CJ Bibigo "Won Ton of Giving" Campaign & Giveaway

CJ Bibigo is making a donation of one ton of Mini Wontons to the Los Angeles Regional Food Bank this holiday season through a social media campaign called “Won Ton of Giving.” Facebook users are encouraged to “like” CJ Foods on Facebook to help meet a goal of 3,000 fans, and when the goal is met, the company will donate 2,000 pounds (or more than 91,000 wontons!) to the food bank.

They are also giving away CJ Bibigo prize pack on New Age Mama.  

The prize pack consists of the following: 

 

Do You Like Avocados?

I wasn't raised on them. My husband loves them. I like them mashed and used on sandwiches. They are also great with chips, or on salads.

Life in the Lost World has a giveaway going on for one winner to win a box full of avocados by Paradise Avocados Grove! They have all kinds of recipes I'd love to try out on their site.

I've Been on a Hummus Kick

The other day I spread homemade hummus on rye bread and put cut up cucumbers on it. It was a good sandwich!

Simply 7 has a giveaway going on at Life in This Lost World.

I want to try these out:

Some of their snacks features:

• No Trans Fat
• No Artificial Colors or Flavors
• No Preservatives
• Gluten Free Ingredients
• Non-GMO
• 50% less fat than potato chips
• Vegetarian

Italian Volcano Juices

We always get special drinks for the holidays. Thanksgiving is coming up. I'd love to try out Italian Volcano Juices. I don't like soda as much as I do sparkling or Italian juices.

You can enter here for a chance to win some of their juices!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

I love peanut butter. The problem is, even with the all natural kinds, they add a lot of oil.

I recently bought a powdered peanut butter from No Name Nutrition. Then my husband found some powdered peanut butter at Whole Foods. I've heard they carry some at HyVee, but I have yet to find some.

We've used it in smoothies. I love a smoothie with bananas, powdered peanut butter, freshly ground flax seed and chipped ice. Yummy! 

We also love pancakes on Saturday mornings. I'm always trying to find different recipes to make. I found this recipe and modified it. They were so good!

Peanut Butter Pancakes

The things I changed:

• Powdered peanut butter for real peanut butter
• Almond Milk for Cows milk
• Olive Oil for Butter
• I have yet to change out the sugar, but plan to. I have a hard time figuring out how much of natural sugars to replace in for sugar. I'm still working on that.
   

Mix the dry ingredients, mix the wet ingredients and combine the two. Then make your pancakes.

We had more than just pancakes, but I took a shot of a pancake on a plate.

Beans

My husband grew beans this year among a lot of other things.

Our boys had fun peeling them out of their pods.

Pretty soon it will be soup time.

What's your favorite kind of soup?

Lately I've Been Struggling to Breathe

I've been struggling to breathe. My oldest son has been struggling to breathe. It's allergies at it's worst. It's entered our chest cavity. Both of us have a cough. We sound like two smokers during some of the day.

Both of us have been doing the Neti Pot twice a day. We've been taking over the counter allergy medicine. Then we've been taking all natural Maty's Cough Syrup.

Source

I won the cough syrup a while back and it's the one thing kids can take. Most cough syrups are for adults only and contain alcohol.

I've been washing our pillow cases with every load of laundry I do.

As of right now we're both feeling blah! I seriously have had a problem getting one post out. I just feel like doing absolutely nothing.

Mica, my son is in 1st grade. He's opted to take a nap the last two days. In return he gets to stay up a little bit longer than usual.

It wasn't a total waste of the day. My oldest son has a bake sale at school coming up and my youngest starts preschool this week. I did my motherly duty and made treats. Then my oldest saw a recipe for pumpkin pudding in his Highlights magazine. I managed to make that with him as well. It's a bread pudding. It is more healthy than most puddings. I took a picture, but I have to say that bread type puddings are not that pretty.

Raggedy Ann and Raggedy Andy are back!

A long, long time ago, or so it seems my mom made a Raggedy Ann and Andy doll set. They were happily played with. As most toys have this happen, they started to get played with less and less.

They got put up in the attic for safe keeping; we think.

My Dad put them up there he said. When it came time for the duo to come back down to get played with they were no where to be seen. My Mom was heartbroken. :(

Every time my Dad went up in the attic my Mom said, "Red look for Raggedy Ann and Andy up there!" He did and could never find them again.

So there is this giveaway going on where one winner will win a Raggedy Ann or Andy. If I win, I'll give it to my mom. Even though she doesn't play with dolls anymore, I think she'll appreciate it. I may have to choose Andy since there's only little boys in our family.

Go here to get a chance to win.

Keeping Things Clean

Believe it or not, I've been talking with my college students about keeping things clean. They have to create a project that is all out of white paper and materials. It's a relief, meaning it pops out of a flat surface. They are graded on their craft. Their work gets down graded if there is jagged cuts, glue marks and finger prints on it.

I mentioned things like: 

• Have a damp cloth at your desk
• Tie your long hair back
• Wash your hands

Well I was walking around the room and guess what? A girl was working on the project. Her hands were black. I was thinking, Hummm did she miss all of my lecture? I get annoyed when they don't listen at this age. Part of me wants to say something. Another part of me wants it to show up in her grade. It's common  sense and also unsanitary.

Jolly Mom is giving away a $100 Walgreens Gift Card in order to help with healthy hygiene and kids going back to school.

Hero

There once was a time when my Dad thought he truly had Native American in him. He went as far as to buy and take a test to determine what your genes really have in them. He found out that he is 2% Asian. No Native American.

He was sad because he loves the Native American culture. Much of his artwork revolved around Native American themes.

I told him that we should have him over, so I could fix him a chopstick style meal.

I'd love to win this shirt for him:

He's a tall, very white, redhead. Oh well. He still loves the Native American culture! Go to Life in the Lost World to possibly win a t-shirt from Ban T-Shirts.

The Great Benefits of a Banana

I found this on Facebook. Sorry no source is included. If you created this and want me to remove it or add your name to it, I'd be happy to.

Art

One thing that will keep my kids attention is anything art related. I love it because now I can sit down, work on art and my kids will work on art to. No more breastfeeding, whining, interrupting going on.

I was able to finish these two large pieces lately:

You can see details and process here.

New Age Mama has a giveaway for a BeginAgain art kit. I really do love it and hope I win!

Culturelle

There's been times where my stomach is upset. I notice it happens when my allergies are off the charts. That's when I get an attack of tummy problems.

My Dad read in a health book he bought from Whole Foods that people with allergies have a thinner lining of the stomach. I can believe this. Certain foods make it worse. More then anything it's just the time of year.

The only thing that seems to kick my tummy issues is probiotics. Plus I put myself on the BRAT diet: Banana, rice, applesauce, toast and tea. I add greek yogurt and water to that.

New Age Mama is giving away 1 box of Culturelle Kids packets and 1 box of Culturelle Kids chewables. I'd love to say that my kids do not have my allergies or tummy issues, they do. It's rare, but when they get diarrhea; the one thing that stops it is probiotics.

Fair Trade Goods

Do you like Fair Trade Goods places? I do. I think I'm drawn to them because they are unique, artist made, and are cultural.

Plus I'm all about finding unique companies for my college art students to do logos and campaign work for. I notice if I pick companies they've never heard of, it forces them to do their research.

Life in the Lost World is hosting a giveaway for a $50 GC to Ezistock. I've never heard of them before.

What would I pick if I win? I might pick this men's bracelet.

It's something a little different for my husband.

My Husband is Corny!

My husband picked a bunch of sweet corn yesterday.

This is our first year growing it. We live in the city, but have a huge yard. My husband along with the kids planted an 3 Sisters Garden. It's corn, beans and squash. We watered that area pretty good. Our tomatoes didn't do well from the heat this year. I think our red potatoes are ready to be dug up.

There were 3 or 4 ears sitting on the ground, in a row, and the corn was gobbled off. We teased our backyard neighbor of hopping the fence and eating it. Travis thought I ate it. I was like, "Why would I do that? I'd take it down to the kitchen, shuck it, wash it and then eat it." I'm thinking it was a raccoon. Sure enough I was talking to my Dad later (who grew up on a farm) and he said that coons love corn! He said some farmers put up electric fences to keep them away from it. I really doubt we'll want to put up an electric fence.

I gave 5 ears to my oldest sister, parents and a friend. My friend gave me 3 giant zucchini for the corn.

We might end up freezing some of the corn. This is all new to me. I saw a tutorial for freezing corn here. 

I made zucchini brownies last night. Healthy not, good yes. I wanted to test the recipe before all my company comes in a few weeks. We're having a party with college friends and art friends. People will pitch tents and stay over night. I plan on making zucchini chips as well. The rest I'll cook in olive oil, freeze some, and make a few loaves of bread to freeze as well.