Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Fall, Emerson Style

The air has that familiar bite this week.  Heat wanes, humidity evaporates, and a breath of fresh, sweet, crisp fall breeze flows through the city.  My magical iced coffee supplies are about to be shelved in favor of hot lattes and steaming cups of green tea.  And even though no one in this house is going back to any sort of school at the moment, I have an unrequited need to sharpen pencils, buy a Trapper Keeper, and go back-to-school shopping.  Truth be told, I will probably be rocking the same ole jeans and sweaters as I did last fall, but while the boys are doing their fantasy football picks, I may as well join in the fun and share my fantasy fall shopping choices, and my number one draft pick for Fall '11 is EmersonMade.

No one does fall quite like Emerson!  She embodies the chic, classic yet edgy, modern New England style I adore, and I want one of each thing in her fall collection + some of her business acumen on the side.  Here are my favorites from her just-released autumn line...
I love this Olive Wool Day Coat!  Not only would it go with all things brown or black, but the fur collar adds that little bit of funk I so enjoy and which keeps me from purchasing the responsible, classic, black trench I probably ought to purchase at some point.  But I need this first...
Long have I resisted the pull of the skinny jean.  Recently many fashion-minded friends have been prodding me in their direction, and that encouragement plus seeing the cuteness of them on similarly proportioned girls has me almost ready to take the plunge.  Were I to boldly steer myself in a skinny jeans direction, Emerson's Gunmetal Skinnys would be my top pick for the job.  Love the fit, love the wash, and why not throw in a pair of those hot red heels as well?
I must have these Indigo Bluebells.  I just must.
And while I am at it, I shall also take a Bag O' Turtlenecks.  Perfect beat poet flair in soft cotton jersey and two to a bag for $48.  Don't mind if I do.
Finally, also from the Emerson's Basics collection, I love this dress, which is sold as a Bag O' Three in red, black and navy.  With tights and tall boots or leggings and ballet flats and a cozy cardi, you could sport these little frocks well into the fall.  To me, this shrieks hip urban mom uniform, which I aspire to acquire and rock!

What's on your fall shopping list (fantasy or otherwise)?

Monday, August 29, 2011

Sending Love to Vermont

Vermont is the closest place I have ever had to a home state.  We moved a lot when I was growing up, and the longest I was ever anywhere at one stretch was about five years.  Between my time at university in hippie-haven Burlington, a year spent living in the husband's gorgeous hometown nearby, our time in Central Vermont for law school and after, I've spent a collective eight years in the Green Mountain State, making it my adopted homeland.  I got married there, had my son there, and will always have a soft spot for the beauty of the mountains, the rivers and our beloved Lake Champlain.  So, my heart is absolutely breaking this morning for all of our dear friends there who have endured epic flooding and so much devastation and loss.  The more news I see, the more dire the situation seems.




These videos really moved me.  The first shows one of my favorite yoga studios getting hit and the second shows a covered bridge in Quechee which we've crossed so many times succumbing to the river.  Many favorite local businesses have been hard hit, and I'm alarmed that we still haven't heard from anyone at the law school.  Friends, I hope you are safe.

There's really no place else on earth like Vermont.  Please keep the Green Mountain State and all the people there struggling to clean up from this mess in your thoughts today.  

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

A Beautiful Morning

Today has been one of those unexpectedly perfect days.  The little man slept until an unheard of 7am, allowing me 8+ full hours of rare, peaceful slumber.  I woke up feeling so refreshed and had a few moments to myself (also rare) before he started calling from his room.  Then I brought him into bed with me and we had the BEST and most precious hour-long snuggle and chat. Someday when he is a stinky teenage boy who wants nothing to do with me, I will cherish these moments even more than I do right now.  And let me tell you that I never stay in bed until 8am; it just doesn't happen in my current reality.  So the morning felt delicious already by the time my feet hit the floor.  The little guy then happily played with trucks by himself, giving me time to put a bit of effort into my breakfast rather than inhaling my usual bowl of Kashi (btw - have you tried the new Kashi Golden Goodness? A fast fave for moi.).
I sauteed some baby portobello mushrooms with a drop of olive oil and some fresh thyme.
And made a beautiful mushroom, Cabot Sharp Cheddar and egg white scramble, served alongside delicious whole grain toast spread with Earth Balance.  YUM.
Then the little guy and I headed out on a glorious, two-hour ramble.  We went to the library, a phenomenal resource that I have sadly underutilized in the year we have lived in this neighborhood.
Me gusta la biblioteca.
But no more!  I am now the proud holder of a shiny, red Boston Public Library card, and I came away with a pile of fun new books for the little man to enjoy, as well as Kris Carr's new book, which I've been dying to get my hands on.
Perhaps after my sister's wedding I will embark upon her "21-Day Adventure Cleanse", but not a moment before, I tell you, not a moment before... mama does not do wedding toasts without a rather strong drink in hand.
After the library we communed with nature for a bit...
Jamaica Pond is my own slice of city bliss.
A young Beckham in the making.
We are a family of tree-huggers.  Literally.
And then headed to City Feed for a treat.  Iced Americano for me, avocado muffin for my buddy.  Grateful Dead's American Beauty playing overhead.  Ahhh... does life get any better?
I love this store.  Call me bohemian bourgeois, I can live with it.
Don't you love it when pure happiness sneaks up on you?  I have an overwhelming feeling of joy today.  The weather is perfect, and spending the whole morning wandering outdoors was a gift.  I am grateful for rest, good food, warm sunshine, and my boys.  Happy Tuesday.

Monday, August 22, 2011

Grilled Summer Salad

Most weeks, I hit the grocery store with a meal plan in mind and solid list of items to procure.  Sometimes, though, I'm not so organized, and my trip to the store is much more like an episode of Supermarket Sweep, with me grabbing things from the shelves and getting out of there as quickly as possible.  When one of these rush trips occurs, I try to focus my random shopping on the produce section, figuring that whatever I come home with, I'm bound to create something healthy from a good haul of veggies. Last Friday, the week drew to an end, and I still had quite a bit of random produce in my crisper from one of these crazy grocery runs.  Inventory included:
6 ears of corn
2 Japanese eggplants
1 pint of heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 orange bell pepper
2 leeks
and 1 bunch of fresh basil
I also had a beautiful loaf of rosemary-olive oil fougasse bead from a trip to a favorite bakery.  I stared down these ingredients for quite awhile, trying to make sense of how to use them.  Roasted vegetables with a grain of some sort?  Tomato and basil pasta with a ratatouille-inspired side dish?  Soup?  Nothing seemed quite right.  Also, it was a summer Friday, and unless there is an outright hurricane happening (and sometimes even in the middle of one), the husband prefers to be standing by the grill with a PBR to celebrate the start of the weekend.  What to do?

I took a gamble.  I halved and cleaned the leeks and the pepper, brushed everything with olive oil, sprinkled it with salt and pepper, and sent it out to the grill.  The husband grilled everything in the photo above except for the tomatoes and basil, which I chopped and put in a large salad bowl.  He came back in with meltingly sweet leeks, perfectly charred eggplant, salty-caramelized ears of corn, slightly crisped bread, and a beautifully heat-blistered pepper.  I chopped all of these ingredients, removed the nibs from the corn, and tossed them all together with a solid dousing of white balsamic vinegar, a splash of olive oil, and a drizzle of honey.  
The result was a little slice of summer dinner heaven.  All the flavors married together beautifully, with the char-grilled flavor being the common denominator.  This salad was light, complex, and utterly delicious.  I served it on a bed of mixed greens, but it was perfection on its own, and we topped it with grated parmesan to take it right over the top.  This dish just goes to show what kind of kitchen kismet can occur when you let yourself run wild in an in-season produce section (or at the farmers' market!).  I never would have planned this meal in advance, but it is now something we'll make again and again, and it would make an elegant dinner to serve to vegetarian friends with a crisp glass of white wine.

Friday night already seems like a million years ago, but this dish stuck with me, and had to be shared.  Sometimes the best recipes are happy accidents!

Friday, August 19, 2011

Summer Bucket List

These days, I live and die by my MobileMe calendar.  We're a little Apple-obsessed, and their web-based calendar tool allows us to manage our whole family schedule simultaneously and remotely.  The calendar refreshes itself on our iPhones every fifteen minutes, so if the husband adds an offsite meeting to it and I'm across town trying to schedule a doctor's appointment, I always have the most up-to-date family schedule at my fingertips.  This is absolutely crucial for a one car family!  Needless to say, I look at this calendar many times a day, and I like to think it keeps me somewhat grounded in time.  So imagine my shock when I discovered the following:
1) September is now apparently two weeks away.
2) Football season, the true harbinger of fall in this household, commences in just four short Mondays.
3) My sister's wedding "this fall" is three weeks from Saturday.

Shocking.  Where did the summer go?

I've always loved the autumn season, and am excited for cashmere sweaters, butternut squash soup, apple cider, crisp mornings, and cuddling under blankets again.  Still, the end of summer is always bittersweet, and I'm not quite ready to let go. August is still kicking, and so I'm determined to seize the day and suck as much summer out of the next few weeks as I can.   Which is why, without further ado, I bring you:

SMJ's End of Summer Bucket List
1) How have I gone the whole summer without eating a single sweet, succulent Maine lobster? Luckily the end of the summer is when they are sweetest and best, so this is the perfect item to kick off my bucket list.  Shellfish bliss, come to mama...
Photo via getmainelobster.com
2) One of my favorite days this summer was when the three of us packed up early on a Saturday morning and spent the day together at Crane Beach in Ipswich.  We built sandcastles, played in the water, made friends with fellow parents chasing toddlers, and worked on our tans.  It was glorious.  We need at least one more beach day before New England beaches require ten layers of wool for a visit.
Little man digging it up at Crane Beach.
3) Another favorite day this summer involved driving out to western Mass to go blueberry picking with another mama friend and her two little ones.  Everything about the day was lovely: how into berry-picking the little guy was (at one point he turned to me with a huge grin on his face and said, "Mom!  Berries is FUN!", the phenomenal blueberry smoothie I sucked down for lunch (seriously heaven in a cup), the ridiculous blueberry cider donuts I brought back for the hubs, spending time out of the city in the peacefulness of the farm, and enjoying the company of good friends on a fun excursion.  I must go back for one more fix before berry season is sadly over.
So proud of his haul.
4) Speaking of freshly picked fruit... after that trip to the berry farm, I was headed directly out of town for the weekend, and so the fruit was gradually eaten over cereal or in handfuls by the little guy until it was gone.  What I'd really like to do is go pick another bounty, and then bake something like this...
Drool.  Photo via From Me to You.
Soon it will be all apple goodies all the time.  I need some more summer fruit pies/cobblers/muffins in my life before then.

5) One of the best ways to enjoy Boston is by people watching from a tiny table at an al fresco cafe.  Restaurants only offer outdoor dining for about half the year here, and that half is quickly winding down.  I'm not talking about going out for a four course dinner, I'm talking about slowly sipping a strong cocktail and watching the beautiful people go by (and giggling over the over-the-top fashion). 
6) We haven't been out to the Cape since moving back to Boston.  One of my favorite memories from the early days when we were still dating and living here was a camping trip we took out on the Cape at the end of the summer.
We ate at clam shacks, attempted surfing in Wellfleet, and snapped this photo of a perfect sunset in Truro.  We've haven't taken the little guy camping yet, and an end-of-summer Cape camping reprise could be just the thing to cap off this summer correctly. 
There's more where this came from, but these are things at the top of my list.
What do you want to do between now and first frost?

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

The Mean Reds

Do you remember the scene from Breakfast at Tiffany's where Audrey Hepburn describes having a case of the "mean reds"? Yes, the mean reds.  When you're feeling anxious but you don't know why... this is how I find myself feeling today.  I signed in to blog and could hardly believe it had been a week since my last post.  It has been a busy one.  We've had family visiting, endless excursions (everything from hot yoga, to the Children's Museum, to mornings at the park, to a quickie trip up north), copious kitchen projects, and a boy with a persistent case of diaper rash who is having trouble sleeping as a result.  We've had to say some sad good-byes, had some minor worries to contend with, and work I thought I had I don't have anymore.  The hubs and I helped a friend cater a two-hundred person wedding late into Saturday night, and I still somehow still feel a bit bleary from that.  I feel all at once as if there is so much to do I can't possibly do it all, and like I absolutely must take on more in order to make any progress forward. I guess I kind of feel like this...


I am definitely having a Breakfast at Tiffany's kind of day, but without the will or energy to put on a black cocktail dress and go moon around outside jewelry stores downtown. Instead, I'm looking forward to an evening curled up on the couch with my husband and some comfort food. I may or may not pour a large glass of Sancerre come 5pm. I'm going to get some sleep and focus on gratitude. I'm going to drink a kombucha and clean my house (it is therapeutic, don't ask). I'm going to take some Advil, buck up, put on some Jerry Garcia Band and have a snuggle with my little boy and my furry boy. I'm going to let the reds in for today, and banish them tomorrow. Wish me luck.
What do you do to ditch the mean reds?

Tuesday, August 9, 2011

Obsessed

Hi.  My name is SMJ and I am obsessed...
...with Trader Joe's Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate Seeds. Antioxidant-rich and budget-friendly, just a lil' teaspoon full actually satisfies my sweet tooth.  Praise be.
...with EmersonMade's pantry.  This is what the pantry in my dream kitchen looks like.  In fact, I am obsessed with the whole house.
Photos via Design*Sponge
...with Kris Carr's Crazy Sexy Manifesto, a wellness primer and self-care mission statement that inspires and belongs on each and every one of our fridges.
...with the dark blue pedi and perfect latte I got this weekend.  Bliss.
That is all.

Vegan Family Meals Winner

Random.org picked #5 and Jennifer is our lucky winner of Ann Gentry's  
Photo via Vegan Family Meals 
Please send me your shipping address and we'll get this in the mail right away!
Enjoy!

Friday, August 5, 2011

Stonyfield Summer in a Box Winner!

Congratulations BecSpark10!
The random integer generator pulled number 3, and all of this yumminess will be headed your way shortly (please e-mail me your shipping address!). Enjoy it in good health!
And thanks to everyone for playing.
Not a winner this time?  You have another chance to win goodies... leave a comment below for a chance to get your hands on Vegan Family Meals. Delish
Happy Friday, everyone... have a wonderful weekend.

Thursday, August 4, 2011

Vegan Family Meals Cookbook Review + Niçoise Salad Recipe + Giveaway!

Let me state for the record, this family is not vegan, and not even vegetarian (see: husband slow-cooking six pound pork shoulder for twelve hours last Sunday).  However, we appreciate meatless dining, and have definite vegetarian leanings.  With a lactose-intolerant husband, and a budget and family history of high cholesterol which logically point to eating less meat, I was thrilled to receive a copy of vegan chef Ann Gentry's new cookbook Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone as part of her summer blog tour.  Ann is the owner of Real Food Daily in Santa Monica and West Hollywood, as well as being a successful blogger and author, and her new cookbook is just gorgeous in every way.
I'm a visual person and a sucker for a good layout and typeface, and so this book had me at the minute I took it from the envelope.  The photography is stunning, and I love the funky fabric on the binding.  But when I opened it and started examining the recipes, I really fell in love.  This cookbook is definitely going to be my go-to source for vegetarian cooking going forward.  The recipes are accessible and well-explained, and every one doesn't call for obscure vegan ingredients that average people wouldn't have on hand (sure there are a few chia seed/nutritional yeast selections, but by and large, I think this cookbook really is, as promised, for everyone).  The book includes everything from basic breakfasts with amped up nutritional stats to special-enough-for-company dinners, and I appreciate that range.  I think Ann might even be my LA/Vegan answer to Ina Garten.  And that's saying something. I couldn't wait to get cooking.

As part of the blog tour, I volunteered to prepare Ann's "My Niçoise Salad". 
Photo from Vegan Family Meals
I'll warn you in advance, this is not a weeknight recipe, unless you prepare each element in advance.  I was determined to make the salad on a Wednesday, though, despite a very busy week, because my mom was coming to stay with us and she really appreciates vegan cuisine and I thought this recipe was right down her alley.  So, I sprinkled parts of the recipe into times of the day when I was in the kitchen:  setting up the tofu to drain and trimming the haricots verts while the little guy ate his breakfast, throwing together the dressing and prepping the Tofu Chevre while he ate lunch, baking off the Chevre while I worked in the afternoon, and quartering potatoes and steaming veggies during happy hour.  If you aren't within an arm's reach of your kitchen, though, I'd save this recipe for a Saturday.

The completed recipe, despite my lack of a professional food stylist and adequate lighting, was absolutely beautiful.
First of all, the shallot-Dijon-thyme dressing is just spot on.  It brightens the whole dish and gives it an herbacious bite.  I'll definitely make this vinaigrette again just to have on hand for our weeknight salads.  This is also the perfect time of year to construct a salad like this one.  The organic cherry tomatoes, new potatoes and haricots verts were at the peak of their season and tasted that way. And the Tofu Chevre is really something special.  It took awhile to make, but was worth the effort (I didn't peppercorn-crust mine, you might notice.  I had to draw the line somewhere.  It was Wednesday!!!).  Rich, creamy, and perfectly salty from the miso, it is a healthy protein powerhouse masquerading as a fatty, dairy treat.  Its only downfall would be that despite following the instructions literally to the letter, my "chevre" was pretty creamy and gloppy, whereas, as you can see from the professional cookbook photo above, Ann's version slices neatly into little disks and actually appears to be goat cheese.  I don't know how she did it!  None of us really cared how it looked, though, because it was just so delicious.

Sitting around my table last night were three very tired, very maxed out people who were in desperate need of some good nutrition and a little pampering.  I was happy that I took the time to make such a special, beautiful dinner that made us all feel nourished and spoiled.  We lingered around the table picking at beans and dragging our forks through the chevre again and again, and all agreed that the salad was superb.

I highly recommend Vegan Family Meals based on my adventures with it thus far (I made killer Szechuan noodles from it on Tuesday, so we're now two for two + extra points for just being so darn pretty).  And I'm so happy to say that...

One SMJ reader will win a free copy of Vegan Family Meals: Real Food for Everyone!
Just leave a comment below, and I will pick a winner at random next Tuesday, August 9. 

If you don't win or feel like waiting until next week, I'd definitely suggest scooting over to Amazon and grabbing a copy.  Also, check out Ann's blog for more healthy recipe ideas and inspiration.  And at the very least, make this salad!  You'll be glad you did. 
Happy vegan dining...

Ann Gentry’s My Niçoise
Serves 4
Ingredients
8 ounces slender green beans (such as haricots verts), trimmed
4 medium red-skinned potatoes (about 1 pound total), cut into ½-inch-thick wedges

Vinaigrette:
¼ cup fresh lemon juice
1 small shallot, minced (about 2 tablespoons)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons minced fresh thyme
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt
¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
½ cup extra-virgin olive oil

Salad:
1 large head butter lettuce, leaves separated and larger leaves torn in half
3 ripe tomatoes, cut into wedges, or 10 to 12 cherry tomatoes, halved
Fine sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 log Peppercorn-Crusted Tofu Chèvre (recipe follows), sliced into rounds
1/3 cup olives or kalamata olives
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1½ tablespoons minced fresh flat-leaf parsley

Directions
1) Cook the green beans in a large pot of boiling salted water until they are crisp-tender, about 4 minutes. Drain and submerge the green beans in a bowl of ice water just until they are cold. Drain the green beans again and pat dry. Set aside.
2) Place the potatoes in a steamer basket set in a saucepan filled with 1 inch of simmering water. Cover and steam until they are just tender and still hold their shape, about 8 minutes. Set aside to cool completely.
3) Vinaigrette: While the vegetables are cooling, whisk the lemon juice, shallot, mustard, thyme, salt, and pepper in a medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in the oil to blend well.
4) Salad: Arrange the lettuce on a serving platter or in a large shallow salad bowl. Place the green beans, potatoes, and tomatoes in a large bowl. Toss with enough of the vinaigrette to coat, then season to taste with salt and pepper. Spoon the beans, potatoes, and tomatoes atop the lettuce. Arrange the tofu cheese slices amid the vegetables. Sprinkle the olives, capers, and parsley over the salad. Spoon more vinaigrette over the salad and serve immediately.

Tofu Chèvre
Makes 1 (13-ounce) log
Ingredients
1 (12-ounce) container waterpacked extra-firm tofu, drained and halved
1 large clove garlic
2 tablespoons yellow miso
3 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
¾ teaspoon fine sea salt

Directions
1) Pat the tofu dry with paper towels. Set the tofu in a colander and set the colander over a bowl to collect all the liquid that drains from the tofu. Cover the tofu with plastic wrap, then place 3 heavy cans, each at least 14 ounces, on the tofu to weigh it down. This weight will help extract all the excess liquid from the tofu. Refrigerate the tofu for at least 4 hours or overnight.
2) Mince the garlic in a food processor. Pat the tofu halves with paper towels to absorb any excess moisture, then add the tofu to the food processor. Add the miso, 2 teaspoons of the olive oil, and the salt, and blend until the mixture is very smooth, stopping the machine occasionally and scraping the bottom and sides of the bowl.
3) Lay a sheet of plastic wrap flat on the work surface. Scrape the tofu cheese onto the center of the plastic wrap, then wrap the cheese, forming a log. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
4) Preheat the oven to 375°F. Unwrap the cheese log and place it on a baking sheet. Brush the log lightly with the remaining 1 teaspoon oil. Bake just until the cheese is warmed through, but the center is still creamy, about 25 minutes.
Serve warm or cold.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Summer = Turquoise

Nothing says summer like turquoise.  Against tanned skin, on a dinner table, in little corners of your home: to me there is no more calming and lovely shade of blue.  Here are some of my current turquoise summer faves courtesy of Polyvore. 
Turquoise



What's your favorite hue when the weather gets hot?
p.s. Don't forget to enter the Stonyfield giveaway!  Just leave a comment on Monday's post below.

Monday, August 1, 2011

Stonyfield Summer in a Box Giveaway!

Happy August!
I'm excited to kick off this month with a fun giveaway! 
There are few things I love better than summer, natural beauty products, and healthy foods, so I'm thrilled to have them all come together in this giveaway from Stonyfield Farms!  Stonyfield sent me one of their special Summer in a Box packages to review and to give away to one lucky SMJ reader.
Check this out!
Each box contains:
2 coupons for boxes of Stonyfield Organic Dipped Frozen Yogurt Bars
1 coupon for Uncle Matt’s Organic Lemonade & Juices
Tom’s of Maine, Beautiful Earth Deodorant 
Tom’s of Maine, Daily Moisture Body Bar
Tom’s of Maine, Simply White Toothpaste
Badger, After Sun Balm
Dr. Hauschka, Melissa Day Cream
Come to mama...
I was over the moon to get this beautiful box of goodies in the mail.  I've written before about my quest to switch to a completely paraben-free, all-natural beauty regimen and I love trying new products in that spirit.  This box was a total winner. 

I've been loving Dr. Hauschka products for a long time, and use their Quince Day Cream regularly.  However, it is a bit heavy for summer, and left me feeling greasy in the last heat wave.  The Melissa Day Cream is formulated to "calm, balance and manage shine", which makes it the perfect summer moisturizer; it smells like fresh-squeezed lemonade, is absorbed by the skin in seconds, and has a clarifying, smoothing effect, almost like a hybrid toner-moisturizer.  I really can't recommend this cream highly enough, especially if you have combination skin.  The tube retails for about $40 and lasts three months or so, making it the definite gem in this box of loveliness!

I also have nothing but great things to say about the Tom's of Maine products.  I've been a fan of this company for a long time, and the products never disappoint.  The toothpaste is minty fresh and the soap smells deliciously of olive oil and is deeply moisturizing.  The deodorant is a new product to me, but having had great luck with their long-lasting line in the past, I had high expectations.  I love the earthy yet feminine scent of this product, and it definitely lasts.  I would just remind anyone delving into the world of natural deodorants that these products aren't meant to be antiperspirants. Your body needs to be able to sweat out toxins, and this product ensures that you still smell sweet in the process... just don't expect that powder-y dry feeling you get from a bottle of Secret.

The little tin of Badger After Sun Balm smells so beautiful, and looks adorable on my dresser as well.  I am a sucker for all things lavender, so I especially dig the floral, almost tropical scent of this product.  And while my face needs less moisture in the summer, my elbows, knees, heels and hands can't get enough, and this balm really delivers at the end of a long, sun-kissed day.

Finally, what could be better than grocery store freebies for delicious and refreshing products?  We're loving the Uncle Matt's OJ, which is thick, sweet and a bit tangy.  It is hard to find organic orange juice, so Uncle Matt's is a real score.  And I am still on the hunt for Stonyfield's new yogurt bars, but I know they won't disappoint... how can you go wrong with Stonyfield fro yo covered in dark chocolate?  This new product is just hitting stores, so they can be a bit tricky to track down, but I'll be sure to report back once we've sampled both the vanilla and chocolate varieties.

Now that you've gotten the lowdown, don't you want a Summer in a Box to arrive at your door?
To enter this giveaway, please leave a comment below.  
I'll pick a winner this Friday, August 5.
Good luck and hooray for summer!