Bentonville Farmer's Market: Great Food Starts Here.

If there's one thing that Drew and I do most weekends, it's to visit the Bentonville Farmer's Market at the downtown square. It's one of my very favorite things about Northwest Arkansas. The people watching is spectacular, the music makes you tap your feet, and all of the fresh food is mouth watering good.This weekend was no exception to our little Saturday tradition, so we packed up the boys and headed out.

 Brayden was excited to hold my bag before we left ;)

I got this bag before burlap was popular. It was perfect for holding our produce purchases, and I looked hip and chic using it. At least I think I did. ha!

Their motto is "great food starts here." I'd have to agree, since anything we've ever gotten at the farmers market has been amazing. A lot of people think that a farmer's market is just food, but it's so much more than that. It's culture. It's handmade. It's locally owned and produced. I love it (everything at the Bentonville Farmer's market comes out of Benton county. Can't get more local than that!)

this is my favorite spot to sit during the farmer's market. You can hear the music in the background, along with the hum of the water fountain, and it's smack dab in the shade. Perfection.


I love all of the colors of the produce. I'll be honest... going to the farmer's market makes me a bit sad we didn't do a garden this summer. I feel like these farmers are totally bailing me out of my farm fresh produce withdrawals. They also have meat farmers there too! While we were there on Saturday I saw farmers selling farm fresh beef, pork and chicken.

this is my favorite band that plays on Saturdays. They are ingeniously named "Farmer and the Markets."

There's a lady who sells wood items that are made from reclaimed lumber from salvage from Joplin

Drew's favorite is this stand. This guy's name is Aesa Jarvis, and he handmakes all kinds of wood items. It's amazing to watch. I talked to Aesa's mom on Saturday, and she said that he's been doing this since he was a little boy. He makes some incredible pieces, but my favorite right now has to be this:

I mean, really. I might die from the cuteness.


Another of my favorite woodworkers at the Bentonville farmer's market is Steven Langford. He makes custom furniture, and his frames are so cute! I've also flipped through his portfolio book and he has some of the cutest looking buffets and tables... very pottery barnish. You can find him on facebook: southerntraditionsar

of course, what farmers market is complete without fresh grown flowers?


I had never seen this guy at the farmers market before, but Brayden sure spotted him quickly, and insisted on a black sword. What a fun treat for a sword lovin' boy!

Brayden is normally not a very still child. He literally stood motionless while the balloon artist worked away. Perhaps I should take up balloon artistry as a means to achieve good behavior.


Another added treat this past weekend was that Yarnells was giving away free ice cream, and also have a Tryathlon! Yarnells is an Arkansas company that is making it's way back to our state. Our family LOVES ice cream, and I love that there's now an Arkansas company that I can buy it from!

how cute is this old ice cream truck?!?!


My boys LOVED the ice cream. Brayden had a "no drop left behind" policy.

We brought home a few items from the farmer's market to make this amazing salad, inspired by this Panzanella recipe from the James Beard Foundation.


I made this salad at 10:30pm. We were both tired, but this salad. Oh, this salad. It called our name. There was no way we could let it soak all night without one bite. Which led to another. And another. And another. Yes, we each ate 2 bowls of this right before bed. And it was AMAZING. To quote Drew, "this is like freshness exploding in my mouth!"

To make the salad, you'll simply need:
- grape tomatoes.
- 1 small purple onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cucumber, thinly sliced
- fresh basil, chopped
- mozzerella, cubed
- red wine vinegar
- olive oil
- sea salt & black pepper

I simply combined all of the vegetables, herbs and cheese. Then I sprinkled with the vinegar and olive oil to taste, and seasoned with sea salt and black pepper to taste.

If you're local (or even if you're not!), I'd love for you to help me out...right now you can vote for the Bentoville Farmer's Market to be America's Favorite Market! I would LOVE it if my farmer's market won! If you'd like to see all of the other pictures I took during this weekend's trip, you can click HERE to view the rest of them. 

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ and Downtown Bentonville, Inc. All opinions (and photographs) are my own. #bvfoodie #CBias #SocialFabric

Bob Evans: Tasting the Farm.

Over the past month our little family has had the privilege to try out the Bob Evans restaurant that's new to the area. If you know our family at all, you know that we have big appetites, and eating out is always a special treat in our house, so we were thrilled with the opportunity to test out the new food in town!

The first trip came during the grand opening Family Night. Throughout the year, Bob Evans is offering a Family Night where kids eat free on Tuesday nights. When we walked in the boys were so excited to be greeted by the two Bob Evans mascots, Biscuit and Gravy (two oversized friendly pups). Brayden and Connor were quick to give high-fives, and it made the night an instant success just by Biscuit and Gravy's presence alone. We were seated quickly and the entire waitstaff was very helpful in answering questions and taking our order. Like most restaurant visits with two children en towe, the visit did have it's bumps. Thankfully Bob Evans is a restaurant I felt at ease with children in, which is no feat since normally having a kid who throws crayons or screams about not getting another fried mushroom could be a catastrophe.

The food was awesome. Drew got the Turkey dinner and said it was great... just like a Thanksgiving meal. The boys both loved their kid's meals... Brayden got mini burgers and Connor got chicken tenders. I ordered a steak and it was melt in your mouth delicious. 

Our visit did have a few minor set backs. I won't go into great detail about them, because honestly, most of them I attributed to it being the grand opening and things still needing to get ironed out. There were some slight issues with our food orders, but the management was quick to rectify any issues that had come up. I'm pretty laid back when it comes to things at restaurants. The only thing I can't really stand is poor service. To me, the service makes or breaks a restaurant. Thankfully, I'm here to let you know that Bob Evans definitely exceeded my expectations when it came to service. The problems that did arise were all handled in the proper manner, and management was quick to come and either check on us or let us know that there was indeed an issue and it was being resolved. Because of the service, we were sure we'd be back.

And back we were yesterday, this time for a solo breakfast date. That's right, Drew and I dropped the boys off at childcare and went for a breakfast date. I had heard rave reviews of the Bob Evans breakfast meals, and wanted to make sure I tried them out myself. Oh my goodness. It was delicious. I ordered a traditional sausage, egg and hashbrown breakfast with a crepe as my side. It was my first time to ever eat crepes and it was melt in your mouth good. I ordered the blueberry one. Our waitress, Gretchen, was great at helping us understand the different breakfasts that Bob Evans has to offer. And Bob Evans was true to their slogan in bringing farm fresh goodness straight to our table... it was an exceptional breakfast for sure.

Our family would like to thank Bob Evans for giving us the opportunity to not only experience their grand opening but also to share that experience with my readers. If you're in the Northwest Arkansas area, I'd definitely recommend Bob Evans as a place to go!

Shaklee's Winner

Yall I am SO sorry I am just now posting this. Truthfully I totally forgot to close the giveaway down yesterday, and today I've been so busy with the boys that I haven't had a chance to get this done until now. My apologies. Many thanks to Katie for offering me the opportunity to review Shaklee's Basic H cleaners, and also offering yall a chance to try it! As always, I used random.org to draw a winner...

The second comment was from Cheryl:

Congrats Cheryl! Please email me your info so that I can get that passed on to Katie!

Shaklee's H2 Cleaner| Review & Giveaway.

Drew has often said that I have more household cleaning products than anywhere he's ever seen. And I'm not going to lie... the statement is more true than false. I guess it's good that I have a deep love for cleaning (well, if I'm honest it's probably more along the lines of a love/hate relationship these days). Considering my obsession with cleaners, it was a no-brainer on saying yes when Katie asked me if I would do a review of Shaklee's Basic H2 Cleaner. Of course I said YES!

Now, in full disclosure, I should probably tell y'all that I'm not a complete "green clean" person. I always say that I wish we were millionaires so that I could afford living organically as much as possible. If you've seen the price tag of cleaners/soaps/produce/food that is organic and "green", you'll know what I'm talking about. Most average American families just can't afford the large sum of money it takes to live green. Which is so sad in my opinion. So our family, we try where we can, but then I just pray that the Lord will protect us where we can't. I was so excited to find out that Shaklee's Basic H cleaner is not only affordable, but a fraction of the cost of your normal household cleaners. An affordable, green way to clean my house? Yes please! And just so you don't have to take my word for it, here's a little cost comparison sheet that Katie made for me. The proof is in the pudding... or the cute little chart (although, if it were in the pudding, you could always just clean it off with Shaklee's Basic H :) ).

Katie dropped off the cleaners at my house about 2 weeks ago. Since that time I've been using the cleaner to clean up some of the common spills and messes that the boys typically leave behind. You have no idea how nice it is knowing I don't have to worry if something is dry now, or if the boys will get in the spray. This was especially helpful when I needed to clean the windows. Don't know about you, but if you have little munchkins running around your house your windows probably look something like this...






I know. It's gross. But it's life, so I'll be honest about it.

Knowing that the Shaklee's Basic H window cleaner was green, I offered the boys a towel to "help" me with the cleaning. They were both so excited. And I wasn't worried about someone putting their little hands on the window cleaner because I knew it wasn't a toxic product. A definite win for all involved, and my windows were left looking just as sparkly had I used my normal go-to window cleaner.











all clean....

...until the next little hand comes along :)
So what do you think? Pretty awesome stuff huh? I'm sure you're wondering how you can get your hands on some of this stuff. Well never fear, Katie gave me the hook up and is offering my readers a chance to win a set of their own Shaklee's Basic H set of cleaners! To enter the giveaway, I'd love for you to check out Katie's post about the Real Dirt on Clean. Come back here and comment with something you learned and you'll be entered. And if you're like me and sometimes impatient and want to forego the whole giveaway thing, well, you can just head on over to Katie's Shaklee's shop and purchase your products directly. And as a special promo this month, for the first time ever, Shaklee is offering a free lifetime membership for Shaklee to anyone who makes a purchase. It can be ANY product and you'll get this deal!


For additional entries (mandatory entry must be completed for additional entries to count): 
Follow my personal blog. Leave a comment letting me know.
Follow Katie's personal blog. Leave a comment letting me know. 
Follow me on twitter: @bloggerlinds. Leave a comment letting me know.
Follow Katie on twitter: @kbrockmeyer. Leave a comment letting me know. 


Please leave a separate comment for each entry you are eligible for. Duplicate comments will be deleted by the blog administrator.

A few of the small details:
Contest open to US residents.
Please make sure that you leave a way for me to contact you should you win (email is preferable). 
Comments will be open until 10am Monday, April 30, 2012. 
Winner will be chosen via random.org. 
The winner will be announced Friday, April 27, 2012 and will have 48 hours to get in touch with me. If the winner does not contact me within the 48 hours, a new winner will be selected.

Good Luck!

Disclosure: I was given a set of Shaklee's Basic H2 cleaner in order to complete this review. I was in no other way compensated. Katie is providing the Basic H2 cleaner to the winner. All views and opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Bob Evans giftcard winners!

Thanks to all who entered the Bob Evans giftcard giveaway. I wish I could give giftcards to everyone who entered. Thankfully you all get a little help by the kids eating free on Tuesdays this year :) I entered all the info in random.org and got the following:

The 6th comment was Kimberly at Key Moments and the 4th comment was Rachel from a Longs Life! Please email me at lifesdollop@gmail.com with your addresses within the next 24 hours. Congrats Kimberly and Rachel!

Bob Evans Grand Opening | Giveaway {Northwest Arkansas}

If you live in Northwest Arkansas, then you may have heard of the new restaurant in town-- the Bob Evans Restaurant to be exact. Considering there aren't a ton of restaurant options in our area, our little family of four is excited about this new place and can't wait to give it a try! Bob Evans (which is owned by Mimi's-- if that's any indication at how good the food is going to be my mouth is already watering!). Thankfully for us, Bob Evans is family friendly (try eating next to us at a restaurant and you'll know what I mean ;) ). To make it a little easier on parents, Bob Evans is offering Tuesday night Family Nights for the entire year, where kids 12 and under eat free after 4pm. Their Family Night Grand Opening on April 24, 2012 is no exception. I don't know about you, but when my kids can eat for free, it makes for one happy momma and daddy!

If you'd like try out the new Bob Evans restaurant, I'd love to hook you up!

Bob Evans has generously offered a $25 giftcard for two of my readers. Simply leave a comment on this post letting me know why you want to win the giftcard. Winners will be drawn via random.org on Friday, April 20th at 7am Central Standard Time. The winners will have 24 hours to get back with me, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

Be sure to check out Bob Evans on Facebook to get all the skinny on the new grand opening events, not only in Northwest Arkansas but across the country!
Bob Evans Facebook page
Bob Evans Grand Opening Facebook page

Green Giant Prize Pack Winner.

Thanks to all who entered into the Green Giant Valley Fresh Steamers giveaway, and a special thanks to General Mills and My Blog Spark for making it possible! I plugged in the information into random.org and got the following:

And the 2nd comment was from Shannon:

Congratulations Shannon! Please email me with your information within 48 hours to claim your prize pack!