Check Out the New Great Tasting Slim-Fast Shakes

December 4, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Slim-Fast for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

Slim-Fast Shake

From time to time over the years whenever I feel like I have a few extra pounds that I need to get rid of, I’ve tried the Slim-Fast shakes and snacks and they’re generally pretty good so I wasn’t too excited when I heard that they came out with their “best tasting shakes ever” since I already like them just fine.  Well now I’ve had a chance to actually try them and I’ve gotta say – wow!  They’re not kidding, they really are better than before!

I’m a choc-o-holic so I always like to try the chocolate flavors of everything, but most diet products seem to have a ‘fake’ chocolate taste to them that really turns me off.  That is SO not the case with the Slim-Fast shakes!  I tried the new Rich Chocolate Royale flavor and it was fabulous, tasted like a milkshake – nice and cold right out of the fridge.

The new bottle design is pretty neat also, super easy to hold or to pack for the road.  But of course the best thing is how they can help you control your weight!  It’s the same simple 3-2-1 plan as always, have three snacks during the day, two meal replacement Slim-Fast Shakes or Meal Bars, and one balanced 500 calorie meal.  I’ll be losing those extra Thanksgiving pounds in no time!

There are lots of different Slim-Fast snack and meal bars available, and the new shakes come in Creamy Milk Chocolate, French Vanilla, Rich Chocolate Royale, Cappuccino Delight, and Strawberries ‘N Cream flavors.  Check out the Slim-Fast website to see all of the available products or head over to Facebook and ‘like’ the Slim-Fast page to grab a $1.50 off coupon for the shakes.  I’ve already printed mine!

You can find Slim-Fast products in the pharmacy section of most retailers and grocery stores including WalMart, Target, CVS, and Walgreens, and you get them online from Amazon or the Slim-Fast 3-2-1 store on Facebook.

Visit Sponsor's Site

Filed Under: coupons, Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lovable Labels Gift Seals & Address Labels Giveaway

December 2, 2011 by 4 Comments

This was so much fun the last time that we decided to do it again!  Lovable Labels recently sent me a set of their Holiday Return Address Labels with matching Gift Seals to check out and I absolutely love them. There are six different gorgeous styles to choose, including the three shown above, and I selected the gold ones with the adorable reindeer. They are premium quality, durable labels and I’m very impressed with the weight and glossy look of the ones I received. I can’t wait to use these when we send out our Christmas cards, and I’m excited to also have matching gift seals!

Lovable Labels specializes in extra tough, colorful and fun labels ranging from all kinds of peel and stick labels, to clothing labels, even shoe labels and allergy labels. They help to ensure that your kids stuff doesn’t end up in the lost and found bin! The coolest thing is that their labels are waterproof, dishwasher and microwave safe, washer and dryer safe, sun safe, bleach safe, sunscreen safe and temperature safe.

My kids are sticker and label addicts so I’m definitely hiding my address labels from them, but I’ve got my eye on these great holiday sticker packs that I know they’d be thrilled to find in their stockings!

Now one lucky reader is also going to receive a package of 90 Holiday Return Address Labels with 60 matching Gift Seals! It’s super easy to enter – there are no mandatory entries, just do any or all of the other things on the list that you would like and get additional entries. The giveaway ends at midnight on December 9th, the winner will be randomly selected and announced the next day.

Click ‘more’ below to view the entry form.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged With: , , , , ,

Lovable Labels Review & Giveaway

November 4, 2011 by 12 Comments

Just in time for the holidays, I’m excited to bring you this review and giveaway from Lovable Labels!  They recently sent me a set of their Holiday Return Address Labels with matching Gift Seals to check out and I absolutely love them.  There are six different gorgeous styles to choose, including the three shown above, and I selected the gold ones with the adorable reindeer.  They are premium quality, durable labels and I’m very impressed with the weight and glossy look of the ones I received.  I can’t wait to use these when we send out our Christmas cards, and I’m excited to also have matching gift seals!

Lovable Labels specializes in extra tough, colorful and fun labels ranging from all kinds of peel and stick labels, to clothing labels, even shoe labels and allergy labels.  They help to ensure that your kids stuff doesn’t end up in the lost and found bin!  The coolest thing is that their labels are waterproof, dishwasher and microwave safe, washer and dryer safe, sun safe, bleach safe, sunscreen safe and temperature safe.

My kids are sticker and label addicts so I’m definitely hiding my address labels from them, but I’ve got my eye on these great holiday sticker packs that I know they’d be thrilled to find in their stockings!

Now one lucky reader is also going to receive a package of 90 Holiday Return Address Labels with 60 matching Gift Seals!  Simply leave a comment on this post telling us something you’re looking forward to this holiday season (food? fun? family? gifts? something else?) then click “I did this” in the form below.  Do any or all of the other things on the list that you would like for additional entries.  The giveaway ends at midnight on November 12th, the winner will be randomly selected and announced the next day.

Click ‘more’ below to view the entry form.

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaways Tagged With: , , , , ,

Before You Buy Check Out MyReviewsNow.net

November 2, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of MyReviewsNow.net for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’m a huge fan of online shopping because the Internet makes it easy to compare prices and find coupons for the items I’m buying, but it can be difficult to find independent reviews from people who’ve bought the items I’m looking for.  That’s why I’m excited to have found out about myreviewsnow.net - you can check out their site to find out what other people think about the things that you’re looking to buy online, and you can leave your own reviews.  That’s a great tool, especially when you can’t touch and feel things before you buy them!  Plus, if you’re happy (or unhappy) with something you’ve bought, it’s a great way to let others know about it!

The really cool thing is that right now you can enter to win a $350 Kohl’s gift card simply by liking myreviewsnow.net on Facebook and tweeting the message “I love to #shopathome online!”  That would go a long way toward taking care of everyone on my holiday gift list!  How about you?  Click here for the official rules then head on over to look up the reviews on your upcoming holiday purchases!

Visit Sponsor's Site

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , ,

Review: Hootch Owl from Red Envelope

October 31, 2011 by 1 Comment

This “Hootch Owl” corkscrew is modeled after a famous design from the 1930s and I love the vintage look so much that I’m keeping mine on the counter for display.  In addition to being a powerful corkscrew, its wings double as bottle openers.  The Hootch Owl is heavy duty metal and stands about 8 1/2″ tall.

Available from Red Envelope, the Hootch Owl would be a perfect gift for any wine loving friends on your gift list!  You’ll also find lots of other unique gift ideas at Red Envelope like personalized jewelry, cashmere scarves, home decor, and kids toys.

My son recently got this plush robot from Red Envelope and he absolutely loves it, so I figured it was about time that momma got something too!  If you’d like a little help finding great gifts for the people on your list, then head over and check out the Red Envelope website where they’ve just added nearly 400 new items for the fall season.  You should also check back here tomorrow morning because I’ll be kicking off a great giveaway for a $100 gift certificate for Red Envelope!

Disclosure – Red Envelope provided me with the Hootch Owl described above for the purpose of facilitating this review.  I received no compensation for this post and all thoughts and comments are my own.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Member’s Mark 4X Probiotics Review – Part 1

October 17, 2011 by 7 Comments

All my life I’ve had an issue with milk and dairy products, but I didn’t realize that I was lactose intolerant until college.  Pizza, ice cream and cheese are some of my favorite things in the world but within an hour or two of eating them I’d start to feel really sick and I’d get bloated and crampy.  That made dating a little nerve wracking because I never wanted to eat out anywhere and chance getting sick.  Luckily once I’d figured out the problem I found that I could take lactase enzyme pills with a meal to keep from getting bloated and feeling icky.

Fast forward a couple of decades (I’ve had a couple anniversaries of my 39th birthday) and in between babies I’ve had some problems with endometriosis.  I’ve had a couple of surgeries and they’ve removed most of the adhesions, but they couldn’t get everything out of the bowel area.  That doesn’t bother me normally, but if I ever have dairy products and forget to take a pill then the pain comes on suddenly and is so intense that I’ve literally spent hours huddled up on the couch waiting for the pain to pass.

Given my history I’m a firm believer that probiotics are essential for good digestive health.  There are several different brands of yogurt out with probiotics added and I like them, but I just can’t eat yogurt every day and I’m not really a fan of eating more dairy products just to get my probiotics.

I was recently offered the opportunity to do a review of the Member’s Mark 4X Probiotic supplement available at Sam’s Club and I jumped at the chance to see how it works for me.  I’ve only taken it for a couple of days and although I’m liking it so far I’m going to wait until I’ve been taking it for a couple of weeks to give you my final verdict.  In the meanwhile I wanted to share about my shopping trip and some other information that I learned.

At first I was a little annoyed that I had to buy a twinpack in order to test the supplement, but then I started comparing prices and the differences between the Member’s Mark brand and the competing Align brand.  The Member’s Mark brand was $28.88 for a twinpack or 84 pills, enough to last for three months, which equates to 34 cents per pill.  The Align supplement on the other hand was $39.48 for one box of 49 pills, enough for seven weeks at 81 cents per pill.  That makes the Sam’s Club brand less than half price which made me very happy!

But how do the two brands compare in other ways?  It turns out that not only can the Member’s Mark 4X Probiotic supplement compete with Align, it actually beats it hands down by including four different strains of probiotics while Align only has one, and it contains 2 1/2 times the amount of the one strain that you do get with Align.

I’m so excited to be trying out the Member’s Mark 4X Probiotic supplement for my digestive health that my husband has swiped the other box from me and he’s trying it out too!  I can’t wait to get back with you guys on the results in a couple weeks.  If any of you have stories or info you’d like to share I’d love to hear from you!

Disclosure: This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias, however all thoughts and comments are completely my own.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , , ,

Have You Tried The New T.G.I.Friday’s Entrees?

October 13, 2011 by Leave a Comment

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of T.G.I. FRiDAY’S for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

We’re big fans of T.G.I.Friday’s restaurants because they have great food (and awesome coupons), and we tend to go there a lot on our ‘date night’ for dinner out, so we’ve really been looking forward to trying their new T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One”. 

One evening earlier this week I took all the kids back to school for Kindergarten Reading Night where they gave us tips on helping the quads with segmenting and “bubble gumming” their words and they also passed out free books to everyone who attended.  The kids all acted like it was Christmas and I’m pretty sure hubby thought so also because he had the evening off and the house all to himself.

Entrées For One

They fed us pizza at the school so hubby had to fend for himself and he made this Prime Rib Stroganoff for dinner which he tells me was just fabulous.  The only thing missing he said was the waitress to refill his drinks, but I’m sure he’ll get over that. 

Entrées For One

There are lots of other great entree choices like Chicken and Broccoli Alfredo, Cajun-Style Chicken Alfredo, Loaded Chicken and Cheese, Sesame Orange Chicken, Creamy Chicken Pasta Carbonara, Sizzling Chicken Fajitas and Grilled Chicken Mac & Cheese.  They’re all “man-sized” portions and super easy to make so he’s ready for us to give him another evening off, but I’d really like to try this Sesame Orange Chicken myself so I’m trying to figure out an excuse for him to go off with the kids and let me have the T.G.I. FRiDAY’S “Entrées for One” experience as well! 

Which of these entrees would you most like to try?  To celebrate the end of frozen food boredom, T.G.I.Friday’s is holding a Fun Freezer contest on Facebook and you’re invited to head over to vote for your favorite finalist.  Some of the freezer makeovers are just hilarious and I had a good time picking my favorite!

Visit Sponsor's Site

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Scotch Magic Tape Review & Giveaway!

September 3, 2011 by 32 Comments

My kids are constantly asking for a piece of tape for so many different reasons – to fix their homework pages, to hang their artwork all over the walls and doors, to repair the dollar bills they were just fighting over, and even on occasion to hold their socks up or tape their mouths shut.  Since they don’t understand restraint and I can’t stand for them to waste it, I am the keeper of the tape and I feel like I’m forever saying “not too much please”!  When Scotch recently sent me several of their products to review I was thrilled to receive the Scotch Pop-Up Tape Refillable Deskgrip dispenser because it is filled with pre-cut strips of tape that are already the perfect length so they can grab it themselves and I don’t have to worry about them taking too much.  Plus the rubber bottom grips the table when you pull a strip out so you only need one hand, but the dispenser easily glides along the table when you need to move it from kid to kid or remove it to put away when activity time is over.

I was also super happy to get to try out the new Scotch Magic Greener Tape, which is made from over 75% recycled or plant based materials, and comes in a refillable dispenser.  It doesn’t appear to look, feel or stick any differently than the regular kind of Scotch Magic Tape, but I feel much better about the copious amounts of tape my kids like to use knowing that it is so much “greener”.

Of course Scotch Magic Tape has always been my favorite brand for wrapping gifts and other household needs because other brands just don’t really compare in my opinion.  So that’s my excuse for keeping the Scotch Magic Tape One-Handed Dispenser they sent me all to myself – I love it so much that I’m going to have to refuse to share!  (shhhhhhhhh – don’t tell the kids that I have it!)  The dispenser is refillable and works by simply rolling it across the object or paper that you want to apply tape to, then use the green button to cut the tape.  Easy breezy – and so much better than trying to hold wrapping paper in place with one hand while you struggle to cut off the appropriate size piece of tape with your other hand!

The nice people at Scotch would also like to give one lucky reader a prize package of goodies just like the one they sent me that includes a Scotch Pop-Up Tape Refillable Deskgrip dispenser, the new Scotch Magic Greener Tape, and a Scotch Magic Tape One-Handed Dispenser.  All you have to do to enter to win is leave a comment on this post and click “I did this” in the form below!

[Read more...]

Filed Under: Giveaways, Reviews Tagged With: , , ,

Have You Tried Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt?

September 1, 2011 by Leave a Comment

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own.

For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

We’re huge yogurt fans at our house but I have to be honest – the last time I brought home Greek yogurt for the kids they all turned their noses up at it and refused to eat more than a bite.  I love that Greek yogurt is lower in fat and higher in protein than regular yogurt but I was nervous about getting the kids to try it again.  I’d heard good things about the new Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt so I thought we could give it a try again, and since my five year old quadruplets can’t read the word “Greek” I knew I could get them to give it a shot.  There are so many flavors to choose from that I was able to get something to suit everyone.  Check out these available flavors:

  • Vanilla
  • Black Cherry
  • Blueberry
  • Peach
  • Honey
  • Strawberry (fruit on the bottom)
  • Plain
  • Strawberry (traditional)
  • Key Lime
  • Raspberry

Hubby is a beekeeper so I thought he’d like the honey variety, but he really didn’t – said the combination just wasn’t for him, turns out he loves the blueberry.  One of my boys decided that he really likes the blueberry also, and the rest of us (including mommy) favor the traditional strawberry with the fruit mixed into the yogurt.  I am SO happy that they like it because Dannon Oikos Greek yogurt has twice the protein of regular low-fat yogurt, plus the fruit on the bottom varieties have 0% fat and the blended varieties contain only about 3% fat.

So what makes Greek yogurt so different?  Well it’s thicker and creamier than regular yogurt because of the authentic Greek straining process that removes some of the liquid part of the yogurt, or whey, and leaves more of the milk solids.  That process is also the reason that Greek yogurt is lower in fat and higher in protein since removing the fatty whey liquids leaves a denser yogurt with a higher level of protein.

I also really love to cook with Greek yogurt, because it’s so rich and creamy it is perfect for using in recipes and makes a great base for marinades.  I cannot wait to try this recipe for Tandoori Chicken – it’s one of my all time favorite dishes and the nearest Indian food restaurant is an hour away from me.  Check out the Dannon Oikos website for more great recipes, and while you’re at it you may want to go ahead and ‘like’ Oikos on Facebook so you can keep an eye out for promotions and coupons.

Disclosure:  I have partnered with Dannon to help promote the Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt Series.  I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about the promotion and product.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,

Rock’n & Roll’n In a Pair of Heelys!

August 31, 2011 by 2 Comments

I was recently offered the opportunity to review a pair of Heelys wheeled shoes and my first thought was that I would LOVE  a pair for myself because they brought back vivid memories of going to the skating rink almost every Friday night when I was a kid.  The problem with that idea is that I’ve had a few anniversaries of my 39th birthday (just a few!) and I’m pretty sure that neither hubby nor the kids would be seen with me gliding through the mall or the grocery store.  Soooo, I gave in and ordered a pair of the Stingray two wheeled shoes for my seven year old son because I figured the Velcro closures would be easy for him to handle, and two wheels would be easier for him to learn to skate with.

Unfortunately, Jacob has inherited my wide feet (thanks a lot grandma!) so I was a little nervous about whether or not they’d actually fit when they got here, but they fit him just fine and he was SO excited when he opened the box and saw his stylin’ new kicks.  He immediately put them on and wanted to try them out in the kitchen, but I talked him into doing some practice maneuvers in the garage.  Here’s a little video of his first time wearing the Heelys – he had a blast even though he ended up on his booty a time or two.

We have since checked out the Heelys Footwear Tricktionary where they have lots of info and videos on “Heeling” and Jacob has gotten much better at it, to the point where it’s hard to get him to take the shoes off!  If only they fit me too!

There may a solution to mommy (and his little brothers) coveting his Heelys though, because they’re having a fabulous back to school sale starting Friday, September 2nd through the 5th where you can buy one pair of Heelys and get a second pair for only $30!  So if you’ve been wanting a pair for yourself or your kids, then this weekend will be your best opportunity to get a great deal on them.  There are lots of styles and colors to choose from, including these pretty pink and black ones that I’ve had my eye on ;)

Disclosure:  I was provided with a pair of Heelys for the purpose of facilitating this review.  I have received no other compensation and all thoughts and comments are my own.

Filed Under: Reviews Tagged With: , , , ,
«Older Posts
Newer Posts»