The Most Important Meal of The Day

We've heard it since we were children, magazines and newspapers continue to shout it from the rooftops, but for some reason we like to ignore the old adage, and continue to skip breakfast. I may skip breakfast some mornings, but I make sure that my children get breakfast every morning. I have felt some guilt in the past that their breakfast is rarely homemade and usually consists of a bowl of cereal with milk, but not anymore!

Research has shown that those that eat ready to eat cereal for breakfast consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than those who do not.

Other benefits of choosing ready to eat cereal for breakfast include:

• Ready-to-eat cereals, including presweetened cereals, account for only 5% of sugar in children’s diets.


• Ready-to-eat cereal is the No. 1 source of whole grains in a child’s diet today.


• More frequent cereal eaters tend to have healthier body weights and lower Body Mass Index measures.

General Mills recently announced that they will begin to reduce the sugar per serving content of all of their cereals that are marketed to children under the age of 12 to single digit numbers! In past years General Mills has also been increasing the content of vital nutrients and decreasing the sugar content of their cereals. Actions like these help me as a mother to feel better about choosing cereal as my children's breakfast on busy school mornings.

Right now General Mills is offering a coupon for $1 off one of four of their cereals. Click here to print yours.

If you would like to read more about cereal and children's health, you can go to the General Mills website where they provide you with more data.

This post is part of a program by My Blog Spark. I received coupons, online coupon link, and information from General Mills through MyBlogSpark. Any opinions expressed are completely my own.

Yummm, Potato and Ham soup!

Do you have leftover ham sitting in your refrigerator? It tasted wonderful on Christmas day, but your family is tiring of ham sandwiches...what are you to do? The frugal mommy in you can't bring yourself to throw the ham out so you are searching for a way to use up your leftovers. So far in our home we have made: scalloped potatoes with ham, a ham and egg bake with cheese and green onions, and finally tonight I made this yummy potato and ham soup!

I had grabbed a 10 lb bag of potatoes at Wal Mart the other day (I couldn't pass it up at $.98) so I already had those on hand. I figured a ham and potato soup would be just the ticket on this chilly evening so I pulled up the Swag Bucks website (are you searching with Swag Bucks? I have been lately and have already earned three $5 Amazon.com gift certificates!) and searched for recipes. I found one that sounded both easy and tasty and decided to give it a try. The recipe is one created by Paula Deen for Smithfield ham. You can find the recipe here. I did make some adjustments to the recipe which I felt would add to the flavor. Here are the changes that I made:
-Instead of just water for cooking the potatoes I used a combination of canned chicken broth and water (2 cans broth and 1 can full of water)
-I increased the amount of ham to about 3 cups
-While the potatoes were cooking, I diced a small onion and sauteed it in about 2 Tbs of butter. I cooked until soft and slightly browned and added them with the butter and ham
-Instead of salt I used a very tasty Garlic Season-All from Cow Camp Seasoning Company.

You definitely want to give this one a try! My three year old ate two bowls full at dinner tonight! (So did my almost 10 year old, but she can eat more than any young girl I know, so that isn't saying much!) Happy Leftovers!

I received no compensation for this post. However; if you do choose to sign up and start earning at Swag Bucks, I will earn additional rewards.

Deal Alert! Little Ceasars pizza $3.99

Are you tired of spending time in the kitchen now that the holiday craziness has come to an end? Head to littleceasars.com and print your coupon for a large Hot-N-Ready pizza for only $3.99! I would call that a great after Christmas present! Coupon only good today (December 26th) and tomorrow (December 27th) so hurry on in before the deal is over!

Trident Layers Gum REVIEW and GIVEAWAY

As a contributor for Pink Lemonade of Life, I was given the opportunity to review the brand new Layers gum by Trident. I have been curious about these new flavors as I have seen them recently when checking out at my local grocery store. The mix of flavors and the way they were layered together intrigued me, so when this package arrived on my doorstep I was excited to try the gum!

We tried the Green Apple/Golden Pineapple flavor first, and it was a hit with my children. The initial flavor is a little tart and a good blend between Apple and Pineapple. The initial tartness fades fairly quickly, but the gum does not become flavorless after just minutes of chewing. You are left with a good, albeit milder flavor for a while.

My personal favorite flavor was the Wild Strawberry/Tangy Citrus. This one truly surprised me with it's perfect blend of Strawberry flavors and citrus. I wasn't sure how these flavors would go together, but I love both flavors so hoped it would be good! The Strawberry is the stronger flavor and the kick of Citrus Tartness really livens up the Strawberry flavor. Just like the Apple/Pineapple variety, the original flavor fades fairly quickly, followed by a pleasant, mild flavor for at least 15 minutes (I can only chew gum this long before I am done...but at the 15 minute mark there was still flavor for me).

You can find out more about these new flavors by heading to tridentgum.com. If you want to give them a try for yourself, you can download a $.75 off coupon here.

Two readers will get a chance to try this gum for themselves! Each winner will receive one pack of each flavor. Here's how to enter:

MANDATORY ENTRY (must be done before you qualify for any additional entries):

1. What two flavors would you like to see put together in a Trident Layers Gum?

Bonus Entries:

2. Head over to Pink Lemonade of Life and comment on a non giveaway post and come back here and let me know which you read!

3. Follow me with Google Friend Connect

4. Subscribe to my feed via Reader

5. Create a unique blog post about this giveaway and link back here. Leave a link with your comment

Open to US residents only. You must leave me a way to contact you either my having your email address in the comments or setting your email as public in your google profile. Contest ends at 11:59 PM on December 19th. Winners will be notified by email and posted here. Winners must respond within 72 hours of email or a new winner will be chose.

For another chance to win and to read reviews by the rest of the wonderful Pink Lemonade contributors, head to this post at Pink Lemonade of Life.

I received samples from Trident in order to participate in this review campaign for Pink Lemonade of Life. No other compensation was received and the opinion expressed is completely my own.

Trix Swirls Gift Pack***Giveaway***

Trix has a new cereal on the market!

Trix Swirls^® combines two mouthwatering fruity colors into every fun puff that will satisfy kids´ taste buds and spark their creativity! A good source of calcium and vitamin D, the Trix Rabbit won´t be the only one who can´t resist these fruity combos, which include lemony green, berry berry blue, and rasporangey orange! *

Our family had the opportunity to try this fun new cereal from General Mills, and I have to say it was definitely popular in our home. The fun swirly colors combined with the familiar flavor of Trix cereal made for a fun breakfast. My nine year old daughter said. "This is delicious!" after taking her first bites of Trix Swirls. It was the cereal of choice two mornings in a row (with five children, that is as long as a box of cereal will last in our home)! I am sure that I will be getting requests to purchase it in the future as well.

How would you like to try this new cereal AND get some awesome art supplies for your family? MyBlogSpark has been kind enough to offer one of my readers a Trix Swirls Art kit just like the one pictured above! If you are the lucky winner of this giveaway you will receive:

1 box of Trix Swirls cereal
a colorful apron (with super fun front pockets :))
a box of watercolor pencils
water color paints
brushes
a sketchbook
and an art supply box

My children spent hours playing with the paints and sketch pad contained in this kit.

So you want to be my lucky winner, do ya? Here is what you need to do (leave a comment for each entry):

(MANDATORY) What two flavors would you like to swirl together? Chocolate and caramel sauce? Strawberries and Raspberries? What is your ultimate flavor combo?

Extra Entries:
1-Follow my blog publicly
2-Post on facebook with a link to this giveaway (leave your facebook user name)
3-blog about this giveaway (make sure you link back to this post) and leave a link to your post in the comments

Giveaway will end August 16th at Midnight MST. Winner will be contacted by email and announced on this blog. Winner will have 72 hours to respond with their contact information or a new winner will be chosen. I MUST be able to contact you if you are my winner. If you are chosen as a winner and you have NOT left an email address in your comment (or your email address is not available in your Google profile) a new winner will be chosen. Thanks :)

* Product information, product and giveaway prize all provided by MyBlogSpark
I received a free Trix Swirls Art Kit in order to provide a review. I did not receive any monetary compensation. All opinions expressed in this review are my own (or my children's) and truthful.

Thanks to http://www.online-sweepstakes.com/ for posting about this giveaway

Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing

Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing is a pantry staple in our home. This flavorful dressing is much more than simply a salad dressing (although it does taste great on a simple salad of mandarin oranges, chicken, almonds and chopped lettuce).

Our favorite use is as a stir fry style sauce. Here is what you will need to try it at home:

Stir Fry with Pasta

1/2 cup Kraft Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing
1 Tbs Peanut butter
1/2 tsp Chili garlic paste (optional, this is spicy and adds heat to the dish, if you have kids who are sensitive to spicy, I would leave this out. You can find this in the ethnic foods section of your local grocery store in the Asian section)

2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces (uncooked)
1/4 cup sliced carrots
1/4 cup sliced celery
2 Tbs chopped almonds or peanuts (or use chunky peanut butter above)
1-2 green onions sliced (white and green parts)

1/2 of a 1lb package of fettucine-cooked al dente

Add the dressing, Peanut Butter and Chili garlic paste to a frying pan or wok over med heat. Heat through for a minute then add the chicken, carrots, celery and nuts. Cook over med heat until the chicken is no longer pink in the center. Toss chicken mixture with the cooked pasta and green onions.

Another favorite use is creating a kicked up, Asian style barbecue sauce! This is awesome on chicken (especially if you use the dressing as a marinade before cooking. We also love to add this to hot dogs while grilling or frying. My kids can't get enough of hot dogs with kicked up barbecue sauce!

Asian Barbecue Sauce

3 parts your favorite barbecue sauce (we usually use Kraft, but it is great with other brands as well)
1 part Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing

Just mix up in a bowl. I sometimes add a bit of garlic powder, but it really doesn't need it!

The great part about this dressing is that you can find for about $1.60 at your local Wal Mart super center. Keep an eye on your coupon circulars as well, since they often have coupons for as much as $1 off, making it a great, inexpensive pantry staple.

-Christine

*This post is my personal opinion of a product that I purchased for my own use. I did not receive payment or free product for my review.