The selection of K-Cups was extrordinary and I loved being able to have one cup of coffee, because I’m not one of those “I’ll drink the whole pot” kind of people. I’d waste regular coffee because when it got cold I’d dump it before pouring another cup because the pot wouldn’t be as hot and I couldn’t risk going from an inch of cold coffee to four inches of not-quite-warm coffee that would only be drinkable for a minute before going back to being too cold to drink.

With the Keurig, if I do happen to have a “two cup” kind of morning, the little bit of cold coffee left in the bottom of my cup doesn’t make a difference. Well, it does, but not the way you would think. I make the new piping-hot coffee in the same cup and it is almost immediately cool enough to drink while still being nice and hot.

My favorite flavor is Coffee People Tree Hugger Fair Trade & Organic K-Cups. Of course, because I’m a bad person that’s not why I like it – I just think it tastes amazing.

Once the office was done being remodeled, the Keurig went to the office and I missed it SO much. Now, to make me feel better, my husband brings it home for the weekends. So I might have to deal with regular coffee during the week (which is tasty, I just feel like I waste so much) but I am lucky enough to be able to have coffee just the way I want it every weekend.

I’m considering picking up a Keurig Mini Brewer to use at home. I have a few Amazon gift cards in my account and think that it would be nice, since I don’t drink that much coffee, to be able to have a fresh cup when I do want a cup.

It would be nice.

Oh, and there’s no disclaimer on this post. Because Keurig has not given me any swag (though I wouldn’t scoff if it were offered). I bought the Keurig, I bought the K-Cups, and I continue to buy the K-Cups.

It had a mixing bowl, this really cool insulated tote, a Pyrex storage bowl, and a box of Greek flavor Suddenly Pasta Salad. I managed to wait a day to make it, because it was supposed to be really hot the next day and pasta salad is always better when you eat it on a crazy-hot day. Well, I think so anyway. If you like eating your pasta salad on a cool day, then that’s fine for you. LOL

A little wary that you could get something that tastes like Greek salad in only 12 minutes, I tried it with an open mind and hungry tummy.

This stuff is crazy-easy to make. You boil the water, put the pasta in and boil gently and lovingly for 12 minutes. During the 12 minutes you put the seasoning packet, some cold water, and a wee bit of olive oil in a mixing bowl and mix it together. I’m not sure what they use for an emulsifier but wow, it stays together. Then you let it sit in the bowl while your pasta finishes up. Put the pasta in a strainer and rinse it off with cold water to drop the temperature and get it rinsed and then mix it up in the spice/water/oil mixture. You can then either eat it right away or pop it in the fridge for a while to make sure it’s nice and chilled before you eat your pasta salad.

It’s really good. It would have been even better had I followed the “mix in” directions on the side of the box and added Katamala olives and crumbled feta cheese – but I was hungry and didn’t want to wait. Next time (because I will be buying this again) I’ll make sure to pick up the Greek olives and feta cheese to really take this pasta salad to the next level.

For some amazing recipe ideas or if you would like to learn more about different varieties of Betty Crocker Suddenly Salad mixes available, visit www.suddenlysalad.com and you will find a recipe for Greek Tossed Pasta Salad using the Ceasar pasta salad mix. Or you can try out the Garden Ranch Pasta Salad recipe, using the ranch & bacon pasta salad mix.

Good stuff. Great times. Yummy for summer eating.

If you want to win this prize pack from Betty Crocker Suddenly Pasta Salad and MyBlogSpark just leave a comment telling me what you think your favorite flavor of Suddenly Pasta Salad would be! I’ll pick a winner randomly on Thursday, June 10th at Noon Central.

Good luck!

Disclaimer: The product, gift pack, information, and giveaway were all provided by Betty Crocker through MyBlogSpark.

Sadly, my family has all but entirely stopped ordering in because it just doesn’t seem to be the same as it used to be when I was a kid. I used to be the biggest fan of pizza, but now, I don’t know, I just don’t feel like what I’m getting is what I expect. This isn’t to say it’s worse or better or the same but different – it’s just every time I put take-out into my mouth there is a disconnect between what I want to have happen and what actually happens.

So what’s a mom to do?

That’s right – make my own darn pizza!

Originally, I started making mini pizzas with biscuit dough. I’d roll the biscuits flat and put toppings on and pop them in the oven. It wasn’t what I wanted, but it was a lot closer than I had been getting before. There were also more topping options and I could make my pizza with exactly the amount and proportion of cheese, meat, and veggies that I wanted. It was a step in the right direction.

Then I had the chance to try out the Pillsbury pizza crust through MyBlogSpark and WOW. It tastes like pizza crust to me! So now I could just roll this dough out onto a baking sheet, parbake it while i got my stuff ready, then pull it out and put my toppings on and pop it back in the oven for the few minutes. At the end of the oven timer I had what tasted the closest to childhood pizza I’d been able to achieve.

I was happy.

It was basically just an amazing bonus to get the game Pictureka! to play with my kids during a Family Game Night where my kids and my husband and I shared pizza and a game and a whole lot of laughs.

Here is a forty cent off coupon for a couple of cans of Pillsbury Pizza Crust. If you would like to know more about Hasbro’s Family Game Night you can visit the website.

Disclaimer: VIP coupons, information and prize packs were all given to me from Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark in order to provide this review. The Pillsbury Pizza Crust I’ve bought since then has been purchased with my own money.

Having children took away some of my most favorite foods. After my third child I was no longer able to drink milk, eat cottage cheese, use onions in cooking or eat them raw, or consume eggs except when they are cooked and in minuscule amounts compared to a serving size. So I can cook with them but will never eat hard boiled or deviled eggs again.

All of that could make me bitter, but I just remind myself…I still have yogurt.

Even better, I have Greek yogurt. I think Greek yogurt is the best yogurt in the world. Mostly because it is thicker and richer and nummier than regular yogurt. You add a little honey and you have this lovely, natural, tasty snack that has protein and other good stuff in it.

Yoplait has created a mass-market Greek yogurt that you can buy at your local grocery store. They put a lot of effort into making a pretty cool commercial for it, too. Here is a video with some behind-the-scenes footage from that commercial shoot.

Fun, right?

Also, Yoplait Greek wants you to experience the thick, rich, yummyness too…here is a link to a thirty cent off coupon for Yoplait Greek yogurt, making it thirty cents easier for you to give it a try!

Disclaimer: VIP coupons, gift pack, and information  were all given to me by Yoplait and MyBlogSpark in order to facilitate this review.

Note: The links to the videos, when clicked, will open in a new browser window and play if you are using the FireFox browser. If you’re using IE, you’re better off doing the “right click and save as” and watching it on your desktop.

Ok, I know there’s more than fun to Drop Dead Diva, but I’m hard-pressed to find it. Even the emotionally wrenching scenes to me are fun. That means even when I’m sniffling and tearing up, I’m still grinning because I’m so happy this show exists. It’s a show I enjoy from beginning to end, every time, and I truly hope this season is just as fab as last season turned out to be.

Margaret Cho having a great role being exactly the size she is instead of making her something she’s not is what lets her shine as an actress and comedic genius. I mean, I spent most of season 1 being amazed she could deliver a punch line that had nothing to do with her mother or genitalia. I am pleasantly surprised (no matter how much may I love her stand up, it’s good to know she’s versatile – because she deserves to be a working actress forever if that’s what she wants.)

http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/welcome.mov

Not surprisingly, our tour guide through all of this is Ben Feldman (aka Fred the Friendly Angel) and he does a great job of introducing, keeping the video on track and keeping up the pace! He is the perfect tour guide through the welcome video, greeting us to the backstage set of the season’s most anticipated chick-friendly show about lawyers…Drop Dead Diva! I had no idea they weren’t in Hollywood for the shoot, I’m excited about where Ben says his character is going to be spending a lot of time this season, and the secret about the flowers in the backyard is the best! I’m definitely going to be looking out for that little trick when I watch the show on Sunday.

http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/sleeping.mov

This one is short and funny.

Did I mention it takes a few minutes for the movies to load up in the browser? If you’re having trouble viewing them “right click and save as” to get them on your desktop where you can watch them with reckless abandon. I tried to get them embedded in my site so you could just click play but it made my whole site choke because the files are so big.

Here’s one where Margaret Cho and Ben Feldman peruse the craft service area.

http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/snacks.mov

Finally, this next video takes you behind the scenes to meet the director and 1st Assistant Director and “prop guy” wooHoo!
http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/videovillage.mov

Oh hey, there are actually a couple more videos here that I’m going to give you just in case you’re as big a fan of this show and cast as I am. I’m not sure why I can’t get enough of this show, but it’s one I keep coming back to, and hope stays around for a long time.

Ben chats with Brooke Elliott (Jane) and Kate Levering (Kim) off-stage, talking about Drop Dead Diva on DVD on this video: http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/Aftertheshow_05.mov

Brooke and Kate talk a little about their favorite episodes from season one on this video: http://www.sonypictures.com/sphe/dropdeaddivas1/Aftertheshow_06.mov

Also, don’t forget to check out the video on the right for even more behind the scenes action!

See you on Sunday night! I’ll be in front of the television watching the Drop Dead Diva premier!! If you need to catch up, season 1 of Drop Dead Diva is available now on DVD!

Disclaimer: I have not received swag for writing this post. I might receive swag for writing this post but don’t know at this time. My love for the show is 100% honest and real. My love for Margaret Cho and supporting anything she does is even more real. Just so you know. If I do receive swag I’ll update and let you know what it was!

I came home from a pretty traumatic dental experience recently and they wanted to know what happened. I told them that mommy didn’t brush and floss the way she was supposed to and, as a result, mommy had to have the icky parts of the tooth that died drilled off. They gasped and kind of screamed a little and then ran around holding their mouths.

Come on, you didn’t think I was going to sugar coat the dentist, did you? In retrospect, I wish I’d gotten some fake blood and had it trickling out of my mouth while moaning, “Why?? Why didn’t I brush and floss more??” Hopefully generating looks of absolute terror on the kids’ faces and ensuring a lifetime of proper dental hygiene.

But getting my kids to brush without the fake blood is just one of the million things I have to do as a mom everyday to try and get them to adulthood without excessive therapy or dental -  bills. You know what I mean, all those little things that you forget you did by the end of the day: cooking, cleaning, working, comforting, hugging, fixing boo-boos. The little things that make you wonder where the day went because you sometimes feel like you didn’t do anything.

No one ever said being a mom was easy – well, I’m sure someone did but I don’t know them and hope I never meet them because I’d hate to have an assault charge on my record – and Aquafresh is trying to make not only brushing but your whole mommylicious day easier with iso-active whitening toothpaste. It whitens better than a non whitening toothpaste too, and that’s awesome, because I remember when I used to have super white teeth – before I started smiling with my mouth closed in pictures.

But enough about me! There’s stuff in it for YOU today!!

Aquafresh is starting a really cool campaign called “Mom Goes Beyond” and wants to hear YOUR story of going beyond. To participate in this contest you just have to leave a comment about an inspiring or memorable moment you’ve loved, hated, endured, laughed, cried, or suffered through and you could have a chance to win various and sundry awesomeness including a $50 Walmart gift card.

By June 9th I’ll randomly nominate someone to become the grand prize winner and if chosen by the Aquafresh creative team they’ll receive one year’s worth of free Aquafresh (via coupons) and a $500 Walmart shopping extravaganza (via gift card) and be featured on the Aquafresh Facebook page so everyone can be wicked jealous of your amazing momaliciousness. By July 7th the Aquafresh peeps will have decided who gets the big grand prize extravaganza!

Let’s face it – being a mom is challenging. Each day you are going above the call of duty by being not only a mother, but also a wife, a teacher, a referee, a handy man, a comforter and more. But most importantly, you are always a mother and going through the journey is sometimes arduous but inspiring. Aquafresh is committed to lending moms a hand by supplying them with products, such as the amazing iso-active Whitening toothpaste, that achieves 33% better whitening compared to a non-whitening toothpaste. Now it’s your turn to share what makes you work beyond as Aquafresh wants to hear about these moments and celebrate you as mom through their Mom Goes Beyond campaign.

So what you makes you a mom that goes beyond?

M80 contacted me on behalf of Aquafresh to write this post and review the products and hold a giveaway. I am getting swag for running this contest. I’m giving away (randomly) 4 coupons for the new Aquafresh iso-active Whitening toothpaste and, like, FIVE boxes of Aquafresh white trays.  Your mouth will thank and love me. Oh, and I’m giving away a $50 Walmart gift card too!!

There were several recipes and we got to make all of them – kind of – I’ll get to that in a few minutes. But there was a BBQ chicken pizza, chocolate rice pudding, pizza rice balls, and when we first walked in there were plates of each one of these out so we could taste what they were supposed to turn out like once we cooked them. You know, so we would know if we messed up – just kidding, I’m sure it was to keep us all fed and happy so we didn’t storm the kitchen.

They had knives, y’all – GOOD ones, too. I was drooling.

That sweet pile of ribboned basil – or whatever green herb that is – was cut by none other than me. They let me cut things and for that I am thrilled. My friend J was on the food processor because that’s kind of her thing, and we had two other awesome teammates that made rice and grated cheese and beat eggs.

The four of us were a cooking powerhouse that could not be stopped.

And yet, stopped we were. We had some recipe issues that kept us from fully understanding what the heck we were

actually supposed to be doing with things like the pureed steamed carrot and sweet potato mixture (but really, add a little cinnamon and sugar and you could just eat it with a spoon, I couldn’t figure out why we were cooking with it…it tasted like dessert!) We plowed through like troopers – I may have also been distracted by small pieces of Parmesan cheese chunks too but really I was working hard at this. I swear.

We cooked, we taste tested the rice, and overall we were really impressed that you can get five freakin’ grams of fiber in one serving. Since you’re supposed to be eating way more fiber than you are right now (look it up – it’s tough to eat enough fiber) finding ways to get more is important.

My favorite, because I’m utterly boring, is the white rice.

But here are some of the ingredients from one of the recipes – isn’t it cool how it’s all pre-measured and put into the baking dish we will use to cook it? I was uber impressed…but then, I’m pretty easy to impress…

he very best part was that between all of us we made this much of a mess and we didn’t have to clean anything! I’d cook all the time, three meals a day and snacks if I could just have someone else cleaning the kitchen after I was done…

The Disclaimer: Mom Central & Uncle Ben’s invited me to come to the event. They liquored me up (I had two glasses of wine) and fed me. I took home leftovers as well as about a billion boxes of Uncle Ben’s rice – but I paid for my own gas and parking and used my own two hands to chop and mix and cook.

The Official Disclaimer: “I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Uncle Bens and received the product necessary to facilitate my candid review. In addition, I received a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.”

I’m serious…they are freaking DELISH. The Black and Blue Berry Sobe Lifewater is by far my favorite with the Fuji Apple Pear Sobe Lifewater a close second. All of them were awesome except the yumberry pomegranite. I gagged the minute the taste hit my tongue – but hey, you may be a fan of yumberry whereas I will now avoid it like poison for the rest of my adult life. (It was SO gross.)

The Purevia in my tea is also going over really well. No, it doesn’t taste like sugar, but it does taste sweet. Almost too sweet sometimes, so you may only want to use half as much as you normally do to get it tasting the way you’re more used to.

Now for the bad news.

PureVia made both my friend D and my husband pretty sick. Like, “I’ll be in the bathroom for the next half hour, honey.” sick. So…proceed with caution and make sure it agrees with your stomach and don’t try it for the first time if you’re going somewhere that does not have easily accessible bathrooms. If you normally have a nervous or tender stomach that doesn’t mean it will automatically make you sick, though. My friend J has SERIOUS tummy issues and is a very picky eater but she can drink the Sobe Lifewater and use the Purevia with no side effects whatsoever.

Maybe just pick up a Sobe Lifewater next time you’re at the store and try it out.

I’m hooked. If it hadn’t upset hubby’s tummy we would have gotten rid of all the sugar in the house. Since we can’t, I’ll just keep using the Purevia in my tea and enjoy my Sobe Lifewater.

Oh, and there’s a good series of articles that talk about the difference between PureVia and Truevia at Nutrition Wonderland:

Part 1: Truvia and PureVia – A Window to the Past or the Future?
Part 2: Truvia and PureVia – The Science
Part 3: Truvia and PureVia – The Controversy of Stevia

Swag Alert: In hopes that I would post PureVia sent me a travel mug. In order to be able to give an honest review, they sent me a box of single-serve Purevia packets and two bottles of Sobe Lifewater. The Sobe Lifewater tried by my friend D and my friend J was bought by ME at my expense. The yumberry pomegranite flavor I hated was bought by ME at my expense. Only my husband and I consumed free Sobe Lifewater – since there were only two in the box.

One Other Thing: I still will never use SweetLeaf stevia sweetener because I feel they use horrific marketing practices and there are too many other options to support a company acting poorly toward bloggers. It sucks.

You’re thinking it must be some kind of scientific or taste debate with the PureVia I just tried, right?

No. (I know you’re smart enough from the title to have figured that out already. I was going for a little dramatic effect is all…)

They have some TROLL working for them that goes on blogs that review ANY other stevia sweetner and pretend to be a person who just happens to use SweetLeaf but they are really not. I’m still working on figuring out exactly what this person does for them but it’s not acceptable.

If they hire toxic people to do their trolling and commenting, I am certainly not supporting that.

Want to see “Yoda Smith” pretending to be just a normal person instead of being up front and honest?

Google Yoda Smith SweetLeaf and you’ll see comment after comment after comment. Some different, some the same, all pretending to be someone who is “golly gee whiz” normal but then suddenly has some amazing scientific facts that no normal person that just happens to use sweetner would have. Glycosides? WTF?! That’s not Nancy Normal talking about stevia in her coffee. Just saying.

I call shenanigans and bad marketing.

And I will NEVER buy SweetLeaf because they use deceptive marketing practices and must think mommybloggers are dumb to keep falling for this. They thought they’d never get found out. But oh well.

I emailed Yoda Smith to find out more but haven’t gotten a response yet. I will post it when I do.

Until then…well…toxic marketing makes for a toxic company. To me, SweetLeaf may as well be toxic because using it supports them trolling mommyblogs.

Plus I’m not allowing comments on this post, because the only thing you can do effectively is take away a troll’s voice.

The worst part is you don’t know if it’s the actual marketing person that doesn’t know any better because no one told them it’s not a good marketing practice, or if they’re hiring it out and don’t know what’s up, or if they are telling someone in customer service to do it on their down time. I mean, it could be a really nice person doing what amounts to a really rude thing.

It’s a shame.

If you want to tell SweetLeaf they’re wrong for using astroturfing and fake people – email them at info@wisdomnaturalbrands.com and tell them there are better ways to get the word out!!!

Updated to add: I have tried SweetLeaf – a friend uses it. I don’t remember being as impressed as I was with the taste of PureVia. But if, in my haste, my post says I’ve never tried it, that would be incorrect. I don’t feel like editing the whole thing or I’ll just get frustrated at being taken in by thinking that Yoda Smith was a real person with a funny Star Wars nickname. It shook my trust in my commenters in general, and for that, shame on SweetLeaf.

From the marketing material:

Its main sweetening ingredient is Reb A, a high purity extract of the stevia plant. The purity level…ensures that PureVia has a crisp, clean taste, without the bitterness associated with many stevia products.

The marketing materials also gave me a new piece of information I didn’t have before: The stevia plant is part of the Chrysanthemum family. It’s not mind blowing information, but fun if you’re playing a trivia game at a party.

I got a cool insulated travel mug (that will be used for ONLY water – you just can’t get coffee taint out of a travel mug) a couple bottles of Sobe LifeWater that are sweetened using PureVia, and a box of individual servings of PureVia – so I can try it in tea or coffee – since I don’t put sweetener in my coffee, we’re going to do a tea test with Lipton’s (my childhood tea that tastes like love) as well as Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime tea. I use sweetner in those normally and wonder if this PureVia can make them taste just as good, or at least different but acceptable.

They also sent me like ten pages of recipes. From cookies to drinks to Chai Tea. I probably won’t try all of them, but I’ll try a couple to see how this stuff really tastes. I’ll also put it in my normal homemade iced tea.

Because, let’s be honest, we all want to get away from sugar in our diets. Ok, I do, I don’t know about you. But we have been using Agave Nectar and that’s all well and good, but it’s liquid and difficult to measure into stuff without going overboard.

If you’re looking for more information right away before I do my testing, you can join PureVia on Twitter and Facebook. They can answer any questions you can. The stuff is gluten-free, suitable for diabetics, and it’s even certified kosher (hear that Becca? LOL)

I’ll be back soon after I’ve tried one of the Sobe LifeWater drinks to let you know how it tastes.

I really hope it’s not traumatically awful. My fingers are crossed.