Archive for Appliances

CIS is Giving Away a KitchenAid Mixer!

This is not Faith and Family Reviews giveaway. We are simply hosting the rafflecopter for this particular givaway.

CIS is a pvc fittings company giving away a KitchenAid Mixer!

(additional prize details)

a Commercial Industrial Supply giveaway powered by Rafflecopter


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First Alert Facebook Giveaway!

 

Head to First Alert’s Facebook Page – Enter for a chance to win 1 of 100 Prize Packs! You have until March 12th (Monday)!

Don’t forget to change you clocks one hour ahead & smoke alarm batteries!


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SodaStream Review

Turn your water into soda with SodaStream! This a great concept, and it is very healthy for the environment!

So, how does it work?  Glad you asked.  If you purchase a SodaStream online, it will be delivered with a caution of hazardous material papers.  It’s the Carbon Dioxide used to Carbonate the soda.  Assembly is required, however it is very easy.  Then end up looking something like this….Next, you will need to take your reusable carbonating bottle, and fill it with water to the fill line (basically the the entire bottle).  Put the cap on and put it in the fridge to chill (cold water holds a better carbonation).  Once your bottle of water is chilled, take the cap off and tilt the bottle slightly and screw into the SodaStream system.

Pick out your flavor and read the back of the bottle.  Check for the number of “buzzes”, most flavors require 3 “buzzes”.  However, the cola required 5 “buzzes”.  So, make your appropriate “buzzes” and remove your now carbonated water bottle.  It will hiss like opening a soda.  Then, according to the directions on the back of the bottle.  Fill a cap full of soda and pour it into your carbonated water.  My recommendation is to do it over the sink, less messy if you miss the bottle.  Put the cap back on the bottle and shake slightly to mix.

Then ENJOY! Pictured is Cranberry/Raspberry flavor.

Flavors and Machines

There are 7 different machines to choose from and on the SodaStream site there’s a tool to help you choose which machine fits you best.

You’ll also need to replace the carbonator at some point (not sure yet how long it will last and I didn’t see in the directions or online how long they last, sorry.)  SodaStream does suggest to keep an extra around for when yours runs out.

There’s a flavor for everyone!  Choose from over 50 flavors in regular, diet, energy, sparkling naturals, sparkling teas, and MyWater Essence flavors.

Each 16.9 ounce of syrup adds up to about 33 – 12 ounces cans of soda!  Let’s do some math.  If you purchase a 16.9 ounce bottle of Cola from SodaStream which last look was $4.99 and that bottle produces 33 “cans” of soda.  That’s a little over $.15 a “can” of SodaStream soda!  Sounds like a great deal for me.

My Review -

I’m in love with the SodaStream!  It’s fun and healthy for my whole family.  Easy to assemble. Granted the machines can get pricey, but the cost of soda makes up for it in my book.  My family and I reviewed 3 different kinds of sodas and 1 tea.

Cola – It’s good, it has a “diet” soda taste to it.  I hope I’m explaining that okay.  Don’t expect it to taste like the big brand colas in the store.  We will be buying that one again.

Cranberry / Raspberry - My daughter wanted the “Pink” soda, so this was our next flavor.  We all really enjoyed it.  It was refreshing and not overwhelming of either flavor.  Yet another on our next shopping list.

Green Tea with Pomegranate Peach - My husband’s next choice.  I know you all want an honest opinion.  Not my favorite flavor, I think the peach made it really sweet and the pomegranate was overwhelming.  Just my opinion, again.

Root Beer –  When I first tasted it, I instantly thought Sarsaparilla!  We had a special treat the other night of SodaStream Root Beer and vanilla ice cream.  It was a hit, and will continue having SodaStream Root Beer Floats as a treat!  Definitely on the next shopping list!

The initial start up will cost a little bit, but once you get going.  I think you’ll make up the cost from buying those big name sodas.

Faith and Family Reviews received the following product in exchange for writing a review. While we consider it a privilege to receive free products to review, our reviews are our honest opinion and thoughts of the product.

 

 


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Down Time

Yesterday was basically down time. My second oldest daughter and I were out from 9:30am to 11:30pm on Wednesday. We did have one hour at home for dinner and to quickly nurse baby before heading back out again. We had two classes to attend and help “work”.

Then we had friends stop over for lunch yesterday and to do a Zyto Compass Scan, which is a service I offer for our essential oils business. But other than that it was down time.

Today was rather mellow too. Friends from our barn stopped by after dropping off our girls, as she has offered to take them to the barn as our schedules allow. Nice on days when I don’t have a vehicle.

Why is it after being busy I just want to zone out? Would it have anything to do with driving five hours on Wednesday and just being flat out busy for nearly a week? I don’t know I haven’t figured it out yet. But zoning is what I am doing! ;-)

Update on Oven

The oven part actually came on Wednesday, but do you think we can find the repair man’s card? So no chance of getting it fixed earlier if we cannot call them to reschedule the appointment! Arrghhhh! That’s what I get for leaving an itty bitty business card on the counter and going out all day so it gets lost!

Update on Vehicle

Still no vehicle. Not sure when that will happen. My husband looked at a used one last night and decided it was not for us. I think he plans to go out tomorrow to a local dealer who has some sale going on, plus following up with our car sales man friend.

Quiet Weekend

I am looking forward to a quiet weekend at home. I could have worked but I actually said, “NO”. We could have gone out to another event but I said, “NO”. The girls and I are planning to complete some sewing projects as they all need new skirts. Thankfully we were given some fabric, plus we bought some very inexpensively from someone getting rid of fabric out of her stash. We are going to play Christmas music and just enjoy being together while we create!

I am looking forward to baking up a storm next week! We miss baking. And a huge part of our Christmas traditions is baking. The aroma of baked goods filling the house, the music playing and munching on homemade snacks as we deck the halls and everywhere else brings us much cheer this time of year!

Enjoy your weekend!


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Non-Oven Meals

Ok, unless I get grocery shopping on Thursday, my non-oven recipe supply is drying out fast after two weeks without an oven. Tammy’s comment made me wonder how on earth I would go a year without an oven when I rely on it to toast bread, bagels, English muffins etc. since we do not have a toaster. We haven’t since ours broke. We can fit more in the oven anyways as we had no room for a commercial size toaster at the townhouse or budget for it either. And no my oven is not as clean as the photo to above left!

We usually do not buy packaged baked goods, we bake them ourselves or got them at the food co-op we participated in, which we no longer have. So we have been satisfying our sweet tooth with hot cocoa. I mix my own hot cocoa mix by using dry cocoa from Aldi and organic cane sugar so we do not have to eat any extra additives, preservatives or chemicals.

We have had beans and rice many times over this past week. I have made baked beans, lentils and pinto beans in the crock pot as I only have one pot to cook with on the stove besides my cast iron pans. Long story short: in our townhouse we had limited cupboard space so I learned to cook with just one pot, plus any casserole dishes that would fit in the oven. Now we have more storage space and I have two crock pots, with plans of buying more pots in the future!

I have not used the crock pot much for cooking meats like chicken, beef or the like, but that’s idea for the chicken in my freezer and something I can use to prepare a few new meals.

I avoid using the microwave for cooking, but will use it to heat up water, tea and a few other things. Yes, I am paranoid and trying to avoid any extra radiation exposure and changes a microwave can make to our food.

We do not buy a lot of boxed cereals, but depend on hot breakfasts like oatmeal (I soak regular organic rolled oats overnight and cook it in the morning). We make muffins, banana and apple breads etc., which all require the oven. We can still have eggs and toast, thankfully!

We even usually bake our family French toast in the oven. At least we haven’t forgotten how to fry it in a pan! Ha!

Thinking pancakes are fast and easy for tomorrow night’s supper since I have to be out and tonight’s dinner planned: Kale Potato Soup. No homemade bread though, will have to ask my husband to stop and get some on his way home from work.

So all that to say that I would love some fresh non-oven meal ideas that are healthy! Gotta run and get the soup on…..


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Appliance Woes

We had a lovely Thanksgiving day yesterday. We spent the day at home relaxing and just being together. We started a new tradition of a “Thanksgiving Tea”, which the children loved! Then we made our Thanksgiving dinner. Everything was going well until it was time to bake our pies and our stove went on the blitz! We tried until bedtime to get the oven to heat up and it would not. Talk about being bummed at no pumpkin or apple pie for dessert!

Waking up before 5am this morning I got up and turned on the oven…..voila! It worked! So we had our Thanksgiving pies for breakfast, but shhhhhh…..don’t tell anyone! ;-)

Appliances are wonderful inventions. I love mine, as I am sure you do too…. except when they go on the blitz. Three years ago a couple of days before Thanksgiving our 15 year old stove stopped working and we had to buy a new one and have it delivered the day before we were to host Thanksgiving dinner!


Our appliances stayed at our townhouse since our rental provides all the appliances. We have noticed a drastic reduction to our electric bill since we still have our second refrigerator and three freezers over at the townhouse. We need get rid of two of them because they cost so much to run due to their being older appliances. Let’s just say they are not energy efficient. We are not sure what to replace them with, but we like the look of the space saver Beko fridge freezer (image to the right) because our current freezers take up so much room in the garage. With our family of ten Cheap fridge freezers provide us with extra space for food storage. If either of our houses were big enough then commercial sized appliances would probably be more practical, but neither home has a huge kitchen so they won’t work. Maybe if we ever build.

Appliances can’t live without ‘em.


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