Win a $150 Spa Gift Card with Pepperidge Farm Petite Pirouette® and Petite Twists®!

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Pepperidge Farm.

During a busy day, it's important to take some time out for yourself, even if just for a moment. Often, a break involves a treat or a snack, but sometimes we find ourselves finishing up the kids' leftovers instead.

Why not indulge yourself with something a little more elegant?

We recently had the chance to try out two kinds of treats from Pepperidge Farm Petite Pirouette and Petite Twists.

Petite Pirouette wafers are delicate, crispy rolled wafers with creamy, chocolaty filling on the inside. Try either the chocolate hazelnut or chocolate crème flavor - or both! Three Petite Pirouette rolled wafers add up to 90 carefree calories! The chocolate crème ones in particular were a big hit around here.

Petite Twists puffed pastries have layers of delicate, crisp pastry swirled with sweet cinnamon or raspberry. A delightful treat with 90 calories in two treats! These are really good, too. They're crunchy (but not hard) and they're not too sweet. Both treats are great for a little indulgence and are fancy enough for guests as well. Try them as a garnish to ice cream or frozen yogurt.

The contest:

To enter, leave me a comment below and tell me if you had a day all to yourself, what would be your favorite way to spend it, or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below.

The contest will begin at 9:00 a.m. (PST) November 2, 2009 and will end 5:00 p.m. (PST) November 30, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:
* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US-residents, aged 18 and older
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
* Please see the official rules here: Official rules

Don't forget, you have 6 other chances to win, be sure to check out the BlogHer.com special offers page!

Win a $100 Visa gift card and a Febreze gift basket

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Febreze NOTICEables

Old houses sometimes have smells of their own. I live in an old house, and yes, it's clean (OK, OK, it's clean a good bit of the time), but sometimes you can clean all day and your efforts just need a little extra boost to keep things smelling fresh. We've used Febreze for years, most notably to cover up a dead mouse in the wall smell (yes, really), so I was eager to try out Febreze NOTICEables.

Wait, now you think my house stinks, it doesn't really, it's just that when something smells, it smells. Know what I mean? OK, nevermind...

Anyway, Febreze NOTICEables are scented oil warmers that plug into any outlet and last for about 30 days. NOTICEables actually eliminate odors from the air. by alternating between two complementary scents all day. They come in quite a few scents pairs including special seasonal varieties (fall is out now), natural, fruity and fresh scents.

The kids got hold of my samples first (don't they always?) and put it together and put in the bathroom upstairs. We have a 2 story house and within a few minutes, you could smell it all over the house, even on the low setting. It's quite nice and there's already an improvement in the "old house" smell in that area. Notie, I resisted commenting on a "bathroom smell" (you're welcome), but if you're wondering, it works for that, too.

Want a chance to win some for yourself?




To enter for a chance to win a $100 Visa gift card and a Febreze gift basket, leave me a comment below and tell me what is the most important thing you do to maintain a clean, fresh home - or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below.

The contest will begin at Sunday, September 27, 2009 and will end Tuesday, October 27, 2009. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US Residents, aged 18 and older
* Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

Link to the Random Number Generator: http://www.random.org/integers/

Don't forget to check out the rest of the BlogHer Reviews - you have 9 chances to win

Don't forget to visit me at Busy Mom Blog!

Wish-Bone Review and Giveaway

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Wish-Bone

“Delicious as a dressing, Remarkable as a Marinade” - Get More out of your Dressing.

I've been making a concerted effort to get dinner on the table and eat as a family lately, but this time of year is hard since we're gone a lot with sports practices and end of the school year activities. I need something I can fix without a lot of preparation time, but that isn't the same old thing each day.

Additionally, with the weather getting warmer (at least some days, anyway) it's time for some lighter fare and I learned about some great salad ideas from Wish-Bone.

When I was growing up, we had a salad at just about every dinner, and it was always in those wooden salad bowls. Wish-Bone was the only salad dressing I knew of, and as far as I knew there was Italian and French and we had it on lettuce, carrots and radishes when they were in season. I wasn't until later I found out about "exotic" flavors such as Thousand Island and Russian, but those went on lettuce, too.

Now, there's so many great Wish-Bone Dressing products and so much more you can create and use it for such as marinades, sandwiches and lots of different salads beyond just lettuce. As a matter of fact, each Wish-Bone Salad Dressing bottle comes with a recipe right on it.

I received a variety of Wish-Bone products and we (OK, OK, Busy Girl did it)



made (there's a reason I'm not a food stylist) Mandarin Chicken Salad:



Creamy Red Potato Salad:




Easy Mediterranean Pasta Salad:



They all turned out great!

The Mandarin Chicken Salad has an unexpected combination of ranch dressing and orange marmalade, and it really works for the salad. It wasn't as big of a kid favorite as the other two recipes, but the adults loved it.

Potato Salad is it's own food group here in the South, and the Creamy Red Potato Salad did not disappoint, the whole family gave it a thumb's up. It has simple ingredients and didn't take long to prepare. I will probably add a little more mustard to it next time, but it won't be in the fridge for long!

The Easy Mediterranean Pasta Salad is Busy Girl's personal favorite and the rest of us aren't allowed in it. However, I did sneak some, it's great and hearty enough for a meal. There's not a carbohydrate that is safe from my 12 year old son, so I venture a guess that it won't be around long, either.

THE CONTEST!

Enter for a chance to win a $100 Grocery Gift Card and a Wish-Bone prize pack (valued $46.10).

Wish-Bone can do more than just dress up your salad, what's your favorite way to use Wish-Bone dressing? (Will you cook it for me?)


To enter, leave me a comment below telling us about how you use Wish-Bone Salad Dressing - or you may leave a link to your post on your own blog in the comments below. The contest will begin at May 18, 2009, 9:00 a.m. PST and will end June 30, 2009, 5:00 p.m. PST. Make sure that the e-mail address you leave is correct.

Rules:

* No duplicate comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by linking on twitter and leaving a link in the comments.
* You may receive an additional entry by blogging about this contest and leaving a link in the comments.
* This giveaway is open to US residents; 18 and over
* Winners will be selected via random draw using a random number generator, and will notified by e-mail.
* You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.
* Please see the official rules here: http://www.blogher.com/wish-bone-official-sweepstakes-rules

Check out the other BlogHer Reviewer's Wish-Bone recipes successes and enter for an additional chance to win a $100 Grocery Gift Card and Wish-Bone prize back at the BlogHer Special Offers Page.


Upgrade your salads with Wish-Bone® Dressings. Visit the Wish-Bone site for great recipe ideas for your family.


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Please come visit me at Busy Mom Blog!