I had an opportunity to review Healthy Choice’s new Cafe Steamers thanks to Mom Central. I like to keep some variety in my healthy lunch options. I’m usually in a rush of some sort at lunch time, trying to pick BigBrother up from preschool, get a healthy lunch in both boys, get them down for their naps, run errands, meet deadlines and, oh yeah, eat lunch myself. If I stick with the same thing every day, I get bored and splurge on something that isn’t quite healthy. As such, I tend to rotate a salad, a soup and a frozen meal of some sort, every three days. I’m wild and crazy like that.

I’m glad that I found Cafe Steamers because now I have one more option. Well, that’s not entirely true. I tried the two that they sent me (flavors here) and have purchased one more since that time. I have liked all of them thus far so my frozen meal options have expanded greatly! Very exciting.

I tried the Balsamic Garlic Chicken first. The directions for all of the Cafe Steamers are really quite easy.

The trickiest part is not to puncture the cello on top. Every other frozen meal on the planet requires you to do so! I was tempted to do it but followed the directions. It steams itself and turns out just perfect. Trust me. As far as the taste goes, it was great. A bit garlic-y, that first one, but I’m a garlic lover myself. What helps me when I eat frozen meals like Cafe Steamers is the whole portion control. I like food. I want to eat more if I have the option. When I don’t, like with these meals, I’m pleased. Situation solved for me! Hooray for staying on track with my food intake!

I am pleased that I now have more variety to my lunch menu. I would suggest Cafe Steamers to anyone who happens to be watching their portion sizes and calorie intake and also happens to like the flavors of food. Flavorful but not throwing me off track. Also, if you’re rushed? These are good. We have and will purchase these on our own again.

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[Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Healthy Choice and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

Meatballs are an acceptable food in our house. I have one very picky child who deals with texture issues and one child who will eat anything that holds still long enough to put it in his mouth. Meatballs are acceptable by both. I consider that a food win. We’ve been hosting parties for various reasons over the past month and have a few more coming up. Mom Central clued me in to a fabulous recipe that makes either a great appetizer or, as we found out, a great, quick meal: Ultimate Party Meatballs.

Here’s the recipe.

• 1 14-ounce can Ocean Spray® Jellied Cranberry Sauce
• 1 12-ounce bottle Heinz® Chili Sauce
• 1 2-pound bag frozen, pre-cooked, cocktail-size meatballs

I know. It sounds weird, right? I mean, when I put the two together, it just doesn’t look right.

That said, I’ve been finding that jellied cranberry sauce shows up in really random recipes to give it a little extra flavor. I recently made one and so I trusted the recipe and continued to make these meatballs. Even though it looked… weird.

Directions for making the meatballs:

Combine sauces in a large saucepan. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring until smooth. Add meatballs. Cover and cook for 15 minutes or until meatballs are heated through, stirring occasionally.

Makes 30 appetizer servings.

Slow cooker Preparation: Place meatballs in a slow cooker. Combine sauces and pour over meatballs. Cover and cook 4 hours on HIGH.

Once the cranberry sauce is heated and melts into the sauce, it doesn’t look weird anymore. Trust me.

And trust me on this: they’re delicious. The sauce is sweet and tangy, closer to a sweet and sour sauce than a tomato sauce meatball kind of thing. That’s why they’re perfect for hor dourves. Throw a couple on a plate along with some crackers and cheese and you’ve got yourself an easy bunch of appetizers for your next get together. (Ahem. Christmas much?) I don’t have pictures of our last small party in which we served the meatball appetizers (in a fancy schmancy bowl!) because I was a little bit stressed with that party. Apologies.

We also found that they make great meatball sandwiches. While meatball sandwiches typically have a red, tomato sauce, we are in love with this recipe on a nice, soft hoagie roll. LittleBrother inhaled his sandwich. He didn’t set it down the whole time he was eating it. BigBrother ate most of it which is saying something! I wanted two but I kept it to one.

Any way you work it, appetizer or sammich (which is how you’d say it if you were originally from Pittsburgh), this recipe is a hit with adults and kids. I’ve already bought more stuff to make another batch for yet another get together next week. Yummy, yummy. There are some other great recipes over on the Ultimate Party Meatballs website. Go check it out.

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[Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Heinz and Ocean Spray and received the ingredients necessary to facilitate my review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

When Mom Central asked if we wanted to review some Hickory Farms products, I figured we’d get a little basket with one or two cheeses and a roll of oh-so-yummy meat. I was wrong. We got a soft-sided toolbox stuffed to the brim with cheeses, crackers, various meats and even some spicy mustard that is now my favorite spicy mustard. Ever. It took me awhile and the help of my husband to realize it was a toolbox though.

What was in it?

- 12 oz. Our Original Beef Summer Sausage
- 12 oz Spicy Savory Beef Summer Sausage
- 7 oz. Ham Summer Sausage
- 8 oz. Mini Beef Sausage Snacks
- 3.6 oz. Beef Sausage Snacks
- 3.6 oz Spicy Beef Sausage Snacks
- 10 oz. Hickory Cheddar Blend
- 10 oz. Jalapeno and Cheddar Blend
- 7 oz. Mission Jack Blend
- 6 oz. Smoked Gouda Blend
- 10 oz. Sweet Hot Mustard
- 5 oz. Golden Toasted Crackers
- 5 oz. Cracked Wheat Crackers
- Black Nylon Tool Bag

To be honest, we’re still not all the way done with everything that was stuffed inside that awesome nylon tool bag even though we’ve had two small get togethers and one big birthday party since it arrived in our house. It’s not because the food isn’t good. It is! The cheeses are all fabulous. Of course, I love cheese as I think it makes anything better. The boys have enjoyed most of the cheese, though neither enjoyed the jalapeno/cheddar mix. (More for me!)

Our favorite snack was one of the crackers, a little bit of the mustard, a small slice of cheese and a small slice of one of the meats. Yum! Quick snack that looks nice on a plate. Hooray!

FireDad’s response to all of this? “A tool bag? With meat? Win win.”

Of course, Hickory Farms has plenty of other win-win gifts to give this season, from a very simple block of cheese to baskets that are stuffed to the brim as well. I remember thinking that baskets of food were, meh, okay when I was younger. Now that I have parties to host and friends to feed, I love any extra help I can get! I know that I would love to receive such an awesome gift!

Hickory Farms now accepts PayPal as well, making it easy for your to purchase safely online. Easy and satisfying. Hooray! (Oh! And they even have a Facebook page! Awesome!)

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[Disclosure: I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Hickory Farms and received a Hickory Farms gift basket to facilitate my review.]

Today I had the pleasure of visiting Cheryl&Co, a premiere cookie company that makes my mouth water. I should also probably rephrase. Not only did I get to visit the company but both BigBrother and LittleBrother got to mingle with other Ohio bloggers’ kids. If you’re not familiar with Cheryl&Co, you might be living under a rock. Or you’re my mother. Or you’re living with my mother under a rock. They are, in fact, my mother-in-law’s very favorite thing. Ever. So she’s jealous that I got to visit the company and take the grand tour.

And eat lots of buttercream frosting.

I will be honest and say that I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. I prefer salty things. But I do like Cheryl&Co’s cookies. And brownies, which was the main point of today’s adventure as it is National Brownie Day. But more on that later. Let’s look at some pictures.

We were treated to a fabulous lunch and then we took the grand tour. I don’t have many pictures from the tour itself as we weren’t supposed to take pictures of the super secret equipment… like the automated ramp that large chunks of cookie dough went up and then dropped into another thing that made them into teeny-tiny balls to be frozen and cooked later. (As Vanessa Druckman said, I wanted a spoon so I could just dig in. So good.) I did capture a picture of some Christmas tree cookies as we walked by.

And we saw the brownies. It would take me eight years to make them that smooth on top. EIGHT. YEARS.

And then we got to have a turn at making fancy stuff!

When I say we got to have our hand at making fancy things, I wasn’t referring to the things above. I mean, you’ve seen my cakes. Does that really look like something I could do on my own? Not likely. Those were out for us when we walked into the test kitchen. We did, however, get to have our hand at icing our brownies and learning how to make cutouts out of white chocolate dough.

This looks more like my handy work, doesn’t it?

The best part of the day for me, aside from sugar and (ZOMG!) free babysitting, was hanging out with Christina (of A Mommy Story) and Heather (of Domestic Extraordinaire). They’re goofballs. I can say that since Christina posted a twitpic of me in my lovely (green!) hairnet. So here they are. In theirs.

Snort. Too fun.

So, yes, we had a lovely day. We came home with goodies, which included far too many cookies for this family to eat and these really, really adorable jingle-jangle-y ears for the boys.

If I didn’t already have a Christmas card, that would be it. And, yes, BigBrother is holding LittleBrother’s face so he’ll look at the camera. No, it probably wasn’t nice of him but, darn, it was cute. (Don’t be surprised if you see this on the main blog come Christmas day. I love it. There are others.) But, yes, they had a lovely day, too. Why? Apparently they watched Toy Story. It’s almost as if Cheryl&Co researched my family.

Anyway, I tell you all of this not to gloat. I tell you all of this because today is National Brownie Day. Cheryl&Co is offering 30% off of orders. TODAY ONLY. Go place your orders. Quickly. Promptly. But please don’t send any more to me right now. I’m kind of drowning in cookies. And that’s a perfectly acceptable way to drown, don’t you think? If you miss today’s 30% off sale, you can use code BRN10 on their website through January 31, 2010 for $10.00 off any purchase. Splendid.

But wait, there’s more!

We’re giving away a Cheryl&Co Ultimate Brownie Assortment. Sounds yummy, doesn’t it? What does the Ultimate Brownie Assortment Entail? 18 individually wrapped Cheryl&Co brownies with the new buttercream frosted peanut butter, classic vanilla and new hot fudge. And even toffee crunch, classic fudge, blondie and oatmeal scotchie. It’s a huge bunch o’brownies! See?

Mmm.

So how do you win? Three ways:

1. Visit Cheryl&Co, poke around and come back and tell me what you think your favorite edible product would be. Cookie? Brownie? Sugar free products? Kosher ones? Let me know. Leave your favorite product in a comment on this post. Drool that ruins your keyboard is your own responsibility. You may do this once.

2. Follow @FireMom (me!) and @CherylandCo and then tweet about this giveaway by copy/pasting this into your twitter stream: Win $50 worth of brownies from @CherylandCo and @FireMom! YUM! http://bit.ly/4wkjSg . Please come back and leave me the individual URL of your tweet. You may do this as many times as you so desire.

3. Blog about this giveaway on your public blog with a link to this post and Cheryl&Co. Please come back to leave your link. You may do this once.

A winner will be chosen one week from today, Tuesday, December 15, 2009, at 9pm EST. The winner will be contacted via email for their shipping information. The prize will be shipped from Cheryl&Co!

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask. In the meantime, I’ll be eating my cookies. And brownies. And the big cup of buttercream frosting that I brought home. Because I can.

But forget the tiny spoon. Large spoon. Or directly into my mouth. You know. Either way. I’m classy that way.

Also, I will upload all of my photos to twitter and make them public for other bloggers and readers to look at. I will tag them “cheryl&co” and “National Brownie Day” and I will link here when they are all online. (But I have to run.)

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[Full Disclosure: I paid for nothing today. Except for my gas. I received free cookies, brownies, an apron, some chocolates, a gift card, BABYSITTING (ZOMG!), fun, lunch, laughter and I think I ate $500 worth of frosting. I was not required to blog about this event but, duuuuude, wouldn't you?]

This is a compensated review from BlogHer and Ragu.

I get kind of high-strung about feeding my children. I mean, if you know me, you know that being high-strung is just part of who I am. The issues of food, health and nutrition are very important to me. Combine that with my older son’s texture issues and a schedule that keeps us busy, I sometimes struggle with our meal plans. It has gotten better since I have started planning our meals two weeks at a time. I find that knowing what we’re going to have (and, as such, I’m going to
make) helps with the flow of our day and our week.

I struggle, however, with recipes and new ideas. As I mentioned before, my older son has texture issues. New recipes are often met with looks of horror, whining and eventual tears and gagging. The truth is that he really likes most foods, he just has problems with new textures for the first bite or two. He loves flavorful things including anything with sauce. I’m pretty sure I could put sauce on just about anything and we’d be good to go at the dinner table. That’s why I was excited when BlogHer asked if I wanted to review three of Ragu’s new sauces and three new recipes. I figured new recipes would help me out and sauce would help BigBrother out. (For the record, if it holds still, LittleBrother will eat it. He might even eat it if it moves. Just a warning.)

We received three different sauces: Sweet Tomato Basil (new!), Margherita (new!) and Cheesy Classic Alfredo (mmm). With these three different sauces we made three different meals. I first made Chicken Margherita. I think this might rank up there with my favorite sauces. I’ll definitely be purchasing it again. As I made it like it looks in the picture on the recipe itself, I made a bit of pasta with the chicken itself as a side. The boys preferred the pasta to the chicken itself but they ate both without (much) complaint. FireDad and I really liked the sauce with the mozzarella cheese on
this particular recipe. We’ve saved it as a “to make again” recipe.

The next recipe I tried out was the Upside Down Deep-Dish Pizza. My kids love anything that claims to be pizza. This one looks a bit more confusing because, after all, the crust is on the top! I chose to go with the spinach (though BigBrother might have enjoyed the broccoli better; it’s hard to tell). This was a really quick and easy meal to make that we enjoyed. I got some initial hesitation from BigBrother because of the “green stuff” but he ate it as well. I was really pleased with the flavor of this sauce and the meal in general. (Recipe change: I added pepperoni because, well, I like pepperoni!)

Our last recipe was the Chicken Alfredo with Fetticuine. Can you just say delicious? While I do have my own recipe for “from scratch” alfredo sauce, I loved the taste of this sauce and the ease of making the dish. Homemade sauce is wonderful but when you’re crunched for time, it’s nice to have an alternative that tastes rather delicious! The boys loved this dish, being a fan of noodles, chicken and sauce. It was a win with all in our house. (The picture below is of how I changed up the recipe with shrimp because apparently I forgot a picture of our chicken day and/or can’t find it on one of our three cameras. Hmm.)

Why have I told you all of this? Well, BlogHer and Ragu want to know what you do to feed your kids well. For discussing the topic, one randomly selected comment will walk away with a $100 Visa gift card! You can use it to purchase some healthy foods for your kids or, you know, a new fall sweater for yourself. However you want to spend it is
up to you. But first you have to enter!

How do you enter?

1. Leave a comment below telling me what you do to feed your kids well. Take that however you want to: planning meals in advance, eating only organic, encouraging them to try no foods, banning certain things or promoting other things. You may leave one comment of this nature. No duplicates.

2. You can earn extra entries by tweeting about this giveaway or blogging about it on your own public blog. Simply tweet or blog with a link to this post (you can use this link: http://bit.ly/38tpSW ) and come back with a link to your tweet or post. You may do this once a day.

Of course, there are some official rules. They read:

• This giveaway is open to US residents, aged 18 and older.
• Winners will be selected via random draw, and will notified by e-mail.
• You have 48 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected.

To make matters even sweeter (which makes me think of the Sweet Tomato Basil sauce), you have more than just a chance on our blog to win! Check out the rest of the BlogHer Reviewers’ Ragu meals – you have 10 chance to win a $100 Visa gift card. And, for kid-friendly recipes, healthy tips and more, be sure to visit Ragu.com. If you have any questions about this giveaway, the other BlogHer-Ragu giveaways or the recipes which we made, please don’t hesitate to ask.

I look forward to reading your comments! (Any tips on texture issues, healthy eating and kids would also be appreciated!)

When Mom Central asked if I could review some Atkins products, I was immediately on board. We try to eat healthy but old recipes die hard. It’s sometimes difficult to change your brand when it comes to baking or cooking, especially for tried and true recipes. Thankfully Atkins’ site has a bunch of recipes to try out.

I also found that it’s not all that difficult to take a tried and true recipe of your own, use Atkins ingredients and make it a little more healthy. I did so with my own zucchini bread recipe. Not only did I use the Atkins all purpose baking mix but I also cut the sugar of the original recipe in half. I also figured that I’d add just a little more than the two cups of grated zucchini because, well, at the end of grating two zucchini, I had more than two cups. As such: extra zucchini.

I was uncertain how it would turn out. After all, instead of using flour, I was using a “baking mix.” I used my baking powder and soda but I was really afraid it wouldn’t rise. I am excited to tell you that it did, in fact, rise! In fact, take a look for yourself!

Beautiful, isn’t it?

But how does it taste? A little less sweet, of course, as I cut the sugar in half. But as I also sprinkled in some nutmeg, it really tasted just fine. Especially with the butter. (What? I’m not perfect at diets. Trust me!) I also made pancakes with the all purpose baking mix but there are no pictures as they disappeared too quickly to photograph!

Here’s my recipe for my Atkins All Purpose Baking Mix Zucchini Bread.

1 cup sugar
1 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
2(+) cups grated zucchini
3 cups Atkins All Purpose Baking Mix
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tsp ground ginger
1/2 cup raisins
Add some Nutmeg* to taste

*Note: I don’t use cinnamon because I am allergic to cinnamon. If you like cinnamon, consider substituting the nutmeg with cinnamon. Or adding both for an extra spice-tastic zucchini bread!

And here’s how you put it all together.

1. Grate your zucchini.

2. In a large bowl, combine your sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla. Once mixed together, add in your grated zucchini and mix that all together, too.

3. In a separate bowl, but still somewhat large, sift together your flour, baking soda, baking powder, salt and ground ginger.

4. Slowly blend your dry ingredients into your wet zucchini mixture.

5. Pour the mixture into two greased 8×5 bread pans. Or, if you don’t bake much bread and you only have one pan, pour half of the mixture into the bread pan and cover the remaining mixture so you can cook it second.

6. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour. Remove pan. Let cool for approximately ten minutes and then remove the zucchini bread from the pan and place bread out to cool. If you’re like me, wash out and dry the pan and pour the rest of the mixture into the pan, place it in the oven and bake for an hour.

And, voila! Two loaves of yummy zucchini bread made with Atkins All Purpose Baking Mix.

And there’s good news for you! You can create your own Atkins recipe and enter it in their contest. There are a few different categories and quite a smorgasbord of winnings so go give it a look and enter! (If you win, let me know and I’ll make your creation!) But don’t enter my zucchini bread recipe. I just did!

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[I wrote this review while participating in a blog campaign by Mom Central on behalf of Atkins and received samples to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

When Oscar Mayer first launched their Lunchables, I was an impressionable child. I wanted them! I needed to have them! My friends all had them! But my parents were pretty strict about everything we ate and even more strict about how our money was spent. Smart parents but never fun when you’re the child being told no.

In college, in addition to ramen noodles, I lived on Lunchables. They were cheap, easy to grab from my mini-fridge and eat on the Quad while I was studying or running between classes and they tasted good to me. When Mom Central asked if I would review the new-and-improved Lunchables, I said sure! They got some bad publicity in 1997 when their sodium content was found to be too high. As someone dealing with kidney issues (that I didn’t know about back in the day), sodium content is important to me.

And that’s why I can honestly tell you that I like the new wholesome stuff Lunchables is offering to kids. (And, uh, me.)

I purchased the turkey and cheddar Lunchables meal with a free coupon that was sent to me with intent to review. As you can see on the the nutritional information, the sodium is down to 25% of the daily allotment (for an adult). I can swing that and, to be honest, it’s the same amount (or less) if I was to make a turkey sandwich with cheese at home. This is just on the go! The meal itself comes with spring water that you can add Kool-Aid singles to; I chose not to but I can guess if my boys were eating this for lunch at school, they would have added it. Applesauce and mini-vanilla wafers rounded out the meal. And the calorie content: 360. That’s great for me.

I’m going to admit, I probably won’t buy these and keep them in stock for every single day. I will, however, grab these for our road trips (to put in a cooler) because it’s far more healthy than any fast food stop. And cheaper than fast food! I will grab it for outings. And even just for a surprise fun lunch every now and then. And if I ever have to work outside the home again, I’d prefer these to some of the other options.

Give the new Lunchables a try! I bet you’ll be surprised!

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[I wrote this review while participating in a blog tour by Mom Central on behalf of Oscar Mayer Lunchables and received a sample to facilitate my candid review. In addition, Mom Central sent me a gift card to thank me for taking the time to participate.]

With my older son, I don’t have a lot of calcium concerns. He drinks milk. A lot of milk. He loves milk. And cheeses. And puddings with milk. And yogurt. And he just gets a lot of calcium. And then there’s LittleBrother. He’s lactose intolerant. And while he drinks “enough” calcium-fortified rice milk everyday, he’s not getting some of the extras that his older brother is consuming via snacks and such.

Then Mom Central asked if we wanted to be a part of the Shedd’s Spread Country Crock with CALCIUM and VITAMIN D blog tour. I said, “YES! YES! YES!” LittleBrother loves bread with butter/margarine. And toast with butter. And he likes butter on his veggies (which he eats while BigBrother does not, sigh). And on his mashed potatoes. Really, he just likes “butter” flavor.

Each serving of the Country Crock with Calcium and Vitamin D provides 100mg of calcium which is 10% of the daily value. Combined with his servings of rice milk, we’re much closer to 100% of our daily value now. To boot, it also offers 20% of the daily value of needed Vitamin D which many kids are falling short in as well. While I once thought that my children would be so wonderfully easy to feed that I’d never have to sneak nutrients into their diet, I am now a realist and know that anything that helps me achieve a healthy, balanced diet for these two kids who each have their own issues and quirks is something that I can get behind.

While we used to buy the plain old Shedd’s Spread Country Crock container, we’ll now be buying the one with the blue lid. Just don’t tell FireDad that it’s healthier for him. He might not like it. Because I blame him for the boys’ food quirks. I do.

Today is May 1st! (How’d that happen?) May brings flowers, warmer weather and… Mother’s Day. And I’ve got the perfect thing for my new and/or expectant mothers.

When Mom Central asked if I wanted to review the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance breast pump, I felt kind of nostalgic. LittleBrother officially weaned himself just awhile ago (which I have not written about yet) and, knowing that he is our last child, I’m somewhat emotional about the concept of never nursing another child. All the same, as many of you know, I’m a huge breastfeeding advocate and so a review (and giveaway) the helps mothers learn about breastfeeding is right up our alley.

Since my milk is now 100% gone, we didn’t actively open a box and review the pump. I did, however, take the box over to my good friend Mandy’s house. She’s a lactation consultant at the hospital where we delivered TheBrothers. In fact, she was my lactation consultant and helped me get through some of LittleBrother’s growth issues. She had some good things to say about the new Evenflo Comfort Select Performance.

She brought up the fact that in 2007, Evenflo acquired Ameda. She was hopeful that combining the two technologies together would result in even better breast pumps for mothers (and babies). She was pretty excited to see the results of that combination. She was also greatly pleased with the price of the breast pump, coming in at $69.99 on Amazon, it’s in much greater reach than some of the bigger pumps. Things like auto-cycling and being BPA free are also some great points that we both loved!

She did have one word of warning: this pump is not for premature babies or children with special needs. Mothers who are attempting to pump for those babies need a hospital grade pump as the situation is vastly different. Mothers who are also exclusively pumping for whatever the reason probably need a “bigger” pump as well. Quite honestly, I wish this pump would have existed when LittleBrother was born. Despite working from home, I had a conference to attend (without him… sigh) when he was three months old. As this pump didn’t exist, I had to get a much more expensive model. Mandy is pretty darn sure that this pump would have helped us get the milk stash that we needed in a three month period. Sadly, I’ll never get to find out.

But you can!

That’s right. We actually have two of these Evenflo Comfort Select Performance breast pumps to give away. One of them, however, is going to our local Pregnancy Center (cleared with thumbs up by Mom Central which only makes me love them more as they are obviously “pro” mothers by doing such a thing!). I’m also going to be offering some education to any current mothers utilizing the center as to how breastfeeding can save them time, money and is, in the end, easier for mom and baby. Oh, and you know, a million times better! So that leaves one breast pump and two boxes of Comfort Select nursing pads for our readers. How to win? A few ways.

1. If you’re an expectant mom, leave a comment letting me know about your excitement, fears or other emotions you have regarding your new baby and a breastfeeding relationship. Not only does that give you a chance to win but I’ll comment back or email you with some encouragement! You may do this once.

2. If you’re already a nursing mom, leave a letting me know why you think this pump would help you along in your breastfeeding relationship. If you’d like to encourage the expectant moms reading this post and entering the giveaway, feel free to share happy stories and beautiful nursing shots. (Be prepared for me to blubber at you.) You may do this once.

3. If you’re not a nursing mom (weep with me) but you know someone who is and want to attempt to win this for them (for Mother’s Day!), blog about this giveaway on your public blog with a link to this post and the Evenflo Comfort Select Performance. Tell me why you’re nominating someone to win (you don’t have to name them or link to them if you want it to be a surprise) and really let me know why that person deserves to win this breast pump. Come back and leave the link in case the pingback doesn’t work properly! You may write as many posts as you want to on your own blog about awesome nursing moms but make it one mom per post.

And, as a bonus entry:

4. Tweet about this giveaway by copy/pasting this into your twitter stream:

Win an #evenflocomfort breast pump for you or a nursing mom! Visit @FireMom: http://tinyurl.com/d7hs8u Until Sun, May 10 for Mother’s Day!

You can tweet about the giveaway as many times as you want throughout the contest. Do not leave a comment here with each tweet URL. I’ll catch them with the mentions and put them in my spreadsheet.

Giveaway ends at 12:00pm (noon) on Sunday, May 10, 2009. After I get LittleBrother down for a nap, I’ll finish adding any last minute entries to my spreadsheet and visit random.org to pull a winner. I’ll contact that winner by email and get things off to her on Monday. (Yes, I can do this on Mother’s Day because, as figures with the Fire Department, FireDad works on Mother’s Day. And Father’s Day. And he worked on my birthday this year. And his birthday! Fail. Anyway, gifting another mom or mom-to-be with a special present will make me feel less grumpy. So we go!)

If you want to improve your chances of winning, enter the giveaway at MomCentral. They have three Evenflo Comfort Select Performance pumps to give away! So go improve your chances!

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Congrats to our winner, Kristy, who is expecting baby number three! She successfully nursed her twins, now three, for a year so she’s excited to have a slightly easier go at it (hopefully) this time around! Thanks for all those that were tweeting this giveaway!

I don’t always have time to make healthy food choices. I mean, I try to. We buy fresh fruits and vegetables, cut them up upon returning home from the grocery store and have them ready to go in containers for quick snacking. And I always plan healthy meals for supper. But lunch trips me up. We’re so busy during the day that sometimes I’ll scarf down whatever is quickest and not whatever is healthiest.

Thanks to Healthy Choice, I’m reminded to make better lunch decisions.

A recent study has shown that Healthy Choice meals are… healthy! To boot, they’re quick. I can do quick. Can’t you? Since lunch time usually involves trying to get two children to eat and especially one to eat quickly so he can go to afternoon preschool, knowing that I can have a quick, healthy (and yummy) option while reminding someone to keep chewing sounds like it is the right path for me. But what’s the study say?

A 24 week study showed that those who ate Healthy Choice meals while also eating other healthy portion sizes and engaging in a walking program 4-5 days a week lost, on average, 18 pounds. I could stand to lose a few pounds. (Though my biggest struggle is honestly portion size. I think many of us struggle with that. At least while eating Healthy Choice meals for lunch, my portion size will be controlled for me. That’s a bonus, right?)

Dr. James Rippe, who was the one explaining this information to us on a conference call, explained the science behind all of it. But, without getting overly technical, simply providing the proper nutrition with the convenience of a pre-packaged meal made it easier for participants to adhere to the diet plan. I can understand that. As I said above, portion control and time issues are the two factors that trip me up the most. Now that it has stopped snowing (hopefully…), I can possibly manage to walk 4-5 times a week as well.

In the end, making healthy choices should be a goal that we’re all striving for, especially knowing the obesity rates in our country. While so many other things may be out of our control (the economy, as an example), making those healthy choices is well within our control. Healthy Choice can help you with convenience and some delicious tasting foods.

[Thanks to Mom Central for including me on the conference all!]