We deal with stress all the time. If it’s bills that need to be paid or running late to a meeting or worrying about kids, stress is a constant presence that strives to take away our peace. To you all I say, “Don’t succumb!” Don’t let stress take away your well-being or peace of mind. As someone who has changed careers to leave environments that live on stress, and as someone who is learning to rest on His promise, here are a few tips for reducing stress.

1. DO pray. You may think it’s super human to not let stress around affect you. And it just might be. But that’s why prayer can be so effective. I guarantee that if you take 5 minutes in the middle of chaos to say a quick prayer, asking the Lord for peace and poise, that you will be able to approach the rest of your day in a calmer fashion. DON’T think that you have to do this on your own.
2. DO keep things in perspective. Honestly ask yourself, “Will the world end if xyz happens?” DON’T let stress make things appear to be bigger deals than they actually are.
3. DON’T blame others if you aren’t able to do something perfectly or on time. DO be honest from the start about what you can or cannot handle. If you can’t manage 50 different things on your plate – it’s OK! Asking for help is normal and accepted in most situations.
4. DON’T procrastinate. Putting off work will create unnecessary stress and work for other people. DO be aware of timing and scheduling so that you don’t burden people with your lateness and you won’t be rushing to get things done by a certain deadline.
5. DO use other tools to help you stay relaxed. Some people listen to music. Other people have stress balls. Fresh air and a quick turn around the block can also be beneficial. DON’T glue yourself to your desk. Mental breaks are necessary and should be taken at regular intervals.

These are just a couple if suggestions to help avoid stress. If you need additional tips, you can also check out my article Keep Your Job and Your Sanity by Maintaining a Balanced Work and Home Life.

What tricks do you use to not stay stressed?

Amazon is having a big DVD sale from now until March 29th. They have a ton of great DVDs for as little as $5.99. I’ve gone through some of them and here are some of my top choices for movies to pick up. There are many, many more than just these titles on sale, including new releases, Blu-ray, and more. To see everything, shop the complete Amazon Big DVD sale.

$5.99 and Under

$7.99 and Under

$11.99 and Under

SHOP THE BIG DVD SALE

For someone who isn’t fond of mushy foods, there is one food that I will eat – especially if it’s mushy with a few lumps. I’m not exactly sure why, but mashed potatoes really warm my soul. Maybe that’s part of why southern cooking is soul food, for the stomach warming, taste bud pleasing mashed potatoes. If I go to a nice restaurant and they have garlic mashed potatoes on the menu, that’s what I’ll get instead of the traditional fries. The sad thing is that I only get to eat mashed potatoes when I do go out and I don’t make them while at home. One of the prohibitive things about making mashed potatoes is the time it takes to prepare.  Time that this girl doesn’t have. Ore-Ida has recently introduced a new, easier way to make mashed potatoes with their Steam n’ Mash products.

The concept of Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Potatoes is simple. Available in four varieties: Cut Russet, Cut Red, Cut Sweet and Garlic Seasoned, Ore-Ida is giving us a short cut to delicious, freshly-made mashed potatoes by taking care of all of the time consuming work for us. Ore-Ida gives us a bag of frozen, prepared potatoes and we just need to cook them.The potatoes are already scrubbed, peeled, and chopped and are in the bag ready to be microwaved.

To cook your Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Potatoes, simply steam the bag (without any tearing or poking holes) in the microwave for 10-20 minutes. Then, let the bag rest for 2 minutes before carefully removing the (very hot) bag from the microwave. Cut open the top of the bag and then pour the potatoes out into a bowl.

Next, add milk and butter and let the fun begin. I’m completely amazed that I have a potato masher in the house, but I do. You will want one for this because it makes things so much faster. If you don’t have a potato masher, you could try using a fork, but that may take awhile and won’t allow you to leave chunks if you want lumpy potatoes.

In a matter of seconds, my Steam n’ Mash potatoes went from a bowl of cooked potatoes to a beautiful smooshy mass of potatoes. After mashing to my desired texture, I seasoned it with a little salt and it was good to go. Total time from freezer to table – 14 minutes.

I tried the Garlic Seasoned Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash and found it to be delicious. I found myself doing drive-by tastings as I was moving about the kitchen. A bite here, another bite there. It has just the right amount of garlic and wasn’t overpowering. I was happy to find the potatoes cooked up smoothly and evenly. They were easy to mash and the texture came out just right, with mostly smooth potatoes with a very occasional lump here and there. I love the peace of mind that comes from knowing these mashed potatoes were actually mashed potatoes instead of some magical potato powder. As an extra bonus cooking these potatoes gave the house a wonderful home-cooking aroma as well.

Each bag of Steam n’ Mash potatoes can serve about 7 people with a 3/4 cup of potatoes per serving. I honestly think that you’ll feed fewer than that because people won’t be happy with just 3/4 cup. They’ll want more. My Garlic Seasoned potatoes were 110 calories each (not bad IMO) while their new Cut Red potatoes are just 70 calories with no fat (assuming you use skim milk and no butter.)

To learn more about the new Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash potatoes, cooking tips, and recipes visit www.steamnmash.com. To try them out for yourself, Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash potatoes are available in stores nation-wide in the frozen food section. I found mine near the french fries. You can also enter to win the What’s Cooking at DD Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Giveaway!

The Prize:

One winner will receive a TWO coupons for FREE Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash products.

To Enter:

Make sure you follow the directions carefully. All giveaway entries should use the ENTRY FORM. You only need to fill out the ENTRY FORM once, unless you decide to additional earn extra entries at a later time. You can earn up to 12 entries into the WCatDD Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Giveaway by doing one, some or all of the following:

Ways to Earn Entries:

Make sure you use this ENTRY FORM for your entries to count!

1. THIS ENTRY IS REQUIRED FOR ALL OTHER ENTRIES TO BE VALID (+1): Visit www.steamnmash.com and tell me which Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash variety you would like to try or a recipe that you think looks delicious.
2. Post this giveaway on your blog (+3)
3. Tweet about this giveaway using the “retweet” link at the top of this post or by tweeting “I want to make delicious mashed potatoes in less than 15 minutes with the @WCatDD Ore-Ida Steam n’ Mash Giveaway! http://bit.ly/ah1saK” (+1)
4. Subscribe to WCatDD (+1)
5. Follow WCatDD on Twitter (+1)
6. Fan our WCatDD Facebook Page (+1)
7. Follow us on Google Friend Connect (+1)
8. Follow us using Network Blogs (+1)
9. Add the WCatDD button to Your Site (+2)

The Rules:

One winner will be selected at random for this prize.

Giveaway ends at 11:59 PM EST, March 16, 2010.

Visit our Giveaway Rules page for general giveaway rules that also apply to this giveaway.

Disclaimer: This post consists of my (and/or fellow tester) opinions only. Your experiences may be different. No compensation was given for this review/giveaway. I did receive a coupon for free Ore-Ida products from the manufacturer or their representing PR agency to use and test for the purposes of this review. This did not affect the outcome of this review.

Last Thursday, I arrived home to find a HUGE box of food at my door. My BistroMD food had arrived a day earlier than expected and I was excited to open the box and see what was inside. I signed up for the 5 day/5 meal plan meaning 5 days of meals which include breakfast, lunch, dinner and two snacks for the day.

My food arrived still frozen, except for my snacks which are all dry. Here’s a shot of what was included in my BistroMD shipment:

Starting from the left are two smoothies, various soy snacks, a raisin nut mix, a couple crunch bars, and some bags of crackers. In the black trays are my breakfasts, lunches, and dinners. Then the big bags in the front also have a few dinners, including an Asian BBQ Pork and Mahi Mahi. One thing I forgot to consider when ordering the food was how I was going to store all of this food. My freezer was already packed with food and I struggled to figure out how to get all of this food into the freezer in something that resembled organization. After emptying my freezer on Saturday morning, I was able to accomplish what I consider a frozen miracle. Voila! Behold my freezer stocked with food:

In the bottom circle are two rows of BistroMD meals. From left to right, then front to back I have my full days organized. On Sunday, I pulled the left-most trays and threw them into the fridge for thawing so I could eat them on Monday. Which reminds me, I need to put my lunch in the fridge. I think this makes things really easy since it allows me to simply pull out the meals in order instead of digging around to find the right food to eat.

In the top circle is my snack box. This is where I pretended to be a little crafty this weekend. I really needed a way to sort all of my snacks by days, so I took a brown box and cut off the flaps. Then I used the flaps to create dividers inside the box. Since the box was so…brown…I decided to wrap it with gold wrapping paper to give it a little style. Once the box was wrapped, I was able to put each day’s snacks into it’s own compartment for an easy grab on the way to work in the morning.

My planning really made it convenient this morning, when I was quickly able to pull out the meals for tomorrow. Day 1 actually kicked off this morning when I ate my first BistroMD meal – Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Crepes. Those of you who follow me on Twitter may have an idea of what I thought. I’ll try and share all of my meal reviews later in the week.

Water Brigade Update:

I’m excited to say that I have successfully been drinking 64 ounces of water each day for the past 3 days. I even drank a little more on Saturday. Last night was a little tough though since I got a late start, but I still finished all of my water before heading to bed

Total Water Drunk: 192 ounces (24 cups)

It’s been a few months and I thought that I would share my experiences with Swagbucks and Ebates, two great sites that help you earn money and rewards back for doing things you would normally do anyways. While I was a little skeptical at first, I must say that both of these websites have won me over and I’m now a regular visitor to the sites. Both of these websites are free and do not have any fees to participate. If you like what you read, I hope you’ll consider signing up through one of my referral links.

Swagbucks.com

What is it?
Swagbucks is a search and win site. By using the downloadable Swagbucks Toolbar, the Swagbucks website, or the Swagbucks widget to perform your normal web searches (instead of Google or Bing, for example) you have the opportunity to win Swagbucks. Swagbucks can then be exchanged from prizes ranging from desktop backgrounds to gift cards to high end electronics such as an iPhone or digital camera. Other ways to earn Swagbucks include trading in video games, cell phones or mp3 players, viewing special offers and shopping through the Swagbucks site.

Does it pay off?
I joined Swagbucks in October 2009, but didn’t start actively using the site until about January of 2010. Since then, I’ve redeemed one $5 Amazon e-gift card and I almost have enough for two more. I think it would be fairly accurate to say that within a 2 month span, I’ve earned $15 in Amazon e-gift cards. You may be able to get a little more bang for your Swagbuck by exchanging them for different store e-gift certificates. For example, for fewer Swagbucks than it takes for the Amazon e-gift cards you can get a $25 restaurant.com e-gift certificate. Either way, they have a lot of options that pay off your searching. I earn anywhere from 10 to 50 Swagbucks a day depending on how much I search. That number jumps significantly if I’m diligently following their social media (see tips.)

Tips:
Swagbucks offers lots of little things that you can do to help you earn Swagbucks. Not only will you earn Swagbucks when your referrals earn Swagbucks, but they also have many opportunities for you to earn Swagbucks daily, such as through using the Swagbucks Toolbar or by visiting their Special Offers page. I would also recommend following their blog, Facebook page, and Twitter account since Swagbuck codes are known to pop up on any or all of these sites.

Referrals:
The Swagbucks referral program allows you to earn up to 1000 Swagbucks per referral. I know that I came in through someone else’s referral program (I forget whose) and they have already earned the maximum number of referral bucks from me. I have three referrals and have earned enough for one $5 Amazon e-gift card. Swagbucks provides links and banner ads that you can use to help build your referral base.

How to Join:
If you are interested in joining Swagbucks, I hope you’ll sign up through my referral link.

Ebates.com

What is it?
Ebates.com is essentially a shopping portal. Stop at Ebates.com first, then click through to your favorite store using their link and you will receive a specific percentage back on your purchase. They have 1,200 stores, including the big ones such as Macy’s, Gap and Sephora. After your purchase has been completed, your cash back goes into the “pending” bucket until the next payout period. You can then opt to receive your cash back via PayPal or check, or have the payment given to a charity or a friend.

Does it pay off?
I made my first purchase through ebates.com towards the end of November, 2009. Since then, I ALWAYS visit Ebates first to see if the store I want to shop at is listed. I also do a quick comparison with ShopDiscover to make sure I’m maximizing my cash back (you can read more about this in my ShopDiscover vs. Ebates post.) If Ebates comes out on top (which it frequently does) then I go ahead and make the purchase. What I really like about Ebates is that other than clicking through their site, there are no other restrictions on your purchase – you can use whatever credit card you like and you can use coupon codes if you have them, and you’ll still earn the full percentage back.

Here are my actual numbers for Ebates:

Money spent: $1715.62 (includes this year’s Christmas shopping)
Cash Back received: $21.37
Cash Back pending: $54.12
Total: $75.49
Average percentage back: 4.4%

Tips:
Ebates frequently offers double cashback offers on certain stores. Keep your eye out for the current specials so you can maximize your money back. Also make sure to click through Ebates if you’re an Ebay shopper. You’ll get 2% back on all of your Ebay purchases.

Referrals:
Ebates does offer a referral program where you will earn $5 for every person who signs up through your referral. I believe this is a one-time referral bonus. They are also running a contest through March 31, 2010 where the person with the most referrals will win a trip to Hawaii!

How to Join:
If you are interested in shopping through Ebates, you can sign up through my referral link.

If you know of any other rewards programs or have experience with either one of these, I hope you’ll share with me.