sample share: discover brookside: dark chocolate crunchy clusters.

It's no secret. I LOVE chocolate. I stock up on clearance finds after holidays. I save up coupons and combine with deals. There is never a lack of chocolate in my house! It's my most common impulse buy, particularly when I see something new. When I got selected for this sample share from crowd tap, I was so stoked! I've been eying the Brookside brand for a while, but at just over $3 for a 5 oz package, I was waiting for a great deal since I still have a huge stock pile from the recent holidays. My package came in the mail, and I could not resist ripping it open right away, even before I took a photo for this blog! oops... The flavor I received was dark chocolate crunchy clusters. The packaging describes: " clusters of crispy multigrains and soft fruit flavored centers, all covered in smooth dark chocolate." Let me tell you, these babies are worth that over $3 price tag! The dark chocolate is perfect, and the clusters have a good blend of soft fruit and crispy grains. I was expecting a bit more fruit in the center at first bite, but am not disappointed by the balance. I forced myself to make these last, only eating a few at a time (and although I shared, I admit I was a tad stingy with the amounts!). Towards the end of the bag, I tossed some on top of some cherry ice cream with honey. So amazing! I wish I had saved more for that treat! Crossing my fingers for some Brookside coupons to come out so I can indulge some more! I definitely recommend these clusters! Some photos to share my experience:

brookside selfie!

the bag ;)

view of the clusters

inside of the clusters-you can see the grain and a bit of the fruit

my sister showing off the bag

she's excited I shared ;)

what a face ;)

my ice cream treat!!! highly recommended!

October sampling: Fast-acting Advil film-coated

It's time for my newest Crowdtap review! Up next: Fact-acting Advil. Except when I'm pregnant (admittedly most of my married adult life-I've got four little ones!), i'm an ibuprofen girl when it comes to managing head aches. My husband is a little less picky, he'll use whatever I buy. When I have coupons, I love to stock up on advil (and hubby swears it works better than the generic brands, I don't see much of a difference). I jumped at the chance to try out the new film-coated advil. It's being advertised as fast-acting, and that's a pretty cool thing when you are dealing with pain.

that coupon will get some use! :)

 I put mine aside and rounded up some volunteers to try it out. My husband was the first to step up to the plate. He works crazy shifts (inventory control in a warehouse overnights) and wakes up in the morning to do the school routine with our brood while I head to work. He used his fairly quickly, as daily life can cause him headache. He said it's definitely better than any generic he's used, and he thinks it's faster than normal advil as well. After a particularly long work shift and a night of fighting boys, I was able to try my sample late last week. I got heart burn right after taking it, which I googled and read it's a pretty common reaction to ibuprofen if you are sensitive to it. It's never happened to me before, and I use it fairly regularly. Heart burn aside, I did find that it alleviated my head ache faster than normal. I'll chalk the heart burn up to a random fluke and give it another go before switching back to my advil liquid-gels.

I'm so excited to try this!

My husband being silly :)

ah, teen angst

October sampling: Skintimate Raspberry Rain shave gel

The wonderful month of October continues! As a couponer (and one of four basically adult female children and quite a few close friends who've been part of my family for years) I love finding the best bang for my buck. I've tried just about every brand of shaving cream/gel you could imagine. One of my favorites is Skintimate. Last month, I got the opportunity to sample the mandarin burst scent for myself. This month, I was blessed with another opportunity to try a different scent--and to share some with my favorite ladies! This scent? Signature scents Raspberry rain. Step one: take lots of photos of my loot and share them to get the word out that I need some samplers! ;) I wanted to get a few people in this one that don't usually participate with my sampling. And who doesn't love free stuff??

I opened the box...

And couldn't believe all the cool stuff I had to give away! :)

Step two: try it out myself! I love to spread the word on products I love. To give honest feedback, you need the experience. So I got ready to lather up and try it out!

It looks so pretty on my bath ledge! :)

Neat fact i never thought about: exfoliating BEFORE you shave helps remove dead skin that can clog up your razor! This is especially true for the winter months when shaving takes a back seat due to cold weather and long pants (especially up here in New England! brr!) or when life is just too crazy! My sampling kit came with some Himalayan salt scrub from the San Francisco bath salt company to do just that. it felt really cool (and smelled amazing!). The Raspberry Rain shaving gel lathered perfectly (I LOVE a good lather when shaving) and smelled so good! I got a nice shave (and no nicks!). So it was time to get my girls together and share!

I had a visit from one sister who couldn't make the party date-she wouldn't take a photo and made baby sister pose instead! ;)

Some of my favorite ladies!

look at all the cute feet!

checking out the bath salt scrub

playing with--errr, smelling--the shaving gel! :)

ready to sample!

Everyone was so excited to be able to take home their own sample shaving gel (and razor!) when they left. I had three ladies not be able to make it  who we brought samples to--can't wait to hear how they enjoyed it!

October Crowdtap sampling: Ragu pasta sauce

I was so excited when the Ragu brand joined with Crowdtap. It is my favorite sauce brand, ever since I was young. My dad always bought it, and I continued when I moved out on my own. I'm a huge mushroom fan, so i love the chunky mushroom variety. My kids are big veggie eaters, so any of the garden variety always go over well (though my kids practically drink pasta sauce! They will eat it in practically any variety. My seven year old was particularly excited to try the meat kind on our last shopping trip). This crowd tap challenge was to make a dish featuring Ragu. We did a pretty basic American chop suey. I browned the hamburger, added the sauce (chunky mushroom, of course!) til it was heated, then mixed it into a pan of cooked elbow pasta. All of my kids loved it, and the sauce really makes the dish, particularly in a dish like this. The sauce is not too thin (I HATE thin sauce-the very reason I can't buy the generic sauce at the grocery store!) and has plenty of nice mushroom pieces. It has a nice flavorful taste, not too bland like many generic/cheaper brands. At walmart, the price point is $1.69 for the small jars, which makes it very affordable, even for my family's tight budget. I definitely recommend Ragu sauce for all your pasta (or other suacey!) needs (side note: I made a pizza once with the mushroom sauce. Very good. It was amazing pizza!).

Time to go shopping! ;)

Topher showing off our sauce jar

simple ingredients

Logan wanted to help pour the sauce in!

cooking up some yummy dinner!

mixing it all together

finished product!

Kid approved! ;)

Welcome October! Vichy sample share

The end of September was a great month of sample shares! I have a few things to type up today and tomorrow, and some more sample shares should be gracing my mail box any day now! One of the many reasons I LOVE Crowdtap! Today, i am going to talk about Vichy skin idealizer serum. I am not a huge skin care guru like quite a few of my girl friends are, but it looked interesting so I thought I'd give it a try.

6 packs of 8 samples to try out the 8-day challenge

ready to try Vichy out!

It even looks pretty! Hard to tell, but it's a shiny pink color.

I put it on my face, and was pleasantly surprised at how it didn't feel gross. Like I said, I'm not a skin care guru by any means, and my limited experience with it left my skin feeling gross. Immediately after applying, I felt like I was de-stressifying. It felt nice to feel like I was pampering myself. I put it on every night, and the feel of my skin really did improve. It felt softer, and the occasionally acne I get did not make an appearance. As a mom of four boys 7 and under working a full time job (with fast food, no less!) it was really nice to add something to my routine that took literally less than five minutes and made me feel better about how I look. So what do I do when I love something? Share it, of course!!

gifting to my lovely mommy!

my sister is so excited!

she calmed down enough to snap this lovely selfie!

I mailed sample packs to my two skin care gurus who I am not lucky enough to live near

I am pleased to share that they loved it as much as I did! :)

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!