Monthly Archives: August 2015

FREE Baby Sling!

Baby_Sling

Hello to all my new mommas!

I have a great deal for you: a free baby sling of your choice, pay shipping only. Made by mom, Jenny Pierce, for moms, you know that you’ll be getting exactly what you need in terms of comfort for you and your child. These slings are not only beautiful (check out all the patterns!) but they’re comfortable as well – made with 97% cotton and 3% lycra – they won’t lose shape over time. These are perfect for infants to toddlers up to 35 pounds and are entirely machine washable.

Why not try them out for free? Pay only $4.95 shipping by doing the following:

  1. Choose the sling of your choice
  2. Make sure to visit the sizing chart to make sure that you are choosing correctly
  3. Select a sling and add to your shopping bag
  4. Check out and enter code BABIESONLINE
  5. Fill in information + billing details and pay only shipping.

Also – hot tip, you can use this code more than once for the same address! Nice.

Let us know how you like the sling!

FREE Lindsay Olives!

Olives

What’s that food that you just….don’t like? Mine, for YEARS, was olives. I so badly wanted to like them, and wasn’t sure why I didn’t. I love other briney foods like pickles, and, as someone who tries to limit their meat intake, so many salads and veggie laden meals are filled with olives. I’m so far from a picky eater and felt, honestly, annoying, to have to ask for special orders WITHOUT olives.

I used to firmly believe in the ‘Olive Theory’ from How I Met Your Mother – no joke. The olive theory came about because Marshall, a husband in the show, hates lives, but his wife, Lily, loves them – in essence, they thought this made them a great couple – a perfect balance. Opposites attract, some may say. This was definitely the case with my husband and I – he loves olives.

Over the years, I realized that not being able to share something he loves is less fun than having ‘the perfect balance’ and I set out on a mission to like olives. As two college psycology majors, we made it happen. SummerTomato.com explains the thought process of overcoming an aversion REALLY WELL.

STEP 1: Knowing that you have a problem. Just kidding! The first step is deciding that there is value in enjoying a food you currently do not enjoy. Foods are worth discovering for taste and culture!

STEP 2: Dedicate yourself to keep trying the rejected food until you find it prepared in a way that you like. I PROMISE that there will be a way you like this, even if it is deep-fried and covered in a sauce. You’ll find one. Each time you try a new way, your taste will become more acclimated to the flavor and the aversion will dissipate.

That’s it. Keep trying! My husband swears that if you try something 22 times, then you’ll like it. Whatever the magical number is, I hit it. I can’t get enough olives now and I love every single variety in every form. One of my favorite forms is just the plain black olives, straight from the can. Does that make me crazy? I hope not.

Join me in this obsession by getting 4 FREE Lindsay Olive Products (up to $2.49 each). Unfortunately, this only works in certain states, but you are sure in luck if you live in one of them!

Wisconsin

Illinois

Michigan

Indiana

Ohio

Kentucky

Print your coupons here now! Enjoy!

#NationalTrailMixDay

trail_mix

Hey everyone! Happy Monday – and a very happy Monday it is since it is #NationalTrailMixDay!

I am a HUGE fan of trail mix for so many reasons. Firstly, it’s nostalgic. I remember my sleepaway camp days when every afternoon I’d get trail mix from the store. They made it special, M&M’s clearly the highlight (they tried to keep candy to a minimum), and the most fun part was that they would serve it in an ice cream cone! It’s all about the presentation, even when you’re young. Secondly, I get really bored of eating things. Some people can mindlessly eat a bag of chips until they’re gone, but a few bites in, I’m bored. Call me lucky, but this just means I move onto the next snack in the cabinet. I only wish this worked as a dieting technique! Third and last – I love the variety that comes with trail mix – not only the ingredients within, but the fact that it can be sweet, it can be salty, it can be spicy, it can be all 3 – love it! It’s an easy, generally healthy, snack that you can tweak to almost ANY taste.

That being said, I have a few recipes that I’ve found via Pinterest that have REALLY tickled my fancy that I’d like to share with you. Try them out, let me know what you think! Let me know what you’d change! Let me know YOUR favorite recipe! I’m all ears 🙂

  1. Sweet & Salty Trail Mix

sweet_and_salty

Sweet & Salty Trail Mix [http://www.lovebakesgoodcakes.com/2014/08/sweet-salty-trail-mix-snacktoschool.html]

This stuff is pretty awesome, and CLASSIC. If you’re looking to get your feet wet in the world of trail mix, this is certainly where you should start. Firstly, and this goes for all recipes, go to your local bulk store for ingredients. This is going to be MUCH more cost efficient than pre-packaged ingredients. Now, down to business. This is crazy easy – 2 cups California raisins, 1 cup lightly salted sunflower seeds, 1 cup whole natural almonds, 1 cup dry roasted peanuts, 1 cup roasted and salted pistachios, 1 cup dark chocolate M&Ms. Yep, just mix them all up…you’ve got your trail mix. Store in an airtight container and enjoy!

2. Martha Stewart Chesapeake Bay Snack Mix

chesapeake_bay_snack_mix

Martha Stewart Chesapeake Bay Snack Mix [http://diningwithadinergirl.blogspot.com/2013/01/snack-time.html]

I am eternally a supporter of savory>sweet, so I absolutely love this recipe. This recipe requires a little bit more work than your average trail mix – even…gasp…an oven. Don’t worry – crazy simple! Ingredients include rice cereal (Crispix? Chex? Your call!), pretzels (this recipe recommends the sticks), oyster crackers, roasted unsalted peanuts, melted butter, Worchestershire sauce, Old Bay seasoning, lemon juice, and hot sauce of your choice. Combine all dry ingredients, and drizzle the spices and liquid combo over top. Bake an hour at 250, stirring every 15 minutes – allow to cool & voila! Delicious.

3. Hit the Trail Granola

Hit_the_Trail_Granola

Hit the Trail Granola [http://sallysbakingaddiction.com/2015/01/12/hit-trail-granola/]

The beauty of trail mix is that it can really be anything you make it. In my head, trail mix is any combination of ingredients that can be transferred easily and happily from hand to mouth. Granola – sure! I love this recipe – its crunchy with a fun texture – and I feel just…really healthy eating it. Perfect as is or top your yogurt with it! Ingredients include old-fashioned rolled oats, whole unsalted almonds, whole salted cashews, cinnamon, maple syrup, coconut oil, almond butter, an egg white, vanilla extract, dried cranberries or raisins, and semi-sweet chocolate chips. This is another oven recipe – preheat to 300, toss almonds, cashews, and cinnamon in a large bowl. Microwave the syrup, coconut oil, and almond butter for about 30 seconds, allow to cool, and toss in the egg white and vanilla – pour over oats to coat and ensure that all are moistened. Spread onto baking sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Allow to cool completely and toss in the dried cranberries, raisins, and chocolate chips – yum!

So there you have it – 3 amazing trail mix recipes. Don’t forget – if you don’t like a certain ingredient, if you want to try something new in terms of a spice – have at it, go crazy! Trail mix is the perfect snack to experiment with. Enjoy!

Get a FREE Box from Try The World!

Try_The_World

Try The World is an awesome new company that a friend recommended to me this morning. Every 2 months, you receive a box from a new country with 6-7 gourmet products curated by expert chefs. For example, this month’s box is Japan and includes 6-7 artisanal delicacies curated by a local expert, a card describing each full size gourmet product, and a culture guide with music, movies, recipes and more. My friend described this as ‘the perfect date night’ – so fun to try new things that you’d have to go to another country to experience otherwise!

These boxes are FREE shipping, FREE returns, AND you can cancel anytime – there are really no strings attached here. If you don’t like it, its easy to simply bow out. Bi-monthly, this costs $39/box – but you can also pay semi-annually at $35/box (saving 10%) and annually for $33/box (saving 15%).

The best part though? Your first box is FREE. After that, you can email up to 5 of your friends and also give them a free box! Why not try it out? Sounds like fun for the whole family.

FREE Kindermusik Classes

Kindermusik

Immediate question: WHAT IS KINDERMUSIK?

Here’s the rundown:

  • Kindermusik is a class for children newborn up to 18 months old. You can search for Kindermusik classes near you here. You can find individual teachers here.
  • Class activities depend on your child’s age but most classes involve a mix of singing, instrument play, dancing, movement, storytime, and other activities to develop and strengthen your child’s physical and neural functions, social-emotional skills, early literacy, early math, and more
  • Kindermusik firmly believes that a solid foundation of basic musical training at a young age is the best path for children. Instruction begins with basic, essential concepts like steady beats and motor skills.
  • You attend classes with your child
  • And here’s where you guys come in – you can try a free class before you join to make sure that this is something you’re interested in for your child before you pay for the real deal.

Benefits of Kindermusik include those that are social/emotional, it assists with language and literacy, cognitive functions, a long term interest in music, and physical.

I think this sounds like an awesome idea – and honestly, I wish this was around when I had children this young. If nothing else, this is a fun activity to do with your baby that you can feel good about – a great foundation for positive habits.

Click here to set up a free class and try this out soon!

TUNA LAWSUIT

Starkist_Tuna

In my mind, there’s two types of people: people who love tuna, and people who detest tuna. There is simply no in between. Luckily, I’m a lover. I think tuna is not only delicious, but a really easy way to get more lean protein into your everyday diet at a low cost.

Lucky for us, things are about to get even lower.

Consumerist.com gives us some background on the TUNA LAWSUIT. Two and a half years ago, a man who eats tuna filed a class action lawsuit against Starkist tuna. His allegation? The company is deliberately under-filling each can by a few tenths of an ounce. How this man even knew this is beyond my imagination, but Starkist has settled the case (without admitting fault).

Here’s where you can benefit from this:

If you’re a resident of the United States and bought at least one five-ounce can of any of these tunas from Starkist between February 19,1009 and October 31, 2014, you’re eligible to file a claim – and no, you don’t even need a receipt. It’s basically an honor code – you’re committing perjury if you file a claim and haven’t purchased Starkist tuna during that time period.

Chunk Light Tuna in Water
Chunk Light Tuna in Oil
Solid White in Water
Solid White in Oil

To file your claim, go to this hilariously accurate and blunt url: http://www.tunalawsuit.com and file your claim by November 20, 2015 – you can get $25, or a voucher for $50 worth of tuna.

I know I have definitely purchased Starkist tuna in the past 2.5 years – I’ll be collecting!

Free Frankie Rose Cosmetics Samples

Frankie_Rose

Hey everyone! Happy Thursday!

I know how much you all love free cosmetic and makeup samples, and I’ve found a great one for you this morning. Los Angeles based Frankie Rose Cosmetics is a unique brand of high quality makeup and tools designed to create a variety of crave worthy looks for women of all ages. They focus on ‘the perfect look’ and really want to match not only your skin tones and complementary colors, but your style.

Frankie Rose has created a Foundation Sample Program to make sure that you can determine the proper color of foundation prior to purchasing a full sized bottle – I wish more makeup companies did this! It’s so important to match or you look like a ghastly version of yourself.

Cost: Foundation samples AND cost of shipping are free.

Selecting a color: Not only does Frankie Rose provide some photo examples of Frankie Fans and celebrities wearing their foundation to help gauge which shade is right for you, but they also provide color swatches (click here to see). Simply click on a shade swatch and click alternate image views.

Quantity: Limited to 1 set of samples per person – but don’t worry – one set contains 3 shades, so there’s plenty of room for you to experiment!

Shipping Time: For US residents, west coast ~3-5 days, east coast ~4-7 days. Canadian? About 7 days.

So click here and see if Frankie Rose foundation is right for you! What a great deal.

Free E.L.F. Pinktastic Baked Blush

elf_blush

Work fast on this one, people! This is limited to the first 10k people that complete the following offer and expires on 9/4. Steps below:

  1. Click here to fill out a super quick informational form.
  2. Post a picture to Instagram demonstrating your best beauty secret. Use hashtags #playbeautifully and #elfsecretsentry **you MUST have a public Instagram account during the duration of this promotion – change your settings if you are private**
  3. Tag 5 friends in your post and let them know that they can sign up on http://www.eyeslipsface.com/playbeautifullychallenge
  4. That’s it! You will receive your FREE E.L.F. Baked Blush in Pinktastic within 14 days of completing this challenge if you are within the first 10k

GO GO GO!

Freezer Meals: Week 5

It’s that time of week!

Dug up some really fabulously freezer friendly meals this week for you all. With a short week coming up due to Labor Day next week, I totally foresee myself capitalizing on the ‘ole freezer meals.

Chicken Tetrazzini

Chicken_Tetrazzini

Chicken Tetrazzini [http://www.familysavvy.com/chicken-tetrazzini-make-ahead-freezer-friendly/]

FamilySavvy.com gives us a GREAT recipe here for chick tetrazzini – perfect for making ahead! Definition of comfort food, chicken tetrazzini involves pasta, chicken, mushrooms, cream of chicken, cheese, and some spices. It’s creamy and delicious, but doesn’t make you feel totally gross and heavy afterwards. It’s a miracle! If you want to cook ahead and freeze for later, she gives some great freezer tips. First and foremost, cling wrap. This goes directly on top of the assembled, but uncooked, tetrazzini and tuck into the corners of the pan – this prevents ice from forming on top and freezer burns. Also recommended are disposable containers – they’re easiest and don’t require scrubbing and cleaning. Final tip – freezer bags. After cling wrap and tin toil, a freezer bag can provide just one more layer of protection from freezer burn. Once you’re ready to unfreeze, place in the fridge a day or two before serving, remove all wraps, and bake for about an hour at 350…voila!

Loaded Vegetable Soup

Loaded_Vegetable_Soup

Loaded Vegetable Soup [http://www.cozycountryliving.com/loaded-vegetable-soup/]

CozyCountryLiving.com provides us with an awesome soup here – loaded with veggies, hence the namesake. Sometimes I worry that a lot of the freezer meals tend to be unhealthy – with this one, unhealthy isn’t even a word that crosses my mind. This is chock full of nutrients and leaves me feeling light and fresh. Perfect! Prepare the soup in a dutch oven and toss in all the goodies – fresh carrots, green & red peppers, tomatoes, onions, garlic, celery, green beans, broccoli, mushrooms, potatoes, peas, and corn – WHAT A MOUTHFUL, literally. Season and cook as instructed – takes a few hours, but you can  make a huge batch, because this is even better leftover, which is why this is such an incredible freezer meal. To freeze, simply cool to room temp and store in a plastic freezer friendly bag or container. Really couldn’t be easier! We love eating this with some fresh bread for dipping. If you miss the meat, it’s simple to add them in after the fact! Some shredded chicken or turkey sausage would be great in this recipe.

Hawaiian Chicken

Hawaiian_Chicken

Hawaiian Chicken [http://www.livingwellspendingless.com/2014/07/22/hawaiian-chicken/]

Anything that comes from a blog called LivingWellSpendingLess is something that I already know I’m going to love, let’s get real. This recipe promises to come together within minutes with just a few ingredients. It is freezer AND grill friendly – perfect summer meal for a family on-the-go! The marinade includes sweet onion, garlic, olive oil, teriyaki sauce (of your choice), pineapple juice, soy sauce, brown sugar, and black pepper. Yum! If you are freezing, simply make the marinade and throw in a freezer friendly bag with a boneless chicken breast. One tip here – don’t forget to squeeze out all the air! This will guarantee that this will last longer and taste better once you’re ready to eat this meal. No cooking required off the bat. Once you’re ready – thaw and grill 6-8 minutes on each side, basting with any leftover marinade. It’s really that simple. I can’t wait to try this one!

There you have it folks – this week’s roundup! If you try any of these, please let us know how it goes and anything you would change in the recipe in the comments! We love feedback! Stay tuned next Wednesday for Week 6.

FREE Sample of SwimSpray

SwimSpray

Want to make sure you all see this before summer’s over!

A lot of time in the pool? I hope so! The only downside to quality pool time, besides a pesky sunburn, is the lingering chlorine odor that comes with it. If you have sensitive skin, this also comes with some skin irritation. Worse? Crispy, dry chlorine-y hair.

SwimSpray exists to battle all of these things and they are offering free samples to anyone who sends an email to FreeSample@SwimSpray.com, simply telling them where to send the free sample. All they ask in return is that you send them your impression of the product after using it a few times. I love reviewing products anyways so, no complaints here! I like to think the entire world is interested in my opinion.

SwimSpray claims that people are generally skeptical of their product – especially avid swimmers. But based on customer feedback, their best selling point is simply that, it works. And they promise you that.

Check out their video here:

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