Now you have a chance to win a Namaste Foods prize package!

One winner will win 3 Namaste Foods products, one Namaste grocery tote, one copy of their Simple Pleasures Cookbook, one copy of Living Without Magazine, and assorted recipe cards.

Click here to enter this giveaway today!

Namaste Foods is a manufacturer of fine foods that contain no wheat, gluten, corn, soy, potato, dairy, casein, peanuts or tree nuts. In business since 2000, they continue to strive to be the best at what we do so that you can enjoy all the foods you’ve known and loved all your life. They use NO genetically modified ingredients in any of their products and all Namaste Food products are GFCO and Kosher Certified.

Gluten-free products are expensive. In an effort to make them more affordable for you, they continue to strive to give you more for your hard earned dollar. You will find that most Namaste Foods mixes have a significantly higher yield than their competitors’. Namaste Foods works diligently to try to offer you products that make your mouth water and your face smile!

Plus, be sure to check out the FaveDiets product review of Namaste Foods.

Also, be sure to check out these great Namase Foods recipes:

• Cauliflower Pasta Pisavera
• Orange Ginger Bars
• Pear Custard Pancake

The Namaste Foods Giveaway Summary:

• Prize: Three Namaste Foods products, one Namaste grocery tote, one copy of the Namaste Foods Simple Pleasures Cookbook, one copy of Living Without Magazine, and assorted recipe cards to one person.
• Timeline: Begins on February 1, 2012 at 12:00:01 a.m. Eastern Time, and ends on February 12, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time
• Contest open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. Winners must claim prize within 14 days of being announced.

Good luck!

Hi, it’s Blair here, an editor with AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com.

It’s almost time for the Superbowl this weekend. If you’re looking for some easy last minute football food ideas, we have a great suggestion from AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com.  AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes received a handful of meatball recipes from Casa Di Bertacchi Company. You can read all about the company and their products on AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes’ featured company page.

Among the recipes Casa provided, is a recipe for slow cooker Game Day Meatballs.

Casa sent me a sample 6-lb bag of their Casa Di Bertacci Authentic Italian Style Beef Meatballs to try out and review in preparation for an upcoming giveaway AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes will be hosting in March. While they’re frozen, and I could have waited, I decided now was the perfect time to try them out in my slow cooker with their recipe for Game Day Meatballs.

The recipe for Game Day Meatballs couldn’t be simpler! Here’s a step by step on how I made them with photos to help you along!

Here are the nuts and bolts of the recipe:

Game Day Meatballs

Cooking Time: 5 hrs

Ingredients

• 3 pounds Casa Di Bertacchi Italian Meatballs, frozen
• 2 (12 oz) jars of Asian chili sauce
• 1 (12 oz) jar of grape jellly
• 1/4 cup water
• Toasted baguettes or French bread

Instructions:

1. Pour frozen meatballs into a slow cooker.
2. Whisk together chili sauce, grape jelly and water.
3. Pour mixture over meatballs.
4. Cook on high for 4 ½ hours or on low for 5 hours.

Note: I had a 6-lb bag, rather than a 3-lb bag, so I had to double the recipe.

I gathered my ingredients: 6 lbs of meatballs,  4 (not 2) jars of Asian chili sauce, 2 (not 1) container of grape jelly, and 1/2 (not a 1/4) cup of water. I’ve never bought Asian chili sauce before because I’m not a huge spicy food connoisseur. I chose a Thai chili sauce that was mild. There are many variations at the grocery depending on your tastes and spice preferences.

As instructed, I put the meatballs into my slow cooker. I had let my meatballs defrost first, so they took less time to cook than is suggested by the recipe. I took them out at about the 4-hour mark. The recipe indicates they could cook for 4 1/2 to 5 hours. They probably take more time to cook if they’re completely frozen.

I poured all of the chili sauce into a bowl.

I added in the grape jelly.

And finally, I added the 1/2 cup of water (rather than 1/4 cup because I was doubling the recipe).

This is what the sauce looked like after I whisked all the ingredients together. It takes a little muscle because the jelly is thick.

I pour the sauce into the slow cooker with the meatballs. Because I had a 6-lb bag, I actually removed half of the meatballs out of the slow cooker, poured some sauce in, replaced the half I took out of meatballs, and poured the remaining sauce. This ensured that all the meatballs would be covered in sauce. Then, I tossed them best I could and let them cook.

Here is the final result. They were delicious and so easy!! You can leave them on a “keep warm” setting during the game and your guests will have a football feeding frenzy!

These slow cooker meatballs make for great football appetizers or football party food. They’re a bit spicy. As suggested with the recipe, I served them with small slices of French bread. It was delicious!

Keep an eye out for the Casa Di Bertacci giveaway coming up in March on AllFreeSlowCookerRecipes.com! And enjoy the game!

This guest post comes from our contributor Mama J. from A Little Bit Crunchy, A Little Bit Rock and Roll.

If you’re looking to get your kids away from the TV and video games to spend some quality time with them, don’t let the lull of winter stop you. Try getting them involved in a baking or cooking project, or find fun crafts to do together. There are plenty of ways to use things like even snow to work to your advantage. Get creative!

—–

Beat Wintertime Boredom Blues with Fun Snow Recipes & Crafts

By: Jenni Fleener

Winter can be a time where everyone in the family can start going a little crazy with “cabin fever”. If the excitement of sledding, snow forts, and hot cocoa has worn off for your kids this winter, here are a few “snow” activities to beat those wintertime boredom blues.

1. Snow Muffins actually use snow as one of the ingredients in these delicious muffins. Add some pecans and dried cranberries or raisins for a delicious, tasty, and fun activity.

2. Just Add Snow Ice Cream is another recipe that features snow as an ingredient. The kids will have a blast siring this homemade ice cream up themselves. Allow them to add their own toppings for a special treat.

3. Why make an ordinary pizza for dinner when you could make a Snowman Pizza? Get creative with any veggie toppings your kids would like to use as eyes and buttons. Don’t forget the carrot nose!

4. Eskimo Snowballs are a great way to get kids cooking in the kitchen. These little candies are easy enough to let kids have a little independence in the kitchen.

4. Decorate any window in your house with these cute and easy Snowflake Window Clings. The best thing is, the can be reused year after year.

5. Go for a winter hike and collect some sprigs of evergreen branches. Dipped in white paint, they make a fun and creative Snowflake Stamp for a beautiful winter painting.

6. Nutter Butter cookies dipped in white almond bark become adorable little Snowman Cookies when topped with candy buttons.

7. If you’ve still got your creative juices flowing with all these great ideas, why not turn your ordinary white refrigerator into a Snowman Refrigerator. This activity will brighten any kitchen during the long winter months!

Do you have any fun winter-themed recipes or crafts you enjoy this time of year?

—–

About the Blogger:

Jenni Fleener is the creator, photographer and chef behind A Little Bit Crunchy A Little Bit Rock and Roll. She has had a passion for cooking since she was a child. Forget Saturday morning cartoons, Jenni was watching Julia Child. In high school, she would pour over Rolling Stone and cooking magazines. In college art school, she would come home from the design studio to prepare homemade bread …read more about Jenni on her Featured Foodie profile on RecipeLion.

This past weekend, RecipeLion.com was one of the sponsors for the 2012 Food Blog South conference. I had a great time down there representing RecipeLion.com. After all, when you put that many food-minded people in one room together, only good things can happen, right?

In addition to meeting great people and listening to talks from industry experts, one of the perks of attending these types of events is that you get to take home a lot of great products and food items.

Instead of being selfish and keeping everything to myself, I’m giving away the swag bag to one lucky reader!

So what’s in this swag bag? Let’s take a look:

• 1 Wilton Tasty-Fill Cake Pan Set
• 2 boxes of Zatarain’s New Orleans-Style Original Jambalaya Mix
• An apron and a ChicoBag from Key Ingredient
• One box of Roland galettes shortbread cookies
• A silicone spatula and a silicone basting brush from MyRecipes.com
• 1 box of GooGoo original clusters
• 1 plastic scoop from Ultragrain
• 1 USB flash drive from The Year of Alabama Food
• 1 container C. Winkler Bakery ginger cookies, provided by Visit Winston Salem
• 2 homemade sugar cookies from The Piece de Resistance of Birmingham, AL
• A free monthly trial to Evernote
• 1 paper fan from the International Biscuit Festival
• 1 bottler of Morgan Creek Vineyards peach syrup
• 1 re-usable Food Blog South tote bag

How To Enter:

1. Create an account for yourself on FaveDiets.com if you don’t have one (you can create one by clicking the text “Register Here” that appears at the very top of FaveDiets.com)
2. Go to the recipe collection page of 16 Simple Southern Style Recipes and leave a comment. The comment needs to be related to one of the recipes listed, or about Southern food in general
3. One commenter will be chosen at random
4. You have one week to enter, as only comments entered between today and Wednesday, February 8 will be entered

Good luck!

For the January version of This Month’s Healthy Bite from FaveDiets, I asked, “What are your favorite weeknight dinner recipes?” We got some absolutely fantastic answers,  so be sure to check them all out:

From Kait, Kait’s Inside Dish:

My favorite weeknight recipe is probably my spicy crock pot vegetable soup, it’s easy to prepare, healthy, and there’s always leftovers for another dinner!

From Laura, Gluten Free Pantry:

My favorite weeknight dinner recipe is Asparagus Risotto.

My family loves risotto. I have been making my Butternut Squash Risotto recipe a lot lately and was in the mood for something different today. I bought some asparagus at the store and decided to use it for a new risotto recipe.

Asparagus is rich in folate, Vitamins A, C and K and potassium to name a few. If you are pregnant or trying to become pregnant, it is important to get adequate amounts of folate and asparagus is a great source of this vitamin. Asparagus also helps control blood sugar levels which makes it a fantastic vegetable for diabetics or anyone watching their glucose levels.

I hope you enjoy this dish. Happy eating!

From Anne-Marie, This Mama Cooks! On a Diet:

My favorite weeknight dinner recipe is a classic meat sauce and pasta. I made a healthy meat sauce from scratch and usually use ground venison and canned organic tomatoes and tomato sauce. I also cook up whole wheat spaghetti or noodles for my family and gluten free brown rice noodles for me. It takes about 30 minutes to get dinner ready, and while everything is cooking, I set the table and fix a healthy salad to go with our meal.

From Lisa, Lisa’s Kitchen:

Such a hard choice, but I really enjoy this easy Indian-Style Spicy Mung Bean dish: http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2007/06/indian-style-spicy-mung.html

and then this recipe for Scalloped Potatoes with Coconut Milk and Mushrooms: http://foodandspice.blogspot.com/2009/04/scalloped-potatoes-with-coconut-milk.html

From Sylvie, Gourmande in the Kitchen:

Polenta with a fresh tomato topping makes an easy weeknight meal: http://gourmandeinthekitchen.com/2011/easy-polenta-recipe-with-fresh-tomatoes-and-parmesan-crisps/

From Jackie, Jackie’s Kitchen:

I, like most, am tired after long days of work, and even though I love cooking and find it therapeutic, I sometimes just don’t have the time to invest in complicated dinners during the week. One of my go-tos for easy weeknight dinners is the humble quesadilla. It is a simple concept but also very versatile and allows for extensive creativity such that I can enjoy a meal that tastes like it took hours to prepare, but in actuality, took very little effort. The key is to pack lots of flavor in the quesadilla using a variety of ingredients. Another fun trick is to pick a flavor profile of your choosing and work it in (e.g., Asian, Southwestern, Mediterranean, etc.). Some of our favorites have been:

Jerk chicken quesadillas with mango pico de gallo

Spinach and olive quesadillas

Mexican-flavored beef quesadillas

BBQ chicken quesadillas

Thanks to everyone for all the fun responses!

Answer the next This Month’s Healthy Bite question: What are your favorite healthy recipes for baked goods?

Email us your answer or just simply comment on this blog post, and we’ll publish your answers and link to your blog at the end of the month. Got some blogger friends who would like us to link to them too? Ask them to answer This Month’s Healthy Bite too!

For those of you who followed me over at the FaveDiets blog, this is my second time participating as a Foodie Pen Pal. Every month, Lindsay from The Lean Green Bean runs the Foodie Penpal program. Everyone gets assigned some random to send a wonderful foodie gift basket. I enjoyed it so much last month that I jumped at the opportunity to participate again.

My pen pal, Kate, sent me a wonderful foodie package and even agreed to write about what she sent over:

Hello FaveDieters!

Being foodie pen pals this month with Matthew was such a treat as well as slightly intimidating at first because the man knows his food! I opted to go as local as possible in my box this month (minus the Japanese candy, which is just too yummy to not include). Here is what I chose:

Eugene’s Tasty Tea is a small business started by a middle school student here in the town I live. I always try and buy at least one box of it because I think it is awesome that he comes to sell at our farmers markets and he has to take his bike because he is not even old enough to drive! (I was so happy that Kate sent me this great tea. I’m a huge tea drinker, so this gift was perfect for me. Just one whiff of this tea and I knew it was the good stuff!)

My second favorite thing I sent was the granola. I make this stuff weekly starting in college. I named it after my roommate whom I got the recipe from: “Molly’s Hippie Granola” It includes: local honey, oats, canola oil, golden raisins, pecans, flax seeds, sunflower seeds, and sunshine The honey that I sent is what I use in the granola. It is minimally processed which makes it solidify at room temperature but also makes it taste that much more delicious so I find it worth warming up. Making your own granola is so easy and very inexpensive in comparison to buying it at the store. I hope Matthew enjoyed snacking on it as much as I do! (I did enjoy snacking on this granola! I can be a bit particular when it comes to granola, but this stuff had the right amount of crunch and sweetness. I gobbled the whole jar down in one afternoon because I just couldn’t put it down.)

Finally, I put in Hammond’s Caramel Marshmallow treat, my husbands favorite! Maybe not the healthiest, but it is made just down the road in Denver and is all natural! (This was so unbelievably good! It’s probably for the best that I can’t find these by me, as they are too tasty.)

If anyone else is thinking about signing up for foodie pen pals, I truly recommend it. You get to share foods you love as well as trying new foods you may never get the chance to otherwise! Plus, who doesn’t love getting mail?

Sparkles, Sweets, and Scrumptiousness,

Kate

Thanks again Kate!

If you’re curious as what I sent my Foodie Penpal, check out the blog Satisfy My Sweet Tooth.

Interested in being a Foodie Penpal? Send an email to Lindsay at theleangreenbean@gmail.com and include this information:

• Your full name
• Your email address
• Your blog name/address
• Your twitter handle (if applicable)

Your turn: What is the best food-related gift you’ve ever received?

It’s January, and we’ve all got a taste for Girl Scout cookie flavors. The Girl Scout cookie varieties are only on sale for a few weeks during the winter. If you don’t catch them soon, they’ll be gone.

Fear not! Our friends at AllFreeCopycatRecipes.com have a new eCookbook, 8 Types of Girl Scout Cookies: Your Favorite Girl Scout Cookie Flavors. It’s free to download, and it’s absolutely fabulous!

This free eCookbook includes tastefully simple copycat recipes for best selling Girl Scout cookie flavors such as Thin Mints and Samoas. It’s not hard to find Girl Scout cookie ingredients and make these tasty cookie recipes from scratch.

Here’s a sneak peek at a Thin Mint recipe featured in the free eCookbook:

Pictured above is AllFreeCopycatRecipe’s recipe for Katrina’s Homemade Thin Mints. This recipe for a homemade version uses mint dark chocolate candy melts, unsweetened cocoa and other tasty ingredients. The recipe serves 10 and these cookies only take 10 minutes to cook!

Find more decadent Girl Scout cookie types in AllFreeCopycatRecipes’ free eCookbook, 8 Types of Girl Scout Cookies: Your Favorite Girl Scout Cookie Flavors.

As a fan of yogurt (more specifically Greek yogurt), we’re super excited to be partnering up with Stonyfield once again for a special giveaway to our readers!

Stonyfield introduced some new flavors and products recently and we’re giving five winners a chance to try this with an awesome prize package. The prize package includes a copy of –

The Stonyfield Yogurt Cookbook and…

1 coupon for each of these products:

• Stonyfield Organic 100 calorie cup yogurt (partially sweetened with organic Stevia).
• Stonyfield Organic Oikos GREEK frozen yogurt
• Stonyfied Organic Activia
• Stonyfield Organic Oikos drinkable Greek yogurt
• Stonyfield Organic Oikos NEW flavors (peach mango or honey fig – newer flavors!)

Enter here for your chance to win this awesome prize package.

One of the best new additions, frozen yogurt of course! See what some of our reviewers had to say about this awesome new offering from Stonyfield.

Greek yogurt is great for more than just eating at breakfast, lunch or for snacks. You can cook quite a variety of food with it, like these Chicken Breasts Supreme. You’ll be amazed at all the ways you can incorporate yogurt into your menu thanks to their yogurt cookbook. Cook outside the box!

So good luck to all participating this week and don’t forget to enter!

Now you have a chance to win a free case of Wolfgang Puck Cold Brewed Iced Coffee!

One winner will win a free case of Wolfgang Puck iced coffee of the flavor of their choice (Vanilla Fusion, Double Blend Mocha, Creme Caramel or Cafe Au Lait).

Click here to enter this giveaway today!

Crafted with the detail and care put into all Wolfgang Puck products, Wolfgang Puck Culinary Iced Coffee is an organic treat with only 120 calories per bottle.Their mission is to provide delicious, organic, low calorie iced coffee for you to enjoy at home, at school, in the office or on the go.

Plus, be sure to check out the FaveDiets product review of Wolfgang Puck Cold Brewed Iced Coffee.

The Wolfgang Puck Cold Brewed Iced Coffee Giveaway Summary

• Prize: One case of Wolfgang Puck Cold Brewed Iced Coffee to one person.
• Timeline: Ends on February 5, 2012 at 11:59:59 p.m. Eastern Time
• Contest open to residents of the U.S. and Canada only. Winners must claim prize within 14 days of being announced.

Good luck!

Thanks to everyone who participated in our January Blog Hop & Giveaway: Favorite Comfort Food Recipes. We loved all the recipes and appreciate everyone voting to help us pick our winner. There were tons of scrumptious and tempting recipes to choose from this month, from soups, to casseroles, cakes, chicken recipes and more.

If these recipes got you craving for more comfort dishes, feel free to check out these 12 Reader Favorite Simple Soup recipes; they make great frugal recipes and really hit the spot.

This was a super tight race with the winner beating out the competition by only one vote!!

Now, as you’ve been waiting for – the Winner of the Wilton 12 cavity Mini Doughnut Pan is …

The Pecan Cinnamon Rolls from Meet Penny!

Congrats Penny on getting 55 likes!

Just contact us with your name and address, be sure to add Recipe Lion Blog Hop Winner – SH in your details. Congrats!

Also congrats to Lisa from Lisa’s Kitchen on running such a close competition with 54 likes for her Pasta and Feta Cheese Casserole!

Remember, if you are a blogger who would like to participate in future blog hops and would love a monthly email reminder, just send your information through our Contact Us page and you won’t miss a single hop!

Thanks everybody for the fun and we hope to see you back next month!