Soapnut Review Winner is....

The Winner of the Soapnut Review Giveaway is Kate! Congratulations!

Thank you to everyone who left a comment. Keep an eye out for future eco-friendly product reviews and giveaways. Remember to please make sure it is easy for me to contact you or I wont be able to let you know you are the winner and the next person in line will get the prize. Either have an email on your profile or leave it on the comment.

Zarbee's All Natural Children's Cough Syrup Review

Recently Penelope was sick with a cold, it was terrible, I hate seeing her suffer when she is not feeling well. I knew that a couple of years ago the FDA had determined that it was not safe to give over the counter cough syrups to children under the age of 4, but I thought surely there was something I could give her to relieve her symptoms. I ventured out to the local drugstore and desperately searched the aisles, but alas nothing. A couple of miserable days later I was checking my email and what did I find? It was information on a product called Zarbee's all-natural children's cough syrup. I immediately contacted the company to ask if I could review this product as it was something I desperately needed at the moment. They responded quickly and graciously agreed to send me Zarbee's to review.

From their website:
Zarbee's is the creation of Dr. Zak Zarbock, a pediatrician and father who everyday dealt with parents frustrated at not being able to find a safe and effective solution for their childrens' coughs.
Realizing the need for an effective cough syrup that parents could trust and feel good about, Dr. Zarbock began to research clinical trials. After a few months, he came across a compelling trial comparing buckwheat honey to traditional over-the-counter cough syrups. The results indicated that buckwheat honey was more effective at calming coughs and sore throats in children and young adults.
In 2008, just months after Dr. Zarbock's discovery of the buckwheat honey trials, Zarbee's Cough Syrup was created.

Zarbee's Cough Syrup contains a blend of special dark honeys, vitamins and immune-boosting ingredients. The ingredients in Zarbee's are all-natural, side-effect-free. It comes in two flavors, cherry and lemon and is safe for children 12 months and up. When I received Zarbee's a few days after contacting the company Penelope had already pretty much recovered from her illness. We received the lemon flavored and I immediately gave some to Penelope. Her cold was just about gone but her voice was still a little scratchy and I wanted to see what she thought of the taste and if it eased the soreness in her throat. She loved the taste and commented that it felt good. I am happy to have found this product and that I can alleviate some of her discomfort the next time she becomes ill. Check here to find out where you can purchase Zarbee's all-natural children's cough syrup near you.


***Monica***

Mondays with Monica...

Hey everyone! Have a good weekend? Mine was wonderful it was our last weekend with the grandparents before we fly to Alaska, our new home. I am so excited! We took the little girl to a pumpkin patch and had fun carving our pumpkins. Do you have any fun fall stuff going on? I just wanted to let you know I will be absent next Monday going to be getting settled in the new place.  I will return with my weekly post on November 8th and will hopefully have some great giveaways for all of you as well.

Until then...

*Monica*

Mondays with Monica...and Campbell's

How  was every one's weekend? Are you keeping warm? It is starting to get chilly and you know what's perfect on a cold day, a nice hot bowl of soup. What's the first name brand that comes to mind when you think of soup? For me it is Campbell's, I have been enjoying Campbell's soup for many years. As a child I can remember eating grilled cheese sandwiches with a bowl of Campbell's Condensed Tomato Soup. On days when I wasn't feeling well mom would always make some Campbell's Condensed Chicken Noodle Soup. It always made me feel better when I was suffering from a cold. Campbell's carries a variety of soups that are perfect to warm you up as the weather starts to get cooler but their condensed soups are also great for using in recipes. The Campbell's Kitchen team has created some great new recipes using this seasons produce and their many soups. Dishes like Chicken Fusilli with Spinach & Asiago Cheese. Made with their Cream of Chicken Soup that only takes 30 minutes from start to finish and is perfect for a quick and healthy family meal and sounds delicious.

Or what about  Slow Cooker Mole-Style Pulled Pork , made with their French Onion Style Soup.

Really pork mole!? Wait until my husband Chris hears about this he is a chicken mole fiend but we have never tried it with pork. I will be trying this recipe very shortly.

These are just a couple of the thousands of yummy recipes that are available at campbellskitchen.com and now you can take Campbell's Kitchen with you wherever you go. They have a new downloadable mobile application available for iPhone and soon Droid. You can download this app here. If you are looking for a recipe that your family will love be sure to check out Campbell's Kitchen they have several recipe category's to search from. If for instance you have certain dietary needs or are looking for something budget friendly. Also don't forget to become a fan of Campbell's Kitchen on Facebook and follow them on Twitter to stay updated on new products, recipes and promotions. 

I would love to hear what your favorite Cambell's soup is!

Keep warm, until next time...

***Monica*** 

Soapnuts Review and Giveaway

A few months ago I replied to a posting online from a recycling group, similar to Freecycling. The post was from a local member in need of bubble wrap for reuse and packaging of products from her green business. Her name is Lisa and her business’s name is Laundry Tree.

What is Laundry Tree? It is a distributor of soapnuts. I’ve heard of soapnuts in the past and have always wanted to try them, but had not until I found Lisa. Lisa gave me a Soapnut starter kit as gift for giving and delivering months worth of bubble wrap to her house. There was no need for a gift, I was happy to give the bubble wrap away (hated for it to end up in the landfill), but I wasn’t about to turn down a chance to try soapnuts. I’m glad I didn’t.

What are soap nuts? They are a dried fruit from the tree Sapindus Mukorossi. Soapnuts have a natural cleaning property. The outer shell of the soapnut contains saponin, a natural substance known for its ability to cleanse and wash. To use, the soapnuts are harvested, de-seeded, and then they are dried in the sun (Laundry Tree).

Since receiving the kit, I have washed many loads of laundry with the soapnuts. It was easy. To use I place 3-4 soap nuts in a bag, add a drop or two of lavender oil in the bag Though, I didn’t always add the oil though. I thought the soapnuts had a pleasant natural smell all on their own. Then I would tie the bag and toss it into the load. I set the load to wash and voila! My laundry always came out smelling fresh with or without the oil. The lavender gave a nice lavender scent to it to the loads of laundry, but personally I don’t care for fragrance one way or the other. I just don’t want my clothes to smell dirty. It never did with soapnuts. My laundry also came out clean and soft. I washed a variety of clothes to prove it: casual clothes, socks, towels, blankets, work clothes, workout clothes, clothes of all colors and so on.

Was it easy to tell when the soapnuts were all soaped out? Yes! Like the directions read, I squeezed the soapnuts while they were still wet. If white or honey goo came out I used the soapnuts again. This is how I tested to see if they really could be used to wash 3-4 loads. They did.

Could I really wash 40 loads with my kit? To be honest I lost count of the loads, but I did wash many. If it helps, my starter kits had a 100g bag of soapnuts. When I took them out to count how many were inside I had about 40 soapnuts. So if, I placed 3 soap nuts in a bag and reused them 3 times I could have easily washed 36 loads. Now remember, these soapnuts can be used as long as the white or honey goo stuff comes out.

I only found two inconveniences with the use of soapnuts. Soapnuts require warm to hot water to release the saponin, the natural cleaning substance in the soapnuts. Most of the time, for the exception of a few loads (diapers and cleaning rags) I use cold water to wash my laundry. This isn’t to say I couldn’t use the soapnuts at all; I just had to take an extra step to make from the soapnuts a liquid called Soapnut Soak. This was very easy to do and worked well, but it was an extra step I often forgot to do because it does require the need to soak the soapnuts in water overnight. Instead, I ended up using warm water to wash a lot of my clothes.

The second inconvenience was loosing the soapnut bag in the loads of laundry from washer to dryer. The bag is white and small. It blends in very well with white loads and light colored clothes and it gets tangled up in loads with blankets. If my husband washed clothes he never noticed the bag and if I was busy I wouldn’t take the time to look for it.

The good news, when I lost the bag and dried in the dryer I just grab another bag filled it with soapnuts and washed another load. I would then find the lost bag while folding my clothes. I would use it again to wash more clothes. Accidentally drying the soapnuts in the dryer simply dries the soapnuts back up to the way they were before they were used. Still, I wish the bag were a little easier to find.

For more information about soapnuts and how you can get some visit Laundry Tree .

The Giveaway!
Lisa is offering a starter kit (100g soapnuts, an essential or fragrant oil, an extra wash bag and a sample bag) to one of my lucky readers. To Enter: Visit Laundry Tree and then leave me a comment letting me know why you want to try soapnuts. You can get extra entries for following us through GFC or Subscribing via email.

Deadline: This giveaway will end on October 30, 2010. I will choose the winner using Random.org. US entries only.

Mondays with Monica Low Carb Edition

Happy Monday everyone! If you don't already know my family is currently on the move. Right now we are staying with my husbands parents in Oregon for a couple of weeks as we make our way up to our final destination, Alaska. Recently my in-laws have adopted a low carb eating style and since I love to cook I have been trying to come up with recipes that they can eat. A few days ago I made some mock mashed potatoes out of cauliflower. Boil your cauliflower till it's mashable then mash it up with a little cream and butter. While they don't taste quite like mashed potatoes they make a great substitute and if you pour some pork loin mushroom gravy over the top like we did well you'll never even miss those 'ol potatoes. We have been eating a lot of steak which is always fine with me and a couple  nights ago I even made a lasagna but substituted zucchini for the noodles. You slice the zucchini lengthwise in thin strips and layer as you would a normal lasagna. "noodles", ricotta cheese mixture, meat sauce, mozzarella, and again and again making delicious layers. Cover it with foil and bake at 325 for 1 hour, remove foil and raise temp to 350 for 15 more minutes. Mmmm...This was really good!

The bread in the pic was for the kiddos.

 I would really like to find some more great low carb recipes to try so if you have any to share please pass them along to me. Who knows I might even lose some weight while I am staying here! Until next time...

***Monica***