St. Patrick’s Day Shamrocks: Wordless Wednesday

May your blessings outnumber
The shamrocks that grow,
And may trouble avoid you
Wherever you go.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day everyone!  Will be enjoying corned beef and cabbage for dinner with the family at night, along with my homemade famous Irish Soda Bread!

There’s a dear little plant that grows in our isle,

‘Twas St. Patrick himself, sure, that sets it;

And the sun of his labor with pleasure did smile,

And with dew from his eye often wet it.

It grows through the bog, through the brake, through the mireland,

And they call it the dear little Shamrock of Ireland.

Don’t forget to sign the Linky!

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Chili’s Grill and Bar: Shout Out to Eat Contest

Family Friendly Dining

$9.99 Fresh Pairings

I’ve been cooking for the family for well over 35 years.  Although my husband is talented in many areas, preparing food is not one of them.

Now that my daughter is married, we alternate Sunday dinners at her home or mine.  Usually on Friday nights, the family likes to get together and dine out.

Chili’s Grill and Bar Restaurant has always been one of our favorite places to go, even before the grandkids came along.  While my youngest daughter was in college, she worked as a server at Chili’s.

I recently had the opportunity to try Chili’s new line of freshly prepared recipe items.

Since I’m on a mission to lose at least 10, 15, 25 pounds so I can fit in my new dress for an upcoming wedding in Boston this summer, I tried their new Asian Salad.

The Asian Salad is prepared with Napa cabbage, crispy wontons, edamame, green onions, cilantro, sesame seeds, Asian vinaigrette and a creamy peanut drizzle, along with your choice of grilled chicken, salmon or steak.  I chose the chicken in my salad, and found the salad very tasty. I especially enjoyed the peanut drizzle, which gave it a subtle, yet unique taste.

The portion was generous, and I took what was leftover home in a container for the next day’s lunch.

Chili’s has a call-ahead policy which worked out great, as we brought the grandkids along, ages 2 and 3.   Since we try to dine out before the dinner rush crowd comes in, we were seated right away.  Chili’s provides a family atmosphere, and the kids were given crayons to draw with.  Everyone’s favorite are the nachos and sauce, which were promptly brought to the table along with our beverages.  Our server was attentive, and everything we ordered arrived as requested.

Stay tuned for the Chili’s “Shout Out to Eat” Contest, where contestants will be able to upload a 10-30 second video telling why they don’t want to cook tonight.  A daily winner will be randomly selected and entered to win a gift card to Chili’s everyday.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Country Bobs All Purpose Sauce Giveaway

Check out my recent Review and Contest

Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be two (2) winners of two (2) bottles of Country Bob’s All Purpose Sauce!

Enter HERE at Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes ,  Mar 2010

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Organic Batter Blaster: Making Breakfast Easy With Kids

Keep Cooking Simple

Cooking Teaches Kids Life Skills

Many families never plan menus. They go to the grocery store with no idea in mind or what it is they want to buy. Is it any wonder that there’s often nothing in the house to eat?

Menu planning isn’t a difficult task. It seems to take a lot of valuable time, but in the end it actually saves time in unnecessary trips to the store, and the nightly indecision of what the kids are going to have for breakfast in the morning.

When my kids were little, their favorite breakfast before heading out to school was chocolate chip pancakes and waffles.  I didn’t mind making them when I worked part-time.  I worked out of the home 3 days per week until they got older; so it was easy for me to do.

But on those days when I did have to rush out the door, I felt guilty about not making their favorite breakfast food, as preparation time is required.

I like to try something new occasionally, and my husband, who likes to poke through grocery stores,  brought home Organic Batter Blaster Pancake Mix!

On the days that I have to babysit ‘Lil Moomette and her brother, I can easily make pancakes for the grandkids and know that they’re starting off the day with a good breakfast! We pressed a few chocolate chips into the batter as it was cooking in the pan, and presto! It tasted just as good as if made from scratch!

Kids love to help when it comes to cooking. Getting them involved early is a good way for them to learn responsibility and a skill they can use in life.

Cooking with kids can also be a time of bonding for child and parent. Kids can help in various ways; age appropriate tasks are best. Your younger children can just point and blast the pancake mix into the pan!

Showing kids simple things they can do will make them feel important. It’s a way of having fun with your children, and the fun thing about cooking with your kids is that they’re learning a new skill, they just don’t realize it!

Cooking with your kids and as a family is a great way to connect with your children. Keeping them involved in activities such as finding new recipes and cooking lets them know you think they’re special.

Organic Batter Blaster has been featured on the Food Network and CBS, and is available in BJ’s and local grocery stores.

For More Information Visit: Batter Blaster

Note:  This is not a compensated post.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Pillsbury Sweet Rolls and Gift Pack Giveaway

Sweet Sunday Mornings

Check out my Pillsbury Giveaway:

Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of a gift pack which includes includes a VIP coupon for Pillsbury Orange Sweet Rolls as well as a photo album to help keep your family’s sweet Sunday morning memories close at close at hand.

Enter at Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes HERE Pillsbury contest, Mar 2010.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Bean Appetit: Childrens Cookbook Review and Giveaway

Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food

Bring Kookiness to the Kitchen

As any grandmom knows, kids learn through emulation – watching and imitating the actions of others.  That’s why it’s a good thing to always strive to be a good example.

For me, I learned to cook by watching my mom and aunts who passed down many of the traditional Polish recipes that I learned to love as a child.  I’ve since passed down those traditions to my own girls.

Recently I had the opportunity to review a new cookbook – Bean Appetit:  Hip and Healthy Ways to Have Fun with Food (Andrews McMeel Publishing) which was recently featured on Martha Stewart Radio.

The authors, Shannon Payette Seip and Kelly Parthen are co-owners of  Bean Sprouts Café and Cooking School.  They offer cooking classes for toddlers and grade school children.  The school lets the kids have fun with food while exploring new ingredients.  The authors are also currently developing a kids’ cooking show.

Bean Sprouts, a hip and healthy kids’ cafe, opened to much anticipation near Madison, WI in 2007. Bean Sprouts has drawn great media attention for providing a place for families that is both healthy and fun. Under the guidance of a child nutritionist, Bean Sprouts built its menu with the help and enthusiasm of Gale Gand–renowned chef, author, and Food Network star, who believes in Bean Sprouts’ mission.

One of my favorite chapters in the book was the breakfast chapter.  The meal that both of my grandkids, ‘Lil Moomette and Slugger, enjoy best is breakfast.  Soon they’ll be spending their first overnight with my husband and I, so I paid particular attention to finding recipes that would start their day off right!

Pancakes is a favorite of both grandkids, and “Stick Stacks” incorporates yummy fruit and skewers in an eye-appealing manner.

A great rule of thumb when it comes to cooking with children is keep it simple silly. Foremost, most children have relatively short attention spans. While they want to learn and help mommy out, they also don’t want to have enough time to get bored with the details. Use simple recipes when cooking with children and your chances for success will be much greater than with overly complicated or ingredient intense recipes.

The book is full of whimsical presentations, as well as food-themed games, crafts and activities.

Bean Appetit would like you to help them taste-test some recipes.  You can test online recipes for Bean-GO (a healthy twist on Bingo that gets kids to try to new tastes) found in the book. Feedback Form

Visit on Facebook

Moomette’s Magnificents  is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of the book, Bean Appetit.

Please include a way of contacting you. Should you be the contest winner, this information may be shared with the contest sponsor in order to send your prize.

Main Rule:   (remember if this rule is not followed then no others will count)
a) Sign up for my free Newsletter Updates to my blog through my e-mail Feedblitz link (on the top of my right column or let me know if you already are, in a separate comment) AND

b) Visit Bean Sprouts and leave a comment about what you like best about their site and why you’d like to win this book.

This contest will run until March 15, 2010 at 11:00 pm. EST

For Additional Entries, check out my Contest Entry Rules.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Culinary Arts Career Opportunities

Career Opportunities

Turn Your WAHM Talents Into a Full-Time Business

I have yet to see the new movie that came out about Julia Child, “Julie and Julia” – but it’s on my list of top things to do.

I’ve posted here in the past that in hindsight, I should have gone to culinary school since the Culinary Institute of America used to be located almost in my backyard.

Cooking has always intrigued me, and those with specific talents can turn their passion into a catering work-at-home business and in turn expand their work-at-home business into a full-time restaurant business!  Some of my favorite places to eat are locally owned, mom and pop restaurants.

Many believe that food preparation or cooking is an art. Restaurants and catering services anchor their success on the expertise and skills of their kitchen crew. As the cliche goes, “a man’s heart is through his stomach.” Restaurants and the food industry keep their customers loyal though unique and delectable recipes using both innovative and traditional ingredients.

The Culinary Arts have become an academic pursuit as well. Large food manufacturers look to culinary artists to create ready-to-eat, name brand food products that feature the same quality as those of homemade and restaurant-prepared food. Several culinary arts schools offer graduate studies in Hotel and Restaurant Management for students.  Many schools here in New England offer such opportunities.

There’s also more traditional, classical institutions that cater to students who are employed in luxury hotels, cruise ships, resorts and restaurants or those employed as personal chefs to the rich and famous.

When we were visiting Hilton Head, many of the students of such schools were doing their Internships in the resorts down there for the summer.

Famed chefs open up their own schools to train protégés.  A few culinary arts schools cater to hobbyists. The King Arthur Flour Company in Vermont is one that offers courses.  Good schools provide intensive, hands-on training in everything as well as the real environment simulation to prepare their students well.

Culinary art’s courses quite frequently touch on cooking science or the standard ingredients that go into most food products, food decoration and preservation.  The courses also segregate trainings into stocks, sauces, soups, meat, fish and poultry cookery, breads and pastries, etc. Several schools also offer courses on exotic and traditional cooking. Students are also trained on food service safety and sanitation, commercial kitchen parts, management and finance.

As it is with other specialized professions, culinary arts graduates may often have to start at the bottom when they do find a position. But extremely talented students need not wait too long to establish their own reputation and following.

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Valentine’s Day Giveaway at Skin MD Natural

Everything Nice, Naturally

Awhile back I wrote a post about Skin MD Shielding Lotion that I had the opportunity to review.

Skin MD Natural is now hosting a terrific contest in time for Valentine’s Day!

They’ll be giving away a prize basket that’s valued at $100 which contains the following goodies:

• Bottle of Skin MD Natural shielding lotion

• Bottle of Skin MD Natural + SPF 15 shielding lotion

• One pound of See’s dark assorted chocolates

• Pack of Starbucks VIA Ready brew coffee pouches

• Kiss Me coffee mug

• A Cuddly teddy bear

• Lollipop Bouquet

Contest closes February 7, 2010 and will ship in time for Valentine’s Day!

Whether for yourself, or someone you’re sweet about, don’t miss this terrific contest!

To enter, Visit:  Skin MD Natural

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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3 Tips For Maintaining a Healthy Lifestyle

Start the New Year Off On the Right Foot

No matter how old you are, you can control your health.  Maintaining a healthy lifestyle is central to good nutrition.  Don’t think that you have to be at the mercy of genetics – take a bit of time to take care of yourself and you’ll experience much better health.  Pregnant women especially should pay attention to maintaining a healthy lifestyle while they’re expecting and while they’re nursing.

Here’s a look at a few things you can do to improve your chances of staying healthy and living longer.

Flossing
We don’t have to assume we’re going to lose our teeth as we get old anymore.  Simply flossing on a regular basis, having a good affordable dental plan and keeping a good relationship with your dentist can do a lot to improve your smile, and make you look and feel younger.

Whole Food Nutrition
Almost all of us take a handful of supplements daily, whether from a prescription plan or over the counter.  Keep in mind though that getting your nutrients from foods, as well as a manufactured vitamin, may give you more nutrients in better forms.  Whole food nutrition can work to keep us younger for longer.  Just make sure that your diet is complete and the food you eat is of high quality.

Avoid Smoking
Smoking can be a real problem for people who want to stay younger, longer.  We all know the major side effects of smoking – lung cancer, heart disease, and appearance related problems.  Check to see if your medical plan covers smoking cessation programs. If you want to age healthily, give up smoking by whatever means possible.

photo credit: Quinn Dombrowski

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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Chocolate A Love Story Cookbook Giveaway

Need A Chocolate Fix?

Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes is hosting a Giveaway Contest! For a chance to win, there will be one (1) winner of the book, Chocolate – A Love Story by Max Brenner.

You should read the whole article and enter at Moomettesgram’s Favorite Recipes Feb 2010

Copyright 2010 Moomette’s Magnificents – All Rights Reserved

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