Nature Valley Granola Thins with Dark Chocolate

Yesterday at work, we got free samples of Nature Valley Granol Thins with Dark Chocolate. Drool...I loooove it. Besides being yummy, it's also light in calorie, healthy. I even got a coupon for 50 cents off a box.



PS - sorry for the awful photo quality, taken from my cell, hehe

Taken from the Nature Valley website

Dark Chocolate


Nature Valley® Granola Thins are delicate squares of granola with a unique, delightfully crispy texture. Each thin is paired with a delicious melt-in-your-mouth Dark Chocolate flavor. Granola Thins are 100 percent natural, individually packaged and, at 80 calories per square, a perfect pick-me-up you can feel good about eating.

RITZ Crackerful

Yesterday at work, we got free samples of Ritz Crackerful. It's multigrain with cheddar. Yum! I loooove it. I even got a coupon for buy one, get one free :D



PS - sorry for the awful photo quality, taken from my cell, hehe

This is taken from the Ritz website.

Looking for a satisfying snack that's perfect in between meals? Try RITZ Crackerfuls! Made with real cheese and 6 grams of whole grain per serving, it's the snack that will help keep you satisfied until your next meal.

Available in Four Cheese, Classic Cheddar, and Cheddar & Bacon flavors.

Don't forget to check out the new Multigrain varieties. The same great Crackerful, just made with real cheese, 5 grams of fiber and 8 grams of whole grain per serving. They pack a great tasting wholesome crunch that will help keep you satisfied until your next meal. Available in Sharp Cheddar, Garden Vegetable & Garlic Herb.

TV show - Nikita

Maggie Q is half Irish/Vietnamese and made her big debut in movies in Hong Kong cinema. How random is that? It's all thanks to Mr. Jackie Chan!

Since then she has just been in supporting roles in Hollywood in movies such as Mission: Impossible III, Balls of Fury, Live Free or Die Hard, and Deception.

In Nikita, Maggie Q has the main lead role. An action packed, kick ass role!! I was extra excited. I love the fact that a non blonde will play Nikita.

I have seen the original French film in which Nikita has taken inspiration from. On top of that, there has already been a 90s tv show called La Femme Nikita remade and the movie, A Point of No Return is the Hollywood movie remake.

After three episodes of watching Nikita, I have to say, I do like the action and like Maggie Q.

However, I think Maggie Q is better as a supporting actress :( I want to like her more but I do not like her acting. To me, she tries to hard to be tough and cool. Most of the time, her face is blank. Her acting reminds me of another half Asian actress (Dutch/Chinese), Kristin Kreuk. Both are gorgeous ladies with little facial expressions.

Don't think I'm coming down on half Asian Hollywood actresses, I don't even like Daniel Henney's acting who is British/Korean. He has slightly improved in acting.

My hubby doesn't like the fact that Maggie is 80 lbs and drop kicking and flipping the bad guys triple her size, lol

I want to like Maggie and hope she will prove me wrong!

I love the show Nikita as a whole :)

Bollywood Booty

Yes, I want a Bollywood Booty! Actually, I rather have a Tollywood booty instead :)

I was on Twitter chatting with a few friends about Bollywood workouts. Since I am a huge Bipasha Basu fan, I haven't had the chance to buy her workout dvd yet. When I wanted to purchase it, it was out of stock!

Then @kamala_chan mentioned Bollywood Booty, she has that workout dvd.

I searched at my local library and was able to find me a copy!



The other night, I tried to workout.

Honestly, it's not about working out your booty, more like your hips!! It was a good timepass.
Wow, seems like I'm reviewing a film, lol!

Some of the moves were cheesy...

For example - "paint the room," "turn the light bulb," "Bollywood vogue"

:D

Review - Avani Nail Kit

Last night I went to Sam's Club. The Avani team went around to the consumers to demostrate their products. Now, I usually am *not* a sucker and buy products. However, this time, I bought the item. I really like it.

I don't take care of my hands very well. I don't put on nail polish. Sometimes my cuticles are so ugly. With this product, my nails look shiny, polished, and natural. With that demostration, why not buy it? The salesman was selling it to me for only $18 and it is originally $50.

Took it to work this morning and just used it. I really like how my hands, fingernails, cuticles, all that looks and feels.

I did buy the whole kit.



You can check out the rest of their products here

http://www.avani-deadsea.com

Favorite magazine at the moment

It used to be SELF.



Don't get me wrong....I still love SELF...but I'm a woman in my 30s now. A lot of the articles are targeted for younger females.

Not my body shape. Women's body shape changes after children.

I discovered Woman's Health. OMFG, I absolutely love it!!



I love me some information on being fit and healthy, adding a bit of glamour.

Debating on subscribing now since I suppose to be saving. Gotta go to the local library soon!! I did buy two issues of the mag when I was in Miami.

Review - Scott Extra Soft

Sometimes I forget what I sign up for. Seriously.

I checked back to see if I posted this freebie but I didn't. Probably signed up way before I started posting about freebies here.

Last night, when I got home from school, I saw a box for me. Inside was the Scott Extra Soft product.

I touched it and it felt soft.

I've been using only Charmin products for toilet paper.

After trying the Scott Extra Soft, I am sticking to Charmin.

Good attempt but nothing beats Charmin.

Review - Hawaiian Tropic After Sun Body Butter

Sometimes I forget I sign up for freebies, then I get goodies in the mail :)

I received this sample of Hawaaiian Tropic - After Sun Body Butter right before I left to go to Miami.

I was hoping to use it there but it never happened because I never got a tan since it rained every day there!

However, I decided to open the package and try a little. I love the smell. It has a coconut smell.

According to the lable, it has...

Infused with rich coconut oil and special island skin conditioners including mango, shea and coca butters, avocado oil and alo vera.

No wonder I love it! I am going to continue using it. Love the smell, texture, and moisturizingness.

Aloe Vera drink

I love Aloe Vera plants. I blogged about it before and the reasons why.

For the past week, I've been doing so much research on natural healthy foods and drinks. Since I freaking love aloe vera plants, why not drink it?

Honestly, it sounds yucky...but I was unfair. I can not just rule it out yet. Shoot, I haven't even tried it yet!

Most natural products do use some kind of fruit, veggie, and/or herbs. I just have to give it a try.

So I went to the Asian food market last night and bought me an aloe vera drink.

I took it to work this morning. Just now, I tried it.

Results??

It's actually good. Way better than I would have thought! I'm impressed. I may just have to stock up on more.

For those who know me, I don't drink. No alcohol beverages. Or soda. AKA pop, as Northerners would say. However, I have to admit that I will have a Mountain Dew every now and then, probably once a month cause it just taste so good. I need to stop drinking it. It has so much sugar in it.

I do not like any sodas - Coke, Pepsi, Sprite, Fanta - all those soft drink products, I don't drink.

Mostly I drink water. If anything else, it would be 2% milk, orange juice, or grapefruit juice. That's it.

I'll add aloe vera now.

All Bran samples

Honestly, I don't remember signing up for the free samples. That's why I didn't post them.

Usually the samples come 6 - 8 weeks afterwards.

I received a package from All Bran with three samples - Strawberry Medley Cereal, Strawberry Drizzle Fiber Bar, & Red Raspberry Fiber Drink Mix . On top of that, I got $4 in coupons!

My daughter and I tried it. Since the products are target towards healthy eating, my daughter didn't like it as much as I did. However, she did enjoy the the Red Raspberry Fiber Drink Mix. I let her finish drinking it.

For some reason, I am very picky about Fiber Bars, especially in the Strawberry flavor. I love strawberries, as you can see on previous post about strawberry picking, but strawberries that are in any other products, even though it has all natural strawberries still taste artificial to me.

Because of that I also didn't enjoy the Strawberry Medley Cereal as much either.

Preoccupied Saturday, followed by lazy Sunday

Don't know what it is.

On Saturday, it was a beautiful day but I did not want to get fooled. It has happened before. Just when you think it's going to be a beautiful day in the neighborhood, you get scattered rain.

When I was got up in the morning, I looked around and saw how beautiful the garden has gotten. So I snapped a couple of pics.

If you compare those pics to these when I first took them, then you could tell a big difference.

Aaaawww, yes. I saw Lizzie, that's what we call the lizards in the yard. When we first moved to the house three years ago. Hubby was re-modeling and re-doing the landscape. He saw a lot of lizards and kept them as pets. We even bought crickts to feed them. When we got the garden together, the lizards would see us and not be scared. They would let us touch and hold them. They're sooooo cute!

Are you able to find Lizzie below?


Afterwards, I took my daughter to go strawberry-picking. It was fun and couldn't believe there were so many people there already. We got there around 10 am.

OMG, freshly picked strawberries are soooo yummy!!! When I used them to make smoothies, I didn't have to add any sugar and/or honey to make them sweet. It was that good! Took pics of the place, not the strawberry smoothies :)

June is the last month for strawberry season too. I'm going to look up and see what other fruits and/or veggies for us to pick next :)

Later on, my daughter and I got home to place the strawberries in the fridge. We were craving Indian food. So we got ready to go eat some Indian food. Yummy! It's been several months since we've eaten it. Our favorite Indian restaurant cause it has the most variety on the lunch buffet. Just snapped a couple of pics.

Oh yeah, then I had a hair appointment! I didn't want to cut the length or anything. I'm trying to keep my hair longer. Just wanted to incorporate different styles. For three years, I've been going to the same stylist, Ava @ Van Michael at the Forum.



She is awesome!!!! With hair cuts, I do believe you pay for what you get. Ava prefers me with this length of hair. I was telling her that I plan to chop it off next year or so. I wanted to donate my hair to Locks of Love, which I've done before.

One of my co-workers think my hair looks shorter but Ava didn't trim or cut off any length, only volume. Whatcha think? Does it look shorter? I'm going to flat-iron my hair this weekend and see if there are any differences.

Besides all that and cooking, that makes up my Saturday.

Sunday was very lazy. All I did was cook a bit and watched the Kdrama, Iljimae all day. I need to stop. Well, did write up a review on it if you wanna check it out.

Iljimae

Kashi - Lemongrass Coconut Chicken

Finally, I used the coupon to get a free Kashi frozen dish. It's been a few months since I've had the coupon and never used it.

Mainly due to me not remembering because I usually go to the grocery store just to get the necessity items that I normally do. Or if I want to make a particular dish, I would write down a food list. I'm not a big fan of frozen food and prefer eating food that I cook. Rarely do I go out and eat too.

But wanted to try a healthy frozen lunch, just in case, in the future, I am pressed for time.

Looking at the Healthy section at Krogers, I decided to get the Lemongrass Coconut Chicken.

Ingredients: Cooked Kashi™ Pilaf (water, whole: oats, long grain brown rice, rye, hard red winter wheat, triticale, buckwheat, dehulled barley, sesame seeds), cooked chicken (chicken breast, water, chicken flavor [dehydrated chicken broth, chicken powder, natural flavor], rice starch, carrageenan, salt), water, brocoli, lemongrass puree (lemongrass, water), carrots, cooked quinoa (water, quinoa), sugar snap peas, coconut cream (coconut cream, xanthan gum, carrageenan, guar gum), coconut, evaporated cane juice, rice starch, canola oil, garlic (garlic, water), evaporated salt, ginger puree (ginger, water), jalepeno pepper, lime juice concentrate, soy flour, whole milk powder.

Allergen Statement: CONTAINS WHEAT, SOY AND MILK INGREDIENTS.

Diabetic Exchange: 2.5 carbohydrates, 2 very lean meats

Nutrition Facts:
Serving Size: 1 entree (283g)
Servings Per Container: 1
Amount per Serving %Daily Value*
Calories 300
Calories from Fat 70
Total Fat 8g 12%
Saturated Fat 4g 20%
Trans Fat 0g
Cholesterol 10mg 3%
Sodium 680mg 28%
Total Carbohydrate 38g 13%
Dietary Fiber 7g 28%
Sugars 6g
Protein 18g 36%
Vitamin A 40%
Vitamin C 20%
Calcium 6%
Iron 10%

After a few days, I decided to try it. The presentation wasn't appealing. However, I didn't want to toss the food away. So I finally tried it.

It definitely is satisfying. Would I buy it again? Most likely, no. Mainly because I'm not a frozen food person. I would recommend to others who are used to frozen foods to try an alternative healthy frozen food and go with Kashi's products. There are many other dishes from Kashi. Check them out

Weekend so far

Oh gosh, this weekend dragged. It rained and rained and rained. And rained some more. Georgia has not seen the sun in a while. If the sun comes out, it is only visible for a few hours and then the clouds come again and cover the sun and starts storming again.

On Saturday, I ended up going to Mall of Georgia, which I haven't done in soooo long to shop. I actually have not shopped for myself in so many years. However, I took my daughter clothes shopping. She's getting too big and needed an updated wardrobe.

Besides, she's gotten straight A's all year so she wanted to be rewarded. Plus I haven't taken her to use her free kid's lunch at several restaurants.

After shopping, I took her to Mimi's Cafe (one of the restaurants where she got a free kid's meal), which is located outside of Mall of Georgia. We were the only minority in the place. No one came to seat us right away. When we finally sat down and ordered. I got the wrong order! I got some beef sandwich and I ordered a chicken parmesan sandwich. I hate beef, urgh. Being a nice person, I just let it go. I will not go back though.

Ended up watching The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. I am a fan of Brad Pitt. Besides his good looks, I love him as an actor and producer. However, this movie really dragged and didn't keep my interest up. The storyline itself is interesting but the slow pacing of the movie just didn't do it for me. Acting is great. Brad hardly ever disappoints me. Since it's based on a book, I'm not sure if I even want to read it. Usually if I have never read the book and really loved the movie, then I would inspire to read the book.

Sunday - just ended up going to my parent's house. Mom wanted to bbq. Dad and mom ended up making a homemade grill. Ghetto or creative?

Ended watching Running Scared since it came on HBO. Haven't seen that movie in soooo long. Still good. Paul Walker is still hot.

What impress me is the little boy who played Oleg -- Cameron Bright. He's really good. Seen him in Birth too (weird movie though)

OMG, he's a handsome guy now. He'll be in the upcoming Twilight sequel, Full Moon. Yes, this is him now :)

Will upload some pics on here soon. I haven't been taking pics like I used to. Just been lazy. Definitely will blog about my trip to FL soon!

Aveeno hair product line

My hair is dry. I mentioned that before.

I kept messing with my flaky scalp earlier in the day.

When I got home from school, I saw that my Aveeno sample has come through! I was excited to try it.

My daughter has been using Aveeno products for her skin since the peditrician had recommended that she have really sensitive skin.

So why not Aveeno hair products? My hair is really dry. Probably from all the dyeing and damage I've done to it over the past 200 decades.

While getting ready to use the product, I was saddened that the conditioner has been mashed in the mail :(

I used what I could get out of it. The smell is nice.

This morning I woke up and my hair feels less dry and flaky.

I like.

Once my Tresemme shampoo and conditioner are done, I am switching over to Aveeno.

John Frieda Root Awakening Shampoo & Conditioner

So I got a free sample of the new John Frieda Root Awakening Shampoo & Conditioner.

Tried it on the other night.

It was a great experience. The scent of the natural Eucalyptus plant is amazing. Loooved it.

Hair felt silky and full.

That's all I can really say about the product.

If I used it long enough, I could better conclude whether or not, the products really had an effect on my hair.

As I get older, my hair becomes more dry and puffy, which I hate. Oh yeah...and the roots would just be there. If I want my hair to look smooth and healthy, I would have to flat iron my hair.

Therefore, the Root Awakening products caught my eye.

I'll have to look for it at Wal-Mart to see how much it costs. Right now, I am using Tresemme. Before that, I was using Garnier Fructis.

Loooooove my new scale

Family and I usually go to Sam's Club about once a month to stock up on items. We like browsing in the clearance side and came across an interesting-looking scale.

Hubby opened it. The scale was see-through glass! Looks futuristic. We like.

We really needed a new scale. It has been about six months since we had one. Hubby accidently spilled coffee all over the old scale and it stopped working. It was a digital scale as well. We bought that scale from Circuit City (no longer in business).

Since the new scale looked cool and can measure body fat and water fat, why not?

We bought it. Took it home. Used it.

Loooooove it.

You can program your age, gender, and height before you step on the scale. Once it gives your weight, it shows your fat percentage, and then your water weight percentage.

Soooo cool!!!

What makes it even more amazing is it saves your information. All you have to do is scroll to where you saved it and it will pop back up the information you have program before. Wait until the scale reads 0.0 and step on again.

Absolutely love it.

I have been weighing myself everyday now. I know I'm not suppose to. But to me, it helps me out to lose weight. To help me stay on track.

Most people wait until they are at least 15 pounds over before any attempt to be on a diet or exercise. I have to stay up on it.

I lost a lot of weight last year, gained it again (due to lack of exercise and medical reason) but I am not letting myself go again. No more excuses.

Oh yeah, the name of this scale is called Taylor Lithium Electronic Glass Scale 7506