Ad: How to Have a Fun & Easy 2-Step Dipping Valentine's Day Family Meal . . . Double-Dipping Required! #LuvTyson

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This #LuvTyson Chicken Tenders shop has been compensated as part of a Valentine's Day social shopper amplification for #CollectiveBias and its advertiser.  All opinions expressed are my own.

My husband and I have a date night about once a year and it rarely falls on Valentine's Day.  That is the one day of the year when most of the adults whom we trust to watch our children have their own big plans.  If this happens to you as well, why not make the most of it by have a fun Valentine's Day family meal?  (Romantic candlelight dinners are overrated.)  Since I only do "easy" when it comes to meals, let me show you how simple it would be to create a special kid-friendly dinner for Valentine's Day!  First, you'll need a food that all your children love.  In our case, this would be chicken tenders.

You may think that chicken tenders are just an everyday food, but it transforms into something fun when you introduce the concept of 2-step dipping . . .

"2-Step Dipping" is when you dip your chicken tender into a sweet or tangy sauce and then dip it a second time into something crunchy and savory!

Our Valentine's Day family meal had 6 components . . . 

• Chicken tenders plus 3 sweet/tangy dips and 3 crunchy/savory dips
• Cheese and crackers with heart-shaped pepperonis (cut with kitchen shears)
• Valentine's Day themed plates and napkins
• Chocolate roses
• A red drink (ours was 70% lemon-lime soda & 30% pomegranate cranberry juice)
• Valentine's Day cookies

I found everything I needed at Walmart, including the disposable dipping cups with lids, Valentine's Day stickers (for just $1), 12" paper doilies, chocolate roses ($1 each), everything we needed for dipping, the ingredients for our red drink and our own special dipping sauce, Valentine's Day Peanut M&Ms for our cookies, and of course the Tyson Original Batter Dipped Chicken Breast Tenders.

Be sure to look for a coupon in your February 9th Sunday morning paper for Tyson Batter Dipped Tenders!

There were several things to prepare, but most of them were quite easy.  Our 7 year old daughter was able to help with some of the prep work, such as placing the Valentine's Day stickers on the dipping cups, filling the dipping cups with some of the sauces, and placing the lids on the cups.  We had some stickers leftover, so we wrapped the chocolate roses in a Valentine's Day napkins and secured them with napkin rings we made with the stickers and wide curling ribbon.

For the 2-step dipping, we used two sauces that we have enjoyed dipping other things into in the past.  Then we made a 3rd dipping sauce of our own.  We also crushed 3 of our favorite savory snacks.  What we ended up using for dips were . . .

• Wise Onion Rings (crushed)
• Barbecue corn chips (crushed)
• Cashews (crushed)
• Honey
• Cocktail Sauce
• Soy Honey Lime Sauce (Recipe below)

RECIPE:  Soy Honey Lime Dipping Sauce

INGREDIENTS:

1 cup low sodium soy sauce

2 to 3 Tbsp honey

1 tsp lime juice

Step 1.  Pour soy sauce into a small mixing bowl.

Step 2.  Add lime juice, blending it into the soy sauce.

Step 3.  Add honey one tablespoon at a time, stirring to completely dissolve the honey in the soy sauce before adding the next spoonful.  (Taste the sauce before you add more honey.)

I have to say that our children had a blast with the 2-step dipping!  Since they each had their own set of dips, they could experiment with various combinations.  Some of the favorites were the cocktail sauce or the honey with the crushed barbecue corn chips.  Our Soy Honey Lime Sauce tasted great with the chicken tenders, but the solid dipping ingredients did not adhere to it as easily as they did to the honey and cocktail sauce.

Now I want to know what ingredients you would use for your 2-step dipping family meal!

Bring Good Moments to the Dinner Table with McCain Potatoes

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting for McCain Foods. I received a sample to facilitate my review as well as a promotional item as a thank-you for participating. All opinions expressed are my own.

One of my biggest complaints about my life is how busy and hectic our household is.  We are pretty much always in a rush and that includes getting dinner on the table.  We have 3 children with 3 different levels of pickiness when it comes to food.  Our 9 year old son is most open to eating almost everything we serve him.  Our 6 year old daughter is open to trying everything at least once, but her list of foods she likes is definitely shorter than her big brother's.  Her twin brother is reluctant to try anything new and randomly moves foods from his 'likes' list to his 'does not like' list.  All of the above is true, even when it comes to the most kid-friendly food in the world . . . french fries.

Luckily for us, McCain potatoes makes it easy for us to please everybody.  Every member of the family has his or her own favorite.  It's so easy for us to make more than one variety of french fries.  The three types of fries we usually serve are McCain 5 Minute Fries, Seasoned Spirals, and Smiles.  Also, somehow our children seem much more willing to eat their veggies when they are served next to a generous serving of fries.  Bottom line is that, thanks to McCain Potato products, at least some of our family dinners can be less stressful and even fun, bringing good moments and memories to the dinner table!

Recently, we served the children a dinner consisting of 3 types of McCain french fries, freshly made hamburgers (with optional bacon, mushrooms, and Swiss or American cheese), and a tiny bit of spinach salad.  If you can believe it, our 6 year old son complained about having to eat his bacon cheeseburger.  He did end up eating it though!  Why? . . . because we also gave the children empty plates to use as canvases to make food art.  Yes, we told them they could play with their food as long as they were eating it too.  Well, they didn't dare eat all their fries first because that would end their play all too quickly, so they gobbled up their burgers and salad.

After I showed them a few things I could make using my food, the children enjoyed themselves thoroughly making their own creations while they ate.  Here are some examples of what they came up with . . .

Here's another one of mine (yes, I had fun playing with my food too!) . . .

McCain wants you to have plenty of chances to bring good moments to your dinner table!  Through November 4th, McCain will randomly draw one winner every week to receive a $500 grocery gift card.  Be sure to enter by visiting McCain on Facebook.  After you enter, remember to grab your coupon for $1 off any one bag of McCain Potato products.

“Load up on groceries your family loves, and bring naturally good moments to the dinner table every time you serve McCain Potatoes."

To learn about how McCain has reformulated its potato product lines to be more natural and free of artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives when possible, visit www.McCain.com.

Papa Gino's Pizzeria Pasta Family Meals Make Family Dinners Fast and Easy

Thank you to Papa Gino's Inc. for providing a complimentary product sample for us to base this review upon and for providing a free product coupon for our contest prize.  All opinions expressed are my own.

I make no secret of the fact that our family is a busy one.  There are evenings when my husband is running late coming home from work and I am buried in deadlines or I am with my children at taekwondo class past six o'clock.  Those are the nights when my husband and I settle for what we thought was the quickest and easiest option . . . having him go to a drive-thru on his way home.  Well, it turns out that there is a better option that is equally as quick and easy, but allows us to serve our family a real family dinner.

Papa Gino's has been offering pasta for quite some time, but did you know that they offer Pasta Family Meals?  These meals come with enough pasta of your choice, salad, and breadsticks to feed the whole family.  Pasta Family Meals come in a small size, which feeds 4 to 6 people, and a large size, which serves 8 to 12 people.

My favorite way to order from Papa Gino's is online.  I can place my order, tell them when my husband will be arriving to pick it up or ask for the food to be delivered, and I can either pay for it online or have my husband pay when he picks up the order.

For the Pasta Family Meals, you can choose one of the 11 types of pasta dishes, a garden or Caesar salad, and one of several kinds of salad dressings.  You can even add chicken to your salad for just a few dollars extra.  The meal also comes with Papa Gino's Cheese Breadsticks.  The restaurant provided more than enough salad dressing, serving utensils, and even offered to provide plates and cutlery.  Since we were eating at home, we just used our own dishes and utensils.

We opted for the penne and meatballs.  My husband was in awe of how much pasta and meatballs there were.  I felt the same way when I saw the salad.

I am unsure whether the meal comes with Parmesan cheese.  It was not offered to us and my husband did not ask for it since he knew we had some at home.  If grated Parmesan is not included, then I would say that is the one thing that is missing from the Pasta Family Meals.  We must remember to ask next time.

Out of everything, our children were most excited about the cheese breadsticks and the enormous amount of croutons included with the meal.

The Caesar Salad already had shredded cheese on it, so all we had to do was add the croutons and salad dressing.

Our family of five stuffed ourselves and we still had about a fifth of the pasta and meatballs left and just slightly less than half the salad.  The ten breadsticks didn't stand a chance.  Our children were so stuffed that they did not even ask for dessert.

While we were cleaning up after dinner, my husband and I agreed that this meal was a very good value.  The Small Pasta Family Meal costs $29.99.  For the five of us, we spend almost that much going through a fast food drive-thru.  We definitely spend more than that with just about any other kind of takeout.  Next time, we want to try the new Sweet Sausage & Roasted Red Pepper Pasta!

Papa Gino's would like you to try a Pasta Family Meal for yourself with your own family and has made available the printable Papa Gino's $5 off a Pasta Family Meal coupon below.  This coupon is valid through 6/30/13.

TO PRINT:  Make sure your computer's printer is on and ready to print.  Click on the coupon to enlarge.  Then right-click on the image and select print.  Use your browser's back arrow to return to this page.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Good luck in the drawing!

Family Dining at the DoubleTree by Hilton's TradeWinds Restaurant

During our staycation at the Coco Key Water Park in Boston's North Shore, we had the pleasure of dining at the TradeWinds Restaurant, located inside the DoubleTree by Hilton hotel, a total of 3 times.  Our Ultimate Water Park Package not only included our accommodations, water park passes, and arcade credits, but it also included breakfast at the in-house restaurant.  While enjoying the breakfast buffet with my family the first morning around 10am, I could clearly see that the restaurant was popular for businessmen and women.  If there had not been a few other families having breakfast at the same time, I would have felt very out of place.

I could not help but wonder how TradeWinds would fare as a family-friendly restaurant when we dined there that evening.  I should point out that on the second morning, we went to breakfast around 8:30am and found the atmosphere in the restaurant to be much different.  It was actually swarming with families.

I was very pleasantly surprised at how kid-friendly this elegant restaurant turned out to be at dinner.  They even had a children's menu, crayons and activity placements, and covered straw cups.  Our waiter (James) was very polite, but personable, even to the children.

How was the food?

The warm dinner rolls were crusty on the outside and pillowy on the inside, just as freshly baked rolls should be.  You can see how popular they were with my family, since they snatched them all up before I could even take a photo of the full basket.

As an appetizer for the children, we ordered these nachos loaded up with vegetables, cheese, and ground beef.  They dug right into it, but carefully removed anything they found to be suspicious . . . like the black olives.  Our 3 children, with a little help from my husband, finished about 2/3 of this generously-sized appetizer.

My husband ordered the "Chili No. 7" to precede his entree.  He found it to be fresh with high quality ingredients.  He thought the taste was very good, especially for a restaurant that did not specialize in Southwestern cuisine.

I chose the baked French onion soup for myself.  Since I am the only crazed onion fan in my family, this was a treat for me.  I enjoyed the soup very much and wished I had more time to finish it.  It was only available in a crock and not the smaller cup serving, so it was too much for me to finish before I had to turn my attention to my entree.

From the children's menu, our 9 year old son ordered a cheeseburger with french fries.  Even though he had stuffed himself with dinner rolls and nachos, he was able to finish most of it, which indicates that it was a good and tasty meal.  If it was not, he would have left more than half of it on his plate.

Our nearly 6 year old son ordered the cheese pizza from the children's menu.  It was perfectly sized for a child his age, if he had not eaten a dinner roll and too many nachos.  We had to take more than half of the pizza back to our hotel room with us.  Luckily, we are all fans of cold pizza!

Our nearly 6 year old daughter chose the grilled cheese sandwich with french fries.  The bread was thick and it looked like a panini-style sandwich.  I was tempted to steal a piece from her.

I ordered the seasoned steak tips for my entree, which came with french fries and cole slaw.  They were seasoned and cooked perfectly . . . medium, just as I had requested.  I have to say that the french fries were also excellent.  My husband enjoyed my cole slaw since he is the cole slaw fanatic in the family and thought it was very good.

My husband ordered the ribeye steak topped with blue cheese butter with mashed potatoes.  He substituted the asparagus that would have come with his meal with onion rings.  He had ordered his steak medium-rare.  The steak was very high quality and was as amazing as it looked until he got past the edges.  The center of the steak was very rare.  He had even told the waiter that the steak was cooked to his liking when he checked on us because he had only taken a few bites.  My husband actually likes his steak between medium-rare and rare, and he was not able to eat this steak.  He ended up taking it back to our room and cooked it slightly in the microwave.  After that, he thought it was perfect!

Each of the children's meals came with an ice cream sundae.  Although the ice cream topped with hot fudge and whipped cream was very good, they were all too full to finish their desserts.

My husband and I shared the molten chocolate cake, which was served warm and was very rich and decadent.  I definitely would not have been able to finish it on my own after eating my soup and entree.

Overall, our dining experience as a family at TradeWinds was very positive.  As a restaurant with elegant decor and dim lighting, it turned out to be very family-friendly.  I would estimate the prices to be approximately 25% higher than a family restaurant, such as the Olive Garden, which is perfectly fine, especially when you are staying at a hotel on vacation.

You can read about Day #1 of our staycation here, about Day #2 here, and see all the photos from our weekend here.


Thank you to the Coco Key Water Park and the DoubleTree by Hilton for providing us with complimentary accommodations, meals, arcade credits, and water park passes for us to base this review upon. All opinions are my own.

How to Plan a #DipDipHooray Family Game Night Dinner (#CBias)

I have always wanted to schedule a regular Hasbro Game Night for our family because spending time together and creating happy childhood memories is extremely important to me.  The problem is that our household is a less than leisurely one.  Our weekends are always filled with chores, errands, and events.  A typical weekday for our children would be school, homework, dinner, bath, and bedtime.  We also manage to squeeze taekwondo classes in there twice a week after school.

I am a little disappointed in myself for not putting my multi-tasking skills to work before now, but it only recently occurred to me that the solution for being too busy to fit in a Family Game Night regularly is to combine dinnertime with game time!  Our children are 5.5, 5.5, and 8.5 years old, so they have not yet reached the age when they will be missing family dinners for other activities.  I need to take advantage of the time we spend together during dinnertime now.

The first step to planning a Family Game Night Dinner would be to make sure you have several board games that can be played by the number of people in your family.  In our case, we needed a game that would allow at least 5 people to play at once.  I really only had a couple that were easy enough for our kindergartners to play, so I decided that I should pick up a new game when I went shopping for the other things I needed for dinner.

The next step would be to pick up some easy no-mess kid-friendly food for dinner.  Tyson Chicken Nuggets, Ore-Ida French Fries, and Heinz Ketchup for dipping seemed like the perfect meal solution.  They are all things I know my children love and the key to a fun Family Game Night Dinner is to have zero fussing about the food, so that we can focus on the fun!  This includes minimizing your time preparing dinner and cleaning up afterwards.  If you do not have a dishwasher, then go ahead and use paper plates and cups, so there will be more time for playing.  The only "extra" thing I did was sprinkle garlic salt and a little pepper on the fries before I put them in the oven.

I was able to find everything I needed in one shopping trip to Walmart, except for the extra fries.  I already had a partial bag of Golden Crinkle French Fries in the freezer, but wanted some extra in case what I had on hand was not enough.  I ended up picking up a bag of Hash Browns instead, but it turned out we did not even need them.

To get the fun started, ask your children to break the rule about not playing with their food by building something cool with their fries and chicken nuggets.  One of the adults will choose the winner, who will then be able to pick which game the family will be playing during dinner.

Our youngest son won the building contest!  He built several small things rather than trying to use all his food to build one structure.  My favorite concoction is his french fry sandwich, which used two chicken nuggets as the bread.

I was hoping our son would choose the new Pictureka game I had picked up, but he opted for the Star Wars Operation game instead.  I really did not mind his choice because I rule at Operation!  (What? No, none of this let the children win nonsense for me.)


I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias™ Tyson and Heinz #CBias #SocialFabric #DipDipHooray.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Silly Monkey Stories: Fun at The Cheesecake Factory

My husband's and my birthday are coming up this weekend, but we celebrated a little early with a family dinner hosted by my parents at The Cheesecake Factory.  The problem with going to fine restaurants is that they never have anything with which the children can entertain themselves.  I rarely think to bring little toys to a restaurant either and, since we have not carried a diaper bag with us for at least a year now, the children were out of luck.

This is what happens when there are no crayons with placemats to color . . . 

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