What's the Bzz: MorningStar Farms

MorningStar Farms Review

I was lucky enough to be invited to the MorningStar Farms BzzAgent Campaign and was given a coupon for a free package of MorningStar Farms products so I could try out their veggie burgers. My product of choice:  

MORNINGSTAR FARMS® SPICY BLACK BEAN BURGERS

These burgers are made with black beans, roasted corn, brown rice, and chili peppers to give them a nice little kick. I went into this trial with a bit of hesitation because I hear "veggie burgers" and think not a burger at all. I think lack of flavor and questionable texture. Even though I was hesitant, I still took my first bite with an open mind because my mommy always taught me to try something once, and if I don't like it, spit it out. 

I cooked the burger in the microwave, threw it on top of a bun, topped it off with tomato slices, pickle slices, and a bit of barbecue sauce, and was BLOWN AWAY by how good it tasted! The burger is full of flavor and the perfect amount of spicy. This product gets an A+ in my book and I definitely recommend you try it. Plus... it comes in at 120 calories per burger (not including bun, condiments, etc.), 4g of fiber to keep you full longer, and only 4g of fat.

While I was at it, I decided to try a few more MorningStar Farms products as well. I had heard good things about the Hickory Barbecue Riblets so I tried those out as well.

As you can see from the picture, the riblets are drenched in barbecue sauce. The best ribs always are, right? The riblets look like meat on the outside and also on the inside when you cut them open. They are less messy because you don't have to worry about gnawing the meat off the bone. These were a great substitute for pork ribs. I asked E to give them a try because he was a total naysayer about them, and even he said you couldn't tell that they were "fake meat" because of all the barbecue sauce. Coming in at 210 calories and 3.5g of fat, these were another win if you are looking for a meat substitute.

I also had a veggie chili recipe that I was hoping to make that called for tofu in the ingredients list. As close as I was to actually using tofu, I just couldn't do it. Instead I picked up some Griller's Recipe Crumbles as a kind of ground beef substitute. This one, unfortunately, did not make a great impression on me. The taste was fine and it cooked up nice and simple. However, I had a hard time getting past the texture of this product. I think it was also a combination of just not loving the chili recipe that I was using. This recipe had TOO much flavor and was entirely too salty for my liking. 

Interested in trying MorningStar Farms products but don't want to pay full price? Ask me for a coupon!

Lemon Cranberry Scones

Orange Cranberry Scone from Starbucks - 490 calories

Delicious, but 490 calories.

 Lemon Cranberry Scone, Homemade - 179 calories

Even better than delicious, and only 179 calories.

Candice Kumai, you have done it again: Lemon-Cran Scones

Pull Ups House Party

I was lucky enough to be chosen to host a Why Wait - Let's Celebrate! Pull-Ups® House Party this past weekend. C isn't quite ready for potty training but he has a lot of little friends that are. We ended up with 8 little ones and 9 adults so it was a full house. The party pack contained all sorts of goodies:

28 Pull-Ups samples

14 coupon books

14 party hats 

14 blow-out noise makers

14 reward progress charts

Pull Ups "First Flush" Celebration coloring sheets

 We used half of the favor packs during the party for hat decorating, coloring, and celebrating and I stuffed the other half into these adorable goody bags decorated with each child's name. House Party also provided printable favors on their website including Toy Story or Rapunzel badges, hats, and confetti, invitations for a "He/She is fully trained" party, and a Big Kid Certificate to acknowledge the party training success that I included in the goody bags.

While searching for party ideas I found these printable labels from A Day In My Life and made up some "magic drinks" that will help the kiddos with their training and potty treats to reward their successes and stuffed those in the goody bags as well. By the way, the potty treats included Unreal 41 Candy. Have you heard of this stuff???? It is candy made with no artificial colors or ingredients, no GMOs, no corn syrup. It is candy without the junk. It is amazing! Check out the ingredients:

MILK CHOCOLATE (CHOCOLATE, SKIM MILK, CANE SUGAR, COCOA BUTTER, MILK POWDER, ORGANIC BLUE AGAVE INULIN, SOY LECITHIN, VANILLA EXTRACT), CANE SUGAR, CALCIUM CARBONATE, COLORED WITH (BEETROOT JUICE, TURMERIC ROOT EXTRACT, PURPLE CABBAGE JUICE), GUM ARABIC, VANILLA EXTRACT, CARNAUBA WAX & BEESWAX

 I have a huge sweet tooth so having the option of great tasting candy without the crap is fantastic.

Here is our party hat decorating station. You all may make fun of me (and many of you have...) but I love my clothesline. I made a special trip for big boy undies just for this reason. :)

We tried to make the bathroom more welcoming with balloons. Another side note: how do you keep a toddler entertained for hours on end? Give him a whole bunch of balloons tied together and sit back and enjoy the show!

All the kids that used the big kid potty got to wear a big kid to badge!!

And I couldn't resist making some cupcakes decorated like toilets. 

The party was a huge success and everyone had a great time. A big thank you to House Party for another great party pack!

Stella Artois

What's the Bzz

As many of you probably know, I am not a beer drinker. If I drink beer, it will either be a Blue Moon or something girly like Mike's Hard Lemonade. However, I was invited to the Stella Artois campaign as a BzzAgent and was willing to try Stella for the campaign. My BzzKit contained a  free Stella Artois Chalice and a flyer explaining the Stella Artois 9-Step Pouring Ritual. The chalice is designed to enhance the flavor and aroma of the beer and the 9-Step Pouring Ritual ensures that you pour the perfect glass of Stella.

My beautiful Stella Artois Chalice - Guaranteeing you feel classy while drinking your beer.

The theory behind the 9-step pouring ritual is that the foam head prevents the beer from coming in contact with the air which causes the beer to lose some of its flavor. Step 6 is the beheading of the foam head. This step gets rid of the larger bubbles that pop easy and cause the foam head to dissipate faster. Step 7 includes measuring the foam head to make sure there is the right amount of foam to prevent your Stella from going stale. 

The Belgian Beer Cafe has a great recap of the 9-step pouring ritual HERE. 

Enjoying my Stella Artois in my chalice with Skinny Jeans Sliders with Caramelized Onions and Mushrooms with Sweet Potato fries on the side. I have to imagine that an ice cold Stella in a chalice would be the perfect companion for dinner on a hot summer night!

Cheers!

Wine Cork Creations

Now that Christmas has come and gone and all the gifts have been given, I would like to share some of my Pinterest inspired gifts!

One of my dad's hobbies is wine making and my parents love wine. We went to a wine tasting a few months ago and my mom was admiring all of the wine cork creations that were out and about in the winery so I knew she would appreciate some homemade wine cork gifts.

Inspired by the Rudolph ornament from The Homeless Finch blog are my little Rudolph ornaments made of wine corks, flat eye ball things, felt for the antlers, ears, and tails, red bells for the noses, red ribbon, and a lot of hot glue and love! 

 

The big present that I was super proud of and knew my mom would absolutely love was this wine cork wreath:

It took hours and hours and a boat load of hot glue sticks, but it turned out perfect. Plus it is made out of their old wine corks! It now proudly hangs in my mom's new sun room. 

The last wine cork creations that were given were wine cork coasters! These were the hardest to make by far. If you have ever tried to cut a wine cork in half, neatly down the middle, you know what I'm talking about. I had some serious blisters afterward. I used sandpaper to clean them up and hot glued them to some tiles from Lowe's. I think they turned out really well.

Homemade Donuts

Happy Day After Christmas!

Last Friday night, hubby and I tested out a chocolate donut recipe that I was thinking of making for Christmas morning breakfast when the in-laws came over. The taste was okay (not great), but the frosting was terrible: it hardened too quickly and wouldn't spread over the top of the donuts. In addition to the terrible frosting, it turns out hubby was allergic to something in them so I picked out another donut recipe from my Pinterest boards and resolved to try this one out the next morning. They turned out PERFECT! 

The link to the original recipe can be found HERE at Camille Styles.

I adapted it a bit for our household using this recipe:

• 5 tablespoons lite margarine
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
• 1/2 cup vanilla almond milk

• 3 tablespoons lite margarine, melted
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tablespoon cinnamon

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Coat two donut pans with nonstick cooking spray and set aside.
2. Cream together butter and sugar until fluffy. Add egg; mix well.
3. Sift flour, baking powder, salt and nutmeg together. Add dry ingredients alternately with milk.
4. Fill donut tins half full. Bake 15-20 minutes. Take out of pan and immediately and dip tops into melted margarine, then sugar and cinnamon mixture. Makes 12 donuts.

A few tips and tricks:

1. The original recipe calls for 6 big donuts. Mine easily made 12 regular sized donuts so the number you get will depend on the size of your donut pan.
2. I used my stand mixer for everything. I did not beat my egg first nor did I add the dry ingredients alternately with milk. I threw my egg in whole (minus the shell obviously...) and mixed it up, sifted my dry ingredients right into the mixer's bowl, poured the milk in right after, and turned her on. I imagine if you do not use a stand mixer you will probably want to follow all of the steps in the recipe.
3. To easily fill the donut pan, pour your batter into cupcake decorating bags (Pastry bags? Piping bags? I don't know what they are called) and squeeze the batter into the tins. WAY easier than trying to spoon it in and hope to not make a mess.
4.  Camille Styles says these also work great as muffins. 

Enjoy!

BzzAgent: Burt's Bees Intense Hydration

BzzAgent

Over the recent years I have become rather fond of freebie, social marketing, and survey companies. What better way to discover a new product than to receive a product and try it out? BzzAgent is a Word of Mouth social marketing company that sends it's members campaign invitations if their survey results and profile information fit the criteria for that campaign. I have only been a member of BzzAgent since 6/28/2012 and have already been selected for five campaigns. It took about two months to get in on my first, but the small amount of time it takes to fill out the surveys is totally worth it. 

My first campaign was a trial and review of Glade Oil Diffusers and Glade Fragrance Mists. I was sent a campaign package that included coupons for a free oil diffuser starter kit, a free fragrance mist starter kit, and a coupon book full of coupons to share. The goal of the campaigns are to get members to try the product and share their reviews and thoughts through facebook, twitter, blogs, the bzzagent website, and face-to-face to bring awareness about the products. 

My other campaigns: 

Burt's Bees Intense Hydration (which I will review in this post)

Claritin-D - If I come down with a cold this winter, hopefully it will be within the next 40 days so I can post my review of this product

Afrin Stick Up For Yourself - Same as above. At least if I get a cold I will be well prepared!

Stella Artois - My BzzKit should show up in the mail any day with my Stella Artois Chalice. I am not normally a beer drinker but I will give it a try in my new chalice so I can post a good review.

If you are interested in trying new products and have a small amount of spare time to stay up to date with your surveys (they are quick and not that often after the first batch) and participate in the campaigns and share your reviews, this is a great company to try out. 

** Bonus: I literally just this second discovered that they have an App in the iTunes App Store for easier Bzz Reporting! 

Burt's Bee Intense Hydration

So first let me give you a little bit of background on my skin care routine prior to this campaign: pretty much non-existent. I have been blessed with clear skin that is generally easy to maintain. I wash my face with an exfoliating face wash in the shower in the morning and that is about it. I rarely use moisturizers because when I do for more than a day I will normally break out even with oil free moisturizers. I never take my makeup off before bed due to pure laziness and the desire to get to bed as quickly as possible. 

The Colorado dry weather was already starting to wreak havoc on my skin right around when my BzzKit was due to show up. I was anxiously watching the mail waiting for my package to arrive so I was ecstatic when it did. My kit came with a full size Intense Hydration Cream Cleanser, a full size Intense Hydration Night Cream, a full size Intense Hydration Treatment Mask, and samples of Intense Hydration Day Lotion and Night Creams with $3 off coupons on the back.

After receiving my package I immediately tried out the cream cleanser followed by the treatment mask. I absolutely love the cream cleanser and have permanently switched out my old face wash for this. It is hydrating, leaves my skin feeling clean and soft, and does a great job removing makeup. The treatment mask was not my cup of tea. I didn't particularly like how my skin felt after using the mask. I'm sure it works great but I would rather just use the cleanser and lotions. When I do manage to wash my face in the evening (not often enough) I use the cleanser followed by the night cream. As I mentioned before, I now use the cream cleanser every morning in the shower followed by the day lotion. Since I first started using the products about a month ago I have not seen a single blemish on my skin! I give this line a giant gold star!

A few random facts about the Intense Hydration line:

These products contain Clary Sage which is a plant that has the ability to "trap and retain moisture" (from http://www.burtsbees.com/natural-products/face-care-intense-hydration/).

These products have a nice, light smell that reminds me a bit of watermelon.

They are Burt's Bees products so they are Natural Products! No need to worry about saturating your skin with harsh, synthetic chemicals!

If you have any questions about my campaign or about BzzAgent, ask away!