Hand Out Smiles This Halloween, While Supporting the Dave Thomas Foundation For Adoption #Frosty4Adoption

About three months ago, we met an amazing little boy.  We had the pleasure of meeting this boy because he was to become our new nephew and a new cousin to our children.  You see, my sister and brother-in-law are currently in the process of adopting.  It is a long and difficult process, but I know they feel it is worth it.  This little boy has already stolen their hearts.  Thinking about what this little boy has been through over the past year or so is quite saddening.  However, thinking about how he is so close to not only having a home with loving parents, but also aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and great-grandparents who all love him too, is extremely heartwarming.

Did you know that there are more than 100,000 children in foster care awaiting adoption? I find that statistic to be astounding and can't help but think about how many children will never be placed in loving homes.  This is why it's so important to support foster care adoption and why Wendy's makes it easy for you to take action. All you have to do is Purchase a Wendy’s® Halloween Coupon Book for $1 at participating Wendy’s restuarants!

The next time you stop into Wendy's or go through their drive-thru, perhaps to try one of their new Pulled Pork Sandwiches, remember to pick up one (or more) Halloween coupon books.  They're only $1 each and contain 10 coupons for a free Jr. Frosty™. Ninety cents of every $1 Halloween Coupon Book sold between September 13 – October 31, 2014 will benefit the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption®.

Do you love gifts that give like I do? Last year, one of our children's teachers gave each of her students a  Jr. Frosty™ Halloween coupon for Halloween.  They'd be perfect to hand out to trick-or-treaters in place of or tied to a lollipop or other type of candy.  You could even buy one coupon book for each stocking you have to stuff this Holiday.  If you like any of these ideas or have some ideas of your own, don't wait to pick up your coupon books.  They're only available until the end of October, but can be redeemed from November 1st, 2014 through February 1st, 2015.  Thanks to Wendy’s® consumers and the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption®, 4,000+ children have found adoptive families.  Let's all do our part in helping to make that number grow!

Visit your local Wendy’s® to purchase a Jr. Frosty™ Halloween Coupon Book* for $1, which benefits the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption®! 

*Coupon book may contain coupons for 5 or 10 free Jr. Frosty™ treats. Prices and participation may vary. Ninety cents to every $1 coupon booklet sold between 9/15/14 and 10/31/14 will benefit the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption®. Coupons valid from 11/1/14 through 2/1/15. ©2014 Oldemark LLC

I was selected for this opportunity as a member of Clever Girls Collective and the content and opinions expressed here are all my own.

Enter to Win a $25,000 College Fund in Jif's Most Creative Sandwich Contest! #MC

I participated in a campaign on behalf of Mom Central Consulting (#MC) for Jif. I received a promotional item as a thank you for participating.

One of our children's favorite foods is a peanut butter and marshmallow sandwich.  Sometimes I wonder what other foods they would eat if I put peanut butter on them.  Broccoli?  String beans?  Cauliflower?  If you've ever wondered the same thing, here's some motivation to do a little experimenting . . .

Through November 8th, parents with children ages 6 to 12 can enter to win Jif's Most Creative Sandwich Contest!  The only other requirement is that you use 2 tablespoons of your favorite Jif product in the recipe.  Ten prizes will be awarded, including one prize for a $25,000 college fund!  Recipes will be judged based on creativity, taste, visual appeal, and ease of preparation.  These tasty looking Nutty BBQ Chicken Quesadilla (pictured above) was one of last year's finalist.

For more information and the official contest rules, visit Jif.com.

Giveaway & Review: Chili's New Menu Items ($50 GC) [CLOSED]

Last week, my family of five ventured out to our nearest Chili's Restaurant for dinner. There use to be one located less than a mile from our house, but it closed sadly. So we went to one a few towns over to try out some of their newest menu items.

I was a little nervous. I liked the old faithful . . . Country-Fried Steak with mashed potatoes and seasoned corn on the cob. I also do not like especially strong southwestern seasonings. When we sat down and perused the menu, I was pleasantly surprised. There was quite a variety of new items, including appetizers, soup, salads, sandwiches, a burger, tacos, fried shrimp, a sundae, and an assortment of margaritas.

We started off with an old classic . . . Hot Spinach & Artichoke Dip, which was huge enough for us to have leftovers even with all five of us munching on it. My husband had a tough time deciding between the Steakhouse Sandwich and the BBQ Pulled Pork Sandwich for his entree. He ended opting for the Steakhouse Sandwich. He found it to be excellent. The sirloin was extremely tender and he very much liked the horseradish cream. He said that the portion was perfect even though he wanted more because it was so good.

I knew what I wanted to try right away . . . the Fried Shrimp! There was lime to squeeze onto the shrimp instead of the usual lemon. The breading was light and crispy. I had enough shrimp to give a few away and still have a good quantity leftover for myself. This dish came with my favorite fries in the whole world . . . Chili's seasoned french fries. The shrimp was also accompanied by a tangy tequila lime sauce and spicy cole slaw. I gave my cole slaw to my husband because he usually orders cole slaw every chance he gets. This version was not really sweet like regular cole slaw, but rather it was peppered. My husband thought the red onions were what made this cole slaw top notch.

Our children gobbled up their Pepper Pals Little Mouth Cheeseburger, Cheese Quesadilla, and Cheese Pizza . . . well, all except my daughter because she eats like a bird. We were all pleasantly full, but made room for the brand new Brownie Sundae. All five of us agreed that this sundae was delicious. I think "decadent" is the word I'm looking for.

Coming soon, Chili's will be launching their Shout Out to Eat Out Video Contest where one Chili's gift card will be given away each day. All you need to do to enter is to upload a 10 to 30 second video stating why you don't want to cook tonight. Watch for the contest to go live soon on ShoutOutToEatOut.com .

Thank you to the Chili's marketing team for sending us a gift card, which allowed us to try the new menu items reviewed in this article, and for providing a second gift card for our contest prize.

What you can win:
One lucky reader will receive a $50 gift card to Chili's.

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:

Take a look at the current Chili's Menu. Then leave a comment telling me one menu item you've never tried before, but would like to. 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.

2) For 5 extra entries, enter one of my other contests. Leave FIVE separate comments here telling me which contest you entered. You will earn 5 extra entries for each contest you enter.

3) For 10 extra entries, blog about this contest linking back to this post AND Chilis.com . Then come back here and leave TEN separate comments with the link to your blog post.

4) Friend me on Facebook. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your Facebook profile.

5) For 2 extra entries, share the link to this contest post on Facebook. Then leave TWO separate comments with the link to your Facebook profile.

6) Follow me on Twitter. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your Twitter profile.

7) Tweet about this giveaway linking back to this post. Then come back here and leave the link to your tweet in a separate comment. You may do this once per day until the end of the contest.

8) Subscribe to this blog's feed. Or you can follow me through Blogger or subscribe via email (widget is on sidebar). Then leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

9) Subscribe to A Blog of Goodies' feed (the sister site to 3 Garnets & 2 Sapphires). Then leave a separate comment telling me you did so.

10) Add my button or blog link to your blog's sidebar. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your blog.

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11) Add my Blogoversary Celebration tag to your blog's sidebar. Then leave a separate comment with the link to your blog.

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


Random Drawing:

This contest will be closed on Monday, March 29th, 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!

For Better or For Worse: Tuna Butter and Peas Sandwiches

My dear husband was about to take on the task of making lunch for our three children. Suddenly, he was being bombarded by lunch orders. Each child was competing to be heard the best by the chef.

"I want tuna fish!"

"I want a peanut butter sandwich! Please! Please!! Pleeeeeeeeease!!!"

"I want a tuna fish sandwich!!"

"No! I want peanut butter!!"

So my husband declared that he was serving everyone "tuna, butter, and peas sandwiches" to exact his revenge. They believed him too, especially the two younger ones. He had them quite worried for some time.

Review: Arnold Sandwich Thins

With the general trend of cutting down on carbs, the new Arnold Sandwich Thins may be the perfect solution for those who do not want to give up using bread in their diets completely. In addition to being thinner, this bread is low fat, cholesterol free, made of whole grains, has 0g Trans Fat, and contains no high fructose corn syrup.

Out of the four varieties available, we tried the Multi Grain Sandwich Thins. So now the big question is . . . how did it taste?



What I thought about Arnold Sandwich Thins:

1) I was skeptical at first because this bread is pretty thin. It is thicker than pita bread, but still has some of the fluffiness inside of regular sandwich bread.

2) I am the kind of person who likes to taste the actual food, so it makes sense to me to have less bread, so I can taste more of the contents of a sandwich. Both my family and I very much enjoyed trying this bread with hamburgers.



3) I found that Arnold Sandwich Thins are a good alternative to English Muffins. They toast up nicely and are not as hard, making them easier for children to eat. We even tried making simple thin crust pizzas with them. Those turned out to be a quick healthy meal that pleased the children very much.

4) I would love to see different flavors added to this line, such as onion.

5) I'm not sure what the exact shelf life is for this bread, but I think you should expect it to last less than one week, so I don't receommend that you buy more than you will use over a period of 5 or 6 days.

As an adult I truly enjoyed this product. I think my children may have missed squishing the thicker bread between their fingers, but that is something from which they recovered quickly because the bread was quite tasty.

To learn more about Arnold Sandwich Thins, visit http://www.sandwichthins.com/ .

Thank you to Arnold Products for providing us with a review product free of charge.