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.

You can tell a lot about a woman by looking at her purse. And if you look into most womens’ purses, you’ll think that every single one of us is prepared for the end of the world. From bottles of water, to snacks, to band-aids. Pens, scraps of paper, rubber bands. You could probably find enough to build a MacGyver like teepee using the contents of a women’s purse. Well ladies – I’m about to introduce one more product to add to our purse arsenal – the WysiWipe.

WysiWipes are the ultimate portable cleaning cloths. WysiWipes are made out of cellulose, an organic compound that you can get from plants such as cotton, and are biodegradable. What makes WysiWipes so unique is that not only are they 100% natural and hypo-allergenic, but they start off as the smallest cloth wipes you may ever see.

Out of the bag, the WysiWipe doesn’t appear to be a wipe at all. It appears to be a small disk that is about the size of a nickel wide and four nickels high. Basically, the wipes have been compressed into a form factor that is incredibly small and is very easy to store in a purse pocket or car glovebox. You’ll also notice that they aren’t pre-moistened with any liquid, which helps prevent the growth of bacteria. (Since bacteria love moisture no moisture means not bacteria.) They are dry to touch and are very lightweight.

You might wonder how such a small disk can turn into a 9×10″ cloth. It’s actually pretty easy (and very fun to watch.) Simply add about 1 ounce of a liquid of your choice to create your custom wipe. Here’s my very first video showing the WysiWipe growing. Notice the water levels in the measuring cup before and after. It’s filled to 2 ounces and after the WysiWipe expands, there’s just 1 ounce of water left, so it absorbed 1 ounce (1 tablespoon) of water while it grew.

Here’s a picture of the cloth after I folded it out where you can see that it actually expands to the 9×10″ size.

Another thing that’s really nice about the WysiWipe, is that in it’s original form it does not have any added chemicals, scents or alcohols. It is purely a cloth, so you can truly customize the WysiWipe to meet your needs. If you just need to wipe your hands, you can add water. If you need to clean your mirrors, just add some Windex. I actually thought that the WysiWipe worked better than my normal paper towels because it didn’t leave those annoying pieces of lint on the mirrors after I wiped them down. It’s not really advertised as a re-usable cloth, but I think the WysiWipe is re-usable. I added water and used one to wipe of the kitchen counters, gave it a quick rinse, and then let it dry on the sink.

I was impressed by the durability of the WysiWipes. I think I took it beyond the normal acts of cleaning up spills and wiping hands when I decided to try using a WysiWipe as a wash cloth. While the WysiWipe seemed to stretch out and expand (it probably grew to about double the length) when drenched in water, it did not tear when used to scrub off the dirt of the day. Not only did it stay in one piece, but it retained its softness and did not itch or irritate the skin when it was scrubbing. The only way I got the WysiWipe to tear was when I stretched it so it was fully taught, then I had to force my finger through the material. I guess technically that means I couldn’t even get it to tear – I could only create a hole, because the rest of the wipe remained intact.

If we take a closer look at the cloth itself, we may be able to see why the WysiWipes are so strong. It looks like the wipes are made of threaded and networked fibers, which would mean that when you’re pulling one side of the cloth, the fibers are still strongly attached to other parts of the cloth, preventing tearing. I imagine that the little air pockets between the threads also help disperse any single-point pressure. I bet that the pockets also allow the wipe to absorb moisture more effectively since more surface areas of the fibers are exposed. These are only theories, of course – I’m not an expert in cloth wipe technology.

WysiWipes are great products to take with you whether on-the-go or at home. You can see some of the ways that other people use their WysiWipes on their website – www.wysiwipes.com. I think this would be a great gift for my dad, who is an avid hiker and could use something so compact and lightweight.

WysiWipes come in a few different package sizes – from a convenient 2-pack to a 500 pack. Pricing varies based on quantity, but you can get the 500 pack for $44.95 which calculates to just under $0.09 per WysiWipe. WysiWipes are available for purchase through their online store.

Do you want to try out the WysiWipe? There are lots of great contests going on that can give you the opportunity to try out WysiWipe for yourself! The WysiWipe website is hosting a weekly contest where you simply upload a picture of yourself using a WysiWipe and you can win a free bag of WysiWipes. In addition, in conjunction with Organic Girl, WysiWipe is hosting a DAILY giveaway, where one lucky winner will win a 12-pack of WysiWipes. People who enter the Organic Girl/WysiWipe Daily giveaway will also be entered to win the Grand Prize – a one week stay at any Interval World Resort! As if that wasn’t enough, we’re also hosting two What’s Cooking at DD WysiWipe Giveaways! The first giveaway will run from March 4-March 18 and the second giveaway will run from March 19-April 2.

The Prize:

One winner will receive a 100-pack of WysiWipes.

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 16 entries into the WCatDD WysiWipe 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.wysiwipe.com and tell me one thing you like about WysiWipes AND how you would use the WysiWipe.
2. Follow WysiWipe on Twitter (+1)
3. Fan the WysiWipe Facebook Page (+1)
4. Enter the Organic Girl/WysiWipe Daily Giveaway (+1) – Can only be earned once.
5. Post this giveaway on your blog (+3)
6. Tweet about this giveaway using the “retweet” link at the top of this post or by tweeting “Trying to win biodegradable, convenient and versatile cleaning cloths in the @WCatDD WysiWipe Giveaway! http://bit.ly/clmeTN” (+1)
7. Subscribe to WCatDD (+1)
8. Follow WCatDD on Twitter (+1)
9. Fan our WCatDD Facebook Page (+1)
10. Follow us on Google Friend Connect (+1)
11. Follow us using Network Blogs (+1)
12. 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 18, 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 free WysiWipes 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.

Thanks to What’s Cooking at DD reader 2BeTamed, the hunt for a water bottle has ended! She pointed me in the direction of Contigo water bottles. They have a 32 ounce bottle that is self-sealing, plastic, and top shelf dishwasher safe. I really liked that there wasn’t a straw you needed to bite on and that you could drink from it with just one hand. I also liked that the mouth of the bottle is wide so I can easily add ice cubes. I prefer to drink my water cold.

When I checked out the reviews, I was impressed that virtually everyone commented on how it was spill and leak-proof. My current water bottle starts to leak from the screw top if it gets knocked over. Since I tend to knock things over (I also randomly bump into walls when walking…don’t ask me why), it’s important that I have something that won’t spill if I have a clumsy moment.

Of course, I couldn’t go on this water-filled journey by myself, so I recruited my friends to join me in my effort to enjoy eight cups of water a day. It’s like we have a water-drinking support group. I can picture it now….as the end of the work day approaches, I’m going to have to start CHUGGING any remain water in my bottle to make sure I can say, “Yes” in case they ask me if I finished my water. They will be my water drinking accountability and I will do the same for them!

So last night, after having three other people co-sign the water-drinking agreement, we purchased eight Contigo water bottles from Amazon. (Eight because we’ll each have one at work and one at home.) The girls got pink, the guys got the charcoal color. When purchasing the water bottle, one of the things we had to consider was whether or not it was too “girly” for the guys to drink out of (sucking on a straw to drink water is a no-no.) Fortunately, this doesn’t appear to have one. It was really perfect timing to purchase because Amazon is currently offering a 4-for-3 deal on the 32 ounce Contigo bottle, so we essentially bought 6 and got 2 free! w00t! The final price per bottle (after including the free bottles) worked out to about $11.24 each, which makes them the 2nd cheapest bottle of the ones I looked at. I think the extra $0.46 price difference from the Nalgene bottle is so worth it because this bottle looks way more attractive.

The water bottles are expected to arrive tomorrow so my water drinking adventure should start on Friday. I give each and every one of you the permission to pester me to make sure that I’m drinking my water. If any of you have decided to take the water drinking challenge with me, then let me know! I can create a little button and we can start our own online water drinking support group. Haha!

Contigo BPA Free Water Bottle with Autoseal Lid and Carabineer Clip