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).

  

Finding Laura Ingalls Wilder

As a young girl, I read the Laura Ingalls Wilder collection.   Somewhere between The Little House In The Big Woods and The First Four Years, I came to a realization that set me on a course that even well over 30 years later is still a driving force in my life.  If a girl who lived on a prairie could write about her life and the people that shaped it and have others want to read those stories, then why not me?

Over the years, I have dreamed about visiting the places where Laura lived and wrote about and even though I have lived just ninety minutes or so away from Pepin, Wisconsin for over a year, it took me deciding to go home to my own roots to go and discover Laura's.

I will begin by saying that the museum or even the house seven miles into the woods, were not really worth the trip.  Quite honestly, the museum was the poorly kept, with a few little things tossed into a two rather small buildings.  With Laura Ingalls Wilder used as a ploy to actually get people through the doors.  If you are planning a trip to Pepin to discover the history of Laura or find yourself immersed in all things Laura Ingalls Wilder, I suggest choosing a different Laura Ingalls Wilder location.  I will be visiting Walnut Grove in the next couple of weeks in hopes of finding a little more welcoming reception.

The musuem which is named "The Laura Ingalls Wilder Museum.  Has a few things from the area with a few old copies of Laura's books, some photos that are available via a web search and a gift shop FULL of things to sell to those who stop in to find themselves deeply disappointed by both the incredibly rude staff person and the grand total of 3 small display cases with items related to but not always directly from Laura Ingalls Wilder and her daughter Rose Lane Wilder.  

When attempting to ask the woman behind the counter questions about both Laura and the merchandise for sale, my friend and I were met with one word answers.  It felt as if we were bothering the woman who sat behind the counter without so much as a smile for incoming visitors.  Given, I live in Minnesota and the drive to Pepin was filled with beautiful scenery, I didn't feel as if the day had been a bust but it certainly was not what I was expecting.

There had been a along highway 35 as we approached Pepin with an arrow pointing to a side road that stated "Birthplace of Laura Ingalls Wilder".  There had also been a small open air produce market on the corner of that road.  My friend and I decided to stop there and see if the people were friendlier.  Much to our delight they were very friendly and very helpful.  Of course the amazing fudge they were selling, was simply a bonus.

We were given directions to the cabin back in the woods and reminded that it was simply a replica but it was on the actual property owned by Charles and Caroline Ingalls.

The woods are still pretty big, but I assume they are nothing like they were 150 years ago.  The little house: it is not more than a shell of a house.  3 rooms, a fireplace and a loft.  Where imaginations run wild but nothing much to really connect with.  Inside the house was nothing more than a single picnic table, a cork board with a few photos and brochures and empty rooms. 

We also had run into a group of people whom we had also encountered at the produce stand/market.  We talked about the strange weather we have been having in the mid-west this past year and how hot Texas is most of the year (one of the people in the group was visiting from Texas).  Then I mentioned that Laura had been my inspiration to write.  The mother pointed to her teenage daughter and said "This is my writer".  There are not any greater words to a writer than to discover there is another writer in the room.  We spent quite some time over that picnic table, discussing traditional publishing versus self publishing.  Hard copy versus digital and of course genres.    I gave the girl my thoughts and feelings and suggested a local writer who had become very successful in her genre for her to research.

There was little else to do or see so it was time to leave the little house in the sort of big woods and Pepin.  As we headed out of town and back toward Minnesota, I knew the trip had been worthwhile for me.

Not because of a building or a lackluster museum but because of a simple reminder.

I have spent the past year trying to write and being told that I should be writing something else.  I have two books written in many pieces in my computer files.  One is for younger women the other about my daughter. Both come from my heart.  These are not the books, I am told by others to write.  I work in a field that most people write books about what they do and pass on more watered down versions of others information.  I really can't imagine what I would write about that topic  that others have not already covered, so I find myself getting smacked with writer's block on a daily basis.

Today, I am going to dust off the writing way in the back of my computer.  Stories about my daughter and other writing that I do simply because it brings me joy.  Like Laura, I am going to write about the people and the things that I love.

I might not have found the Laura Ingalls Wilder that I was looking for in Pepin, Wisconsin but what I did find was the writer that I have always been.  The one that writes for the love of the story and the people in those stories.

What is on my bucket list?  To visit every place that Laura has written about and not just find Laura but also find the writer that she inspired over 30 years ago.

My mantra for life is "Live with passion".  Today, I am reminded to write with that same passion.

Live With Passion

Bel