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Sprout Organic Toddler Snacks

Posted by Theresa Gould on June 10, 2013
in All Natural Products, Food and Treats

#spon: I’m required to disclose a relationship between our site and Sprout Foods. This could include the Sprout Foods providing us w/ content, product, access or other forms of payment. Check out the new Sprout Foods website at www.sproutorganicfoods.com.

Our family is usually game to try anything organic. So when the opportunity to try Sprout Organic Toddler Snacks we took it. Sprout Organic Toddler Snacks aren’t just for toddlers, my preschoolers, school aged children, teens and even we adults enjoyed trading these little Fruit & Veggie Crispy Chews and Fruity Yogurt Bites.

We all loved the Sprout Organic Fruit & Veggie Crispy Chews and Fruity Yogurt Bites. My husband had an aversion to even trying these snacks because of the blend of fruit and vegetables. Here is a photo of his exaggerated dismay:

All the younger children traded their vegetables and fruit so they could try each flavor.

This is what the all natural snacks look like:

We would definitely purchase these snacks for on the go, traveling or as a special treat. Two thumbs up from us!

Here’s a digital coupon offer for you to enjoy through the end of June:

A new coupon, from Sprout and Diapers.com, which is good for $1.00 off the purchase of Sprout Fruit & Veggie Crispy Chews or Fruity Yogurt Bites. The promo code is SPROUTSNAX, and the coupon is good through June 30th. If you want to share the coupon with your friends and followers, feel free to do so!

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Longhorn Steakhouse – Take Dad on a “Steakcation”

Posted by Brande on June 6, 2013
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Gift Ideas, Guest Post, Holidays, Houseware, Products for Dad, Restaurants, Reviews, Shopping

Written By Guest Dad Blogger – Scott

“I participated in a campaign on behalf of Dad Central Consulting for LongHorn Steakhouse. I received a gift card to facilitate my review and a promotional item as a thank-you for participating.”

Father’s Day is coming! Is your Dad a “cut above the rest”? Forget the tie! Your favorite Dad really wants a “Steakcation” at Longhorn Steakhouse!

Come on down, grab a cold one and let Longhorn Steakhouse grill experts take care of Dad this Father’s Day. With a choice of 7 different cuts of steak at any temperature, it will be hard to decide which to cut choose.

After you decide which cut to choose (18 inch bone-in Outlaw Ribeye, Flo’s Filet, sirloin, strip, flat-iron, T-Bone or porterhouse). You need to choose a side; you can even upgrade your side to roasted corn on the cob (available for a limited time off the “Peak Season Menu”).

Hungry yet?

This was my family’s first visit to a Longhorn Steakhouse and we were very impressed. Here’s what we ordered.

When the waitress took our drink order she dropped off honey wheat bread that was still warm. Very tasty, my daughter ate most of it before her dinner came out.

Appetizer – Parmesan Crusted Asparagus (New off the Peak Season Menu)

The asparagus had a great favor, was crunchy, and the batter was light. It had a few parmesan shavings on top and was served with a delicious red chili ranch sauce.

Lunch –

I had the Prime Rib – My dinner also came with a choice of salad and side. I chose a garden salad and a side of vegetables. I prefer my steaks to be rare and it was cooked perfect! Served with au jus and horseradish sauce. The broccoli was nice and green and the carrots still a small crunch.

My wife had the Bold Balsamic BBQ Sirloin, She also got the garden salad, but upgraded her side to the roasted corn on the cob. She ordered and received her sirloin medium to well done. Her sirloin was topped with roasted garlic cloves and a smooth balsamic bbq sauce.

My daughter had a grilled cheese sandwich and fries off the kids menu. There was a great variety on the children’s menu which was great. We have a picky eater and that can be a concern when going out.

We really enjoyed our afternoon out. The food is very good and cooked to your expectations.

We ate so much that we did not have room for dessert. I took a look at the dessert menu and the offerings were very intriguing. The Chocolate Stampede which has 6 different chocolates in a piece of cake and is served with vanilla ice cream. Another dessert that caught my eye was off the Peak Seasons Menu, The Very Berry Grilled Pound Cake (I’m going back just to get this dessert), it’s a piece of lemon pound cake grilled and served with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream!

Stomach Growling? Mine is!

So, your favorite Dad is not into going out for Father’s Day. He prefers to say at home and do his own grilling? Here is Longhorn Steakhouse’s Tips on “How to Grill a Great Steak”.

You still need to get Dad a present too! My suggestion is the Longhorn Steakhouse Knives – Available at your local Longhorn Steakhouse for $29.99. The Knives are made with high carbon steel and serrated blade. Stop tearing your steak and cut it with these fabulous knives.

Click Here to find your nearest Longhorn Steakhouse to purchase your knives or a great Father’s Day Meal!

Happy Father’s Day!

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LUIGI’s Real Italian Ice

Posted by Professor on June 5, 2013
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff

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.

LUIGI’s Real Italian Ice

Luigi’s Real Italian Ice is naturally flavored with real fruit juice and is packed with a refreshing taste. Kids and adults alike love this delicious and nutritious treat! This family favorite comes in many refreshing flavors including:

Cotton Candy & Sour Apple

Cherry

Mango

Blue Raspberry & Watermelon

Strawberry & Lemon.

LUIGI’s Real Italian Ices are:

Fat Free
Most flavors are 100 calories
Naturally flavored with real fruit juice
Refreshing, unique flavors.

Our review:

We found that Luigi’s real Italian Ice live up to their reputation! They are so YUMMY! The Cotton Candy is by far the children’s favorite! We liked that there was a variety in most packs. The packages come in a 6 pack of flavors… our favorite box was Cotton Candy and Sour Apple…we opened the box and it was 3 Cotton Candy flavors and 3 Sour apple flavors. The children wished there was more cotton candy but 3 (1 for each) was a nice treat for the children.

One thing I liked as a mom is that the ices are not rock hard… sometimes I purchase Italian ices and they are so hard to spoon that the children get frustrated. LUIGI’s are just the right consistency to scoop and enjoy!

Check out the JJ snack brand and their whole entourage of products at this link:

www.jjsnack.com

Check out the LUIGI’s line and opt in for money saving coupons at:

www.luigis.com

You can also check out Luigi’s on facebook at:

www.facebook.com/pages/LUIGIS-real-Italian-Ice

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Sambazon Smoothies Review & Giveaway

Posted by Theresa Gould on June 1, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Reviews

Disclaimer: I received Sambazon Smoothies and Juices coupons for free from the sponsor of the Moms MeetSM program, May Media Group LLC, who received it directly from the manufacturer. As a Moms MeetSM blogger, I agreed to use this product and post my opinion on my blog. My opinions do not necessarily reflect the opinions of May Media Group LLC or the manufacturer of the product.

I have mentioned time and again that we really try to eat well. I’ve also shared how much our family enjoys fruit smoothies and green smoothies, which we usually make at home with our blender. However, we learned of a pre-made product called Sambazon Smoothies and Juices that peeked our interest. Sambazon also has superfood juices as well.

Sambazon Smoothies Facts:

Sambazon smoothies and juices are made with the finest organic Amazon
Superfoods™ on the planet such as Açaí [Ah-sigh-ee], Acerola [Ah-sir-o-la], and
Yerba Mate [Yur-ba Mah-tay].
• Their juices and smoothies are available in ten different delicious flavor varieties,
and packed with antioxidants and healthy omega 3-6-9s.
• All Sambazon Superfood juices are NON-GMO, USDA organic, vegan, gluten-free,
and provide whole food nutrition.
• A bottle of Sambazon Superfood juice (10.5 ounces) retails for $2.99.

Sambazon Smoothies Review

My two year old and I really enjoyed the Sambazon Smoothies and Juices. We tried the Blended Breakfast Smoothie with Strawberry, Banana, Chia and Ancient Grains (Amaranth & Quinoa) and Acai Superfood Juice. They tasted like green smoothies to me. The juice is not as thick as the smoothie. Not too sweet but not bitter either. I cannot say I noticed any difference in how my toddler or I felt after drinking the Sambazon Smoothies and Juices but appreciate the nutrition they provided our bodies.

I thought they were a little pricey for such a small bottle, but have come to accept that we often have to pay premium prices for good food. I also found not all smoothies and juices are available at all locations so if you decide to look for them check for their availability and store locations on Sambazon’s website.

Feel free to follow Sambazon on Facebook and Twitter. Please use the hashtag #momsmeet. And be sure to enter the giveaway below so you have a chance to try Sambazon Smoothies and Juices too.

Sambazon Smoothies Giveaway

One winner will receive three free product vouchers, plus a wooden bowl and spoon (pictured in the photo above) valued at $45. Giveaway prizes will be sent to the winners directly by Moms Meet.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Azure Standard

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 29, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Uncategorized

Our family eats a lot, as you can imagine since we are a family of ten. We eat as much organic products as we can but to buy them in the grocery store or at Whole Foods is really expensive. Co-ops like Azure Standard or Country Life Natural Foods enable us to purchase organic products in bulk and save money at the same time.

We have been using Azure Standard for a year and a half. We place a monthly order on our Azure account. Our drop site is in our town at our local Farm and Fleet parking lot. The drop site is where we help unload the truck for our group’s order and pick up our individual orders. We have a drop site manager who reminds us of order deadlines, pick up times and any changes Azure Standard announces.

Azure has many different products from personal care to bulk rolled oats or quick oats to bulk produce items like a 25 lb bag of organic carrots we like to buy. We have come to love the creamy ice cream they carry – Alden’s – which has no propylene glycol (antifreeze basically) or other harmful chemicals in it.

I love that I can add to or change my order throughout the month right up until the order deadline, since the shopping cart will save my order until I click “submit order”. I appreciate that Azure accepts C.O.D orders so we don’t have to use a credit card but pay with cash or check on pick up day. I love that we do not have to order every month.

There is a minimum order of $50 but our family does not have any trouble meeting it.

There are no member fees, though there are freight charges based on the weight of your total order. To become a member, all you have to do is contact Azure Standard to see if there is a drop site in or near you and they will put you in touch with the drop site manager. Azure even offers a free catalog upon request.

Country Life operates similarly but different. Anyone can place an order, no membership is required, but the minimum is $500 or $600 so more often than not groups of families place an order together and get the order delivered to one family’s home. We really like Azure because of the many different items they carry so we rarely order from Country Life anymore. For the most part, prices are pretty comparable between the two.

Are you a part of any food co-ops? Feel free to share to give readers more resources and choices.

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Mother’s Day 2013 – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 15, 2013
in Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Gift Ideas, Holidays, Home, Seasonal Stuff, Uncategorized, Wordless Wednesday

Mother’s Day 2013 saw me served with a delicious homemade breakfast in bed. (I was also served with a yummy meatloaf dinner the night before and a strawberry dessert Yahoo featured!)

The whipped cream is homemade from our own cream – yummylicious!

And I bought these for the purpose of having a Mother’s Day flowers photo….we ended up giving them to Grandma on her special day too….

How was your Mother’s Day? Were you given the royal treatment too?

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Wallaby Organic Greek Yogurt

Posted by Theresa Gould on May 14, 2013
in All Natural Products, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Health, Health and Nutrition, Organic, Reviews, Uncategorized

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

Our family loves yogurt. We’ve even made it ourselves and plan to do it again once our garden is planted. So when a Wallaby Yogurt review opportunity presented itself I agreed to do it. We had tried Wallaby Yogurt before but had not tried their new Greek Yogurt.

Wallaby Organic Greek Yogurt is smooth, silky, creamy and yummy. If you don’t know the difference between regular yogurt and Greek yogurt it’s the thickness and texture, in my opinion. It stays on the spoon better for kids (and adults too!) Sometimes, but not always Greek yogurt has less sugar in it. It depends on the brand and of course the fruit flavor.

My hubby brought home blueberry because it’s one of my personal favorites. The yogurt and blueberries were in separate sections like so:

Then I mixed them together like this:

The only thing I didn’t like was the curve of the container made it hard to get all the blueberries out of the bottom. I actually used the end of my spoon to get as much as I could out and added to my yogurt. The more blueberries the better in my book. Spoken like a true Bluenoser (person from Nova Scotia ) I think one of those new inventions shown on the show Shark Tank called Spatty (and the larger one Spatty Daddy) would have come in handy to get all the blueberries out.

Otherwise the yogurt was delicious and definitely one we’d buy again.

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Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 26, 2013
in Blog Stuff, Family Stuff, Food and Treats, Fun Stuff, Giveaways, Health, Health and Nutrition, Recipes

“This sponsored post was made possible by The Motherhood and Avocados from Mexico. I have been compensated for my time and work on this campaign, however all opinions are 100% my own.”

Last Friday night four Chicago area bloggers gathered together to experience Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico. We each made an avocado dish (or two) to pass and share. There was one blogger who had never tried avocados before. The majority of us were trying new recipes from avocado macaroni and cheese, avocado ice cream, guacamole and avocado fries. For some fabulous photos of the dishes served visit Frosted Fingers!

Did you know that avocados from Mexico are available all year round? I didn’t know this. I also didn’t know this when I chose a recipe for BLT sandwiches:

Fresh avocado in sandwiches, on toast or substituted as a spread in place of many other popular foods may help reduce your intake of calories, fat, saturated fat, sodium and cholesterol.

I also did not know that one ounce (3 slices) of an avocado has 50 calories and contributes nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, making it a good choice to help meet nutrient needs! I find that amazing.

However, I did know that avocados are full of good fats our bodies need. One of the reasons I would feed it to my little ones as babies – my older girls to this day love avocados. It makes for a very easy to prepare meal. Just wash it, cut it open, de-pit it and start spooning baby bites into baby’s (or your) mouth! Easy peasy! Our younger crew didn’t even notice the avocados on the avocado BLT turkey sandwiches.

Not very many in my family liked the avocado fries. I thought they tasted good, but liked Michelle’s (of Honestly and Truly) idea of serving them with a yummy dip.

Avocado Recipes

Here’s the link to the recipe that inspired our Avocado Fries. However, we did not fry them, we baked them and we used olive oil instead of canola oil. We also used regular bread crumbs seasoned with our own spices.

Our Avocado BLT Turkey Sandwich was inspired by this Turkey Avocado Bacon Sandwich recipe.

You can visit www.theamazingavocado.com for more recipes and nutritional
information.

Cinco de Swap with Avocados from Mexico and $100 Gift Card Giveaway

You all have a chance to win a $100 gift card! Just enter below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Milking and Making Butter- Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 24, 2013
in All Natural Products, Animals, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats, Wordless Wednesday

This is our second oldest daughter milking. She’s our chief milker at the moment until we train the next one in line to milk. I have helped with milking but I think my nervousness unsettled Eclipse because she seemed jittery and moved a lot. Then again maybe I’m being paranoid and she was just antsy in her new home since I haven’t milked since the first week. Eclipse does seem to do better for our daughter, whom the cow loves I might add! Over the weekend, Eclipse watched the children go from one end of the property, down the tree line to the other end and mooed in their direction after our daughter went over with her younger siblings. Then when our daughter came back across the field, Eclipse followed her again by walking the fence line to greet her – if that isn’t affection, I don’t know what is!

Since Eclipse has been on pasture her cream (and milk) has been slowly increasing. Today the girls got 6 cups of cream from two gallons of milk and made two pounds of butter! The photos below are not all of the same day. The milk bottles are actually some of our very first. The butter photos are from today. All they do is put the cream in a pint or quart sized jar and shake it until it forms butter. The girls like to shake it until it forms a ball, which eliminates the need to shape the butter by hand! Pretty smart, eh?

Click on the image to make it larger and brighter.

It’s a fun milking and making butter! My husband is very happy not to have to stop for milk after work!

Happy not-so-Wordless Wednesday!

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Herdshare Cow – Wordless Wednesday

Posted by Theresa Gould on April 10, 2013
in Animals, Community Issues, Family Stuff, Farm Stuff, Food and Treats

Not so Wordless this week…ha!

Our family drinks and goes through a lot of milk in a week so we’ve been looking at the possibility of getting a herdshare cow (the kids will own a portion of her milk “shares” and we’ll sell “cow or milk shares”, which is where other people desiring raw milk will buy shares of her, that is if IL doesn’t change their raw milk laws). We have been researching dairy cows or rather our daughter has been, and even went to visit a Guernsey dairy farm in Wisconsin, nearly two hours away, in November. The economical benefits to owning our own cow would allow us to supply our family with milk for 8-10 months out of the year, plus all the other dairy products we enjoy – butter, yogurt, ice cream and cheese, as well as providing others with fresh milk too.

Then a couple of weeks ago while my mom was here we came across a Craigslist ad for a Guernsey for sale locally. It was a person we bought some of our bookcases from just after we moved into this house. The reasons we like this cow is she’s local so less travel time, less stress on the cow. The owner is raising the cow the way we want to, which is a huge factor to us wanting her. The cow was also affectionate to our daughter the first time she went in her pen, which resonated with us…so….we bought her!

Pictured at her old home.

Eclipse is a 5.5 year old Guernsey. She has given birth to three calves, the third one was born last year. Even though it’s been a year since her last birth she is still giving a couple of gallons of milk per day. We are really impressed, but we are newbies so it doesn’t take much to impress us She is being fed pasture, hay and fodder (sprouted grain). We *think* the fodder is what is helping her give milk for so long between calves. Either that or she’s just a faithful milker! Here’s to hoping she likes us as well as she did her former owner.

The children are hoping her first calf with us is a heifer (female) so they can buy back the herdshares and make Eclipse our family cow. If she has a bull calf, then he’ll be processed for beef and shared among all the shareholders. We hope to get Eclipse bred this spring or summer, Lord willing. First we have to figure out when she cycles, which can be hard to determine when there’s only one cow. Or so we’ve been told.

While I grew up surrounded by cows, I have very little experience taking care of them, especially a dairy cow. Growing up I watched them being milked and took their yummy milk from the cooler of our neighbors milk parlor, but not once did I take care of one or milk one. I took care of my pastor’s beef cow when he and his family went away a couple of times, that’s my extent of caring for a cow. Other than that my experience is limited to visits to neighbors farms in my hometown in Nova Scotia, having the cows lick my rubber boots and runny a muck through their pastures as a child.

We are excited but a little apprehensive, as cows require a set routine and it’s a whole new animal to acclimate to our farm. So do you have any experience with cows?

Stay tuned to more adventures of milking a cow, making butter and even fencing….from our fledgling little farm….