There is a new trailer available on iTunes for The Lone Ranger, starring Johnny Depp and Armie Hammer, which comes to theaters on July 3rd!

Native American warrior Tonto (Johnny Depp) and man of the law John Reid (Armie Hammer) are opposites brought together by fate and must join forces to battle greed and corruption.

Be sure to keep up with the Lone Ranger on Facebook, Twitter, and visiting The Lone Ranger website.

Ingredients

• 1/2 box bow tie pasta
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon oregano
• 3 cups broccoli florets
• 1 1/2 cups canned white beans, drained & rinsed
• Black olives, sliced
• 1/2 lemon, zest and juice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tablespoon feta cheese, crumbled
• 2 tablespoon Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, grated
• Pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook bow tie pasta as directed on package, drain, and set aside.
2. In a large skillet, heat olive oil, garlic, and oregano on low heat for about a minute.
3. Add broccoli and cook on medium heat for about 2 minutes.  Stir in beans, lemon, wine, and olives and stir until well blended.  Cook for about 1 minute and then add pasta and cook for an extra minute or until liquid starts to boil.  Add in cheese and pepper to taste.

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It’s another great week and it’s Tuesday already, which means a new giveaway linky!  Link up all your current giveaways and feel free to enter the ones listed!  Below are the current giveaways going on here at Shawn Ann’s World.

Ends 5/24 2 Red Hens Rooster Bag

Ends 5/24 Year’s Supply of Quilted Northern

Link must go directly to your giveaway, if it goes to your main page it will be deleted. Enter your giveaway(s) below! I will remove any sweepstakes or entries that do not go directly to the giveaway.

Within the last month I received a 3-piece set of knives to review and ever since then I’ve used them for cutting, trimming, and slicing just about everything I could.  If it needed to be cut, then it was cut with one of my new Elite Chef Black Ceramic Knives from Ozeri!  That’s right, I was using one of the knives to cut up the strawberries and bananas from the Fruit Filled Pancakes I recently made and we’ve used them on countless amounts of meats and other veggies since they arrived.  I even used them for cutting up the apples for the Oatmeal Apple Pie recipe below!

When it comes to cutting apples I need to have a really good knife because of two reasons.  The first reason is I have small hands. If the knife is too big than I am unable to hold the knife properly which makes it very difficult to properly cut things.  The other reason is because I’m short.  Yes, that does cause a problem. Since counter tops are usually all the same height, they are easy for taller people to cut on, they are able to push down without a problem.  Problem is, when you are short it’s harder to push down on something when it’s up higher than you are the normal cutting position so there is less downward action involved and that means we have less force going down.

The 3-piece set comes with a 3″, 5″, and a 6″ knife, all of which work just the same and seem to cut through anything you need them to.   They also weigh less than half of the weight of similar metal knives.  I love this because I hate lugging a huge and heavy knife around the kitchen when I’m prepping meals.

Take for instance that I was cutting up apples for the recipe below.  Using a normal chef’s knife I would have needed both hands to push the blade down into the apples and then they end up not being cut straight or the apple goes rolling off.  With the Ozeri Ceramic Knife set, I can still hold the apple with one hand and the blade of the knife went right down the middle of the apples and I was able to chop them with little effort!

I came across this awesome looking Oatmeal and Apple Pie recipe and knew my husband would want to try it!  It ended up a little dry, but that was mostly because most of the juices came flowing out of my pie dish.  I’m not sure if it was because my large apples were too large or if my dish just wasn’t big enough for it all.

Ingredients

• 2 large Honey Crisp apples, chopped (I left the skin on them, you can peel them if you want)
• 2 cups old fashion rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, ground nutmeg, and ground ginger
• dash of salt
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 cups milk
• 2 eggs
• 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Directions

1. You will need to spray a 9″ pie dish with cooking spray and preheat the oven to 375°.
2. In a medium bowl you will combine all the dry ingredients and set aside.
3. In another bowl you will combine all the liquid ingredients and whisk until fully mixed.
4. Next pour the wet ingredient mixture in with the dry ingredients and mix until fully mixed.
5. Place the 9″ pie dish onto a cookie sheet and then pour the pie mixture into the dish and bake for 45 minutes.
6. Cool on a baking rack for about 10 minutes and serve warm.

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Disclosure: Core Bamboo provided me with complementary cutting board for the purpose of this review. All opinions are that of my own. No other monetary compensation will take place.

Here’s just a couple of pair from the 2013 collection from LAMO Footwear:

Personally I love the Floral Flip, which come in grey or wine and are pretty comfortable!  Now, the weather here in Michigan just needs to figure out what it wants to do and hurry up and bring me some nice warm weather so I can show off my new sandals.  I also love that they have some shearling at the bottom of the straps, it makes the straps feel comfy!

The sizing seems to be perfect for me, although they look a little narrow in the picture.  Please excuse the bare nails; this is my first time wearing sandals this season!  It’s not all that easy taking a good picture of your own feet unless it’s upside down.  I normally wear anything from a size 5-1/2 to a 6-1/2, depending on the type of shoe.  For dress shoes and sandals I usually wear the smaller size since I’m not wearing socks or they are thin socks/stockings.  The Floral Flips are a size six and there is still just a little room at both the front and back, which is nice.

The one thing that I don’t like about them, and it’s just because my feet are sensitive, is that they have a tag on the base of the sandal and it sometimes rubs the bottom of my foot wrong.  It really is something that I just need to get used to, but it’s a weird thing to put on a sandal. I know it’s there so you know who makes the sandal, but branding the name into the sandal would have been a better option.

Shop

You can purchase LAMO Footwear directly from their site and they have styles for men, women, and kids!  Prices range from $60 to $200 and they are available at department stores and specialty boutiques nationwide.

Check LAMO Footwear out on Facebook and Twitter.

Disclosure: LAMO Footwear provided me with complementary pair of sandals for the purpose of this review. All opinions are that of my own. No other monetary compensation will take place.

So, I’m working on this meatless meals challenge for May and you just have no idea how hard it is to make a meatless meal in my house.  We are meat eaters and meat is usually always a part of our daily meals.  I was searching and searching all over the internet for meals that had no meat and that were not made using that fake veggie stuff.  I was having really no luck. There are tons and tons of recipes out there for side dishes, but not really anything for main meals or full meals.  Then I came across this recipe for a Pancake Cake and let me just say WOW this is a very good recipe!  I did make a few changes from the original recipe, well actually I just didn’t add the cream cheese frosting, color the icing, and I didn’t use any bacon since this is a meatless meal.  Please check out the original recipe if you want to see how it was originally done, using full size pancakes.

Ingredients

• Pancake batter
• Icing
• Bananas & Strawberries (or other fruit if you wish)

Pancake Batter

• 2 cups flour
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 egg
• 2 cups milk
• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing

• 2 tablespoons butter, softened
• 2 cups powdered sugar
• 2 tablespoons milk

Directions

1. I started by cutting up all the fruit into nice slices.  I used 2 large bananas and about 5-6 strawberries.  You can use as many as you think you’ll need.
2. Mix the ingredients to make the pancakes. You can mix them all at once or you can start with all the dry ingredients and then add in the wet ingredients.  I just went right down the list of ingredients and put them into a big bowl and whisked them until they were fully mixed.
3. To make the pancakes, I used a large skillet with cooking spray (must spray between each batch of pancakes) and dropped a 1/8 cup of pancake batter and flipped once bubbles started to appear on the edges.  After about a minute from flipping the pancakes are done.  Spray pan and repeat this process until all pancakes are done.  You will get about 18 pancakes if you use a 1/8 cup of batter for each.
4. Meanwhile, you need to make the icing. Just take the three ingredients and mix them together really well.  If you want you can add vanilla extract and food coloring, we chose not to.
5. Next is assembling. Take one pancake on a plate, drizzle some icing, add strawberries, put another pancake on and drizzle with icing, then layer bananas, then another pancake and put a nice coating of icing all over.  You can layer it as high as you’d like, however I found that going 3 pancakes high was more than enough.  I did go 5 high for the first set I made and that’s when I realized I’d only need 3 high for myself.

For the most part this is a super easy recipe and you can really use any fruits you want and you could even toss in some blueberries into the pancake batter for some extra flavor!

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Who doesn’t love a good Macaroni & Cheese?  No one should be putting their hands up, that is unless you are allergic to dairy or noodles!  Who would have thought you’d need to use a cutting board for making Macaroni & Cheese?  You do if you are adding broccoli to it!  Oh and I got this cute cutting board from Core Bamboo to review for them.

For the Blogger Food Challenge this month it is Meatless May, where we are supposed to come up with meatless meals or at least some good meatless side dishes.  One of the first things that came to my mind, that wasn’t already taken by one of the other bloggers in the challenge is Broccoli Macaroni & Cheese.  We’ve all had your basic mac-n-cheese, but I wanted to not only color it up a little, but add a little flavor to it.  So, I added broccoli!

When cooking, especially during the prep of your recipe you need to make sure you have the correct kitchen tools, and a cutting board is a must have!  One of the best things about the Large Magenta Bamboo Colored Board that I received for review is that it’s made of 100% organically grown Bamboo and it smells wonderful.  I know, I’m weird, but it does smell awesome.

As you can see, the coloring is bright and the board has a contoured shape to it, which is nice for gripping.  Depending on what exactly you are cutting up in can seem a little big, but the board is pretty much the perfect size for any meal.  You are sure to be able to fit all your ingredients onto it and still have room for cutting.  Another great thing about it is that even though it’s made of Bamboo it doesn’t seem to hold cut marks in it, which is great because there is nothing worse than going to cut up something and notice chunks of the board missing and hoping that food juices don’t get in there and destroy the board.

The board is super strong and sturdy and very easy to clean. Because of the contoured shape it is very easy to move around when needed and because of its weight, which isn’t very heavy, it does stay put.

Oh and if you love the bright color for this board they have other kitchen accessories that work great with it!

Shop

You can purchase the same cutting board I have, which also comes in Onyx, or any other Core Bamboo items directly from their site.

OK, to the recipe we go!

For whatever strange reason I decided to make a double batch because 1 cup of uncooked macaroni just didn’t seem like it would be enough.  I am, however posting the recipe for a 4 serving batch.

Ingredients

• 1 cup elbow macaroni
• 1 tablespoon butter (or margarine)
• 1 tablespoon flour
• Dash of pepper
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese
• 1 cup chopped broccoli (pieces can be as big or small as you wish)

Directions

1. Cook the macaroni as directed on the package.
2. While macaroni is cooking take butter and melt in a sauce pan, add flour and pepper.  Then add all the milk and allow it to cook until it begins to bubble and thickens up.
3. Add all the cheese and stir until completely melted.
4. Once macaroni is cooked and drained add to the cheese mixture, stir in broccoli, and place into a casserole dish.
5. Bake at 350° for about 30 minutes or until bubbly and the top starts to turn brown.

Super easy recipe!

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Disclosure: Core Bamboo provided me with complementary cutting board for the purpose of this review. All opinions are that of my own. No other monetary compensation will take place.

It’s a new week, which means a new giveaway linky!  Link up all your current giveaways and feel free to enter the ones listed!  Below are the current giveaways going on here at Shawn Ann’s World.

Ends 5/24 2 Red Hens Rooster Bag

Ends 5/24 Year’s Supply of Quilted Northern

Link must go directly to your giveaway, if it goes to your main page it will be deleted. Enter your giveaway(s) below! I will remove any sweepstakes or entries that do not go directly to the giveaway.

It’s not that often that I really crave having freshly ground salt & pepper but when I do I never seem to have any around or in the past the grinders have broken pretty quickly on us. So this is an excellent addition to our kitchen, plus my husband prefers the freshly ground salt & pepper so the Duo Ultra Salt & Pepper Mill & Grinder are perfect for our house.

The Ozerio Duo Ultra Salt & Pepper Grinder

• Boasts the same powerful ceramic gears as the Ozeri Duo for effortless grinding.
• Newly designed unique easy-refill system prevents spillage.
• Durable Eco-friendly ceramic mechanism easily grinds peppercorns, salt, and spices.
• Features an elegant stainless-steel exterior with an ergonomic non-slip grip.
• Transparent container makes monitoring pepper level easy and reveals the grinding action.

As you can see the grinder is super easy to fill an is ready to use in less than 60 seconds!

Now, I will say that although this grinder is a duo grinder it took a little getting used to. I’m used to grinders that you go back and forth with to grind either salt or pepper, but with the Duo Ultra Salt & Pepper Grinder you turn one way to grind the salt and the other way to grind the pepper.  Another thing I found is some times the salt & pepper do not grind into fine pieces so you can end up with some larger chunks.

Because there is a lid on the bottom of the grinder you have the option to either have it open or closed during the grinding process, which allows you to not have to clean up a mess of ground salt and/or pepper while you are grinding.  It also allows you to grind while walking from one room to the next, which is nice for us since we eat in the dining room of our home and cook in our kitchen.

Personally I love that this grinder is a duo grinder because it saves space and that’s less things that Xavier can get into!

Shop

You can purchase the Ozeri Duo Ultra Salt & Pepper Mill & Grider and other Ozeri products directly from Amazon.

Find Ozeri on Facebook.

Disclosure: Item was received for the purpose of this review. All opinions are that of my own. No other monetary compensation took place.

Animal Shapes Children’s Vitamins

• With the new value size Meijer vitamins, you still get the same great product, just at a better value, 67% savings over the current Meijer largest size bottle!
• The Meijer brand children’s Multivitamin compares to Children’s Flintstone’s Complete.
• Meijer matches Costco’s prices and you don’t have to pay a membership fee!
• The Meijer Children’s Multivitamins help support healthy brain functions, building strong bones and teeth with calcium, vitamin D, and Phosphorus, and support healthy eyes with vitamin A, C, and E!

Century Multivitamin

• You have the same great product with the better value, 51% savings over Meijer’s current largest size.
• The Meijer brand Century Multivitamin compares to Centrum Multivitamins.
• Meijer matches warehouse competitor’s prices without membership fees.
• Meijer Century Multivitamins help promote overall well being, immune support, energy metabolism, and oxidative stress!

What more could you really ask for from the Meijer brand? Great product, great value!

Disclosure: Meijer provided me with complementary vitamins for the purpose of this review. All opinions are that of my own. No other monetary compensation will take place.