Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust With Whole Grain Review & Giveaway

We love pizza in this house.  Who doesn't?  We love pizza of any kind, but lately we've really enjoyed making homemade pizza.  This is a fun way to get your kids involved in the kitchen, and it's something that they will actually eat too which is a bonus in this house!

If you also enjoy making homemade pizza as a family, you should try the New Pillsbury® Artisan Pizza Crust with Whole Grain.  Just add your favorite ingredients and enjoy a hot, fresh meal in minutes. Whether your family loves pepperoni, veggies, or the works, the possibilities are endless with New Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust with Whole Grain.  With 16 grams of whole grain per serving, this is a pizza crust the whole family will love.  Now available in the refrigerated section of your local grocery store.

Quick, convenient, and completely customizable new Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust with Whole Grain will help you add some pizzazz to your homemade pizza along with the health benefits of whole grain! To download a printable coupon for $1.25 off one package of New Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust with Whole Grain, you can visit: http://bit.ly/PCwWG today! Through MyBlogSpark, Pillsbury provided my family with a great little prize pack including a $10 Gift Card, a coupon for a free Pillsbury Artisan Pizza Crust, a pizza cutter,oven mitt, and new rectangular pan!  And lucky for you, they are going to send one lucky blog reader their very own gift pack also!   To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling me what your family's favorite pizza topping is. One entry per person please. This giveaway starts now and will end on Monday, September 3rd, 2012 at 11:59pm EST. A winner will be selected at random and contacted via email. Winner will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.  Disclosure: The product, gift pack, information, and additional sample have been provided by Pillsbury through MyBlogSpark.

Libby's Fruit Cup Winner

I can't believe I only had two entries for this great giveaway!  What's going on here?  Don't you people love free stuff as much as I do?  Anyway, I'm happy to announce that the winner of the Libby's Back To School Prize Pack is post #1, pookiecat123 (Judy S.), who said, "The diced peaches sound great."  Congratulations Judy... check your inbox and send me your shipping info please!  I have a few more fun giveaways in store for you guys, so y'all better start entering to win!

And the winner is...

I am so glad to see that you're all getting excited about back to school!  The winner of the Crayola and General Mills Back to School Gift Pack is: 

Post #33, Jennifer Marie who said, "following via gfc (Jen M) 1."  Thanks for following Jennifer!  Check your inbox for a message from me requesting your shipping info!

Back to School Snacking Giveaway Sponsored by Libby's

In the spirit of back to school, I'm excited to share a great giveaway with you from Libby's featuring Libby's Single-Serve Fruit Cups and some other fantastic products.

These great little cups are just what every busy family needs to have on hand, as they are perfect for school lunches and after school snacking.  Made without any unhealthy additives, Libby's Single-Serve Fruit Cups come in a sturdy, easy-to-open container with 6 ounces of California grown fruit.  They are available at grocery stores for about a dollar a piece in 4 delicious varieties: diced peaches, diced pears, mixed fruit, and cherry mixed fruit.

The people over at Libby's were nice enough to send this great Back To School themed gift pack my way containing:

Yummy Healthy Fruit Cups:

This Bee Lunch Bag:

A Reusable Snack Bag: (it's machine washable!)

A svelte-looking Stainless Steel Food Container:

Why don't I have a picture of this gift pack all together, you ask?  Because my family was so excited about it we've already begun using everything!

To enter to win, leave a comment on this post telling me which variety of Libby's Single Serve Snack Cups your family would most like to try.  One entry per person please.  This giveaway starts now and will end on Monday, August 27th, 2012 at 11:59pm EST.  A winner will be selected at random and contacted via email.  Winner will have 24 hours to respond before a new winner is chosen.

My Husband, The Athlete

Lately my husband and I have been talking a lot about diet and exercise. It's no secret that we both could stand to lose 50 a few pounds.  With a constant stream of visitors this summer, and some kind of party or event every weekend it has been difficult to stay focused.  I know, I know... same old song and dance.  But we are both committed at the moment to leading a healthier lifestyle and being less fat and more trim.

Over the weekend my hubby mentioned registering for a 5K that is happening at the end of September.  Running is sooooooo not my thing; in fact, I find it only slightly less awful than having a root canal, but I'm happy and mostly supportive that he wants to do it. This is probably the 4th 5K he has said he was going to register for in a year, but hey, who am I to judge?  (7-day diet = epic fail, anyone?)  So our conversation regarding his training for the upcoming 5K went something like this:

Hubs: I think I'll do that Couch-to-5K program.
Me: Sounds good.  A lot of my friends have followed it and liked it.
Hubs: Yea, but I'm not going to start at the beginning.  I think I'll start on like week four.
Me: (eyebrow raise) Ooooooooo-K. (in my most sarcastic tone) Why would you do that?  Just do it normal like everyone else does, and maybe it'll actually work.
Hubs: Well, I'm an athlete.

An athlete???  Playing basketball in high school and college does not allow you to call yourself an athlete 15+ years and 30ish pounds later!  I had to refrain from busting out in a fit of giggles at his oh-so-silly self-proclamation.  Instead I just fired one of my infamous one liners, and finished off the conversation with:

Me: Yea, and I'm a ballerina.

After all, I did take ballet lessons when I was SEVEN!

Back To School Giveaway with Crayola and General Mills

As hard as it may be to accept... summer is coming to an end.  Currently in our 2nd week of August, Labor Day will quickly pass, and we'll all be back into the swing of things.  For most of you (who don't live in the crazy south and go to school YEAR ROUND!) this means your kids are heading Back To School very soon.  If you haven't already, its about time you head out to pick up school supplies, easy breakfast foods, and new clothes to get your kids off to the right start.  Crayola^® and General Mills are teaming up at your local Target to help you get ready and save!

This month, available exclusively at Target Stores: Purchase specially marked Nature Valley® Crunchy Granola Bars, Pillsbury® Toaster Strudel® Pastries, and Big G Cereal packages and you could save up to $5 on Crayola products Participating Big G cereal boxes will feature a fun Crayola coloring activity on pack Save on General Mills products when you purchase specially marked Crayola 64-CT Crayons This back-to-school season will be as easy as 1-2-3 with a little help from General Mills, Crayola, and Target, the one-stop-shop for all your back-to-school needs! Head to the front of the class and check out www.GrocerySavvy.com where you’ll find even more coupons for back-to-school, recipes, and a special 2012 “Grocery Savvy Crayola® Back To School” Sweepstakes! Be sure to enter the sweepstakes for your chance to win one of the 700 Crayola® 8-count Washable Dry Erase Crayons or one of 20 Crayola® Dry-Erase Activity Centers Zany Play Edition. Need a little encouragement in the getting ready for school department???  Good!  MyBlogSpark, Crayola, and General Mills has sent me a great prize pack, and is generously offering one of my blog readers one as well featuring: A box of Cheerios $20 Target gift card 8-CT Crayola Dry-Erase Crayons To enter, leave a comment on this post telling me what you're favorite part of Back-To-School is.  My standard giveaway rules apply and are posted below: Become a follower of Thou Shall Not Whine (3 extra entries!) *Just click the little "follow" button on the right-hand sidebar, then leave me 3 additional comments stating, "follower #1, follower #2, etc." Follow my blog on Facebook (2 extra entries) *click on the networked blog button on the right-hand sidebar, then leave 2 additional comments stating that you did!* Grab my button and display it on your blog (2 extra entries!) Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back to it. (2 extra entries!) Leave a comment on a non-giveaway post. (leave an additional comment here to count as your entry!) This giveaway starts now and will conclude on  Monday, August 20th, 2012, 11:59 PM EST. Winner will be selected via Random.org and contacted via email. Winner will have 48 hours to respond before another winner will be chosen. Disclosure: The product, gift pack, information, and additional sample have been provided by Crayola, Target, and General Mills through MyBlogSpark.

Progresso Recipe Starters Preview

Is there anyone else out there who stresses during those late afternoon hours over what to make for dinner?  Aren't we all looking for a dinner idea that we can throw together, tastes great, has wholesome ingredients, and doesn't take hours?  Oh, and that isn't cereal?  (Hahaha, yes, I feed my kids cereal for dinner.  A lot.)

I was really excited when MyBlogSpark contacted me about trying out this great new product by Progresso.  Progresso Recipe Starters Sauces are a great solution to that dinner time dilemma that creeps up every afternoon.  Read more:

Progresso Recipe Starters sauces will be available in five flavorful varieties that can each be used as a starter to create numerous home-cooked meals. Inspired by the five “Mother” Sauces that form the basis of classical French cooking, including Béchamel, Velouté, Tomato, Espagnole and Hollandaise, Recipe Starters use a variety of ingredients and the best techniques to make sure your family has endless solutions to the weeknight dinner dilemma.

The five varieties are: Creamy Parmesan Basil, Creamy Roasted Garlic with Chicken Stock, Fire Roasted Tomato, Creamy Portabella Mushroom, and Creamy Three Cheese.

For added inspiration, Progresso created 80 recipes utilizing this new line of cooking sauces that can be found on Progresso.com. Many of these recipes are classic family favorites, such as Bacon Mac n’ Cheese, Chicken Pot Pie and Chicken Parmesan.  An added bonus for me is these recipes don't usually list a whole bunch of ingredients that I have to make a special trip to the store to buy.  Many of the dinners are made with things that I already have on-hand most of the time.

MyBlogSpark and Progresso sent me a prize pack including one of each of the sauces to try, and since we're all addicted to Mac 'n Cheese in this house, the Creamy Three Cheese was the first one I used.  And without much planning or thought whatsoever, I made this Easy Weeknight Bacon Mac n' Cheese:

I threw some bread crumbs on top, baked it for 20 minutes, and Voila!  Dinner is served!

This dish was delish!  And while I don't have a Prize Pack to send out to one of my readers, I do have MANY giveaways coming up so be sure to check back soon!

Disclosure: The information, products and Progresso™ Recipe Starters™ gift pack was provided  to me by Progresso through MyBlogSpark.” All opinions expressed are my own.