I am not exactly Suzy Homemaker, but I DO like to entertain.  I have a few special dishes that I like to make when we have people over or for the holidays, but making dinner every night does not excite me too much!

Despite my lack of domestic skills, I got a wild hair and agreed to review Carnation evaporated milk (they call it The Cooking Milk!) when they asked me to!  I had a girls night planned (Mary Kay party – woot woot!) and figured this would be a good excuse to get my HOSTESS on! My task was to make two recipes using Carnation – one of my own and one from their Carnation Holiday Recipe Guide.

Carnation sent me two coupons for a free can of their milk and a gift card to cover the cost of ingredients.  Here’s what I made!

This AMAZING potato recipe is from the Carnation Holiday Recipe Guide.  Potatoes mashed to creamy perfection with Carnation & sour cream and then baked with bacon and cheese – YUM!!  (I omitted green onions from the recipe ’cause I don’t like them.) This dish was SOOO GOOD!  All the girls at my party raved over it and I love, love, LOVED it. I will definitely make it again!

The recipe I made of my own was these chocolate bars made of cake mix, Carnation, chocolate morsels and white-chocolate morsels.  They were also a big hit!  And SO easy!

I had a great cooking experience with evaporated milk!  And I even used the fat-free Carnation in the cake bars and they were still delicious! (I used the 2% in the potatoes, I wanted to try both!)

I’ll be picking up more Carnation over the holidays ’cause I am definitely making those potatoes again soon!  Check out the Holiday Recipe Guide for great recipe ideas for every meal.

Happy cooking!

Spring has FINALLY sprung here in Ohio, and hopefully in your neck of the woods too! Today is kind of gloomy, but yesterday Joshua and I had a great time playing outside with the velcro mitts he’s holding in the picture above and the little ball that comes with them. We got these and lots of other outdoor play toys like sidewalk chalk, a jump rope, bubbles and a frisbee in our Subway P.E.P rally pack! Subway is partnering with the National Institute of Health and their We Can! program (Ways to Enhance Children’s Activity and Nutrition) to kick-off a really great program, encouraging kids to be more active outside and spend less time sitting in front of a TV or computer screen.

This week is National TV turn-off week, and Subway gave us a P.E.P Rally activity pack to give away to you to encourage your kids to “Play more, Eat right, and Push away the screen”. The activity pack includes lots of great outdoor toys and a $10 Subway gift card so you can get playin’ outside and eatin’ healthy with your kids!

Here’s how to enter:
1) Leave us a comment telling us your favorite outdoor activity to do with your kids
2) Tweet about this giveaway and leave a separate comment with your tweet URL
3) Subscribe to our feed and leave us a comment telling us that you did (or already do)

One lucky winner will be chosen on Saturday, April 25th by random.org. Happy entering!

Have you heard about Haagen Dazs “Five“?

This new line from Haagen Dazs has five ingredients. That’s it, just five.
Skim milk.
Cream.
Sugar.
Eggs.
A real, natural flavor. (Might I recommend the coffee?? It.Is.Amazing.)

Just for comparison’s sake, I took a look at the list of ingredients on the carton of store-brand vanilla ice cream that was in my freezer. I can’t remember exactly how many ingredients there were, but it was upwards of 20… most of which I could not pronounce.

To me, the best thing about this ice cream is the decadent taste not what’s in it, but what’s not in it.

Say it with me now… NO HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP.

That in and of itself is reason enough for me to make Haagen Dazs Five the ice cream of choice for my family from this point on.

And did I mention how deeeee-licious it is? It is so smooth, so creamy, and soooo good.

But don’t just take my word for it. Serious matters like ice cream need to be tested out yourself. Take one for the team and buy yourself a pint…or two, or three… you will not regret it!

Like these lovely ladies, I am THRILLED that the weather is finally getting warm. Yesterday it SNOWED here and I wanted to just crawl into a hole. But today, it was sunny and 55!  What does spring mean to you?  Check out the pros and cons with the funny friends of Frito-Lay’s Only in a Woman’s World. Cartoon Jenny and Cartoon Emily feel MUCH the same way as these girls do!

We looooove Yoplait Kids Yogurt in this house! It is Joshua and Sophie’s favorite, and it’s tasty and good for them! So I am pleased to be able to give away THREE of these great Yoplait Kids Get Active prize packs to three of you lucky readers!  Here’s what’s inside:

• A cooler to take your Yoplait yogurt on the go
• A jump rope
• A water bottle
• An outdoor game set that includes a beach ball, paddle ball set, a frisbee, and a Jai-Ali set (which Joshua and I had big fun playing with yesterday when we were outside!) There is also a mesh bag to carry the games in!

Here’s how to enter:

1) Leave a comment on this post, telling us how you and your family stay active.

2) Tweet about this post on Twitter, then leave us a separate comment with your twitter URL telling us you did so.

3) Post about this contest on your blog, and leave us a separate comment with your post URL

4) Subscribe to our feed and leave us a separate comment telling you did so (or already do)

THREE lucky winners will be chosen via Random.org on Tuesday, March 31st!  Good luck!

Perhaps, dear readers, you didn’t know this about me, but let me edu-ma-cate you: Me Likey Cereal.  As a matter of fact, most nights I’d rather scrap cooking dinner and just sit down with a nice bowl of cereal and milk, but see, I have these kids and husband who enjoy actual meals, so, mostly we save the cereal for breakfast at our house. (*Sigh*).

So, anyHOO, I was very happy to say “YES!” when asked to review the new Honey Kix cereal.  I loves me some Kix and the Honey Kix do NOT disappoint!  Joshua and I ate a bowl together, and this cereal was both Kid-and-Mother Tested & Approved at the same time! It is the YUM!!  We had a bowl before bedtime for a snack and after one bite Joshua said, “Can I have this for breakfast tomorrow morning?”  He loved it, as did I.

To celebrate the arrival of Honey Kix, the good folks at General Mills have given us three Honey Kix packages to give away!  Each prize pack contains a coupon for a FREE box of Honey Kix, a fresh-keeper cereal container, a plastic bowl set, a container to take your milk & cereal on the go, and a cute little honey pot.

Did you hear that?? THREE winners!  To enter, simply leave us a comment saying whether you drink your milk out of the bowl after you are done with your cereal (you better believe I do!!) For a bonus entry, subscribe to our feed and leave us a separate comment telling us you subscribed or that you already do.

THREE winners will be chosen by Random.org on Saturday, February 28th.

It’s National Popcorn Day, and that’s something to celebrate!

Popcorn, a whole grain food that’s low in calories, is a great snack food that’s economical and fun to eat.

One cup of popped popcorn, eaten plain, contains:
24 calories
1 gram of protein
6 grams carbohydrates
1 gram fiber

But who eats plain popcorn? Naked popcorn, if you will. Not me! But butter-drenched movie theater popcorn isn’t exactly easy on the waistline… so here’s an alternative. Kernel Seasonings says “No More Naked Popcorn!” Kernel Season’s popcorn seasonings!

I love this stuff – I keep the white cheddar flavor and several 100-calorie bags of microwave popcorn in my desk at work, so when the nice people at Kernel Seasons wanted to send me some more flavors to try, I was all about it!

Here are some ideas for spicing up your popcorn, from their website:
. Spray popcorn with low-fat cooking oil such as Kernel Season’s Popcorn Spritzer, sprinkle with Kernel Season’s toppings such as flavors as White Cheddar, Nacho Chedder, Butter, Ranch and Kettle Corn.
. Add raisins and dried fruits for variation on trail mix.
. Sprinkle popcorn with Kernel Season’s Chocolate Marshmallow flavor to enjoy with a cup of hot chocolate.
. Consider popcorn as a healthy alternative to more fattening desserts by adding Kernel Season’s Apple Cinnamon, Caramel or Kettle Corn flavors.

Chocolate marshmallow popcorn? Um, yes please! And did I mention that Kernel Season’s has like 3 calories per serving? I’m not kidding!

I would also like to say that Kernel Season’s is responsible for introducing me to real popcorn. Like the kind you cook on the stove. The kind that I had never made before in my life. The kind that tastes much, much better than that from a microwave! Real popcorn is so good, and SO easy (ok so I screwed it up the first time, but my second attempt was much more successful!), and it’s very economical – Kernel Season’s popcorn costs between 12-14 cents per cup. That is hard to beat!

Head over to www.nomorenakedpopcorn.com (or Target, K-Mart, Blockbuster and more!) to buy Kernel Seasons!