© 2014 sarahfortune.

HELLO
Mom to Iris. Wife to Todd. Our little family lives at the foothills of the Ozark Mountains in Fayetteville, Arkansas. We love it here and I love sharing little bits of our life.

© 2014 sarahfortune.
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Category : Food

Food, Life, Sponsored

Back to School with General Mills #NewYearNewCereal

General Mills sponsored this post, but all opinions are my own.

After what seemed like forever and a half, Iris finally went back to school from winter break. Since she’s only in kindergarten, this is our first experience with being out of school for nearly three weeks. At least when she was in daycare, there were a few days scattered between Christmas and New Years to keep us all sane and on some sort of normal schedule. I remember though how much I loved those breaks as a kid. How needed they were. I also remember how hard it was to go back after so much time off. Trying to get back into the swing of things, a little morning motivation to get out of bed is never a bad thing.

So partnering with General Mills couldn’t have come at a better time. Have you guys heard about their new cereals at Walmart? They released mash-ups of some of the best cereals and flavors ever. I’m talking Banana Nut Cheerios, Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheerios, Cinnamon Toast Crunch Shreds, Peanut Butter Chocolate Shreds and – our personal fave – Lucky Charms Frosted Flakes. We picked up a box on Sunday at our local Walmart and Iris couldn’t wait to jump up to try them on Monday morning. As a busy mom trying to get off to work, I’ll take all the help I can get. Especially if that means a happy kindergartner. :)

Find the new General Mills cereals at Walmart and, even better, use this back to school offer. Buy 5 items, scan your receipt with the Box Tops Bonus App and earn 50 Bonus Box Tops! Help earn cash for your kid’s school!

Food, Sponsored

Holiday Sparkle Spritzer Recipe #SimplyHolidaysAtSams

This post is sponsored by SheSpeaks, Inc. and the Simply Orange Juice Company.

If you have spent any time with me at all (or followed me for a mere second on Instagram), you know that I am a lover of wine. Red wine in particular. While it’s especially cozy to drink red in the winter months, it’s never my top-choice for a drink during daylight hours. A bit heavy and bold, red wine is always more of an evening indulgence for me. So finally last summer I found my favorite go-to day drink: wine spritzers. Light, fresh, and a bit toned down in the alcohol department, wine spritzers are perfect for parties on hot summer afternoons or to sip pool-side. But now that it’s winter, I’ve put my own holiday spin on my daytime favorite. My secret has always been to add the best tasting lemonade in conjunction with the sparkling water, so partnering with Simply® Lemonade at Sam’s Club was a natural fit. With 100% juices and juice drinks, Simply Beverages™ are deliciously simple and easy to find in the refrigerated section of your local Sam’s Club.

We’re hosting Christmas at our house again this year (one of my most favorite things to do, ever), so instead of your typical mimosas, the Holiday Sparkle Spritzer will be on the menu (you’re welcome, family!). I typically set up a little bar area, where it’s easy for me to mix up a quick drink for serving and so that guests feel welcome to help themselves. Purchasing the Simply Lemonade®, I know that I’ll have enough to last all day. And of course every holiday drink needs to be served with snacks, so I also picked up Member’s Mark Nuts to keep in bowls around the house. We usually eat our big holiday meal later in the day, so this helps keep people satisfied during the Christmas chaos leading up to the feast.

This recipe is as simple as it is festive – after pouring the Simply Lemonade®, sparkling water, and of course the wine – you just top it with pomegranate seeds and sliced lime! Personally I prefer rosé in my spritzers, but any chilled white will do. Scroll down for the full recipe details!

Holiday Sparkle Spritzer Recipe
Fill glass with ice (I prefer crushed)
1/3 glass of Simply Lemonade®
1/3 glass of chilled rosé
1/3 glass of chilled sparkling water or club soda
1 tablespoon of pomegranate seeds
1 squeeze of lime, with an additional slice for flare

And there you have it – a simple holiday spin on a classic cocktail!


Food, Giveaway, Sponsored

Back to School with Whole Foods Fayetteville

I’m excited to once again team up with one of my local favorites, Whole Foods Market Fayetteville – just in time for Iris’ first year of elementary school! Between the tears about my baby growing up, and the cheers about the disappearing preschool tuition, it hadn’t even occurred to me that I needed to figure out what to pack for lunch or for after school snacks. Enter: Whole Foods! They swooped in just in time and took the lunch-packing pressure off.

Being a mom to a kid starting “real” school for the first time, I found myself worrying about lunch – will she get lost on the way to the cafeteria? Who will she sit with? Will she have time to eat her food? Why in the world is lunch at 10:45 in the MORNING? Does that mean she’ll be starving again before school is even out?

At some point I just have to let go, know that she is not alone, and that she’ll be okay. Concentrating on the one thing I could control, I put all my nervous energy into making sure she had a delish, yet healthy lunch to look forward to. If you know Iris at all, you know that she lives for snacks. I often get embarrassed because when we visit a friend’s house she’s instantly like, “I’m hunnnngry.” It sounds like we never feed her, but in reality she just really likes scoping out other folks’ snack selection.

Thanks to Whole Foods, the only problem I had was limiting the goodness that I put in Iris’ lunch box. Making a sandwich (she prefers ham and cheese, no crust), I like giving her a selection of small, but healthy sides that I’m able to mix and match throughout the week. Annie’s fruit snacks, Pirate’s Booty, clementines, raisins, Annie’s Cheddar Bunnies, yogurt, string cheese, baby carrots, cheery tomatoes, and more have already made appearances in Iris’ cute little lunch tote. And of course with that early lunch time, Iris is instantly ready for a special snack when she gets home. In particular, Iris’ top picks are the individually packaged 365 Everyday Value Organic Chocolate Chip Cookie Bites and their fruit strips. Now that Iris often plays with neighbor friends after school, I’ve started keeping a bowl of mom-approved snacks on the counter so they can help themselves. By the way, did you know that Whole Foods has no artificial colors, flavors, sweeteners or preservatives in their stores?

Another thing I recently learned was that Whole Foods also has a concierge shopping service. I’ve always seen the parking spot labeled for personal shoppers, but didn’t realize how it worked. Turns out, it’s super simple and anyone can use the service. All you do is email your grocery list to swfayconcerigeorders@wholefoods.com. The in-store concierge will shop your list, offer suggestions, and even work with you on delivery options. Each shop fee is only $5 on top of the cost of groceries, and for first-timers, the fee is waived!

And that leads me to… a giveaway! For those of you in the Northwest Arkansas area, I’ll soon be hosting a giveaway that includes two grocery bags full of Annie’s snacks (valued at $75) AND one year of Concierge Shops (the $5 shopping fee waived for a YEAR!). See below for more details – with the giveaway coming to Instagram soon!

Terms/Conditions:
– Offer is only good at Whole Foods Market Fayetteville store location.
– Limit 1 shop per week.
– Personal shop fee is waived (guest still pays for groceries).
– Delivery available (for an additional fee).
– The one year term begins the day that the first shop is initiated. Must begin redemption
starting in calendar year 2017 to complete in 2018.
– Offer is non-transferable.
– Giveaway is hosted here on my Instagram and will be open until 9 pm Central on Thursday, September 8, 2017. Also, be sure to visit Whole Foods Market’s website or the Apple Store to download their shop app for sales, digital coupons and savings!


This post is sponsored by Whole Foods Market Fayetteville, but all opinions are my own.

Food, Sponsored

RECIPE: Sarah’s Summer Salad w/ Chicken

I’m sharing an all-time favorite recipe in our house: Sarah’s Summer Salad with Chicken. It’s my own take on a fresh, yet hearty salad. I’m not typically one to eat a garden for a full meal, however this one is not only tasty, but fills you up! Even Iris is a fan (and she typically claims to not like salads).

Speaking of Iris, after becoming a mom I became much more conscious about not only what we eat, but where our food comes from and how it’s made. Teaming up with +Non GE/+Non GMO Forester Farmer’s Market™, I recently was introduced to their chicken and their commitment to feed their chickens from 100% locally sourced and non genetically engineered/non genetically modified (+Non GE/+Non GMO) grains. The best part? It’s actually super affordable. Available in select Sam’s Clubs stores, you can use the “Where to Buy” link to find one near you.

I purchased the pack of +Non GE/+Non GMO Forester Farmer’s Market™ chicken breasts, which were sealed two to a pack (four packs in all, so eight pieces total!). This made for very easy storage for the chicken we didn’t use – and will end up saving us money overall.

It’s recipe time! This is for two large servings, but I shared some of mine with Iris. :)

Ingredients:
2 +Non GE/+Non GMO Forester Farmer’s Market™ Chicken Breasts
1 cup of balsamic vinaigrette dressing
10 oz of mixed greens
1 cucumber
1 cup cherry tomatoes
1 green apple
1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
1 cup chopped walnuts
1/3 cup sugar

Directions:
– Preheat oven to 400°.
– Marinate the +Non GE/+Non GMO Forester Farmer’s Market™ chicken breasts in 3/4 cup of the balsamic vinaigrette salad dressing.
– While chicken is marinating, place walnuts in a single layer on a sheet pan. Roast approximately 10 minutes, or until browned (keep a close eye, because they can burn quickly!).
– Once the walnuts are roasted, heat 1/3 cup of sugar in saucepan over medium heat. Stir frequently until completely melted into a caramel color. Remove from heat to prevent the sugar from burning and immediately add the roasted walnuts. Stir quickly until fully coated. The sugar will harden fast, so once they are coated, spread them out as much as you can on the sheet pan to cool.
– Bake chicken for 30 minutes at 400°, or until cooked thoroughly and no longer pink.
– While chicken bakes, wash & prep your produce: slice cherry tomatoes in halves, medium dice green apple, half the cucumber long ways and thinly slice, then combine in a large bowl with the mixed greens.

Once the chicken is baked, slice into strips. Plate the salad, topping with the sliced chicken and candied walnuts (you will have to break these apart a bit). Sprinkle blue cheese and the remaining balsamic salad dressing and serve!

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of Forester Farmer’s Market . The opinions and text are all mine.

Food, Sponsored

Share a Box of Cheerios!

Every morning starts the same way in our house – coffee first and then CEREAL FOR ALL! On weekdays Iris’ alarm clock wakes her up at 6:45 am. On weekends, her internal child alarm clock wakes her (and me) up even earlier. Why it always works that way, I’ll never know. “I’m hungry. Can I have some cereal?” is usually heard within the first few minutes. Todd and I are still fumbling around making a mess of coffee grounds as we also pour her a bowl.

On any given day you can usually open our pantry door and find at least one box of Cheerios (I think the all-time record is four different varieties). They were a staple when I was little and, naturally, are a staple for Iris too. Now, thanks to Cheerios, Iris can continue the tradition herself with their “Buy a box, Give a box” offer. At Walmart, if you buy a specially marked box, you can share a box with someone you love. With Father’s Day coming up, the choice for Iris was easy… Now if she could just learn to make coffee. 😉

Find your code inside specially marked packages in stores and enter it on Walmart.com to send a coupon for a free box of Cheerios to someone that matters.

This is a sponsored post. All opinions (and coffee) are my own. #Cheerios #GetOneGiveOne #WithLove