It’s funny. I have been listening to Steven Curtis Chapman for years, and when we started our first adoption over eight years ago I was acutely aware of their adoption journeys. When tragedy struck a few years ago, and their littlest daughter, Maria died at age five, I was so moved. We were in the process of adopting our second daughter from China when it happened. Since, then the story of their tragedy faded in my mind, and we added our youngest to our family.

About two weeks ago, I was in Bath and Body in Hutchinson when a stranger came up to me and apologized for being too forward, but told me that I really needed to read Mary Beth Chapman’s new book, “Choosing to SEE”. I remember hearing that she wrote a book, but this lady insisted I read it. She told me I would be moved. I bought the book later that week.

I have to say “Choosing to SEE” has not only failed to disappoint, but I haven’t been able to put it down. It is so good that I’m likely to move it to my Best Books Ever Read list, and highly recommend it to others. If you’ve ever been a mom or wife, you will relate. If you’ve been depressed or know someone battling with depression, you’ll gain insight. If you’ve been through the adoption process, you will laugh and cry. It is extremely easy to read, written with such love and devotion.

Check out their website for Adoption Care, called ShowHope.

What are you waiting for? If you are a family or friend reading this, yes, you can borrow my copy! Just Ask.

Each summer I try to set aside time each day to take the kids swimming. Sometimes we are able to lounge at the pool or lake all day, and other times we go for a quick swim in the evening after work.  Regardless of when we go, one thing is certain. The kids always get hungry and want a snack. I try to save money by packing simple snacks. This way we are able to avoid excess spending and provide more nutritious options.

When asked to review a new product called Giddy Dip’ems, I jumped at the opportunity. Giddy is a single serving, fun snack for kids (and parents) that features fruits and whole grains.We were sent four varieties to try: Tropical, Grape, Strawberry, and Apple. The kids and I have enjoyed sampling each one, and I have to admit that I love the fruit dip. These snacks taste great and are quite different from anything else on the market.

“Time constrained moms love that giddy is a convenient on the go snack option free of high fructose corn syrup, preservatives and artificial ingredients, and kids love the great taste and fun formats!” ~ Giddy Founder

I’m excited that Giddy is making its way to Minnesota and onto the shelves of many Target stores. You can find them in Eden Prairie, North St. Paul, Forest Lake, Crystal, Stillwater, Chanhassen, and Waconia, or online at Amazon.com

I’ve been offered additional packages to give away on my blog so others can give them a try. So, what do you think? Leave a comment if you think I should give away some Giddy snacks just in time for swimming, picnicking, fishing, and biking season!

The Gasser Family Review: Two Thumbs Up!

I usually hate getting the mail, but today is an exception. I received my  Sofia Blanc de Blancs wine in the mail today, complete with this cute little single serving can and a straw. I was contacted a while back, asking if I would be willing to do a review in time for Mother’s Day. I am not one to turn down wine. I’ve actually heard a little “buzz” already around this wine in my social circles, and my mom received a bottle as a retirement gift a few weeks ago. My interest was definitely peeked.

So My Review?

I liked it. It’s not dry, but not too fruity either. It has a little carbonation to it, and the little can and straw is adorable. Juice box move over! Mamma’s got a replacement. I’m an avid wine taster and drinker, although my tastes can be peculiar. I suspect most people would love this wine, as it is sweeter.

For those of you Zella’s fans who love New Age, it is very similar; light and fun tasting (a local Hutchinson, MN comparison and reference)

About the Wine

Sofia is a wine from the Francis Ford Coppola Winery in California. According to the Tasting Notes, “Sofia Blanc de Blancs offers bright aromas of tangerine, peaches,and pears along with a beautiful note of honeysuckle. Light and elegant on the palate, sweet hints of tropical fruit and pineapple mingle with quince and zesty green apples.”

It is a blend of Pinot Blanc, Sauvignon Blanc, and Muscat.

I will be having this wine again. Cheers!

Years ago I fell in love with a tasty and simple enchilada stack recipe that can be made with chicken, beef, turkey, or even vegetarian, and the best part? It’s made in the crockpot!  The other night we made the recipe with Gold’N Plump “Recipe Ready” ground chicken, and it was finger-licking good. I used a bunch of my homemade flour tortillas, which made this a very inexpensive dish.

While I love corn tortillas, my family doesn’t. This recipe calls for either one, so feel free to use your favorite.

Recipe: Chicken Enchilada Stack

1 pound ground chicken
1 medium onion chopped
1 TBLS taco seasoning (I used about 1 tsp each of cumin, chili powder, onion powder)
1 16 oz container of sour cream (I use light)
1 small can of green chilis
1 can of beans drained (I used black beans, but have used kidney beans)
1 can of enchilada sauce
2 cups of shredded cheddar cheese
8-10 flour or corn tortillas
Fresh lettuce, green onions, sweet red pepper, avocado.

Directions: Brown the chicken and onion, add seasoning. Remove from heat and stir in sour cream and green chilis. Spray your crock pot with spray oil and add about 2 TBLS of the enchilada sauce to the bottom, then layer tortillas, meat mixture, beans, cheese, sauce, and repeat. Since the ingredients are cooked, but need to flavor, set your crockpot on low for a few hours. It’s done when the cheese is melted and bubbly. Serve with fresh toppings.

Our friends introduced us to Asian Turkey Burgers at their home, which we immediately loved. When the opportunity presented itself for me to try Gold N’ Plump’s new ground chicken, this recipe immediately came to mind. I’ve also had lots of people hound me for this recipe, so I’ll be glad to share my version of it.

Last night I used ground chicken, along with other signature ingredients that make this dish so tasty (cilantro, sweet chili sauce, fresh ginger, and fresh parsley).

I topped the burgers with Wasabi-Sour Cream Sauce, which is basically light sour cream with some wasabi sauce blended in. You can make this as spicy or as calm as you’d like.

Recipe: Asian Chicken Burgers

1 pound ground Gold N’ Plump chicken (90/10)
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 egg
2 TBLS Sweet Chili Sauce (if you don’t have this, you could use ketchup and some red pepper flakes)
3 green onions chopped
2 cloves garlic chopped
1/2 cup of fresh parsley chopped
1/2 cup of fresh cilantro chopped
1 TBLS fresh grated ginger
salt and pepper to taste

Next, I mixed all ingredients together  and formed burgers. I used aluminum foil on my broil pan and sprayed it well with spray oil.

I broiled the burgers until done, flipping over midway through cooking. You need to watch closely to make sure the meat is fully cooked, but not over-cooked and dried out.

I lightly toasted the buns and served the burgers with a side of steamed Asian vegetables.

These burgers are full of flavor, but lots of healthy stuff too. The ground chicken was not greasy at all, but very moist and tender. They were definitely a hit!

I thought it would be fun to post some of my top 10 lists from this past year. If you want to chime in, leave a comment.

Top 10 Marginal Movies I Watched in 2010:

1. Get Him to the Greek
2. Killers
3. Letters to Juliet
4. Whip It
5. Cop Out
6. Time Traveler’s Wife
7. An Education
8. 500 Days of Summer
9. Good Hair
10. Twilight Movies, which ever ones came out this past year

I say “marginal” because there is only ONE exceptional movie that I watched this past year, “The Social Network”. Not only was this ONE movie exceptional, but it probably made my all-time list of favorite movies. I have to admit that “Date Night” made me really laugh, but the rest were (yawn) OK. “Peacock” gets an honorable mention, as it was a good mind-thriller.

Top 10 Movies I Didn’t Finish (or almost didn’t finish) Watching in 2010:

1. Losers
2. The Hurt Locker
3. Green Zone
4. Invictus
5. Men Who Stare at Goats
6. Assassination of a High School President (I did finally finish this one, but it took multiple attempts)
7. Nine (I finished this one too and promptly wanted my 119 minutes of life back)
8. Next
9. Surrogates
10. Angels and Demons

Top 5 Funniest Moments in 2010

1. A particular scene with Masuka in Dexter Season 5
2. The backward taxi chase scene in “Date Night”
3. Dennis Quaid whispering “Do you have ketchup” on Ellen
4. “Hamm & Bublé” with Jon Hamm and Michael Bublé on SNL
5. Betty White in the SuperBowl Commercial

Ok, so I could only think of 5. Please help me finish this list.

photo credit: bgottsab

My kids love Kung Fu Panda. I love Jack Black, whose humorous facial expressions curiously make their way into the animated panda (Po). When I was asked if I wanted to do a review of the new Kung Fu Panda app for our 4th generation iPod Touch, I jumped at the chance. It is iStoryTime’s latest release, Kung Fu Panda Holiday Storybook App.

My seven year old is extremely adept with technology. When she was in the market for an iPod Touch, she waited until the release of the 4th generation in September so she would have the advanced features; and she’s just learning to read. Therefore, I knew she’d be the perfect one to help me with this review. She downloaded it to her iPod, and off she went to play with it. I intentionally allowed her to review it first, so I could remain objective and get her feedback.

“It’s really neat”, she said. “The graphics are really good (I smile, as this is coming from a 7 year old, not an application designer) and the  cartoons have the right voices”. To a kid who is already a big fan of the movie, having the application look and sound right is a big deal. She loves that she can read along with the story and that it follows the holiday special closely, which of course she has seen.

I love that the application encourages reading, is age appropriate and kid friendly. It also offers a little spy game of finding the lantern on each page. You can read the story yourself, or have it read to you. Kung Fu Panda Holiday Storybook 1.0 is priced at $2.99 USD available worldwide exclusively through the App Store in the Books category.

“There is no charge for awesomeness… or attractiveness” ~ Po

I consider myself a fairly frugal person. I like to save money and be as practical as possible. If there’s a coupon available, I’ll use it. However, I have never gone out of my way to locate coupons for specific products, nor have I strategized about using multiple coupons (web, in-store, and manufacturing) for the same product. I guess I have just never taken the time to learn how to do this; thinking it was probably too complicated for me.

Then two things happened. First, I was invited to attend a “couponing class” where I learn more about using coupons and saving money. I am really looking forward to this class next week, as I have a friend who already took the class and loved it. Not only is she saving money, but she’s practically making money. Really?

The other thing that happened is that I connected with a couponing site online called CouponChief.com They were featured a while back by Mashable.com , a social marketing site I trust very much. I figured they would make a great “first” online couponing site that I could go through and discover what I’ve been missing.

I’ll admit that when I have gone to any coupon-type site, CouponChief.com included, I have been a bit overwhelmed. I liked the fact that they included a tab in the upper-right corner titled “How It Works”.

The instructional video guided me through the process, and I realized that the site is heavily focused on coupon codes. I already knew about coupon codes and was using them; however, I didn’t know there was an organized place to find them. My method of madness usually included searching Google, and then wading through results.

CouponChief.com is devoted to helping people save money with codes prior to checking out online. I love the ease at which they make this available, but from what I can tell, they don’t have coupons for offline transactions or groceries. The vast number of online stores and codes they index is amazing though, and I was able to search and find dozens of opportunities I’m sure I’ve missed on recent purchases.

I have added this site to my Delicious account and will return each and every time before I make an online purchase to see if I can save money before I check out.

I will blog again after my couponing class next week to let you know how that goes as well.

I was asked by CouponChief.com to review their site, and compensated for my time

photo credit: Matt McGee

It wasn’t long ago that I heard the word “centenarian” for the first time, and I had no clue what it meant. I turned to the Internet to learn that it was in reference to people living to be 100 years old. I’ve been mesmerized by that word ever since. My great grandmother lived into her late 90’s, and I know I’m very lucky to have been a part of her life. I have been giving this much thought lately, as I try to figure out what to get my grandmothers for Christmas.

Having raised their children, purchased their homes, traveled the countryside, worked hard, and long been in retirement, clutter is the last thing they need. I try to send photos, write letters, and make visits as much as possible. I know that is what truly means something. Yet, I find myself wanting to wrap a little gift to bring along; a little something that says “thanks for helping me to appreciate baking” and “thanks for teaching me the value of saving money”. All of my childhood memories of the holidays include my grandparents, so why wouldn’t I look for a unique item that might bring a smile?

Well, I am happy to report I think I found a great gift this year. It’s a little hard-covered book called, “What I Know- Uncommon Wisdom and Universal Truths from 10 Year Olds and 100 Year Olds” by Roger Emerson Fishman with Joe Rohrlich. I connected with Joe Rohrlich online, and he sent me a beautiful autographed copy of the book. It’s full of great short stories and funny bits of wisdom from people ten to one hundred years old. It’s the type of book you can pick up, flip to any page, and enjoy reading a little or a lot at one time. You quickly see yourself, your kids, your parents and your grandparents in the stories and humor.

One of my favorite things to do during the holidays is sip a hot coffee and peruse the isles of Barnes and Noble. In fact, I took all three of my girls there yesterday, as part of our annual holiday shopping day. What I know is that “What I Know” is available at Barnes and Noble, Borders, and I believe Target even has it. It is very new though, so do a little searching and I’m sure you’ll find it.

*To my family, ahh…well, this idea is obviously already taken. Don’t even try to rush out and get to grandma before me.

I was recommended swaptree as a great alternative to paperbackswap, so I decided to give it a try.  I have to say that I don’t think its quite a right fit for me, but I can see why people love it.

It’s a pretty simple concept.  You make a straight trade with another member.  No counting credits, no sending out all your books without anything coming in.  It’s like this:  Members make lists of things they’re offering for trade, and lists of things they want.  Then, when two members make a match (I’ll give you my High School Musical DVD for your hardcover of Breaking Dawn…) they exchange information and mail each other their items.  If you’re not sure what you want for your Kingdom Hearts game, you can browse the list of things people are offering.  As you browse the list, you say “Oh!  The Labrynth on DVD.  I love David Bowie!  I want that!”  See?  Easy.

This system is much better than paperbackswap for people who want to barter a greater variety of items.  It also helps that the things you want are much less likely to be taken, since only people who meet the offerer’s trade requirements may claim it.

The reason this system doesn’t work very well for me is because of my binding snobbery.  For example, I am trying to collect Hardcover versions of my Harry Potter books.  However, even though I only listed hardcover ISBNs in my wishlist, my offers come sometimes without information about the bindings, or saying they’re paperback.  And since the ISBN number doesn’t show up in swap requests, I can’t be sure I’m not just being offered a  paperback of HP and the OOP.  Furthermore, I can’t seem to find any way to contact the offerer to ask.  So, I have let at least two trades go because I don’t want to waste a trade on a book I don’t want.

I have recently traded away a book for a dvd, which was a great trade for me.  The only part that makes me nervous about the trade is that I have no idea if the person I sent my book to actually received it.  You report when an item doesn’t arrive, but as far as I can tell, you can’t mark it mailed or received.

Also, as a side note- if you do use both swaptree and paperbackswap, keep in mind that you will have to keep track of your books on both sites.  If you swap out a book on swaptree, make sure to take it off your pbs list, too- and vice versa.  That can get to be a bit of a pain, but its worth the effort if you have your heart set on shaking up your bookshelf.

All in all, swaptree is definitely a great site for  people looking to swap dvds, cds and games, and for those book traders who aren’t picky like me about which binding they get.  I’ve pulled books from my “i want” list, and am just hoping someone is looking to trade a season of Gilmore Girls for my copy of The Princess Diaries.   And I’m just trying to ignore that nagging feeling that the book I mailed is lost out there in postal service limbo.