This salad is super easy to make and is packed with fresh veggies, olives, Feta cheese and protein rich quinoa. It’s a great addition to any cookout if you’re looking to include something on the healthier side. I know that I always appreciate something on the lighter side during a cookout because so many BBQ side dishes are on the heavier side.

It’s also a great stand alone dish. I make a big batch and eat it for lunch all week long. It comes together in a snap, but to really let the flavor come together, I recommend making it the night before you plan on serving it. It makes all the ingredients really come together and makes the flavor pop.

Now that you’ve tried my recipe, check out the BBQ recipes that these lovely ladies are sharing on their blog!

• Kayla: BBQ Pulled Pork
• Bria: Taco Salad
• Danielle:
• Stephanie: Grilled Shrimp
• Laura:
• Lisa:
• Renee:
• Courtney:

And as always, if you make this recipe share it on Instagram and don’t forget to tag me!  Happy eating!

The post Greek Quinoa Salad: Our Favorite BBQ Side dish appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

I put together this Valentine’s Day bark for Alex’s class Valentines party and it was a big hit. Like I turned around from the snack table for 5 minutes and it was all gone! It only takes a few ingredients, comes together super quick and makes it look like you spent a bunch of time making this yummy treat.

The best part about this Valentine’s Day Bark is that you can totally customize it with whatever your favorite candies are. While we were picking out conversation hearts to put into the bark, I was surprised to see that these were not the conversation hearts of my childhood. I remember them saying things like Be Mine, but these conversation hearts are asking people to slip into your DMs. You know you’re old when the candy makes you feel old!

I hope you enjoy this recipe and if you make your own Valentine’s Day Bark, be sure to share it and tag me on Instagram!

The post Valentine’s Day Bark appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

Even though the bark looks like you spent a lot of time in the kitchen, it comes together in a flash. If you don’t have a double boiler, you can melt all the chocolate in the microwave. Just make sure to stir every 20-30 seconds, so you don’t burn the chocolate.

5.0 from 4 reviews

Spooky Halloween Bark

 

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Prep time

20 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

40 mins

 

Ingredients

• 1 12-oz bag semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1 12-oz bag white chocolate chips
• 1 bag candy corn
• 1 package candy eyes
• Sprinkles
• Any other candy you would like to include

Instructions

1. Prepare a cookie sheet covered with wax paper.
2. Over a double boiler, or in the microwave melt the semi sweet chocolate chips, stirring constantly until smooth.
3. Pour the melted chocolate onto the prepared cookie sheet and spread into an even layer. Let cool until solid. You can also place in into the refrigerator for about 10 minutes to speed up the process.
4. Over a double boiler, or in the microwave melt the white chocolate chips, stirring constantly until smooth.
5. Pour the melted while chocolate over the semi sweet chocolate layer and spread into an even layer. Save about two tablespoons of the melted white chocolate for drizzling.
6. Using a spatula, blend the white chocolate with the semi sweet layer in some areas to get a grayish brown color.
7. Drizzle the reserved white chocolate over the bark and top with candy toppings.
8. Let set before breaking bark into chunks.

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I think the candy eyes really give the Halloween bark a sweet and spooky look. It is sure to be a crowdpleaser at every Halloween party!

The post Spooky Halloween Bark appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

This Creamy Sausage and Tortellini Soup has quickly become a family favorite and one of the meals we have a few times a month. Alex is a good eater, but will complain about the vegetables that come with dinner. This soup is packed with veggies (even the onion that he “hates” but there is no moaning and groaning at the dinner table with this one. Definitely a crowd pleaser!

It comes together very quickly, so it’s great for a busy weeknight meal when you don’t have time to be slaving over the stove all day long. Bonus: The flavor of the sausage gives the broth a great flavor that makes people think that you did slave over the stove all day!

Creamy Sausage and Tortellini Soup

 

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Ingredients

• 1 pounds ground Italian sausage (spicy or sweet - your choice!)
• 1 small white onion, diced
• 2 large carrots, peeled and diced
• 5 garlic cloves, minced
• ¼ cup flour (I use whole wheat)
• 6 cups chicken stock
• 1 (10-ounce) package refrigerated cheese tortellini
• 2 cups of spinach or kale (delicious with both or either)
• 2 cups whole milk
• salt and pepper

Instructions

1. Cook sausage in a large stockpot until browned, crumbling it as it cooks.
2. Transfer the cooked sausage to a separate dish. Reserve two tablespoons of sausage grease in the pan.
3. Stir in onions and carrots, and saute until the onions are soft and translucent, stirring occasionally.
4. Add in the garlic and saute for an additional 1-2 minutes, stirring occasionally.
5. Stir in the flour until it evenly coats the veggies, and cook for an additional 1 minute, stirring occasionally.
6. Gradually add in the chicken stock one cup at a time, stirring to combine. Continue cooking until the mixture reaches a simmer. Then reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 5-10 minutes until soup thickens.
7. Add in the cooked sausage, tortellini, spinach, and milk, and continue simmering for about 5 minutes, or until the tortellini is al dente.
8. Taste, and season with salt and pepper to taste.
9. Serve immediately or refrigerate for up to 3 days.

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I hope this soup is as much of a hit with your family as it is with mine! Bon appetit!

The post Creamy Sausage and Tortellini Soup appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

Christmas morning is almost here and what better to make the day feel even more festive than a hot cocoa bar? This year instead of using cocoa packets and hot water (which kind of gives me anxiety around kids) we are using our Vitamix Aer Disc Container for the ultimate hot cocoa bar. The Vitamix Aer Disc makes the creamiest, frothiest hot cocoa with only two ingredients – milk and chocolate!

For the hot cocoa bar, I just set up a tray with all the ingredients for the hot cocoa. Once the hot cocoa is blended up to foamy perfection with the Vitamix Aer Disc Container, everyone can add their favorite toppings. I included mini marshmallows, candy canes and cinnamon in our hot cocoa bar, but you can add in any things that your family may like. You can also add different extracts to make coconut, orange or caramel hot chocolates. There are a ton of different ways to make the hot cocoa bar your own.

While the hot cocoa that the Vitamix Aer Disc Container makes is delicious, this nifty little attachment for your Vitamix can do so much more! The Aer disc container makes creamy emulsions, light culinary foams, whipped creams and killer cocktails. I know that it will be a summer party fixture for making mojitos and margaritas! But until it’s warm enough for pool parties, I will continue enjoying my hot cocoa and other delicious recipes that you can find on Vitamix.com. 

If you are still looking for the perfect gift for the foodie in your life, the Vitamix E310 Explorian Series blender is it! With tons of amazing attachments, it is truly a little machine that does everything.

Hope you have an amazing Christmas holiday!

The post Christmas Hot Cocoa Bar appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

Copycat Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

35 mins

 

Recipe type: Dessert

Ingredients

• Bar:
• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 1½ cups packed light brown sugar
• 2 large eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• ½ teaspoon orange extract
• 2 cups flour
• 1½ teaspoons baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
• ½ cup dried cranberries
• 1 cup ounces white chocolate chips
• Frosting:
• 8 ounces cream cheese, softened
• 1 cup powdered sugar
• 6 ounces white baking chocolate, melted
• ½ cup dried cranberries, chopped

Instructions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. In a medium bowl, melt butter; stir in brown sugar. Let cool to room temperature. Beat in the eggs and vanilla. In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, salt and cinnamon; gradually add the dry mixture to the butter mixture. Stir in the cranberries and chopped chocolate.
2. Spread the blondie batter into a lightly greased 13×8 pan. Bake for 18-20 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool completely on a wire rack.
3. To Prepare the frosting use an electric mixer to beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar until smoth. Gradually add half of the melted white chocolate. Frost brownies, sprinkle with cranberries and drizzle with remaining melted white chocolate. Cut into triangle-shaped bars. Keep refrigerated until ready to serve.

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 Hope you enjoy these!

What are your favorite holiday treats?

The post Copycat Starbucks Cranberry Bliss Bars appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

Summertime at our house means smoothie bowls for breakfast. There is something a little bit magical about the peace and calmness of the mornings at our new house when you can sit out on the porch enjoying your breakfast, listening to the birds sing. I absolutely love it! I also love, love, love my new Vitamix E310 Explorian Series blender and the amazing smoothie bowls that I have been making with it. Seriously life changing!

We are no strangers to smoothies at our house, so when I tell you that the Vitamix is life changing, do not take my words lightly! I have had my fair share of blenders in the past that were good, but after using my Vitamix for a few weeks I see that my definition of good needed updating. The Vitamix E310 Explorian Series has 10 variable speeds, a pulse feature that allows you to layer coarse chops over smooth purées for heartier recipes and a powerful 2 HP motor can handle even the toughest ingredients to create high-quality blends.

I have been using my Vitamix to whip up my latest smoothie obsession quite a bit. Unlike previous blenders that I’ve owned, the best part about making smoothies with the Vitamix is that you don’t have to overload your fruits and veggies with liquid to get the blended. The tamper allows you to make the perfect, thick smoothie bowl that you can eat with a spoon!

4.5 from 6 reviews

Tropical Smoothie Bowls

 

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Prep time

5 mins

Total time

5 mins

 

Ingredients

• 2 handfuls baby spinach
• 1 cup frozen pineapple chunks
• 1 cup frozen mango chunks
• ½ cup frozen coconut chunks
• ½ cup strawberries
• ½ ripe banana
• ⅓ cup unsweetened almond milk

Instructions

1. Combine all ingredient in blender and mix until smooth and creamy.
2. Pour into a bowl and garnish with your favorite fruit, nuts and granola.

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The Vitamix E310 Explorian Series Blender is available to purchase online at Amazon, Williams-Sonoma, and Bed Bath & Beyond. It is available in-store and online at Macy’s, Best Buy, Sur La Table, and Crate & Barrel.

The post Tropical Smoothie Bowls appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

Muffins are always a breakfast hit at our house, but getting them from the bakery isn’t exactly budget friendly especially, when you’ve got a hungry 8 year old that can polish off two in a sitting with no problem. I decided to give making our own muffins a shot and guess what, it was super simple! These muffins are the perfect balance – crisp top,  buttery on the inside and not too crumbly. The best part about the recipe is that the base is the same for basically every type of muffin, you just switch out the “flavor” ingredients depending on what you’re in the mood for.

This time I decided to make chocolate chip muffins with a twist. I swirled in Once Again Nut Butter Amoré Hazelnut Spread on the top of every muffin just before they went into the oven, and the result was delicious!

Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Swirl Muffins

 

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Prep time

10 mins

Cook time

20 mins

Total time

30 mins

 

Serves: 12 muffins

Ingredients

• 2½ cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tbsp baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup chocolate chips
• 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract
• 1 cup milk
• 12 -1/2 teaspoon dollops Once Again Nut Butter Amoré Hazelnut Spread

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 425 F.
2. In a large bowl combine the dry ingredients - flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and chocolate chips. Set aside.
3. In another bowl, mix together melted butter, sugar, eggs, vanilla and milk.
4. Slowly pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir together until well combined.
5. Pour the batter into a muffin tin lined with paper cups.
6. Add a dollop of Once Again Nut Butter Amoré Hazelnut Spread on top of each muffin and use a toothpick to swirl into the batter.
7. Bake at 425 F for 5 minutes.
8. Lower the temperature to 375 and bake for an additional 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.
9. Store muffins in an airtight container for up to a week. (I guarantee they will be long gone before that)

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The chocolatey flavor of Once Again Nut Butter Amoré Hazelnut Spread is the perfect little kick of sweetness to add to your favorite breakfast or snacks. It tastes great on toast, waffles, rice cakes or stirred into oatmeal.If you’ve never tried this spread you need to get your booty to your closest retailer and try some. Let me tell you why! Aside from it being just plain delicious, Once Again Nut Butter:

• has the cleanest label for this type of product in the industry.
• isCertified Organic, Non-GMO Project Verified, Gluten Free Certified, and Fair Trade Certified.
• is high in protein and fiber and has fewer calories and less saturated fat than the leading hazelnut spread.
• is made with no artificial flavors, colors or hydrogenated oils.
• and most importantly, you can feel good about feeding it to your kiddos!

If you need a little sweet with your breakfast, you need to try this recipe. Since these muffins will keep for about 5 days, you can have a whole week of sweet starts!

Cheers to good mornings!

The post Chocolate Chip Hazelnut Swirl Muffins appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

If you ask Alex what his favorite subjects in school are, he will tell you lunch and math. He has had a love for math since before he even started school. His kindergarten teacher was shocked to learn that he already knew how to add and subtract during the first weeks of school, and he begs for math workbooks from older grades. When I’m not trying to figure out where this love of math came from (because let’s be real, math was always my WORST subject!) I am always looking for fun activities to help further his math knowledge in fun and unique ways. I came up with this fun Cuties fraction activity to bring a little sunshine into our after school snack routine. Cuties are the perfect, easy to peel, sweet snack for little hands and they are back in stores now, ripe and ready to eat!

For this fun game, all you need are a bowl of cuties, some paper and a crayon or pencil. You start by drawing a circle on your paper and peeling your easy-to-peel Cutie.

Next, you break your Cutie into as many pieces as you’d like to get the denominator for your fractions – we used 8. Then, draw the same number of sections onto the Cutie on your paper. Now onto the fun part!

Start eating your Cutie! For every sweet section that you eat, color in one section on your paper and figure out how much of the Cutie you ate, and how much you have left. Don’t forget about reducing fractions!

Keep eating and coloring until you have no sections left, then start all over again! Cuties are the perfect snack you the ones you love, and you can be the coolest mom on the block for giving your little ones easy-to-love Cuties, and letting them play with their food, too!

To celebrate the return of Cuties in stores, Cuties is bringing 100 days filled with love and sunshine straight from their California groves to remind us that no matter how big our differences, they are no match for the power of love. So shares some  Cuties with your friends and loved ones to brighten their day and share the sweetness of the season during the #100DaysofSunshine!

Try this fun activity with your family as a way to spend some sweet time with those closest to you! Happy counting!

The post Practicing Fractions with Cuties #100DaysofSunshine appeared first on Frolic Through Life.

As adults, I think we all know it is important to eat our vegetables, but have you ever stopped to think about if all vegetables are created equal? Even organic vegetables can travel 100s of miles before they reach your plate. This is how Bowery Farming is different. Bowery has taken farming out of the country and brought it into the city, so that the salad your eating will have travelled less than 10 miles to get to your plate. Unlike traditional farms, Bowery Farming grows their greens in a warehouse in vertical stacks allowing for them to produce 100x more produce in the same footprint of land. Their controlled indoor growing environment allows Bowery to grow the purest vegetables possible year round, without pesticides and using 95% less water. Bowery calls its greens “post-organic” because they are grown in a controlled indoor environment that guarantees the freshest and purest produce imaginable – greens so clean you don’t even need to wash them. After hearing all these amazing things about Bowery Farming and their greens, I couldn’t wait to dig in.

The first thing I did after my greens arrived was put together this yummy Pomegranate Arugula Quinoa Salad for lunch. The greens were fresh and crisp and I could not get enough of the salad. The combination of the bold flavor of the arugula, paired with sweet pomegranate and salty feta cheese was to die for. This was one salad that did not leave any leftovers!

5.0 from 2 reviews

Pomegranate Arugula Quinoa Salad

 

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Prep time

15 mins

Total time

15 mins

 

Ingredients

• 5 oz arugula
• 1 cup cooked quinoa
• 1 small red onion, diced
• ½ cup pine nuts
• ¾ cup pomegranate seeds
• 4 oz feta cheese, cubed
• Dressing
• ¼ cup balsamic vinegar
• ¾ cup olive oil
• 3 tbsp honey
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard

Instructions

1. Combine all salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss gently.
2. In a separate bowl, combine dressing ingredients.
3. Pour dressing over salad and enjoy!

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Currently, Bowery greens are available at select Whole Foods and Foragers stores in the NYC Tristate area and featured on the menus of Tom Colicchio’s New York restaurants Craft and Temple Court. The company is building another, much larger farm to serve more of the NY metro area in 2018.

Enjoy your greens!

The post Pomegranate Arugula Quinoa Salad appeared first on Frolic Through Life.