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White Watermelon Sangria

July 30, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I had the best watermelon ever after the Rockville Twilighter and now I’m all about watermelon. We were left with a big bowl of watermelon after our recent watermelon carving experiment. So, I made sangria.

I was inspired by Kitchen Play’s July Progressive Party. Each month, Kitchen Play hosts an online party with a sponsored theme. This month’s theme is summertime dining with CUTCO.

I love our CUTCO knives (but don’t tell my husband because I wasn’t happy when he bought them; they are a bit pricey). Those knives are the ones I reach for first when cooking. They made slicing fruit for sangria a cinch.

CUTCO Cutlery

White Watermelon Sangria

Inspired by Summertime Sangria from Nutmeg Nanny

3 cups white wine

1 cup ginger ale

1 cup watermelon, blended

1/4 cup sugar

apple, lime, orange slices

Stir ingredients together and refrigerate for two hours. Serve over ice. Garnish with fruit.

White Watermelon Sangria Recipe

What’s your favorite summertime dish?

This Kitchen Play Progressive Party includes a giveaway from CUTCO for a Salad Mates gift set. This post is my entry. The opinions expressed and the CUTCO knives described above are my own. I was not compensated for this post but hope to win the giveaway.

Filed Under: Food (Allergy), Recipes Tagged With: , , , ,

How to Carve a Watermelon

July 29, 2012 by 2 Comments

Have you ever carved a watermelon, like you would a pumpkin?

The idea didn’t occur to me until I was approached by Stephanie from the National Watermelon Promotion Board about participating in the Watermelon Carving Contest Blogger Challenge.  The challenge sounded fun so I enthusiastically agreed.

And then our watermelon arrived.

My husband and I stared at it, not quite sure where to begin.

Fortunately, there are carving recipes on the National Watermelon Promotion Board’s website. And there’s a category in the contest for duplicating one of those recipes.There are six categories altogether; the other five categories are for original creations.

We were inspired by the turtle carving and decided to make a crab, in honor of our home state, Maryland.

Watermelon Crab Carving

We created a fruit bowl from the watermelon crab carving.

It was a lot easier than we thought and a lot of fun, too.

First, we (and by we, I mean my husband; I took photos) cut the watermelon in half. Then, he scooped out the insides of each half with an ice cream scoop – we couldn’t find our melon baller.

Next, my husband drew an outline of a Maryland crab on the top half of the watermelon with a dry erase marker. Then, he cut out the rind along the outline.

To finish the crab, we used blueberries for eyes and filled the bottom half with the watermelon balls.

Maryland Crab Watermelon Carving

Our Maryland Crab watermelon carving

What would you carve out of watermelon? The 3rd Annual Watermelon Carving Contest is open through August 4, 2012 – the day after National Watermelon Day – so there’s still time to enter. You could win up to $600!

How to Carve a Watermelon

Our watermelon crab scuttling away.

For participating in the Watermelon Carving Contest Blogger Challenge, I received a watermelon, a Dexas watermelon cutting board, a Temple of Thai carving tool and a set of Lips and Love Basket heart shaped cookie cutters from the National Watermelon Promotion Board. The ideas expressed above are my own.The watermelon crab creation is all my husband.

Filed Under: Food (Allergy) Tagged With: ,

Mom It Forward Guest Post: How Yoga Benefits The Busy Mom

July 26, 2012 by Leave a Comment

I’m guest posting at Mom It Forward again. This time about my new love — yoga! Check out my interview with yoga instructor Kelly Newsome about how yoga benefits busy moms.

Yoga for Moms

Photo Credit: lululemon athletica via Flickr

Filed Under: As Seen In Guest Posts, Fitness, Healthy Living Tagged With:

Are You Ready to Get UnJunked with UNREAL?

July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

We don’t have a lot of candy in our house. Candy choices are limited for children with food allergies. Although, our options have recently expanded since my son outgrew his peanut allergy.

A new line of candy, while not food-allergy-friendly, recently caught my attention.

UNREAL

UNREAL Candy

Its candy unjunked.

What’s does that mean? It means its made with real ingredients – cane sugar, milk, peanuts and cacao.

It means its free of artificial flavors and preservatives and it does not contain GMOs, hydrogenated oils or corn syrup.

UNREAL has taken the junk out of candy.

That’s not to say its healthy – its still candy – but it’s a step in the right direction.

And the taste? While I can’t personally tell you how good this candy is – its full of the allergens I’m avoiding – I can tell you that it didn’t last long in our house. The lot of samples we received* was gone in a day thanks to my husband.

But don’t just take my word for it. Join me for Kitchen PLAY’s #GetUnReal Twitter and Tasting Party on Tuesday, July 24 at 7 p.m. and find out what others are saving about this new candy.

What foods would you like to see unjunked?

I received samples of UNREAL from Healthy Child Healthy World. The opinions expressed above are my own.

Filed Under: Food (Allergy) Tagged With:

Run Report: Rockville Twilighter

July 23, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Last night, I completed my first 8K race.

(pause for a congratulatory woot! woot!)

Rockville Twilighter

It was the Rockville Rotary Twilight Runfest – or the Rockville Twilighter for short. 4.97 miles through an urban neighborhood, college campus and town center.

I did not train. I should have.

I tried but only managed to run once a week (rather than 3 times) and no more than 3 miles, if that.

And I’m feeling it today. Oh, boy, am I feeling it today. Stairs are not my friend.

I easily ran the first two miles – in light rain and on slick pavement – but got discouraged and walked the next hill. It didn’t help that the second mile marker intersected with the finish line, which runners were crossing at the time (24 minutes in)!

I kept going, mostly running, walking more hills. When I got to mile 4, I kept on running. I was determined to finish strong.

My running partner and I crossed the finish line in just under an hour (our goal) – 58:57!

The highlight for me was hearing my name called as a finisher. Got to love technology and electronic timing chips.

After the race, there was beer. Lots of beer. Four 16-oz beers per runner. I had two.

And there was food – lots of yummy treats (like Dunkin Donuts), most of which I could not eat because of food allergy restrictions. The watermelon, though, was the best I’ve ever tasted.

I’ll likely run this race again next year. It’s a fun change of pace running at night (although the recovery is a little harder — or maybe the lack of training is to blame).

Next up? Most likely the Women’s Distance Festival. Then the Color Run and the Rock N Roll 10K. I really need to train for that one.

Really.

Have you run an 8K? How’d it go?

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