Ad: Fuel Your Inner Superhero with a High Protein Breakfast

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser. #StartWithTyson

I live with a superhero.

Every morning my husband wakes up bright and early to rush off  to work, only lingering long enough in the kitchen for his coffee thermos to fill.  He doesn't stop to decide what to eat for breakfast, he usually just skips it. Flying out the door and off to face another long day of problem solving, disaster averting and feats of strength or endurance.  My husband is a farmer.

Being that super doesn't always leave time to sit down for breakfast. And I really don't wake up with the sun to make it for him, either. But all that work requires a high protein breakfast, a way to keep up his strength and energy for whatever Mother Nature throws at him.

 

Right now hay season is in full swing . The hay waits for no one. Too wet and it will mold, too dry and it might shatter. Just the right balance must be found and then it is go, go, go!

Because that go, go, go often leaves my husband working through meals and crashing from hunger, I decided to treat him to an easy healthy breakfast. A fast protein packed option he could grab quickly anytime of the day or night.

Heading over to my local Walmart I took a peek at what was available. I went straight for the frozen section because those items require very little prep or time. The Tyson Day Starts caught my eye because they contain 24% or more of the daily recommended protein intake.

I am a big fan of breakfast sandwiches. Of course, I want it all and have high expectations for ease of preparation as well as for it to taste like homemade. The eggs should taste like, well... eggs. And you know, I think I found a winner. 

I selected a box of the Sausage Egg Cheese Biscuits for my husband, his favorites, and the Southern Style Chicken Breast Fillet Biscuits for myself. Hey, I deserve quick breakfast ideas, too!

For my husband, his Day Starts went well with a cup of black coffee. I added in this citrus salad with pomegranate seeds. He is not against fruit in the morning, but won't reach for it unless it is ready to go and easy to eat. I don't see how anyone could pass up this simple, yet tasty, fruit salad.

Even my kids love citrus and I think it is a bright way to start the day. This little salad contains oranges, grapefruit and pink grapefruit segmented and tossed with pomegranate seeds. No need for a dressing. When they are segmented like this, my family just gobbles them up.

And my breakfast was very similar to my husband's, but I loved my Southern Style Chicken Breast Fillet Biscuit. It was a large piece of white meat chicken, juicy and flavorful, on a yummy biscuit.  Keeping my breakfast in one hand allowed me to easily feed the baby and myself at the same time.

A simple high protein breakfast like this,

...leaves my husband feeling a little more like this. Ready to tackle another long day of farming.

I know that we can't all be farmers, but we all have a little super hero inside each of us. Our super powers may all be different, but our strength for the day begins with a good breakfast.

Check your local Walmart for other Tyson Day Starts varieties like flatbreads and wrapped omelets. 

You can connect with Tyson on their Facebook page or Twitter to keep up with their newest products, promotions and special offers.

What is your superpower?

Ad: Little Birds, Big Flavor - Spatchcocking Chicken for the Grill

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser. #Grill4Flavor

I hope your Memorial Day Weekend is off to a great start.

Maybe your weekend will include some grill time, a backyard bash or just hanging out with the family. My weekend wouldn't be complete without a BBQ. Growing up my Dad always made BBQ chicken or burgers on the Weber. This year though, I decided to change things up by using Tyson Cornish hens instead of chicken breasts or thighs. I was going for the juicy and tender meat you get with a whole bird, but by using the technique called spatchcocking, I would enjoy a faster cooking time.

Say what? ...Yeah, it is called spatchcocking.

Far from being a medieval torture throw-back, spatchcocking is a great way to cut down your cooking time on the grill. An easy method for partially deboning a bird and it helps to flatten out the meat against the cooking surface. 

So I headed into Walmart to grab my recipe supplies.

First, I needed the lucky bird, or in this case, birds. In the center freezer island of the meat department, I found 2-packs of Tyson Cornish Hens. These were perfect. I could serve my BBQ creation 2 ways and please a hungry crowd. Plus, two small hens would easily fit on my home grill.

Then I went in search of marinade and brine ingredients. Kikkoman Soy Sauce is a favorite of mine and always a staple in my fridge, lots of umami there. 2 years ago I used it to brine our Thanksgiving bird and loved how moist and flavorful it turned out. This time I wanted to brine one of the hens and create a marinade and glaze for the other.

If you have ever combined soy sauce and chicken, you know that some things were just meant for each other...

Okay, let's take a quick peek at spatchcocking. It may sound intimidating, but is actually quite simple. I also have a quick Instagram video that highlights the 'how to' of spatchcocking chicken.

1. Assemble your tools. You will need a Cornish hen, kitchen sheers and 2 pre-soaked bamboo skewers per bird.
2. With the shears, cut down each side of the back bone.
3. Remove the back bone and flatten out the bird.
4. Trim off the wing tips and stabilize with 2 skewers inserted through the wing and out the leg on the opposite side, in a criss-cross pattern.

Now my birds were ready to soak up my brine or marinade.

While my Dad would brush and baste our meat with a jarred BBQ sauce, I wanted to create a sweet and savory marinade with Asian flavor. For the first bird I went for an apricot glaze that would also work as a marinade. Whip this up and marinate the bird overnight, or at least for 4 hours.

 

Apricot Marinade

Your will need:

• 1/2 c. apricot preserves
• 2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. Kikkoman Soy Sauce
• 1 Tbsp. honey
• 1 tsp. toasted sesame oil
• 1 tsp. garlic powder
• 1 tsp. freshly ground ginger root
• 2 tsp. dried chives

Whisk together all the ingredients and  pour over chicken in baking dish. Cover with kitchen wrap and refrigerate for 4 hours or more. Remove the chicken before cooking and pat dry before adding to the grill.

Create more of the marinade to baste the bird with as it grills for a tasty glaze.

For the second hen I went with an overnight brine. Truly a classic way to impart flavor for the grill. Just whisk together the soy sauce, salt and herbs and let the chicken sit overnight in the fridge, or at least 4 hours before patting dry and heading to the grill.

Savory Chicken Brine

You will need:
8 c. water
2 tsp. dried sage
2 tsp. celery seed
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1/2 c. kosher salt
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. Kikkoman Soy Sauce

Whisk together all the ingredients in a medium stock pot. For this recipe, don't skewer the bird until after it has brined. Make sure the hen is completely coverd and let it brine for at least 4 hours, or overnight. To grill, remove from the brine, pat dry and add the soaked bamboo skewers to hold the bird flat against the grill.

So now that the Cornish hens are infused with great flavor they are ready to BBQ. I am not a grill expert, usually that is my husband's area of expertise. Even so, I was thrilled with how these turned out. My hens took less than 10 minutes per side. Keep your meat thermometer handy so you can get an exact internal temperature for perfectly cooked birds.

I served mine on a platter of greens with lemon wedges. Just a little acid was a great compliment to the flavors already in the meat.

Served up alongside wild rice and roasted brussel sprouts, this was our dinner. This is how we #Grill4Flavor around here.

Does this look good, or what? 

Now, if inspiration has hit, be sure to grab a $2 off coupon when you purchase both a Tyson Cornish Game Hen Twin pack and 10 oz. Kikkoman sauce together. You can find coupons on neck hangers around participating 10 oz. Kikkoman sauce bottles starting June 1st, or head over to coupons.com starting May 15th through September 30th or while supplies last.

Be sure to check out Tyson on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram for more great products and ideas as well as Kikkoman's Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter and Instragram account for even more creative ways to use soy sauce in your kitchen.

Ready to get grilling? Have you ever grilled Cornish hens?

#ad Spicy and Cheesy Tyson Chicken Nugget Sliders

#ad - I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community. I served up the new Tyson Spicy Chicken Nuggets and the Tyson Cheesy Chicken Nuggets for a quick and fun family meal.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client. #LoveUrNuggets

Saturday is a special day in our house - Game Day! We proudly wear our green and yellow to support our favorite college team, the Oregon Ducks. So far this season we are undefeated. A three generation Duck family, both my husband and I attended and we have passed our love of the game and team to our children.

All that cheering works up quite the appetite. I like to enjoy my Saturday spending time with family rather than slaving away in the kitchen. So I am always looking for fast meal ideas that will please my hungry crowd. Game day food must be finger-friendly, fun and appeal to everyone.

Have you noticed the new Tyson Cheesy Chicken Nuggets and Spicy Chicken Nuggets? I found them at my local Walmart in the freezer section.

Gourmet nuggets? Yes, please.

Now, chicken nuggets are a fun food on their own, but to get them dressed up for game day I created two slider recipes using the new chicken nugget flavors and Hawaiian mini rolls.

This would also make a fun serve-yourself set-up, but they were easy to make up ahead of time. I loved the peppery flavor of the Tyson Spicy Chicken Nuggets and paired it with my favorite garlic pepper cheddar and homemade bread and butter pickles.

Crispy chicken and sweet pickles just make me happy.

I kept things simple because the nuggets are already packed with flavor.

My Spicy Pepper Pickle Slider

• Tyson's Spicy Chicken Nuggets
• Mini Hawaiian Rolls
• mayonnaise
• Garlic and peppercorn cheddar cheese
• bread and butter pickles

Just pile them up and use a skewer or toothpick to hold them together.

I also broke out the BBQ sauce and pineapple rings to compliment the new Cheesy Chicken Nuggets. My kids love sweet and tangy BBQ sauce.

My Cheesy Pineapple BBQ Slider

• Tyson's Cheesy Chicken Nuggets
• Mini Hawaiian Rolls
• mayonnaise
• Honey mesquite BBQ sauce
• pineapple rings

Build your creation and watch them disappear quickly. Our BBQ sauce got a little messy, so be sure to have napkins handy.

If you have Chuck E Cheese fans in the house, don't miss out on the token coupon on the back of Tyson Cheesy Chicken Nugget bags. You can get 130 tokens for $25 (a savings of $7.50) when you bring in your clipped coupon. We just got back from a Chuck E. Cheese birthday party and I know that coupon would have come in handy for more game fun!

I enjoyed the new nuggets, but would you like to try before you buy? There will be product demo for the Tyson Cheesy Chicken Nuggets in Walmart the week of November 15th. Check them out and see how tasty the new flavors really are.

How would you eat the new Tyson Cheesy Chicken Nuggets and Spicy Chicken Nuggets?

#Ad To Your School with Tyson Products and Safeway

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  To support local schools I shopped at Safeway for participating products in Tyson's Project A+ Program. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and its client. #ClipForSchool.

My son started out on his great school adventure this past Tuesday.

Kindergarten, already? Can you believe it?

Of course we have been preparing, both mentally and physically, for weeks now.  Yes, I was the Mom doing timed practice drills down to the bus stop in the morning. On the first day my son could barely contain himself as he waited for the big yellow bus.

Yes, there was a lot of bouncing involved.

He had a fabulous first day and beamed through till bedtime. It made me feel good that he started out his education on the right foot. Now I just want to keep it all so positive. I would love to volunteer in his classroom and help with school events, but with a 2 month old baby and another young child at home, I just don't have the time to give right now. Luckily there are other ways I can contribute to our school.

Do you shop at Safeway? I stopped by our local store to learn there were multiple ways to do my weekly shopping and support my son's school at the same time.

Safeway is currently running a Back to School 10% School Donation Program. Just look for the shelf tags like this one:

This program runs from August 14th through September 10th. There is still time to take advantage of this opportunity. Just register your Club Card so 10% of the net purchase price will go to the school of your choice automatically, or follow instructions on the bottom of your receipt after you get home. eScrip supporters earn automatically.

Safeway also stocks a variety of Tyson products, many of which are eligible for Tyson's Project A+ Program. I found a handy sign on the outside of the freezer case with a quick explanation of how it works.

I can only imagine the fun things a little extra cash could fund at my son's school. On our last visit to the elementary school my husband and I remarked how they could really use updated playground equipment and supplies. The volleyball net was tattered and they can always use new balls and supplies for the students.

The beauty of this program is anyone can get involved. That means not only can you get other parents and teachers involved, but ask your relatives or friends to clip labels as well.

The Tyson Project A+ site was easy for me to use.

Check to see if your school is already listed, if not it is easy to get enrolled. Sign up took just a few minutes and my school showed up on the list immediately. There is also a complete list of participating products on the site, and with more than 40 Tyson products listed, there is sure to be something your family will love.

Then clip and collect labels to be redeemed for cash for your school. At 24 cents a label, it adds up quickly and is worth more than other school incentive programs. There is a minimum of 100 labels for redemption. I know I buy enough Tyson products to put a decent dent in the minimum myself.

Okay, so I shopped at Safeway, accumulated some money and labels for my school and now have Tyson chicken in my freezer. What did I make?

I made this Easy Chicken Caprese Pasta that was on the table in less than 10 minutes! Check out the recipe.

Easy Chicken Caprese Pasta

You Will Need:

• 4 Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breasts
• 1 box Angel Hair Pasta
• 4 garlic cloves
• 2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
• extra virgin olive oil to drizzle
• 2 large beefsteak tomatoes, sliced
• 8 slices of fresh mozzarella
• 1/4 c. fresh basil, sliced thin
• balsamic vinegar to drizzle
• kosher salt

Bring a large pot of salted water to boil. Boil pasta according to the package instructions. I prefer Angel Hair because it cooks in around 4 minutes.

Cook chicken according to package instructions. The recommended method is covered in the microwave and cooking times vary depending on the amount of chicken being cooked. Set aside.

In a large saute pan melt the butter and warm the garlic through. Add the cooked pasta and toss to coat. Drizzle with more olive oil as necessary to keep the pasta from sticking.

Plate a serving of pasta and top with a chicken breast, then tomato slices, mozzarella slices and sprinkle with basil. Drizzle the top with balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with kosher salt to taste.

Enjoy!

Connect with Tyson on Facebook for product announcements and promotions.

What does your school need? Are you participating in either of these programs?

#Ad - Keeping it Fresh and Healthy this Memorial Day Weekend

After such a dry Spring, we finally got some rain this past week, well a lot of it. Of course, it made me worry about how we would be celebrating our Memorial Day Weekend. I had visions of healthy eating outside, easy meals, the sprinkler running and going strawberry picking with the kids.

I am a homebody right now. With this baby coming in less than 3 weeks I just want to spend some quality time with my kids. I know that there will be big changes coming for the older kids soon and I wanted to make this weekend both fun and memorable for them. That means less time in the kitchen, but still eating well.

Armed with a favorable weather forecast for the weekend, and fingers crossed, I took the family grocery shopping to prepare. Okay, I hate to shop on a holiday weekend, so I planned to keep things as fresh and simple as possible. It was pouring and the kids were all bundled up and dressed in rain coats. It was pretty hard to think about fun and sun with that kind of weather. Of course my kids were just excited about all the rain puddles we would hit on the way into Walmart.

Our local Walmart had already been ransacked midweek by people who probably had the same idea I did. I have a feeling that by the end of the week a lot of the chips, dips and easy prepared foods would be running really low, if not out. Luckily my meals were going to be simple and I found everything I needed. But as the week wore on I was still pretty pessimistic that we would have a clear holiday.

Happily I was wrong. The sunshine came out and we were able to head to the strawberry field Saturday morning. My son loves strawberries, so is more than willing to help out with picking. It is a good thing, too, because bending over is getting more challenging for me the closer to my due date I get.

This is the first year my daughter hasn't just picked the green ones. Last year she claimed they were pretty. This year it is more about the taste.

With my husband busy cutting hay today and the kids and I being worn out from all the strawberries, we opted for a super easy and fast meal outside on the back porch. Our family-go-to-favorite during the warmer months is Taco Salad with homemade Catalina dressing.

I enlisted my best salad spinner to help while I prepped the chicken. We make our taco salad a number of ways, sometimes with meat and sometimes without. This time I wanted to cut down on cooking time by using the Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips and heating them with just a little taco seasoning for added flavor.

I added just a 1/4 cup of water and let them heat through. It was much faster than slicing and browning all that chicken myself.

I even had time after prepping all the veggies to make a pitcher of whole juice strawberry lemonade. I thought it would be a fun treat for the kids after picking the berries. It is as simple as it sounds, just strawberries, lemons, sugar to taste and diluted with water and ice. Everything goes into the blender and it was garnished with some fresh sliced strawberries.

I set up our salad bar outside on the table. My kids prefer to have a hand in fixing their own salads. Even if I dished up the exact same ingredients and portions for them, it just wouldn't be the same. Our salad bar included items that were either rinsed and sliced, thawed or from a can, so prep time was around 10 minutes total.

The salads were a big hit and so was the fresh air outside. It was the perfect way to kick off our Memorial Day Weekend. I was very pleased with the simple addition of the chicken in our salad, as well. It was moist and tasty. A great little added protein boost to our fresh and hearty salad. Who wants a heavy or complicated meal on a such a beautiful day?

The Kruse Family's Favorite Taco Salad

You Will Need:

• Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips
• Taco seasoning
• 1/4 c. water
• iceberg lettuce
• tomatoes
• sliced olives
• kidney beans
• sweet corn
• avocado
• sharp cheddar cheese
• Catalina Dressing
• Tortilla Chips

Heat the Tyson Grilled & Ready Chicken Breast Strips in a pan over medium heat. Sprinkle with taco seasoning to taste and then add 1/4 cup water to the pan and let them simmer for 3 to 5 minutes, until the chicken is warmed through.

We like to set up all our ingredients in salad bar fashion and let everyone help themselves. Build as you like and then top with Catalina dressing. This is such a fresh and easy dinner. Enjoy!

Have a great Memorial Day Weekend!

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