Happy Birthday Bloomin' Onion! -Product Review

My latest review is not so much a product review but an announcement of sorts!

Outback Steakhouse is celebrating its 20th birthday and with that comes the anniversary of the Bloomin' Onion, the first item ever on the Outback menu. (I mean seriously I don't need to review the onion itself because WHO HAS NOT had one of these yummy babies!) I remember the absolute bliss I felt when I first had this colossal onion!


In honor, Outback has created a select number of special menu items available through April.

Some fun Onion Facts!

• Outback has sold more than 133.5 million Bloomin' Onions.
• 15 million Bloomin' Onions are sold each year.
• Before it is "bloomed," each onion is specially grown to be 16 ounces big and 4 inches wide.
• The Bloomin Onion remains true to its original recipe: 17 different spices to flavor the onion and an additional 37 spices in the dipping sauce.

Enjoy!

Cheap and Easy!

My husband usually cooks dinner. (I can) I just usually don't. A few nights ago though, I made dinner. Pot roast! It was a perfect dinner for a cold winter evening.

Pot roast is made from Chuck Roast, which is a more economical piece of red meat (if any red mean can be called economical!) It is very tasty when cooked for a long time and tends to fall apart when done right!

It was yummy! I used a recipe from The Pioneer Woman. (I won't re-write it here. You should really visit her site, It's awesome!) It was great! It was cheap as red meat goes and it hardly took any time at all (prep time anyway, it does cook for a while in the oven!)

Product Review-Free Fiber One

Well it's that time of year again! The First of January countless people try to eat better after the food orgy that was Christmas. One of the first things people think about related to healthy eating is, of course, fiber (Well at least if you're my husband.)

For the new year, the site EatBetterAmerica.com (Remember that funny food game I reviewed!)  is giving out free samples of the original Fiber One cereal.  As you may know, Fiber One provides 57% of the average adults daily fiber requirement, has 0 grams of sugar and 60 calories per serving.  To receive the sample you have to sign up for the Eat Better America newsletter. The newsletter is an e-mail that is sent out once a month and provides recipes and tips for people to start living healthier lives.

Product Review: Reynolds Handi Vac

Ok, if there is one thing frugal people do, it's freeze things!

I love to buy stuff on sale and freeze it for later use. I love freezing leftovers and surplus garden produce. I love whipping out my farmers market fresh blueberries in the depths of winter when blueberries are $4 a cup at Wegmans!

I used to have a Vacuum sealer (one of those long ones with the plastic rolls) You would think I would love it! Well I did not. It was messy to use, there was a lot of wasted plastic, and it was a pain to operate. It's a good thing It was free from someone because I tossed it.

Last week at Garden Club the Reynolds Handi-Vac came up in conversation. No one had tried it. A lot of people were wondering about it. The very next day, I got a request to review it. Bingo!

I have to say, I LOVE this thing!!! It came with 3 bags to start. I sealed a steak in one and used 2 bags for diced apples. It was very easy to use, not messy at all, and used far less plastic than the old type sealer. The seal is tight!! It was so tight actually that I needed to back off a little on the apples because I could see it was squeezing some of the juice right out of the apples. (I got the hang of it after a minute.)

I checked at the store. It was $9.99! Compared to whatever that old one was (I know they were A LOT more than $9.99) that is a bargain! (even if you don't compare it, I still think it's pretty reasonable and it comes with the batteries!) Bags were a bit pricier than regular freezer bags. (about $0.22 for the quart size and $.33 for the gallon) this is about double the price. It says not to re-use them. (which I don't for any meat based product anyway) but I don't see how there would be any harm in re-using the fruit and veggie ones.

I already bought another box of bags today at the store anticipating Thanksgiving leftovers.

Product Review-Match and Win Dreamhouse Game

If you're tired of hearing me yammer away about saving money and being frugal, you may want to head on over to the Reynolds, Goya, and Tyson Match and Win Dream House game where the grand prize is a $500,000 dream house (actually, it's $500,000 in cash and there are also smaller cash prizes as well, with the next one being $50,000.)

Basically, you play by collecting game pieces on participating Goya, Tyson, and/or Reynolds products.  The game pieces show either the left or right half of a certain prize. If you collect both halves of a prize, you win.  Simple as that. The contest runs through Oct. 1, 2008.

My guess is you would need to buy A LOT of products from each of the product lines to match up any and win a prize. Face it, they aren't going to put the grand prize pieces on 2 boxes of Reynolds Wrap (which may be the only product I buy from any of the vendors)  at my  Wegman's.

I guess I'll just have to keep pinching pennies!

Product Review-Curves Cereal

My latest product to try and report back to you on is Curves Cereal and Granola bars. Curves, as in the exercise center. I think Curves is trying to create a brand like the Weight Watchers brand (which is very successful) But,unlike WW,which uses the point system and clearly tells you how many points each serving is, I don't know what, if any, the Curves plan is and how the product is supposed to help me.

Perhaps that isn't important. Maybe there is no Curves diet??? At any rate the cereal and granola bars are marketed to help you keep weight off. I can clearly believe that as the granola bars are VERY small. I think it was 4 bites- It would be 3 if I was really hungry. It was average as far as granola bars go. I think the portion size is the only weight loss thing going for it.

The cereal was good. It was VERY VERY hard and crunchy. (I actually liked it) It bugged my husband when I ate it. It didn't seem to me any more or less like a diet product than any other cereal (again I think portion size is the key) This portion was 1 C which is pretty large-However, you could probably get 1 cup of most cereal for the same calories. Also, I was hungry before lunch when I ate this (which does happen to me when I eat cereal. ) However, this caused me to eat more food which I think would be something the average Curves eater would want to avoid.

Even though I liked the cereal, both of these products pretty much seemed like fake food to me. If you want to save money and lose weight try something like Oatmeal-It will stick with you much longer, costs much less, and is good for you.

Nature Valley Nut Crunch

My newest product to sample is Nature Valley 's Roasted Nut Crunch bars. I received both the Peanut Crunch and an Almond and Sunflower seed bar. They were packaged in an adorable burlap bag which is now hanging in my rustic bedroom. (of course in the store you would not get this very cute bag!)

I don't buy snack bars. They are usually full of things that we don't like to eat like partially hydrogenated oils. I also find them expensive for what you get and would rather eat cheese or plain nuts if I need a lift.

I expected not to like these. I was surprised as they are really quite good. I preferred the peanut over the almond. I was also surprised when I was hungry and was in a hurry to get somewhere that I thought of grabbing one. And it was a good snack that filled me up. They are smaller than your average granola bar but more filling. There are only 6 ingredients. Two of those are sugar and corn syrup, so this is not an entirely healthy snack. It was kind of like nut brittle. Still, there were only around 6 grams of sugar so that wasn't too bad. The 7 grams of protein was a plus and the reason I think it's so filling.

I still think you can do better nutritionally and economically with just plain nuts. I probably would not buy these weekly at the grocery store but I could see taking them on a car trip, they seem like that kind of treat to me.

Now, if I was only going somewhere!

The Good Food Fight!

My newest product review is not a product at all, but a website started by General Mills, called Eat Better America.

The website is free and was designed to provide useful recipes, nutrition, and fitness advice for an overall healthier lifestyle.

The site was launched last year, but was recently redesigned to include a few new features. One of the most popular new items is an online game called the “Good Food Fight.” The game is designed to raise awareness of the types of healthy recipes featured on Eat Better America. It is HYSTERICAL! I mean really funny. You can choose your food of choice, choose your opponent and then start flingin' Each food gives a satisfying splat when thrown and looks really great when you get hit! (*Note-You need to grab the food from the picture at the top left in order to throw it. )

The site is also quite nice with a lot of recipes that look easy, good and are good for you.

Go on... Try the game... You'll love it!

Dawn Sinple Pleasures Review

Yesterday, along with the free Cascade (gelpacks, which I've never tried!) came a bottle of Dawn Simple Pleasures, Apple and Pear scent (which is great because I love apple scent)

If you don't know what this product is then let me enlighten you. It's a normal bottle of dawn with an AIR FRESHENER in the bottom of the bottle. Kinda weird.

I'll preface this whole review with that fact that I like Dawn dish liquid and will buy it if it is on sale or I have a coupon. I also like scented dish liquid and I like this scent too. (It also comes in Water Lily & Jasmine and Lemon & Tangerine which sound nice.)

I immediately removed the wrapper over the air freshener and was overwhelmed with the smell (nice as it is). The marketing material says that this will release scent into the air for weeks (I would completely believe that based on the smell at the moment) It is very strong. Whenever I enter the kitchen I smell it. My 2 year old even asked "What is that smell?" Apparently the beads are waterproof which is a good thing as it is designed to sit next to your sink.

The thing is:

• I don't really like to store my dish detergent on the counter so this product would be scenting the cabinet under my sink if it was used the way I intend to (right now it is on the counter). That might actually work out better because that is where my garbage is kept.

• I don't really ever want this strong of an air freshener this close to me. And that is unavoidable when using the product. I'm sure the scent will lessen but for now it is VERY strong. I should also mention that Deanna reminded me to say that I do tend to be smell sensitive. But I imagine there are others like me as well and they will appreciate the information.

• I don't see a need for this product. Do people have problems with smelly sinks in the place where they prepare their food. I'm not the world's greatest housekeeper and I don't have this problem.

I tried to find the product in the grocery store to see how the price would compared to non-air freshener dawn as well as other detergents. I could not find it yet, but the marketing material said that Dawn Simple Pleasures is expected to retail for $3.25. This is way more than I ever spend on this kind of item. For me an added air freshener and an added cost are not something that would add beauty (or simplicity as the name states) to my life.

Product Reviews

After posting about my dishwasher duel, and the eventual winner, Cascade, imagine my surprise when a PR firm that represents Cascade contacted me. At first I thought they were going to ask me to take down the photo! But no. Apparently they saw my review on the blog and wanted to send me some free Cascade! Very Cool!

They also asked if I wanted to do more reviews for some of their products and post them on the blog. Always up for something new, I agreed. They said I didn't even have to write good things if I didn't like a product. I don't get paid for this but I do get to try some neat new (free) products.

Anyway, since I am routinely conscious of my spending and of the things that will and will not add value to my life as well, I thought it would be great to post some reviews from that point of view. So, from time to time I will post some product reviews here. And will tell you if that is what I am doing. So stay tuned.

You know, I always like the show Fight Back with David Horowitz when I was younger. This is probably an outcropping of a need to be a consumer advocate from my youth!