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Randomness

My goal is one blog post a week, on Tuesdays. And this Tuesday morning I’m squeezing in a post before we head out the door for preschool, sewing class, and errands.

After making breakfast for the kids, I have about two minutes to write a blog post before it’s time to get them dressed and head out the door. I am really looking forward to summer when the only think on our schedule is a trip to the pool!

The other day a friend gave me a couple bags of Amish Friendship Bread Starter, so, yesterday we were baking – also yesterday my husband was home sick, and we had ballet lessons and grocery shopping. Anyways, back to the baking. So, Amish Friendship Bread makes great bread and muffins, but it does not make great pizza crust. I tried a pizza last night for dinner, and while the crust turned out great, it was too sweet. It would have been perfect for a dessert pizza, but with cheese and pepperoni on it, it was pretty bad. Well, I thought it was pretty bad. The kids loved it – I don’t know what wrong with them!

I did save myself another starter and in 10 days I have a recipe for cinnamon rolls that I’m going to try. Since the dough is sweet, they should be pretty tasty!

Yeast is such an interesting thing. One person starts a bag, lets it sit for a while then shares part of it with someone else, who can then just add sugar, flour, and milk, and the yeast keeps producing. No need to add more yeast. It’s amazing how it keeps going and going and going.

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Maggi So Juicy

Another free product from Bzz Agent! I always love trying the food products since I love trying different foods! Maggi So Juice chicken bags and seasonings. Basically, they’re an oven safe bag (kind of like a turkey bag, just smaller) that you place your chicken breast in and bake. The bag comes with a season packet that you sprinkle over the chicken before sealing the bag and cooking.

So easy to do, just put the chicken and seasoning in the bag, shake, seal, place on a pan and bake. All the juice and such stays in the bag so there’s really no mess afterwards either. The bag keeps the moisture in so the chicken is nice and moist and there’s some sauce created at the bottom of the bag.

I’ve tried 3 of their flavors so far and have loved all of them!

  • Italian Countryside Herb Blend
  • Savory Garlic & Tomato with a Hint of Chili
  • Mediterranean Herb Medley with Rosemary

My husband even made dinner for me one night when I had some errands to run. His specialty in the kitchen is kraft Mac & Cheese so for him to make something with raw meat is a big deal! It turned out great and he said it was pretty easy.

These were very tasty, very easy, and great to have on hand for an easy meal!

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What is Perfect

Recently, I found this great “cooking” project idea in a magazine.

Looks delicious and not too hard. I purchased the supplies, well…most of the supplies, cleaned off the counter, and got everything ready to make these beautiful halloween snacks.

Well…about halfway through melting the chocolate the baby decided to wake up, so I finished melting the chocolate and set everything out on the counter while I got the baby.

I was gone for less than 2 minutes and when I returned the girls had chairs pulled up and were ready to get to work. I held the baby and “supervised” the work. Supervised being defined as, pouring sprinkles, instructing the girls to share the sprinkles, showing them how to keep the marshmallows on the sticks, instructing the girls to share the chocolate, pouring more sprinkles, requesting that the girls please try to keep the sprinkles on the counter or on the marshmallows, pouring more sprinkles…

And…this is the result of my terrific halloween project!

I call the first picture “melted ghost”. The marshmallow with the green sprinkles is the Frankenstein, the orange ones are pumpkins, and I guess the purple one is a bat.

My husband got home shortly after we completed our project and commented that he had been hoping that I was going to make the marshmallows…well, I had intended to make at least a couple of them…

But, it wasn’t a big deal, the girls had fun, my oldest noticed that hers didn’t look quite like the picture but it was close enough.

There are those days that all I really want is perfection. I want my house to be clean, I want the kids to always obey, I want the kids to be clean, I want to be able to find my makeup (I’d even settle for finding a hair rubberband without having to dig through one of the kid’s drawers), I want to drink my cup of coffee while it’s hot, I’d like to sit down to drink my coffee, I want to work on my projects, I want to watch my shows instead of “Leap Frog” for the thousandth time, and on and on my list goes…

I get a few days like this every now and then. Like the day my husband watched all the kids so I could do something I really wanted to do for a few hours.

But most days look like the “melted ghost”, all the right ingredients are there they’ve just been touched by little fingers.

They’ve also been loved by little fingers, enjoyed by little fingers, and we’ve created memories for the little children with the little fingers.

I could have spent a long time working on these marshmallows and shooing the kids out of the kitchen so I could get my marshmallows just right. But in the end, they would be MY marshmallows. I would take pictures, post them on instigram and show everyone my success and then they would just sit on my counter uneaten just like these marshmallows did (because come to find out, no one in my house actually likes giant marshmallows dipped in chocolate).

Instead we had a huge mess, a child who was so proud of the eyes on her ghost, and girls who giggled for an hour making these marshmallows that no one ate. But no one cared that no one ate them…it was how we made them that was important.

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TruMoo Sweepstakes

Don’t forget to enter your milk caps for an entry in the TruMoo sweepstakes. You’ll get a $2 coupon off any Goosebumps DVD and an entry into their sweepstakes for a Haunted Hollywood Vacation.

My kids had so much fun drinking the new Vanilla Orange Milk. Thanks Bzzagent for the free half gallon! Then I got my coupon and entered the sweepstakes. Orange milk would be a great addition to your child’s Halloween party!

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Goosbumps Sweepstakes

First, thanks to bzzagent.com I (and the kids of course) got to try Orange colored milk for free! My kids thought this was awesome! Seriously, who doesn’t just love orange milk! I mean, what kids doesn’t like orange milk? It was a little sweet for me, being as it’s vanilla flavored – I almost feel like I’m drinking a candy corn. But, if you have trouble getting the kids to drink milk, orange milk might just do the trick 🙂 And if your kids just love milk, they’ll think you’re an awesome parent for serving them orange milk!

Maybe TruMoo can make green milk for Christmas – or not, I don’t think I could drink green milk (but you know, if it tasted like McDonald’s shamrock milkshake I would drink the whole half gallon myself). Red milk might be fun, and yellow milk for easter – oh, wait, milk is already yellow…Colored milk is just so much fun!

What’s even better, if you buy a gallon or half gallon of TruMoo’s halloween themed milk they have a code on the cap. You can enter a sweepstakes to win a Goosebumps Haunted Hollywood Vacation. I don’t know about your kids, but mine would love it! And, when you enter the sweepstakes, you get a printable coupon for $2 off any Goosbumps DVD.

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Summer Grilling with Kroger

My latest Kroger campaign from Bzzagent was lots of fun.  For this one, I got to try Kroger brand free frozen slider patties, slider hamburger buns, chips, ice cream, and Big K Soda.

Sliders : I usually buy Kroger hot dog and sandwich buns and the slider buns were just as good as the larger hamburger buns. The sliders were the perfect size for my kids to eat, which was great for grilling with them! However, the slider patties themselves were a little greasier than the rest of Kroger hamburger patties (I’ve tried a lot of pre-made hamburger patties and Kroger is my favorite brand) so I was a little disappointed with them. I’ll definitely continue to purchase and grill with the full size hamburger patties but I’m not sure that I’ll purchase the sliders again unless they come out with a leaner variety.

Chips : I’ve tried store brand potato chips before and just hated them so I wasn’t really excited about trying the Kroger brand. I was really surprised. The chips are delicious! I tried wavy, BBQ, cheddar, and sour cream & onion. I liked all of them (so did my guests). Since these are much cheaper than Lay’s the Kroger chips are going to be my new favorite chip brand.

Ice Cream: Kroger ice cream is good, not as good as blue bell or graeters but it’s still good ice cream and terrific for keeping on hand for the kids.

Big K Sodas: I think Coke will always be my favorite softdrink but Big K Sodas are pretty good, and cheaper. And they have some fun varieties that the kids love. We tried blue raspberry soda first, not my favorite, but the kids think it’s great because it’s blue! Orange creme soda was good too, the orange was a little stronger than I expected, but still good. Vanilla cola is my favorite so far, and the black cherry soda is pretty good as well.

All in all, a fun campaign, with tasty food, and more ways to save money on my grocery bill!

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Private Selection Flip & Serve Cakes

This campaign from bzzagent gave me one free cake. I ended up liking my free one well enough that I tried all 3 cakes. They were all pretty good. Not quite homemade but a great last minute dessert if I need one.

The three varieties are German Chocolate Fudge, Double Chocolate Molten and Amber Honey Apple Spice. None of them had toppings that quite dripped over the sides like they do in the picture, but they all still tasted good. The Apple Spice has a really nice spice taste, perfect for a fall dessert.

My favorite was the German Chocolate Fudge – of course, I love just about anything with coconut. The chocolate cake was rich and chocolaty and the coconut topping was just the right amount of sweet and gooey. I just wish there were two layers to this cake instead of just one!

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Green Giant Vegy Chips

Thanks to Bzz Agent I got to try Green Giant’s new Vegy Chips for free.

Roasted Veggie Tortilla Chips with Zesty Cheddarare crispy tortilla chips made with real vegetables like carrot, broccoli, and tomato, plus 17g of whole grain.

These were just ok. I felt like they could use a little more cheese. They had the same crunch as tortilla chips so the texture was good I would just have liked to tasted a little more cheese and a little less vegetable. Over all, not a bad chip but not my favorite.

Multigrain Sweet Potato Chips with Sea Salt are made with real sweet potatoes and 14g of whole grain, with 40% less fat than regular potato chips.

My whole family loved these. They have the same taste and texture as sun chips (which happen to be my husband’s favorit chip) so they were a definite win for us. And with 14g of whole grain, I’ll be purchasing these more often since we could all use a little more whole grain in our diet. Over all, my whole family (and any friends who tried them) loved this chip (even my sister who hates sweet potatoes.)!

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Kroger Spring Dinners

I think this has been the most fun BzzCampaign so far! Thanks bzzagent.com!

I received a free pork loin, free cake mix & icing, free Mac & Cheese, and free crescent rolls. We invited some friends over for dinner, added a salad, and some mashed potatoes, and had a wonderful feast!

For the pork loin I just used a honey glaze so it was lightly sweetened. It turned out moist and delicious!

I forgot to get a picture before we cut into it, but you get the idea. Very tasty!

I sliced the leftovers really thin and we put some bbq on it for bbq sandwiches the next day. We all wished there was more!

For the chocolate cake. I added some marshmallow creme to the chocolate icing and had a chocolate marshmallow cake.

VERY yummy! I like to dress up my boxed cake mixes and this one turned out delicious! Definitely making this one again!

My kid’s favorite item was the crescent rolls.

I have to buy more of these every time I’m at the store. Everyone loves them so much and at $1 a can they fit great in my grocery budget.

The only item we didn’t really like was the mac & cheese, it was a little thin so we’ll probably stick to our usual boxed kraft mix.

Overall, we loved trying out some Kroger brand foods and sharing it and some great fellowship with friends! I really hope bzzagent does more campaigns like these because I’m always looking for an excuse to have friends over and show off my cooking skills (this time with a little help from Kroger)!

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Easter Eggs

Made our own easter egg dye this year and tried out a new way of dipping them.

1/2 C hot water

1 T vinegar

several drops of food coloring

I WAY overdid it on the food coloring so our eggs (and fingers) colored in about 5 seconds. Next year I’m using less food coloring!

One new idea I had from a magazine this year was to wrap the eggs in lace and then after they dry they will have the lace pattern on them. Maybe it was my lace, or the extreme strength of my egg dye, but it didn’t exactly work like I expected. It did still give the eggs some textured color which was cool and with the lace bunched at the top (bind with a rubberband) it made a great handle for the kids to dip the eggs without getting their fingers too messy.