Category Archives: Food and Drink

Drink Hint Water for 6-Months FREE

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Hint Water is offering one lucky Facebook user the chance to win a 6-month supply of the zero-calorie, zero-sugar beverage when they opt to “like” the Hint page. Facebook users can enter to win by simply going to Hint’s Facebook page www.Facebook.com/DrinkHint and clicking to “like” it.
Once the page reaches 5,000 fans, one grand-prize winner will be selected.
Additionally, if the page has 5,000 fans by September 13th, all fans will receive a “special surprise offer”.

So log on to Facebook, “like” Hint’s page and get connected to a network of fellow HINT fans.

Jiftastic Instant Coma Bite Size Treats.. yum!

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Jiftastic Instant Coma bite size treats

While mixing peanut butter with almost everything under the sun today in hopes of coming up with a snack that both of my kids would enjoy, I concocted these little treats I affectionately call Jiftastic Instant Coma Bite Size Treats (thanks Daddy).

What you’ll need:

  • Jif Peanut Butter
  • Graham crackers
  • Banana
  • Candy chocolate
  • Mini chocolate chips – pour into a small bowl

How to make Jiftastic Instant Coma treats:

  • Break a graham cracker into four pieces
  • Slice a banana into slices about 3/4 inch thick then cut the slices in half
  • Melt candy chocolate in the microwave for about 35-45 seconds
  • Spread melted chocolate on 1/4 of the graham cracker (for bigger ‘treats’ break graham cracker in 1/2 instead of 1/4’s)
  • Put the chocolate covered graham cracker pieces in the freezer for about 15 minutes to harden the chocolate
  • While those are in the freezer spread your choice of Jif peanut butter on top of your 1/2 banana slices. (Regular Jif and Jif Peanut Butter & Honey are great choices.)
  • Then dip the peanut butter covered banana piece into a bowl of mini chocolate chips to cover the top of the banana slice and set aside.
  • Take the chocolate covered graham crackers out of the freezer.
  • Put your peanut butter and chocolate chip covered banana slice on top of the chocolate & peanut butter covered graham cracker.
  • ENJOY!

How do you enjoy peanut butter?  On a pretzel, banana, apples, raisins?  Let us know in the comments below.

What do you pack for your child’s school lunch? I need ideas!

Food and Drink, New posts, Preschool, , ,
Looks healthy, but really?

Today I decided that grapes, crackers, carrots, and ranch dip might not be a delightful lunch for Madelyn to take to school every day.  It’s a little boring I think.
So I Googled “preschool lunch ideas” in hopes of finding a sandwich that doesn’t require jelly or meat as Madelyn’s not too fond of either.. on bread at least.

I can’t believe some of the things that the resulting parenting websites/magazines are telling parents to prepare and pack in their kid’s lunchbox!

  • Cauliflower soup (eeeewww!)
  • veggie mac & cheese
  • sandwiches shaped into funny faces

Yes, I’ve heard of all of those things before and they are cute and healthy but pllllease!!!, is a busy mom really going to make cauliflower soup (yes or no?) even if just once  week then refrigerated, to put in her preschoolers lunch box?  I’m not.  Despite the fact that I work from home, I’m barely home (and not working) for more than 2 hours a day.  I don’t want to spend my time with my kids making cauliflower soup or cutting sandwiches into funny faces.  Albeit, these are GREAT ideas and I do feel bad saying that I won’t do it, but these sites have done  nothing for me except make me feel less adequet as a mother and like I’m lazy and unwilling to do what I can to send my child to school with a healthy lunch.

So.. I guess we’re back to last year’s school lunch:

Hummus, crackers, and carrots, apple slices and/or grapes, and a cheese string.  Madelyn never complained and most days she ate everything.

Do you have any jelly-free sandwich ideas? Madelyn might tolerate a sandwich with meat on it but she’s not fond of ham and cheese sandwiches.

What does your preschooler take to school for lunch?


Hurry, the Add Up the Savings Event at Kroger Family of Stores ends August 21st!

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As summer winds down, it’s time to start picking up new supplies for the upcoming school year.

Both of my kids had school supply lists this year that included things like tissues, hand sanitizer, copy paper, notebooks, etc.. and as I’m sure you are aware, all of those items add up.   That’s why I was thrilled to learn about Kroger’s Add Up The Savings Event going on through August 21st.

While you’re out and about, be sure to stop at your local Kroger Family of Stores (which includes Kroger, Ralph’s, King Soopers, City Market, Dillons, Smith’s, Fry’s, QFC, Baker’s, Owen’s, Jay C Food Stores, Hilander, Gerbes, Food4Less, Pay Less Super Markets and Scott’s Food & Pharmacy) to take advantage of their “Add Up the Savings” Event and stock up on your favorite General Mills & Kimberly Clark brands.

From August 8 through August 21, when you buy 8 participating items from any Kroger store, you’ll receive $4 off of your purchase. Some of the great participating brands include: Cheerios, Yoplait Yogurt, Pillsbury Cookies & Biscuits, Kleenex, Huggies, Betty Crocker Brownies, Cottonelle, and Lucky Charms.

You’d better believe that I stocked up on Kleenex, Cottonelle, and Lucky Charms in the last couple of weeks.. and I even ate Lucky Charms this morning.. gasp!

In addition to these great savings, be sure to take advantage of the special Bonus Box Tops Offers and get a jumpstart on helping the participating school of your choice this year.  I have to divide our Box Tops up into two piles so both kids have some to take to their schools.

All you have to do, if you haven’t already, is register at www.RewardYourSchool.com. Once you register, you will automatically receive 5 Bonus Box Tops just for signing up! You will also receive custom offers for Bonus Box Tops for purchasing participating products.

These great offers are:

  • Buy any 4 Box Tops products and get 10 Bonus Box Tops
  • Buy any 8 Box Tops products and get 25 Bonus Box Tops

The offers you select will then load onto your Kroger Shopper Card to be redeemed once you purchase the items – you don’t have to do anything but buy participating products. It’s extra easy because there’s no clipping and cutting Box Tops! Just remember to scan your Kroger Shopper Card and the Bonus Box Tops will automatically go straight the participating school of your choice.

$25 Kroger Family of Stores GIFT CARD GIVEAWAY

To enter to win, do any number of the following:
1) Leave a comment below telling us 3 things on your child’s school supply list
AND/OR   2) Follow us on Twitter (@mommyinsider – link opens in a new window or tab) and Tweet about this giveaway and use this link: http://ow.ly/2qwsh
AND/OR   3) Subscribe (link opens in a new window or tab) to our newsletter or RSS feed – be sure to leave a comment using your subscribed email address telling us you subscribe!

Entries accepted through August 31st, 2010.

Disclosure: The Kroger Family of Stores gift card, information, and giveaway we received were all provided by The Kroger Family of Stores, General Mills, and Kimberly Clark through MyBlogSpark.  All opinions are my own.


Pop Art 5-in-1 Toy Story Tasty Baker review

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We LOVE pancakes.. OK, I LOVE pancakes.
Tim and Sebastian like chocolate chip pancakes and Madelyn doesn’t like pancakes, but loves eggs.
So, you can imagine that weekend mornings are fun around here.  I usually have the pancake griddle and a skillet out for the eggs, but this week I made regular pancakes, chocolate chip pancakes, AND eggs in our new Pop Art Toy Story 5-in-1 Tasty Baker.

How cute are these little Toy Story pancakes?

We recently went on a trip to a lodge in Kentucky for a few days and nights and I brought the Pop Art Toy Story 5-in-1 Tasty Baker with us.   With 3 kids under 4 years old and my  10 year old, the Tasty Baker was a huge hit!   I thought I would use it once or twice during our vacation but I used it every day.

Here’s what I’ve made with the Pop Art Toy Story 5-in-1 Tasty Baker:

  • regular pancakes
  • chocolate chip pancakes – Sebastian’s favorite
  • blueberry pancakes – my favorite
  • eggs – Madelyn’s favorite

My cousin’s kids might have loved the Toy Story shapes as much as or more than the actual pancakes.   I use soy milk in my pancake recipe and some people are turned off by that.. I have to remind myself that most kids don’t know the difference though and assume that they loved them.  They sure gobbled them up!

The Tasty Baker can be wiped clean and includes a cleaning tool/brush to use on areas where the batter might stick.  It also comes with a batter scoop and an instruction manual.  It would be nice if the Tasty Baker came with removable nonstick plates so they could be handled and washed easier.

Pop Art Toy Story Tasty Baker

The 5-in-1 Tasty Baker is available in a Disney Princess version as well as a Mickey Mouse version.. and of course a standard version.

Toy Story 5-in-1 Tasty Baker bakes cakes, muffins, quickbreads, and more…it can even cook eggs (Madelyn loves ‘Alien eggs’) into 5 delicious, kid-friendly shapes: Buzz, Woody, Rex, Alien and Lotso.

You can buy the Pop Art Toy Story 5-in-1 Tasty Baker here at Amazon.com

Read about mom-entrepreneur Linda Carlish, creator of The Pop Art Toaster here.

Follow Pop Art Toaster on Twitter

Like Pop Art Toaster on Facebook

Disclosure: I received a Disney 5-in-1 Toy Story Tasty Baker from PopArtToasterStore.com for review. I did not receive any other compensation. This product review is based on my own personal experiences and is completely honest and objective.  Your experiences might not be the same.