Holiday Shopping's a Breeze with CSN Stores

Having a hard time finding just the right present for the folks on your list this holiday season? If you're like me, you don't feel much like braving the crowds at the mall and department stores. I prefer to stay home and let my fingers do the shopping. Whether I'm shopping for sling backpacks for my daughters, some framed artwork for my mother, or I just want to reward my hard shopping work with a new hanging pot rack for myself, CSN Stores has it all.

Soon, I will be reviewing another great product from CSN Stores. The trouble is, I'm having a hard time deciding what to review! What do you think I should choose?

A Pizelle Iron?

A French Press?

Or maybe a programmable Crock Pot?

Which would you choose to review? I look forward to hearing from you. And who knows? Maybe I'll choose the one YOU want to hear about! Look for my review soon!

A Coffee House in Your House -- CSN Stores Review

The sound of the coffee grinder whirring. The smell of the freshly ground beans. The taste of custom brewed coffee. All of these are things I love about coffee houses. And now, thanks to CSN Stores, my house is my coffee house.

CSN graciously sent me this Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill for my review. I'll talk about it in just a second, but first, I want to talk to you about shopping with CSN.

CSN Stores is actually many stores, all rolled into one main site. You can shop for and find just about anything your heart desires. Want a chaise lounge to relax on with a good book? You got it. Looking to replace your flooring? CSN has you covered. Maybe you're in the market for a good set of knives, or some new cookware. CSN Stores has it all.

When shopping for my review item, I noticed a few things. First, that CSN's price was lower than the MSRP by a significant amount. Next, I noticed that CSN provides lots of key information that helps their customers make good shopping choices. Some of the information they provide is stuff I'd love to know, but never thought to ask. For example, they tell you how the item will ship, but also, they share with you how likely it is to arrive damaged (very rarely in this case). They tell you about the item's construction quality (their scale goes from economical to premium, with my mill being listed as premium). You can read the overall information, the dimensions, reviews, and more.

Shipping was a breeze. I received an email shortly after my order was placed letting me know that CSN was upgrading my shipping, at no charge to me, so that I would receive my item faster than anticipated.

The mill arrived in perfect condition and I was so excited to give it a try. I had never ground my own coffee before.

Using the mill was a breeze. I simply added coffee beans to the hopper, chose my custom grind (anywhere from fine to coarse, with lots of stops in between), and I turned it on. It's quiet for a coffee grinder and produced perfectly ground coffee without a hitch.

The flavor of freshly ground coffee can't be topped.

I highly recommend that coffee drinkers invest in a coffee mill. I'm fond of Cuisinart, and this machine has not let me down. I've been using it nearly daily for several weeks now and I am still just as excited to brew my fresh coffee as I was that first day when it arrived.

disclosure: I received the Cuisinart Supreme Grind Automatic Burr Mill for my review. No monetary or other compensation was provided, and all opinions are my own.

Rudi's Organic Bakery Review & Giveaway

image courtesy Rudi's Organic Bakery

The moment has arrived: I'm here to talk to you about some fantastic breads. Have you heard of Rudi's Organic Bakery?

I love to bake bread. I can make it all: sandwich loaves, burger buns, dinner rolls, corn tortillas, flour tortillas, bagels, English muffins, and more. However, I don't always have the time, and if I'm honest, I don't always have the inclination to bake bread. I only bake bread when time and desire are both present. When I can't bake it myself, or don't want to, I turn to Rudi's. Rudi's Organic Bakery churns out top-quality breads that I can trust.

Trust. Let's talk about that for a moment. These days, it seems there's always something negative on television or in print about the food industry. It can be hard to trust those that manufacture our foods. After all, we're putting our lives in their hands! Therefore, it's important to me to find companies who cook with ingredients I know and would use in my own kitchen. It's important to me that my family's foods are:

• all natural
• organic if possible
• full of flavor
• fresh
• from a company who I can feel comfortable supporting.

Rudi's fits the bill. Let's break it down:

All Natural

• "Made with stuff you can pronounce and ingredients you recognize" -- Rudi's

The ingredients in the Honey Sweet Whole Wheat: Organic whole wheat flour, water, organic honey, organic wheat gluten, organic evaporated cane juice, yeast, organic high oleic sunflower/safflower oil, sea salt, organic oat flour, organic vinegar, organic molasses, cultured organic wheat starch, organic barley malt, ascorbic acid, natural enzymes

• No synthetic ingredients
• No chemical pesticides
• No high fructose corn syrup

Organic

• Rudi's is USDA certified organic -- at least 95% of the ingredients are organic
• Organic foods are produced without chemical pesticides or fertilizers -- Important for your health and the environment

Full of flavor

Are they ever! Rudi's makes some of the best breads I've eaten! They have a strong, pleasant aroma, great, soft crust, wonderful, chewy texture, and lots of flavor.

The Cinnamon Raisin bread is addictive! It's thick slices are loaded with raisins, cinnamon, and sunflower seeds. It's such a wonderful treat, with a taste so rich and so filling that you have to read the nutritional information to make sure you're not actually eating dessert! Each slice has THREE grams of fiber! Topped with a smear of cream cheese and a sprinkling of ground cinnamon, Rudi's Organic Cinnamon Raisin bread is heaven on your plate.

My whole family enjoyed the Spelt Ancient Grain bread. Full of great stuff, like spelt, quinoa, flax seeds, kamut, amaranth, and millet, it's a bread that's delicious, chewy, and good for you.

Honey Sweet Whole Wheat was my Picky Eater's favorite bread. The other day, I made her some round sandwiches for her lunch box, and she asked for the crusts to munch on while I was making lunch. Any healthful bread that gets the Picky Eater Stamp of Approval is a winner with me, too. The nutritional facts for this bread are wonderful: 100 calories, 1 gram of fat, and 3 grams of fiber for each generous slice.

Country Morning White is a classic white bread.

 While all those grains in the other Rudi's Organic line are full of goodness and things we ought to be reaching for, sometimes, you just need a white bread. Reach for Rudi's. It's soft, yet sturdy, and has a deliciously rich, smooth taste. We found it to be the perfect bread for grilled cheese sandwiches.

Fresh

• Rudi's Organic Bakery breads have a shorter shelf life than other store-bought breads. I love that. It tells me that they avoid all those weird chemical preservatives that other companies use.
• The breads taste fresh baked right out of the package.

From a Company I Feel Comfortable Supporting

Rudi's Organics has a values list that I love. Go read them. They'll put a smile on your face.

And while you're there, check out who Rudi's partners with. The names include:

• 
  
  The Organic Trade Association
• 
  
  Community Food Share
• 
  
  Imus Ranch for Kids with Cancer

Rudi's is a fun, upbeat, positive company. Check out Rudi-isms for another smile. And connect with Rudi's on Facebook and Twitter. They love to hear from their fans.

Now that you know all that about Rudi's, how would you like to try a loaf for yourself, on the house? You can win one of five coupons for a free Rudi's Organic product. Here's how to enter:

• 
  
  You must be a public follower of my blog via Google Friend Connect to win.
• 
  
  Leave a comment telling me which product you'd like to try. Visit Rudi's to see all their great organic bakery products. Please include your email address if it's not available in your profile. If I can't contact you, you can't win.
• 
  
  Entries must be received by Monday, August 30th, at 11:59 p.m. I will use Random.org to select five winners on Tuesday, August 31st and notify them by email and here on All Home Cooking. All Year Long.

Rudi's Organic Bakery sent me one loaf each of Cinnamon Raisin, Spelt Ancient Grain, Honey Sweet Whole Wheat, and Country Morning White for my review. No other compensation was received and the opinions in this review are strictly my own.

Something Fresh is Coming...

I'm looking forward to sharing my thoughts on Rudi's Organic Bakery products with you early next week. At that time, you can enter to win one of five free Rudi's Organic products! That's right! Five winners! See you soon!

Meanwhile, check out my recipe for Fresh Strawberry Cake with Cream Cheese Icing. It's what Picky Eater chose for her birthday dinner dessert. Yep, today was Picky Eater's seventh birthday. She opted for bacon, sausage, eggs, and toast for dinner, with strawberry cake for dessert. Good choices all around. Here's the birthday girl this morning:

**CSN Stores Review Sneak Peek**

It's August -- Back to School month for the majority of kids in the USA, and back to the alarm clock for the majority of the moms! Back to school has me waking up before the sun and reaching for my coffee maker to get me going.

I love a good cuppa joe. But hitting the local coffee house can cost big bucks before you know it. A one-time investment in a home brewing system might be just what your budget needs. Soon, I'll be doing a review of something that will help improve in-home coffee experiences. Here are some of the items I'm looking at over at CSN Stores' Cookware.com:

Farberware Percolator

Bodum Chambord 3 Cup French Press Coffeemaker with Shatterproof Carafe

Cuisinart Automatic Burr Coffee Grinder

Alessi La Cupola Espresso Maker

How do you take your coffee? Do you brew it at home? Do you hit the coffee house? Do you take your coffee black? With cream and sugar? With whipped cream and little chocolate jimmies? Or maybe you prefer yours on ice. Whatever you like, the bottom line is this: fresh is best, right? Stay tuned for my review!

Review & GIVEAWAY!: SodaStream Soda Maker

image courtesy SodaStream

Let me take a few minutes to tell you about my favorite new kitchen toy: The SodaStream. I was given the opportunity to try this baby out for myself in my own kitchen and I fell in love. I was like a kid at Christmas as I took it out of its careful packaging, oohing and ahhing over every bit I unpacked. Here's what I got:

The Fountain Jet Home Soda Maker

60-Liter refillable Carbonator

9 SodaMix Flavors, including:

• 
  
  Diet Cola
• 
  
  Diet Pink Grapefruit
• 
  
  Diet Lemon-Lime
• 
  
  Diet Cranberry-Raspberry
• 
  
  Lemonade
• 
  
  Root Beer
• 
  
  Orange Mango
• 
  
  Energy
• 
  
  Cola

My Water Flavor Essence in Lemon-Lime

It's so much fun to make your own soda at home! Even my husband, who doesn't get excited about much, got excited about the SodaStream. It's so simple to use that even the kids like making their own soda. And for sleepovers and playing with friends -- how cool is it to be able to make your friends fresh soda with the push of a button? Very cool.

So it's fun, you're thinking, but it's still soda, and soda's junk.

Sure, I'll give you that. Soda's not a drink for every day, and not something I'd serve my children at meal times. But if you're going to have some soda now and then, I bet you want it to be a bit better for you and your family, right?

SodaStream's SodaMix Flavors have no high fructose corn syrup, no aspartame (they're sweetened with Splenda), and are lower in calories than store-bought sodas (averaging 35 calories per serving). There are fewer carbs, less sodium, and less sugar than store brands. Plus, you control the water you use as well as the amount of flavoring and carbonation. Like a lot of bubbles and just a bit of flavor? You can do that. Like the traditional store-bought soda flavors? Easy as can be. Like just a few bubbles and lots of syrup-y goodness? You can do that, too. Maybe you prefer sparkling water with no flavorings. Easiest of all.  SodaStream allows you to control and customize what you drink. It's soda on your terms.

SodaStream is better for the environment than store-bought soda, too! When you're making soda at home, in a reusable plastic bottle (SodaStream comes with two of them), there's no buying bottles or cans at the store, and no worrying about throwing them away or recycling them (my community doesn't even have a recycling program!). There's less waste in landfills. There's less energy going toward the manufacturing and shipping of those bottles. Plus, you don't have to cart them from store to home!

SodaStream is fresher than store-bought soda. You make what you need, in a neat 1 liter reusable bottle. Because it's a smaller size than traditional 2-liter store bought bottles, it's likely to stay bubbly until you're through with it. I don't know about you, but I hate it when I open a half-full bottle from the store only to find it's gone flat. SodaStream is still bubbly the next day, and I love that.

SodaStream is a great value! Twenty-five cents gets you a liter of sparkling water. According to my math, SodaStream soda costs about half of the store-bought price, and I get to make my own soda. You all know how much I love making my own.

We tried all the flavors. They're all delicious. There were a few favorites, though, and I'd like to talk about them briefly:

The kids enjoy the Root Beer best. It's delicious, and it's first ingredient is simply sugar.

I enjoyed the Diet Cola best. I thought it would taste like Diet Coke, but it didn't. It tastes like a mix of Diet Pepsi and RC Cola. Best of all (and this is not a scientific finding, and not a product claim, merely something I noticed), I don't feel dehydrated and puffy when I drink it. When I consume Diet Coke and other store-bought colas, I feel unwell. I feel puffy and dehydrated and out of sorts. With the Diet Cola from SodaStream, I feel very hydrated and I love that. I enjoy diet cola, and I like that I can feel good and have my little pleasure at the same time.

My husband's in an intense Army school right now. It involves classroom time all day, plus hours of studying at home. He is ever so thankful for SodaStream's Energy flavor. It's an exact match of Red Bull energy drink, only better ingredients and only 35 calories per serving. He loves it and brings it with him to class each day.

Look at how easy it is to make a liter of soda at home:

I highly recommend giving SodaStream a try. You can buy it online or in many retail locations. It's a great value for your wallet, the environment, and your taste buds.

Or Win It!

That's right! Win yourself the Fountain Jet Soda Lover’s Start-up Kit (approx. $100 retail value.) It includes the Fountain Jet, CO2 makes over 100 liters of soda, 2 reusable carbonating bottles, a sample pack of flavors, and 3 full-sized flavors of the winner’s choice. Sorry, continental U.S. Addresses Only.

Here's how to enter:

Mandatory Entry: Visit SodaStream and leave me a comment telling me which three full-sized flavors you'd most like to try.

Optional Additional Entries:

1. Be a public follower of this blog via Google Friend Connect. Leave me a separate comment telling me you're a public follower.
2. Like All Home Cooking. All Year Long. on Facebook. Leave me a comment about this giveaway on Facebook AND tell me you've Liked me on Facebook in the comments section below.
3. Explore the SodaStream site and tell me something you've learned. (Leave another separate comment)
4. Post about this giveaway on your own blog. Leave me a comment with a link to your post.

I'll draw for a winner on Thursday, July 29, after 6 p.m. eastern time. Good luck!

Disclosure: I was provided with the SodaStream At Home Soda Maker, 9 SodaMix Flavors, My Water Essence Flavors, and a Carbonator free of charge from SodaStream for the purposes of my review. My opinions are solely my own and are in no way influences by this.

Waste-free School Lunches

Day 146.

I'm not the greenest mom on the block. There's much more I could do to live a greener lifestyle. But one thing I'm adamant about is packing a waste-free lunch. I haven't always felt this way, but throughout the school year, I couldn't help but notice how many plastic zip-top bags, plastic wrap, and aluminum foil we were using in our children's school lunches!

I was being frugal by not purchasing ready-made snacks and drinks, but our typical school lunch consisted of the following:

• a sandwich in a zip-top bag
• carrots or other crunchy veggie in a zip-top bag
• fruit (in its own wrapper most times)
• a snack - muffin, cookie, bar - in a zip-top bag
• juice or milk in a thermos
• paper napkin

If I made that lunch each of the 180 school days for my two children, we would have used 1,080 zip-top bags and 360 napkins! And that's just in one school year.

I'm converted. I believe in waste-free school lunches. So I've spent the past two months researching various companies, trying to decide which lunch system would work best for us. I had them narrowed down to a few companies.

Then, I won an Easy Lunchbox System, courtesy of Kelly at Easy Lunchbox, at a giveaway held by Keli of Feeding Four.

I'd seen a few reviews of the Easy Lunchbox System around the web, and was curious about it, but not ready to commit to a purchase because of my reservations. I was worried that the containers would feel flimsy and breakable, in particular.

I'm glad I had the chance to try it out! I'd like to share with you my thoughts on the system. Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Pros:

• They cost less than most of the other lunch systems I'm considering. A set of 4 containers with lids runs $13.95. The cooler that fits the containers perfectly costs $7.95.
• They're just the right size for lunch. There are three compartments of varying size. The cooler comfortably holds the container, a thermos, a piece of fruit, a napkin, utensils, and an ice pack.
• They are free of BPA, PVC, lead, phthalates, and vinyl.
• They're dishwasher safe.
• The lids are colorful, which my girls loved. They enjoyed choosing which color to take to school with them the past two days.
• The lids are easy for tiny hands to open and close easily.
• the containers are NOT flimsy at all. I was expecting the tray those Lunchables by Oscar Meyer come in, but they are harder plastic and feel much more substantial and durable.

Cons:

• This is a big one for me: The containers are manufactured in China. I really am trying to buy USA-made as much as possible.
• The lids don't fit completely securely. I would not suggest this as a lunch kit for a rough and tumble child who is likely to flip his lunchbox upside-down. If they're kept in the cooler, straight in like intended, they won't spill. But kids don't always follow those rules, do they?
• The container is not leak-proof. See last point. Today, I sent the girls with pudding, but I put a small piece of waxed paper over the pudding to secure it. It's advised that you use a small piece of plastic wrap over any semi-liquid foods and you're not supposed to put liquids in the compartments.

In all, I'm pleased with my winnings! I've had fun creating waste-free lunches for my girls the last two days. I wish school wasn't ending tomorrow so I could play some more! Next school year, I'll keep using this lunch system, as well as keep my plans to buy a couple different ones. Maybe early next fall I'll compare the ones I choose.

Here are a couple of the lunches I made this week:

Main compartment: Egg Salad on lettuce with homemade Wheat Crackers. Side compartments: homemade Granola and cucumber rounds. A thermos of milk, some grapefruit, and a cloth napkin added to cooler.

Main compartment: Salad consisting of lettuce, cucumbers, carrot shreds, corn, wheat germ, dried cranberries, and cheese; homemade flat bread. Sides: Homemade vanilla pudding with jimmies; grapefruit. Thermos of milk and a cloth napkin added to cooler.

*Although I won this lunch system at a giveaway, I was not compensated for my review. My opinions are strictly my own.

I Love to Make My Own

Day 29.

January is almost gone! I was supposed to have oral surgery today, but the dentist wants me on antibiotics through the weekend, so I have to go back Monday afternoon. The anticipation is the worst. I need a lot of work in my mouth, and it's going to be a while before I'm up to eating "real food" again. I've been trying to come up with things I will be able to easily eat. Since what I can eat will be limited, I need to make sure that what I do eat is nutritious. I was thinking about:

• split pea soup with NO HAM, pureed till smooth - Lots of protein, fiber, and very filling






• Muscle Milk. I bought some at GNC today.






• yogurt. I have a yogurt maker. Yes, I even make my own yogurt. :)






• Ice cream! Ditto. I have the KichenAid ice cream attachment, and it makes delicious ice cream. I was thinking it would be nice blended with my Muscle Milk.






• Soup with tiny pasta, like orzo, and tiny bits of spinach, over-cooked.

What do you eat when you have dental work done, or have mouth pain? Baby food is out. So are mashed potatoes. I existed on these foods solely the whole time I was healing from my wisdom teeth removal in my teens. Thinking about eating them makes my stomach churn.

I picked up this little gem at Tuesday Morning today. You should see if you have a Tuesday Morning in your town. They're great little shops with plenty of surprises. You never know what you're going to find a Tuesday morning: French Milled Soap. Plush doggy beds. One-of-a-kind trivets. Ice pop makers. You just never know.

Anyway, always a sucker for a kitchen gadget, and loving making my own things, I couldn't pass this up at $9.99. The box provides a website for buying more bags for the freeze pops, and you use your own juice (there's a recipe booklet for mixing flavors, but we went with straight Juicy Juice Tropical this time), which means no nasty chemicals or weird coloring.

It was a fun 15 minutes spent with my daughter. It was simple enough that she was able to do most of it by herself with me snapping away with the camera.

First, you measure your juice. The measuring cup's markings are done by "pop." One pop, two pops, three pops, or four pops.

Then, you pour the juice into the top of the plunger. The top of the plunger is like a giant funnel, making it easy for little kids to pour the juice in without making a mess of things.

Next you put a freeze pop bag onto the nozzle and press the plunger down. Juice flows into the bag. One plunge equals one filled freeze pop bag. The bags self-seal when you take them off, which we both thought was really, really cool.

The next step is admiring your handiwork and putting the freeze pops in the freezer to harden.

I suspect this will be a hit with the whole neighborhood this summer. I love it because it allows the kids to make something on their own AND it gets 100% juice into them instead of 100% artificial colors and flavors. I can't wait till the day I own a juicer. Imagine the flavor combinations we'll make then!

I give this product an 8 on the Kid Friendly Cooking scale. It's simple, fun, economical, quick to assemble, takes NO batteries, and encourages healthy eating for children. It's easy to clean up and doesn't take up much storage space. The self-sealing bags add immensely to the coolness factor. Also, the set comes with Popsicle molds, which we didn't use today, but definitely will use in the future. The box says this is for ages 5 & up, and I agree with that recommendation. Smaller hands will have a hard time pushing the plunger, but a parent could help with that part.