunch on our way out of town a couple weekends ago and he really liked his Tri Tip Sandwich and said we need to go again next time we're in the area. I usually create my own salad, but I had a BBQ Chicken Sandwich and it was really good.

I used to work across the street from one of their restaurants, now it's a little further of a drive to a different location but always worth the food. There are about 5 restaurants in the Sacramento area and most items are $7-8. Enjoy!

Jack's Urban Eats

Fruit Snacks

These Kirkland brand fruit snacks from the makers of Jelly Belly are so yummy. I think these are my favorite fruit snacks. I wish the bag was made in “April size”. But, it keeps me from eating the entire box in one sitting. The little bags are 80 calorie packs and I want more than that. I really like the fruit snacks by Welch’s too, but they aren’t selling them at our local Costco anymore (Welch’s makes an “April size” bag). On a side note: food sizes just keep shrinking….100, 80, 60 calorie packs. Here’s an annoying example: the Jello 100 calorie packs of pudding are actually more calories than the regular Jello pudding packs we would normally buy (thanks to the Eat This, Not That book for pointing this out), but the unobservant consumer doesn’t realize that they are probably paying more for the “100 calorie pack” and are actually getting more calories when they think they are cutting calories.

Yoplait Delights

Hello everyone! April was so kind to invite me to be a contributor on her awesome product review blog: A Honu Product.

My first review will be of the new Yoplait Delights. In a word....

DEELISH!

I love Yoplait yogurt. It is the only type I buy. Not for snobbish reasons... it's a texture thing. So, of course when I saw the commercial for these, (I swear, it seems like ALL ads are written just for me) I just had to try them. So far, I have tried the Chocolate Strawberry and the Lemon Torte.

At Wal-Mart, they are priced the same as regular Yoplait, at .50 each, in a box of 4. Albertsons, they are almost $2 more.

So, if you are looking for a low-cal tasty sweet treet, I would recommend these babies!

Tammy