Weight Watchers Frozen Treats and Free Ice Cream Prize Packs!

Did you know that in 1984 Ronald Reagan declared the month of July as National Ice Cream Month and the third Sunday of the month as National Ice Cream Day? And in the proclamation that he signed he called "upon the people of the United States to observe these events with appropriate ceremonies and activities.” I cannot believe that National Ice Cream Month nearly passed me by and next year I must be certain to observe this month with appropriate vigor!!

Well, living in the midst of southern heat and humidity, it is no surprise that ice cream is definitely a very popular treat down here. Hardly a day goes by that I don't hear the familiar tune of that ice cream truck making the block. But, in reality, ice cream is popular pretty much everywhere in this country, despite the weather.

As good as it is though, it does tend to have one downfall. It can be as fattening as it is delicious. And then there's that whole thing about portion control. Ice cream is just so refreshing and on an especially hot day it goes down so smooth and easy that, well... it's pretty easy to overdo it beyond that 1/2 cup serving.

Well, I was so excited when I was asked to give my opinion on the Weight Watchers line of frozen treats. I've tried several Weight Watchers grocery store products and have found them to be of excellent quality, but for some reason I had never tried their frozen treats. Now to choose! Well, I'm a big fan of ice cream sandwiches, but I love the cones too. Then there's the ice cream cups - cookies & cream, turtle sundae, mint chocolate chip, chocolate fudge brownie. Goodness! I had no idea! But, wait. There are bars too ... the usual toffee bars, cookies and cream bars and chocolate mousse bars ... and some amazing looking sherbet and sorbet ice cream bars too.

I tell ya, it was a hard decision picking just one treat to try because they all sounded so delicious, but I admit, I was also just a bit skeptical when I saw how low the points and calories were. Then I saw Giant Chocolate Fudge bars. To be honest, I am truly a sucker for a good fudge bar and I knew that if Weight Watchers could give me a low fat fudge bar that is creamy, loaded with chocolate flavor and tastes like it's higher fat counterpart, then I'd be sold on the rest of the product line.

So, I selected the Giant Chocolate Fudge bars, but I wondered... could a low cal ice cream really hold up against my discriminating ice cream taste? A few hours after dinner when I finally unwrapped a bar, I found that the size of the bar was a full inch thick, way thicker than traditional fudge bars.

But, size aside, the true test was gonna be in that first bite, because if it doesn't taste good, it doesn't reall matter how big it is!

I was not disappointed. The bar was just the right texture, not too hard, not too soft, and so creamy, with no trace of icy crystals. The taste was surprisingly rich, and with just the right amount of chocolately goodness. I admit. I really was both surprised and impressed.

When I have chosen a low fat ice cream I usually went with another popular treat, but I have to say, Weight Watchers beat that other one on both texture and flavor, hands down. I had no idea! And get this ... the Giant Chocolate Fudge Bar is only 1 point! Or if you're not into tracking points, that translates into 110 calories, 1 gram of fat and 5 grams of fiber!

That big, fat fudge bar? Only 1 gram of fat - versus 4 grams of fat in my usual, skinny fudge bar? That, and creamy and flavorful. What more could you want??

The best thing is that you don’t have to be on the Weight Watchers program or on any other diet program to enjoy Weight Watchers frozen treats, because you can pick them up right at your local grocery store. And, there's already built in portion control because every serving is individually packaged and none are more than 200 calories - or between 1 and 3 points per serving. What a great low point treat!

And dig this ... Weight Watchers even has their own reward program! Yep. Save those UPC codes from participating Weight Watchers products and you can exchange them in your IncrEdible Rewards account for books, beauty products, DVDs, cooking accessories, and loads more! I love reward programs.

The cost for Weight Watchers frozen treats is very reasonable too. I purchased the Chocolate Fudge Bars at my local Walmart for $3.98. That's right at 66 cents per bar! Not bad, but guess what?

You can friend Weight Watchers Supermarket Foods on Facebook where you'll find special coupon offers, free newsletters, recipes and giveaways. Check it out - there's one going on right now until July 31st for what else, free ice cream!! Free ice cream prize packs, what are you waitin' for??

If you don't find Weight Watchers frozen treats available at your favorite store, you can even print off a comment card right from the Weight Watchers site, fill it out and drop it off with the store manager.

Don't forget - click over and sign into your Facebook account to enter for a chance to win 1 of 5 Weight Watchers Ice Cream Prize Packs in the current Weight Watchers Ice Cream Giveway! You can see the whole line of Weight Watchers offerings right here, and while you're there, be sure to check out the Snack Widget!

Don't have a Facebook account? Just sign up - it's free and easy and you can keep it private if you prefer. By the way, if you are new to Facebook, they do require that you do a one-time text confirmation to verify your account before you can post comments, meaning that you do need to either own or have access to a textable cell phone to get the code.

Memorial Day - National Day of Remembrance

I'm taking the rest of the day today and tomorrow off from blogging, but wanted to wish you all a safe and relaxing Memorial Day weekend. I've posted a boatload of recipes in the Memorial Day Recipes link in the upper left hand sidebar, and hope that it's been helpful for your meal plans. If you try any of my recipes, please come back and let me know what you thought - good or bad!

Amidst the 3-day weekend, time off from work and school, family gatherings, picnics, auto racing, movies and outdoor cookouts, let us not forget the true meaning of Memorial Day, and so I leave you with these tidbits to share with your family. I hope that you find it helpful in marking this Day of Remembrance & Respect.

The Memorial Day website says:

"Memorial Day used to be a solemn day of mourning, a sacred day of remembrance to honor those who paid the ultimate price for our freedoms. Businesses closed for the day. Towns held parades honoring the fallen, the parade routes often times ending at a local cemetery, where Memorial Day speeches were given and prayers offered up. People took the time that day to clean and decorate with flowers and flags the graves of those the fell in service to their country.

"Let no vandalism of avarice or neglect, no ravages of time testify to the present or to the coming generations that we have forgotten as a people the cost of a free and undivided republic." -- General Logan - May 5, 1868

We need to remember with sincere respect those who paid the price for our freedoms; we need to keep in sacred remembrance those who died serving their country. We need to never let them be forgotten.

However, over the years the original meaning and spirit of Memorial Day has faded from the public consciousness.

"If it is considered a holiday, why is it so? I consider it to be a national day of mourning. This is how we observe this day in our home. Because of what that day represents the rest of the days of the year are our holidays." -- F L Lloyd West Chester, Pa USA - February 26, 2000

On Memorial Day we need to stop and pay with sincere conviction our respects for those who died protecting and preserving the freedoms we enjoy, for we owe those honored dead more than we can ever repay."

Source: Memorial Day

Share the history of Memorial Day with your family.

Please also take a moment,
amidst all of your celebrations,
at 3:00 p.m. on Monday, May 25th,
to observe a moment of silence
in remembrance of
all who have fallen for our freedom.

Photo Credit: AII POW-MIA

The AII POW-MIA Website shares this with us:

"A humanitarian activist organization called, No Greater Love, which exists to educate and perpetuate observances and remembrances for those killed in war or as the result of terrorist actions and to support the surviving family members with programs and a sense of community, began a campaign in 1997 to create a National Moment of Silence.

The campaign was designed to bring the 'Memorial" back into Memorial Day and to insure Americans took a brief moment out of their Memorial Day activities to stand in silence and remember those who gave their lives in defense of the nation and to be thankful to them.

Congress then passed a National Moment of Remembrance resolution titled, S.Con.Res 100, which was introduced by Senators Chuck Hagel and Bob Kerrey, both of Nebraska.

It Reads -

"To voluntarily and informally observe in their own way a Moment of remembrance and respect, pausing from whatever they are doing for a moment of silence or listening to 'Taps.'"

SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 100 SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 100--EXPRESSING SUPPORT OF CONGRESS FOR A NATIONAL MONUMENT OF REMEMBRANCE TO BE OBSERVED AT 3:00 P.M. EASTERN STANDARD TIME ON EACH MEMORIAL DAY (Senate - March 29, 2000)"

Source: AII POW-MIA

Poppy - The Flower of Remembrance

Photo Credit: The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Our own U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs tells us this:

"This was the poem written by World War I Colonel John McCrae, a surgeon with Canada 's First Brigade Artillery. It expressed McCrae's grief over the "row on row" of graves of soldiers who had died on Flanders' battlefields, located in a region of western Belgium and northern France.

The poem presented a striking image of the bright red flowers blooming among the rows of white crosses and became a rallying cry to all who fought in the First World War. The first printed version of it reportedly was in December 1915, in the British magazine Punch.

In Flanders Fields
By John McCrae

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly.
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow
Loved, and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

McCrae's poem had a huge impact on two women, Anna E. Guerin of France and Georgia native Moina Michael. Both worked hard to initiate the sale of artificial poppies to help orphans and others left destitute by the war. By the time Guerin established the first sale in the U.S., in 1920 with the help of The American Legion, the poppy was well known in the allied countries — America, Britain, France, Canada, Australia and New Zealand — as the "Flower of Remembrance." Proceeds from that first sale went to the American and French Children's League.

However, a shortage of poppies from French manufacturers led to the idea of using unemployed and disabled veterans to produce the artificial flowers. In 1924, a poppy factory was built in Pittsburgh, Pa., providing a reliable source of poppies and a practical means of assistance to veterans. Today, veterans at VA medical facilities and veterans homes help assemble the poppies, which are distributed by veterans service organizations throughout the country.

Donations received in return for these artificial poppies have helped countless veterans and their widows, widowers and orphans over the years. The poppy itself continues to serve as a perpetual tribute to those who have given their lives for the nation's freedom."

Source: The U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs

Happy Easter from My New 30

Happy Easter Everybody
from Mary
at My New 30!

Ideas for Easter Menus

Photo Credit southernliving.com

It's amazing how the lack of sleep can affect one's disposition!

Hubs fell asleep on the couch last night {and yes, I left him there} only to wake up and stumble his way to the bedroom at 2 a.m., promptly waking me up and then he near immediately fell off to a very major snore fest, preventing me from being able to get back to sleep from that point forward.

To top that off, I finally give up and get out of bed at some ungodly hour of the morning only to find that all of the settings {font size, windows appearance, screen resolution and contrast} on my laptop have been altered, apparently by one or more cats who for some reason love to sit on computer keyboards, or in this case, my laptop that I left opened. This apparently triggered an automatic switch to ease of access settings intended for the visually impaired because of depressing one of more unknown keys for an extended period of time. This has happened before last on my Mac, which I discovered when as I began to type, the computer began to speak every word that I was typing! After fiddling with this laptop for more than several hours pre- and post-coffee {with none of the fixes I googled working} I have given up for now, but boy has the grouch fully set in this morning! Maybe a nap later today will help.

In the meantime, I wanted to mention in a post that I am not doing a big Easter dinner, so that's why I haven't put up any menu links. It's basically just Hubs and me since my one and only son is usually wrapped up with family things with my daughter in law's very large family on most holidays, and much of my family are now deceased, so Hubs and I will probably visit with his mom and dad and just have an easy day of it relaxing. Heck, we might even hit one of the casino Easter buffets, who knows!

Anyway, I did want to mention that I spent the better part of yesterday trying to organize links to the recipes that I have put up on my blog in the last oh, 6 months or so of food blogging. It seems a lot in such a short time {as my waistline will attest} but I see that I still have so many more things I want to cook and share! Anyway, there are lots of possibilities here in my little blog for ideas for Easter dinner.

If you look at the sidebar to the right there is a list called "Recipe Index." I'm still working on organizing each link there a bit better and making sure that I actually have everything listed there, but in the meantime this should give you a much more user-friendly format to be able to see all of my recipes posted by category. Rather than having to scroll through a whole page of recipe posts and tutorials, recipes are listed there by links, making it much easier to see what's here on the blog. {thanks Tina for the tip on that!}

If you look to the left sidebar you'll find a list of the "Most Popular Recipes" on my blog. Two of the most popular searches in the last few days have landed on my Brown Sugar Glazed Ham with Coca Cola Pan Sauce and my Oven Braised Beef Brisket either of which would be great for Easter Sunday dinner. Closely on the heels of those has been my Oven Roasted Beef Rump Roast with Mushroom Gravy, my Oven Braised Beef Eye of Round Roast and the Roast Pork with Spicy Sweet Onion Pan Sauce.

Right under that, is a list of "Holiday Recipes" that I have posted for past holidays or events. You might pick up some ideas there, but I haven't gotten around to organizing those yet, so you'll get full pages of posts instead of the easy to use links. I'll get to that eventually! The Super Bowl link does have a post with some pretty good appetizer ideas by link - including good old standby Deviled Eggs, so be sure to check out that link for sure.

Hopefully among these links you'll find some helpful ideas!

Oh and congrats to Krissa who won the Toddler and Baby Burp Cloth and Bib Giveaway sponsored by Oxford Impressions! It goes to show you that those extra entries by Twittering and Posting, really are worth the effort. Be sure to swing by Shaylynn's blog and let her know if there are any of the bibs and burp cloths that you just have to have!

Happy Easter to all of you, hug your kids, tell your mom and dad you love 'em, tolerate the annoyances that family {and husbands} often bring and by all means, eat, drink and be merry! Stay safe - if those drinks are of the alcoholic variety, make sure you have a designated driver too.

Back soon with more recipes - till then have a great weekend everybody!

Happy St. Patrick Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day! Be sure to check out my recipes for Irish Soda Bread, Creamy Potato Soup, Irish Stew, and of course gotta have some cabbage, so try my Southern Style Shortcut Corned Beef & Cabbage, or my Corned Beef & Cabbage Hash!

May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind always be at your back,
May the sun shine warm
upon your face
and rains fall soft upon your fields.
And until we meet again,
May God hold you
in the palm of His hand.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hope you all have a 

sweet, romantic day 

with the love of your life.

Happy Valentine's Day!

A Great Giveaway for EVERYONE! - Expired

Note: This giveaway was available only for 48 hours and has since expired! The MP3s are available for purchase and download at Amazon by following the links at Oprah.com.

And while you're there, check out the rest of today's show info for some great ideas for how to have a thrifty holiday! I love, love, love the Treasure Boxes and the gratitude her now grown children expressed just proved they are a winner. Mom's of young ones - you gotta start this!! My son is 27 and I'm gonna gather all the stuff I have and put one together for him. Great, great idea. There's some other great ideas too - be sure to check them out.

And of course, I'm all about the food too so check out Christina Ferrare's Holiday Cooking Class!!! There's videos ladies and gents ... and some awesome tips. Check it out too!

Merry Christmas!

Holiday Hits CD for 2008

Faith Hill, "Joy to the World" from the album Joy to the World
www.amazon.com
© 2008 Warner Bros. Records Inc.

Tony Bennett, "I'll be Home for Christmas" from the album A Swingin' Christmas
www.tonybennett.net
© 2008 Sony Music Entertainment

Il Divo, "O Holy Night" from the album The Christmas Collection
www.Ildivo.com
© 2005 Simco Limited exclusively licensed to Sony BMG Music Entertainment (UK) Limited

Josh Groban, "It Came Upon a Midnight Clear" from the album Noel
www.joshgroban.com
© 2007 Reprise Records

Brian McKnight, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" from the album I'll Be Home for Christmas
www.bmcknight.com
© 2008 Razor & Tie Direct, LLC

Amy Grant, "O Come All Ye Faithful" from the album The Christms Collection
www.amygrant.com
© 2008 Amy Grant Productions

Harry Connick Jr., "It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas" from the album What a Night! A Christmas Album
www.hconnickjr.com
© 2008 Sony Music Entertainment

Aretha Franklin, "Silent Night" from the album This Christmas
www.borders.com
© 2008 DMI Records

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Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing everyone

a loving, peaceful, 

and wonderful holiday!  

Happy Thanksgiving.

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Happy Veterans Day

Happy Veterans Day to all of our veterans, including my hubs.

Today we honor all of our veterans and their families, and offer the sincere thanks of a grateful nation. Thank you for your service and dedication to causes that promote democracy and freedom for all people all over the world.

Thank you for standing for liberty, defending this great nation, and for ensuring that the freedom we enjoy today continues, many times at your own great personal sacrifice.

God bless our veterans and God bless the United States of America!



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