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Friday Favorites – Conferences, Pizza and Zoes Kitchen

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Friday Favorites Beauty and the Beets 2-26

Happy Friday!! Guess where I am headed?? I am heading to NOLA – I have never been there so I am looking forward to beignets and that 13.1 mile run- thing- the Rock’n’Roll New Orleans Half Marathon. Anyone else out there running in New Orleans this weekend?

logo_nola

So far, I know for certain that I will be hitting Café du Monde and a restaurant called Green Goddess. Other than that, our palates are wide open! Any suggestions on where to eat?

This week I registered for two blogging conferences coming up:

Everything Food Conference

Another trip I am looking forward to is to Utah for the Everything Food Conference in Salt Lake City.

JulieAnn Caramels Everything Food conference Beauty and the Beets

For attendees that have already registered we received a special little surprise in the mail- treats from JulieAnn Caramels. So there are two thigs I already know for sure about this conference, besides all the great food I will be eating, my roommate is an English teacher in Japan, and I will be competing in Cupcake Wars with Chloe of The Chocoholic Baker. If you look at her website you know that we have a great chance of winning this thing. I told her I am really good at using mixing bowls and cleaning the dishes so hopefully she will have the actual baking under control!

Everything Food conference

There is still time to register if you want to come join in on the fun.

BloggyCon

Well, since I am talking about blogging conferences- this will be my third year attending BloggyCon at Cedar Point in Sandusky, Ohio. I love this conference- it’s small and intimate and Cedar Point park tickets are included for you and your family with conference registration (only $95!!). It is also the first weekend of Hallo-weekends, their Halloween Celebration. I can smell the apple cider already!

Bloggy con 2016

Then there’s other things I am loving this week besides conferences:

Gramma’s Pie

Grammas Pie Say Cheese Beauty and the Beets

My most favorite pizza is from Say Cheese in Bunnell, near Daytona Beach, FL.  We stop there anytime we head north towards Jacksonville or Savannah. We have found it very difficult to find decent pizza anywhere in Florida. There are only a handful of places I can think of that we frequent when we are craving pizza and Say Cheese is one of them.

Zoe’s Kitchen

Anytime we have traveled north up the other side of Florida we have always stopped at either Blaze Pizza or Zoes Kitchen in Gainesville. And now, we Orlandoans have our own Zoes . I met up with a group of local Orlando bloggers and we enjoyed dinner from the new Zoes Kitchen in Winter Springs.

Central Florida Lady Bloggers Zoes Kitchen Winter Springs

Out of the 10 bloggers that were there, I was the only one who had been to a Zoes before. Everyone else loved the food though so we are hoping the rest of Orlando loves it too. We ate hummus, spinach rolls, pasta salad, salmon skewers and beef skewers among a handful of other menu items. I love going to blogging meetups- all we do is eat and laugh!

Zoes Kitchen Central Florida Lady Bloggers event 2016

My laughs were short lived however when I read these articles- did you know that High Fructose Corn Syrup is being labeled as fructose now? And many food companies are taking advantage of that by claiming a product has no high fructose corn syrup but lists fructose as an ingredient? How shady is that?

Read this—> High Fructose Corn Syrup is being re-named and is now being marketed as a natural sweetener

and here is an older article about aspartame being listed as amino sweet in some products—> Aspartame’s name changed to Amino Sweet

Here is a recap of my posts this week on Beauty and the Beets:

A Weekend in Savannah Beauty and the Beets (1)

Brussels Sprouts Salad with White Bean Dressing and Pecan Crisps Beauty and the Beets

Slow Roasted Herb Tomatoes Beauty and the Beets recipe

And once again, you can join the Friday Favorites party – I am linking up with Heather from Life in Leggings, Andrea fromMomfessionals, Narci from Grace and Love Blog, Erika from A Little Bit of Everything, Angela from Happy Fit Mama and Katie from Running 4 Cupcakes. Happy Friday and see you guys next week!

What are your plans for the weekend?

Any restaurants I must try in New Orleans?

Liz @ I Heart Vegetables

Monday 29th of February 2016

Ohhh I love Zoe's kitchen! I might have to round up some local bloggers in Richmond to take a trip there with me :) What a fun idea!

Rosey Rebecca

Friday 26th of February 2016

OK, so the HFCS and Aspartame thing is exactly why I avoid processed foods. If I don't have it in my kitchen, it's not for me!

Have fun in New Orleans, I've never been but I've heard of both of those restaurants. And the Everything Food Conference sounds amazing!

Helen Corbin

Friday 26th of February 2016

Sounds like you are going to have a lot of upcoming FUN :-) It is ridiculous what garbage most companies try to put over on us consumers. The best way to avoid all those additives is to make your own stuff so you know exactly what is in your food and/or always keeping pretty much to the peripherals of the grocery stores - forget the in-betweens as much as you possibly can. I know it’s easier said than done when you are a working Mom/Dad but we need to all beware of what we put in our bodies and our children’ bodies especially from packaged processed foods.

Angela @ Happy Fit Mama

Friday 26th of February 2016

Have fun in NOLA! I've never been but am dying to go. Thanks for linking up to High 5 Friday!

Emily

Friday 26th of February 2016

Oh wow... How do you discern what has HFCS in it now? That food conference sounds really fun! Sadly, I'm going to be gone when it happens.