October 12th, 2011

California Milk Advisory Board #SmartFinalSupportsSoCalSchools

I am so very pleased to be a Smart & Final California Milk Advisory Board Ambassador. I love Smart & Final, which for those readers not in Southern California, is a chain of non-membership warehouse style grocery stores with great prices and they recently got rid of the club card component and just give the savings to all shoppers, making the whole shopping experience even more convenient.

Smart & Final is partnering with the California Milk Advisory Board for the “Help Our Teachers, Help Our Kids” promotion. This is a great campaign in which the students and teachers collect Real California labels from Smart & Final’s First Street brand diary products. After collection, the teachers submit the seal and each seal counts as one sweepstakes entry. Prizes include $20,000 for a school and Wii Fits. Also, teachers who submit 100 seals receive 25 Scholastic books (or a $25 supply gift card). And every single teacher that enters gets a Scholastic book.

The California Milk Advisory board will be announcing winners in February, but Smart & Final is running a separate sweepstakes! Entrants can go to FirstStreetSupportsSoCalSchools.com and explain why their SoCal school should win will be entered to win $500, $300 or $200 to donate to the school of their choice. And it can be entered every month for a total of 9 winners. Awesome.

In order to do my part, I went ahead and made a sample Real Milk seal collection container. Since Spencer is not quite at the school age for the contest, I decided to make a collection box for my friend’s school.  Always a fan of recycling materials, I used a clear container from some animal cookies. I peeled the label off and affixed some promotional labels, conveniently covering the part where the label glue refused to come off. I cut a hole in the lid and tada! collection box.

You know what makes up for the inconvenience of keeping a collection bin on your desk? Breakfast treats, that’s what.

Some great breakfast treats picked up for the drop off all purchased at Smart & Final of course. I’ll be collecting my Real California labels from all of my First Street products and passing them along to my friend. I might just use this as an excuse to buy a little extra ice cream!

This project has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for #collectivebias #CBias. All opinions expressed are my own.

September 29th, 2011

BlogHer BookClub: Lunch Wars

First, I want to say that this is a sponosred post as part of the BlogHer Book Club. I was provided the book and compensated for my review and participation in the online discussions on BlogHer; however, my opinion is my own. Also, now we run the whole review on our blogs, which is awesome. No more clicking over. Yay!

Lunch Wars by Amy Kalata is a fascinating read. It delves into the sorry state of school lunches from the perspective of someone who helped the the movement for change. The author is a documentary film maker who explored school lunches in the film Two Angry Moms. This thoroughly researched, yet easy to understand, book is an excellent guide for anyone looking to evaluate and improve the lunches in their schools.

I think one of the most interesting and helpful tips in the book is to go have lunch at school with your child. What a great way to find out for yourself what the experience is like because even if a school has healthy options, it doesn’t mean the kids are eating them. And she mentions that it can be a good idea for a few parents to get together and do this on the same day so a child doesn’t feel singled out. So smart.

If you have done a lot of reading in the real food genre, Michael Pollan, Jamie Oliver or a myriad of magazine articles these days, some of the information may be repeated, but it is presented in a fresh light. I just don’t think at this point the high sodium content of the average school lunch is particularly shocking. Lunch Wars is one of the first books I’ve read that presents a plan in which nearly anyone could find an actionable item.

September 14th, 2011

Rules of Civility: A Review

It’s BlogHer book club time again and I have to say, they picked another winner. I loved this book. Rules of Civility by Amor Towles is a novel set during the depression in sparkling New York City.

photo credit: amazon

My review:

 Rules of Civility is a quaint little novel; not tremendously long at about 350 pages, but it packs in a whole lot of plot. Set in the late 1930s in New York City, it follows the ups and downs of Katey Kontent as she navigates Manhattan society. 1938 is a pivotal year for Katey as she and a friend, Eve, have a chance encounter on New Year’s Eve that changes both of their lives forever… Read More

I was compensated for this post and review as part of the BlogHer Book Club, but the opinions about this book are purely my own.

August 31st, 2011

Greek Yogurt: Fun For the Whole Family

I wrote this post while participating in a blog tour conducted by Clever Girls on behalf of Dannon. I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program but my opinions are my own.

For more information and recipe ideas, visit www.oikosyogurt.com or www.Facebook.com/oikos. I was selected for this sponsorship by the Clever Girls Collective, which endorses Blog With Integrity, as I do.

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I’ve eaten greek yogurt for a long time. Back in college, I had to go get it at the health food co-op because that was the only place where it was available. I’m pleased to see it spread to mainstream stores and also mainstream brands. When Clever Girls offered the opportunity to try Dannon’s new Oikos greek yogurt, I jumped at the chance to give it a try.

It was easy to find in my local supermarket. I bought the big ol’ tub of plain because that’s how we roll. I also got one of the fruit-at-the-bottom blueberries and I am pleased to note that the nonfat flavored yogurt does not contain artificial sweeteners. The flavor of the blueberry was great, but the mix-ins made it softer than I like, which is why, for the most part, I buy plain.

The texture of the plain was nice and thick, one of the hallmarks of greek yogurt. Dannon® Oikos® is created through an authentic Greek straining process which gives it a rich and creamy-thick texture. You know what else the thickness of greek yogurt is fantastic for? Holding up toppings.

Behold:

Happy face yogurt!

For my sweetie:

Heart Shaped Love Yogurt!

And for me:

Mod Stripe Yogurt

These are so easy to make, just spoon greek yogurt into your serving dish, smooth the top and layer toppings like berries and granola in a fun shape. Greek yogurt is so awesome and thick that nothing sinks. You could even layer extra berries or cereal under the yogurt. I made these and took the pictures during naptime and they looked exactly the same when I pulled them 5 hours later out for dessert that night – no sinkage!

Do you want to try Dannon Oikos for yourself? Dannon Oikos is offering a coupon for a free cup on www.facebook.com/oikos.**

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I have partnered with Dannon to help promote the Dannon Oikos Greek Yogurt Series.  I have been compensated for my time commitment to the program, which includes writing about the promotion and product.  However, my opinions are entirely my own and I have not been paid to publish positive comments.