Hi friends! As you know, I was in Portland, Maine over the weekend with Cabot and some fellow bloggers as part of their Cabot Fit Team! I was on the original Cabot Fit Team back in 2013 and am so honored to have been selected to be on the team again this year. (Bloggers – they fill their team via an application process, so if you’re interested, apply next year!) A huge thank you to Cabot for having me!
We had a great group for this year’s Cabot Fit Team! 2015 members:
- Me! 🙂
- Deanna Segrave-Daly, RD, Teaspoon of Spice
- Julie Harrington, RD, RDelicious Kitchen
- Diane Boyd, RD, Cape Fear Nutrition
- Kita Roberts, Pass the Sushi
- Brianne Izzo, Cupcakes & Kale Chips
- Whitney Bond, Little Leopard Book
- Kelly Mahoney, Kelly the Culinarian
We were also joined by Sara Wing, Cabot’s on-staff dietitian, and Regan Jones, a dietitian who does freelance consultant work for Cabot and mans their @CabotRD Twitter account.
Also, I was finally reunited with the coolest minivan in the world. 😉 Yes, that says “Random acts of cheddar.” Sometimes we’d be riding in it and people would smile and wave and I’d be kind of confused until I remembered we were in an awesome plaid van. Lol!
You guys know I’m a big Cabot fan – not just of the cheese, but also the company – everyone I’ve met that works there is so passionate about what they do. Cabot Creamery is a cooperative made up of 1,200 family dairy farms located throughout New England and New York, and 100% of their profits go back to their farmers. We know them best for their (amazing) cheddar cheese (Alpine Cheddar and Seriously Sharp are my faves), but they also produce yogurt, cottage cheese, and other products, like this awesome Cabot cheddar shake (great on popcorn!).
If you’re ever in Portland, check out their Cabot Farmers’ Annex store for cheese samples and other fun goodies! 🙂
Fun fact: the different variations of Cabot cheese (e.g. sharp, extra sharp) aren’t specifically made – they are decided with a taste test! Awesome job, right? Apparently the flavor varies based on how long the cheese is aged, what temperatures are used during ageing, and even the time of year, because cows diets will change based on season, which affects the flavor of their milk! Cool. Also, did you know it takes 1.16 gallons of whole milk to make one pound of cheddar cheese? Wow!
Speaking of cows, on Saturday we enjoyed a tour of Pineland Farms, which is an educational/recreational area as well as a 5,000 acre working farm in Cabot’s network.
This cow’s name is Hemi, and she’s quite famous!
Most of the cows were inside staying cool, though, since it was noon when we were there. These calfs were our favorite. So cute!
Every time I go on a farm tour I’m reminded how much hard work it is to maintain a farm. Mad respect to all the farmers out there – thank you for doing what you do!
The other thing that kept me busy while in Maine, besides the Beach to Beacon 10k (race recap coming soon!), was lobster eating. I made it my personal mission to eat all lobster, all the time. Because, when in Maine…
Here’s lobster roll #1 (dinner at the adorable Higgins Beach Inn, where we stayed again this year).
Lobster roll #2 (from the Higgins Beach Market) – that was a whole 1/2 lb. of lobster and it was seriously as big as my head. I didn’t quite finish but I made it close. 😉
Moving on from lobster rolls to lobster pasta for my dinner on Saturday night post-race – this was a tasty seafood smorgasbord from Joe’s Boathouse in south Portland.
My last lobster dish went unphotographed, but I had one final taste of lobster at breakfast Sunday morning at the Higgins Beach Inn before leaving: the lobster eggs benedict. Don’t mind if I do!
Don’t worry, I ate some veggies, too. 😉 Appetizer salads ftw.
And now, as a thank you to you guys for sharing in my Cabot adventures, I’ve got a fun Cabot Fit Team-themed giveaway for you guys!
One fANNEtastic blog reader will win a both a special Cabot Fit team edition FitKit and a Cabot gift box (both pictured below). The FitKit includes: tubing with handles, flat resistance band, jump rope, emergency ID tag, reflective arm band, exercise cards, tips and more. Nice for travel! And the gift box includes a variety of delicious Cabot cheddar cheese, so you can make sure you refuel from all that fitness. 🙂
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway below! U.S. residents only, please. Good luck!
Stay tuned for my Beach to Beacon 10k race recap, coming soon – and another HUGE thank you to Cabot for having me this past weekend, and for covering most of my trip expenses! It was an honor to be there.
