Kroger Good For You campaign

This most recent campaign from Bzz Agent was for the Kroger CarbMaster and Kroger Greek Yogurts and Kroger CarbMaster milk drink. I got a $10 gift card to purchase these items. I bought the CarbMaster milk and 2 flavors of the CarbMaster Yogurt (Cinnamon Roll and White Chocolate Raspberry). I was extremely skeptical about the CarbMaster milk drink. Anything called "milk drink" can't be good,right? RIGHT!!! It brags about being lower in sugar and carbs than regular milk, but it doesn't brag about how it tastes. There is a reason for that! It is terrible! I tried it first in my mashed potatoes because I wasn't brave enough to actually drink it. It wasn't bad in those because you don't really taste it anyway. I guess if you want a way to make healthier potatoes that would work. I eventually worked up the courage to actually taste the milk and it was not good! It didn't taste like milk which is why, I suppose, that it is called a "milk drink". Also this stuff is really expensive! It is 4.59 for a half gallon, which is even more than my favorite Smart Balance milk which is 3.99! So, I definitely wouldn't pay for this so called "milk drink". If you had to drink low carb milk for some kind of special diet, I suppose this would do the trick though! Next we come to the yogurt. The Cinnamon Roll flavor was GREAT! It really tasted like a cinnamon roll, but it was very dry. It was similar to Greek Yogurt in that aspect, which is one reason I am not a huge fan of Greek Yogurt and I didn't buy any for this campaign. The flavor of the White Chocolate Raspberry was not quite as good as Cinnamon Roll, but it wasn't bad. It still had the same dryness though. So, I guess I am not a huge fan of this new "CarbMaster" line of products from Kroger, but, like I said, if you have to be on a low sugar or low carb diet these products would be helpful!

Morningstar Farms - Join me for Meatless Mondays

Well, one of my most recent bzzcampaigns was for morningstar farms veggie burgers. Morningstar also has veggie dogs,ground beef style crumbles,sausage, and more. With the campaign I received a coupon for a free Morningstar item and several $1 off coupons. When I went to Meijer to get my free veggie burgers, I noticed that all of Morningstar Farms' products were 3 for $10. So, I decided to use my free coupon and 2 of the $1 off coupons to buy 2 different kinds of veggie burgers as well as a bag of crumbles. I was really excited to find out that each patty is only 3 WW points!
    The first thing we tried was the spicy black bean veggie burger. I actually got my husband to eat these! I was amazed! So here is my recipe for the spicy black bean burger.

Mexican Veggie Burger
1 spicy black bean patty
 1 100 calorie slimwich bun
 lite ranch dressing
 salsa
 shredded lettuce
 fat free shredded cheddar cheese
 sliced jalapenos

 mix ranch dressing and salsa spread on both sides of bun heat patty for 1 minute in microwave pile with lettuce,cheese, and jalapenos
   This was so delicious! My husband said that it would have been the best burger he ever had if it had been beef. Which I suppose is a compliment considering he absolutely LOVES beef! I thoroughly enjoyed the veggie burger and am looking forward to trying new recipes with this flavor.
   Then we tried the ground beef style crumbles. I decided to use them in my spaghetti sauce. They were great! I am not going to lie and say that they had the same flavor as beef, because obviously they wouldn't because they aren't beef. I will say that they added protein and flavor to my sauce, and I enjoyed it. Here is the sauce that I made with them:

                                 Spaghetti Sauce
1 jar Hunts spaghetti sauce
 1 can of diced tomatoes
 red,yellow,green peppers - chopped
 onion - chopped
 garlic stuffed green olives - diced
 Extra virgin olive oil
 garlic powder
 parmesan cheese
1 bag of Morningstar Farms Ground Beef style crumbles

     saute peppers and onions in olive oil with garlic powder and olives when vegetables are soft,add tomatoes and spaghetti sauce and parmesan cheese and crumbles then heat through

    Then I tried the Tomato and Basil Pizza Burger. It was really delicious! This one I just made for myself after church on Wednesday. It was something quick and delicious! Here is my recipe:

Pizza Burger
 1 Morningstar Tomato and Basil Pizza Burger patty
1 100 calorie slimwich bun
 red, green, and yellow peppers - chopped
1/4 c spaghetti sauce
 chopped onion
 Extra virgin olive oil
 fat free shredded mozzarella cheese

     microwave patty for 1 minute then top with spaghetti sauce mixed with sauted peppers and onions and then add cheese. DELISH!! I can't wait to try more things with these delicious veggie burgers.

    I have more $1 off coupons if anyone wants to join me for meatless Mondays. I have taken the pledge, not because I am against eating meat, because I LOVE meat! I have decided to pledge because I am trying to lose weight and stay healthy. Cutting out meat for one day out of the week is going to help me meet my WW goal! It helps that these are so delicious that I don't mind eating them instead of an actual beef burger. So, if you are interested in a coupon, I might even be willing to mail one to those who live away from here. That is how sure I am that you will thoroughly enjoy these burgers! :)

Kiss (R) nail dress

This review is about another product I received for free in my influenster Holiday Voxbox. It is called Kiss Nail Dress. They are strips of nail polish that you press on without the mess of regular nail polish. I had seen these kind of products before, but I was pretty skeptical about whether they would work or not. So, I was really pleased to be able to try the product without spending the money (just in case they didn't work). They were a little more difficult to apply than it states on the package. None of the strips exactly fit my finger, so I had to make them fit. They did go on without a mess, which is one of the things I hate about nail polish, especially because my hands tend to shake pretty badly, and I can't do much with my left hand. I wore them to Christmas Sunday at church and got quite a few compliments. I wasn't crazy about the design because I thought it was kind of boring, but I have seen the other designs available and would LOVE to try a different one! They also lasted as long as they claimed, which is pretty unusual. They lasted the 10 days and when they started to come off, all I had to do was peel the rest of them off. I didn't have to use any nail polish remover, which is great because I can't stand the smell of it! This is a great product and I am looking forward to trying other designs of this product! GOODBYE MESS!!

Goody (R) QuickStyle Flat Brush

I recently got a box from Influenster that included a Goody QuikStyle flat brush. The idea behind the brush is that it shortens your hair drying time by removing 30% of the water from wet hair. It has (antimicrobial) microfiber bristles that absorb water to help you get your hair style done faster. When I got the brush, the first thing that struck me was the size of it. I got the flat brush and it was HUGE, which is not ideal for someone with short hair like I have. They do make another size which would have been better for me probably. My hair (because it is so short) doesn't take all that long to dry anyway, but I did notice that this makes it dry even faster! I was pretty skeptical, but to my surprise it actually worked. I have used it every time I have hair dried my hair and the microfiber bristles still look good. I half expected them to start looking dingy and nasty after a few uses. It didn't get tangled in my hair, which was another thing I was a little concerned about. Again, I have short, thin, and straight hair so I don't know what it would do to someone that had long curly hair. I don't know if it would get tangled in the bristles or not, but it would be worth trying. All in all, I LOVED the brush! It does what it is supposed to do, which in the world we live in is a nice surprise! :)

Private Selection Holiday Part 2

In my last post I mentioned all of the private selection items I got free in order to participate in this campaign for bzz agent. Well, I finally found the olives! I bought the garlic stuffed ones as they seemed the least scary. They are pretty good, but too much garlic just to eat. I chopped them and put them into spaghetti sauce and they weren't bad. Here is just a little funny story about the private selection greek yogurt. Steve went to the fridge and saw we had some yogurt, so he decided to have one as a midnight snack. When I woke up and went to the fridge to get something to drink, I saw the opened package of yogurt sitting on the top shelf. When he got up he asked me if the yogurt in the fridge was expired. I laughed so hard!! It was so gross to him that he thought it was expired yogurt. I explained to him that it was greek yogurt. He said, "from now on I will make sure I am eating the right yogurt".

Old Navy sample and share for Crowdtap

As a member of crowdtap, I got to take part in the Old Navy style council sample and share. I got 2 coupons for free sweaters, one for me and one to give to a friend. I gave my 2nd coupon to my sis-in-law, Erika! I was so excited to get in on this opportunity! I love Old Navy and was so excited to get something from them for free! Especially a sweater, which comes in really handy when you live in Ohio! When I went to Old Navy, I was a little disappointed in the variety of sweaters they had available. There really weren't many styles to choose from, but they did have a wide variety of colors and prints for the styles that they did have available. Since I am nursing, I wanted a sweater with a high enough neck that I didn't have to worry about wearing a high necked camisole underneath. I ended up buying a red button up cardigan. I was really pleased with the high neck and the fit of the sweater! I love it! My sister in law ended up buying the same style cardigan in an animal print. It looks super cute on her! I think the sweaters are great and I know I will be wearing mine a lot!

Private Selection Holiday campaign

This is one of my most recent campaigns for bzz agent. I received a free package of water crisps, a coupon for a free jar of pasta sauce, a bag of coffee, and coupons for free deli sliced cheese, free olives, and cents off some greek yogurt. I used the pasta sauce to make spaghetti and meatballs since that is Steve's favorite dinner! I usually make my own sauce, but decided to give this a "go". It was very good! It had a better flavor than most jarred sauces, but I like chunky sauce and this was pretty thin. All in all it was pretty good, but I don't know if I would buy it again simply because of the price. Usually if I do buy pasta sauce, I buy the cheapest stuff and doctor it up to fit my tastes. I don't think I would pay the almost $3 price for this stuff. Next I tried serving the water crisps just with salsa. I LOVE chips and salsa, so I thought I would give these a try in place of my usual tostitos. They were very good! They were light and really didn't have much of a flavor, but that was good because the flavor from the salsa is plenty! Since,I got this box included already in my bzzkit, I don't know what the price is for these. I prefer saltines though, and those are really cheap! The coffee was pretty terrible. It was a costa rican blend. It was good when I first took a drink, but then it left a terrible after taste. I had to wash my mouth out with mouthwash after taking a couple of drinks because it was so awful! I wouldn't serve it to anyone else because I didn't like it. So, I didn't feel like I could force it on anyone else. I decided for my free cheese to get the garlic herb cheese. When I noticed the price, I was shocked. It was almost $5 a package. There is no way I would spend that much money on cheese when I can buy regular slices for $ .99 a package. I tried the cheese for sandwiches. It tasted ok, but the herbs were a little over whelming. It was certainly not a mild cheese. It was difficult to get out of the package because of all the herbs in it. It was very, very crumbly which made it difficult to deal with. I also tried it on my hot dogs. It was ok, but nothing compared to my 2% milk american cheese. So, I think I will stick to my american cheese, thank you very much! :) I have yet to find the olives at my kroger. I am not a fan of olives, but would like to find them and give them to someone to try. Besides, they are free. So, hopefully I will find them soon. Finally, I tried the greek yogurt. I bought 2 different flavors. Cran-raspberry and Strawberry. I will say I am not a huge fan of greek yogurt. It makes my mouth dry and always makes me extremely thirsty. However, because of the added fruit on the side it added some moisture and made it very tasty. When the fruit ran out however, I found it difficult to finish the yogurt. I definitely think that it needs more fruit so you can have some with every bite of yogurt. These are kind of pricey for yogurt, and since Kroger rarely makes coupons for their own products I don't think I would be buying it again. I must say I really enjoyed this campaign. I got so many things for free and many things to try. I enjoy trying new foods and am looking forward to trying new Kroger private selection foods in the future.