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I just ordered mine and you don’t even have to pay for postage!
My latest bzz campaign was for Green Mountain Coffee. I love coffee and this was such a fun campaign for me!
They sent 4 different flavors to try, but Green Mountain Coffee has tons of different coffee flavors.
Green Mountain is a Fair Trade company so their coffee tends to be a bit more expensive than my usual folgers or maxwell house, however Green Mountain has more flavor to it. I honestly don’t buy products just because they’re Fair Trade but I have noticed that Fair Trade products tend to be a lot like organic products, they just taste better. And sometimes, the extra flavor is worth the higher price. The varieties are produced with care and it shows. Of all the 4 flavors I tried each of them was delicious!
Vermont Country Blend – This one is a blend of light and dark beans, not too strong, not too weak, perfect for any morning. I think it’s pretty much just a straight up regular coffee.
Columbian Fair Trade Select – This one was really good, nice and strong without being too strong. You know, how some strong coffees are kind of bitter, there was no bitter in this coffee. It was strong but still smooth. Good for a busy morning or a nice afternoon pick-me-up.
Wild Mountain Blueberry – This one smells so good when it’s brewing! It’s almost enough to wake me up without having to drink it…almost. It’s a nice medium/mild coffee with just a tad of blueberry flavor in it, just enough to taste but not enough to make me feel like I’m drinking blueberries instead of coffee. I honestly, will buy this one again just because I like the smell of it so well!
Sumatran Reserve – This one is my favorite of the four. A nice bold coffee, perfect for a morning when the kids get me up early. It’s nice and strong without being bitter, It’s now on my list of must have coffees.
And for more fun info on Green Mountain Fair Trade you can follow Grace Potter and Michael Franti’s Fair Trade source trips, and check out the live stream of their concerts via the Green Mountain Coffee®Facebook page!
I decided to make potstickers the other day. I was greatly surprised at how easy they are to make!
I made about 50 of them for around $5 which is way cheaper than buying them frozen from the grocery store. I’m planning to make them again and freeze some for using in soup later.
I did purchase the wrappers but the rest I mixed up from scratch from a recipe from Food Network. I did make a few alterations but I think the original would be great as well! I used beef instead of pork, onions instead of scallions, and green peppers instead of red peppers because I happened to have these on hand already.
They tasted great in this dipping sauce!
I got to try two products from Glade Expressions Collection for free from bzzagent.com. I love air freshener products so I was really excited to get to try these!
I tried the Pineapple and Mangosteen oil diffuser. It’s sitting right by my front door and it smells delicious every time I walk in my door. I was kind of skeptical because I didn’t expect an oil diffuser to distribute scent evenly – I’ve never tried an oil diffuser before. But, I was pleasantly surprised. It works great and the pineapple is a really nice sweet scent that isn’t too sweet. I’m definitely buying a refill for this when it runs out.
I also tried the Cotton and Italian Mandarin fragrance mist. It’s such a clean scent, I love it! And one spray provides enough scent for an entire room. My husband put three whole squirts in the kids room the other day and we had to stay out for a few minutes to let the scent die down! I wish they had this scent in the oil diffusers because then my house could smell like I’ve been cleaning all day when people walk in my front door.
All in all, I really like these products and I’m really hoping Glad comes out with some holiday scents in time for Christmas. I would love a pine oil diffuser! And I’m planning to buy a few as Christmas gifts this year. They’re attractive on my counter or shelf and smell great!
Tried out my Progresso Recipe Starters Cheese sauce for supper last night – Thanks BzzAgent for letting me try this!
I used the Bacon Mac and Cheese recipe off of the Recipe Starters can and I substituted two cans of tuna instead of the bacon bits (since I didn’t have any bacon bits on hand). It turned out delicious, my kids, husband, and I all loved it!
It’s tough to find a mac and cheese recipe that we all like and this one was a success! I’ll definitely be making this one again!
The hardest part for me in making mac and cheese is getting my cheese sauce thick enough without burning it and the Progresso Creamy Cheese Sauce made this so much easier!
Progresso has some other great looking mac and cheese recipes on their website, and this delicious looking queso which I think I’ll try next time we have company over to watch football.
All in all, this recipe was a success and I’m loving the Progresso Recipe Starters sauces! Now, should I try the tomato, garlic, or basil sauce next? They all sound so good!
Trying out Progresso Recipe Starters for my latest Bzz Campaign. I love food campaigns because I get to try out new food products for free! Who doesn’t like that?
Progresso has 5 new recipe starter sauces. Last night I tried out the Creamy Portabella Mushroom sauce and made one of my favorite meals, beef stroganoff. I make a pretty good stroganoff from scratch. My usual recipe is more beef gravy tasting – since I start with the gravy- and progresso’s is more creamy but otherwise the flavors were pretty similar.
This Progresso sauce made a delicious stroganoff (my husband didn’t even notice that I made it different than usual), and it simplified the process just a little.
I’m not sure that I’ll make beef stroganoff this way all the time since this is a tad more expensive than my usual method but it’s great for a special occasion!
Progresso has some great recipe ideas on their website as well so I’m looking forward to trying out their other sauces and probably the mushroom sauce in a different recipe as well. Since I love mushrooms!
I bought the cheese sauce when I was at the store the other day so I’m going to try mac and cheese next. We all like our mac and cheese different ways and I have yet to find a mix or recipe that we all like. Maybe this will be the one 🙂
Received my Unreal Candy BzzKit from Bzz Agent last week. I was pretty skeptical. I mean, candy sweetened with cane sugar and agave sugar, Colored with beet juice (well, some of the chocolate pieces are), and with other healthier things, it was bound to taste different.
It’s definitely not your typical hershey’s chocolate but it is melt in your mouth delicious! And when I say melt in your mouth I do actually mean melt in your mouth. The chocolate is a tad softer than hershey’s so it melts a little creamier. Quite nice, in my opinion.
The chocolate tastes more like a semi-sweet so just don’t expect a milk chocolate. It’s almost halfway between a milk and a dark chocolate. And the agave sugar gives it a bit of a different kind of sweet taste. I wasn’t sure if I liked it at first but after trying several different varieties of the Unjunked candy, I actually like it.
My favorite is the candy bar without nuts (mainly because I don’t really like nuts in my candy bars, there’s nothing wrong with the bar with nuts). It’s a great combination of nougat, caramel, and chocolate. A little heavier than your usual candy bar so plan to be hungry when you start eating it or just eat half.
Next I like the peanut butter cups. Not as well as the candy bars but they aren’t bad. My husband and kids loved them! But, again, I’m not a big chocolate and peanut butter candy person so some of this is my personal preference. My 4 year old actually opened a package herself and ate it all before I realized she had candy.
The chocolate pieces are just ok. The ones with nuts are better, but for the plain chocolate ones, the chocolate just seems a bit bitter to me. I love milk chocolate m&m’s though so comparing the two chocolates the Unjunked chocolate pieces are kind of semi-sweet compared to the milk chocolate. Not terrible, but not my favorite.
In summary, I really like the Unjunked candy bars and I’ll be buying them again – probably as a substitute for granola bars. My husband and kids like the peanut butter cups so I’ll buy those for them. And I probably won’t purchase any more of the chocolate pieces. All in all, the Unreal candy is pretty good and if you’re looking for a healthier candy this is the way to go.
I recently got accepted to host a new house party. (If you’ve never done one check out their site) You get free items (in this case lego duplos) for hosting a party and sharing or promoing this item to your friends.
I received my party pack yesterday and they sent 4 LEGO DUPLO 6759 Busy Farm
We had to open one and try it out right away. I was amazed, my soon-to-be-4 yr old was able to look at the book and assemble the animals without any help from me. She was pretty pleased with her accomplishment.
Really, it’s like getting blocks and a board book instruction manual with them. This is such a great toy! The “instruction manual” is a fun book for the kids and it’s easy for them to follow the pictures and assemble the animals on their own. I can’t wait to try out more of these!
I think as a mother sometimes it’s hard to identify who I am. Maybe for those of you who have always dreamed of motherhood this hasn’t been so hard. But, growing up, I never dreamed of being a mom. I never wanted children. And here I am, under 30, happily married, and with two very sweet children.
I tend to be more pessimistic that optimistic at times. And maybe this is a good thing for my marriage and children.
I remember getting engaged and thinking “great, now I have to plan a wedding…”. I knew my dress would be white, because that’s the color that brides wear. But I had never cared about a wedding – I had never planned to get married. Thankfully, my mother was more than happy to do my wedding planning. I picked out my dress, flowers, cake, and bridesmaids. Suggested some food items, and my mom took care of the rest.
For me the wedding was about marriage, the wedding was a required formality. Tradition, is a better word for it. A good tradition, and not something to be skipped. But the wedding wasn’t the end goal. And, because I hadn’t dreamed of marriage all my life, I focused on the essentials – life after marriage.
Also, because I had never planned to marry, before marriage, I had never really considered what marriage would be like. I just figured it would be terrible (Love does strange things, that’s my only explanation for getting married).
So, before my husband-to-be comes along, I’m an individual. I have goals. I’m going to college. I’ll do what’s best for me. I never planned to get married. This also meant I never dated. Why date if I’m not looking to marry? I never dated anyone but my current husband, that is. And it took him years to convince me to even talk to him. I’m glad he stuck with it, and I’m glad we were both adults before we started dating. And I’m glad we married.
Dating
He’d been living on his own for several years, I’d been on my own for a couple of years and was at the time, living at home. But working 30hrs a week and going to college. So, we knew what we believed, we could both make decisions on our own, and most importantly, I knew that he was who I saw him to be. In fact, our first real phone conversation started with all the essentials. Basic beliefs, religion, politics, morals, and money management. If we didn’t like what we were hearing we were both ready to walk away and be done. Apparently, we agree on most things. All the essentials, at least.
I wasn’t planning on marriage, so I hadn’t dreamed about it. I had no idyllic picture of marriage. I was a little too realistic in a way, because marriage has been WAY better than I imagined. I’ve been married 6 years, and I still think it’s better than I thought it would be.
So, marriage comes along, and we’re now a couple. However, I still can do pretty much whatever I want. I’m pursuing my goals. Finishing my education – I had 2yrs left of Law School when we married. Preparing to move on with my career. I’m happy. Really, my goals haven’t changed.
My husband knew before we got married that I wasn’t interested in kids any time soon. He wanted kids sooner than later but he was willing to wait on me. I am the one who has to be pregnant for 9 months. It should be noted that I did not spring this information on him on our honeymoon. I was very up front about it. Months before the wedding, I told him.
Baby 1
So, we had almost 2 years of happy married life. And, surprise, I find out I’m pregnant. For me, this was my first “identity crisis”. I wasn’t planning to be a mother yet. I still had things I wanted to do. And suddenly those aren’t going to happen. I did graduate from college but I missed my graduation ceremony because that’s when the baby was born. And, I’m suddenly tied town to a little one. Now, don’t misunderstand me, I love being a mother and I wouldn’t go back to childless if I could. But, this wasn’t part of my plan. I struggled with the concept of motherhood my entire pregnancy. I just wasn’t ready. Or, I didn’t think I was ready.
The day I find out I’m pregnant, I tell my husband and I’m in tears. I have that deer in the headlights feeling. My husband is delighted, couldn’t be happier. I think that this is somehow backwards. I’m supposed to be excited and he’s supposed to be nervous. But, we’re getting a baby, and there’s nothing I can do about it.
When I saw my baby girl, I knew I would love being a mother (and I have), but there were still things I had to overcome. I had planned out my identity and it wasn’t what I was getting in life. You try planning to be a lawyer and suddenly deciding that since there’s a baby on the way you’re going to stay home with the kids and give up a career. Totally not in my plan. Oh, and try law school finals with morning sickness. Definitely not in my plan.
In case you’re wondering, my plan in life was to finish college, get a job, focus on my career, and I never planned to get married or have children.
So, at this point, I’m married (very happily, I might add), and I have a baby. Oh, boy, this was not what I had planned at all!
Baby 2
Now, in my opinion, if you have one child, you must have two – I’m not a big fan of having only one child and my first baby needed a sibling. So, now I have two. Talk about no time to do what I had planned! I have hopes that I’ll do some career something once all my kids are in college. That’s 20 or more years down the road though, so who knows if that’ll happen. Maybe it’s just me holding on to what I still think I want.
I’ve given up on the idea of a career, at this time, because I want to be home with my children and my husband’s job makes that easy for me to do. I do believe that my children are more important than my career. But, what is left for me?
For me, the identity of “mom” isn’t a bad thing. I just don’t want it to be the only thing. I think my children need a mother who is also learning, growing, and achieving (achieving more than cleaning the kitchen and doing laundry).
So, who am I now – marriage and two kids later (and yes, I plan to have a 3rd, eventually)? Definitely not the person I was planning to be 9 years ago when I started college. Not the person I thought I would be 6 years ago when I got married. Not the person I bewilderedly wondered if I would be almost 4 years ago when I found out I was pregnant. And, honestly, probably not the person I think I am now.
The sermon this Sunday was a great reminder that my identity isn’t in myself, it’s in Christ. And I know that. But, there is that desire to learn, to accomplish (again, I have no desire to accomplish the laundry), to succeed. And that desire isn’t bad. There are things that I love to do. Not because I make myself like them but because I’ve always liked them. So what do I do? Who am I? I’m a wife and mother. But I like to think that I’m more than just that. I’m creative, I sew, I bake, I play in the band at Church, I’m learning to sing (hopefully with the band in a few years), and I’m somehow worried that I’ll fail at educating my children. I manage my husband’s small business, and my household budget. I volunteer in my community, and I probably stay busier than I should. But I enjoy it all.
My children are happy, creative, busy, generally well behaved, and lots of fun. My husband is more than I could ever ask for in a husband. And, yet, none of these are who I am.
Who I am is something deeper, something I can’t really define. You can see it in what I do. But, it’s who I am that drives what I do. Who I am isn’t a mother, or a wife, or a pianist. Who I am is the happiness I feel when I watch my children learn and succeed, the pride I feel when my husband is happy, and my pleasure when I hit a note just right. Who I am is who Christ is in me, and who Christ has made me. Wife, mother, creative, and content.
I FINALLY got to try out the Private Selection pie with the free coupon I got from bzzagent.com. I was hoping to try cherry but all I could find was dutch apple so I decided to go ahead and try apple since these pies have been so difficult to find!
As I was checking out the lady at the register told me about how good the pie was and how much she and her husband loved it. So, I was all ready for a great experience.
I tipped it over in the car so the pie ended up being squished to one side but I was able to mostly flatten it back out. We ate it for dessert the other night. It’s really, very tasty. Much better than I was expecting from a packaged pie in the deli section. The top was crunchy and the apples in the center were soft and sweet.
I think it’s called a personal pie but a 6″ pie is really just right for me and my husband to share.
I’ll definitely be purchasing this again next time I want a sweet treat for after dinner!
