Monday, September 16, 2013

Two of our Family Favorites and Giveaways


 I relax some of my food standards when we’re away from home. Despite my best efforts,  you cannot always control everything. Vegetables aren’t always organic, most restaurants don’t cook with coconut oil etc. Additionally, contrary to what my offspring think, my mission in life isn’t to embarrass them in any way possible. Even with the upcoming book, at one of our early meetings when we conceptualized it, my agent looked at me and said “the advice for each scenario cannot be to bring your own.” I agreed. But there are places when you should bring your own and one of those places is the movies.

My children eat candy and have treats but they don’t need sour patch kids the size of a clutch purse or popcorn popped in garbage. They used to give me a hard time over my need to smuggle in my own cinema offerings until I found a solution they adored. The solution’s name is Quinn and this popcorn is insanely good. Aside from the movies it’s now our football snack, road trip snack- we’re pretty into it.

As Quinn says it’s “microwave popcorn reinvented”.  I have many issues and phobias but the microwave isn’t one of them. If you don’t microwave, there are stovetop directions.  The bag is free of chemical coatings and such found in typical micro pop (and also compostable). All ingredients are non-GMO, popcorn is organic. You pop the popcorn, add oil and shake, add the flavor packet and shake again. Our only issue is that we live in a house divided. Two favor Vermont Maple and Sea Salt and two can’t think beyond Hickory Smoked Cheddar.

So there are times when I try to find a family friendly replacement for unhealthy options. Other times, I’m trying to pack the maximum amount of nutrition into our family meals.  One of my favorite ways to do this is with hemp (seeds, oil, powder). Hemp hearts (shelled hemp seeds) have a mild flavor and contain a variety of fats making them great for skin, cognition and mood.  They’re also a good source of protein. These go in our school day smoothies and get sprinkled over salads and in yogurt.

From our family (and the Quinn and Manitoba Harvest family) to yours.
Quinn is giving away a 6-pack of all flavors of their popcorn.
Manitoba harvest is generously supplying a lucky reader a hemp starter pack (with hemp oil, hemp hearts and hemp protein).

To be eligible
  1. Comment below (with an email address so we can reach you)
  2. Tweet “@foodtrainers family favorites @quinnpocorn and @manitobaharvest #giveaway http://foodtrainers.blogspot.com/2013/09/two-of-our-family-favorites-and.html"
  3. And like Manitoba Harvest and Quinn Popcorn on Facebook

You have until Thursday September 19th to enter 
How do you maximize nutrition in your meals? Have you tried either of these foods? And where do you try to smuggle food?

18 comments:

  1. Lindsay @ The Lean Green BeanSeptember 16, 2013 at 5:23 AM

    loooove hemp! and i've been wanting to try quinn!

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  2. Lindsay @ The Lean Green BeanSeptember 16, 2013 at 5:23 AM

    tweeted!

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  3. Julie Abrams RosenblumSeptember 16, 2013 at 6:20 AM

    We dream about Quinn and can't wait to try Manitoba!

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  4. and maybe you will, it's so good.

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  5. That Quinn popcorn sounds fantastic! The movie popcorn is always so salty, in addition to being covered in "butter" or whatever it really is. I honestly don't go to the movies all that often but when I do, I totally smuggle food in. Why overpay for all that junk food anyway? And if you smuggle it in, you have so many more choices.

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  6. I seriously think for many kids it's the kiosk. If there was Quinn (unreal candy, sweet riot etc sorry just dreaming up my fantasy movie food) and other choices kids be fine they just want to partake. And Jen- we only wish it was actually butter.

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  7. I am totally guilty of bringing a couple primal strips to a bar the other night. I'm not a huge fake meat enthusiast, but the ingredients list doesn't freak me out too much, and the single-serving strips are really convenient to throw in my purse. I had no idea how long it would be until my next meal, so I wanted to have something on me in case I got hungry.


    At one point, I saw a friend of a friend eating some jerky, and I was, like, "Hey, I'm not the only one who brought jerky to a bar!" He gave me a weird look and said, actually, he'd bought it there. Of course. He did not talk to me the rest of the night.

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  8. I love the hemp hearts, and the Quinn's popcorn sounds awesome! I already like both facebook pages and I tweeted : https://twitter.com/j_mosh/status/379798478844461056


    jordan.dunne21(at)gmail(dot)com

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  9. Thanks Jordan for stopping by, seems a split 1/2 readers are new to hemp and others to quinn.

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  10. I like both FB pages (Organicall You)

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  11. I tweeted: https://twitter.com/Organicall_You/status/379967864154750976

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  12. I would LOVE to win! You can contact me at organicallyou@gmail.com :)

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  13. Thank you and good luck.

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  14. I have always wanted to try Quinn. Who doesnt love a healthy version of microwave popcorn. Maybe this is my chance. You can contact me at erlazaruk@gmail.com. Tweeting and liking now!

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  15. I don't know who (maybe those non-microwavers). Let's see if this is your Quinn time. Thank you for spreading the work Elyse.

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  16. I've tried the Quinn popcorn at the Natural Foods Expo-agree, it's quite yummy-but I've never popped it at home. You keep pushing the hemp...Should i give it another try?? Don't like hemp milk, but perhaps the hearts would be more to my taste :-)

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  17. Am I a "hemp pusher" who knew? Yes, try it EA. The hearts are very mild and versatile. Are you a hemp hater?

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