I love popsicles! They remind me of summer, my childhood, sunny days and happy things. My favorite from the ice cream truck was the Good Humor Strawberry Shortcake popsicle.

The Today Show did an interesting segment titled "Can you believe diet frozen dessert labels? Tests show that some products have up to 68 percent more calories than labels promise." Turns out Weight Watchers bars and Arctic Zero (protein) ice cream had more calories than their labels advertised, but Skinny Cow bars had less. They can get away with this because the industry allows a percentage of error and the companies do their measurements based on averages of containers. So last year I decided to make my own frozen treats, from whole ingredients and 

I love macarons! I took a baking class at Sur La Table to learn how to make them and it's quite tricky. I was so excited to see that TJ's now sells this gourmet treat in their freezer section! My local macaron store sells one macaron for $2.50 but at TJ's you can get a dozen for $5! It comes in 6 flavors: Fig, Lemon, Apricot, Coconut, Pistachio, and Salted Caramel. I've definitely been enjoying this tasty treat!












Eight years ago my co-worker invited me to visit her country of Peru with her. Machu Picchu was amazing and the food was good too. I'm still always on the hunt for authentic Pisco Sours (a cocktail made with egg whites) or Chicha Morada (purple corn juice). TJ's Giant Peruvian Inca Corn is compared to corn nuts which I've never had so I'll say the taste is similar to Fritos. On first bite I thought I might break my teeth on these too hard kernels, but then I got addicted to them. If you like salty snacks, this is for you.  


Cashews are my favorite nut, I eat them everyday as my snack at work. I buy the individual serving packets from TJs. So I was super excited to get my hands on their cashew butter which retails for $7.

Fresh Apricots which I've been using all week in my oatmeal for breakfast. I also make apricot popsicles from them. I find it hard to find in my regular grocery store, they only seem to have the dried ones, but I can always count on TJ's to have them fresh. 

One of my most popular posts is Trader Joe's Brown Rice & Quinoa Pasta

I can't believe it's the end of May already, where has the year gone?! I really enjoyed this relaxing three day weekend but also want to respect the meaning of Memorial Day, not just as the start of summer. Seems that many people don't know what exactly Memorial Day means, it's a day on which those who died in active military service are remembered, not Veterans Day for those who are currently serving. So it's not really appropriate to wish a living person a Happy Memorial Day. I appreciate the sacrifice of those who lost their lives for our country and freedom. There's new book out on the women who fought in Afghanistan.

I spent the weekend soaking up the sunshine starting with Friday when I went to Jazz in the Garden with a group of friends and sipped on Sangria.


On Saturday I went to my favorite annual event - the Caribbean Wine Festival! Not only do they have the best fruity wines, there's also great music, and tons of people!

I spent Sunday afternoon outdoors picnicking while sipping wine and listening to live music as I explored Virginia wine country. I visited a couple wineries with good wine, beautiful outdoors, and one had live music. The view was gorgeous, just take in this amazing scenery from the deck!




The vineyard had peach trees planted on its farmland and made an amazing peach wine!


Monday I just needed a day to relax, so I chilled poolside with a good book and ended up with my first sunburn of the year, boo!

The long awaited annual Summer Safety Kit was released by Sephora on Friday. It's valued at $155 but retails for $32. You can buy it here before it sells out. It has some of their best selling products from Dr. Dennis Gross, Fresh Sugar Lip Treatment, Josie Maran, Murad, Ole Henriksen, Origins, Peter Thomas Roth, Shiseido, St. Tropez and more! 

 I've also discovered that one of the best ways to keep a clean kitchen is to organize your cabinets because when cabinets are not organized, I’m less inclined to put things into them. I emptied out the junk draw in my kitchen which was filled with appliance manuals. In living here 8 years I have never once had to use them so I felt ok throwing them out. I figure a repair won’t need the manual. I organized my kitchen utensil drawer which I was constantly digging through to find whatever I was looking for. I couldn't buy a drawer organizer for it because the slots were not the right size for the things I kept in here. Plus I also kept my aluminum foil/plastic wrap/ wax paper in there and that was always as hassle to rearrange everything to pull out. So I took out those 3 boxers I had of wrap to create more space in one drawer. Now I hang them up on the side of the under sink door with adhesive hooks which makes it much easier to access the boxes. Then I found that Bed, Bath and Beyond sell small plastic boxes that I mixed and matched and put 3 into my drawer to help create some order. I have a huge collection of plastic food containers that I don’t use, so I took those out of the cabinets to create space for all the odds and ends I was keeping on my counter. I’m absolutely thrilled with how much better my kitchen looks as everything is organized and easy to reach!

I recently discovered the world of non alcoholic wines and  have been having fun trying them out. They contain a third of the calories from real wine as I gave up wine for 3 weeks to shed a few pounds. I find that drinking makes me hungrier and I end up consuming more calories. Alcohol free wine could also appeal to pregnant women (think baby shower mocktails) and people who need to abstain for medical reasons like a woman I know who is sickly allergic to alcohol.

Alcohol-free wine is made by extracting the alcohol through a filtering or vacuum process, while leaving the other components intact. The real question is how to do alcohol free wine stand up to their counterparts? I've tried a few flavors so far and it’s all about having the right mindset and not expecting it to be exactly the same.

Fre Wine is made by Sutter Home Wine which I purchased at my local Harris Teeter and Target (which strangely had their registers set up to ask for ID). I've only been able to find these four flavors:

Brut sparkling - I was pleasantly shocked, it does not taste like sparkling cider, it really tastes like champagne. It has an apple flavor with a dry finish. It tastes good on its own but I also mixed it with an apricot I chopped in my food processor. I think grapefruit juice or peaches would also be a nice accompaniment.

White Zinfandel - This was my favorite with it's pretty pink color and berry taste. It tastes just like a sweet zinfandel without the alcohol kick. I think adding some soda water and strawberries to it would help give it that kick.

Chardonnay - It has the same buttery oak smell, but it tastes like crisp green apple.

Red Blend - This regrettably tasted like a mix of grape juice and balsamic vinegar.


In conclusion while alcoholic free wines may not stand up to their counterparts with their red wines, but they come pretty close with their white Zinfandel and sparking wine.

For some of my other mocktail recipes check out this post and this post.