You guys I know that I love a challenge, so when Athenos asked if I was interested in becoming a spokesblogger for their Make a Change for the Feta campaign, I was immediately interested.
Make a Change for the Feta is basically a call to action: Make a simple change in how you top your salads and enjoy more flavors with fewer calories. Sounds great to me! Sign me up! 
Plus, I love feta. I swear, feta makes everything betta! 
I already eat feta pretty often, but I’m always looking for ways to incorporate more veggies into my diet, so I’m excited for this challenge. Plus, feta is the best of both worlds: it offers a big boost of flavor and it’s a naturally healthier cheese. Delicious and nutritious! Hopefully, I will inspire you to add a little Athenos feta into your life too!
In addition to my recipe ideas, I’ll be hosting a feta giveaway every Friday for the month of July! The giveaway will include Athenos coupons, a 1-month membership to LifeTime Fitness, and other goodies. If you love feta, you’ll want to enter these giveaways!
Full disclosure: I’m working with Athenos to blog about their feta in my recipes and meals for the month of July. I will be compensated for my participation, but my opinions are completely honest and entirely my own. I love feta, so I don’t think it will be that difficult!
For lunch, I enjoyed a lettuce-less salad with balsamic vinegar and lots of feta.
I really loved the flavor combination of feta cheese + balsamic vinegar. The nice, bold flavors were awesome mixed with a bowl full of veggies.
Mid-morning, I snacked on a YoBabby 3-in-1 yogurt with a little bit of granola.
Blueberry-Banana Spelt Bread
I broke into my stash of spelt flour this morning and created something quite wonderful: Blueberry-Banana Spelt Bread. Mmm! It’s basically a sweet banana bread with dried blueberries and walnuts thrown into the mix. The outside of the loaf is hearty and firm, but the inside is soft and moist. I’m a big fan!
Makes 1 loaf
Ingredients:
- 2 cups spelt flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 cup ground flaxseed meal
- 1/3 cup liquid egg whites
- 1/3 cup canola oil
- 2 ripe bananas
- 1 cup dried blueberries (I used Craisins Blueberry Juice Infused Dried Cranberries)
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts
Directions:
- Preheat oven to 325*F.
- Combine all ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Stir until fully blended.
- Coat a 9″ X 4″ loaf pan with non-stick cooking spray.
- Pour batter into pan and spread evenly.
- Bake for 45-55 minutes until loaf is cooked through.
- Allow to cool before serving.
P.S. Don’t forget to enter my Oral-B ProfessionalCare electric toothbrush giveaway. You have until tomorrow morning!
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I also really LOVE feta with balsamic vinegar. In fact, most of my salads include balsamic and either feta or goat cheese:). I’m not planning on deviating anytime soon, it’s that good:)
Tina,
I do enjoy your blog and find it useful. However, like others, I find the product placements to be getting to an inundating level. One thing you might consider is labeling the posts to indicate they are sponsored, or putting the disclaimer at the top.
It’s annoying to read a portion of a post and think its your original thought, then add the product infommerical in. It discredits anything you said beforee. I think being completely upfront might be better. And yes, maybe keeping reviews/giveaways that are unrelated (toothbrush?) to a separate page or your other blog.
Just a thought. I love your regular content.
To clarify the comment above, I mean labeling the TITLE of the post to indicate they are sponsored. Like Sponsored Post: Mohegan Sun Review
@Marlie: I hate to say it, but I agree… this blog used to be at the top of my must-read list, but now it seems to be all about promotions
. I much preferred it when it was just about your daily meals!
Tina, I absolutely love your blog. You have one of the most authentic voices in the healthy living community and you entertain me day after day. I have to agree however with some of the comments about the product placement overkill. Perhaps you can house a seperate landing page for product reviews that dont directly correlate with your day to day healthy living? I understand the need to work with corporate brands as a professioanl blogger, but perhaps there can be a balance? At the end of the day I love your blog and think you’re very talented.
Feta DOES make it betta! I love Athenos too, and I really need to try the flavored feta – you made it sound extra good in that salad :0)
Dr. Kracker’s Seeded Spelt crackers are my new obsession, so I’m thinking of buying spelt for baking – and that bread is definitely at the top of my to-make list. Thanks so much for taking the time to develop and post such a yummy recipe!
PS – This is YOUR blog. Post what you please
@Emily: Um, that’s the main focus of Trading Up Downtown not this blog.
I want some of that bread…..NOW!!! Hoe delicious!!
obvioulsy I meant to say “how” delcicious
That bread looks delicious. And I love feta.
I’m curious about how you feel about Athenos Feta now that you’ve been on the barnstorming tour. Do you know how the cows who produce Athenos’ feta are treated? Do you know if they have an organic alternative. When I’m eating dairy I struggled to always eat the organic kind, especially when I’m out, and I DO love feta, i’m just curious if your experience this past weekend has changed anything for you in that regard.
@jen trinque @ recipes for creativity: feta is made from goat or sheep milk
I must make that loaf! I love banana bread!
I LOVE feta. And your lettuce salad looks delicious…YUM:)
I enjoy feta in small doses. I tend to eat it when I’m out but rarely at home. I’m on a goat cheese kick right now. The bread looks wonderful, a nice bfast alternative!
@Jennifer: My apologies. Carrots ‘N Cake claims to be “a food blog dedicated to a healthy balance.”
@Hilary: athenos feta is made from pasturized cow’s milk. they don’t list anything about their dairy practice though on their site…probably for a reason. i’m very curious how tina is compartmentalizing stonyfield and athenos in her mind and for her readers.
@Hilary: It is also made from cow’s milk. I am eating some right now.
@Peggy: oh! crazy! I always thought what made it feta cheese was the fact it was made from goat/sheep milk. my mistake
I still love this blog, and it’s always the first one I read. Keep up the good work Tina
ps. the toothbrush does pertain to her life, as she stated that she had a tough time with her teeth! I want one of those toothbrushes for me!!
I just bought some Athenos Hummus for the first time the other day… I’m a little nervous to try it though. (Hummus is a BRAND new idea for me!) I’m much more open to trying new cheese! Maybe I’ll check out Feta?
Also, I’d like to disagree with those who are upset with the product placement. As long as Tina is honest, which I believe she is, then I would like to see those product reviews! Personally, I have started purchasing things she has been recommending and they are ALWAYS as good as she says they are. Obviously, I have not purchased things she did not care for. In addition, we all read this blog because we all would like a healthy lifestyle and we all eat food! Guess what… we all brush our teeth, and brushing your teeth is healthy too! I’d like to see someone stick their foot in their mouth when they WIN the cool toothbrush and have been badmouthing the blog.
Sorry… I didn’t realize I had that much to say about it…
Keep it up, Tina!
Yes, I would love it Tina if you could have a separate page for sponsored posts. I LOVE reading about your usual eats, Mal,your pug and all that.I wish there was an easier way,cause I do feel like I am being given a big commercial at times (and hey Caitlin is also doing Athenos…it’s everywhere alas!)
The funny thing is that this is not at all what drew most of us to your blog-it was your authentic writing voice without product placements.
Maybe this will be the true conundrum in the next little while re successful food bloggers….once they are well know they seem to enter this sponsor trap,and of course we all understand it is to make a living.Is there no way the sponsors couldn’t just have ads on your blog on the side?
Anyways I genuinely have enjoyed your blog and I am a fan.I hope you know that this does come from a genuine place this comment.(I don;t have a blog which is why I am technically “anonymous”.But I am not a naysayer ,I really am a genuine fan just sending a comment! Thanks Tina!
PS Gosh I don’t want you to feel bombarded by these comments,I have spent some smiling moments over the years reading about you,Mal, Murphy and your food . Hope you will just take it as readers have lots of different feelings-and if we didn’t care about your blog, we wouldn’t bother to comment here.
And I understand you may not want to take into account my or others comments-it is your own blog after all
I find it contradictory that you spent all this time on the Stonyfield barnstorming tour advocating organic milk on your blog and now you’re advocating non-organic cheese. You just said at the end of your conventional vs. organic post that visiting a conventional dairy farm was eye-opening and led to your decision to buy organic from now on and now you’re a spokeblogger for cheese made from conventional dairy…
I love your blog! Even though i’m not the biggest fan of the product endorsements I understand why you do them. I think it’s great that you’ve been able to make your blog into a career, and I’d rather read an honest review of something than have the page covered with ads.
I was getting a little overloaded with lentils a while back though…
I’m thinking I might have to buy some feta for dinner tonight.
1. Your blog is the bomb. Dont stop doing what you are doing. Personally, I love knowing what you KNOW about companies and what we have the opportunity to LEARN from reading your entertaining blog. There are a million other food blogs out there with less “product placements” (AHEM… emphasis on the quotes, with an eye roll) But I still go to CNC (and I am sure others would agree) before anything else.
2. I think the it should be “Fuck yes, FETA!” too much? I am sure they would love you for that….
Squee! I’ve been looking for a banana bread recipe lately! Now I just have to remember to get the bananas out of the freezer with time enough to let them thaw and bake this!
Mm I love lettuce-less salad with feta. Authentic Greek salad in Greece doesn’t have lettuce- it’s just tomatoes, cucumbers, red onion, peppers, oil and vinegar, and a SLAB of feta (with oregano, mm) on top. It’s soooooooooo wonderful.
Your spelt bread looks AMAZING!!! Also I am a Feta Fan!! I make a mean salad with feta!! I will def enter your draw!!
I like feta cheese, but I think I need to put in my two cents about the sponsored posts as well; being an international reader from China, the posts I enjoy most from you are the most honest, personal ones, especially the ones about Murphy! The product placements and constant giveaways don’t really apply to me so I find that I’m missing out on a lot of things that you say. I do thoroughly enjoy reading your blog, but like others have said, the product promotion is getting to be a LITTLE bit of overkill.
I’m always reading Trading Up Downtown, and I’ve always noticed that the number of comments on the giveaways are 1-200 times more than on the regular posts. I hope that your job doesn’t influence this blog too much, because it is still personal and yours!
Wei-Wei
Just my two cents on the product placement/giveaway stuff:
I think you, along with other bloggers, get in a sort of “Catch-22″ situation: you attract readers initially by your everyday solutions to healthy eating and living, but you aren’t making money. Then, you get so many readers that you are able to get endorsements and review products and are able to make money, but at the same time, this turns away readers because your blog isn’t the same anymore.
Personally, I still read this blog as much as I used to, but I do miss how it used to be. It’s exciting for you to go to all these events and everything, and I love seeing them featured, but my favorite posts are just you and Mal cooking meals, playing with Murphy, and going out with your friends. I fully understand your dilemma, Tina, and I don’t have a solution. It just seems that around March or so of this year, the homey tone of the blog began to change.
Just something you may want to consider, but your blog will always have a special place in my heart!
Mmmm…bring on the FETA! The blueberry bread looks delicious, too! I’m always on the look out for new blueberry recipes
I love feta! Hmmm… strangely, I’m thinking some feta cheese melted on the blueberry-banana bread would be very tasty!
Yum! I love feta and I agree about the feta-balsamic combo.
I hope you are smiling regardless of the negative vibes above!
I love feta! I just found your blog so I’m excited about some good food, too.
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