These days, dining out or eating in can be one in the same. Numerous restaurants have recreated their entrées and side dishes, and instead of going into your favorite eatery, all you have to do is head to the supermarket.
T.G.I. Friday's is just one place that has made it easier than ever to eat tasty appetizers at home. While their
frozen foods like potato skins, chicken quesadilla rolls, and spinach, cheese, and artichoke dip are available in your grocer's freezer, they have also extended their selections to include
snack chips,
skillet meals,
dips,
beverage blenders, and
non-alcoholic mixers.
Friday's is not the only one, however, to replicate restaurant meals. Thanks to
ConAgra Foods,
Marie Callender's is serving up an extensive
line of its comfort food. Complete frozen meals like meatloaf and gravy, lasagna, and pot pies are on hand at the grocery store, even if you don't have a Marie Callender's in your neighborhood. The restaurant also directly sells its fruit and cream pies, as well as cobblers
online, and yes...in your grocer's freezer.
Similar to Marie Callender's,
Claim Jumper is a restaurant chain with locations in Arizona, California, Colorado, Illinois, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, and Wisconsin. Their hardy servings include
entrées like country fried chicken, Salisbury steak, and pot roast. They are also known for their acclaimed
cobblers and pies. Even though the eatery is based on the West Coast, with the aid of your neighborhood supermarket, a gracious helping from Claim Jumper is never far away; it's right in your grocer's freezer.
In the mood for pizza? Save time and money by picking up an authentic
California Pizza Kitchen pizza in – you guessed it – your grocer's freezer. CPK offers a number of
flavors and styles such as
crispy thin crust garlic chicken and
self-rising Hawaiian recipe.
Side dishes, too, have been made easy with assistance from restaurateur
Bob Evans.
Products like mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, green bean casserole, stuffing, and glazed apples can be a part of your at-home meal; just pick up these trimmings the next time you're out grocery shopping.
Even though there is a
Starbucks on every corner, if you find yourself hankering for a sweet treat, the coffee shop has you covered when you're at home. Store shelves are lined with bagged Starbucks coffee by the pound,
bottled Frappuccino drinks, and its most recent retail addition,
ice cream.
Jamba Juice has also started to sell
smoothie mixes for fans to make and consume at home. The only thing you need to do is head to your grocer's freezer.
What do you think about these restaurants and shops offering their products at the grocery store? Leave a message if you're a fan of the convenience or tell me what other items you'd like to see lining the shelves.
Take for example, the Cheese Curd Festival, hosted in – you guessed it – Wisconsin! This year, the village of Ellsworth, 30 miles east of Minneapolis/St. Paul, held their ninth annual event June 25-27. The event included a scavenger hunt for "The Great Cheese Curd Medallion," a cheese carving contest, and fireworks, thanks to sponsors including the Ellsworth Cooperative Creamery and Nash Finch.
Wisconsin isn't the only state having all the fun with cheese, though! On July 25, the Vermont Cheesemakers Festival organized its fourteenth annual event where attendees sampled cheese, learned from educational seminars, and watched cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs. Sponsors such as Cabot Cheese and Ben & Jerry's made the day possible.
In Georgia, they take their peaches very seriously...by having a lot of fun! This year, the Georgia Peach Festival took place June 11-19. The first Georgia Peach festival was staged in Peach County's Fort Valley in 1986. Events during the week-long event included the Miss Georgia Peach Pageant and sampling of the world's largest peach cobbler, all presented with the help of local sponsors, many orchards and farms.
If strawberries are more your thing, the Garden Grove Strawberry Festival is for you! From May 28-31, participants celebrated the 52nd annual fair with carnival rides, a redhead contest, and a parade that has boasted a celebrity grand marshal since 1959. Foster Farms, Sam's Club, and Seattle's Best Coffee were just three of the festival's many sponsors this year.
Moving on to main dishes, you'll want to head to Maine to commemorate the mighty lobster. Sponsored by such companies as PepsiCo and Green Mountain Coffee, the Maine Lobster Festival is right around the corner – August 4-8. In addition to a lobster-eating contest, a lecture on the evolution of lobsters, and a codfish carry competition for kids, participants can take in free concerts by artists ranging from Clint Black to the Wicked Good Band.
For those who like their food a bit spicier, try the National Buffalo Wing Festival in Buffalo, New York, brought to you by none other than Frank's RedHot, among others. On September 4 and 5, more than 91,000 attendees will feast on 40 tons of wings. In addition to sampling the best wings in the area, attendees can bob for wings in a blue cheese bowl, enter the amateur creative sauce-off, and salute the newest members of the National Buffalo Wing Hall of Flame.
Other food festivals include:
Chief Executive Officers and senior managers at consumer packaged goods companies always have the interests of shoppers in mind. What are consumers buying? What motivates them to purchase the items they place in their cart? To better understand shoppers and improve the way CPG companies meet the needs of consumers, a group of executives from across the globe created a collaborative alliance called the 
Most recently, I visited the 
Take for example, 
The next mall I'd recommend is a tad more mainstream – 
The final mall on my list is 
There is still one mall, though, that I yearn to visit. 
Nothing says summer like an ice cream cone on a hot July day. That's why it makes perfect sense that July is National Ice Cream Month! How will you celebrate and honor this frozen confection?
One trillion is a very large number. And when you're talking about calories, one trillion calories is a lot! On a 2,000 calorie a day diet, it would take a person 500 million days, or more than one million years, to eat one trillion calories.
Summer is in full swing, and it's time to get outside. Whether you are traveling to the beach to put your toes in the sand or headed out to the backyard for a dip in the pool, swimsuit season is alive and well. Are you ready to don a bikini? More and more companies are offering healthier snacks to help you stay on track and fit into that two-piece. Have you noticed the trend? Packages display phrases like high in fiber, low in sugar, less sodium, no trans fat, or low calorie, as health and wellness has become top of mind for many food and beverage consumer packaged goods companies.
What are your plans for the summer? Concerts? Making s'mores over a fire pit? No matter what activities are on your schedule this season, you can be sure that your favorite food and beverage CPG companies will play a role in making those events happen.
We are two days away from the