Kiss Me Organics Matcha Tea Review

When people see 'Matcha Tea' typically they think

What is Matcha Tea?!
Oh yeah, hot tea...isn't that Japanese or something?
Now THAT is how I feel great!

Matcha tea is what is used in the traditional Japanese hot tea ceremony called, chanoyu (which means hot water for tea in Japanese). I have never had the pleasure of experiencing a real chanoyu with fancy hand movements and the proper preparation with a tea whisk, but I have had a few cups of it before. It is definitely a strong tea. What is great about this tea it that you don't have to just drink it to get the full benefits....benefits you ask? Oh yes, here are some:

• Increased Energy and Focus
• Calorie Burning Booster
• 137% More Antioxidants Then a Regular Cup of Green Tea

This matcha tea is the entire leave ground up into a powder, therefore containing more antioxidants than a regular cup of green tea (1 cup of matcha is equal to 10 cups of green tea). This dramatically increases the nutritional content. Now you might be thinking, "I have heard of antioxidants, but what are they?"

Antioxidants:

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, "Our bodies are battlegrounds against infection and diseases. Normal body functions such as breathing or physical activity and other lifestyle habits such as smoking produce substances called free radicals that attack healthy cells. When these healthy cells are weakened, they are more susceptible to cardiovascular disease and certain types of cancers. Antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E and carotenoids, which include beta-carotene, lycopene and lutein, help protect healthy cells from damage caused by free radicals."

Uses:
As I mentioned before, there are many uses for Kiss Me Organics Matcha Tea.

• Lattes
• Smoothes
• Baked Good

 If you do choose to make a simple cup of hot tea use 1 teaspoon of tea to 8 ounces of hot water. I use my Keurig for procuring hot water for my teas.

Once the water is added to the powder whisk until frothy. Add sweetener if desired.

Mint Matcha Milkshake

Ingredients:

• 1 teaspoon Matcha tea
• 2 teaspoons warm water
• 1/2 cup of mint ice cream
• 4 mint leaves (washed and dried)
• 2 tablespoons of milk
• 1 tablespoon of mint chocolate chips

1. Combine warm water and Matcha tea, stir until blended

2. Add remaining ingredients into a blender and run until smooth.

3. Pour Matcha mixture into mixture and blending again for another 5 to 10 seconds (or until mixture is a nice green color).

4. Stir in chocolate chips.

5. Enjoy! 

(Yields 1 serving)

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Ebook Review - Terry Treetop Finds New Friends

When raising a child there are so many morals and values we try to instill. Throughout our daily lives, as we interact with each other, we are showing our children how to behave. They roll play and imitate our every move. Therefore, we need to be sure to expose them to positive and constructive situations and experiences.

Terry Treetop Finds New Friends is a book which allows your child to step into the life of Terry and learn with him. In this Ebook they learn the importance of being self motivated and how not to give up. Children (and us adults!) easily become discouraged when things get hard. Terry shows our children the importance of persistence.

My daughter loved reading this book with me. The colorful pages and bold pictures made her excited with every turn of the page. She loves pointing to the pictures and telling me what she saw.

This is a fun and easy to read book, but most importantly, it has a wonderful lesson for your little one to learn.

notice her smiling cheeks

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Animals Tails a book By Dan Jackson - Review

Once children hit a certain age they become curious little sponges. They ask questions like, "why?" 500 million time in a day. As a parent you want to supply those little growing minds with all the best information and answers. Now if your kids are anything like my daughter, then they LOVE animals. Looking at them, touching them, but especially learning about them.

I was blessed with the opportunity to review the book Animals Tails by Dan Jackson.  This book is just filled with facts and beautiful pictures. Best part, it's digital! So when I need to entertain the kids while out and about and don't have wi-fi, we have books for them to read on the tablet; it's still "playing with the tablet". These kids now-a-days are tablet obsessed. We want them to learn the technology and to grow, but need them to be tools of growth and development, so this is when a book like Dan Jackson's Animals Tails is the perfect solution.

My daughter loved pointing out the different body parts and tell me what they were.

By viewing real animals she is able to see the anatomy and true nature of each creature

 I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Sweet'N Low Party

As the child of a diabetic mother I grew up using Sweet'N Low as our household sweetener instead of table sugar. My mother is unable to have very much sugar, but as we all know, you need some sweetness in your life! So for our cooking, drinks and now coffee I choose to use Sweet'N Low. I not only grew custom to using their product but have acquired a preference for their product. I have tried all the other new and old sugar replacement sweeteners but always go back to old faithful: Sweet 'n Low.

I was chosen to host a party on behalf of Sweet'N Low. I was supplied with complimentary products and some recipes to help assist me on their behalf. What a great experience it has been. I was able to gather 11 of my closest friends and easily talk them into having a party during our normal bible study meeting time. We all bought food and I supplied the sweetest and most refreshing drinks you can imagine! We snacked on hotdogs, chips, dips and homemade cookies but the hit of our party were to drinks.
Here are the recipes for the drinks we sipped upon:

Strawberry Granita Freeze:

                                                                                                

• 1 package (16 oz) frozen strawberries
• 2 cups cold water
• 1/4 lime juice (I used 2 fresh squeezed limes)
• 16 packets of Sweet'N Low zero calorie sweetener

Place frozen strawberries, water and lime juice in a blender and mix until well blended (about 30 seconds). Garnish with fresh strawberries (they are out of season in here...I looked at 2 places for fresh strawberries, sorry readers).

Sunny Citrus Soda:

• 2 cups fresh orange juice
• 1/2 cup of fresh lime juice (4 limes)
• 1/2 cup of fresh lemon juice (I did more with 4 lemons)
• 24 packets of Sweet'N Low zero calorie sweetener
• 1 1/2 liters of club soda, chilled
• Ice
• Lemon and lime wedges

Mix all ingredients over ice. Garnish with lemon and lime wedges or circles.


Both drinks were a hit! and didn't last long at all. All the husbands loved having a fun and sweet drink with dinner. The lemons even inspired an impromptu lemon eating competition! A bunch of them put a while wedge of lemon in their mouth and whoever ate it fastest won...rind and all! It was a hilarious memory we will always cherish and are so glad Sweet'N Low was what brought us together.

So swing by your local grocer and pick up a box of Sweet'N Low to try out these drinks for yourself! 

...Don't forget, they are husband approved

Ellie's Best 'The Bigger Better Nut Milk Bag' Review

Can we all say multifunctional?! 

When I received this bag from Ellie's Best to test I got so giddy with the possibilities. This bag is made of a material that I compare to a cleaner and easier version of cheesecloth, which as a mom and a cook, has endless uses. The three uses I will be showing you in this article are:

•  Almond Milk
•  Elevated Hot Apple Cider

Almond Milk
Making your own home made almond milk is not only good for you but it's fun and easy too. Making your own almond milk you are able to control all ingredients and the quality of your drink.

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of fresh organic almonds
• 4 1/2 cups of filtered water
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
• 3-4 prunes (pitted; for added sweetness)
• Pinch of salt
• One Ellie's BIGGER Better Nut Bag 
• Blender

1) First you need to soak your nuts (::giggles::). For almonds you need to soak for at least 10 to 12 hours, but no more than 2 days. This will soften your nuts and prepare them for blending. As your nuts soak they will make the water look 'dirty'. This is because the skin is softening and the shell is breaking apart slowly. Some dirt may be on the nuts and this bath will also clean the nuts.

2) Drain and rinse nuts.

3) Add nuts, filtered water, salt, vanilla extract and prunes to blender. Blend for 1 to 2 minutes.

4) Place Ellie's Best Nut Bag over a bowl. Pour the mixture into the bag, allowing the liquid to pass through the bag into the bowl. Squeeze the contents of the bag to get all milk out of bag.

5) Enjoy! Put in fridge and can be enjoyed for up to 3 days.

Toddler Approved

Elevated Hot Apple Cider

We all love a warm cup of hot apple cider in the fall and winter. Its such a comfort drink that is safe for the whole family to enjoy at a special occasion or at the fun gathering. It's easy enough to make right before an event and takes hardly any prep work at all (which is what us moms need sometimes). Leave it on during a party to make the whole room smell nice and festive.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Cinnamon Sticks
• 1 Tablespoon of Whole All Spice
• 1 Tablespoon of Whole Cloves
• 1 Gallon on Fresh Apple Cider
• 1 Ellie's Best BIGGER Better Nut Bag

Simply pour your cider into a crock-pot.

Measure out your spices and add them to the nut bag.

Tie off the nut bag by wrapping the extra cord around the top too keep the spices in.

Place bag into crock-pot and cook on low for 3-6 hours (or keep on 'warm' during a party to keep warm and allow the room to be aromatic). 

Enjoy with a cinnamon stir stick if desired.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Gold and Three Promotional Giveaway

Gold and Three is a company owned by a mother of 3 fabulous children. She specializes in making custom products: oneies, water tumblers, decals to decorative tiles and more. She is always looking to expand her product line, so feel free to ask her if you don't see a product that you would be interested in personalizing; it cant hurt to ask! Just private message Gold and Three on Facebook with any questions and to place orders.

Gold and Three is based in Cleveland, Ohio. They are able to ship anywhere across the globe (shipping costs are paid by customer).

When I first heard about Gold and Three I placed an order for a custom water tumbler. This water tumbler is a matte aluminum made for cold drinks. I had it made with the International Baby Wearing logo and my name (Wear ALL the babies!).

She has tons of color combo options too, which makes designing your own just that much more fun (You pick the bottle color and the writing color).

 

Here are some examples of custom items which were recently designed for customers:

Onesies are available in multiple sizes (newborn to 24 months). Custom prints are also available on toddler and adult shirts.

Everyone has inside jokes or sayings that you and your friends/family say all the time. Why not make that saying into a car decal to brighten up your car?!

 (Or any other item! Decals have endless opportunity in placement)

Birth Announcement Tiles are SO IN! I am part of multiple mom groups and these are the hot thing all new moms want. These announcements are extremely versatile and have tons of custom options. You can change the colors, fonts, set up. These are truly a classic gift to treasure and will be loved by the child from birth into adulthood. 

Now here is the awesome part! Gold and Three would like to offer you the chance to win a free custom onesie! 

That's right, shipped right to you for FREE! 

This onesie can be yours (you would pick the size and print color)!!!

If you just cannot wait and need to place an order right now use the code MamatheFox for an additional 10% off your first purchase (code expires October 30th, 2014). 

a Rafflecopter giveaway  This giveaway is open to continental US residents 18+ from 1 am September 15th, 2014 and close at 12:59 am September 30th, 2014. No PO Boxes. Winners will be drawn using Rafflecopter's Random Number Generator. I will notify winner via e-mail and they will have 48 hours to reply before I am forced to redraw winners. No purchase necessary. Void where prohibited. This contest is not affiliated with Facebook in any way.

Welcome to the #JustBecause We Can Giveaway Hop, brought to you by The Hopping Bloggers and Up All Night Blogging! We are a group of bloggers that specialize in giveaway hops - so stay with us and you will have many chances to win some amazing prizes! Each of the bloggers participating in this hop has a giveaway with a prize value of at least $20 - and some are much more than that! Be sure to visit them all - there is no limit to how many prizes you can win! Good Luck and Have Fun!

How to Make Skillet Chili Mac

Ingredients:
1 cup of cheddar cheese
1 - 1 1/2 lb of ground beef
1 1/2 cups of pasta shells (medium)
1 or 2 cans of Rotel with green chilies
1 (8 oz) can of tomato sauce
1 can kidney (red) beans
1/2 tea dried oregino
1/2 tea cumin
1 1/2 tablespoon of chili powder
1 tea salt
1 tea of garlic minced
2 cups of water
1 bell pepper (chopped)
1 med onion (chopped)

*optional toppings can be: green onions, sour cream, additional cheese...

1. Chop your green pepper

2. Chop your onion

3. Saute your onion and green pepper in oil until light browning occurs. Then add raw ground beef and continue to saute until meat is fully cooked (no pink).

4. Add in to skillet: cumin, chili powder, oregano, garlic, salt, shells, Rotel, kidney beans, tomato sauce and water. Mix well and cover. Cook for 20 minutes or until shell are fully cooked.

5. Once fully cooked add in the cheese and stir well.

Additional toppings are optional.