Happy National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!

Celebrate National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!

Hi, my name is ________ and I’m a Chocolaholic! Today is National Chocolate Covered Anything Day, so whatever you’re eating today make sure to dip it in chocolate! Saying that I have a sweet tooth is an understatement. Yes I love food but if I have my way I will usually go sweet over savory everytime. And my favorite type of sweet is, you guessed it, chocolate! Vanilla is just too . . . . well,vanilla. But dip vanilla in chocolate and now we’re cooking with grease!

To me there is just something magical about chocolate and chocolate master, Max Brenner certainly agrees. For those of you know don’t know, Max Brenner is a chocolate genius! He has restaurants in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, and Las Vegas as well as Australia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Israel. At Max Brenner’s you can order food, food (and it’s really good too) but you must save room for the chocolate!

Max Brenner serves chocolate in every way imaginable. They have a variety of hot chocolates (my fave is the Mexican hot chocolate) perfect for warming you up this winter. There’s also chocolate fondue in an assortment of flavors with all kinds of delicious things to dip into. And of course chocolate cakes and bars, bon-bons and shakes. And this chocolate is GOOD!! I mean real good, not your typical, run of the mill, measly chocolate snack (yeah I’m talking about you M&M’s and Reese’s Pieces) this is the type of chocolate that will turn you into a chocolate snob and you’ll never reach for another Hershey’s product ever again!

Ok I may be exaggerating slightly but you catch my drift. I’m being indulgent, which after all is what being a fan of chocolate is all about! So even if you’re not near a Max Brenner I hope that you will indulge yourself and celebrate #chocolatecoveredanythingday. Be traditional and go with strawberries and bananas or get creative and go with pretzels and potato chips. If you’re feeling daring, go with grasshoppers . . . . . and please report back and let us know how it is!

Happy National Chocolate Covered Anything Day!!!!

Related articles

• Chocolate fashion on a Chinese runway (reuters.com)
• Chocolate Covered Pretzels (thingskaylikes.wordpress.com)
• Christmas Chili Confections – Chocolate Covered Jalapenos Get Festive with Swirling Colors (TrendHunter.com) (trendhunter.com)
• There are four basic food groups: Milk chocolate, Dark chocolate, White chocolate, and Chocolate truffles. (21nogluten.wordpress.com)
• Chocolate-Covered Ants (bookofjoe.com)
• Best of: Chocolate (selenewines.com)

Go Veggie & Win Cash Prize!

Take the Vegetarian challenge: no meat for one day, one week or the entire month for Vegetarian Awareness and you may be a big winner!

Tomorrow, October 1 is World Vegetarian Day and marks the kick off of Vegetarian Awareness Month. The observance was started by the North American Vegetarian Society (NAVS), an non-profit organization that provides a community for and is a source of information on vegetarian lifestyle. So what is a vegetarian exactly? According to NAVS a person may call themselves vegetarian if they abstain from eating all animal flesh including meat, poultry, fish and other sea animals. Then you have an ovo-vegetarian who omits eggs from their diet, a lacto-vegetarian may eat eggs, but not dairy products, and an ovo-lacto vegetarian excludes both eggs and dairy products. A total vegetarian (or vegan) consumes no animal products at all.

There are lots of reasons and benefits to becoming a vegetarian. As far as health is concerned, diets high in animal protein can result in high blood cholesterol, which increases the risk of heart disease. Fruits and vegetables (the main staples of a vegetarian diet) when organically grown especially are full of vitamins and nutrients. From an environmental standpoint the production that goes into the meat industry leaves a pretty big carbon footprint; from the meat processing plants to the deforestation that is a result of the expansion of cattle farms and fields of corn/grain that is specifically grown in order to become livestock feed. And of course there are spiritual, cultural, and religious practices that call for a diet free of meat.

NAVS has worked very hard to create awareness about Vegetarianism in the United States and since there is no rule against it, people sometimes eat vegetarian meals even if they don’t choose to adopt a full-time vegetarian lifestyle.  That being said, a change in consumer interest and demand has resulted in the expansion of vegetarian options on restaurant menus, and most ethnic restaurants offer meatless options anyway as a part of their food culture.

To celebrate and promote Vegetarian Awareness, NAVS challenges all non-vegetarians to go veggie for as long as you can (a day, a week, or even the whole month of October) and you may be win a cash prize! And I’m sure they would also like to remind you that by going vegetarian you will already be a winner because you’ll be  creating a better world by having a positive impact on your health, the environment and society as a whole. So go vegetarian! Think You Can Do It?

Related articles

• Have You Ever Tried to Be a Vegetarian? (fitsugar.com)
• The Must-Have Vegetarian Cookbooks (fitsugar.com)
• Guest Post: Does it pay to become a vegetarian? (mothermiser.wordpress.com)

Celebrate National Fried Chicken Day and Give ‘Em the Bird!

July 6th is National Fried Chicken Day!

Heat up your deep fryers folks, today is National Fried Chicken Day! The choices are endless, from fast food giants like KFC and Popeye’s to famous southern cooking specialty restaurants like Justin Timberlake’s Southern Hospitality or P. Diddy’s Justin’s. You can even find fried chicken for breakfast like at one of our favorite restaurant chains, Roscoe’s Chicken & Waffles.

Traditional southern fried chicken is definitely a diet splurge, with most servings containing anywhere from 550 to 1,000 calories in just the chicken alone! So if you want to celebrate and still be a bit more health conscious practice some portion control and cut it up for a fried chicken salad. Or be creative and get the southern fried chicken sliders from The Cheesecake Factory. 

Want to make it yourself? There are countless recipes and tips online on great sites like www.allrecipes.com and we found this great heart healhy “fried” chicken recipe alternative on the Kitchen Mirror and no there’s no tofu!

So however you like your fried chicken, wing, leg, breast, take out or homemade one thing is for certain: fried chicken is “finger lickin’ good” fun! Don’t believe us? Just ask Roscoe!

National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day

Celebrate National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day today, July 1st! Summer is here and what better way to enjoy and cool down than with a creative ice cream flavor? Ice cream has always been a summertime favorite, but with ice creameries like Ben & Jerry’s, Cold Stone Creamery, and Maggie Moo’s, the flavor selection has come a long way from vanilla, chocolate, and strawberry. National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day invites us to indulge in a sweet treat and try something new. Here is a list of our top 10 most creative food and drink inspired ice cream flavors.

My Creative Flavors Blog's recipe for avocado ice cream

1. Avocado Ice Cream with Lemon Juice: the basis for guacamole or for this new ice cream flavor? This may turn into your new favorite summer snack!

2. Mojito Ice Cream: A summer drink favorite and cool treat all wrapped in one.

3. Foie Gras & Caviar Ice Cream: some things just should not be food let alone ice cream.

Foie gras and caviar ice cream by French creative ice cream maker, Philippe Faur.

4. Guinness Ice Cream: Just one of many beer flavored ice creams being enjoyed today.

5. Mashed Potato Ice Cream: For meat and potatoes lovers, mash it up with this dinner-time staple.

6. Jack Daniels Ice Cream: Being the best selling whiskey in the world, it’s only natural for this liquor to be the basis of an ice cream flavor.

7. Goat Cheese Ice Cream: enjoy this flavor by pairing it with some crackers and red wine, preferably a Sancerre or a Vouvray.

8. Candied Bacon Ice Cream: It’s bacon, enough said!

David Lebovitz's experimental candied bacon flavored ice cream

9. Buffalo Wing Ice Cream: The blue cheese and celery may not be on the side of this dish, but try it as a game time snack.

10. Sweet Chai Latte: And finally one you can find at your local supermarket! Haagen-Dazs comes up with this cool limited edition.

So pick a flavor, any flavor! National Creative Ice Cream Flavor Day is the sweet way to get the ball rolling in celebration of the July 4th holiday weekend. What are some of your favorite wacky ice cream flavors?