Celebrate What Makes You Refreshingly Different with Tropicana Trop50 Juice with Tea {Review & Giveaway - 3 winners!}

When it comes to trying new foods, my husband is often the one who is more likely to want to stick with what we know and has been a proven success. In his mind, why purchase a new type of cracker or a different brand of butter if our current one has tasted fine up until this point?

Now, I'm not claiming that I'm the most adventurous person out there when it comes to my food, but I'm typically willing to give new things a try. In fact, that sense of adventure and curiosity lends itself to other areas of my life as well and I've been told that it's a unique quality!

Something else refreshingly different? Tropicana Trop50 and its newly expanded collection of juice beverages, now that they have introduced Trop50 Juice with Tea.

Trop50 Juice with Tea is a new line of juice beverages that offers fruit juice goodness with 50% fewer calories — now with tea. The refreshingly different juice with tea combinations are made with delicious fruit juices and white and green teas to deliver a great-tasting and nutritious juice beverage.

Found in the chilled aisle of your grocery store, the line includes Trop50 Peach with White Tea, Trop50 Raspberry with Green Tea, and Trop50 Pear Lychee with White Tea. With 35-40 calories in each 8-ounce glass, these juice beverages with tea provide a full day's supply of vitamin C and good source of antioxidant vitamin E.

As for the taste, each of the Trop50 Juice with Tea varieties manage to deliver the refreshment of the crisp, sweet taste without any artificial sweeteners — something that I can appreciate for my whole family.

Although I might not have initially thought of my 3-year-old and 5-year-old enjoying anything that had to do with tea, they both proved to be big fans of the Trop50 Juice with Teas and love that they have a non-overpowering taste to them.

They'll often ask for a glass...

...and then happily drink them down with a content look on their faces. Who knew my kids would be such fans of white and green tea?

If you like the flavor of tea, Trop50 Juice with Tea is a great way to infuse it with the light sweetness of the raspberry, peach or pear lychee. Even better, Tropicana has listed a few recipes on their Trop50 Facebook page that include these new juice beverages and they all sound quite tasty, so the enjoyment can go further than simply pouring a glass to drink.

Available in grocery stores now, Tropicana's product locator can help find each of the Trop50 Juice with Teas near you, where it retails for $3.96 for a 59-ounce bottle or $1.69 for a 12-ounce bottle. Plus, thanks to their generosity, three people will soon be able to sample and decide on their favorite flavor, because...

Three lucky people will each win three free sample coupons to try out Trop50 Juice with Tea!

(Enter with the Rafflecopter form below. If you have any questions or problems entering, there is a video tutorial found here that can help.)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

A big thank you to Tropicana for providing a gift card and Trop50 Juice with Tea coupons for me as well as three coupons for three lucky giveaway winners. The opinions shared are my own and honest and if you really need to see more, click here to see how I roll.

Where Does Your Food Come From? Find Out with a ConAgra Backyard Bash!

With the arrival of warmer weather all across the country, it is time to dust off the grills and picnic tables and head outdoors for some beloved outdoor activities — barbeques and outdoor parties!

These intimate or large gatherings not only have the ability to connect us with friends and family, but also with the familiar foods brought to the table. But... do you know about where your food comes from? I have to admit that other than naming the grocery store a few blocks away, I wouldn't be able to list many more locations than that.

Fortunately for me, this season ConAgra Foods wants families to have fun learning more about where their food comes from. Whether it's the fresh veggies in your backyard garden or everyday foods in your pantry like Hunt's, Egg Beaters and Chef Boyardee, there's a lot that I was able to learn. Just take a look at the informative infographic below!

After finding out about where our foods came from, it was time to head to Ready, Set, Eat for a whole list of recipes, tips, shortcuts, coupons and more to plan for our upcoming ConAgra Backyard Bash. I love that this site lets you customize exactly what you're looking for in order to cook for your next meal.

Choose from ingredients to include, how much prep and total time you have, or even if the items needed for a particular recipe are on sale if you insert your zip code and select your local store. I really like that feature, as it can not only help in planning meals but can save you money at the same time!

For our Bash, I was excited to try three new recipes with our family and friends: Taco-roni from Chef Boyardee, Peach-Blueberry Bread Pudding from Egg Beaters, and Bruschetta Chicken Grill from Hunts. Yum!

Taco-roni

2 cans (15 oz each) Chef Boyardee Beefaroni Pasta
1 can (14.5 oz each) Hunt's Diced Tomatoes, drained
1 can (15 oz each) Rosarita Premium Whole Black Beans, drained, rinsed
1 cup frozen whole kernel corn
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/4 cup shredded reduced fat Mexican cheese blend
1/2 cup broken yellow tortilla chips

Place Beefaroni, drained tomatoes, beans, corn and cumin in large saucepan; stir to combine. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 15 minutes. Sprinkle with cheese and broken chips just before serving.

We changed this recipe only slightly by adding in fresh tomatoes and omitting the cumin to be sure that the kids would eat it, but otherwise it was a hit!

Peach-Blueberry Bread Pudding

PAM Original No-Stick Cooking Spray
5 cups day-old French bread (1-inch cubes)
1 can (15.25 oz each) sliced peaches in heavy syrup, drained, cut in bite-size pieces
2/3 cup frozen unsweetened blueberries (Do not thaw)
2 cups fat free milk
1 cup Egg Beaters Original (1 cup = 8 oz)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Reddi-wip Fat Free Dairy Whipped Topping, optional

Preheat oven 350°F. Spray 8x8-inch baking dish with cooking spray. Add bread cubes, peaches and blueberries; toss lightly. Beat milk, Egg Beaters, sugar, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg with wire whisk until well blended; pour evenly over bread mixture. Bake 1 hour, or until knife inserted in center comes out clean. Cool slightly. Cut into 9 squares to serve. Top each serving with Reddi-wip, if desired.

I don't think that my kids had ever tried bread pudding before, so they were hesitant for the first few bites but then loved it! We used a frozen fruit mix instead of only blueberries, so the results were even more fruity and delicious!

Bruschetta Chicken Grill

1/2 cup balsamic vinaigrette dressing, divided
1/4 cup Hunt's Tomato Paste, divided
4 boneless skinless chicken breasts (5 oz each)
1 can (14.5 oz each) Hunt's Diced Tomatoes, drained
1/4 cup sliced green onions
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
1 clove garlic, finely chopped
4 thick slices Italian bread

Stir together 1/4 cup dressing and 2 tablespoons tomato paste in small dish. Pour over chicken in small glass dish; cover. Refrigerate 30 minutes or up to 8 hours. Meanwhile, stir together drained tomatoes, remaining 1/4 cup dressing, remaining 2 tablespoons tomato paste, onions, basil and garlic. Refrigerate until ready to use.

Preheat grill to medium. Remove chicken from marinade; discard marinade. Grill chicken 10 to 12 minutes or until no longer pink in centers (165°F), turning once. Just before chicken is done, grill bread 2 minutes on each side or until toasted. To serve, place bread on serving plates; top with chicken and tomato mixture.

This was the recipe that we customized the most, as we left out the green onions and decided to serve the bruschetta in a more traditional route (just over small pieces of toasted bread) due to the number of vegetarians attending our party. However, that didn't stop it from being delicious!

Once we had our food going and our guests happily eating, it was time to move on to the next steps of our party. First up, planting our thyme and tomato seeds so that in the future we would truly have food that came from our own yard.

As we prepared our cans, all of the kids loved talking about the tiny seeds and how they would grow into food that we would then get to eat. Whether it was getting to "play" in the dirt or the excitement over the actual knowledge of how food is grown, we had a great time getting each can planted and ready to sprout.

After our planting was completed, we moved on to our next aspect of talking about the future: a time capsule. As each party attendee had brought something meaningful to them to be included, we took a moment to share the items (and why they had been chosen) and placed them into the box.

Unfortunately, a downpour of rain (and some hail!) put a sudden stop to our Backyard Bash as well as the possibility of burying our time capsule. However, that just means that we will wait until our tomato and thyme seeds get a little bigger, at which time we will bury the time capsule and mark the placement with the plants themselves.

In the meantime, we'll just hang onto our treasured collection of items!

Then, five years from now, we'll dig up our capsule and see just how drastically things have changed... hopefully the future will find us happy, healthy and spending just as much time with our family, friends and good food from ConAgra!

I wrote this review while participating in a campaign by Mom Central Consulting on behalf of ConAgra and received products to facilitate my review and a promotional item to thank me for my participation.

LEGO KidsFest is coming to Milwaukee, WI {Free Ticket Giveaway!}

While there are certain toys that appeal to only a select group of kids, there are also toys that are universally loved and adored by children (and adults) of all ages. And that list wouldn't be complete without the name LEGO!

Is there a child out there that doesn't enjoy building and creating with LEGO bricks? If so, I haven't met them yet. Both of my girls love the open-ended creativity that comes along with these colorful little bricks, people and accessories and have yet to tire of constructing, destructing, and rebuilding over and over again.

Therefore, when I heard that there was a LEGO KidsFest national tour, I could only begin to imagine the fun that would be had when over 150,000 square feet of space are filled with LEGO bricks!

Only a small section of Creation Nation, a collaborative effort created by tour attendees.

The LEGO KidsFest 2012 tour stops include Cincinnati (March 23 – 25), Denver (April 27 – 29), Milwaukee (June 15 – 17), Austin (August 31 – September 2), Detroit (October 12 – 14) and Pittsburg (November 30 – December 2).

While I often feel that Wisconsin is left out of some of the fun events and tours that take place across the country, I'm thrilled that LEGO is stopping at Milwaukee's Frontier Airlines Center from June 15 – 17, 2012. With it will bring all of the creative hands-on, minds-on fun of LEGO building and experiences together in this three acre activity- and entertainment-packed family event for children of all ages and builders of all skills and interests.

Among the many LEGO attractions, families will find:

• LEGO Model Gallery: dozens of life-sized models made entirely from LEGO bricks


• LEGO Master Builders: live demonstrations and activities from the crew who get paid to play 


• Creation Nation: build your own creation to add to a custom map of the U.S.


• Race Ramps: build your own custom car, then race it down the ramp against friends and family 


• LEGO Games Arena: roll the dice to play LEGO board games


• Construction Zones: creative free build, play and display areas


• LEGO DUPLO: younger visitors can explore imagination through building


• LEGO Retail and KidsFest Marketplace: purchase LEGO merchandise and official KidsFest goods and gear


• Brick Pile: a gigantic pile full of LEGO bricks for creative play and enjoyment


• Monochromatic Builds: bricks of a single color to foster group creativity


• Brickscapes: fantastic displays that combine lots of LEGO and DUPLO sets


• And more! Check out just a portion of the fun from the LEGO KidsFest tour stop in Denver:

"Any family who likes to be inspired, get hands-on and have fun together won’t want to miss LEGO KidsFest," said Vince Rubino, LEGO events manager. "We're bringing so many activities for Milwaukee-area families to test and showcase their creativity and building skills in what is sure to be a family event to remember."

Five sessions – all identical – are available for the Milwaukee June 15 – 17 tour stop. LEGO KidsFest tickets are $20 for adults and $18 for children and can be purchased online at LEGOKidsFest.com. Based on sell-out attendance in previous markets, advance ticket purchase is strongly encouraged!

But, wait! Why buy tickets when you can WIN them? One lucky person will win two tickets to the opening night session (4-8:30pm) on Friday, June 15, 2012! Simply CLICK HERE and submit your information and you'll be entered. LEGO KidsFest will random draw the winner on Tuesday, June 5, so if you live or will be in the Milwaukee area on June 15, go enter today!

I am receiving passes for my family to attend LEGO KidsFest in exchange for sharing this information and writing a review, but all thoughts and opinions are honest and my own.

Change and Make Your Bed Quickly and Easily with Zipit Bedding {Review & Coupon Code}

I equate making the bed with flossing your teeth.

Both are aspects that you know you should do... but unless you were raised doing them daily, therefore ensuring that they are ingrained as part of your daily routine, it can be extremely difficult to pick up either one and turn it into a habit.

For me, I would love to have my bed made every day. There's just something about how having the sheets smoothed into place and the duvet laid out neatly that is so much more inviting than the crumpled mess that currently awaits me. The problem lays in the two factors that affect just about everything I do: my lack of time and my laziness.

So if I can't even take the extra few minutes to get my own bed situated in the morning, how can I expect my kids to do any differently? Fortunately, that's where Zipit Bedding comes in and makes the entire process quick and easy.

A brand new, mom-invented product that enables anyone (including kids!) to make and change their bed in seconds, Zipit Bedding gives new meaning to the phrase "just Zipit!"

As anyone who has ever made a bed before knows, the various pieces — sheets, blankets and comforters — are easily entangled and hard to keep neat. What is it that we do during the night that gets them that way? However, instead of struggling to lay each part into place separately, Zipit Bedding connects a fitted sheet and comforter via zippers down the sides to result in one easy-to-use unit.

Considering that I can normally walk into my kids' rooms and find their beds looking not so neat...

 ...I was eager to see if Zipit Bedding could transform the sloppy look into something that was not only neat, but was one that they were able to take care of all on their own.

As I laid out the three piece set,  it was easy to see that the concept behind the sheet, blanket and pillowcase was to create normal bedding that functions with the simplicity of a sleeping bag. Instead of it being a chore to make your bed, you only have to zip up the side and you're ready to go!

After throwing the pieces in the washing machine (which was extremely easy due to the fact that they are connected together), I found that placing them on Big Sister E's bed took much less time than normal. As I stretched the elastic of the sheet around the corners, the blanket was pulled right into place with it!

When it came time to put the pillowcase on, I was thrilled with the zipper feature included there as well. Instead of doing the smush-smush-shake-shake-shake dance that I typically have to do to get a pillow to shimmy down into a pillowcase, Zipit has made it so much easier to unzip, place the pillow inside, and zip it closed.

In the end, the bed was made in a fraction of the time that it normally takes and Big Sister E loved it!

She has since been extremely proud of the fact that she can climb in and zip herself up to go to sleep...

...as well as get out and zip her bed made in the mornings without needing help.

The only thing that we've found missing from our Zipit Bedding is a flat sheet, as with the summer months ahead it might get too warm to have a blanket all the time.

On the other hand, however, I love that Zipit Bedding included great little zippered pockets on each side, as those have proved to be a great place to store special little belongings.

Currently available in twin or full sizes in pink or navy (I look forward to more colors in the future!), Zipit Bedding is the answer to stress-free making and changing of a bed. Instead of finding your child's blankets in a crumpled mess on the floor or at the end of the bed each morning, they will love how fun, fast and easy it is to zip it and be done!

Retailing for $69.99 for full and $59.99 for twin, now is the time to try out this great bedding with a special not-to-be-missed discount! For a limited time, you simply have to enter the coupon code GREEN10 at checkout and your purchase of a twin size Zipit Bedding will only cost $39.99! That's $20 off of the discounted web price and a really great deal to be able to experience the bedding that is the wave of the future.

To find out much more about this innovative new way to make your bed and to make a purchase, visit ZipitBedding.com, connect with them on Facebook and Twitter, and check out their humorous ad!



(Other than the Zipit Bedding twin set that I received from Zipit Bedding, I was not provided with anything or enticed to do this review in any way. This review is solely my opinion of this product.)