Dole End of the Summer Smoothie Party!

After having to reschedule a couple times, I was finally able to hold my Dole Fruit Smoothie Party and it was a huge success! I had about 10 people show up and we had a lot of fun. I did this in correlation with a Miche Purse party so we had a great, girly time hanging out, having drinks, and playing with purses.

For the party, I used two blenders so I could have two different things going at once and we tried two different varieties of delicious Dole smoothies. My first batch was Mango, Pineapple, & Coconut smoothie by mixing one-half of a 14 oz. bag each of mango and pineapple, 1 cup of shredded coconut, ½ cup of plain yogurt, and about 1-1 ½ cups of fat free milk. I blended them up in the blender until smooth and creamy and it was delicious! Some of us mixed some coconut rum with ours to make a delectable smoothie cocktail. This one was definitely the hit of the party as we went through about 3 batches of this.

The second hit of the night was Cherry Chocolate in which I combined one 14 oz. bag of Dole Frozen Dark Cherries, ½ cup of plain yogurt, 1-1 ½ cups of fat free milk, and about ½ cup of chocolate chips. It was so yummy and rich that it was hard to have more than one cup of it. It would make a great dessert, though.

A few days before the party, my family and I tried a Tropical Blueberry Smoothie and anOrange Peach Smoothie both of which were very good and my kids absolutely loved them both. The Dole frozen fruit really makes it so easy to make these smoothies and if you make it while the fruit is still frozen, you don’t need ice. Just toss everything into the blender and go!

You can find more recipes online at www.dole.com and where to purchase Dole fruits. I found mine at my local Wal-Mart.

DOLE FROZEN FRUIT TIPS:

• Using DOLE Frozen Fruit is a more economical way to cook since you can use a little and save the rest for later, ensuring nothing goes to waste!
• DOLE Frozen Fruit is more uniform in size and flavor, which optimizes recipe outcomes.
• DOLE Frozen Fruit is ideal for toppings, baking, fruit salads or simply as a healthy snack.
• DOLE Wildly Nutritious Heart Healthy Mixed Fruit is a colorful mix of pineapple, strawberries, peaches, honeydew and mangoes.
• DOLE Wildly Nutritious Immunity Blend - Tropical Fruit is a delicious mix of pineapple, mango, golden kiwi, papaya and strawberries.
• DOLE Wildly Nutritious Antioxidant Blend is a nutritious mix of strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. Each serving of DOLE Wildly Nutritious Antioxidant Blend provides double the industry standard of effective antioxidant activity.

Thank you to Dole for sending us products and party supplies free of charge for our Dole Smoothie Party.

Review: New Kellogg's Eggo Real Fruit Pizzas

Multitasking is something we do throughout the day everyday. So it makes sense to combine several parts of breakfast, such as the cereal, fruit, yogurt, and bread, all into one kid-friendly product. Leave it to Kellogg's Eggo brand to come up with a product that accomplishes this. Their new Eggo Real Fruit Pizza is starting to show up in the frozen food section in supermarkets across the country.

This innovative product comes in two varieties . . . Strawberry Granola and Mixed Berry Granola. I think this is a great idea, but in this case, the idea is only as good as the product tastes. Well, I made both varieties for my picky eaters. They were surprisingly open to trying these since they love Eggo Waffles so much.

Below are photos of the frozen Real Fruit Pizzas and then what the pizzas looked like after a minute in the microwave each . . .

I cut each pizza into four slices, so that I and each of the children could try one slice of Strawberry Granola and one slice of Mixed Berry Granola. I was a little concerned about our 3 year old twins being resistant to eating these. They are so picky when it comes to food and they often do not like several things intermingling in their food. I was so pleasantly surprised that both twins finished both slices of fruit pizza. Our 6 year old son, however, did not finish his Mixed Berry Granola. He thought it was too tart.

I think the family is divided about the Eggo Real Fruit Pizzas. My 6 year old and I prefer the Strawberry Granola. It is sweeter and lighter tasting with just the yogurt, strawberries, and granola. The twins, however, both preferred the Mixed Berry Granola. They have an affinity towards jam and I believe the berry variety has jam mixed in with a bit of yogurt under the toppings.

Overall, the Eggo Real Fruit Pizzas were a hit with my children. I do recommend that you microwave them for the maximum amount of time because I do not think they crisp enough with just one minute.

You should be able to find Eggo Real Fruit Pizza most places where Eggo products are sold. If you need help locating Eggo products, just enter your zip code into Kellogg's product locator.

I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Eggo Real Fruit Pizza and received a sample of the product and a $20 Amazon gift certificate to facilitate my review.

Brrrrrrrrrr . . . Berries!

I know it is still too cold out to think about frozen fruit in some parts of the country (including my own), but I thought these shots made perfect offerings for Ruby Tuesday. The second shot was taken right before the contents of the bag were pureed to make fruit smoothies.

If you'd like to see more Ruby Tuesday photos, go visit Mary at Work of the Poet!

Giveaway & Review: Yoplait Frozen Smoothie Prize Pack [CLOSED]

Yoplait has done it again! They've come up with yet another tasty way for my children to enjoy fruit with Yoplait Frozen Smoothies. In the words of my 6yr old son . . . "These smoothies are awesome!"

So far, these Yoplait Smoothies come in three varieties . . . Strawberry Banana, Strawberry Mango Pineapple, and Triple Berry (which was the variety we tried). I'd like to try the Strawberry Mango Pineapple next and would love to see more varieties become available in the future. Perhaps something with peach in it?

The instructions on the back of the package were extremely easy to follow. These were the contents of the package . . .

The instructions said to use 1 cup of skim milk or 1-1/2 cups if you would like to be able to drink the smoothie through a straw. We went with 1-1/2 cups of whole milk.

We blended the milk and the frozen fruit on high for about 1 minute. Then we scraped the sides and repositioned any remaining chunks of fruit. 30 more seconds of blending was enough to create the right consistency for our smoothie.

One package of Yoplait Smoothies frozen fruit costs about $3.29 and yields two full servings. It would cost almost twice that price for just one large smoothie at the mall. Our batch was enough to fill one fountain glass and three children's cups 3/4 of the way.

Both my husband and I thought the smoothies tasted fresh and fruity. We like that we were not called on to add additional sugar because we often find that to taste too sweet. We much prefer the natural taste of fruit.

I'd also like to point out that the smoothies came out very thick with using 1-1/2 cups of milk . . . enough for a straw to stand up independently in the center. So, if you like your smoothies to be a little thinner, you could probably add another 1/2 cup of milk to yield even more for your family to share.

You should be able to find Yoplait Smoothies in your grocer's freezer section. Click here to snag a printable coupon for $1.25 off one package of Yoplait Smoothies!

Thank you to MyBlogSpark for providing us with a sample frozen smoothie product, a blender, and information free of charge on behalf of Yoplait to base this review upon and also for providing a prize pack for this contest's winner.

What you can win:
One lucky reader will receive a voucher for a free package of Yoplait Frozen Smoothies and a Hamilton Beach blender.

Limitations:
This giveaway is open to U.S. entries only. You do not need to be a blogger to enter, but you must have a valid email address and be age 18 years or older. If you enter anonymously and do not include a valid email address in your comment entries, I will not be able to notify you should you win this random drawing.

How to Gain Entries:
Leave a comment telling me what two types of fruit do you think would taste great together in a homemade smoothie. You MUST do this to be eligible to win this contest.

Extra Entries:

1) For 5 extra entries, leave a relevant comment on one of my non-giveaway posts. Then leave FIVE separate comments with the name of the post on which you commented. You will earn 5 extra entries for each different non-contest post you comment on.

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(All entries will be verified prior to awarding this prize.)


Random Drawing:

This contest ends on Monday, March 1st, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. A random number drawing will be held shortly after. The winner will be announced here and will be contact via email or through their blog. If the winner does not respond within 48 hours, a new number will be drawn.

Good luck in the drawing!