Lucky Charms & Golden Grahams Treat Bars Review & Giveaway!

As a member of My Blog Spark, I was recently given the chance to try Betty Crocker's Lucky Charm & Golden Graham cereal bars. My kids were more than willing to jump right in with me to try them. Both kids chose the Lucky Charms cereal bars as their favorite. They loved the Lucky Charm cereal paired with the white chocolate, while I chose the chocolate and marshmallow combo of the Golden Graham cereal bar as my favorite.

With only 100 calories per Lucky Charm bar and 130 calories per Golden Graham bar, as a Mom, I feel just fine including one of these bars into my kids' lunch bags as a treat or handing one out to them with a glass of milk for an after school snack.

As a PTO board member in my daughter's school, I'm thrilled to see not just one, but two, Box Tops for Education included on every box of these cereal treat bars! That's double the money for the school with every purchase.

Included with the 2 boxes of cereal treat bars were these very cool back-to-school items:

a lunch bag
a locker white board
and a tube of colored pencils.

~*~*WE HAVE A WINNER! ~*~*

Congratulations!!

Post # 10 

Mrs T said: "I would bring these along in the car to feed my granddaughters while traveling from one after-school activity to the next, or to give them after an activity when they are hungry."

You have 48 hrs. to contact me with your mailing info. or another winner will be chosen.  

Check out Cereal Treats Bars online for great information and coupons for new products. Also, be sure to visit the Betty Crocker Facebook page and get involved in the conversation.

Now you have a chance to win one of the Cereal Bar Prize Packs of your own!

{Open to US & Canada entries only}

To enter this giveaway:

Mandatory first entry - Tell me how you would serve these cereal bars to your family.

Extra entries:  

(2 entries) Sign up to follow me on Google Friends - if you are already a follower, just let me know (thank you!)

(2 entries) Sign up to follow me through email  - if you are already receiving my emails, just let me know (thank you!)

Please make sure that your contact info. is included in each entry. The winner will be emailed and will have 48 hrs. to respond.

 ~*~* Hurry! This giveaway ends on Monday, Sept 5, 2011. ~*~*

Disclosure: Cereal Treats Bars, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Join Swagbucks.com in Donating to the United Way of Western Alabama Tornado Relief Fund!

During the 24-hour period from 8 am April 27 to 8 am April 28, The National Weather Service estimates there were a total of 266 tornadoes causing over 340 deaths and countless miles of destruction in the Southern US. One of the hardest hit areas was Tuscaloosa, AL. Estimates indicated that the tornado that hit Tuscaloosa could have been on the ground for 176 miles, with winds between 167 and 200 mph.

Throughout the month of May, please consider donating your Swag Bucks to the United Way of Western Alabama for their Tornado Relief Fund. The United Way of Western Alabama has committed to giving 100% of these donations to go directly to the Tornado Relief Fund.

Please make all donations through this link .

Here's how the total Swag Bucks collected will be converted into a cash donation:

10,000,000 SB = $100,000.00
7,500,000 SB = $73,750.00
5,000,000 SB = $47,500.00
2,500,000 SB = $23,250.00
1,500,000 SB = $13,750.00
1,000,000 SB = $9,000.00
750,000 SB = $6,375.00
500,000 SB = $4,050.00
250,000 SB = $1,925.00
200,000 SB = $1,500.00
135,000 SB = $1,000.00
68,000 SB = $500.00

The deadline for donations is Tuesday May 31st at 12:00pm PDT.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Not a Swag Bucks member?!?  

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Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope that all Moms out there are enjoying their day!

Hugs,
Tami

Santa Fe Lasagna

I was chosen by House Party to host a Philly Dinnertime Dilemma House Party to try the new Philly Cooking Cremes.

There are 4 Cremes to choose from: Italian Cheese & Herb, Savory Garlic, Original and Santa Fe Blend.

From the name of my post, I bet you can figure out which creme I chose to test first. The Santa Fe Blend. Since creating a Mexican lasagna was already on my mind, I decided to run with the ingredients that I had on hand, plus I wanted to incorporate the Santa Fe Creme into the recipe. The result was a delicious, creamy lasagna that my whole family and friends raved about. (Yep, picky kids, too!!)

Santa Fe Lasagna

1 lb lasagna noodles, cooked, drained and set aside.
1 lb ground beef
1 medium-sized onion
2 small cans sliced mushrooms, drained
3 C. shredded cheese with taco flavors or plain cheddar cheese
1-10 oz - tub Philly Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme
24 oz. mild salsa

Directions

Boil Lasagna noodles. Rinse and set aside.

In a frying pan, saute onions and mushrooms until the onions turn opaque. Set aside

In the same pan, brown ground beef. Drain off any grease. Stir in the tub of Santa Fe Blend Cooking Creme.

The creme sauce melts right into the beef creating a nice sauce.

Layer lasagna in this order: 

Spread a thin layer of salsa across the bottom of a 9 x 13 dish.

Lay 5 noodles across the salsa. Top the noodles with a layer of cheese.

Top cheese with half of the mushroom and onion mixture.

Top with 1/3 of the meat and Philly Santa Fe Blend. Be careful not to overload the noodles. These are thin layers of all of the fillings.

.

Layer with 5 more lasagna noodles, this time topping with first with salsa, the remaining mushroom & onion mixture, 1/3 of the meat and sauce. End with a layer of cheese.

For the top layer, add 5 lasagna noodles, the rest of the meat and sauce mixture and any remaining salsa. Finish off with a layer of cheese.

Bake at 350* for 40 minutes. Remove from oven and cool for 10 minutes before cutting.

Delicious!!  Two thumbs up for the Philly Santa Fe Blend Creme. I will note that the Santa Fe Creme has a little spice to it. Not much, but if you are tempted to buy medium or hot salsa, taste the creme first. It might be spicy enough.

**The opinions expressed in this post are my honest opinions. I was not compensated for posting this. My participation with House Party is not related to my blog.**

Adding this recipe to Tasty Tuesday!

Not Gone - Just Computer Problems

Did you think that I'd pulled a disappearing act? I assure you, I haven't!

The last few weeks have been very complicated. My Mom was in and out and back into the hospital - she was in and out for testing but then had a mild stroke over the weekend. Things are starting to improve with her, Thank God

As if life wasn't complicated enough with my husband changing shifts for two weeks and working daylight, (Yes, that throws our house into a tizzy),my computer was hijacked by a severe Trojan horse that left me locked out of it completely. To make things worse, our bank accounts were hacked into (police don't think the 2 are related).
Thankfully we will get the money back, it's just playing the waiting game and not having the money right now that stinks.

I keep reminding myself that no matter what, it really could be a lot worse.

I haven't forgotten about the Cookie Carnival! Unfortunately, everything is tied up in my computer so as soon as I get it back, I will get in touch with every one. I'm hoping to get it back next week sometime. I'm thankful for my iPhone (which I managed to crash as well but we recoverd it) but I can't wait to get back to a bigger monitor. :)

Please hang in there with me. I miss talking with everyone!

Tami

GO STEELERS! It's Football Season!

WooHoo!!

Are you ready for some football!! We are!!

We have 3 SUPER Steelers Fans in our house

and 1 SUPER Jets fan!

Give a shout out to your team right here!!

Getting Ready for School & Relying on Family Favorites for Dinner

Admittedly, I've been a bad blogger for a while now. For that, I'm sorry. I have missed blogging every day terribly. But because I chose to step back and focus on the things at home that needed to be done before school starts this coming Wednesday, I was able to attend my daughter's orientation day today more relaxed than I have ever been at those meetings. I went in knowing that I would not have to spend a cent and that I would'nt look like a lunatic at WalMart tonight with all of the other parents who put school shopping off until the last minute.

We have new clothes and shoes ready for wear. New back packs are stuffed with school supplies and signed forms ready to walk out the door. Bedtime routines have be put into action. Soccer practices are going well and we've worked out routines on how we will handle practices that are on school nights - I've even written down some menus for those crazy nights.

At the end of last school year, I was asked to join our PTA School Board. I gladly accepted because I love being involved in my children's schools. I wear the new hat of "hospitality leader" for the teachers and staff. Everyone seems to work well together. They've been so nice to welcome me into their group. I will be busy running around doing school "things" for the next couple of days.

On top of all of this, my husband has decided that he's looking for a change in his line of work - not changing companies, just jobs within the company - this will mean that once he gets the bid, he will be in for weeks of training - and taking this 3rd shift man and putting him on a daylight schedule means loads of fun for me. (not!) But, I'll deal with that when the time comes. He loves his job so if this makes him happy, we will make it work. Now we wait to hear something....it might be a week or it might be a year... let's just hope it's sooner than later.

I'm not complaining, really! I'm just happy to see school roll around this year. I'm ready to get back into a regular routine. Maybe I'm getting old. I've never been a "routine" type of person. I even miss menu planning. I plan on starting that again this week. And with all of this planning, I'm going to pencil in some definite blogging time for me!

Speaking of blogging, I always wonder if other bloggers are like me and go back to actually cook the recipes they've blogged about again and again or if you just cook your recipes one time and move on?  If you're reading this, I'd appreciate it if you would post a comment and let me know how you feel/what you do with your recipes.

Here's some of the recipes from my blog that we've enjoyed for the past couple of weeks:

Oven Fried Chicken

Cinnamon Raisin French Toast and Hash Brown Casserole

Picnic Pasta Salad

Stuffed Pepper Soup

Red Pepper & Parmesan Talapia

Turkey Sloppy Joes


My kids and I have plans to make rice krispy treats, chocolate covered pretzel stacks, granola bars and August's Cookie Carnival cookies this week.

I'll see ya soon!

Happy Cooking!
Tami

Rainbows and Pancakes

Seems like a funny title for a post, huh? Let me explain....

It has been SO hot here in our area of NC. I'm talking high 90's and extreme humidity. When it does rain, it's intermittent and then only for a few minutes. During one of our short stints outside so that the kids could release some of their pent up energy, we could see it raining in the distance. What started out as very dark gray skies, turned quickly into rain and then just a few minutes later we saw this....

Mother Nature's art work sure is pretty sometimes, isn't it?

Now on to the pancakes....

I admit it, I hate to sweat and who in their right mind wants to go grocery shopping when it's like this? Not me.

(Feeling sorry for me yet?  Didn't think so. Moving on....)

It's days like this that I fall back on the tried and true "breakfast for dinner" plan. Since it was going to be just the kids and me eating dinner, I decided that it was a good time to make pancakes.

Should be easy since it only takes the basic staples to make pancakes, right? Nope, out of milk. What?!? Yep, no milk in the frig and no powdered milk as a back up.

I started thinking... can you make pancakes with water instead of milk? I remember a favorite recipe that I had long ago that called for bubbly water. I wish that I hadn't lost it. It was a great recipe. But can you use regular tap water? I sat down in front of my favorite box and started searching to find out. I found that you can indeed make pancakes with water.

Here's what I came up with....

Fluffy Pancakes

2 C. flour
2 TBSP sugar
1 1/2 TBSP baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
2 TBSP oil
2 TBSP vanilla
1 3/4 C water - more if thinner batter is desired

Stir dry ingredients together in a bowl. Whisk in egg, oil and vanilla, just until combined. Mix in 1 3/4 cups of water and stir until combined. If a thinner batter is desired, stir in one extra tablespoon of water at a time until you reach the desired consistency.

Pour 1/3 c. batter onto a hot griddle or lightly greased frying pan. Cook until bubbles have formed and covered the top of the pancake. Carefully flip and brown other side.

Keep warm in a 200* oven until the whole batch of pancakes have been cooked.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~

We enjoyed our pancakes and then headed back outside just long enough to enjoy the sunset.

For a minute everything was perfect....not too hot....perfect. The sky was so beautiful.

Then the bugs started biting......  Ok, back into the A.C. for me!

A New Award!

Sending out many thanks to Angel in the Kitchen for my new blog award!

 Isn't it pretty!?!  I love it!

Check out her blog, too. It's full of yummy recipes. {There's some peanut butter cup cookies and peanut butter bars on there that I'm drooling over!}

Sugar Cookies & My First Giveaway!

I was thrilled when Elizabeth, from Ann Clark LTD, wrote to me to ask if I would be interested in reviewing some of their cookie cutters. If you are not familiar with the Ann Clark company, they have been producing unique cookie cutters and related gift products in Vermont since 1990. Anne Clark LTD is one of the leading cookie cutter companies in the United States, plus they enjoy a distribution across the country and world wide.

Let me tell you first hand, their cookie cutters are very nice. I've had the opportunity to use their over-sized individual cookie cutters. Each cutter comes with a cookie recipe + an icing recipe.



I used the recipes that came with the cookie cutters. There are several more cookie recipes on their website, as well. The cookies were crisp on the edges and soft and chewy in the centers ...just the way sugar cookies should be!

Where's the pictures of the cookies that I baked? Sadly, there aren't any. I made the sugar cookies with every intention of icing them but then my son and I got sick once again. We both suffer with allergies and this year the tree pollen is really causing havoc for us. So we ended up eating the cookies without icing them (they are really good that way!). There will be a next time for these cookie cutters and then I will post a picture of them!

~*~*~ Instead of waiting for the pictures of my sugar cookies, you will have a chance to win your very own set of Ann Clark Cookie Cutters! ~*~*~


 ~*~*~*~ANNOUNCING MY FIRST BLOG GIVEAWAY! ~*~*~*~

One lucky winner will win a "My Green Thumb" cookie cutter set!

A delightful set of five tin cookie cutters packaged in a sturdy gift box. Each set comes with the artwork of Ann Clark and recipes for cookies and frosting. Cookie cutters include: hummingbird, butterfly, dragonfly, ladybug, and watering can.

THERE ARE SEVERAL WAYS TO SIGN UP TO WIN: 

1. Sign up to follow Tami's Kitchen Table Talk using Google Friend Connect or let me know that you are already a follower. (please provide the name that you're signed up under.)

2. Sign up to receive Tami's Kitchen Table Talk newsletter or let me know that you already receive it. (please provide the email address.)

3. Join the Cookie Carnival Blog Event that I host each month or let me know that you are already a member of it. (please provide the email address that you use to receive the Cookie Carnival info.)

4. Check out the Ann Clark website and tell me what your favorite cookie cutter is PLUS sign up to join their "Make More Cookies" blog. (please let me know that you've signed up.)


ONE WINNER WILL BE RANDOMLY DRAWN ON MAY 5, 2010!!

The winner will have 48 hrs. to contact me after being notified of winning. If there's no response, I will move on and pick another winner. 

GOOD LUCK!!


TAMI

Some New & Exciting Changes Coming Soon!

I have had so much fun with this cooking blog over the last year. I love trying new recipes. Unfortunately, my waist line does not like what is happening from all of the goodies that I have been cooking.

After giving it a lot of thought, I've decided that I am going to divide my blog into 2 sections, per say - one half of it will continue to show recipes that I am trying out for my family and the other half will showcase my low carb adventures.

I've decided that it's time that I buckle down and get serious about losing weight. I've done low carbing before and it works for me. (But the devil on my shoulder constantly reminds me of how much I LOVE to bake sweets!)

I figure that posting my experiences along the way will help to keep me honest. I will post about low carb dishes as well.

My family, on the other hand, will not be low carbing with me. I will continue to cook regular meals and desserts for them....and hopefully add some new, healthy foods along the way!

I hope that you will continue on this journey with me!

Hugs,
Tami