Yoplait Whips Giveaway

I guess you could call me a yogurt freak. See, I'm not big on dairy. Yes, I do eat ice cream, but that's not an every day occurrence. Sometimes I like cheese, but even that's not every day. So, in order to get my daily calcium in, I eat quite a bit of yogurt- all kinds of yogurt.

MyBlogSpark contacted me and asked me to write a review Yoplait Whips. These have only recently began to pop up in stores around here, so I was excited to try them. They come in 9 different flavors- Chocolate Mousse, Chocolate Raspberry, Key Lime Pie, Lemon Burst, Orange Crème, Peaches 'N Cream, Raspberry Mousse, Strawberry Mist, and Vanilla Crème.

I tried the Strawberry Mist. I put it in the freezer for a couple of hours before eating it. And let me tell you, what a great idea! I had never really thought of freezing yogurt before seeing Yoplait Whips commercials, but it was delicious. I ate it as dessert, and it really hit the spot. These yogurts are great as a low calorie snack or dessert.

Yoplait and MyBlogSpark are giving away a Yoplait Whips prize pack to one of my readers! The prize pack includes a canvas cooler bag, a coupon to try Yoplait Whips, and a set of 4 ice cream shaped popsicle molds.

Giveaway Rules:

-Leave a comment telling me your favorite flavor of Yoplait Whips or the flavor you would most like to try. Please also include your email address.
-This giveaway will end Sunday, September 5 at 11:59pm (EST). I will use random.org and announce the winner here on Monday.

A complimentary sample of this product, along with information and the prize pack, was provided courtesy of Yoplait through My Blog Spark. No other form of compensation was received and opinions are all my own.

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips

My aunt made this fruit salsa several months ago at a family get together, and I have not stopped thinking about it since! I gave her a call the other day to get the recipe so I could finally eat some of this again. It is a recipe that apparently her family has been passing around for quite a while now, so I'm not sure of the original source.

It took me over an hour (seriously!) to make this fruit salsa, but it could not be easier. And it was well worth the time. It also makes quite a bit- I have about half of it left still after a couple days. It's one of those recipes that gets better if it sits for a little while before eating...but, I certainly didn't let it sit before trying it. This recipe was the hit of the party when my aunt made it, and I'll definitely be using it for an upcoming party.

Fruit Salsa with Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
from my aunt

Fruit Salsa
Ingredients:
1 lb. strawberries, diced into small pieces
2 kiwi, peeled and diced into small pieces
8 oz. raspberries, roughly chopped (I used frozen)
2 medium sized apples, peeled, cored, and diced into small pieces (I used Golden Delicious)
2 tbsp. white sugar
1 tbsp. brown sugar
3 tbsp. any flavor fruit preserves (I used raspberry because that's what I had)

Place all ingredients in a large bowl. Stir gently until well mixed.

Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
Ingredients:
10-10" flour tortillas
butter flavored cooking spray
1/4 cinnamon sugar, more or less to taste

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Cut tortillas into triangles (I cut 12 chips from each tortilla). Arrange on a cookie sheet, slightly overlapping each other. Spray generously with cooking spray and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on top. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until the chips start to brown.

Buffalo Chicken Pizza

Ok, this recipe is hands down, one of the best things I make. It is so simple, so quick...and SO good! I have said many times that I love, love, love buffalo chicken anything. And pizza's alright too. I don't love pizza, but every once in a while, I do crave it. But, one way to make something go from alright to amazing is to buffalo chicken-ize it!

I've been making this pizza since Mr. Z and I got married, and it's on our regular rotation. We have this pizza about once every few weeks. For some reason, I've never thought to blog about it because it's so simple, but when I made it a few days ago, I decided to go ahead and blog it. My buffalo chicken pizza is all buffalo chicken-y. No tomato sauce, onions, or celery...not my style. This recipe is great! If you are a huge buffalo chicken fan like I am, you have to try this recipe!

Buffalo Chicken Pizza
Original Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tbsp. olive oil
8 oz. chicken breast, chopped into small pieces
2 tbsp. butter or margarine
1/2 c. Frank's Buffalo Wing sauce
1 lb. ball of pizza dough
1/4 c. bleu cheese dressing
8 oz. Italian blend shredded cheese

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Cook chicken until just done. Add butter and buffalo wing sauce and mix well to fully coat all of the chicken. Let cool slightly.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Roll dough ball into a circle. Spread with bleu cheese dressing, leaving about 1/2" around the edges. Top with chicken. Sprinkle cheese evenly over the pizza. Bake on pizza stone for about 30 minutes, or until cheese starts to brown and get bubbly.

Crab Cakes

I either love crab cakes or hate them. Crab cakes are one of those things that are very easy to mess up. The number one way to screw them up is to put too much filler. If I can't even tell that there is crab meat in there, that's a problem. But, if you don't put enough other ingredients in there, they'll fall apart, which also creates a problem. I've made crab cakes before, and they've always turned out pretty good, but these...these are pretty amazing. They're very simple, but that's the way I like it so you can really taste the crab. Seriously, these are definitely going to become part of my regular rotation of meals. I may or may not have already made them twice in the past two days! I came up with this recipe on my own, after flipping through a bunch of recipes that were not exactly what I was looking for. Also, I made this recipe only for myself- it only made two decent sized crab cakes, so if you are cooking for more than one, you may want to at least double it.

Crab Cakes
Original Recipe

Ingredients:
1 tsp. olive oil
1 stalk of green onion
6 oz. can of crab meat, drained
1 egg
1/2 c. Italian style panko
pinch of salt and pepper
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. paprika
sprinkle of cayenne pepper

Heat 1/2 tsp. olive oil in a pan over medium-high heat. Once hot, add green onions and saute until they are soft. Set aside and let cool slightly.

Put crab meat, egg, panko, salt and pepper, garlic powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and cooked onions in a mixing bowl. With a spoon, stir gently until well mixed. Divide mixture into two equal parts with your hands and make a patty out of each.

Heat the remaining 1/2 tsp. of olive oil in the same pan you cooked the onion in, over medium-high heat. Add crab cakes and cook for about 3-4 minutes on one side, turn over, and cook for 3-4 minutes on the other side.