It always interests me how much Halloween candy and what type is consumed the most, take a look at this:

I have to admit, I love President’s Choice products.  So much so, that I when we moved to Vancouver years ago, I had to make a few calls before we left just to make sure that I would be able to get their products out there. And I made sure that our apartment was not more than 20 minutes away from the store!  I also get really excited when PC insiders report comes out – they are always full of great new products and some fabulous recipes. I am a bit geeky that way!
I like having things around in case we have people drop by unexpectedly, the PC 5 layer fiesta dip is perfect for this – it is all ready and looks amazing when you serve it [any of the dips are really amazing]– I also pick up some of the PC Sea Salt Kettle Style Tortilla Chips to serve along with them – they are a big hit!

Photo taken from President's Choice website

Have any of  you been watching “Recipe to Riches”?  I love it!

Photo taken from President's Choice Website

One of the great sponsors of the ShesConnected conference {#SCCTO} is Canadian Beef Inc.  They are an independent national organization handling the marketing and promotion of the Canadian cattle and beef industry worldwide.

Did you know?

• There are 83,000 farms and ranches with beef cattle across Canada.
• The average beef cow herd size in Canada is 61.
• There are a lot of small cattle farms with 61% of the farms having less than 47 cows.
• Canada produced 3.4 billion pounds of beef in 2009.
• Canadians eat 46 pounds (20.9 kg) of beef per person annually.
• Canada is the 6th largest beef exporting country in the world.
• Beef production contributed $23 billion to Canada’s economy in 2009.

Canadian Beef Inc. supports Canada’s 83,000 hard working beef farming families from coast to coast.  They are  an awesome organization!

This week, I will get to meet some of their team at the ShesConnected conference, and I am so excited! Along with being great sponsors of the conference they have done some great blogger outreach programs with ShesConnected.

Now, I love my beef and the fact that it is Canadian is even better, because when I buy Canadian beef, I know am helping to support some of those 83000 beef farmers we have here in Canada.  The best part of eating Canadian Beef?  Beef is all natural, so I can have it any time on my gluten free diet.  I love that – just natural!

Canadian beef is also nutrient rich; every bite of lean Canadian beef is packed with 14 essential nutrients. There are 34.6 g of protein in 100 grams of cooked, lean only Canadian beef. It is also naturally rich in iron that is easily absorbed by your body. Iron, is an essential mineral found in every cell in your body that helps builds red blood cells and keeps your cells working. So I know I am giving my family great nutrition when I serve beef.

Their website www.beefinfo.org  has hundreds of recipes, video cooking lessons, step-by-step cooking instructions, nutrition & health tips along with tons of nutritional information .  There is so much information available; they also have a monthly newsletter, Make it Beef Club. Definitely worth signing up for!

They also have a great blog, full of great information and they answer a lot of reader questions, such a great resource! So much great information and great recipes!

This is one I will have to try next time we have company over :

Lime-Chipotle Rotisserie Roast

Taken from the Canadian Beef Website

So if you are at the ShesConnected  Conference on October 19 and 20th,  please stop by and say hello to the lovely ladies from Canadian Beef and show them some love!

See you at the conference!

When I was feeding my daughter her first foods when she was about 6 months old I started with cereal. Then vegetables and fruit, then meat, but now there are new guidelines that show a baby’s first foods need to include those that are iron rich.

For the first 6 months it is so important to breast feed if possible. After that breast milk does not give a growing baby the nutrients that they need. “At this age, iron-rich foods, such as meat, meat alternatives (e.g., eggs, tofu, and legumes), and iron-fortified infant cereals, are important to help meet the nutrient needs of the rapidly growing infants. ”

The new recommendations from Health Canada have definitely changed. Guess a steak for baby would be a safe beat now..well a pureed steak. These new guidelines look much like what an aboriginal diet for a baby looks like. Meats are now being introduced much sooner then before.

The recommendations say to serve your babies  iron-rich foods  at least two or more times each day; and meat, such as beef, poultry, fish or meat alternatives daily. Frequent consumption of meat, poultry and fish, can contribute considerably to meeting infant iron requirements because the heme iron they provide is more readily absorbed than non-heme iron found in plant based foods such as infant cereals.

Why the change? Iron rich foods including beef, chicken, fish, eggs, tofu, and legumes offer rapidly growing nutrients needed for development. Iron is critical for a baby’s growth and cognitive development. Perhaps the aboriginals who have been doing this for years have it right.

Need to know how to make a simple beef puree for your baby:

Puréed Baby Meat

Halloween is coming up just around the corner. Do your kids have a favourite Halloween costume planned?  My daughter would start to think about her costume literally the week after Halloween – I loved her enthusiasm!

She came up with some pretty cool ideas and she would get them all together herself.  She must have caught that from my husband – he loved dressing up for Halloween – had elaborate costumes that he made himself – we finally got rid of some of them on our move back from Vancouver, but I am sure he is wishing we had kept them.  I remember one year, he decided he was going to be a Christmas tree – he looked great, awesome tree – only problem was that back then we didn’t have battery powered lights, so he had to stay close to a plug so his lights would work!

Here is one of the costumes we did manage to keep.

Do you have a favorite costume that you made up from your past or your child’s?

If you happen to have captured some awesome Halloween costumes and moments,  Nestle Canada  is sponsoring a great contest -> https://apps.facebook.com/myfavouritehalloween/  .  Enter to win grand prize of  $2000 of Chocolates for you and your street!  There will also be 5 weekly prizes drawn.

Make sure to like their page and just upload at least one (1) photograph of yourself, somebody or someone you know wearing a Halloween costume. You can enter as many times as you would like; you have until Oct 8^th, then finalists will be  chosen by the judging panel.  They  will judge the entries based on a combination of the following judging criteria; the best that  demonstrate costume creativity, humour, scariness and originality. You will then be able to vote for your favourite FINALIST by October 22^nd, the winner will be announced October 24^th.  Unfortunately, this contest is only open to Canadians, except those in Quebec. Read rules and regulations.

Good luck !

It is that time of the year again,  kids are back at school, weather is cooling down, leaves are falling and SCCTO is almost here! So many of us look forward to this time of year – I  have to admit I can’t wait for the kids to get back to school – my mantra is the Staples theme song ‘It’s  the most wonderful time of the year’ ! But one of the other favorite things happening at this time is the ShesConnected Conference in Toronto.  This year it is being held Oct 19-20 at the Toronto Convention Center.  It is going to be an action packed 2 days filled with all kinds of great information and fun!

There are so many tracks for you to choose from, the  ShesConnected Conference agenda is  amazing! I am having a hard time deciding, they all look so good!  No matter what level of blogging you are at , there is something for everyone. There are also some amazing sponsors to talk to and get to know.  Make sure that you are prepared when talking to them and have a press kit  ready to hand to them.

Here is a link  provided by one  of the ShesConnected Conference ambassadors [Julia from Nugglemama] on building a media kit.

ShesConnected also  holds weekly chats  [#sheschat] on Twitter to help answers some questions you may have about attending conferences and  to get you prepared.  Make sure to join in on Mondays at 1pm and again at 9 pm if you missed the earlier time . It is a great time to “meet’ some of the #SCCTO Attendees before the conference and gather great info.

See you at #Sheschat on Monday!

Chicken – one of our favorite meals around here, we love it any which way!

Now that it is BBQ season,  it is the only way to cook our chicken – I love grilled chicken breasts, (bone in or boned),  kebabs,   done in foil packets and of course, the famous beer can chicken (although ours isn’t really in a beer can, we have a special stand).

Chicken is such a fast and nutritious meal to prepare [it also one I know my daughter won’t balk at!]. So I know that my family is being fed well; both white and  dark meat are  nutritious and a  great  source of protein, niacin, phosphorous, B6, B12, Vitamin D, calcium, iron and zinc.

There are so many different ways of preparing chicken, being able to BBQ adds a new level to it.

If I am running out or busy, I know that I can prepare the chicken with a sauce in foil packet and it is ready to go on the BBQ when my husband gets home and they don’t have to  take any special precautions when handling  because I have taken care of all that! [makes me worry a lot less!].

Want to know more about chicken and our Chicken Farmers? Take a look at their website, lots of great information and articles as well as wonderful recipes!

I am going to have to try this Ginger-Lime grilled chicken soon, looks so good!

Ginger-Lime Chicken - image courtesy of Canadian Farmers

Join us this Wednesday for our #SCFoodChat on twitter at 1pm EST – We will be chatting Chicken!

Summer time is for taking it easy – day trips, camp days for kids and vacations. So it is really nice to come home and be able to get a meal together and prepared really quickly. That is what I love about the Maple Leaf products.

Whether you are getting a salad ready or trying to get dinner ready for your family- the line of Maple Leaf  products is great! My husband really likes the cooked Bacon, I find the bacon great to take along on picnics to add to sandwiches or salad for an extra boost of protein. But there are so many great products to choose from.

One of these great products is their fully cooked and sliced Chicken breasts. These are juicy, tender, and lightly seasoned, and the chicken slices make a great addition to any meal to make it complete, so dinner can be ready in a snap!

You should also check out their great recipe section, so many wonderful ones to try! This is one that I made recently, the cooked chicken breast made it so quick to prepare  and my husband loved it!

While you are on the site, stop by and check out some of their other sections – I love stopping by the market!

True Love Contest

P.S. right now you can celebrate the official foods of summer enter their “True Love”  summer foods contest and you can win ‘what you love’  with a $25000 grand prize.

Enjoy!

Don’t forget to join us on Twitter on Wednesday for our Summer Food Chat at 1pm EST #SCFoodChat.

I love summer, and when we get weather like we have had this past week- well, it only makes it so much more enjoyable!

We spend a lot of time outside – so it only makes sense that we do a lot of our eating outside too!  Evening BBQs, family get-togethers, picnics and of course, the beach!

The other thing I look forward to is seeing all the summer edition of the President’s Choice Insider’s report.

There are always so many great articles inside as well as recipes, and of course all the great new products they have come with for the summer.  Pick up yours next time you head into the store, or sign up for their insider’s club online so that you can  browse through the archives for more recipes and articles.

As I mentioned, grilling is big  in our house, and I found this great article on all the different types of grilling you can do – love some of these and am going to try them – Direct and Indirect Barbecuing, –(I use indirect for most of my BBQing) Smoking, Brick Cooking, Wood Plank Grilling and Aromatic wood chips.

A great product for  summer grilling- the PC Angus Sliders – Mini-burgers – great as appetizers for small gatherings, or for snacks for the kids!

Take a look at all the great new products that President’s Choice has to offer for the summer – those PC Blue Menu Swirl Smoothies look really good – will have to make a trek down to Loblaws to get some for the w/e.

Mmmm...look so refreshing! Image courtesy of President's Choice

Oh, perfect timing too – this Sat, July 14^th PC is having its Customer Appreciation Day at Loblaws, Zehrs, Real Canadian Superstore Ontario, where you’ll pay NO TAX on almost everything in the store! Some restrictions apply, see in store for details.

Enjoy, maybe I’ll see you there!

Don’t forget, our weekly #summerfood chat on Wednesdays at1pm EST, see you there!

Do you get those days where you want something different, nutritious but uncomplicated?  I know I do… a lot! That is where the Kraft Canada Salad Centre comes in! It is really great when we have been running around all day and want something light but nutritious. They have so many great salad recipes on the site, but one of the great things about this page is that you can use their Salad Creator.

The Salad Creator is a fun way to make a salad! You choose any one of three categories, and then choose from the list of ingredients they have listed within these categories; they suggest other ingredients that will compliment what you have chosen. So… if you are really craving something, see what else will go with it to make a meal!

Voila… you have a great salad to prepare.

If you aren’t so adventurous and want to stick to tried and true recipes, they have so many to choose from – whether you are looking for an entrée salad or a nice fruit salad as a light meal.

One of my favorites is their Grilled BBQ Chicken Salad. Great for a fast meal after a long day!

You can see  the recipe for Grilled BBQ Chicken Salad on the Kraft Canada Site  

Image from Kraft Canada Site - Grilled BBQ Chicken Salad

There are many more great salad recipes on the site – something for everyone! They also include some great tips along with each recipe as well as  some possible substitutions to let you make it more your own as well.

While you are on the Kraft Canada site take a look at what they offer… FYI, you might need a while!

Next week we launch our weekly summer food chat inspired by Kraft’s Salad Centre!  Wednesday at 1pm #summerfood.