Food - Pocketful of Joules

I saw it on Pinterest: S’mores Pockets

So far in my Pinterest adventures, I’ve tackled a braided bun , made some fire starters and tried to unclog a sink drain and making a t-shirt bag.

You all know how much I love marshmallows and s’mores, so when I saw this pin’s recipe for how to make s’mores pie pops I pinned it on my ‘yummy foods’ page and promptly forgot about it. As you do, obviously.

A couple weeks ago I was looking through my old pins for inspiration and decided to finally try this recipe out at home. You really only need three things for this recipe: Pillsbury pie crusts, marshmallows and chocolate bars. Sounds pretty easy, right?

I didn’t follow the pin’s instructions exactly – Instead of using three chocolate pieces for each pocket, I used two. I also cut a normal sized marshmallow in half for each treat, instead of using mini marshmallows (because I didn’t have any small ones on hand). Other than that, I followed directions… but my little s’mores raviolis didn’t look as pretty as the ones on the baking website. Which probably surprises no one.

I baked my finished s’mores pies for 15 minutes at 375 degrees and here’s the finished product:

Looks pretty okay, I guess. But the proof is in the pudding. Or, I guess the s’mores. And there was one big problem. The marshmallow disappeared. In fact, if you look closely at the picture you can see that the little puff is practically empty.

I was warned in the original recipe that the marshmallow would melt, but I guess I expected some part to be left behind. I mean, these didn’t even taste like a marshmallow had been by to visit the chocolate AT ALL! Basically, the finished treat tasted like a bit of warm chocolate in a pie crust. Which isn’t bad… but it’s NOT s’mores.

I think I did pretty well in following the directions, but I won’t be making this again. I like my s’mores treats to taste like chocolate AND marshmallow, so I’ll be sticking to the old school version over a bonfire.

Do you have any yummy s’mores recipes I should try? Would you have been disappointed about the lack o’ marshmallow in the finished recipe?

The Kids LiveWell Program (sponsored)

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

Back in the day – meaning before Jack – Travis and I ate out at restaurants all the time. After a long, stressful day at work the last thing I want to do is come home and make dinner. So, we’d eat out. And out. And out. And out.

Once Jack joined us, we kept eating out. In fact, one of the first stops we made when we left the NICU was to have a huge family dinner at Buca di Beppo. Jack slept quietly in his car seat while my entire family all yelled over top each other amid plates of pasta, because that’s how we do dinner.

We had a period of time where we didn’t really WANT to go out with Jack, but now that he’s 3 ½ we can finally have a meal out here and there.

The problem is that I’m kind of picky when it comes to the kid’s meal options. I don’t mind Jack having chicken nuggets and hot dogs every so often… but many times that seems like the only options available.

When I heard that the National Restaurant Association teamed up with Healthy Dining on the Kids LiveWell program, I was pretty excited to check out their healthy options for children. The Kids LiveWell program is celebrating its 4^th birthday this month as the first-of-its-kind voluntary industry program that reaches over 42,000 restaurant locations nationwide committed to providing families with a growing selection of healthful children’s menu choices when dining out.

There is even a free app that helps find participating restaurants and shows Kids LiveWell-approved menu items from participating restaurants. The app is available for download here. If you’d like to celebrate their birthday with them, they are having a twitter chat on July 28 from 1-3 pm ET. Follow Kids LiveWell on Twitter to learn more and use the hashtag #4yrsofKidsLiveWell.

My favorite part of the celebration is that a bunch of restaurants are participating with specials including a deal at Baja Fresh where kids eat free on Sundays. YUM! You can see the full list of specials here.

Are you familiar with the Kids LiveWell program? Where is your favorite child-friendly place to dine out?

Disclosure: I was compensated for this post. All opinions are my own.

Tasting Magnolia Ice Cream

Remember when my friend sent me a ton of Tasti-Lee tomatoes to taste? {Spoiler alert: they were SO good!} Well, a few weeks ago she mentioned that she’d love to send me some Magnolia ice cream to try.

Ummm… YES, please!

In order to keep from eating all of it myself (still working on my fitness over here), I decided to invite some friends over to try it out with me.

Magnolia Ice Cream is all natural, premium ice cream made with pasture raised dairy and 30% fruit purees. They sent us six of their ice creams to try: Mango, Coconut, Lychee, Thai Tea, Avocado and Purple Yam.

I know what you’re thinking… avocado and purple yam?! I didn’t taste any of the flavors before my ice cream party, so I couldn’t wait to try them with everyone! I basically just opened them all up, threw some spoons in and told everyone to dig in. Easiest party ever! Doesn’t my friend Jessy’s bowl look like something out of an advertisement?

I think it’s safe to say that everyone was shocked and pleasantly surprised at some of the more non-traditional ice cream flavors. My friend had suggested trying the Avocado ice cream with pita chips, as almost a dessert dip. I didn’t have any on hand, so we went one step further and scooped it up with tortilla chips… and it was surprisingly good. Something about the cold smoothness of the avocado ice cream with the salty crispy chip was a really nice mix!

After everyone had their fill, I asked each of my guests to pick their favorite and least favorite of the 6 flavors. Everyone was pretty sure of their votes, except my husband who had a final ice cream competition between his two favorites — Mango and Thai Tea. Mango won by a very, very slim lick. It was very serious and scientific. Obviously.

All of the “most favorite” votes are shown with a happy Joules face and the “least favorite” votes are represented with Mr.Stinky Cow.

I chose the Purple Yam as my favorite, which is not something that I ever thought I would like. The flavor is pretty much indescribable. Almost everyone had the same reaction to it too, basically “hmmm…. Wow. WOW. That’s so not what I was expecting! I actually really like it!”

I have to say, it was a very nice way to spend an afternoon… sitting around just eating ice cream with my friends and family. I kind of love the idea of an ice cream tasting party and if I did it again I’d wrap the ice cream pints to hide the flavors to see if people could guess what they were trying!

If you’re interested in trying some of Magnolia Ice Cream’s super yummy flavors, you can use their product locator to find a store near you.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor? Have you ever tried a non-traditional ice cream flavor like Magnolia’s avocado or purple yam ice cream?

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored review. I was sent the Magnolia ice cream to try for purposes of a review, but all thoughts and opinions are my own (and those of my guests). Please note that Magnolia tropical ice cream is made in CA and is not associated with any other magnolia ice cream outside of North America.