This is a sponsored conversation on behalf of Litehouse Foods. All opinions are my own.
I love traveling, I love food, and I love learning more about brands that care about food. When you can combine all three of those things together – it’s a homerun for me!
This was the exact scenario recently when I was invited to attend an amazing dinner event with Litehouse Foods. It was a really great opportunity to get together with some other bloggers over a delicious meal and some great conversation. The topic of the night: Real Food Is Better, #SeeTheLite.
This dinner was designed to be a conversation around some of Litehouse Foods refrigerated dressings and freeze dried herbs. The main takeaway for me was: Why Fresh Is Best – Real Recipes Using Real Dressing and Herbs (which is why you’ll find their dressing in the refrigerated aisle by the produce, not in the dressing aisle).
Dinner with Litehouse
Upon arrival at the Birchwood Cafe in Minneapolis, I was escorted to a private room in the back where many of the other bloggers and the representatives from Litehouse Foods were already mingling. I was about 5 minutes late due to my car not starting, my GPS driving me in circles, and a couple other things – but that is a fun story for another time!
Birchwood is an amazing local eatery that offers locally sourced foods, some of which they grow themselves right on site! Their homemade Kombucha was fantastic as well! I do highly recommend it if you are ever in the area.
In our private dining room, there was a demonstration table set up where Chef Daniel Green would be doing a cooking demo for us. He would be making a Ranch Guacamole. But first, we all found our seats thanks to some of the cutest little name cards ever – printed names attached to fruits and veggies! We gave our order right away – the food selections were wonderful!
After a few appetizers from the amazing menu at Birchwood Cafe, some small talk, and lots of laughs, we got down to business. Vice President of Marketing & Communications, Maria Emmer-Aanes told us a brief history of the Litehouse brand (read all about it here), her background in the food industry (fascinating story), and Chef Daniel Green then began a little demo for us.
Ranch Guacamole – Why Fresh Is Best
Chef Daniel Green has such an amazing presence and electricity when he is talking and cooking, and I couldn’t wait to try the Guacamole when he was done!
I was interested to see what it was going to taste like with ranch since I’d never heard of doing it this way before, but he made a good point, “you already eat your salad with some avocado on it, pour on some ranch, why not mix the two together?”
Check out the full video of the demo (live on FB at the time).
During the demo, we learned from Chef Green that using freeze dried herbs is a great option when you are short on time and cannot prep whole veggies or fresh herbs for a dish. The freeze dried herbs from Litehouse foods are real herbs and veggies that instantly rehydrate upon using. They provide full-bodied flavor without all the chopping and prep work.
The instantly fresh garlic has already been a staple at my house, but I will be adding more herbs to my pantry for sure!
LiteHouse Dressing
After sampling the guacamole, our dinner selections began to arrive. We started with a fantastic salad with greens that were grown right at Birchwood Cafe, as well as greens that were foraged for locally, including these yummy fiddleheads.
We had the option of the Litehouse Bleu Cheese or the Litehouse Ranch dressing for our salads. I chose the Bleu Cheese and I was not disappointed. I had never had it before, but I will say that I think it is the best tasting dressing I have had in a very long time. I can see why fresh is best after having tasted the Litehouse dressing. I will definitely be adding this to my grocery list!
Next, our dinner selections arrived. I had chosen the steak with asparagus and fries. Everything was delicious!
Our dinner with Litehouse representatives was both informative and fun. I learned a ton about what the company stands for, that they are an employee owned company, and do their best to deliver high-quality products to their consumers.
During dinner, I had a discussion with Maria, the VP of Marketing & Communications, about the types of ingredients used in Litehouse Foods products. She mentioned that while they do use some organic ingredients in a few products, they are not a fully organic company. Maria comes from the “organic world” and took the job at Litehouse Foods in the hopes of shifting them more toward the organic model. I’d say that since Litehouse Foods already uses real ingredients that are fresh, they are well on their way to getting there if the decide to go in that direction!
Many thanks to Litehouse Foods for hosting this dinner and talking to us about why fresh is best.
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