Working Mother

Archive for the ‘BusyMomReviews’ Category

Making Life Better is a lifestyle site covering great topics such as food and drink, beauty and style, home and family as well as wellness and other tips. Be sure to check out the news and offers with savings, sweepstakes and more.

I signed up for a free membership and I found you can save articles and recipes, make comments and share tips with others. There’s even a Making Life Better YouTube channel that has some great, easy and cost effective meal ideas featuring such handy items as Knorr Sides, Lipton Recipe Secrets, Hellman’s Mayonnaise and more.

Be sure to check out the great Family Fun Book (.pdf) on the site filled with fun, affordable recipes using trusted brands for lots of occasions. I got to try out a variety of the products and we’re partial to the Upside Down Deep Dish pizza.

I really liked this site. It’s attractive, easy to use and the meal ideas are practical for people like me without a lot of time. It’s really worth a look, I think you’ll like it!

Making Life Better is brought to you by the good folks at Unilever, home of such well known food, personal care and home care brands such as Hellman’s, Lipton, Knorr, Bertolli, Suave, Vaseline, Ponds and more.

This post in conjunction with Mom Central
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T-Mobile asks, What’s your parenting style?

Mine?

I actually prefer to think of it as, um “straightforward”.

The questions mostly apply to older kids and teens and it’s quite timely for me with a teen and one near-teen in the house at the moment. If you have little kids, some of the scenarios might be purely imaginary for you right now, but they’ll be real before you know it!

Take the Mom to Mom Quiz, and tell us about your parenting style!

You’re strict, too? Right? Right?

I’m not the only one, right?

Also, especially if you have teens with cell phones, be sure to check out T-Mobile’s Family Allowances.

With Family Allowances, parents can easily:

* Avoid surprise bills by managing their child’s allowance of minutes, messages and downloads via their cell phone or a simple Web-based interface on my.T-Mobile.com.
* Set limits on the time of day a phone may (or may not) be used.
* Set limits on who can or cannot call or send text messages to the phone.

I promise, it’s never too early to plan how you’ll handle teens and technology!

This post in conjunction with T-Mobile
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The Health Alliance on Alcohol has issued 10 Tips for Parents During Prom/Graduation Season.

I beg you to check this out, this is vital information to parents, especially to those of us with teens, and especially this time of year when it seems there are parties everywhere.

Also, be sure to join the Health Alliance on Alcohol on Thursday, May 21, 2009 at 12:30pm ES for an On-line Chat Lead by Dr. Karen Soren and a panel of experts.

TOPIC: Parents Talking to Teens About Prom, Graduation and Alcohol
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I’m not vegetarian, but we have good friends (and their kids) who are, so I’m fairly familiar with the meat-free products out there, and we keep some on hand, and we do eat them from time to time.

So, when I was contacted by Quorn, a line of meat free frozen foods originally from the UK, to try their Naked Chic’n Cutlets, (disclosure: they gave me a box of Chick’n. It came in a cooler thingy with a radio) I was all for it.

Upon further research, I found that Quorn products are meat AND soy free and wondered, “Um, what are they, then?” Quorn is mycoprotein, or processed edible fungus (kinda like truffles). So, wait, “fungus?” you might be saying. I know I did.

But, I ate it anyway.

And? It was pretty good!

The Naked Chic’n Cutlets are frozen patties, shaped like chicken cutlets. While you wouldn’t mistake it for chicken, it doesn’t look offensive or anything. I think the “naked” part just means it doesn’t have breading.

You can grill them, microwave them, or put them in a conventional oven. You coat it with oil before cooking and they even come out with some grill-like marks.

So, how did they taste?

I liked them. I cooked them in the oven, (though I bet they grill well) The texture is similar to, but not exactly like chicken. It does taste a good bit like chicken, more so than other chicken-like products I’ve tried, but it also has it’s own unique taste as well. I thought it had a little “sweet” edge to it, but no one else in my family thought so.

All of their products seem very versatile and there’s a lot of recipes using Quorn.

Note: Quorn products use egg white as a binder, so they aren’t vegan, but at only 80 calories and 11 g of protein per serving, the Naked Chick’n Cutlets can be a part of a healthy meal.
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Skinny Cow is a line of better for you ice cream products, and if you’ve never had them, you should!

I was given the opportunity to try the ice cream sandwiches. Now, I’ll be the first to tell you that I don’t like too many foods that are supposed “diet” or “lite” or anything, but these are by far, an exception.

Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches are like any ice cream sandwich, ice cream between 2 chocolate layers. There are very thick and satisfying and are a normal size, not miniature like some diet treats.

The chocolate wafers are just as good as any regular ice cream sandwich, and there’s actual low-fat ice cream between them, not yogurt or anything one might guess would be on a “healthy” treat. I thought the ice cream was smooth and creamy, without the weird texture and taste of many “diet” ice creams.

Popular among Weight Watchers members, at only 1g of fat, 3 g fiber and 140 calories, most of these sandwiches come in at only 2 POINTS.

They come in flavors such as vanilla, chocolate, mint and cookies and cream. I found mine at Target, but you can also find them in most groceries with the ice cream.

The problem isn’t the fact they’re a sweet treat, it’s stopping after just one!

This post in conjunction with Mom Central
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Mamapedia is an online resource of mothers sharing wisdom and advice with other mothers. It’s a searchable compilation of what people have shared though the Mamasource community about kids in all stages.

Since they emphasize that it’s about kids of “all ages” and I have a teenager (as well as a pre-teen and a school-ager), I decided to test out it’s teen powers as many of these types of sites concentrates on babies and toddlers.

I searched “teen driver’s license rules” as this is something that’s getting ready to be big ion our house in the not too distant future, and I was pleased to see that there is a lot of real advice in there, and that there’s a way to indicate if you find the advice helpful or not.

While there are lots of parenting communities and forums out there, I liked this format, it narrows down the information and it’s an easy to use interface.

Mamapedia is free and it’s updated daily and the questions and answers are by real moms who’ve “been there”.

This post in conjunction with Mom Central
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