Author: Debbie

Diane Roark: Tacos4Life {A review}

Disclosure: This is not a sponsored post. All opinions expressed are those of Diane Roark.

Celebrating Food Adventures

Tacos4Life - Every Meal You Buy A Meal Is Donated to Hungry Child
Every Meal You Buy Means A Meal Donated to a Hungry Child 

How is Tacos 4 Life so different from every other restaurant?

When you eat at Tacos 4 Life, you have an opportunity to help end childhood hungry around the world.

By choosing to eat Taco 4 Life’s delicious tacos, burritos, quesadillas and more, Tacos 4 Life helps feed a child who needs a meal. Tacos 4 Life calls this “Eat Good Do Good”.   You not only get amazing food, but you also get a good feeling when you eat a reasonably priced meal and know you are helping to feed hungry children.  My son Casey had an opportunity to help pack the meals.  His high school volunteered to help pack meals a couple of times.  My other son Caleb and I joined them.  I can tell you from experience that if you eat at Tacos 4 Life, they use a portion of the money to ship meals to hungry children with the help of the non-profit organization Feed My Children.  Feed My Children sends meals to countries with high rates of poverty and hunger.

In my opinion, not only is Tacos 4 Life Mission the best, but their food is just as terrific.

I Love Taco 4 Life’s Tex-Mex Food.  I could eat there several times a week and never get tired of it.  Their food is that delicious. Everything we have ordered at Tacos 4 Life has been extremely tasty.  

Here are some of my favorite things from their menu:

Beef Burito

  • Serious Steak Burrito: Marinated and grilled skirt steak, cilantro lime rice, refried beans, Pico de gallo, jack cheese, and chipotle aioli.  The Chipotle Aioli is amazing!  I would love to figure out how to make this amazing sauce.

Chipotle Chicken Burrito Tender marinated and grilled chicken, cilantro lime rice, refried black beans, chipotle aioli, jack cheese, and pico de gallo. This is one of the best burritos I have ever had. The Chipotle Aioli is extremely amazing!

  • Chipotle Chicken Burrito: Tender marinated and grilled chicken, cilantro lime rice, refried black beans, chipotle aioli, jack cheese, and pico de gallo.  This is one of the best burritos I have ever had.  The Chipotle Aioli is extremely amazing!  I would love to have this recipe.Tacos4Life Coconut taco
  • Ono Shrimp Tacos: An amazing shrimp taco with crispy shrimp tossed in pineapple cream ono sauce; served with pineapple, green onions, and toasted coconut in a grilled flour tortilla.
  • Where is Tacos 4 Life located? Tacos4Life’s newest location is in Fayetteville on College Avenue.  Visit the original location in Conway the original location is on Dave Ward Drive or their second location on Oak Street. Their food is amazing and their mission is incredible.  The owners are changing the world by feeding the hungry, and they are doing a wonderful job.  Follow Tacos 4 Life on their Facebook page.  You can volunteer to help pack meals to send to hungry kids all over the world.

If you are looking for a patio to have a picnic, Tacos 4 Life has extremely nice covered patios.  The Conway location on Dave Ward even has a fireplace for colder days.  

Celebrating Food Adventures: @Tacos4Life #review#ARWB #FoodieFriday @dianeroark

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Recipes For Our Daily Bread and Our American Travels are personal blogs written and edited by me, Diane Roark.  I am passionate about family, food, travel, and my new love of photography.  Recipes for our Daily Bread is where I blog about easy recipes to help you put dinner on the table quickly.  I enjoy sharing Southern Recipes for special occasions too.  Our American Travels is where I write about Family Fun Travels in America.   You will find restaurant reviews plus information on Disney World, Branson, Alaska, Maine, and many Southern states.  Be sure to join the other 20,000 Pinterest followers who follow Diane_Roark on Pinterest , FaceBook, Instagram, Twitter. 

 

Sarabeth Jones: Food Adventures in Argenta

Celebrate Food Adventures in Argenta

I love my hometown of North Little Rock, especially the revived historic downtown district of Argenta, where you can have a food adventure just walking down Main street!

Start with at Mugs Café. Yummy coffee concoctions and breakfast – and folks line up out the door on Saturday mornings for their all you can eat pancakes for just $5.

Food in Argenta - Mugs people

Food in Argenta - Mugs Cafe breakfast

Work off some of that breakfast by wandering down to Argenta Bead Company, Galaxy Furniture, or the Argenta Drugstore – each with it’s own eclectic atmosphere and plenty to look at. Or, if it’s summertime, you definitely will want to spend some time at the Argenta Farmer’s Market, where the food and products are all guaranteed Arkansas-grown.

Food in Argenta-farmers market

Perhaps you are thirsty by now, so walk a couple blocks over to Diamond Bear Brewery to enjoy their patio and a local craft beer. More likely than not, there will be some sort of fun event going on as well.

Food in Argenta - Diamond Bear cases

Food in Argenta - Diamond Bear Brewery

Or perhaps you are ready for a lovely lunch. Back over on Main, you’ll find fantastic pizza and pasta dishes at Ristorante Capeo, a beautiful spot that has long been known for excellent Italian dinner. We are all grateful that they’ve added lunch to their repertoire.

Food in Argenta - Ristorante Capeo

If you find yourself in the area during the evening, you’ll want to head to The Joint. This coffee shop/comedy club also serves cocktails and light meals while hosting live music and improv nights. And there is always an original theater show running performed by The Main Thing, a brilliantly funny comedy trio. Truly – something for everyone!

Food in Argenta-The Joint

Food in Argenta - The Joint outside

Or maybe you’re just looking for a quiet spot. Sit and enjoy a lovely glass of wine or beer and a charcuterie plate at Crush. The atmosphere is as much a draw as their extensive wine selection; this is the perfect quiet spot to have a date or meet friends for conversation.

Food in Argenta - Crush Wine Bar

Food in Argenta - Crush Wine Bar patio

There you have it: morning, noon, or night, there’s are food adventures to be had in Argenta!

[Tweet “When was the last time you took an Argenta adventure? How about now? #foodiefriday #ARWB” @sarabethjones]

sarabeth jones 2JPGSarabeth Jones is a creative at Fellowship North who enjoys all kinds of artistic work; her latest project is bringing the national live-reading show Listen To Your Mother to Little Rock. She lives in Sherwood with her husband, Bryan, and their kids, Elizabeth, Jonathan, and Will. She loves to write about the way they make her laugh on her blog, thedramatic.com.

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Paula Henry: Mafe {Foodie Friday}

Celebrate Food Adventures: Mafe – An African Stew

 

mafe african stew

 

During the years I was lucky enough to get “stuck” in France, I picked up a lot of practical, food-related lifestyle insights:  meals are good, snacking is not; if you feed your kids in courses, veggies first, the veggies get eaten; it is alarmingly easy to buy a bad baguette in Paris—better to commit your neighborhood’s “good” boulangerie’s  apparently arbitrary schedule to memory. 

The French really know the ins and outs of food.  Maybe it was the wine, but I’d swear I never ate a disappointing meal while there. If they can’t put something worthwhile on the table, they prefer not to eat. 

That’s why it seems counter-intuitive that among all the delicious dishes I sampled while there, perhaps my favorite is Mafe (mah fay), a hearty Senegalese peanut stew often available in the North African cafes of larger cities.

Traditionally made with lamb or other meat, I prefer to make Mafe as a vegetarian dish, rich with meaty root vegetables.  As with most stews, many variations will work (skip the turnips and up the sweet potatoes, saute some sweet peppers with the onions, throw some torn kale in towards the end), but the stars here remain the chick peas and peanut butter.  Though it sounds like an exotic combination, if you grew up with peanut butter as a staple like me and still crave its comforting and childhood-memory-inducing qualities, you’ll love this dish in any of its incarnations.

Paula Henry

 After graduating Bentonville High School and Hendrix College, Paula spent many years out of the area, including time in Key West, New York City, London, New York and Paris.  After the birth of their two boys, she returned to family and Bentonville, where, with her husband Frederic. She now owns and operates Crepes Paulette, a popular local food truck, with a storefront Crepes Paulette coming soon to “southern” downtown Bentonville.

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Lyndi Fultz: A Gadget Adventure {Foodie Friday}

#FoodieFriday

Let’s go on a gadget adventure.

I am a sucker for a good kitchen gadget while at the same time ruthless at eliminating redundancy. The two go hand in hand, surprisingly. One speaks to ensuring you have the right gadget for the job and one speaks to eliminating waste. Less is more and more is, well, sometimes awesome.

Let’s go on a gadget adventure, shall we?

1. Purge, purge, purge.

It is time to open up those kitchen drawers. Yes, plural. Do you have drawer after drawer after drawer overflowing with multiples and curiosities? Take an honest assessment. Dump everything out and put aside the gadgets that you use every day. Those go in the drawer with most accessibility. The rest go into two piles: keep and discard. And by discard, I mean giveaway to family, friends, or a thrift store.

 crazy jumbled gadget drawer

 

2. Explore, explore, explore.

Let your fingers do the exploration via the Internet. Been to Williams-Sonoma’s site lately? How about Sur la Table? Anthropologie? J.B. Prince? Check out what is available and popular by browsing the reviews. People are honest. Love it or hate it, they will always let you know.

3 Get out and touch it.

You’ve been dreaming about that new heat resistant white rubber tong set, haven’t you? Got a store close to you that has it? Get out and check it out. Feel it. Would owning it replace something that you already have? If so, purge, purge, purge the original. Would owning it add a nice new twist to your life? There’s your answer.

4. What the heck is that?

Many different regions, nationalities, and ethnicities have unique gadgets that are special to them. That doesn’t mean that we cannot partake. The darling Scot’s spurtle dates back to the fifteen century and could also be your answer to perfectly lump-free oatmeal on Sunday morning. You’re welcome.

5. Use it or lose it.

Did you purge some and keep some? Did you explore sites that made you hit the “buy” button? Did you get out, touch, and cha-ching the register? Did you decide you really needed the Ethiopian clay pot? Okay, great! Now comes the old adage, “use it or lose it.” All the gadgets in the world won’t add a bit of spice or pizazz to our lives if we don’t start using them. Get on it already!

While these are just five tiny ways to get started on your own gadget adventure, they are really only just the beginning. It is time to start a revolution. Hold up our hands with our half-burned wooden spoons, our slightly bent salad tongs, and those super-cute-I-promise-I-will-use them poached egg holders. The time is NOW to start moving forward. Are you ready?

Go-go-gadget-go. 

Lyndi FultzLyndi Fultz, nwafoodie

Arkansas Women Blogger member Lyndi Fultz writes about living and eating well from her life in beautiful Northwest Arkansas at nwafoodie. Much of her blogging inspiration comes from this gem of a place, which she refers to as the proverbial land of milk-and-honey. Read more related to cooking, entertaining, gadget suggestions, ingredient explorations, local finds, local restaurant treasures, kitchen tour spotlights, and always with a healthy and simplistic approach.

http://nwafoodie.blogspot.com/

Brittney Lee: Celebrate Church Suppers and Hash Brown Casserole

Celebrate Cooking Together

One of the highlights of my week is Wednesday night church supper. I don’t know that it’s inherently Southern – I’m sure there are churches outside of our region that do weekly meals. However, at our church, it feels like the most classically Southern thing I do each week.

For starters, there are sweet Southern ladies, most of them grandmas, who gather during the day on Wednesday to prepare the meal. The menu rotates, and they do have the option of a healthy choice grilled chicken salad for anyone watching their waistlines. These workers spend hours diligently chopping, sautéing, and preparing the meal for our church.

After work and school, slowly a crowd gathers in our gym. By 5 p.m., the smell of the meal is overwhelming. You can always tell what’s for supper long before you ever get to the buffet line.

A crew of servers happily fills plates while those waiting in line catch up on life. We are treated to Southern fare – chicken fried steak and mashed potatoes, poppy seed chicken with green beans and bacon, and the crowd favorite – breakfast for dinner. On that night, we are treated to biscuits, gravy, and everyone’s beloved hash brown casserole.

hash brown casserole

Once we fill our plates, we gather around big tables to talk, laugh, and share life while breaking bread. We make trips to the dessert table and choose from a plethora of goodness including homemade pies, cakes, bread pudding, cookies, and my favorite, a Butterfinger ice box pie. We drink lemonade and sweet tea. We help feed each other’s babies. We watch kids as they play around the periphery of the gym. We hug the senior adults like they’re our grandparents. We hear about work, about life, about cars breaking down, and kids having fits. It’s around these tables and these meals that we share life together. It’s the best gathering each week.

I managed to wrangle the top secret hash brown casserole from our head chef, Monica. She makes enough to feed 100+ people each week, but she gave me recipe to make enough for our family. It’s great for breakfast or as a side dish. We love it with a roast or ham. I love it leftover for breakfast. I just love it. It’s easy. It tastes great. And it reminds me of sharing so many meals with my church family whom I love.

Celebrate favs from church suppers w @brittneydeane #ARWB #FoodieFriday

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Church Supper Hash Brown Casserole
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Ingredients
  1. 2 lbs frozen hash browns thawed (either microwave them or let them thaw in the fridge)
  2. 16 oz. sour cream
  3. 1 10.5-ounce can cream of mushroom soup
  4. 1 10.5 -ounce can cream of chicken soup
  5. 2 Tablespoons dried onion flakes
  6. 2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese
  7. 1 cube chicken bouillon (liquid bouillon may be substituted)
  8. 2 teaspoons black pepper
  9. 2 cups crushed corn flakes
  10. 1/2 cup unsalted butter
Instructions
  1. Mix hash browns, sour cream, soup, onion flakes, cheese, bouillon, and black pepper.
  2. Spread in a greased 9 x 13-inch pan.
  3. Bake at 350 for 1-1.5 hours until bubbly and potatoes are soft.
  4. Melt butter and mix in corn flakes.
  5. Sprinkle casserole with crumb topping and bake uncovered for an additional 15 minutes until browned.
Note from Debbie
CREAM OF MUSHROOM SOUP SUBSTITUTE
Ingredients
  1. 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
  2. 3 Tablespoons all-purpose flour
  3. 1/2 cup any broth (beef/chicken/vegetable
  4. 1/2 cup milk
  5. mushrooms, chopped and sauteed (how ever much you desire)
  6. salt and pepper to taste
Directions
  1. Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
  2. Stir in flour a little at a time until smooth, then remove from heat.
  3. Add broth and milk a little at a time, whisking to keep mixture smooth. Stir in mushrooms.
  4. Return to heat and bring sauce to a gentle boil; stir constantly until sauce thickens.
  5. Add salt and pepper to taste.
  6. CREAM OF CHICKEN SOUP SUBSTITUTE
Ingredients
  1. 2 tablespoons butter
  2. 2 tablespoons dried onion flakes (or 3 Tablespoons fresh)
  3. 1⁄2 teaspoon minced garlic
  4. 1⁄4 cup milk
  5. 1⁄4 cup heavy cream
  6. 1 cup chicken broth
  7. 1⁄3 cup flour
  8. 1⁄4 teaspoon black pepper
  9. 1⁄4 teaspoon salt
Directions
  1. Over medium heat combine butter, onion, garlic, milk, heavy cream, and chicken broth in medium sauce pan until combined.
  2. Add flour, salt and pepper and stir until it thickens. (About 3 minutes).
  3. Just add more flour if you want it thicker.
  4. Use in any recipe you need it for.
Arkansas Women Bloggers https://arkansaswomenbloggers.com/
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Brittney is a native Arkansan with a love for bright lights and big city. She often escapes her 20-acre home in a small town to shop, eat and catch a concert in the big city nearby. She blogs about her life, her faith, her adventures, her dogs and her country home at Razorback Britt.
 
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