Fifth Of A Farm Creations Spruce Hill Blackberry Lavender Jam

Today I went to my local farmer's market hoping to pick up some herbs and jam but alas the herb stand was not present at the market that day.  I noticed there was another Jam seller than I had never seen before so I decided to get my much needed jam from there instead.  I don't usually review a lot of food products but I was really impressed with the owner, presentation, and taste of this product I felt like this brand deserved a little recognition!

So this company is called Fifth of a Farm Creations and I believe they are a fairly new business. As soon as I walked up to take a peek at the flavors the owner greeted me joyfully and made some quick small talk.  He also said hello to almost every person that walked by, he was definitely a really sweet guy. After I browsed for a bit he went on to tell me all about his company and the products.  His excitement and pride for his business was apparent and I knew right away I was going to be buying something.  They make their jam is small batches at a community kitchen where other small business owners can produce the items they love without spending a fortune to rent out a city property all on their own.  I think this is a grand idea as it allows prospective small businesses to get started with their dreams without having to take as huge of a financial risk.  So far they only sell in Philadelphia by going from market to market and also selling in local stores. However they do have a website where you can order online, so anyone can buy and enjoy these jams!

The next thing I noticed about these Jams was the packaging.  Every jam has a different colored label that matches the ingredients. The design is bright, efficient, eye catching, and just all around beautifully designed. I decided on the Spruce Hill Blackberry Lavender Jam as I love both of those things!  

Additionally every jam is named after a different neighborhood in Philadelphia, an idea that I thought was a really nice touch.

There is also a bit of history about the neighborhood printed on each jam label, once again a really neat thing to add! 

So I've established that the owners are nice and friendly and the label design is well thought out, but I have yet to comment on the most important part.....the taste!!

All the flashy outsides won't do any good if the product is mediocre, right?  Well thankfully there is nothing to worry about as this jam is DELICIOUS. It isn't too sweet or too tart it is literally just perfect.  The blackberry flavor is so lovely and there are nice large chunks of berries in there too, I could eat this every day.  My only complaint would be that the lavender taste could be stronger, but I love lavender and I know not everyone is as crazy about it as I am.  Regardless, this jam has everything going for it and I will definitely be a return customer.

Here is a picture of the brochure I took that lists all their products and prices.  See anything you like? I know I want to try the prickly pear eventually!

I hope you liked this review as much as I like this jam, enjoy!

www.fifthofafarm.com

A Break From Makeup: Vegetarian Breakfast Pizza

I've been sharing a lot of food lately.....I know this is a makeup blog but oh my gosh I keep cooking these delicious meals and after eating them I feel a strong desire to share them with everyone! Today I want to share the amazing, delicious, low calorie, vegetarian breakfast pizza I made.  Its so easy and so yummy!

Like holy crap just look at how amazing it looks! The best part about this is it is so easy to customize toppings based on what is in your fridge.

So I wasn't going to share the My Fitness Pal ingredient list because its kind of confusing and all over the place but I decided to anyway.  Let me walk you through how I made this.

1. Lay out a small tortilla on some foil

2. Spread your choice of sauce evenly over top.  I had some leftover diced tomatoes so I added a bit less than 1/4 of those then filled up the remaining 1/4 cup with Ragu spaghetti sauce for thickness.  You could of course just use diced tomatoes or just spaghetti sauce.

3. I then placed some fresh spinach on top. Next time I'm definitely adding more! Frozen spinach would also work.

4.  I followed the spinach with some bits of avocado.  I used a bit less than 1/8 of an avocado....which I just realized I calculated incorrectly.  I input 1/4 of an entire avocado instead of 1/4 of a half of one....oops. I would probably also add more avocado next time.

5.  I then cracked an egg in the center of the pizza, taking care not to let it run off the sides. Next you can sprinkle with your desired type and amount of cheese and spices.

6. Finally I stuck it in the toaster oven at 350 for....I wish I would have counted.  I just watched until the whites were set but this also meant my yolk was hard which was a huuuuge disappointment. I read that letting the egg come to room temp helps the whites cook before the yolk so next time I'll be trying that.

The way I made my pizza came out to about 250 calories.  This is a great and healthy way to kick start your morning.  It is filling, has a bit of everything, is low calorie, and contains about 12g of protein!

I hope you enjoy your pizza!

A Break From Makeup: Crab Stuffed Avocado

I'm so so sorry for the lack of updates.  I accidentally left my camera charger at my parents house so my Canon has been dead. :(

However I went home for the weekend and was able to retrieve it so hopefully I can start posting again!

To tide you over I wanted to share a recipe with you that I absolutely love.  Crab stuffed avocado!!

If you like avocado and crab then this is a must.  Its so delicious and tastes like a comfort food while being low calorie and healthy for you! Plus its super quick  and easy to make!

Calorie info thanks to My Fitness Pal

So here is my process:

1. Cut open an avocado and remove the pit

2. Mix 2 oz of crab, 2 Tbsp of cream cheese, and as many cut up cherry tomatoes as you desire.  I only used one because I didn't want the tomato flavor to be too strong.  I think I may have also added a tad bit of lemon juice. You can also add salt, pepper, cayenne, or your favorite seasoning to taste.

3. Plop half of the mixture into each avocado and sprinkle with your desired kind and amount of cheese.  

4. Stick it in a toaster oven for 10 minutes at 350-375 degrees.

These are so delicious, I've done this for three separate meals now.  For dinner I usually use a whole avocado but if I'm having it for lunch I cut the recipe in half.

A Break From Makeup: 400 Calorie Spinach Lasagna Roll Ups

In today's break from makeup I wanted to share these incredibly easy and insanely delicious vegetarian pieces of heaven.

I was looking online for a good lasagna roll up recipe because I live alone and I like cooking meals for one.  I get sick of leftovers really fast so a six serving pan of lasagna sits in my fridge forever and eventually goes bad :(

Anyway I found a decent one that included spinach but as with a lot of these recipes two roll ups were pushing 600+ calories! I usually like to keep each of my meals at 500 calories or less so I decided to try and make a lower calorie version of these cute roll ups.

Recipe screenshot and calorie count thanks to MyFitnessPal!

I decided to take the route of simple and delicious.  I skipped the eggs because I didn't think they were really necessary and also because I'm only making two so I'd have to use like 1/3 of an egg.  I also used cream cheese instead of ricotta cheese because I didn't have any ricotta. I think ricotta is lower cal than cream cheese but the cream cheese tasted so good and unique I'm not sure I'd sacrifice the taste for a few less cals :P

If you aren't a huge sauce person you could probably get away with a bit less than half a cup. I love sauce and still had some left over on my plate.

I also didn't measure out the spinach so I don't think I used quite half a cup but next time I will definitely be adding more.

To make these I first boiled the lasagna noodles then laid them out flat.  I spread the mixture of Italian cheese, cream cheese, and spinach onto each noodle, then carefully rolled them up.  I then dumped a bit of sauce in the bottom of a toaster oven safe bowl, placed the roll ups in seam down, and poured the rest of the sauce on top of them.

I sprinkled the rolls with basil and garlic before popping them in my toaster oven, uncovered. The seasonings  could have also gone inside the mixture but I forgot so they ended up on top.  I baked them at 350 for a bit less than 20 minutes, but if you are using a real oven it may take longer.  Online recipes generally suggested 375 for 25 minutes.

With light versions of the cream cheese, Italian cheese, and sauce this recipe could easily be reduced to only 350 calories or less.

I hope you enjoy this 400 calorie meal as much as I did!

A Break From Makeup: Low Calorie Strawberry Coffee Drink

In today's break from makeup I will be sharing my absolute favorite coffee drink meal substitute thing with you! I love coffee, almonds, vanilla, and strawberries so one day I thought why not combine all of it?! And so I did, it was amazing...and low calorie! ;D

I prefer this to a 16 oz calorie packed Starbucks drink any day!

However the nutritional powder stuff I bought isn't really what I wanted. I was hoping for less sugar and more protein but my grocery store didn't seem to carry anything like that.  Any suggestions?

Here are the contents:

8 oz Black Coffee ~1 cal

8 oz Unsweetened Vanilla or Chocolate Almond Milk ~30-45 cal

One Scoop of a Vanilla Protein Mix  ~125 cal

1/2 cup Frozen or Fresh Strawberries ~25 cal

A Splash of Vanilla Flavoring  ~1 cal

Directions

1. Acquire the coffee by whatever means is your favorite and stick it in the fridge to cool.

2. If using frozen berries remove them from the freezer and allow them to thaw....I plop mine in the coffee to speed up the process.

3. Add a scoop of the nutrition mix and blend the crap out of it!

4. Add the almond milk and vanilla flavor to the blended coffee, strawberries, and nutrition mixture, then stir well.

5. Add ice if it is not quite cold enough or stick it in the fridge overnight for breakfast the next day.

6. Enjoy your 16 oz and less than 200 calorie coffee drink <3

If you would prefer this as just a beverage and not as a meal substitute just forgo the protein powder and perhaps add a bit extra vanilla extract! It will take the calories to less than 100 for a 16 0z serving.  I rarely eat meat so I like the shake mix as a way to add a bit more protein into my diet.  Hope you enjoy!

A Break from Makeup: Strawberry White Zinfandel Cupcakes

I found a recipe for strawberry champagne cupcakes online through a friend and decided that it was necessary to make them using White Zinfandel instead.  My friend and I recently took on the challenge! The following baking pictorial follows this recipe (mostly). 

So before we begin here is what the final product looked like! Yummy! :D

So we began by mixing the dry ingredients together.  We didn't have cake flour so we made our own by mixing normal unbleached flour and corn starch.  In a separate container we combined the wet ingredients including the Sutter Home White Zin and (almost) pureed strawberries.  We didn't have quite enough strawberries to meet the recipes requirements but the cupcakes still tasted of strawberry.

Then we were supposed to add red food coloring but of course we had none. Instead we thought it would be awesome to add blue instead in the hope that it would make purple.......it didn't. It looked like grey nastiness but luckily this didn't show through in the baked cupcakes, haha.

Putting the batter into the cupcake tins.  It was much thicker than we were used to working with.

While the cupcakes baked we simmered a cup of white zin down to two tablespoons in preparation to make the icing.

Once the butter cream icing was properly mixed we added the wine to the icing and it made a pretty light pink and AMAZINGLY delicious mixture.

Cupcakes are out of the oven and aren't grey! YAY!

Here is a final shot of our cupcakes after everything cooled and the icing was applied.  Would I do this again? Sort of.  The cake itself was decent but the icing is really where its at.  I want to put white zinfandel icing on every cupcake I ever make for the rest of forever. So. Good. I definitely recommend grabbing your favorite semi sweet wine and using it to make some awesome cupcakes!!