Tag Archives: Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream

Apr 12 2013

Ice Cream or Smoothies?

This week was Ben and Jerry’s annual Free Cone Day so I took the boys to go enjoy some ice cream.

Boys and I at B&J

What does this have to do with only eating and drinking at Starbucks all year?  Well notice that I didn’t partake in the Ben & Jerry’s Free Cone Day but brought my own YUMMY Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream!

But what other cool, smooth and delicious-to-your-tastebuds kind of goodness can you find?  Well, of course Starbucks has their super-popular Frappuccinos that everybody loves!  But did you know that this week Evolution Fresh stores also rolled out new smoothies?!  And not only are they GOOD… but they are GOOD FOR YOU!

Smooth Breakfast

I tried their new Smooth Lemon which is light and refreshing and perfect for the Spring and Summer!  I also tried the Smooth Breakfast (pictured above) in a couple of variations this week… with soy, with yogurt and without caffeine and each time this oatmeal, cinnamon, banana, ginger creation was equally as delicious!  Nice to know that you can not only mix-and-match your food but juices and smoothies at Evolution Fresh which makes them so much more personalized.  I love this concept so much that I’m creating my own ”secret menu” items (thanks for the suggestion Kevin) and I hope to have my own recipes up for order sometime soon!  Perfecting a “Beautiful Bowl” or “Smooth Beautiful” takes time and I give kudos to all the partners that have made up all the great dishes and drinks up to this date… your taste buds ROCK!

Also, since it’s the end of the second week of April I have an update on my reduction of packaging for Earth month…

1st grocery bag full of packaging

As you can see I’m at the top of the first grocery bag of packaging this month.  It’s not full of items yet and I do need to sort and rearrange the contents to make sure it’s pretty full but I expect by the end of this weekend I’ll probably be at the top.

But we will also will be 1/2 way through April by Monday… so I’m not thinking this is a bad thing at all, my waste (and my attempt to reduce it this month) seems to be working pretty well.  Next week I’ll start breaking down how much of this product is recyclable and the ways our community is reusing materials like ours for all sorts of neat projects!

Have a great weekend everybody!

And for those attending the Starbucks Evening…see you SOON!

Jan 9 2013

Let’s do lunch

Today I enrolled a few family members to join me in a Starbucks lunch at the Mercer Island store before a meeting.

S&S MI lunchS&S drinking Starbucks

I had been talking about just how wonderful I thought the Turkey Rustico Panini was for the last week so that was on the menu as well as a Roasted Tomato & Mozzarella Panini, bananas, latte’s, San Pellegrini and a nice Goat cheese and Garden veggies Bistro box!  What a lovely lunch we all had and everybody was in agreement on the Panini’s… wonderful!

This evening I tried to go back to something that I adore doing during the colder winter months… baking!  I have been hesitant to bake because I often like to “try” the goodies I make but knew with this challenge that I had to just get the temptation over with and do it!  And with today’s ultra-rainy weather I really got my mind fixed on using those browning banana’s in my pantry to make a few muffins for the kids.

S&S Banana muffins

I tried my hardest not to eat any of the baked items and instead took a couple of bites of my Starbucks Caramel Macchiato ice cream that I bought at QFC yesterday.  I will admit to you all right now that I did indeed lick the batter-covered spoon, initially it happened out of bad habit… but it happened.  I guess you can say that this was my first “Oops” moment of this year of eating/drinking only Starbucks.  All I know is that I’m gonna have to be REALLY CAREFUL when I make cookie batter in the future… but maybe if Starbucks decides to make Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream then I might not be so tempted to lick those spoons?!