Herbaceous Yogourt-Marinated Chicken Tenders

Oh hey, remember that time I went around making recipes featuring yogourt like a mad woman, in an attempt to win $10,000 and be featured in Chatelaine? No, this isn't a big reveal that I've won. I haven't won...or at least I don't know yet (still keeping those fingers and toes crossed!), but I'm still working my way through some of the recipes I submitted to feature them for you here. 

The great thing about doing a contest like that was getting to put my creative hat on and find new ways of reinventing some of my favourite recipes to feature the key ingredient, yogourt. While it's pretty obvious that yogourt goes fantastic with sweet dishes such as the Strawberry Cheese Blintzes and Mango Strawberry Layered Lassi that I made, I wanted to challenge myself and think outside the box (or should I say yogourt container...ba-dum-ch!) to find ways of featuring yogourt in unexpected ways in some savoury dishes. 

With chicken breasts on sale at the grocery store and an extra container of panko breadcrumbs that I wanted to clear out of my cupboard, it was natural for me to gravitate towards a reinvented chicken tender recipe. Traditionally chicken tenders go through an assembly line of flour, beaten egg, and breadcrumbs before being baked or fried. In this recipe a mixture of yogourt, herbs, and spices allowed me to coat my chicken in simply the yogourt mixture, and then the panko breadcrumbs, eliminating an extra step and granting the yogourt to act as a marinade and glue for the breadcrumbs. 

I love that the yogourt acts as the glue in this recipe, but more than that, the yogourt coating allowed me to tenderize the meat by marinating the chicken and infusing more flavour into it thanks to the addition of fresh herbs like dill, parsley, and chives, as well as garlic powder and lemon juice. As if that's not enough, I chose to make a little bit extra of the yogourt mixture so that I could set some aside to save as a dipping sauce once my tenders were cooked! Brilliant, right? This recipe turned out so insanely easy to prepare, and was a delicious weeknight meal that also left me with some chicken tender leftovers for lunch the following day. Even if I don't win the Astro and Chatelaine contest, I'm still a winner in my books for having a new simple and delicious weeknight dinner option to add to my repertoire! 

Tip: Toasting your panko before breading helps to give your tenders that fantastic golden colour and give them an additional crunch!

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups Astro Original Balkan Style Plain Yogourt 6%

1 1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 1/2 Tbsp. fresh dill, finely chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp. parsley, finely chopped

1 1/2 Tbsp. chives, finely chopped

1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice

1 lb. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch strips

1 1/2 - 2 cups panko breadcrumbs, lightly toasted

cooking spray

salt and pepper to season

Directions:

1. In a small bowl stir together yogourt with garlic powder, dill, parsley, chives, and lemon juice. Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. 
2. Add chicken to a large, zipper, freezer bag and add 1-cup of the yogourt mixture. Coat chicken evenly in the yogourt mixture and place in fridge for 1-hour. Set the remaining 1/2-cup yogourt mixture aside in the fridge.
3. Preheat oven to 375ºF. 
4. Place toasted panko in a wide, shallow bowl and season with salt and pepper. Set a large baking sheet sprayed with cooking spray next to it.
5. Keeping one hand clean, working one at a time, dip each chicken strip into the panko, pressing to coat evenly, and place on the prepared baking sheet. 
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until panko is golden and chicken is cooked through. 
7. Serve immediately with the remaining yogourt mixture as a dipping sauce. 

Listening To:

Sufjan Stevens - Out Of Egypt, Into The Great Laugh Of Mankind

I Am Food Hacks

Dear readers, I have to tell you that I have been holding in a secret. If you follow me on Twitter or Instagram you will have already heard the great reveal, but if not, now is the time for me to happily spill the beans that I had been holding in for weeks. Just over two weeks ago I received the incredible news that Kraft Canada has named me Canada's Ultimate Food Hacker!! From the moment I first heard about the Kraft competition to search for Canada's Ultimate Food Hacker, I knew it had to be mine, combining all of the things I love into one perfect year-long role. If you recall my blog post from August, as I progressed to the next round of the competition, you will remember just how incredibly hopeful I was to make it here. Right when I felt like throwing in the towel, and giving up on this crazy foodie dream of mine, the Food Hacks opportunity walked into my life, and here I am today being declared the winner! 

So what exactly does it mean to be Canada's Ultimate Food Hacker? As Kraft Canada's Ultimate Food Hacker, I will be taking over the Food Hacks social media pages to get to share with you my successes and failures, as I hunt down and experiment with just about every clever food hack that I can get my hands on! Basically, I want to give Canadians the tools to make life in the kitchen a little more interesting, fun, and efficient by providing clever food hacks that will allow you to elevate a meal, perfect a cooking method, or create an epic flavour infusion with ease! By engaging with you through Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, and Vine, as well as sharing weekly blog posts on the Kraft Canada What's Cooking blog on my trials and tribulations of food hacking, I hope to create a community of innovative Food Hackers that can learn and thrive from one another. I'm so madly excited to not only get to express my creativity with this role, but to also open up my audience to a whole new slew of smart and interesting foodies who I may not have had the chance to meet before. I can't wait to get the conversation going with all of you and hear about your own experiences with food hacks. Let's start sharing! I want to know what food hacks you've tried! What worked? What failed? What food hacks are you dying to try? Let's talk!  

Be sure to follow the @foodhacks Twitter page to stay up-to-date with all the latest food hacks and chat with me about your own food hack experiences! Also be sure to check out the Food Hacks webpage to see all of the amazing hacked recipes that Kraft has already created! I can't wait to go on this journey with you! 

Relive my Food Hacks video submission here for an awesome hack on how to peel multiple cloves of garlic all at once! 

Listening To:

TV on The Radio - Careful You

Dairy Goodness Great Cream Challenge - Fall Harvest Veggie Challenge: Creamy Vegetable Gratin

Another year of the Dairy Goodness Great Cream Challenge has come to an end for me. Although I have been participating in the Great Cream Challenge for the past few years, this year was particularly special for me, getting to showcase not one, but three cream-filled recipes! Participating in the challenge is always a blast, but there's really nothing like getting to say you've WON a challenge! I felt so lucky to have won the Comforting Mac & Cheese Challenge with my Fresh Onion Mac & Cheese, and to have come so very close this time around in the Fall Harvest Veggie Challenge with my Creamy Vegetable Gratin (701 votes ain't too shabby!).

When coming up with my recipe for this past months challenge, I wanted to come up with something that utilized an assortment of different Fall harvest veggies, but was also incredibly comforting. With scalloped potatoes being one of my favourite Fall comfort foods (my mom makes it every Thanksgiving!), I wanted to make my own version of that, but kicked up using an array of different vegetables like sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and even a layer of sautéed kale! I give you my Creamy Vegetable Gratin! 

I loved all of the different layers of flavour that goes into this dish, with the star ingredient, cream, along with gruyere and parmesan cheese acting as the creamy glue to hold the casserole all together. This dish would be a fantastic addition to your family's Thanksgiving meal coming up this weekend! Give it a try and let me know how it goes! 

Tip: Cut down on prep time by slicing all of the vegetables excluding the Yukon Gold potatoes in advance! 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp butter, divided (plus more for greasing the baking dish)

1 medium shallot, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, minced divided

10 large leaves of kale (curly or black), chopped small

salt and white pepper to season

2 cups 35% cream

1/2 onion, make sure the root is still intact

1 bay leaf

4 cloves

3 sprigs thyme, divided

1 large sweet potato, peeled and thinly sliced

2 large Yukon Gild potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced

1 cup shredded Gruyere 

1/2 cup shredded Parmesan cheese

1 medium yellow zucchini (summer squash), thinly sliced lengthwise 

3 medium carrots, peeled and thinly sliced lengthwise

3/4 cup panko breadcrumbs 

Directions:

1. Heat a large sauté pan to medium heat. Add 1 tbsp butter. When butter is melted and begins to foam, add the shallot and sweat. Add 1 minced garlic clove and cook until fragrant (20-30 seconds). Add the kale and reduce to medium-low. Cook until kale until wilted, tossing occasionally. Season with salt and white pepper and set aside.
2. While the kale is cooking, prepare the cream. Pour the cream into a small saucepan and set to medium heat. Cut a slit into the half piece of onion and stick a bay leaf inside. Poke the cloves into the onion and submerge in the cream along with 1 sprig of thyme. Right when steam begins to come off of the cream, remove from heat, remove onion  with spices and herbs, and set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 400º. Butter and 11x7-inch glass baking dish and add a spoonful of the flavoured cream mixture. Add 1 layer of sweet and yukon gold potatoes, making sure to lightly overlap the slices. Season lightly with salt and white pepper, and drizzle in some of the cream. Top with a light layer of Gruyere and Parmesan. Repeat process of layering in different slices of vegetables (a different vegetable on each layer), seasoning, and adding cream and cheese until vegetables reach the middle of the dish. Add the kale mixture to make the middle layer of the casserole, and repeat the vegetable, seasoning, cream, and cheese layering process until the vegetables reach the top of the baking dish.
4. Melt the remaining butter in a small bowl in the microwave. Add in the remaining minced clove of garlic, the leaves from the remaining thyme sprigs, and panko breadcrumbs. Toss to coat. Sprinkle on top of the layered vegetables, along with any remaining cheese. Bake for about 60-minutes or until tender when pierced with a knife. Serve immediately.

Listening To:
Fleetwood Mac - Rhiannon Live 1976 (Stevie SLAYS this performance!)

VOTE! The Great Cream Challenge: Fall Harvest Veggie Challenge - Creamy Vegetable Gratin

Hey foodie friends! If you don't follow me on Twitter and Facebook (what the heck? Follow me already!) you may not have heard that I am once again participating in the Dairy Goodness Great Cream Challenge this month! This month is all about embracing that chill in the air, with this rounds theme being The Fall Harvest Veggie Challenge. For this challenge, I wanted to create a recipe that utilized many different Fall harvest veggies, but was also incredibly comforting. With scalloped potatoes being one of my favourite Fall comfort foods (my mom makes it every Thanksgiving!), I wanted to make my own version of that, but kicked up using an array of different vegetables like sweet potatoes, zucchini, carrots, and even a layer of sautéed kale! I give you my Creamy Vegetable Gratin! 

I loved all of the different layers of flavour that goes into this dish, with the star ingredient, cream, along with gruyere and parmesan cheese acting as the creamy glue to hold the casserole all together. This dish would be a fantastic addition to any Thanksgiving meal! Please take a moment to VOTE for my recipe before the contest comes to an end on Tuesday September 30th (my birthday!). 

Click HERE to VOTE for my Creamy Vegetable Gratin in the Great Cream Challenge!

Listening To:

Arcade Fire - Deep Blue

Kraft Food Hacks

Hello friends! I have some very exciting news! This past week I participated in a contest that seriously could not have come at a better time, and yesterday I found out that I have been named a finalist! So what is this contest that I am oh so mysteriously alluding to? I am one of the contenders to become Kraft Canada's next Food Hacker! What is a Food Hacker, you ask? A Food Hacker is a savvy individual who knows their way around a kitchen and is able to elevate a meal, perfect a cooking method, or create an epic flavour infusion with ease! This person must also be fluent in the language of social media (*ahem* I already get paid to do that), comfortable and charming in front of the camera (*cough, cough* Theatre school grad right here), be naturally creative (ummm...I may be the only 26-year old I know who still has a craft closet that is the same size as my clothing closet), and have great kitchen skills (why yes, I am a George Brown culinary student).

This opportunity just sounds way too perfect for me, as I am known by my friends and family for being able to create inventive and interesting meal solutions with next to zero resources. I often refer to this as creating "something from nothing." I find myself creating something from nothing on a daily basis, thanks to my hatred of food waste and money-conscious mind, and am so excited to get a chance to show Canada just what I have to offer! Heck, I even food hack-ed my breakfast last weekend when my boyfriend Chris said that he had "absolutely nothing to make" in his kitchen. Let me tell you, "nothing" rarely means "nothing!" There's always something! After a quick rummage around his fridge and cupboards, I whipped up a quickie Hot Dog Bun French Toast topped with fresh peaches, maple syrup, and a dusting of icing sugar! It was delicious! Mission accomplished: Breakfast hacked.

The first round of the competition asked applicants to create a one-minute or less video that demonstrated one of our favourite food hacks, using at least one Kraft ingredient. One of my favourite food hacks was one that I learned from Chef Frank in culinary school, and that is how to peel multiple cloves of garlic all at once without getting sticky, smelly garlic fingers. This hack is effective and quite fun and was a riot to be able to film while making my homemade, fresh garlic and herb cream cheese using Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese. Of course Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese already makes a delicious Garlic & Herb variety that I often purchase myself, but I love being able to select my own choice of fresh herbs and spices, and really, you can't deny that fresh herbaceous flavour! Check out my video to learn how!

The second round of the competition takes place this Monday evening in the form of a Twitter party (AKA Twitter interview) between the finalists as well as lovely folks such as yourself! The Twitter party will take place between 8:00 - 9:00 PM EST and will require us finalists to answer seven questions within the hour period to demonstrate why we should be the face of Kraft Canada Food Hacks. I am really excited (but also incredibly nervous) for Monday and hope that my readers are able to join in on the fun as well! To be a guest at the Food Hacks Twitter party, click here to learn more and RSVP! Wish me luck!!

To see my own version of Food Hacks that I have been posting on my blog for years, check out my Cheaters Handbook recipes!

Listening To:

Real Estate - It's Real

{WINNER} Summer Fresh Mother's Day Prize Pack

CONGRATULATIONS to Jamie who's name was randomly selected out of all the applicants to win the fantastic Summer Fresh Mother's Day Prize Pack! I hope you and your mama are able to share the FREE Summer Fresh products in each others company. Jamie, I will be reaching out to you shortly for your home address to send your Prize directly to you.

Thank you to Summer Fresh for allowing me to partake in this fun little giveaway! Make sure to follow Summer Fresh on Twitter and Facebook to see what delicious products they will be coming out with this summer!

Listening To:
Wildcat! Wildcat! - Garden Grays

{CONTEST} Summer Fresh Mother's Day Prize Pack

Mother's Day is just around the corner, and along with the panic of what to get or do for the most important woman in your life comes a flood of memories (for myself at least!) of many joyous Mother's Days of years past. My family always does something special for Mother's Day, but the Mother's Day memory that definitely stands out the most was from when I was probably in grade 5, right in the midst of my Spice Girls craze. My mom had invited over both of my grandmothers (my Oma and Baba) for a relaxing, home cooked meal, and my sister and I decided to contribute to the occasion by blaring Spice Girls "Mama" and forcing our mom, Oma, and Baba to dance around our living room with the song on repeat. Although this sounds like some cruel form of torture now, it was actually one of the most cherished memories I have of my two grandmothers, dancing and posing around my living room like the total glamazons that they are, while my sister, my mom, and I danced along with them, giggling up a storm. It was a moment that I will never forget.

This year Summer Fresh wants to celebrate all the lovely mama's out there with a special giveaway that will extend the day that brings attention to all the hard working mothers out there. Summer Fresh has gifted a lovely prize pack valued at $50 featuring $10 worth of coupons for free Summer Fresh products, a "Let's Get Fresh" apron, a professional spatula, and a $25 gift card to Terra Greenhouses to keep the Mother's Day love going after the big day on Sunday. So how can you win the Mother's Day prize pack? This contest is open to all GTA mama's and anyone who has a mama they would like to share the prize pack with! All you have to do is comment on this post telling me about your most memorable Mother's Day experience. The names of those who commented will go into a blind draw to select the winner and your prize pack will be delivered right to your front door! So what are you waiting for? Take a moment and share your favourite Mother's Day experience with me, and this awesome prize pack could be yours! 

Follow Summer Fresh on Twitter and Facebook to stay up to date with all the latest seasonal products!

Contest ends Monday May 12 at 12:00AM. No purchase necessary. No cash equivalent. Greenhouse gift card is for Terra Greenhouses. Gift card can not be substituted. Must be a resident of Toronto/GTA to enter. 

Listening To:

Albert Hammond Jr.  - St. Justice 

VOTE! Dairy Goodness Stuffed Pasta Challenge: Butternut Squash Cannelloni

Heeere we go again! I've enjoyed taking part in the Dairy Goodness Cream Challenge so much over the past few years, I decided to go out on a limb and compete in three challenges this year! For my second challenge I had to create a stuffed pasta recipe featuring the key ingredient, cream! From the moment I was confirmed to take part in the stuffed pasta challenge I knew exactly what I wanted to make, Butternut Squash Cannelloni! 

A few years ago I came up with a super quick version of a butternut squash cannelloni inspired by a whole bunch of leftovers in the fridge that needed to be used up, including roasted butternut squash, lasagna sheets, tomato sauce, and cottage cheese. That quick butternut squash cannelloni recipe was so simple and delicious, it's stayed with me all these years. As much as that quickie cannelloni was tasty, I wanted to take it up a notch with the addition of fresh cream, which I knew would transform this dish, giving it an even creamier flavour and texture. Although cannelloni seems like it would be very time consuming and requires many steps, this cannelloni recipe is actually very simple thanks to a no-cook cream sauce and a little day-prior prep. To save time the day of serving, I like to roast and puree my butternut squash and whirr up my cream sauce the day before, so all I have to do is assemble and bake for a comforting and delicious homemade stuffed pasta dinner that I would be proud to serve my friends and family. 

Please take a moment to check out my recipe and VOTE for a chance to win an 11-piece stainless steel Paderno cookware set! I was fortunate enough to win the Comforting Mac & Cheese Challenge this year with my French Onion Mac & Cheese recipe and received the gorgeous Paderno set, so I can vouch for how incredible the cookware set really is! Thanks to my new Paderno set I feel like I have so much more control over cooking my product, making the time I spend in my kitchen all the more enjoyable. 

Click here to VOTE for my Butternut Squash Cannelloni! 

Listening To:

Fleet Foxes - Battery Kinzie

VOTE! The Great Cream Challenge: French Onion Mac & Cheese

Let the voting begin!!

It's that time again, folks! It's time for the Real Cream Anyday Magic Great Cream Challenge! After participating in the challenge for three years now, and winning the Creamy Seafood Challenge last year with my Creamy Clam & Vegetable Chowder, I feel more excited than ever to be able to participate in three of the themes represented in the challenge this year. The first of my three challenges that I will embark on has gotta be one of the best comfort foods this earth has ever seen, the childhood favourite that no one can seem to really shake, Comforting Mac & Cheese. 

When I first began brainstorming what type of mac & cheese recipe I would make for the challenge, I started by writing down all of my favourite ways to enjoy cheese, and let me tell you, that list was mighty long! After writing out two full foolscap pages full of mouthwatering ways to indulge in cheese, there was one dish that kept coming back to my mind, French Onion Soup. I would say that french onion soup, with its rich and warming beef broth, and sinfully cheesy crouton topping, is right up there with mac & cheese as one of the most comforting dishes on the planet. With hybrid dishes already a predicted food trend for 2014, I could just tell that I was onto something, developing a recipe for French Onion Mac & Cheese. I took a very basic standby recipe for mac & cheese and amped it up by introducing the flavours and textures that I love in a great french onion soup. Thinly sliced onions are slowly caramelized with fresh thyme, deglazed with dry red wine and stirred into the thick and creamy béchamel sauce, infused with savoury beef broth. The caramelized onion-laden cheese and noodle mixture is served up in individual soup bowls, and topped with a crispy Canadian Gruyere cheese and crouton topping to resemble a bowl of classic french onion soup. Do I have your attention yet? I've gotta say, my French Onion Mac & Cheese tasted just as wonderful as it sounds! I knew I had a dish I would be very proud to enter into the competition and share with my fellow readers and home cooks. I can't wait for you to try out my French Onion Soup Mac & Cheese in your own home! 

Please head over to The Great Cream Challenge site to check out the other recipes in the challenge and vote on your favourite (mine of course!) for a chance to win a Paderno stainless steel cookware set! 

CLICK HERE TO VOTE!

Listening To:

Metric - Hardwire 

Mini Potato & Kale Gratins Featuring Summer Fresh Kale Dip

Getting to take part in the Summer Fresh 2013 Blogger Tour was a ton of fun and a great way to learn about how a large and successful company like that runs, but one of the best parts of the day was getting to try out a number of Summer Fresh's new products! All of the products I got to try were fantastic, but the one that I couldn't get off my mind was, surprise surprise, Summer Fresh Kale Dip.

My love affair with kale continues with this new and easy way to make kale apart of your diet. It's easy to get sick of kale when you are continually using it in the same way, which for me is always a mostly raw salad, but Summer Fresh's new Kale Dip allows you to make kale apart of just about any meal in a new and interesting way. Before ending our day-long tour, Summer Fresh handed each of us a large box full of exciting new Summer Fresh products (with the kale dip being a last minute addition) and asked us to play around with them to create an appetizer AKA "Appy" recipe featuring one of the products they sent home with us. The best part about all this? All of the submitted Appy recipes will be voted on by the public, and the winner will win a grand prize worth $850!

With a fridge full of new Summer Fresh products I was inspired to cook up a storm! I tried making a number of different recipes using the products provided, some of which were tasty successes, and others...not so much. The hands down winner in my book was the Mini Potato & Kale Gratins that I made, featuring Summer Fresh's Kale Dip. I knew I wanted my recipe to feature mostly vegetables, with very few ingredients and steps to make. With scalloped potatoes still fresh in my mind from perfecting them at chef school, I had the idea of creating mini potato gratins using Summer Fresh Kale Dip in between the layers of potato and gruyere cheese, as opposed to the most commonly used milk or cream. I had no clue if my recipe would work out, especially after seeing the disaster that was my  baked bloomin' onion that I had intended to be dipped into Summer Fresh's Jalapeno Greek Yogurt Dip, but amazingly, they turned out so fantastic! The tiny gratins, which were made in muffin tins, are the perfect Appy size, were crazy easy to make, and tasted so incredibly delicious thanks to the creaminess that the Summer Fresh Kale Dip added to the dish. Whether I win the contest or not, I already feel like a winner having this great recipe to turn to for my next party or gathering!

See it up on the Summer Fresh site here!

Ingredients:
3 Yukon Gold potatoes, peeled & very thinly sliced
1 x 227g/8oz Summer Fresh Kale Dip
about 3/4 cup gruyere cheese, grated
butter, to grease pan
salt & pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Grease a 12-cup muffin tin with buter.
2. Layer one or two potato slices into the bottom of each muffin cup. 
3. Top with about 1/2 tsp Kale Dip, a very light sprinkle of gruyere, and a bit of salt and pepper. Continue layering potatoes with the kale dip, cheese, salt, and pepper until potatoes reach the top of the cup. 
4. Cover tray with tin foil and bake for about 30-minutes, or until tender when inserted into the centre with a knife. Remove foil half way through cooking. Run a knife around each cup and carefully pop out and serve immediately. 

Listening To:

Arcade Fire - We Exist

VOTE! DFC Creamy Seafood Challenge: Creamy Clam & Vegetable Chowder

Last year I had the opportunity to work with the Dairy Farmers of Canada on their Anyday Magic Cream Challenge, submitting a recipe for a Fresh Mixed Mushroom Mac & Cheese that was absolutely delightful. Having such a great time collaborating with them last year, I jumped at the opportunity to participate in their 2013 cream challenge! Unlike last year where bloggers were asked to recreate classic dishes with a healthy twist, this year we were each given a theme in which we had the freedom to create anything we wanted! I was lucky enough to grab a spot in one of the most coveted themes this year, The Creamy Seafood Challenge. 

After having such an incredible time at the Ocean Wise Chowder Chowdown this past November, getting to try over a dozen seafood chowders from some of the best chefs in Toronto, I was inspired to create a chowder of my own. I used the classic creamy New England clam chowder as my base, but amped it up with big flavours that inspired me from the Chowder Chowdown, and an abundance of vegetables for a hearty texture. I was so incredibly proud of how my Creamy Clam & Vegetable Chowder turned out, immediately downing a giant bowl after snapping some photos, and proceeding to brag about my awesome recipe to all my friends and family ever since! This is one recipe that you have got to try!

Check it out and please VOTE for my recipe for a chance to win the ultimate blender! 

Listening To:

T. Rex - Mambo Sun

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12 Days Of Wine Country Ontario Contest Winner!

Thank you everyone who participated in the 12 Days Of Wine Country Ontario giveaway! Congratulations to Genevieve Anderson our lucky winner who will receive a gift certificate to the Shaw Spa for a relaxing Grape & Wine Exfoliating Treatment! I hope you enjoy your Wine Country Ontario experience! Please email me at GingerRoseFood@gmail.com with your home address so we can send you your gift certificate as soon as possible! 

Listening To:

Nick Drake - Pink Moon

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Give The Gift Of Wine Country Ontario - CONTEST!

With only one week left until Christmas Eve, the pressure is building to grab hold of those creative last minute gifts for your friends and loved ones. I always say that as much as I adore unwrapping a gift, and making use of it as early as Christmas morning (nothing like cozying up in that new sweater while enjoying Christmas Day!) I appreciate the gift of 'experience' more than anything! I'm lucky to be one of those girls that is often thought of as "the girl who has everything", which makes gift giving for me pretty tricky. Giving me something to experience means giving me the gift of a memory, rather than junking up my dresser more than it already is. 

The key to giving the gift of experience, is personalizing it for that particular person. Take myself for instance, just by glancing at my blog it's easy to see that I am a fan of wine and, with my many blog posts on visits to Wine Country Ontario, there's no doubt that visiting Ontario's wine region is something I immensely enjoy. Why not give the gift of Wine Country Ontario to a wine loving friend or loved one by registering them for a winery tour, or perhaps give a gift certificate to a winery with a fabulous restaurant! With the stress of the holidays and inevitable dry skin this time of year, one of my favourite Wine Country Ontario gifts are gift certificates to the spa in wine country! Sure you can get a massage or an exfoliant treatment pretty much anywhere, but when in wine country, go for something interesting! I LOVE the sound of a Grape and Wine Scrub such as the one they have at the prestigious Shaw Spa in Niagara. The Shaw Spa's Grape and Wine Scrub Treatment scrubs away that dry Winter skin by using the extracts from the grape seed, leaf, stems and wine, leaving your skin smooth and perfectly hydrated! What better way to end a day of winery touring, than relaxing at the spa!

Wine Country Ontario has been kind enough invite me to be apart of their #12DaysWCO, a 12 day celebration of the season! Each day a different wine loving blogger will suggest one of their favourite Wine Country Ontario gifts to give under $100 and, even better, Wine Country Ontario will send one lucky reader that very gift! So, how can you win a Shaw Spa Grape and Wine Scrub Exfoliating Experience? All you have to do is comment on this post, describing your favourite Wine Country Ontario Experience, or, if you've never had the chance to experience Wine Country Ontario yourself (what's wrong with you?), comment and tell me why you would like to! So what are you waiting for? Share your Wine Country Ontario experience with me! Good luck! 

* One comment = one entry. One entry per person.
* A winner will be selected at random on Friday December 21st!

Listening To:
John Lennon - So this is Christmas

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Tetley Colour Therapy Contest WINNER!

I placed the names of everyone who entered my Tetley Colour Therapy Giveaway in a bowl, and had my mama randomly select the lucky winner! Congratulations to Jamie M.I.T. our lucky winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered! This won't be the last Ginger Rose giveaway, so be sure to check back often!

Lots of love

xoxo Danielle AKA Ginger Rose

Listening To:

Frank Sinatra - Let It Snow! Let It Snow! Let It Snow!

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Tetley Tea Giveaway! What's Your Colour?

There's nothing like curling up on the couch in your favourite cozy sweater, candles burning, music playing, reading a great book, with a steaming hot mug of tea. All your senses become active and your mind is able to forget the days stresses to relax and feel comfortable and safe. No matter where your head was at that morning, this relaxing ritual allows you to escape into whatever mood you choose. Depending on the mood I feel (or would like to feel), I always pick my music, book, and tea accordingly. Tetley Tea has taken this experience to the next level with their new line of Colour Therapy Herbal Teas. Tetley has taken the concept of colour therapy (the idea that every mood or feeling can be associated with a different colour) and pushed it to a whole new level, designing teas that fit every mood on the color wheel. Everything from Turquoise - a calming blend designed to bring calm and serenity to your day, to Pink - a blend meant to induce feelings of warmth, hope, and inspiration, Tetley Colour Therapy has it all!

After seeing a commercial for Tetley Colour Therapy last week, I couldn't wait to get my hands on one of their many different colours to choose from. So you can imagine my excitement when, that very same day, I was contacted by Tetley Tea, kindly (understatement of the year!) offering one of my lucky readers a beautiful and incredibly abundant gift basket (shown in the image above) containing not one, but two containers of each of the ten types/colours of tea from their Colour Therapy line, as well as a Tetley teapot, and 50 mood influencing greeting cards! How incredible is that?! I have actually tried both the Turquoise tea (a calming, stress relieving tea) and the Mint Green tea (which helps make you feel more fresh and energized) and fell in love with both! They were both so delicious and full of flavour, and truly influenced my mood in the best way possible!

For a chance to win this fantastic gift basket, check out the Colour Therapy website and leave a comment below, telling me what colour you are today and a little about your tea drinking ritual. A winner will be selected at random this Friday December 17th!

Lately i've been feeling very Violet and Pink, ready to take on whatever comes my way, feeling positive about opportunities in the new year, motivated, and most of all INSPIRED! So tell me, what's your colour today?

Good luck! xo

Listening To:

Serge Gainsbourg & Francoise Hardy - Comment Te Dire Adieu

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