Hail Merry GIVEAWAY!

Welcome to another giveaway, friends! Today I am giving away 2 FREE PRODUCT COUPONS from Hail Merry! Hail Merry makes my FAVORITE macaroons and key lime tarts of all time (they are raw!), and they offered to share the love for our blogoversary. You can use the free product coupons on ANYTHING you want! Here's how to win....

1. Follow Passing Daisies on Twitter and tweet "I just entered to win FREE  @HailMerrySnacks from @passingdaisies! Head to the blog and ENTER TO WIN now! #fitfluential #giveaway"

2. Instagram a picture of this post (or a picture on it) and say "I just entered to win FREE  Hail Merry Snacks from @passingdaisies! Head to the blog and ENTER TO WIN now! #fitfluential #giveaway"

3. Pin this post on Pinterest and say "I just entered to win FREE Hail Merry products  from @passingdaisies! Head to the blog and ENTER TO WIN now! #fitfluential #giveaway"

4. Comment on the PD Facebook page and tell me what you would use your coupons on. Remember to come back here and comment that you did this!. 

5. Follow PD on Google (right hand column, where it says "Followers" AND//OR subscribe to PD via email.

GIVEAWAY ENDS FEBRUARY 28 AT 5:30PM. 

The 2013 Gift Guide For....[THE VEGAN]

Welcome to the SECOND edition of the Passing Daisies holiday gift guide! Last week, we talked about HIPSTERS.This week, we are focusing on the vegans in our life. Here are the other holiday gift guides you can look forward to!

[The MUSIC JUNKIE]

[The GEEK]

[The BOOK NERD]

[The VINTAGE]

[The TRAVELER]

[The DRINK SNOB]

[The DIY ENTHUSIAST]

[The BLOGGER]

I used to be vegan for a year, and now I will generally eat anything, but I eat dairy in moderation. I shop mostly vegan at the grocery store, and I eat normally when I'm out with friends. Everything is okay in small amounts! 

Still, I like to embrace my vegan roots, and I think I've got a pretty good grasp on what kind of gifts vegans would enjoy. I would love to get any of the gifts below. I hope these help you find the perfect gift for your vegan friend!

Better World Brownies

An all vegan and fair trade brownie mix, you can't possibly go wrong. This company also makes vegan hot chocolate mix, fruit & chocolate snack mixes, and other yummy treats. Everything is fair trade, too.

Crazy Sexy Kitchen

Kris Carr is a vegan celebrity - she beat cancer by switching to a mostly raw, plant-based diet, and has been a role model in the vegan world ever since. This is her new cook book!

Isa Does It

Another famous vegan chef, Isa Chandra Moskowitz, just released a brand new cookbook this month. Everything she makes is delicious, so I'm sure this cookbook won't disappoint.

Vegan White Chocolate Chips

Vegan white chocolate is crazy hard to find in stores, unless you make it yourself. These chips are delicious. Make sure you order a few bags! Wanna hear what I think? Click here!

Vegan Bowls [and other dishes]

This lady's vegan dishes and mugs are pretty famous. They are expensive, but homemade and high quality. They are also cute! If you don't want anything with the word "vegan" on them, she also makes some adorable cake stands, fruit bowls, and other dishware. There is also another etsy shop, Vegan Dish, that you can check out when the owner is back from vacation.

Vegan's Daily Companion

This book features 365 different articles to read, one for each year. It has recipes, health info, animal stories and pictures, and so much more! A great guide for any vegan.

Tofu Xpress

Any true vegan will press tofu at some point in their life. This is a great tool to have in your kitchen so you don't end up pressing your tofu with a stack of books, pots and pans, and cans of soup {in other words, anything heavy}. If you want to see my review of this product, click here.

Hail Merry Macaroons 

These are quite possibly the best macaroons I've ever had, and they are raw! You can find them at Whole Foods stores across the country. Apparently they just released a limited edition, seasonal flavor - Chocolate Chocolate Chip - so run to the stores and buy some now!

Justin's Chocolate Hazelnut Butter

This is just like Nutella, but it's vegan. They also make a line of peanut butter cups that are AMAZE-BALLS. For a limited time, you can buy their white chocolate peanut butter cups exclusively  at Whole Foods. 

Tea Forte

I have yet to find a flavor of tea by this brand that I dislike. They are crazy delicious, and their triangular shape makes them unique. 

Blackberry Maple Waffle Tea

This is a delicious flavor of tea, and it has real waffle pieces in the mix!

Libre Tea Glass

While we are on the topic of tea, this loose leaf tea "to-go" glass is GREAT for when you want loose leaf tea but are about to walk out the door. The tea stays in a separate compartment, and you just flip upside down to brew. When you are ready to drink, just turn the glass right side up. Check out my review of these glasses here.

Forks Over Knives

This is a great documentary about the way meat and dairy effect our health. Although it does talk about animal rights and welfare, the emphasis of this film is health, and that's why I enjoy it. If you want a documentary that talks more about animals, then check out Food, Inc.

Vegan Makeup

There are multiple great places you can get quality vegan makeup, including Juice Beauty, Tarte, and Urban Decay.

Yes To...

The "Yes To" brand has a TON of quality vegan beauty products, including facial cleansers, lip balm, shampoo & conditioner, and sunscreen, to name just a few. 

Well, I hope those items sparked some ideas for your vegan friend! Let me know if you found other great products you would recommend! 

WIAW #34: Fitness + Babysitting

Hey ladies and gents! Welcome to another What I Ate Wednesday! So glad to be back to the WIAW party.

Here's a look at what I ate on Tuesday... 

{BREAKFAST} Nature Valley Peanut Butter granola bar // coffee {LUNCH} Archer Farm's Raspberry Creme Brulee granola // Hard boiled egg // Fresh raspberries {SNACKS} Apple // Orange // Dark chocolate square // Half of a Hail Merry persian lime tart {DINNER} Little Caesar's pepperoni pizza // Crazy Bread

All in all, I consider that to be an okay day of eating. To be honest, I didn't really want the pizza, but it was free since I was babysitting tonight and that's what the kiddos ate. Not healthy, but I gotta take each day as it comes. Below are a few pictures - some things from today, others from earlier this week.

Speaking of falling into good habits, I'm heading back to the gym after a long hiatus. This time I think I'll actually stick with it, thanks to my dad's recent quadruple bypass surgery. I never want to end up in a hospital, let alone in surgery. And to avoid both of those things, I need to start eating right and working out consistently. So here's a look at today's trip to the gym:

{FITNESS} Ran .61 miles on treadmill // Walked on treadmill // Elliptical for 30 minutes // Weight training (thighs) 

{CALORIES BURNED} Roughly 320 cal

Also an okay day. Yesterday, I had more intense of a workout...I started working out my arms on the weight machines, which is something I haven't done in, oh, I don't know...a year. Or something ridiculous. And BOY am I STILL feeling that workout! Crazy! I also burned an intense 590 calories between walking on the treadmill and the cross trainer. Tomorrow I will be focusing on cardio + ab workouts. Yikes. Haven't worked my abs in about as long as my arms...

If you are having problems with being bored at the gym (I have this problem all the time!) I recommend that you find a great fiction book and read it. Something that makes time fly by. That's when I work my hardest! I've been reading The Girl Who Kicked The Hornet's Nest by Stieg Larsson and it's wonderful. Also, drink coffee an hour before you work out. It makes your workout seem less challenging. No joke - I tried it today and it worked. I read about it in last month's issue of Women's Health!

Remember the kiddos I said I babysat tonight? Their names are Jameson (four years old) and Mac (two years old). Check out their adorable selves:

Cuties, right?!

So, today I am meeting up with local granola maker Christy from Whirly Bird Granola to get some samples and start on a product review! How exciting is that?! I love meeting local foodies and learning about their stuff!

That's all for now. But before I sign off, I have a couple questions for YOU...

How do you stay motivated to get to the gym? [I make a weekly gym schedule + I never want to have health problems]

What exciting plans do you have for Thanksgiving?! 

P.S. - Did you check out my new Holiday Gift Guide series?!

WIAW #33: Whole Foods Edition

Hey WIAW friends! Wow, it's been ages since I've done a WIAW. 
All I can say is that it's great to be back! 
To be totally honest, I kind of forgot about the blog, and I was busy doing a million other things: job searching, volunteering at church, reading, hanging out with friends...blogging slipped my mind for a while. On top of that, my dad had an unexpected quadruple bypass surgery a couple weeks ago. Although that was kinda nuts, I'm definitely inspired now more than ever to live and eat healthfully. But now I'm back and ready to dive back into the blogging world! 

This week, I'm gonna share some of my favorite finds from Whole Foods today. I found a lot of really great stuff, and I'm highly impressed with Daiya & Earth Balance for all the new products they put out this year. I was overwhelmed and wanted to try everything!

Let's start with these: Hail Merry Miracle Tarts! They have the chocolate almond butter and Persian lime flavors. I've been wanting to try these for years, but my Whole Foods never carried them before. How AWESOME that they finally carry them and I get to taste them! I'll let you know my verdict when I actually dig in to this scrumptious looking thing. I'll probably love it, because I love anything lime flavored.

Cashew butter! One of my favorites. And I love that it's in a squeezable pack.

I LOVE JUSTIN'S PEANUT BUTTER CUPS. Their dark chocolate is my favorite, but this white chocolate variety is seasonal, so why not try it?! I can't wait.

So, I tried the So Delicious greek coconut milk yogurt a while ago and wasn't a huge fan, but now they have greek almond milk yogurt! I'm pumped to try it. Also, the strawberry banana yogurt was new to me!

I love Tofurkey. And it was WAY cheaper than regular chicken sausage, which is what I was originally looking to buy. It's healthier for you, too.

I think the new EB packaging is stellar! I love that they are all square containers now instead of circular tubs. I usually buy the whipped variety, but I thought I'd try to new Omega-3 variety this time around. 

Aren't these nifty? They are like fruit leather, but this is VEGETABLE leather! Never heard of it before, but I'm curious to see what they taste like.

I also bought some Earth Balance mayo and miscellaneous other groceries. I'm ready to get back to a largely vegan diet, minus some occasional dairy and meat. The healthier the better - I never want to go through the surgery that my dad went through! 

That's all for now, loves. Talk to you soon!

21 Days of Giveaways: Hail Merry

Hi friends! Today is a big giveaway from Hail Merry! 

Hail Merry is awesome because they create raw snacks that actually taste good. I'm madly in love with their macaroons. In fact, I have some sitting underneath my desk right now. 

Everything they make is raw and vegan. The macaroons are fabulous because of the maple syrup - I think it makes them just perfect! 

They also have some really delicious nuts. I'm a huge fan of their vanilla maple almonds - it's just too bad that no where around me sells them! They are crazy good. They also have a really yummy line of pecans.

One really, really lucky person is going to win TWELVE 1.75oz bags of these vanilla maple almonds. Holy moly, that's a lot of almonds! I am so jealous! I wish I could win this myself!

Here's how to enter for your chance to win...just a leave a separate comment below for each entry. Thanks!

MANDATORY: Follow Passing Daisies and Hail Merry on Twitter and tweet the following: "Enter to win vanilla maple almonds from @HailMerrySnacks on PassingDaisies.net! http://bit.ly/nQkq1N #21daysofgiveaways @cityxlights13 "

Want more chances to win? Who doesn't? Here are more ways to enter: 


1. Subscribe to Passing Daisies. If you subscribe, you get three extra entries!
2. Tell me something you would like to see more of on Passing Daisies. Recipes? Reviews? Workouts? Anything?
3. Tell me anything you want. Anything at all.
4. Follow me on Blogger.
5. Pin this post on Pinterest and mention PassingDaisies.net in the description.


THE WINNER OF THIS GIVEAWAY WILL BE POSTED WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20.
THIS GIVEAWAY ENDS TUESDAY, JUNE 19 AT 11:59PM EST.


Sorry, open to US residents only.


That's it! Side note - don't forget to like us on our newly updated Facebook, if you don't already. Thanks kiddos and good luck! The winner will be posted tomorrow morning, along with the next giveaway!

Much love, 

My First Foodie Pen Pal

Welcome to my first ever Foodie Pen Pal! I'm super excited to reveal to everyone what my pen pal, Lauren from The Holy Kale, sent me! Tons of raw vegan goodies from Texas! 

So, what was in the box?

{World Peas, Thunderbird Energetica Bar, Hail Merry Cocoa Macaroons, Sweet Curry Sprouted Sunflower Seeds, Spiced Apple Fruit Leather, Raw Pecan Butter}

 To be perfectly honest, I thought this box just screamed my name. I absolutely am madly in love with adore Hail Merry macaroons. Best. Cookies. Ever. Those were the first to disappear. All the rest are things I actually have been wanting to try for a while, but didn't want to pay for shipping...and they were great! 

I loved the raw pecan butter - so yummy. I enjoyed it spread on slices of banana! The curry sunflower seeds and fruit leather were delicious as well. I'm still trying to decide what I think about the Thunderbird bar; it's good, but I don't love it. And the World Peas, which I had never heard of before, were pretty good. They are a good alternative to wasabi peas! 

I think she loves exclamation points as much as I do!

And of course, an adorable little card. Wasn't the outside of the card adorable? (see the picture above). Thanks Lauren! I loved my box! 

I sent a package to Mallory over at Plastic California, so be sure to go check out the box of goodies I sent her! 

I can't wait to see what everyone else received!

And now it's time for some details about Foodie Penpals.  In case you’re a new reader, here’s a reminder of what the program is all about:

-On the 5th of every month, you will receive your penpal pairing via email. It will be your responsibility to contact your penpal and get their mailing address and any other information you might need like allergies or dietary restrictions.
-You will have until the 15th of the month to put your box of goodies in the mail. On the last day of the month, you will post about the goodies you received from your penpal!
-The boxes are to be filled with fun foodie things, local food items or even homemade treats! The spending limit is $15. The box must also include something written. This can be anything from a note explaining what’s in the box, to a fun recipe…use your imagination!
-You are responsible for figuring out the best way to ship your items depending on their size and how fragile they are. (Don’t forget about flat rate boxes!)
-Foodie Penpals is open to blog readers as well as bloggers. If you’re a reader and you get paired with a blogger, you are to write a short guest post for your penpal to post on their blog about what you received. If two readers are paired together, neither needs to worry about writing a post for that month.
-Foodie Penplas is open to US & Canadian residents.  Please note, Canadian Residents will be paired with other Canadians only. We've determined things might get too slow and backed up if we're trying to send foods through customs across the border from US to Canada and vice versa. So, I'm going to keep two separate lists and match US w/ US and Canada w/ Canada!

If you’re interested in participating for March, please send  an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include the following information:
-Your full name
-Your email address
-Your blog name/address
-Your twitter handle (if applicable)
-WHETHER YOU ARE A US RESIDENT OR CANADIAN RESIDENT. - this is SUPER important so you get on the right list!

Much love,