Thursday, August 14, 2014

Truvia Sampling

I always enjoy samplings that I get to include my family. Truvia (from crowd tap) was one of those! The mission was to create a lemonade stand. They sent along all the supplies we'd need (including a $10 gift card to buy things like fresh lemons-nothing beats fresh squeezed lemonade!). 

Kit from crowdtap :) I'm digging the shades!
 We decided we had to have a yummy sweet to go with our lemonade. We opted to try Tuvia lemon bars (recipe here). Unfortunately, I over cooked the mixture for the top layer a bit too long, so the look was a bit off so we didn't put them out for the stand, but the crust was perfect and the bars were tasty, despite the less-than-perfect appearance!

lemon bar ingredients!
making the crust

bars ready to pop in the over

don't look perfect, but were yummy!

"yummy!"

L resisting shoving the whole bar in his mouth!

The next step was to make the lemonade! We used the recipe right on the cups we received, it was super easy! 7 cups of cold water, juice from 4 lemons (got to try out my new lemon juicer from walmart from the 25 cent clearance bin!), 4 table spoons plus 2 teaspoons (or 16 packets) of truvia. Stir to dissolve, serve over ice! The kids got to help me make it, their favorite part was juicing the lemons. While the lemonade chilled in the fridge, the kids got to work on their sign. I wrote "Truvia Lemonade Stand" since my hand writing is just a tad neater, then let them decorate it. We put everything out than got to taste testing while we waiting for our "customers" to arrive. The kids were begging me for more and I found it to be the perfect mix of sweet and tangy (I am not a fan of over-ly tangy lemonade). We got visits froma few of our family and friends (including Grammy and Auntie Kyra, who were nice enough to let us photograph them!) and we poured some lemonade into a bottle for Uncle Ronnie's girlfriend CC who couldn't make it to the stand. Talk about a special delivery!

making lemonade!

Hard at work making signs!

Come check us out!

I have some talented boys!
Baby J digs in

L showing off his cup

C can't wait to drink it!

A is showing off CC's water bottle filled with lemonade

Even mommy got in on the selfie action!

playing with the truvia shades!


Giving some lemonade to grammy

grammy says yummy!

sharing some love with Auntie Kyra
Over all opinions of the lemonade were very favorable. I love truvia because it's an all natural sweetner. Less than 5 tablespoons of truvia were enough to sweeten the whole pitcher. It was easy and fun to make, and everyone from the tiny tots to the grown ups loved it!

Wednesday, August 13, 2014

Sample Share: Raisin Bran

I've had a very exciting August so far. Took a trip to California and met my favorite actor of all time, as well as a lovely bunch of ladies I am so glad to call my friends.

Hands down the nicest guy I've ever met!

Some of my lovely ladies and I before dinner, photo courtesy of Pam
So that said, I've fallen a bit behind on my sampling! I've got three so far lined up for you guys. The first is from Crowdtap, which as you all know is one of my favorite sites. I got the chance to try Raisin Bran. As a kid, this was not my favorite cereal. I would pick all the raisins out and leave the bran flakes. I was so disappointed that there was never enough raisins! I was excited to see if it had changed (more raisins!!) and to see how it stacked up to my adult palate. The first thing I noticed when I opened the package was that there was, indeed, more raisins! When I was done my happy dance, I took a look at the dry product. The flakes were nice quality flakes with very little crumby bits. I added some milk and sat down to taste it. It made me happy. The flakes tasted good (I was relieved to find they did not taste like cardboard, as some bran cereal does) and the amount of raisins went well with them. I had raisins in almost every bite (this is very important to me, as you can tell). I ate most of it quickly, but wanted to see how the flakes fared to sitting in the milk. As a mom of four young boys, I don't always get to eat meals right away and am constantly distracted, especially in the morning. While they definitely got wet, they were still edible. It actually took quite some time for them to get really soggy, which is a huge plus in this household. I'll be crossing my fingers for some coupons or a good sale because I would love to get this cereal in my cabinet.


dry product

milk added