#GoGoPlayfully with GoGo Squeez

Posted on January 4, 2014 by fmadmin

The following post is sponsored by GoGo Squeez.

My first experience with GoGo Squeez was at Publix.  As a working mom, I often go grocery shopping after picking up the girls from after school-care. By this time, they are already tired and hungry.  One day while we were roaming the aisles I noticed the green little boxes of GoGo Squeez apple sauce. It was like a lightbulb had gone off in my head.  I immediately grabbed them and offered one to my girls.  I must say that we are not an “apple sauce” kind of family, but the fun packaging won my girls over.  Win Win.  They girls enjoyed a healthy snack and I got a couple of peaceful minutes to finish the grocery shopping!

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#GoGoPlayfully

Look for the GoGo Squeez Squad showing up in 11 cities across the country, including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Aspen, Boston, Atlanta, Tampa, Miami, San Francisco, Dallas and the Bay Area on January 11th.  In addition, they are making 1:11 the official GoGo time for pop up playfulness in each U.S. time zone, so stay tuned to Facebook the week of January 5th for clues on how to get in on the Play Day kick-offs in each time zone.

So have fun and #GoGoPlayfully!  For more ideas check out their website here.

 

 

 

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Quick Dinner Ideas Dan Dan Noodles

Posted on January 3, 2014 by fmadmin

by Xiomara Meeks – As a busy mom, I’m always looking for quick dinner ideas.  One of my recent finds is Dan Dan Noodles.  I found this recipe in chowhound after searching for ground pork recipes.  It turns out the block of frozen ground “meat” in my freezer was not ground pork, but ground turkey.  No matter.  It worked just fine.  In fact, I recently made it again with ground beef and it was great too.

 quick dinner ideas

Word of warning, if you don’t like peanut butter, this is not the dish for you.  After making this dish, we recently found out our youngest daughter does not like peanut butter.  How is this possible?  I thought all children loved peanut butter.  But I digress.

Quick Dinner Ideas Dan Dan Noodles
Recipe Type: quick dinner ideas
Cuisine: thai, chinese
Author: Xiomara Meeks
Prep time:
Cook time:
Total time:
Serves: 4
Quick dinner for 4 with a thai/chinese peanut butter sauce.
Ingredients
  • 1 pound ground turkey
  • 3 tablespoons rice vinegar
  • 3 tablespoons soy sauce
  • 1 tablespoon chili sauce
  • 1 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
  • 2 tablespoon grated fresh ginger
  • Salt
  • 1 pound spaghetti noodles
  • 2 carrots, shredded
  • 1 bunch of schallions, diced
  • fresh cilantro, chopped
Instructions
  1. Cook your pasta per package instructions. Reserve 1 cup of cooking water.
  2. Combine turkey, 2 Tbsp vinegar, 1 Tbsp soy sauce and chili garlic sauce in a bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk broth, peanut butter, oyster sauce, remaining vinegar and remaining soy sauce.
  3. Heat oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add turkey mixture and cook about 5 minutes. Add ginger until fragrant. Add broth mixture and simmer for another 5 minutes or so, until it thickens.
  4. Combine cooked pasta with ground meat in the pan. Add reserved cooking water as needed.
  5. Top with carrots, scallions, cilantro and lime juice.

 

Apart from being quick and tasting amazing, the ingredients in this recipe are easily found at your local grocery store.  In order to make it a more “round” meal, I added shredded carrots and green onions.  We also sprinkled it with fresh lime juice.  Next time I make it, I’ll probably add bean sprouts.

For another version of this dish, check out Food Network’s version.

 

What are some of your quick dinner ideas?

Do you know someone who doesn’t like peanut butter?

 

 

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Christmas Family Traditions

Posted on December 20, 2013 by fmadmin

December is a very busy month for our family.  At the market we are busy preparing for the beginning of strawberry shortcake season, processing gift fruit orders for our customers in the north and sending Christmas packages for our customers.  Wondering why I said shortcake season and not strawberry season?  That’s because Bobby, Matt and Peggy Parke are responsible for our beautiful and sweet  berries.  They are the ones who are busy planting, growing, picking and delivering their yummy Parkesdale berries to our market every day, multiple times a day!  And we are forever grateful to them.

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At home, we are equally busy with school performances and our annual visit to Christmas Lane in Dover.  This week we visited Walden Lake Elementary’s Kindergarten class Holiday Performance.  Piper was a sheep.  If you know her, she’s not at all sheepish.  Although, she might try to convince you otherwise.  See if you can spot her.

Christmas Traditions

Another Christmas tradition is visiting Christmas Lane in Dover with Grandma Parke.  We’ve been going there ever since we moved to Plant City in 2009.  And every year, the girls enjoy it more and more.

Christmas Traditions

The set up is practically the same each year, but they also switch it up every year to add new decorations.  Most importantly, Santa Claus and Mrs. Claus are always there through December 23rd from 6-8pm and December 24th from 6-7 pm.

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This year we found out about the City of Winter Haven’s Snow Central Event through their Facebook page.  They had 70 tons of snow, free hot cocoa, jump houses, Home Depot workshop for the kids and Santa.  It’s about an hour drive from our house, but I have to say that it was worth it.  We waited about 45 minutes in line to play in the snow.  The girls have not seen real snow so this was a treat for them.

 Christmas Traditions

We walked around and enjoyed the jump houses while listening to a live DJ playing Christmas music.  The girls hula hooped for a while and we had some hot cocoa with gingerbread cookies.  We still have to build our Gingerbread house!

What fun Christmas family traditions do you look forward to?

 

 

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