Kroger Private Selections Reviews

I love it when Bzzagent gives me a tasty campaign and oh boy did they ever this time.  Let's take care of the legal part first:  This review is about items that I did get free.  My opinions are based on my experience and are my honest feelings about these products. Does life get any better than an outdoor BBQ, good friends and good food?   That's exactly what happened at my house yesterday.In our home we are picky about what we eat and even more picky about what we feed our guests.  Cooking  is a passion around here and we feed people well!I had coupons for Kroger Private Selections items and I picked them up while I was shopping.  We already had meat so, I haven't gotten that yet but I have purchased Private Selections meat in the past and have only good things to say about it.  The quality is fantastic and it's reasonably priced.
What we did use last night was the Private Selections Artisan  Ciabatta bread, I wasn't really sure what do with this bread as I only thought of it for sandwiches, so I looked up on the net for ideas and ran across the suggestion for dipping it in olive oil.  That seemed a bit bland, so I opened my kitchen cupboard and found a jar of herb season salt and white pepper, then I added some fresh garlic and parmesean cheese to the olive oil and I had a hit on my hands.  The bread was wonderful as an appetizer for our guests and there was nothing left by the time dinner was ready.  This is a purchase I will be making again OFTEN!  The bread was fantastic.  I will be trying it for sandwiches and experimenting with other options as well. 
 
I also picked up a jar Oregon Red Raspberry all natural preserves.  This morning that went on my english muffin and I  had to make a second one because it was so darned good!  This is definitely quality that matches the higher end brands at a very affordable price.
 
I have other items such as maple syrup  and a dry rub that I am going to be trying.  I expect that I will find the same wonderful quality as I found in these items.  I will certainly keep you updated on these items as soon as I do!
If you want to try them for yourself, you can go to the website http://www.privateselection.com/recipes/ and get some great recipes as well!

 

Money Saving Blog

OK so first for full disclosure. The blog I am about to promote is operated by my friend. I am promoting it because she is my friend of course BUT also because I happen to think she is a savings genius. Keep in mind I am NOT a coupon clipping, sale paper browsing kind of person. I need something, I go to the closest store and buy it. If it's on sale great, if not, well I have to buy it anyway. BUT! When you discover that you can get a set of really awesome hot rollers and a curling iron while putting out under 5 dollars, I had to pay attention. I followed the instruction on The Saving Makes Cents Blog and low and behold, I actually found I had $10.00 credit on my CVS card, I bought $44.00 hot rollers for $12.00 and a curling iron for 2.49. Now I was hooked!
After talking to my friend, she gave me a few very simple pointers on saving money. I even discovered that my local grocery had digital coupons that I could load onto my shoppers card and just swipe at the register. No clipping required. I was actually quite surprised at how easy it really is to save money with a minimal investment of time.
What makes this particular coupon/saving blog unique is that Tina (the operator) does not just post whatever she sees advertised. When she is in doubt, she will personally make a trip to the store and try out the deal as it appears. There have been a few times that I have seen other blogs post something was free, etc.. that Tina would later discover was not so free or there was an added step that many missed. What is offered on this blog is what you will get and it's run by a woman that has the highest integrity as well as a fabulous saving cents! In case you missed the link http://savingmakescents.net Check it out, there is no charge to follow the blog and the money you save you blow your mind.

Kroger Simple Truth Organics-Better For You

Review based on item that the author received free in exchange for honest reviews and promoting on social media from Bzzagent.

Two things that I love when grocery shopping.  Discounts and organic.   I am a regular shopper at my local Kroger.  Previous to this particular campaign I had purchased Kroger Simple Truth Organics milk and ground coffee.  While I don't manage to buy everything organic, I make an effort to buy organic as often as possible specifically milk and produce.  

So let's talk about what really matters in all food:  Taste!

Overall the flavor of all the products I tried was excellent but there were some very clear winners!

HITS:

 With the kids Vanilla Almond Milk is an HIT!  I use this daily in my fruit smoothies for breakfast.  I don't much care for heavy food in the morning but I do like to kick start my metabolism.  Some yogurt, almond milk (my personal preference is vanilla) your choice of fruit(s) and blend.  Breakfast in a glass add a little protein or some other supplement powder for an extra kick!

The Cucumber Melon Sparkling Beverage:  LOVE this stuff!  So let's talk from adult perspective for a moment, shall we?  This is so good that I would consider adding alcohol to it and making it a favorite summertime drink.  But even without alcohol, I share this with a friend one afternoon as we sat at my kitchen table and chatted.  Within two hours all 4 bottles were gone and we wanted more.  My friend had mentioned that she was not so sure how she would feel about the flavor as it seemed kind of strange but she ended up loving it!  The Pomegranate Blueberry flavor is also fantastic.  This is an item in which I was given a free sample and went back and bought more. This is my favorite item so far.  As you can see from the above photo, they don't last long in my house.

OK ITEMS:

The Natural Vegetable Sticks were mixed reviews.  For me honestly, I would have liked them better if they had been salted.  They left me wanting a potato chip.  A friend of mine liked them but thought the green did taste a bit "funky".  The kids liked them well enough.  These would be the thing in the house that I would eat if I didn't have anything else to snack on but not something I would purposely buy again, they were a bit too bland for my taste.

There were other items in this package.  Protein bar, it was pretty good but I'm not really someone who eats protein bars very often.  Frozen fruit.  This was good for flavor but very limited in choices.  Between two different Kroger stores I could only find a choice between strawberry or blueberries.  I use frozen fruits in my smoothies but prefer to use mango and pineapple.  I would like to see a greater selection of these items.   

Overall the products were high quality and good flavor.  I found prices to be mostly reasonable and competitive with other chain stores that sell a limited selection of organic items.

On a scale of 1-10: 8 (lack of selection is the greatest issue here).