Successful Pinterest Recipes {Part 2}

You are all about to see just how obsessed I am with cupcakes by reading this post. 

On the bright side, you know all these cupcake recipes were successful and taste delicious, right?!

Cheesecake Strawberries (you can find a million recipes for this. all you need to do is fill a Ziplog bag with pre-made cheesecake filling and pipe it into a strawberry that's been cut open!)

Cinnamon Apple Chips by Delighted Momma

Raspberry Hot Chocolate Cupcakes by Your Cup of Cake

Pumpkin Ale Cupcakes with Maple Bacon Frosting by Gen Foodie

Chocolate Stout Cupcakes by Pixelated Crumb (my friend made these!)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Cupcakes by Serious Eats

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes by The Girl Who Ate Everything

Honey Cupcakes from The Cake Blog

July Foodie Pen Pals

Everyone! It's time for another month of foodie pen pals! This month, my pen pal was Carolynne from Chicago, IL. She didn't disappoint with her box. She even listened to what I said when she asked about things I love! 

I told her I was interested in flavored honeys recently, and she sent me a bottle of blueberry blossom honey. After trying it, I realized it was just honey harvested from blueberry plants - not blueberry flavored But still delicious! I used it on some banana chips I made a week ago and they were delicious. 

She sent:

 garlic sesame crackers

pecan caramel turtle

blueberry blossom honey

freeze dried tropical fruit

Qbel bar

Reed's Ginger Chews

Oatmeal Apple Currant cookie 

Something exciting was that the cookie was from a local vegan bakery! How cool is that? It was really moist and delicious. Full of flavor. I loved it. I already know I love those ginger chews, so that was exciting. The freeze dried fruit made a great snack while I was working on the school newspaper, and the pecan turtle was very chocolate-y and caramel-y. The crackers were crunchy and delicious. I still haven't tried to Qbel, but I can't wait. That is something that I have been wanting to try for a long time!

Not to mention, Carolynne has great handwriting. 

Thanks for the package, Carolynne! 

Wanna join the foodie pen pal fun? Here's the details - just email Lindsay to sign up!

-On the 5th of the 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 can choose 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 Penpals is open to US, Canadian residents & UK 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 in the UK, please contact Carol Anne from This Is Rock Salt at rocksalt@thisisrocksalt.com to get involved! 

Much love, 

Basil Lime Peaches

Who doesn't love basil, lime, or peaches? 

Those are three of my favorite things, right there! And since today is the fourth of July, why not share a good recipe to make on the grill? Somewhere along the line, I lost my exact copy of this recipe, so this is my guess at the amounts. Feel free to mix it up a bit and let me know what you did differently. The amount of brown sugar is the only thing I'm not sure about - I could have used a couple tablespoons, but I'm almost positive it was 1/4 cup. Like I said, try it and let me know. 

This would be delicious regardless of how much brown sugar you use. The tangy lime juice and honey with the brown sugar make for a great combination! The basil also adds the perfect, unexpected bite to these peaches. So yummy. 

These would be perfect with a scoop of cold, creamy vanilla bean ice cream. They make a great, healthy dessert option!

Ingredients

1 tablespoon honey

1/4 c. brown sugar

1-2 tablespoons basil, finely chopped

Juice of one large lime

Lime zest (optional)

3-4 peaches, pitted and halved

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients (except peaches) in a large bowl. Stir until smooth. 

2. Add peaches to bowl and toss until all peaches are coated in the marinade. Set to the side to marinate while you fire up your grill (or grill pan, which is what I used). 

3. Place your peaches, flat side down, on the grill. The marinade will get bubbly and caramelize. You want to see pretty grill marks on these! 

4. Cook for about 10-15 minutes or until the peaches are nice and soft. Be sure to watch them so they don't burn. Brush with the leftover marinade throughout the cooking time so they get lots of flavor.

Much love, 

Reviews & Giveaways!

Hey guys!

Life, as usual, has been crazy busy. I have a feeling I won't be posting much until summer hits, when hopefully I will be able to post more! I am a bit behind on some product reviews I have, so this post will be putting three reviews into one. But first, a brief update on what's be going on with me!

Running still has not been happening, and my first 5k is on April 28. I'm pretty sure I'm just going to end up winging it and hoping for the best, alternating between running and walking. I tried to to run over Easter break and just ended up with a painful shin, so that didn't work. At least I ran a mile before getting the shin pain and painful stomach cramps.

My role as Editor-in-Chief has been going well and has been keeping me busy. I absolutely love it! It's a tradition that each year the old Editor-in-Chief buys their replacement a Louisville Slugger baseball bat - and I got mine on Thursday. It was bright pink! And it had my name engraved on it. Check it out:

Isn't it awesome?! I have to give a huge amount of thanks to Jake (who I'm replacing) - he has done a great job training me and I really, really appreciate everything he is done. 

I'm also currently looking for a part-time summer job. Seasonal jobs are so hard to find anymore. My mom doesn't believe me when I tell her that no one is hiring only seasonal and they want people who can work through the school year. Hopefully I'll be able to find something! 

I was recently sent a few pretty awesome new products to try out. First up, Rush Bowls. 

I gotta tell ya, I'm a huge fan of these. They are so neat. They come frozen, and each bowl is filled with pureed fruit and some sort of liquid (could be green tea, soymilk, etc), as well as a package of granola topping. You can thaw them overnight in the fridge and grab one for breakfast in the morning! They are so easy. And they taste like sorbet - who doesn't want to eat sorbet for breakfast? 

They are vegan, gluten free, refined sugar free, nut free, wheat free, dairy free, no artificial sweeteners, no artificial anything! And not too high in calories. Overall, I loved these. I thought all of the flavors were delicious: Acai Beach Bowl. Gluten-Free Beach Bowl, Power Bowl, Yoga Bowl, and Oasis Bowl. I tend to have a thing for the tropical flavors. You can learn more about the specific bowls here! 

The Daisy Rating

4/5 daisies

Next: Bee-Free Honee! 

When I first discovered this product, I was a little surprised; I mean, vegan honey? How do you make that? It turns out this delicious stuff is made from apples! 

Although it does taste kind of like condensed apple juice, this is really delicious and definitely feels like honey. I put it on a banana, and I thought it was great. I absolutely love it! If you're a vegan who misses traditional honey, this is a great alternative. I highly recommend this. It pours like honey, looks like honey, but smells like apples. It is tart and delicious. Yum.

The Daisy Rating

4.5/5 daisies

Finally: Zevia! 

I love this company because they make it possible for me to drink pop that is healthy and calorie free. How much better can it get? 

Zevia is a Stevia-sweetened soda that tastes like all of your favorite mainstream sodas: Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Fanta, etc. I was lucky enough to be sent six of their flavors to try: Grapefruit Citrus, Mountain Zevia, Dr. Zevia, Cream Soda, Black Cherry, and Grape. They also have 3 new flavors available: Strawberry, Lime, and Cherry Cola. 

Although all we tasty, my favorites were Mountain Zevia and Cream Soda. They definitely tasted like the originals! My least favorite my Grape, but that is simply because I do not like grape flavored things. Definitely a personal preference. 

All of the sodas were yummy. They were very fizzy and had strong flavors that were easy to enjoy. These are the perfect substitute for high calorie, sugary sodas!

The Daisy Rating

4/5 daisies

GIVEAWAY

What to try some Zevia for yourself? One lucky PD reader will win a coupon for a 6 pack of their own Zevia to try! Here's how to enter! Be sure to leave a separate comment for each entry!

MANDATORY  - tell me which Zevia flavor you most want to try and why.

Extra entries:

-Like Zevia on Facebook and follow them on Twitter
-Like Passing Daisies on Facebook and follow us on Twitter
-Tweet about this giveaway and tag @cityxlights13
-Subscribe to PD by email (3 entries)
-Post about this giveaway on your own blog and provide the link

-Follow PD on GFC (Google Friend Connect)

Giveaway ends on April 21st at midnight.
OPEN TO USA RESIDENTS ONLY.


Happy entering!
Much love,

Product Review: Attune Foods (Uncle Sam Cereal)

I recently chimed in for a Twitter chat with the great people of Attune Foods! I accidentally stumbled upon this chat, just happening to be online between finals with a little time to kill, and the hashtag for the chat popped up on my screen! I though, why not, I'll join in!

The chat was great! Even better, after the chat I was contacted by Annelies from Attune Foods, asking if I would like to do a review of their products. Well, of course I would!

I was sent three boxes of Uncle Sam cereal for review: Original, Strawberry, and Honey Almond. Strawberry and Honey Almond are their two new flavors.

First, right off the bat, I LOVE that there are coupons inside some of the cereal boxes! Inside my boxes of Original and Strawberry I found coupons for free Attune Probiotic Chocolate Bars! Those bars are DELICIOUS, so I was really excited about the coupons!

Attune Foods believes that overall health starts with digestive health, and their Uncle Sam cereals definitely promote digestive health with their high-fiber content. They believe in simple ingredients that make you feel your best - again, something Uncle Sam cereal definitely promotes with its minimal ingredients!

The Original flavor was pretty good. It has a deep nutty flavor, tons of vitamins, and is not too sweet. It only contains 1g of sugar per 3/4 c, and is 190 calories! A serving also contains 7g of protein and 10g of fiber! Holy cow! This is a great cereal if you just want something really simple and good for you, since it is made from flax seeds and wheat berries.

Strawberry was even better. It was slightly sweeter and features LARGE pieces of freeze dried strawberries - yummy! Good strawberry flavor, and again, this cereal has a lot of fiber, protein, and nutritional benefits. This cereal features wheat berry flakes instead of kernels, like the Original has.

Finally: Honey Almond. Seeing as I have started eating honey and eggs again, I was excited to dive in to, really, my first honey-containing product since going vegan. This was my favorite of the three cereals. It features TONS of almonds and is slightly sweet, still sweeter than the Strawberry flavor. You can clearly taste the honey and the almond in the cereal. Although this cereal features the least amount of fiber and protein, at 6g each, it still contains a lot of great nutrients.

Overall, I think this is pretty good cereal. I'm a sucker for sugar, so I'm used to sweet cereals that don't fill you up, but these are great and keep you full. They would be great on yogurt or just as a snack!

The Daisy Rating

4/5 daisies

What is your favorite kind of cereal? 

Much love,