Kelly Donlea for Menu Monday & Barrington EATS, Author at 365Barrington

48. Barrington EATS: Cut Costs Cooking with Cabbage

When it comes to saving money on groceries,…

36. Barrington EATS: Warm Up Your Winter with Sunshine-Fresh Produce at Heinen’s Fine Foods

We hear people around Barrington buzzing about the…

20. Barrington EATS: The Forbidden Fruit for Tasty Tuesday

It’s Tasty Tuesday time again at District 220 schools, and the ingredient of the month for February is grapefruit. Tasty Tuesday is a new healthy eating initiative in our elementary schools where students are served a sample of a fruit or vegetable on the first Tuesday of each month. Then, the same food item will be offered intermittently on the school lunch menu for remainder of the month.
Since the district also recommends we try to serve our kids the food of the month in our own homes, we have a family-friendly recipe for you try, starring the ingredient of the month. I couldn’t be more excited to share a few tips about serving grapefruit, which is my favorite fruit and affectionately known as “The Forbidden Fruit” by those, like me, who love it.
Others may just remember the grapefruit diet fad and perhaps only think of grapefruit as a cleanser for the fruit’s low glycemic index, which helps the body’s metabolism burn fat when digesting. It’s also a great provider of Vitamin C, fiber and lycopene and can help lower cholesterol. These are all good reasons to incorporate grapefruit into your diet. But how about because it tastes great? And I find it truly reliable in texture and flavor in all seasons.
I agree with District 220’s Tasty Tuesday program that we should all try to get our families to eat more grapefruit. Grapefruit has a reputation for being bitter, which happens if you get a bite with too much of the abundant pith, the part that surrounds and separates the segments. Here is a way to cut the fruit that eliminates the majority of the pith, and allows you to easily eat or carve out just the juicy pulp……

15. Heinen’s Football Crowd Pleasers for Sunday’s Big Game

With The Big Game just days away, chefs…

13. Barrington EATS: Heinen’s Fine Foods for Better Health

With the season of New Year’s resolutions in full swing, Heinen’s Fine Foods in Barrington is making it easier for us to stay on target and reach our health and wellness goals in 2013. In fact, they have a whole department in the store dedicated to subject, their Wellness Resource Center, and we decided there’s no better time than now to get to know the center’s resident wellness expert, Kadi Shipley.
With a degree in dietetics from the University of Akron, Kadi is in charge of answering questions about the thousands of products Heinen’s carries to help us improve our diets for better health. “The research is there for why eating healthy is important, but what people need to embrace individually is how good eating-well makes you feel. If people experience stress, fatigue or discomfort with their bodies, I want them to understand there are ways to eat that can solve these problems.”
When it comes to the latest health foods, drinks, vitamins and supplements available today, Kadi’s tried and tested hundreds of products. So we asked her to share a short list of things to know and products to help improve our daily diets. She boiled it down to eight great recommendations……

10. Barrington EATS: Cooking Classes in Your Home Kitchen

When the Henry and Adams families were planning…

3. Barrington EATS: A Raspberry Resolution

It’s our first Barrington EATS post of 2013…

338. 12 Days of Recipes, Day 12: Sausage Breakfast Strata

A Christmas Brunch tradition for my family is…

335. Barrington EATS: Heinen’s Beef for the Holidays

When we say Heinen’s makes holiday beef easy,…

332. 12 Days of Recipes, Day 9: Peaches & Cream Coffee Cake

A lot of thought goes into the dishes…

329. 12 Days of Recipes, Day 8: Best Cookie Exchange Recipes

With cold, wet weather and the season’s first measurable snowfall expected today, here’s a fun indoor activity you can do alone or with your kids. Forget about the fire, why not just heat up by the oven as you try your hand at some of my favorite holiday cookie recipes? These are great for a cookie exchange, as gifts for neighbors or just for enjoying at home with your family. And they’re the highlight today for Day 8 of our 12 Days of Recipes series here at 365Barrington.com.

For us, we have a little different criteria for the best cookie exchange recipes. The cookies have to look festive. They have to be easy enough to crank out six dozen in about 2 hours. The recipe has to be basic enough to triple with ease. And, of course, we want to skip all fussy ingredients.

Candy-Dipped Chocolate Cutout Cookies
We think any basic cookie, such as oatmeal, sugar or chocolate cutout cookie dipped in melted white chocolate and then crushed candy cane pieces is a holiday best. White chocolate and candy cane pieces are a perfect mouthful of holiday flavor, and with any good cookie base, they are a true crowd pleaser. Below is a recipe that does this with chocolate cutout cookies. You can do something similar with crushed pistachios, m&m pieces or sprinkles in place of the candy canes……

323. 12 Days of Recipes, Day 6: Mashed Potato Bar

Here’s a great way to bring something unique to your holiday buffet or table. A mashed potato bar can be loads of fun and it’s our featured item for Day 6 of our 12 Days of Recipes here at 365Barrington.com.

I recently helped throw a baby shower for my cousin who craved mashed potatoes throughout her pregnancy. We decided the mashed potato bar was the way to go for the menu, and it was a huge hit.

Favorite toppings were the French’s Fried Onions and Sundried Tomatoes. Another idea I’ve seen at weddings is to serve both the scoops of mashed potato and the toppings in martini glasses.
Following is a list of other items we used or you could try. Just make a heaping amount of mashed potatoes, and place all toppings in serving bowls with spoons……