A Few New Freebies

Through my seemingly endless search for more sites to use for trying products and getting freebies, I found two more that are not spam-filled and completely legit. Firstly, my favorite of my two new sites, is Influenster. I have already gotten my first invite from their website for a campaign to write two Ebay guides; the reward was a $25 Ebay gift card (and I've already completed the campaign - only took about thirty or less minutes). Rewards such as these do take a bit of time to arrive (their site warns that it may take a few weeks), but $25 for less than thirty minutes of work is wonderful! I rarely use Ebay, but I will have to find something to buy for myself that I can really use. I am hoping that Influenster offers more campaigns soon. I also like their reviews system; they have almost every possible product on the market available for review and these reviews net you badges and points.

The second site I found on my search was Swaggable. Swaggable acts like many other sample sites, but it uses your "wish list" of products you've said you'd like to try to gather an idea of what products might be a good fit for you. I am very new to Swaggable, and I have not received any notifications of samples being available for me yet, but I will keep on top of it and hope for the best!

Work freebie today - Zevia zero calorie (natural) soda in the flavor of... Mountain Zevia lol.

These don't taste the best, but sometimes

I like to drink them just as something different.

Like the caption says, I would never go out of my way to buy any of the all natural zero calorie sodas. They don't taste very good in general; I get one from time to time because the can has been dropped and damaged (as was the case here) and taste them. This one wasn't bad; the citrus-y flavors like this one tend to taste the best (or other fruity flavors have been pretty okay too). The cola was awful and I wouldn't choose to drink it again even if it was free haha.

Today's Quest bar was Vanilla Almond Crunch. It was pretty good. I would say definitely not Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough good, but a lot better than Chocolate Peanut Butter or Coconut Cashew hehe. I would eat it again... but am craving some Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ugh!

Yes, I got lazy and stole an image from Quest.

This one isn't terrible at all. Definitely one I'd eat again.

I didn't have the best day at my 9-5 job. After almost ten years of working there, I have no more power than I did nine years ago and it's starting to wear on me. I was supposed to do one of my first more senior tasks today... sit in with my manager on a new hire interview. I was so excited! Then, when it came time for the interview, the assistant manager showed up on his day off and took my spot in the interview. Disappointed is an understatement. I'm frankly kind of hurt. When I got home the first thing I did, to try and clear my head, was work in the garden. I weeded around the base of most of the plants I have and took pictures of a lot of things. Seeing some great growth here!!!!

 Dill - about four inches tall now.

 Lavender blooms. Phone cameras suck.

 My foot at the bottom is for scale purposes.

Peppermint bush is HUGE. Lavender on right.

 Potato, soon to bloom. It's about 3ft tall.

 Sunflowers, about 2ft tall for the tallest ones.

Watermelon, getting tall - this should start to vine out soon.

Really enjoyed playing in the garden for a little while. I used my natural plant food today, so I am sure my plants will go through another growth spurt in a week or so from that lol. My prior problems thankfully disappeared once I started "playing" in the dirt. Weeds are a disaster for me and I figure if I pull a few here and there every day then I might take back some semblance of a garden.

Dinner was Low Carb Sweet and Sour Chicken by Craig at ruled.me. This is a favorite recipe of mine, and I am so glad that I used every dish and measuring instrument in my kitchen just to eat this for a few days. Low carb is the best sometimes - and recipes like this prove it.

Who says low carb can't taste like the real thing?

Frankly it tastes even better. 100% homemade.

Let's hope my luck starts looking up tomorrow and I get something free sample wise in the mail finally tomorrow (cough cough PINCHme boxes, let's go cough cough). I am not a patient lady!

Free Eggs from Winn Dixie

Today's best deal is through Winn Dixie (if you live in the southeast US). If you download their new shopping app, there is a coupon available for a free dozen eggs. This coupon is good until 5/27 and is tied to your shopping card.

Free dozen eggs for your shopping pleasure.

Sorry for the really crappy picture.

I had hyped myself all up and was really hoping I'd see at least one if not two PINCHme boxes here by today - so many people are starting to finally get theirs! - but alas! There wasn't even mail for me period worth my time. Chris got a bill and some stuff for him, but I didn't get a thing. I am so excited to finally get some samples in and put this site to proper use! Keep thinking of me and my sampling desires; maybe all the good mojo will make them come sooner hehe.

Speaking of good mojo... Winn Dixie wasn't the only place with free eggs for me today. I got a free dozen from work (well, eleven, since one was broken thus why they were free), but at the last minute I realized I honestly have TONS of eggs and will get some from Winn Dixie soon too so I gave them to my friend. Him and his girlfriend need them more than I do (seeing as how I have 2.5 doz in my fridge already not including my Winn Dixie coupon). Maybe that karma will come back in the form of me receiving my darn boxes soon!

I had been saving this flavor of Quest bar for a while because it's actually their most popular. I wanted to try most of the box before I tasted the one people seem to love the most. According to their social media, their best selling flavor is the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough bar.

I did find this one to be quite tasty.

I was always a cookie dough eater though.

I think my favorite part about this bar is twofold: firstly, I love the saltiness of this bar. It has a significant sweet and salty mix that always appeals to me moreso than straight sweet. Secondly, the chocolate chips inside the bar are perfect because they give some much needed texture. It somehow makes eating this particular bar much more fun than it would have been otherwise. I would say this ranks up there pretty high with some of my other favorite Quest bars so far... and it might be close to a favorite just because it had that wonderful salty taste that cookie dough sometimes has.

So I am going to give somewhat of a fair warning: real life, starting next week, is probably going to kick my butt. We are hiring two new people at work and right now are running short handed until we get them in and trained. My nine to five job will be potentially drawing me away from the page and passing on information about pages, free things I've gotten, and all the other wonderful tidbits I pass along. I will TRY my best to keep posting. I am not very socially skilled in face to face sort of situations, so let's hope that I get through training TWO new people without being too anxious.

Hopefully tomorrow will bring good things to review on here!!!

SampleSource Shines, Quest, Citronella

Greetings fellow freebie (and freedom!) lovers. I am pleased to announce that I found another great samples website to follow. SampleSource offers free samples every so often in shipments (I qualified for eight different products) based upon your answers to a brief survey system. It took me less than five minutes after signing up, and like most sample companies my items will arrive in 4-6 weeks. Much like PINCHme, they were very professional and easy to use with a wide variety of products available for me in my personal box (gummy vitamins for hair, two different shampoo and conditioner products by Garnier, Cascadian Farms granola, Breathe Right strips, Seventh Generation baby wipes, and a few other items). You should definitely check them out if you love a variety of free samples with almost no hassles!!!

Please don't forget to get free clothes for children (oh, and there are some women's clothes too that I plan on sifting through once I get a few more credits in) using the Schoola website. Specifically my link is here... USE IT!!! I greatly appreciate it, and you will get a free $15 for using me as a referral as well. It is mutually beneficial!

Free $15 credit for Schoola - kids' clothing

One of my newer garden items purchased last weekend (reminder: my weekend is Monday and Tuesday) was a citronella plant. My other half researched it and found out it was a member of the geranium family (good to know - geranium is also good as an insect repellent and the oil is used in a lot of natural bug sprays much like citronella), and it looks nothing like I thought it would. It smells heavenly though, and if you rub your fingers on it you smell like natural bug spray hehe. Here's a picture of my plant that I took earlier this morning:

It's a very unique looking plant.

My son and I tried these two new flavors of Quest bar this morning (we split both in half so we ate only one whole bar but two different halves of flavor).

Peanut Butter Supreme was tasty.

Chocolate Brownie was oddly disappointing.

The Peanut Butter Supreme was by far the better tasting of the two flavors. It does have peanut pieces in it, but they are generally not too large or overwhelming. I was surprised this bar was my favorite of the two; I really am not a peanut flavored anything fan. This bar was quite tasty and worth a repurchase in the future. Quinlan also agreed with me. The Chocolate Brownie bar was not BAD, but after eating the peanuty one it didn't taste quite like a brownie at all. The chocolate flavor in it did not taste entirely genuine after eating a peanut flavor and I think the peanut bar just muddled my taste buds; I'd be willing to try the brownie bar again in the future just to see if it tastes better on its own without eating a different flavor immediately before.

I'm impatiently awaiting my samples! PINCHme will be releasing new samples this coming Tuesday (May 5th) at noon. I will definitely be attending the "release party"! You should use me as a referral for PINCHme too; other than maybe a little higher rating, I get no direct compensation for using anyone as a referral. I just love their site, so use my link:  Get in on PINCHme

Let's hope some new samples come in so I can give you all the scoop on some products!

Schoola - Free Kids' Clothes!

I discovered this link tonight (4/27 at about 9:40pm), but I wanted to go ahead and write about it before I forget. Schoola is an easy way to get free gently used clothing for kids. I personally have a six year old that has shot up a couple of inches in the past year or so, and he is my only boy and oldest child. No hand me downs, no money to buy lots of new items - so any nicer free clothing is GREAT for him! Here's how the Schoola system works:

1. Use my link as a referral to sign up for an account: http://www.schoola.com/stitch?ref=cp-3X2e6h9G2
2. Wait a few minutes; took a little bit for my $15 to show up
3. Benefit! Order $15 or less from the website for a free clothing set.
4. Currently Schoola has FREE SHIPPING as well for a limited time.
5. You will also have a link to share with friends; you get $15 MORE in credits each time a friend uses your link.

I give ALL of the credit for this great deal to hunt4freebies.com - quickly becoming my "freebies" site of choice. It is by far the most updated listing I've found yet, and I've had nothing but good luck with things they've provided. I am super grateful for their diligence AND variety of free things and discounts they've listed!!!

I haven't received the clothing for my son yet (obviously), but so far I give Schoola huge props and a great review for ease of use, availability of reimbursement for referrals, and being a great charity (no sales tax on charitable sales either). I am very excited to take pictures of the three articles I ordered and share my overall review of my transactions there.

Quiet Day at Home

I have so very little to report. I guess I should start with the Walmart Savings Catcher app. I have not been as diligent as I should with it, but in total from when I started using it I had amassed around $17. The entire purpose of the app is to scan your receipt and compare the price you paid at Walmart with all of the ads at that current time. If a lower price is advertised for the exact same product, you get the difference back as currency to use at Walmart in the future. Using my currency, I purchased a new immersion blender that I should receive sometime in May! I paid almost nothing out of pocket.

Bulletproof Coffee here I come!

A full review will occur when I have the product.

I did some minimal garden weeding earlier today, and while I was outside I noticed our broody hen was officially on a nest break, so I snapped a picture of her cache of eggs.

I count 14 today; I wonder if the other

hen is still laying in the egg nest?

Quest bar of the day today was Double Chocolate Chunk. I shared it with my son, Quinlan.  It was a pretty good flavor, next to the Cinnamon Roll it was second place of the no artificial sweetener bars so far. I liked the chocolate chips on the inside because of the texture; it reminded me a little bit of a chocolate chunk brownie or something because of the toothiness of the chips.

This one was a winner, I'd repurchase for future use!

In the kitchen, I am keeping it simple. My corned beef that had been in the freezer was finally thawed enough today to start cooking down. I started it at 9 a.m. on low, and I'll turn it off in about fifteen minutes (eight hours makes it so tender, it falls apart). I personally love corned beef more than a simple roast; the strong flavors and more briny nature of the meat is just perfect. My favorite part is the fatty underside of this cut; I already stripped the fat off separately (it was ready and I was impatient) and ate it ALL. These other monkeys around my house can eat the lean stuff; the taste of the fat of corned beef is almost like butter. SO GOOD and awesome for you!

I would say this is my favorite Crock Pot meal.

I joined (well, technically rejoined) a website today that occasionally offers free trial products - Toluna. It also is a surveys website, social media center of sorts, and the points you gain can be used towards gift cards and other prizes. I do like that they have occasional products available to test; I am signed up for their Hello Kitty shampoo trial that is coming up. Unfortunately not everyone gets picked for their product trials, but I admit that for this one I am a prime candidate; I have two girls, both of whom think "kitty" is "so cute". I would love to get this one for my little ladies!

When my samples, PINCHme boxes, and campaign box from BzzAgent all come in I will try to spread out the reviews as much as possible. I have a LARGE VOLUME of items expected in the next three to six weeks with a lot of information to cover. Most of what I am expecting are items I am trying for other websites and companies for free to pass along my honest opinions on these products. If you want to do the same thing for some of these sites, use me as your referral! My links are:

BzzAgent: Try Products For Free In Exchange For Reviews
PINCHme: Free Samples, No Gimmicks!

With a very diligent effort, I was invited to my first BzzAgent campaign in a week. I have completed all of my surveys and have been very active on this blog along with a couple of posts on BzzAgent's Facebook page as well. I don't know if any of that influenced my invite to this campaign, but my goal is to be as awesome of an agent as possible to be invited to even better future campaigns! I will pass along as many of my experiences as possible to try and show what being an amateur product tester is like. Eventually I'd like to make this and my small business my focus more than a 9-5 job!

Slow Day at the Office

Today was mostly a bust for freebies; there were very few offers and samples added, but I did find a few at some of my new haunts that were worth signing up for. There are a few giveaways on a new freebies hub, hunt4freebies.com, that I signed up for. I like this particular page very much because it's updated regularly. I am not far from deleting freesamples.org from my list; my other main pages that have samples and giveaways are simply better and updated more often.

Today's Quest bar flavor, as advertised yesterday, was White Chocolate Raspberry. It was definitely tastier than the Strawberry Cheesecake from yesterday... but at most equivalent to the Apple Pie. This particular bar is one with sucralose and has 5g carbs; it would be an unlikely contender to get special ordered at any time in the future. I don't want you to think it didn't taste pretty good though; I quite liked this one and still find that the Chocolate Peanut Butter flavor is definitely the worst of the bunch (I will be re-trying this particular flavor since it's in my variety pack - I think a lot of my issues with that bar stem from the fact that it was really old and almost out of date).

White Chocolate Raspberry. Definitely not bad.

Breakfast was a relative bargain; I made a blue cheese burger with a fried egg on top. Cost of less than $2, and none of the ingredients were a lower quality.

A nice, hearty breakfast. 1g carb at most.

My garden is growing quite nicely; however yesterday to my horror I noticed most of my zucchini blossoms were simply falling off the stems! Thoroughly upset, I searched Google but found out this is a common thing. Zucchini have male and female flowers, and male flowers simply fall right off the vine, especially early in the season. My searching turned up no disease or any other blight I should be concerned with, so no worries. Female flowers will eventually pop up after the male from what I gather. Here's how one of my rows looked this morning.

Blooms abound. Very cheerful and spring-like.

Lavender is making a comeback after winter.

Tomorrow I am Crock Pot-ing a corned beef all day (YUM!!!) and might repeat the same breakfast. I will try to post about Wal-Mart's Savings Catcher app (it's how I am getting my newest kitchen appliance for about $3). I'm hoping to soon get my first two PINCHme boxes in with a lot of samples and there's always new posts of free items from my regular sites.

Pass along any post ideas or questions, comments, etc, and I will directly post them in the blog.

Smiley360, Broody Hen, Strawberry Cheesecake

Let's get to business, shall we? I have no new freebies to report today, but I will give my reviews on a few things, including the website and food item listed in the title of this post. I also plan on coloring my hair tonight with an item I got for free from work a while back; I have used Naturtint brand hair color before, but I have not used it since I started reviewing products and writing this blog! I think you guys deserve an honest review, since I planned on using the box of hair color tonight anyways. First though, my food experience of the day.

Mmm. Strawberry Cheesecake, done in the style of Quest Bar.

So, it did have a bit of a berry taste so it, and I am glad that they use freeze-dried strawberries in this bar. I personally felt the tartness that's present in a cheesecake was not prevalent enough, however; I am a big fan of the zero sucralose types of Quest bars but this flavor was a little underwhelming to me. The overall taste was good, but it definitely is not my favorite of the Quest bars. I would definitely say my favorite so far of the all natural ones is Cinnamon Roll, while the Apple Pie flavor is my favorite one with sucralose. Tomorrow I will try a White Chocolate Raspberry bar I believe.

So far I am a really big fan of BzzAgent. If they remain as professional as they have been so far then I will gladly do campaigns for them as many times as they invite me. That point has been further solidified with my discovery of a similar website as BzzAgent: Smiley 360. The premise is very similar to BzzAgent's purpose: using a variety of methods and outlets, allow people to try free things in exchange for their honest, unbiased opinion on the products sampled. The problem I see, so far, with Smiley 360 is the process just isn't honed enough. When I joined BzzAgent, I had 20 or 30 different surveys waiting to get to know me, see what my household uses or could use, and match me to some type of product campaign. They also emphasized social media connections and even writing a blog (frankly, BzzAgent is WHY this blog exists, but it's not the sole reason I have this blog anymore either). Smiley 360's interface isn't as polished or well-planned, and their surveys are lacking (only two to start with and no other obvious activities to dive into to try and get yourself into a campaign). I have been checking back, but they really have nothing else to offer me with regards to matching me to anything it would seem. If I had to choose between one or the other, BzzAgent wins by a landslide so far. After all, in one week I was matched to an awesome campaign that actually is something we can use NOW; my five year old is going through a flare up of allergies and I can't wait to get this package for free to try! It will definitely make a huge difference in how I perceive over the counter allergy items, and my opinions will be totally my own with no bias.

 This is my new color, Golden Chestnut (4G)

My last hair color session was at least six months ago, so my old color has grown out and looks a tad funny. I have very poor hair quality, but I will do a brushed out "before" picture to show the color of what I have left.

"Before" hair color. A reddish-orange with brown roots.

Alright, you get the picture. It is definitely time to have a more uniform looking color. I will be covering this with a color that's close to my own natural color, 4G (Golden Chestnut). This kit is special because there are no harsh ammonias or parabens; if you wanted to find a more natural, less smelly version of your traditional hair color you buy at the drug store, then this is it. You use it the same way you would use any Garnier or Clairol boxed hair color: mix the two bottles, let sit, rinse out, condition, rinse. 

Easy as pie... well, actually a lot easier.

It is permanent (never washes out but grows out as your hair grows) just like most regular store hair colors too. I have always had accurate results with Naturtint colors, including any grays that I might have and being spread evenly in my hair without being too overly fake looking. The bottle also has PLENTY of colorant in it, especially for those of you with thin hair like myself or shorter hair. I didn't even use the whole bottle and here's how my hair looks while the color is setting:

There still was at least a third of the bottle left,

and my hair is dripping wet with colorant throughout.

Here is my after picture, so you can compare:

Consistent color from root to tip. I like it.

Since it is more natural than regular hair color, it obviously does cost more. Natural foods stores and other markets with similar products will usually carry this brand (it is very popular), and if you catch it on sale then you might get it for a comparable price. For those of you who are looking for a more natural product that works just as good as a regular store hair color but is still easy to use, this is the product for you! I am very happy with my results and am a big fan of this brand.

Homestead news: one of our two black silkies is extremely broody and currently sitting full-time on a nest full of eggs; we candled them tonight and 13 are viable. Soon we'll see some babies! If you want to see what a broody hen does all day, here are the pictures to show it.

 See the egg sticking out from under her?

She won't move...for almost anything.

If you get close to her she gets all huffy.

Until tomorrow, I think I'll try to work in the garden some tomorrow and pass along some new info I've learned about zucchini plants (then you won't get as upset as I was at first when I went into my garden this afternoon LOL) on the blog tomorrow. I'm hoping to see some fruit growing soon on them. I  might transplant a couple of baby plants too, we'll see!

Quest is Here & My First Campaign Invite!

First off, let's give a round of applause to myself - I am officially a "working" BzzAgent!!! I was emailed an invite to the Claritin Kids campaign and will be receiving TWO full size products (chewables, liquid) *for* *free* to try out on the family. This is the beauty of BzzAgent; I am sent free products to try on myself or the family, but all that is asked of me in return is to give my honest opinion on the product (whether I hate it, love it, or any other reaction in between) and pass my opinion on to everyone else to let them know about the product too.

My first Bzz Campaign starts May 6th!

I would like to stress some universal disclaimers before I begin posting about the products in the near future I receive from BzzAgent. Other than the products I am given to try, I am not reimbursed in any way by ANY company. I simply am giving my own, uninfluenced, opinion on the products at hand. This will go for all of the products I receive as free samples from other sources in the near future, too. If I hate it I will scream it from the rooftops haha, just as I will brag about a product if I really like it too. If you ever have any questions or concerns, leave me a comment and I will gladly respond.

If you want to become a BzzAgent like I am, here is my referral link: Hear the Bzzz!

From work today I received a couple of perishable food items: a dozen eggs and some YELLOW zucchinis. YELLOW?... they look like a zucchini in shape, but the color (and frankly, the taste too) are just different from what you are used to with a regular zucchini.

Three yellow zucchinis and a dozen fertile eggs.

So, after cooking the squash and tasting them, I found that they taste different than squash I am used to. They are not BAD, but the flavor wasn't exactly what I was expecting (I thought they'd still taste like a zucchini). Here's a shot from when I cooked them up in a tomato cream sauce:

Taking this with some summer sausage for lunch tomorrow at work.

So...the moment I've been waiting for most of this week: the arrival of my *purchased* Quest Nutrition products. I received my 12 bar variety pack of Quest bars and the *free* sample of the chocolate protein. I am no glutton, so I only tried a couple of things today.

My Quest haul...sampler box and protein.

I had eaten pretty clean today (basically a full zero carb day since all I had was super creamy fresh cheese and meat), so I decided to try the Apple Pie variety with the help of the kiddos. If all four of us ate and kept eating it, then you know something about that bar was good. Some protein bars are very dense; this was not, and I loved the apple flavor. I wish they could somehow make a bar like this but eliminate the extra sugar and carbs (none added, but naturally occurring from the apples). This will definitely be a very occasional treat if I ever order this bar for my home; the kids LOVE it though, especially my youngest.

The taste was phenomenal, and not too dense. Even all of the kids enjoyed.

Since four of us split the bar, I splurged a little bit further and decided to make my "protein mousse" with their chocolate protein sample I was sent. They do use sucralose (also known as Splenda) in both the Apple Pie Bar and the Chocolate protein; this is a negative for someone who like to try to use natural products like myself, but I have never seen any specific negative side effects from sucralose. The protein seems consistent, plenty sweet enough (with no sugar added), and chocolatey.

Chocolate usually isn't my fave, but this wasn't bad.

One thing I noticed as soon as I started mixing in my cream, however, is that the Quest Protein is more dense than the whey proteins I am used to using. I had to use a LOT more cream in my mix, which resulted in a much denser paste than I usually have with my other concoctions.

It was more like a very thick icing or over dense cake batter.

As you can see above, adding Oxylent to this didn't make it as airy as my previous attempts at the same blend, but my goodness this stuff tasted wonderful! I decided that I would use the orange flavor in with the powder, and I was NOT disappointed. If you can believe it, these 2 net grams of carbs in this bowl tasted EXACTLY like a Tootsie Pop - chocolate Tootsie Roll flavor with a citrusy, candy sort of taste from the Oxylent. My oldest child and youngest both tasted it and quite liked it. My son actually kept asking for more bites, but before long it was gone because of me.

Protein in the bowl along with other snack components. 

Will be doing this a lot in the future, so good!

If you can't tell I am a bit of an Oxylent fan. It's absolutely zero calories, a powdered full multi, and tastes great (in a normal situation you'd mix it with water). Natural foods retailers (like my place of employment, actually) are the perfect place to find these products. Maybe you can come up with some creative ideas as to other ways of using it like I have!

Tomorrow's blog already has a list of other things to cover, too. I joined another site similar to BzzAgent today, and I will pass along  my humble opinion on them versus Bzz (very early opinion mind you). I will post a review of another Quest bar tomorrow as well - I'm thinking Strawberry Cheesecake, one of the flavors I am most excited to try! On a side note, before I forget, I did not receive a Mint Chocolate bar in my variety pack unfortunately, but I think I received one of ALL of the natural flavors with no sucralose added, which is good for me.

Keep your eyes open for free samples or other good deals! These bars will be the last spending splurge on myself for a while, so pass along any information you have about freebies so we can all benefit from what companies want us to try for them. 

New Shoes, More Freebies

Exciting day! One of my two deliveries this week came in: my new shoes from Amazon! A pair of shoes for $23 is a great deal almost anywhere, and these particular shoes were mostly given favorable reviews on Amazon. I am someone who stands on my feet for eight hours a day at my job, so I was definitely interested in a pair that could be more comfortable and help with my aches and pains. Thus, my Ryka's were purchased.

 Fresh out of the box.

On my feet; pretty comfy so far! Work tomorrow will test that.

Definitely a funny looking shoe, but I think that I like them. I really had wanted this shoe in black, but that particular color wasn't part of the Amazon deal so I went with this, the second best option. I think these will go well with the pair of black slacks I plan on wearing tomorrow; they are almost like yoga pants and aren't super long. My jeans I'm wearing today do look a little funny with these!

My work freebie of the day was a squeeze bottle of Muir Glen's Pizza Sauce. I definitely like the idea of a squeeze bottle for some tomato products like this versus the traditional can. The sugar level (none added, just naturally from the tomatoes) are still a little high for me per serving compared to my favorite brand (Rao's!), but the family will use it up at some point for mozzarella sticks or fresh baked pizzas.

Too lazy to take my own picture. My only work freebie today.

I started using yet another free sample list website along with freesamples.org that I posted about yesterday; I Love Free Things is another good resource, very similar to freesamples.org, that lists a variety of free offers available around the web. Some of the ones they had on their lists were ones I had not seen yet on some of my other free sample websites. so it might come in handy for your freebie gathering. Let me know if you know of any good resources I haven't mentioned yet in my posts and I'll give you a shout out!

Okay, so I am famous for some of my crazy food concoctions. As I've mentioned, I am pretty strict low carb so my options are limited, but when I come up with a crazy idea I tend to bring it to fruition to see if it was tasty. Well, here's a super odd combo that I just happen to love: protein powder, cream, and a packet of Oxylent. So here are the main two components besides the heavy whipping cream:

 My favorite whey protein, BioChem's Sugar Free Whey Isolate.

Oxylent - an effervescent powdered multi. Sugar free, zero calories... and tasty!

So the method is as follows... add enough cream to make a paste/pudding sort of consistency with the whey protein. Once it is about to this point, add the Oxylent and stir well. You'll notice that, due to the effervescence of the powdered multi, the pudding suddenly has a bit of air to it and looks more like a mousse. This is the optimal EAT ME time!!! I don't know why this crazy combo appeals to me, but this stuff tastes awesome and has only 1g carb per serving, 20g protein, a fair amount of healthy fats from the cream, and a full day's worth of a multivitamin to boot.  In a normal situation you'd obviously be putting the Oxylent in water, but I am far from normal folks. My creative side with food combinations comes out sometimes, and in this case it was a total success from my viewpoint. Here's a picture of how my finished product from this morning looked (I used the Sparkling Berries one):

 Protein mousse, berry flavor. Don't knock it til you try it.

YUM! I love stuff like this; feel free to call me crazy.

Tomorrow I'm expecting my package from Quest, so get SUPER excited for that! I will be happy to share with everyone all the pictures and box opening joy to see what flavors they sent me (maybe they sent me a Mint Chocolate bar, their newest flavor that was just unveiled days after I placed my order... we'll see!). I also hope that their whey protein sample that was sent with my order is good too. Maybe I'll use it to make a pudding like the one above (though the flavor is chocolate, it might be weird... but chocolate and orange go together right?).

Deal of the Day, Garden Images

Today, entirely on a whim, I felt the urge to visit a local GNC on my way home from work to grab a couple more Quest bars to try that I haven't tasted yet. Lo and behold, this is what I found in a few boxes of the bars:

These are half off regular price.

So I splurged (in a sense, I wasn't planning really on buying any until my sampler box comes in Friday!) and grabbed these two flavors, Coconut Cashew and Chocolate Peanut Butter. The bars were relatively short dated (the Choc PB flavor was only a few weeks from being out of date and a bit more dense than I think it was originally haha), but they tasted okay - of these two I preferred the Coconut Cashew, but I think the main reason it was better was that it was still soft! Neither of these were "deal breaker" flavors, but they are two of the varieties of Quest bars that come without sucralose (also known as Splenda - an artificial sweetener that I generally don't ingest very often if at all). If you're interested, there are five more flavors that are sucralose free, equaling seven total that are totally natural. Cinnamon Roll is still my favorite over these two though, easily!

I also brought home a couple of out of date local goodies, specifically a Green Hill soft cow's cheese by Sweet Grass Dairy out of Thomasville and Spinach Pesto made by Orchard Pond. I've had Green Hill a number of times; for someone who doesn't like soft cheeses like brie, this actually isn't so bad. I think it pairs best with some type of sweet flavor, though, so as a low carber I am hard pressed to find something to use with it! I tried baking it with seasoned pumpkin seeds, but it was kind of messy and only somewhat okay. The Orchard Pond pestos are quite good, and I think the spinach is a favorite of mine just because it's mild; they also make kale, traditional basil, and arugula pestos - the arugula has got one heck of a kick. The spinach variety is very smooth and almost mousse like, so I greatly enjoy the texture along with the taste. I admit that I was eating it with a spoon straight out of the jar!!!

Pesto and Green Hill cheese.

My newest, somewhat reliable site for free samples is a compilation site - a website that links you to the participating free sample sign up pages. FreeSamples.org is fairly reliable and has links to each company's page to sign up for items; I do not do fan clubs and try to avoid mailing lists, but I found a large number of freebies here that were easily accessible without surrendering my firstborn! A fairly good list of the ones I participated in last night includes samples of: Nivea lotion, a free Jiffy cornbread mix cookbook, Zarbee's Children's Immune gummies, Advil PM, Zing stevia sweetener, Simply Right diapers (diaper samples, score!), Truvia sweetener, Arm and Hammer toothpaste, L'oreal shampoo, Creme of Nature shampoo, and a Henry rifles catalog and decal (for the other half!). Many of these take a number of weeks to arrive, but I am a patient lady and will probably forget half of them; who doesn't love free surprises, after all?! I only have signed up for things that I can possibly use for myself or others in my household, and who knows, we might actually like a product well enough to put a company's marketing to good use!

I also received an email from a freebies list (one of the few I have signed up for, frankly) for a free sample of Numi Tea K-Cups; I love K-Cup products and own a machine that can use K-Cups (I was too cheap for a Keurig, my Hamilton Beach FlexBrew 49995R has been perfect for a year and a half of constant use, I take it EVERYWHERE!). If you visit the RealCup Facebook page and click the tab for Numi Tea at the top of the page, you will find the prompts to sign up for a sample package with 3 K-Cup teas and a $1 off coupon.

K-Cups are not cheap. These were better than cheap: FREE!

I also received an e-mail from PINCHme today for a free sample of Allegra - the other half has constant allergies, and living in the Big Bend of Florida is the worst for anyone with seasonal allergies! The pollen is ridiculous in this area of our great nation, and we have tons of pine trees surrounding our 20 acres of homestead. I think this might be worth us trying for him for sure! Free always makes it better, and over the counter name brand meds like Allegra are VERY expensive to buy! This is the link to get your free Allegra sample; I would imagine supplies are limited, so visit soon!

Love seeing ads like this from my freebies sites, thanks PINCHme!

Alright, enough freebies, who wants to see pictures of some of my blooms? First the edible: this is Mexican Tarragon, a perennial in my area.

Small yellow blooms from my perennial tarragon. Delicious herb.

I also have a large lily plant that, for the first time in two years, decided it would bloom this year. It's quite dramatic and beautiful. It's also right beside my front door, so you can't miss it anytime you are near the house. What a wonderful way to start your day seeing such a beautiful display of color.

Lilies are wonderful. Makes me want to buy more.

As always, if you have any questions or comments please leave them for me. I will gladly answer to the best of my abilities! I am hoping in a few weeks to have pictures of chicks; our broody hen is sitting on a large nest of eggs 24-7 and wants to be a mama lol. Blogging like this gives me a deep sense of satisfaction; I work hard and love all of the beauty around me here at home and sharing the free items and discounts I find.