General Mills-committed to reduce sugar

We eat a LOT of cereal in our house. It's our main breakfast choice because well it's quick and easy and the kids love it. General Mills provided me with coupons for free products, information, and gift pack through MyBlogSpark and my kids picked Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Cocoa Puffs and Lucky Charms. Needless to say the cereal didn't last long around here! I always felt a little guilty that they ate cereal on most days for breakfast but with the reduced sugar and knowing it provides whole grain to their diet, i can now watch them eat it without the guilt. Thanks General Mills!

General Mills announced a commitment to further reduce sugar in cereals advertised to kids under 12 to single digit grams of sugar per serving. The company has already been reducing sugar in cereals while increasing key nutrients, such as calcium and vitamin D, and providing whole grain.


Did you know that ready-to-eat cereal eaters consume less fat, less cholesterol and more fiber than non-cereal eaters? Cereals also deliver important vitamins, minerals and other essential nutrients, making cereal a top source of key nutrients in children´s diets.

Other cereal benefits:


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.


Studies also demonstrate the benefits of eating breakfast. A 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast tend to perform better at school. Compared to children who skip breakfast, children who eat breakfast score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy, have fewer reported discipline problems, and make fewer trips to the office.


For more information about kids and cereals, please visit Cereal Health and Wellness.


Right now if you visit here you will find a $1 off coupon for one of four General Mills cereals.

Sara Lee Fresh Ideas Deli Meat Review

Thanks to Sara Lee and http://www.consumerqueen.com/ i was given the chance to review Sara Lee Fresh Ideas Deli Meat.
Now firstoff let me tell you that if it was up to me i could probably live on sandwiches and lunchmeat, no lie. We are huge deli meat eaters here, including my children. Sometimes we just eat regular sandwiches, sometimes we make "dipping sandwiches", we use deli meat in omelettes you name it. So i was really excited to try out Sara Lee's lunchmeat. I went to my grocery store and found the products in the refrigerated section right in front of the deli. I chose the oven roasted turkey, roastbeef and ham.
I've never been a big fan of prepackaged lunchmeat, i'm a "regular" at the deli counter and ham and roastbeef are my favorite so i was a little sceptical.
I got to tell you all..i was extremely surprised by how well Sara Lee Fresh Ideas Deli Meat tasted. I couldn't tell the difference between their lunchmeat and my regular deli selections. They were THAT good! The lunchmeat is packaged in plastic pouches inside of plastic containers, i loved that idea. The meat never dried out and was soo juicy and tasteful i was sorry that i hadn't discovered them before.
That night we decided to do our dipping sandwiches for the whole family, my kids always love them and they are so easy to make.
What we do is this:
We get packages of hoagie buns
Lunchmeat
Shredded cheese
We butter the buns, sprinkle some parsley flakes and shredded cheese on them, garlic powder, onion powder, put them in the oven long enough for the cheese to melt, then we take them out and add the lunchmeat of our choice, put them back in for a few minutes.
Meanwhile we dissolve a cube of beef broth, add a couple of drops of soy sauce, little bit of garlic powder, thats our dip for the sandwiches. Voila and you are done!
My kids couldn't tell the difference between our regular deli meat and the Sara Lee Fresh Ideas meat. One thing i really loved about it, it seemed to stay fresh so much longer than deli meat.
My favorite were ham and roastbeef, my boyfriend loved the turkey and my kids enjoyed all three the same.
If you haven't given Sara Lee a chance i would really urge you to do so, you won't be disappointed. Promise!

Nature Valley Nut Cluster Review and Giveaway

Thanks to My Blog Spark i had a chance to try the Nature Valley Nut Clusters. I received all four flavors which are:

• Roasted Cashew
• Nut Lovers
• Honey Roasted Peanuts
• Roasted Almond

I tried every flavor and was pleasently surprised that each one was sweet but yet salty. My whole family enjoyed sampling the different varieties and they loved all of them! The clusters are bite sized, crunchy and 100% natural and come in resealable bags which will make these a great snack to take with us on the go.

Here comes the best part...thanks to My Blog Spark one of my readers can win a prize pack that includes:

• All four varieties of the Nature Valley Nut Clusters
• A Sling Backpack
• Stainless Steel Water Bottle
• Flashlight
• Binoculars

Here is how to enter:

Tell me which of the four varieties would be your personal favorite (mandatory)

Bonus entries:

Follow me on twitter @bkokc00(1 entry, leave twitter name in comment)

Subscribe to my blog (1 entry)

Grab my button and add it to your blog (1 entry, leave link to blog)
 
Blog about this giveaway (1 entry, leave link)
 
Tweet: Win a Nature Valley prizepack from @bkokc00 http://bit.ly/3bjhAE #bkreview (1 entry per day)
 
Post this giveaway on facebook, leave your link in the comment (1 entry)

Giveaway ends 10/7/2009 The winner will be chosen by random.org and will have 3 days to respond to my email to claim their prize.

After entering here go ahead and check out my friends blog, she's giving away the same prize pack!!
Consumerprincess

Bissell Powerforce Bagless Upright Vacuum

First of all i want to say that i am not getting any incentives whatsoever for this review, i bought this Vacuum and just want to share my personal opinion.


I've noticed lately that my vacuum hasn't done a great job picking up pet hair, yesterday it wouldn't lock into the upright position anymore and i decided it was time to send it to vacuum heaven.
After looking around online i decided to check out this Bissell Powerforce upright bagless vacuum at my local Walmart:

I wasn't looking for anything fancy since half of our house has wood flooring, what i was looking for was something, reasonable, dependable, great suction power and being able to get dog hair off my carpet and rugs. I decided on the Bissell Powerforce Bagless Upright Vacuum. Honestly i was a little worried if it would do the job considering the price i paid.
When i got home i took it out of the box, installed the handle with 2 screws, hooked up the hoses and attached the accessories, within 5 minutes i was ready to try it out.
I vacuumed our rug in the living room, a rug in the hallway and oh my god i was so disgusted...i was in shock how much dirt this vacuum got out of my rugs. We have 2 dogs, a German shepherd and a chi mutt, yes, they shed, yes i vacuum everyday and my floors look nice after cleaning them, i never imagined i could fill up the canister with pet hair and dirt/dust after using the Bissell for only 10 minutes. I was so impressed i left it all in the canister so i could show it to my family.
This vacuum is wonderful, and here are my reasons why:

• Great price-i paid around $46
• It's bagless, no more paying for bags, and trust me i bought a LOT
• Washable filters
• Lightweight
• Container is easy to remove and put back in place
• GREAT suction power

I would definately recommend this one. So there you have it, just because your carpet looks clean doesn't really mean it is, and to think that i let my grandson play on my floors before...shudder

Flamedisk review

I won a 3pack of flamedisks from a giveaway that @copperbrickroad hosted a few days ago. After giving her my mailing address i was very impressed on how quickly the package arrived. Before the contest i had never heard of this new invention to grilling so i was eager to try it out since we are HUGE..yes HUGE BBQ people...that's what we do, all summer long. Such a great way to gather family and friends.


After saturdays fishing nightmare that you can read about here we ended up going to Lake Carl Blackwell on sunday and met up with a bunch of family and friends. Everyone had a great time swimming, tubing and just hanging out visiting.


When it was time to cookout my brother in law pulled out a big bag of charcoal and lighter fluid. I told him they weren't necessary, since i had brought the flame disks along that i had won. I have to say at first everyone was eyeing the little packages like i had lost my mind, but they changed their minds in about 5 minutes.


We read the instructions and used 2 flame disks since the picnic area had a pretty large grill. They lit up quickly and we were able to start cooking in about 5 minutes, instead of having to wait 20 minutes for the charcoal to get hot, not to mention it was so much safer, my brother in law and lighter fluid are an accident waiting to happen..AHEM.


The disks lasted a little under an hour, enough time for us to cook for about 20 people, the clean up was a breeze! They cooled off quickly and we didn't have to worry about all the kids getting burnt long after we were done, like we usually do.


These flamedisks work great! Everyone was impressed so i would like for you to check out their website http://www.ugogrill.com/ and look at the video. It's a new way of grilling ya'll!