Category Archives: Products

Biena Foods Roasted Chickpea Snacks Giveaway!

I was sent complimentary Biena Foods roasted chickpeas to review. All opinions are my own. This is not a sponsored post.

I may have already done a review/giveaway for The Good Bean roasted chickpea snacks, but the first brand of roasted chickpea snacks I ever tried was Biena Foods, at the CT Veg Fest! Now they offer more flavors and I was pleased to accept their offer of a sample of each one to review.

I will be honest with you – there is not much difference between the roasted chickpea snacks offered by The Good Bean and Biena Foods. They have the same amount of calories, fairly similar flavor variety, and comparable all-natural ingredient lists. I will say however that I much prefer Biena’s Sea Salt chickpeas to The Good Bean’s, which are too salty. The point of sea salt is a little goes a long way, and Biena Foods seems to get that! I also loved the Honey Roasted flavor, and The Good Bean does not offer a comparable option. I had the Honey Roasted both in a savory lunch (my salad) and an after-dinner sweet snack (in my favorite Jello pudding); I love that it mixes well with both sweet and savory ingredients!

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WIAW: Fond Food Memories

WOW. Your feedback on yesterday’s post about body comments was awesome. I’m so glad I’m not alone! It’s a post I’ve been wanting to write for awhile and I’m glad I finally found the words I was waiting for so that I could publish it. Keep your comments comin’! Now onto a fun post…

Kaitlin wrote a great post awhile back on certain foods and what they mean to her or remind her of. I loved the idea and reading her post put tons of material into my head for a post of my own on the same topic! And what better day to share this post than What I Ate Wednesday?

Thanks Jenn for hosting this party!

Cinnamon Buns

These have a few different meanings to me, actually. The first involves Christmas morning…every year up until recently, on Christmas morning my mom would make the Pillsbury cinnamon rolls, the ones from the pop-open tubes (I loved opening those!)…and I always chose the one with the most icing! Or ones šŸ˜‰ these weren’t those fancy Grands cinnamon rolls that look store-made…they were the ones that were blatantly from the tube, but that was fine by me. This was also back in the day before Cinnabon was partnered with Pillsbury for every cinnamon roll product.

Visiting the Pillsbury site has informed me that an amazing plethora of new cinnamon roll varieties exists. As in “Extra Rich with Butter Cream”. And Hershey’s chocolate icing. And cream cheese icing!

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WIAW Goes to College

I think it’s fitting to start this post withĀ the Asher Roth classic, “I Love College”! This was my jam during my sophomore year.


What wasn’t my jam was some of the food I lived off of! College is the time period during which I became more adventurous and expanded my palate. It also is the time period during which I developed my eating disorder. I had a lot of different food phases in college. I went from a freshman year of fourth-meals to senior year of starting recovery and learning that eating a rare fourth meal wasn’t going to kill me (especially when I’d skipped the day’s first…second…etc meals). I figured I’d start with sharing some freshman year faves and end with the foodie faves I started to explore both before I developed my ED (when I started trying to “tone up”) and after I entered recovery.

Thanks Jenn for hosting this party!

So about that fourth meal…

My go-to late night meals freshman year consisted of honey BBQ boneless wings, cheese pizza dipped in ranch or bleu cheese dressing, calzones, and Domino’s CinnaStix and Cheesy Bread. Yeah, told you I used to eat very differently! Toward the beginning of my entry to college I’d say I was ordering late-night food every night! It was at this point that some freshman pounds definitely crept on.

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Hartford Magazine October Launch with Hoffman Auto

This past Wednesday I was invited by my good friend Kat (of the Hartford Advocate) to attend the October issue launch party ofĀ Hartford Magazine.

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The event began promptly at 5:30PM at Farmington Gardens, a lovely event venue located in (obviously) Farmington, CT. Thankfully it was a fairly warm day so the patio was decked out in charming lights for guests’ enjoyment.

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From Left to Write Book Club: Raising My Rainbow

I received a copy of “Raising My Rainbow” free of charge for my participation in this book club. The book link below is an affiliate link.

Itā€™s time for another From Left to Write book club post (though Iā€™m getting this one up a bit late ā€“ oops!) and Iā€™m excited this time to be writing alongside some blends! For those who missed my last post, From Left to Write encourages blogging not a review of each book, but a post on anything the book inspired. Yes, anything! Iā€™m here today to write about gender stereotypes and kids, an obvious choice given the description of Lori Duronā€™s Raising My Rainbow:

“Parenting is not an easy job, but what happens when your son loves to wear dresses and plays with toys marketed for girls? Lori Duron encounters this and much more with her youngest son, CJ. InĀ Raising My Rainbow: Adventures in Raising a Fabulous, Gender Creative Son,Ā Duron shares her discovery about CJā€™s gender non-conformity and how her family accepts him for who he is.”

Lori (before this book, she had and still has her blog of the same name) and her husband, Matt, do a great job of not pushing CJ to continue in typical ā€œboy sportsā€ he tries and quickly loses interest in. She mentions that if he asks her to take dance or art classes, she will enroll him and not try to change his mind. Thatā€™s great, but it also got me thinking about the amount of ā€œgender-conformingā€ activities young boys (versus young girls) have available to them.

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Kona Kase: Take Two

I received a complimentary Kona Kase to review as a participant in aĀ FitfluentialĀ campaign. All opinions are my own. This is not a compensated post.

You may recall from my first Kona Kase review that while I liked some of the products in my June Kase, I did not feel overall that the $15 price provide me a good value. I noticed a lack of variety (four bars!) and also felt the contents were geared toward endurance athletes (and I am surely not one). One of the founders, Taylor, sent out an email to the Fitfluential Ambassadors who participated in the campaign, asking if we wanted another Kase (July) to review. Of course my answer was yes – why not?!

As always the product-listing card that comes with each Kase is appreciated!

Though I still didn’t find a use for every product (some were still geared towards endurance athletes, so I gave those to a co-worker who loves biking), I certainly was more satisfied this time around with the amount of products I COULD actually see myself using, along with the variety.

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Planking with Puma’s Formlite and Compression

The following post is sponsored by Fitfluential LLC, on behalf of PUMA.

I had the chance to participate in my first PUMA campaign, and was spoiled with workout gear and new sneakers. Because that’s just what I need, right?!

They know my signature workout gear color - pink!

They know my signature workout gear color – pink!

I received theĀ Formlite XT Ultra Fluo Women’s Training Shoes,Ā Performance Bodywear Tech ACTV Long Tights, and Ribbed Performance Tank Top. Let’s start with the shoes, which are an awesome “highlighter” coral color. They are extremely lightweight (as their name suggests) thanks to the inclusion of cutouts on much of the surface area. While I’m not sure I’d pay the $70 they retail for, I definitely am highly satisfied with their performance and would recommend the shoes. I tried them out during both Group Power and Group Step. The minimalist design (the outsole was feather-inspired) is not ideal for side-to-side plyometric movements, but I really liked wearing them for weight lifting because of how easily the shoe bent when I was lunging or in a push-up/plank position.

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Cocktails with Home Wet Bar!

This post is brought to you by HomeWetBar.com! I received a complimentary product to review, but all thoughts and opinions are my own.

I can’t say I was surprised when HomeWetBar.com contacted me to tell me about their site. I feel like my blog has given away the fact that I am a major cocktail enthusiast. I’ve been known to rank drinks and judge mixology competitions. So a product review for an online retailer of alcoholic beverage accessories seemed like a great fit! No, I am not a lush.

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HLSĀ 2012 represent!

I am very into tasting cocktails and observing how they are made, but haven’t had much personal experience in the art of mixology. I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out my own drink recipe, with the help of the Pro Shaker 10-Piece Bar Set.

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My New Nuttzo

I received a jar of Nuttzo free of charge as part of my participation in this Fitfluential campaign. This is not a compensated post and all opinions on the product are my own.

I’ve already participated in a Fitfluential campaign for Nuttzo, for which I reviewed the Crunchy Seven Nut & Seed Butter. I love love loooooved the stuff and was excited to be chosen once again to review another Nuttzo product!

Man was I sad when I finished this jar.

This time around I was sent the creamy version of the Seven Nut & Seed Butter. I just love the huge variety of nuts and seeds (peanuts, cashews, almonds, Brazilian nuts, sunflower seeds, flax seeds, hazelnuts) that go into this stuff. I am awful at making decisions because I just want to try EVERYTHING. So the best solution for a foodie like me is to throw said everything into one jar. Yes please!

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The Execution of Noa P. Singleton: My Last Meal

I don’t think most are interested in reading a book review unless they’ve either read the book or are definitely planning to read it. That’s why I’m such a big fan of the concept of the From Left to Write online blogger book club. Instead of writing a book review, the book is meant to serve as a writing prompt or inspiration for a post in which I can draw on and blog about my own personal experiences.

Source

July’s book is a debut fiction novel by Elizabeth L. Silver – The Execution of Noa P. Singleton.Ā The story switches between narration by Noa in the first person and narration by the mother of the girl Noa is in prison for killing – in the form of letters to her dead daughter. Immediately Noa is revealed as being on death row for the murder of a girl named Sarah, but we don’t know how said murder or its trial occurred. Slowly, those occurrences are revealed. However, I’m not going to write about them. I’m going to write about a topic discussed at length in one chapter of the book – the last meal.

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Meet Caitlin

I’m a 28 year old full-time working girl living in Boston (previously lived in Connecticut). I’m passionate about food/drink, restaurants, self-love, fitness, and the ever-present search for balance. I write about that journey on this blog – I hope you enjoy!

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Design Credit

My header was originally designed by Mai Le and later tweaked by Chris Roggi to match this theme, which he helped me customize. He also moved me over to self-hosting! Both can be contacted through their sites for design & development work!

Disclaimer

I am not an RD and do not have any official training, certifications, or degrees in nutrition or fitness. This blog is a way to write about my life. Any views I express are mine alone, based on what works for me, and should never be taken as medical advice. Always talk to your doctor or a trained professional before starting a new diet or fitness plan. In addition, this blog and its content are in no way affiliated with Kate Gosselin, “Kate Plus 8”, TLC, or any related affiliates.

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