All You Back to School Special

So I love free things and sharing stuff with friends and the world. I’m a member of a community called Crowdtap. I signed up and received a free issue of the All You Back to School Special Issue.

I’m in love! I have a subscription to All You and I love it anyway. I love the coupons since they’re usually for things I will actually buy. I love the tips and tricks that they offer up and the recipes. Oh man these recipes are amazing! I highly recommend that you get a subscription here if you don’t already have one. It’s worth EVERY penny! Believe me!

Anyway, back to the special issue I received. Let me start with my favorite part, RECIPES! This particular issue has 26 recipes in it. That’s like a small cook book, all packed into a magazine. Amazing. The editor’s are wonderful people, let me just say that.

I also like that they are seriously promoting the Kellogg’s Free Book program. They allow you and your child to search for clues for a code and with two more codes, your child can earn a free book from Scholastic. You can find out more about obtaining a free book at KelloggsFreeBook.com.

They offer up tips and tricks to be prepared for children going back to school, which I have to say can work at the end of Summer or even the end of Winter Break. They also have a handy list of supplies that you should keep stocked and you’ll be prepared for anything your child has to do during the school year: projects, book reports, papers, and crazy science experiments. There are also tips for starting early mornings on a positive note which I loved, because while my son is a morning person, I am not!

Go out, get the magazine, obtain a subscription and share with your friends!

I wrote this blog on my own accord. I am in no way a paid representative for Crowdtap or All You Magazine.

Beef! It's What's For Dinner!!!!!!

Well, it's what was for dinner a couple nights ago! This month for the AllStars we were either chosen to create some Goya recipes or some Beef! It's What's for Dinner Recipes. I'd have done either but I was happy to get chosen for the beef recipes and ironically, I ended up using a Goya product in one of my beef recipes!!!

Let me tell you, I also learned a lot about beef while doing these recipes. We love beef in pretty much any form and fashion as long as it's still good to eat and not gone back, blegh! It's in a lot of our meals whether old recipes or new and I truly learned some new things. I knew beef had iron and protein in it. It's only healthy though if you cook it the right way. Frying with batter (life chicken fried steak) just adds fat back to it! lol. Maybe not fat so much, but cholesterol and such. Beef is also full of choline (nervous system development), selenium (protects cells from damage), vitamins B6 and B12 (help maintain brain function), zync (helps maintain a healthy immune system), phosphorus (helps builds bones and teeth), niacin (supports energy production and metabolism) and riboflavin (helps convert food into fuel).

Let me first say that I combined two of my recipes in one meal. My boyfriend wanted chili and I wanted meatball gyros. So since they were both relatively small, we had them in the same night. It was actually easier on me as well since both recipes required ground beef.

The first thing I actually made was not a requirement. I made Chef John's Tzatziki Sauce the night before because it's best served if it's chilled over night and I wanted it for my meatball gyros. Meatball recipe coming up! The first actual beef recipe I made was Beef Chili Five Ways. I actually had this cooking while I prepped everything else. This was the recipe that also included a product for Goya: BLACK BEANS! I don't care for beans but these weren't too bad. You couldn't really distinguish the beans in the dish. Along with the tomatoes, it all kind of melted together in your mouth. After it was done, I let it cool and then it hung out in the refrigerator until dinner time.

Then I got the mixer going for the pita bread dough. I used Chef John's Pita Bread recipe and if you have any doubts about it, there is a video as well that Chef John did so you can follow along. I love his videos! With all the mixing and rising, it takes about 2.5 hours before you can actually cook/bake/grill the bread. While this stuff was rising, I mixed up the ingredients for the meatballs. I used this recipe: Mediterranean Beef Meatball Kabob. These were full of flavor. I did add in some onion however, because we like onion with our ground beef. I don't really think it added much flavor though. They were yummy anyway. Other than that, I did cook them as instructed and then took them off the kabobs and put them in the pita bread for gyros. Ours were a little plain as far as gyros go but that's because I was the only one who really wanted a gyro.... The others just went along with it!!!

I may try to tackle some of the Goya recipes just because I'd like to but if I don't get around to it, I guess it's a good thing it wasn't a requirement. I'm looking forward to next month since I was one of the one's selected to make a Bison dish. The only thing Bison I've ever had was burgers from a restaurant and the meat was really dry so I'm hoping that it was just the chef's mistake. We'll see next month!!!

Until then......

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Summer VoxBox - Olay Fresh Effects BB Cream

I received my second VoxBox from Influenster this week and I have to say there were some pretty cool items in there!

I haven't tried everything yet but I have tried the Olay Fresh Effects {BB Cream!} As far as a cover up, I'm guessing that's not really what this is for. I thought it was, however, it didn't really cover up much of anything like my other foundations have.

However, in looking for something that goes on quickly and lets my natural skin shine through, it's perfect!

This product has 6 skin perfecting benefits including:
* Refreshes skin instantly
* Brightens for a radiant glow
* Evens tone with a splash of sheer color
* Hydrates for 24 hours
* Smooths for softer feeling skin
* Protects against UV damage with SPF 15

For more information, you can check out the products at Olay Fresh Effects as well as purchase them there or on Amazon.

I received this box and this sample of Fresh Effects from Influenster. I am in no way compensated by them for the testing and reviewing of this product.

Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer!

I love June. It means Summer vacation, swimming pool, the beach, grilling and extra time with my little man. My boyfriend handles the grill so this month was amazing for me as far as the AllStars goes!

Let me start off by posting what we were given as our goodies for the month. We weren’t required to use these in any of our assignments, but we received Simple & Crisp Dried Fruit Slices. These were…bland to say the least. Our OPTIONAL job with these was to pair them with something, anything (food wise of course) and share. These are gluten-free and healthy. In my opinion, that means taste-free…which they were…

One of our jobs for the month was to select up to three grilling recipes from the site and rate, review and photograph them. I chose three and I really loved two of them but one could have used some…work.

My first grilling recipe was Beer Butt Chicken. We’ve always called it beer can chicken. Please forgive the picture. My boyfriend cooked this and he kind of walked away for too long and he got a little well done but it was still tasty and I guess because of the beer, he was actually still very moist.

My second recipe was Spicy Chicken Breasts. These were amazing! They were so full of flavor. I did reduce the ground cayenne a little bit because the rest of my family doesn't care for spicy too much but even with the reduction these were amazing! Definitely one for the regular rotation!

My third recipe was Bacon Wrapped Hamburgers. As soon as we saw these we knew we had to try them. I mean.... everything is better with bacon and having it cooked ONTO the burger so it doesn't fall off, GENIUS! However! Reading the ingredients, I was a little weary as it sounded like a recipe for meatloaf. Well my suspicions were confirmed as they tasted a little like meatloaf. Not too much, but enough that I think we'll be sticking to our regular way of cooking burgers. They were good, just not for us since we have a specific meatloaf recipe we use (that has bacon in it! lol). We don't need a GRILLED meatloaf recipe. Lol. The bacon was also slightly overdone even though they looked well done.

As a little history lesson for you guys, AllRecipes® used to have recipes from the Taste of Home site, however, in March of 2012, Meredith Publishing purchased AllRecipes® and the Taste of Home recipes were kicked to the curb. As most of those recipes were popular though, AllRecipes is in a search for replacement recipes. That leads us to our second assignment. We were given a list of recipes along with some of their key ingredients and told to recreate away! We had to keep the recipe as the same type and include the main key ingredients. I only made one because I really didn’t have the time to be inventive this month with planning the Summer, balancing a new Summer schedule and trying to get things ready for my son to go to camp.

I'm calling my Taste of Home remake Cheesy Ranch Spirals. I tried these once with an entire packet of dry ranch but they were grainy and WAY too.....ranchy! lol. I went back and tried them with a half package of ranch (used the other half on some ranch chicken I made for dinner) and they turned out really well.

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

May AllStars Adventures... Lots of Chicken for This Girl here!

For the month of May, the AllStars were given (number) tasks. We were to put faces on some of the AllRecipes® Australia site recipes. We could do as many as we wanted! They had some interesting recipes. We were also supposed to choose a MyPlate recipe to create.

My first Aussie recipe was a Cheesy WhiteSauce. I have to say that I found it slightly flavorless. The recipe just called for grated cheese and I used mild cheddar. Maybe a sharp cheddar or another flavor would have made it better but with mild cheddar it was bland. I don’t think I would have used it for anything other than eating with tortilla chips.

My second recipe was Chicken Strips. These weren't very flavorful either. I thought it was me, because I had been sick and two items in a row were bland, but I ate some other foods and could taste them just fine. Recipe instructions don't completely match the ingredient list either.... might have tasted better with flavored bread crumbs or by adding something to the bread crumbs. In this case it literally tasted like unseasoned chicken coated in bread crumbs.

My third Aussie faceless was a Creamy Chicken Bake. I really liked this one. Quite tasty although when it says powdered chicken noodle soup, you have to get the whole soup mix from the soup aisle and then either strain out the dry noodles or just add them to the mix. I'm thinking chicken boulin might have worked just as well. I couldn’t find any standard powdered chicken noodle soup, so unless what I used is what the recipe calls for, this must be something they have in Australia.

My fourth faceless was beyond bland. It tasted more like a bland stir fry. It was called Chicken Paprika with Pasta. It needed something.... the other review on the site said they added cream and cheese near the end. I should have done something similar. This wasn't a favorite.

My first MyPlate recipe was Savory Roll-Ups. These were DELICIOUS. These will definitely be made again. I had a similar dinner once at Houlihan’s but mine was better. There’s was too covered in bread crumbs and very dry! I will say that these turned out moist and the cheese was very flavorful.

My second MyPlate recipe was Tzatziki Sauce (Yogurt and Cucumber Dip). I've made this so many times before as I love to eat it with pita bread. I liked this version, however, this recipe calls for mint where I usually use dill. It was ok with mint. At least your break smells fresh in the end! Lol. I also watched this videoon AllRecipes® to see how someone else actually does it since I don't know anyone personally that's made it. He uses mint and dill and suggests parsley. I've only ever used dill but I might try parsley next time.

It was a fun month though. I had a lot of fun making these recipes and some of them made it into the monthly rotation!

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Shouldn't Mexican Month Be in May?

Oh boy! This month our sponsors were Herdez® and Sauza®! Salsa and tequila oh my! I honestly believe that these should have been sponsors for May with Cinco De Mayo and all, but I guess if you have time to figure your stuff out in April, then you'll be able to have one kick ass Cinco De Mayo party!

Moving right along... Herdez® sent us two bottles of two different flavors of cooking sauce. They also sent us awesome tortilla warmers as you can see in the picture!

For Herdez®, we were supposed to make our own recipe using one of the two types of cooking sauces we were given. I was getting slightly sick of chicken and beef and I went Mexican (which I'm sure seems...predictable). I chose turkey. I know that's close to chicken but still slightly different! My recipe that is now posted on AllRecipes® is Turkey Tomatillo Verde. I thought it turned out really well. Between the fajita mix, sour cream and tomatillos verde cooking sauce it was amazing!

Sauza® sent us a bottle of their new Blue Agave Tequila. Tequila is my favorite liquor period so I could have drunk it straight but alas, we had to make up to three margaritas from this list on AR. Because I love fruit, I chose the Strawberry Sauza®-Rita and Merry Mango Sauza®-Rita. They were both delicious but I have to say that the Strawberry was my favorite. I liked that you could taste the alcohol and the strawberry flavor but it wasn't overpowering. With the Mango drink, the mango didn't come through so well.

I enjoyed the projects for this month. Anything with alcohol is fine by me and I walked away with a new simple recipe that my family loved. Since I can switch out the turkey for chicken, I can also make this with regular chicken breasts and have a quick and simple meal on one of our many rushed baseball nights!

Disclaimer: 

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Johnsonville® Sausage"mania"

This month for the AllStars, our sponsor was Johnsonville® and their wonderful sausages. We eat sausage on a regular basis but we've never really experimented with it. We've had the standard sausage in Jambalaya or Beaufort Boil or we've eaten sausage for breakfast, but nothing experimental. This month's assignments gave me that opportunity!

First, let me show you what the amazing people at Johnsonville® sent us!

Yes! We got these amazing casserole dishes completely free! These things cost $60 on Sur La Table! We also got several coupons for FREE sausage for our recipes. I received four which worked because we had to do three original recipes and then change up a ground beef recipe and use sausage instead.

I sent them a thank you email for being our sponsors and for sending this amazing gift and they responded with a wonderful letter as well as MORE coupons for $1.00 off their sausage. GREAT sponsors! Just amazing!

Now. Onto what I made throughout the month! It was a yummy month! My first recipe was 1-2-3 Jambalaya. Oh man! We've had Jambalaya before but this was AMAZING and so simple to make. You just use ZATARAIN'S® boxed Jambalaya mix, some creole seasoning, diced tomatoes, shrimp and sausage and BAM! You have a "one pan" dinner that's sure to please. I've made this again since but the second go-round, instead of cooking the rice in one pan and the sausage and shrimp in another and then combining, I used my handy George Foreman skillet and cooked up the sausage and shrimp then drained and wiped the pan. I then made up the rice mixture, added in the meat and set it to cook. We used it as a side the second time but it was definitely big enough and hearty enough to be considered a meal!

My second recipe was Johnsonville® One-Pan Italian. This is basically spaghetti with sausage. This is exactly how I cook my spaghetti only we use ground beef. Spaghetti was going to be my substitute recipe but then I found this one and decided to just make this one as my second required recipe. I used the Johnsonville® Italian Mild Sausage along with Prego® Italian Sausage Sauce and oh my gosh! It was delicious. I think it might be the best spaghetti I've ever made, seriously!

My third and final REQUIRED standard sausage recipe was Johnsonville® Italian Sausage Sliders. These were pretty good. I doubt we'd have them solely for a meal in the future because they're small (duh, they're sliders), however, as a breakfast food or a party/tailgating event these would be awesome. They're the perfect snack size. They're not messy and you can pretty much eat them anywhere, even if you're shouting at a TV because your team is losing!



My FINAL recipe for the overall March mission was my integrated recipe. We were to take a ground beef recipe and create it like usual only instead of ground beef, we had to use sausage. I made Taco Salad with mine. It was....interesting. I used Italian Mild Sausage, which combined with taco seasoning and eaten alone, was not the greatest. It tasted....sour maybe? I'm not sure how to describe it. However, after mixing it with the lettuce, tomatoes, cheese, sour cream and chips, it was actually pretty good. Oh yea, let me add that is also requires French dressing cooked into the meat which..... I've never seen done before. Maybe that's where the funny flavor came from. As I said though, all mixed together, it was actually pretty good.

I really enjoyed my month working with Johnsonville® sausages. There were plenty more recipes that I want to try and I will but it'll be a slow progression throughout the next few months. My poor family said they had enough sausage in one month!

Disclaimer:
I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

Co-Parenting With My Mom....

Keegan and I love talking about my mom. We talk about how they used to play together and it astonishes me that my son can remember things he did at the age of 4 or younger. A lot of kids later in life don't remember those ages. Maybe it's because he's still close to that age or maybe he just REALLY loved Nana and remembers her that well but he can bring up things I can't remember!

It came to my attention however, that he was told my mother raised him and not me. I have to say that this pisses me off. Yes, my mother helped me in so many ways. I never moved out so of course he had extended family in this house. My mother babysat for me so I didn't have to pay for daycare and yes she watched him for me to go out with friends, however, that didn't happen often.

For the first year of my son's life, I took him to every appointment, fed him 90% of his meals and rocked him to sleep 95% of the time. My mother was with there WITH me through all of this. I was 19 when my son was born. My mother helped me through all of the sleepless nights, mounds of baby clothes and various doctors appointments but not once in that first year did I request she do it alone nor did she. We did it together, like a married couple would. She was my son's "father" during that year.

In 2005 after his first birthday, I began college on campus. My mother watched my son for me while I was in class. Generally I came straight home from classes and occasionally I would call my mother and ask if I could hang out with friends after class. If she said she didn't mind, then I would stay out for a couple hours but I was always home to rock my son to sleep. When I began working that would sometimes change as I was in school all day and at work until we closed at 11 every night. I'd get home after midnight and if my son woke up, I cared for him and got him back to sleep. It was no different than a married couples relationship except she was my mother. She was the father my son didn't have. His father was off playing daddy to a brood of children that were NOT his. During the times I was working and going to school, the ONLY time I went out after work was if mom told me Keegan was sleeping well and probably wouldn't wake up, or if he was actually at his father's for the weekend. During this time, my mother did take my son to appointments and oftentimes she was the one to delivery him to his father or pick him up from his father, however, it was not because I was out partying. It was because I was trying to get an education and earn a paycheck.

During the time I was in classes online, and working from 7am-6pm every day, I went grocery shopping with MY money, fed MY family on MY paychecks and came home and cooked dinner for everyone in this house. It was a fair trade for my family and for my mother to watch my son. She saved me money in daycare fees and I took care of the family. There are those that only got ONE side of the story or only saw what they wanted to see. My son was very close to my mother and he misses her dearly all the time. For that, I will never regret the way he was raised, especially those first 4 (almost 5) years of his life. If anyone has a problem with that or things that I didn't care for my own son, screw you. I was and still am a good mother. My love for my son and his love for me is proof of that.

I'm an Allstar!!!

I became an Allstar this month!!! For those of you that have NO clue what that is, AllRecipes® has an Ambassador program that one can become part of through trials and tribulations (so to speak) and once you do, it is AMAZING! That’s what I hear from my girl Faith anyway. I have to say this month was pretty cool. I received an awesome welcome package with a cute little potholder and an insulated grocery tote. For the next 12 months, I get to cook and share it all with other men and women like myself who also love to cook and share it with others! Yay! I hope the rest of the months are as fun and adventurous as February was. Because the Allstars is about cooking and sharing, I figured instead of starting a whole new blog, I’d just post all my fun adventures in this one!

Moving right along! For the month of February, we had to choose three Faceless recipes (recipes on the site with no picture), make them up and post a picture of what our creation looked like. Let me tell you, some of mine weren’t so pretty, however, they got done!

My first recipe was a Garlic Chicken Breast. It turned out pretty tasty but it was very bland looking. I discovered during this dish that my oven’s temperature control is apparently busted. My oven is cooking at 425° no matter what the temperature is set at. The funny thing about this is however, I had to cook the chicken longer than the recipe called for because it wasn’t done at the time allocated! I figured that even if the time in the recipe was off, cooking at a good 75°hotter than it should have, it would’ve gotten done quicker. NOT! Either way it came out pretty good. Tad bit dry but tasty.

My second recipe was fairly easy and simple since all it required was a little booze, lemon (and peel), honey and hot water! It was a......Hot Toddy Cocktail! No, I'm not a boozer (much) but we make these all the time when we have terrible colds or the flu and we had all the ingredients on hand for a change! I discovered with a lot of the faceless recipes, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand (or we wouldn't like them). Yes, I have enough food to feed an army but there are things we do not own!!!!

My third and final faceless for February was Savory Diet Chicken. We discovered why it was called "diet chicken." I'm not so sure why the savory was included in there. I followed the directions exactly and well....as you can tell from the picture it was bland looking. It was pretty bland tasting too. We love chicken and we cook it in a million different ways but this will most likely not be one that we add to our collection.

February was fun though. We did get to try some new recipes. I learned a lot of other spices, condiments and necessary ingredients that I might need to make it through the rest of the program, so we'll see what happens! See you in March!

Disclaimer:

I am an AllRecipes AllStar Brand Ambassador. This is a voluntary position which I am not compensated for.

A Positive Thought Cannot Be Denied

I've been trying to have a more positive outlook about things. I've been trying to do better on a daily basis in a lot of areas. I've been going to bed "early" every night and either staying up once Keegan is off to school or only sleeping until about 9:30 or 10. I've found that I'm more productive this way, go figure! With that, I read an article that states that writing down three positives that happen to you during the day can improve your mood and gets you thinking positively so I've decided I'm going to try each day to write down, somewhere, three positives about the day. Today's positives:

Tony and I are getting along! This is definitely an achievement.

Keegan and his basketball team are getting better with each game. They didn't win, but they are getting better and they go out and give all the heart they can.

Keegan and I made it to and from town safely.

Unfortunately I have a meeting with Keegan's teacher and I think it might have to do with something I said at the Advanced Training meeting on Monday. I guess I should have gone to her first before I mentioned anything to the other teacher and assistant principle. I didn't mean anything by it and I wasn't going to them first as opposed to going to her. We were just chatting about how things were different this year for us than they had been in previous years and I felt like there was more she could be doing. I'm only guessing that's what this is about. For all I know, it could be something totally different but Keegan's been pretty good in school since the Christmas break so unless he's doing poorly grade wise, the meeting has to be about me. I feel bad because if this is the case, then in her eyes, it seems like I went to other staff members, especially the assistance principle before going to her, which I was going to do. I was going to try to schedule a meeting with her this coming week. Anyway, that entire situation might make my tomorrow a bad day... Hope not. I hope she understands the situation and doesn't hold it against me or Keegan for the rest of the school year.