Fruit and granola on a delicious crunchy cinnamon and maple syrup crust, what could be better? How about the fact this warm breakfast can be ready in one minute? New from Kellogg’s (a local company for me, not only is Kellogg’s factories less than an hour from me but hubby’s grandfather worked there all his life!) , the Eggo Real Fruit Pizza‘s come in Strawberry Granola and Mixed Berry Granola. I had the pleasure of tasting both. They are really the perfect breakfast for fruit and granola lovers. I loved the Mixed Berry the most, the raspberries were so delicious. The crust wasn’t as thick as the picture shows but it was plenty good! These new pizza’s hit the shelves just last month and they can be found in your grocers freezer. I had a hard time fighting with the kids to share these so I am for sure going to be buying them because I am sick of buying toaster pastries! The boxes have trays inside with silver colored discs that will heat the crust to make it crunchy in the microwave. I didn’t try it without that tray, and I think I would like to since I like a soft crust.

Learn more about these fruit pizzas and other Eggo products at the Eggo Website

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Eggo Real Fruit Pizza and received a sample of the product and a $20 Amazon gift certificate to facilitate my review.

Seriously. As if you need an excuse to delight in some frozen desserts. Yes I hope this post tantalizes your tastebuds! Its the middle of summer and scorching hot. There is nothing better than some nice frozen treats ! Breyers Smooth & Dreamy line of ice cream bars and sandwiches are smooth and dreamy as the name says bit also lower in fat and calories and don’t contain artificial flavors or colors. I was given a coupon to try some and my store only had two varieties and I opted for the Chocolate Caramel Brownie Sandwiches.

I am not a big ice cream eater, nor am I a fan of chocolate but wow, these were good. They were light enough to not make my stomach hurt but just sweet enough to where my sweet craving was met. Here is a list of the varieties they offer:

• Triple Chocolate Chip Bars
• Vanilla Caramel Chip Bars
• Chocolate Covered Strawberry Bars
• Vanilla Fudge Brownie Sandwiches
• Chocolate Caramel Brownie Sandwiches
• Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Sandwiches

Check your local grocer to see what varieties they carry

Win It!! Breyers sent me some more coupons and I have them here in my hot little hands..they are good for a FREE Breyers Smooth & Dreamy product and I have FIVE of them so this giveaway will have FIVE winners! (Up to $6 value, Expires 11/29/2010)

Mandatory Entry: Tell me which Smooth and Dreamy product you would love to try!

Extra Entries: (you must leave a separate comment for each entry!)

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• Follow Breyers on Twitter (1 entry)
• Follow me on Twitter (1 entry)
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This contest ends at 11:59 PM on August 5th. US entrants only!

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I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Breyers and received products necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, I received a gift certificate to thank me for taking the time to participate.

This review is going to be short, sweet and to the point. Why you ask? Because I didn’t actually try the bars from KIND. KIND bars are the healthier alternative to candy bars. Except they contain no gluten, no dairy, no soy, no preservatives. Just goof for you stuff. And the reason I am telling you about these bars is because of my Mother-In-Law. She says she is allergic to everything and won’t eat gluten. Pretty much all the stuff she says she can’t eat is found in everything except these bars. I gave them to her to try and she loves them. She can’t have walnuts or peanuts so I made sure the ones I gave her didn’t have anything but almonds. And guess what? She wants to order a case of them. When she finds something she can eat she orders a truckload. Score one for KIND bars!

Here is some more info:

The KIND story

KIND® was conceived in 2003 by Daniel Lubetzky, a social entrepreneur that TIME Magazine recognized in 2009 among “25 Responsibility Pioneers” and BusinessWeek named among “America’s Most Promising Social Entrepreneurs.”

In 1994, Daniel first founded PeaceWorks Foods, a “not-only-for-profit”® company that fosters economic cooperation among neighbors striving to co-exist in conflict regions worldwide. PeaceWorks® launched several award-winning healthy food products and its joint ventures continue to bring people together, but Daniel was still searching for that elusive snack that was wholesome and convenient, tasty and healthy at the same time.

The KIND brand™ philosophy

In 2003, after many years of working on this passion, the team launched KIND, based on two principles: a) the power of AND, and b) holistic kindness.

The Power of AND: We pride ourselves on creating new paths that avoid false compromises.  Instead of “Or” we Say “And.”  We choose healthy and tasty, convenient and wholesome, economically sustainable and socially impactful.  KIND Fruit and Nut bars achieve this by ensuring that we don’t sacrifice taste to achieve health, or wholesomeness to achieve portability.

Holistic Kindness: For us “being KIND,” means to “Be KIND to your body, your taste buds, and the world.”®  KIND to Your Body and to your taste buds is manifested through the use of all natural wholesome ingredients you can see and pronounce® like whole nuts and real fruit.  The KIND social mission is embodied in the KIND Movement, which inspires not so random KINDINGS – ie, unexpected acts of kindness.  Here too, the act of KINDING someone else makes both the recipient of the kindness, and the person doing the kinding, just a little happier.

Moving Forward
In many ways, KIND is a logical next step in the evolution of PeaceWorks’ “not-only-for-profit” business model – with an economic as well as a social bottom line.  PeaceWorks sets out to bring neighbors in conflict regions to work together and shatter cultural stereotypes that dehumanize people.  KIND builds on his passion to bring people together, this time working to break barriers created among us all in modern society.  By challenging our zone of comfort and our impersonal routines, we hope that we will discover our shared humanity with people who we don’t know and may never again see in our lives, but who we can make a little better off by surprising them with an uncommon gesture of kindness.

Buy It: We were sent a few bars from the Fruit and Nut Collection. If you are a fan of coconut I suggest the almond and coconut mix. You can buy them by the box at the KIND site!

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Disclosure: We were sent 6 KIND bars for review, no monetary compensation was exchanged. Views remain my own.

This is not a formal review, I was not sent this product to try. I paid for the product myself like a sucker! I have been trying to lose weight for a few weeks now and I enjoy rice cake snacks. I usually stick to apple cinnamon or caramel but decided to give the chocolate a try. They are GROSS! They don’t taste like chocolate they taste like the fake stuff they use in cocoa pebbles. This coming from a chocolate fan, I would not tell anyone to try these. YUCK.

You wouldn’t know it from seeing me in person but I am 40 pounds overweight. I can see it and feel it and its insane. I am more heavy now than I ever was when I was 9 months pregnant with each child. A lot of factors made this weight come on, junk food being number one. Soda being another. We are talking full flavor Coke and Mt. Dew. I have since switched to diet and only 2 cans a day. I started putting on weight when I quit smoking and I had been a 10+ years addict. And then I had PPD and things just spiraled. I am happy to say it feels great to be smoke free even if I gained weight because of it. I can BREATHE.

Today I had raisin bread and butter (real butter) for breakfast and one of those healthy choice microwave steam dish things. I have to write today’s and yesterdays food intake down for a lab on nutrition at school anyway so its a good idea to keep track. So far I am not starving so that is good!

We went shopping for groceries yesterday and I did so well. I got snacks but the 100 calorie kinds. And TONS AND TONS of fruit and veggies. Greg has a photo assignment dealing with food so wee needed some fresh stuff anyway but since me and the kids LOOOOOOOOOOOOOVE fruit it should be gone in no time.

And because I think its important to mention, we spent LESS this trip (we shop 2X a month for food) than when I load the cart with cookies and chips and chicken wings etc. We got frozen chicken breast and really a lot of healthy meal items and even a few organic. If I would buy it all organic I could!

I am going to be brave and post a before pic of me soon. I am going to be walking with the toddler in the stroller 3 times a week and then using my FIL’s ab doer machine. I don’t have access to any exercise things but I do have my gBall and dvd to work out.

I am not trying to fit into a bikini for summer I am trying to get to my normal weight of 155-160. My hormones are very out of whack and I can tell physically this weight is hurting my body. I am in it for a lifestyle change. I am 32 now so I have time to get healthy before it is near impossible to take off.

I will keep you posted on my progress and maybe a couple product reviews too!

I need to get some things for this but Duncan Hines sent me some brownie and cake mix to sample and asked if I would share these yummy recipes with my lovely readers!

One thing you can count on….in this house with 3 children, 1 of which is a very picky eater, we have lots of leftovers. We also sometimes make extra on purpose to share with my father-in-law. His wife has a bad habit of not covering the food right so it goes bad. She is known to save two bites of food in a small sandwich bag. I have got on them for years about that and they are working on it. To help us (and them!) there is this great product that was sent to me called Covermate Food Covers. The difference with these covers is the elastic is in there andit snaps to any size but also has tiny venting holes for microwaving. They are also dishwasher safe! I mean it can’t get more simple, no fumbling with tearing off the plastic wrap or foil and throwing it away, this product is GREEN. You reuse it!

They come in plenty of different sizes too to cover bigger casserole dishes down to a can of peas! Ans as much as I hate wasting the paper, we use a lot of paper plates and they fit so perfect. Its so easy just to throw the plate right in the microwave with these covers!

The CoverMate Variety Pack contains four sizes of their versatile food covers that stretch-to-fit any size bowl, plate, platter, container or cup. The environmentally-friendly covers, which are made from heavy duty, clear FDA-compliant food-safe material free of BPA, PVC and latex, can be reused over and over as they are dishwasher safe. In addition, the covers include built-in corners for fitting both round and square dishware, and vents which allow steam to escape during microwave re-heating.

There is no need to dirty extra dishes and in seconds you can cover a plate and go straight from the microwave, to the table, to the refrigerator. CoverMate Food Covers keep food fresh and are great for both indoor and outdoor entertaining as they protect food from insects and dust.

CoverMate is currently running a special promotion  at the www.trycovermate.com web site where for just the $3.95 cost of shipping and handling, they will send customers a sample pack of all four CoverMate sizes along with a $1.00 off retail coupon for their next purchase!

So give em a try! Its only 4 bucks!!

Thank You Covermate for sending us samples to try!

Ok I am no newbie to cooking and baking but I needed frosting and didn’t want to go to the store. I looked up a buttercream frosting recipe on allrecipes.com. I had the ingredients but I don’t have a Kitchen-Aid stand mixer. I don’t have a hand mixer either that has 2 blades. I pretty much think I cooked the eggs and then melted instead of softening the butter. The whole thing was runny as hell so what did I do? Add a ton of powdered sugar. Let it sit overnight in the fridge. NO dice. Because I don’t have a decent mixer I m not able to get air into anything so this sucks.

It tasted excellent though but its like icing that won’t set. It tasted really good when you dip crackers (not saltines) in it. Literally tastes like Christmas sugar cookies. I just don’t think I will ever get decent baking without a mixer. It sucks. I am going to have to go buy some frosting. Darn it.

I came across an amazing site a couple weeks ago called Nostalgia Electrics. I was in search of unique items to showcase on my blog for you, my readers. This site immediately grabbed my attention because of the niche products they offer! This company carries the old fashioned type popcorn makers, the sno cone machines and even fondue fountains and drink fountain machines. They are madoern appliances with retro designs! Never have I been speechless and instantly connected to a site and brand in my review blogger experience as I was about Nostalgia Electrics.

Check this out-

Can you imagine how fun these would be at a New Years Eve party with a retro theme? I just love all of the neat foodie gadgests that this site carries. The first thing that caught my eye was something I had never seen before, a hot dog toaster! Nostalgia Electrics sent me one to review:

From their site:

“Now you can make hot dogs as easy as toast! Drop two hot dogs and two buns into the cooking slots, adjust the timing knob and press the lever down. When hot dogs are ready, they pop up just like a normal toaster. Everybody loves hot dogs!”

I couldn’t believe it, all I had to do was pop the dogs and buns into this thing and push down the lever and in just minutes there were hot dogs ready for my hungry kids! The knob in the front adjust easy. I crank it up I like my dogs really done. I actually was able to fit a couple smoked griller sausages in there too but it was a tight squeeze. It comes with some metal tongs to remove the meats from the “cage”. There is not place to put these so make sure you keep them in a good spot so you don’t lose them.

We’ve had this great machine for a couple weeks and we use it daily. It actually reminds me of the fair when the hot dogs are cooking in it. I never tried a toasted bun before this either and now I am HOOKED.

Buy It : Check out all the great items on the Nostalgia Electrics site! You can buy the Hot Dog Toaster here and its ON SALE FOR 16.99!!

Disclosure: Product provided to me free of charge for review.

Campbell’s commitment to supporting the future of American farming with this year’s Help Grow Your Soup™ campaign. Campbell’s is partnering with the National FFA organization to showcase contributions of the American farming industry by bringing to life the rich history and special stories of how good food is grown.

This year, Campbell’s and FFA invite you to experience 10 nominated farms with a unique story and barn in need of preservation. For every vote cast on or before Jan. 5, 2010, Campbell’s will donate $1 to FFA (up to $250,000). The five barns with the most votes will be announced in January 2010 as the winners of this year’s Help Grow Your Soup™ program. Participants can vote on which barn they feel needs restoration the most through the Help Grow Your Soup™ web site or Facebook fan page.

Also as a thank you for anyone who votes, Campbell is offering its specially-cultivated tomato seeds.  After a vote is cast for one of the 10 barns on HelpGrowYourSoup.com, consumers can enter the UPC code printed on a can of condensed soup and sign up to receive a packet of Campbell tomato seeds**

Campbell attended FFA Convention in October and has lots to share from the event.  Meet FFA members, learn about the importance of agricultural, hear about their favorite vegetables, what inspired them to join FFA and more on Facebook.

For more information: http://m80im.com/newsroom/2009/10/06/join-campbells-help-grow-your-soup/
Also as a thank you for anyone who votes, Campbell is offering its specially-cultivated tomato seeds.  After a vote is cast for one of the 10 barns on HelpGrowYourSoup.com, consumers can enter the UPC code printed on a can of condensed soup and sign up to receive a packet of Campbell tomato seeds**

For more information: http://m80im.com/newsroom/2009/10/06/join-campbells-help-grow-your-soup/