Archive for March, 2009

Tasty Tuesdays – Kids in the Kitchen

March 31, 2009
Tasty Tuesdays: Kids in the Kitchen – Edition 1

Well, we’ve been doing Tasty Tuesdays for a few weeks now and I hope that all the Chester County Moms have been enjoying them! It’s always helpful to find new ideas of things to make in the kitchen!

Tasty Tuesdays is now going to be doing a “Kids in the Kitchen” segment once a month. So, in addition to everyday meal ideas, this monthly Tasty Tuesdays theme will showcase extra kid-friendly ideas! Kids in the Kitchen posts will be mainly geared towards recipes and other ideas about the month’s holiday (if there happens to be one that month)! So, get the kids together & enjoy!

Here’s a fabulously delicious recipe for Easter! These would be great treats to bring to your child’s classroom Easter Parties…they’re a great alternative to cupcakes!

Mini Easter Cheesecakes

Ingredients:

  • 20 chocolate or vanilla wafer cookies
  • 2 8-ounce packages of cream cheese, softened
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/4 teaspoon almond extract
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 1/3 cup sour cream
  • 1 1/2 cups chopped SNICKERS® Bars
  • 2 cups flaked coconut
  • Green food coloring
  • 2 cups M&M’S® Brand Speckled Chocolate Eggs
  • Mini muffin tin
  • Mini muffin paper liners

Directions:

  • 1. Line muffin pan with paper muffin cups. Place one wafer cookie in the bottom of each cup, set aside.
  • 2. Mix cream cheese, sugar, and vanilla and almond extracts until smooth. Slowly add eggs and sour cream, mix until creamy. Stir in chopped SNICKERS® Bars.
  • 3. Spoon mixture into muffin cups and bake in a preheated 375ºF oven until set, about 25 minutes. Cool completely and refrigerate until ready to serve.
    To serve:
  • 4. Combine coconut with a few drops of food coloring to desired shade of green. Arrange on top of cheesecakes to resemble a nest. Fill nests with M&M’S® Brand Speckled Chocolate Eggs. Serve at room temperature.

For this & other great recipes, visit Bright Ideas.

Happy Spring!

Do you have a fun kid-friendly Easter recipe or idea you’d like to share? Leave us a comment and tell us all about it!

Local Coupons

March 30, 2009

Sane Fit Preggers – Give Away

March 30, 2009

SANE FITNESS Preggers was not invented by a fitness guru who preaches endless hours in the gym and a diet consisting of no sugar, no carbohydrates and basically…no fun! Instead SANE FITNESS Preggers was invented by a wife, mother and business woman for women just like her, who never seem to have enough hours in the day. Beverley Caen is the perfect example of an overextended working mother and wife who has found a way to make fitness and healthy eating a part of her everyday life; especially when pregnant. With a little help from prenatally certified fitness expert John Cruz, this Wall Street career woman and mother of three has developed an exercise program that is safe and easy to follow, for pregnant women that want to continue exercising throughout their pregnancy. Once you are given the ok by your own obstetrician to exercise, Preggers is a complete program that begins in your 2nd trimester– the stage in your pregnancy when your body starts to really change.

SANE FITNESS -Preggers Deck is the perfect little gift for yourself, your pregnant sister, daughter or friend, SANE FITNESS Preggers offers expecting women a sane way to stay healthy and active during this very special and exhausting time. The Preggers Deck contains 24 weeks of full-body workouts that you can do at the gym or at home with minimal equipment. The card set is enough to get you through your entire pregnancy. The contents of the box include 72 cards, an instructional brochure and a ring with a stylish lanyard, for conveniently transporting the card set around town. The suggested retail price of the SANE FITNESS Preggers is $24.95 and is available for sale by calling 1-800-429-5001 or at http://www.sanefit.com/.

So with all of that said…. we are really excited to offer a SANE FITNESS – Preggers Deck to one lucky Chester County Mom. To enter to win this awesome giveaway, simply leave a comment along with your email or blog link. We are adding a fun little twist to this contest. Your friends and family can enter the contest for you. So increase your chance to win and email everyone you know and ask them to visit http://www.chestercountymoms.com and leave a comment along with your first name & email. The winner of this contest will be announced on April 3rd. The winner of this contest must be a Chester County resident and will be notified via email . The winner has 10 days to respond to the “You won” email and claim their prize. Good Luck!

Twitter 411…

March 29, 2009

Twitter is all over the news. So we thought we would try and explain what all the buzz is about.

Twitter is the fastest growing social network in the United States, and not just among social media strategists and techie types. Moms, baby boomers and even celebrities (Ellen – Holla!) are contributing to the growth in record numbers too. And, as Twitter grows, so does the wealth of applications and tools you can use to help you search and communicate on Twitter:

Knowing how many times someone tweets about a brand or topic has value, but knowing whether those tweets are positive or negative proves much more important. One of the more sophisticated Twitter search tools to come out in the past three months is Twendz. Twendz allows you to search for a keyword, whether a topic or a brand, and see the breakdown of sentiment. Learn more at Twendz.com.

Tweet Scan is a Twitter search engine that works in real-time. It provides a searchable index of all of the public messages on Twitter, so you can find conversations, people, and tweets relevant to you. The best part is that Tweet Scan lets you filter by keyword, author, and date and you can get the results via email. Learn more at TweetScan.com.

So.. still not sure if Twitter is for you? With Twitter, you can stay hyper–connected to your friends and always know what they’re doing. Or, you can stop following them any time. You can even set quiet times on Twitter so you’re not interrupted. Twitter puts you in control and becomes a modern antidote to information overload.

Twitter Button from twitbuttons.com

Follow Us on Twitter: ChescoMoms

March 28, 2009

What will you be doing tonight at 8:30pm? We’re wondering what you have planned for Earth Hour 2009. If you’d like to share your plans with other moms in Chester County, please leave a comment or send us an email to sarah@chestercountymoms.com. Don’t forget to include your first name and what town you live in. (Example – Sarah, West Chester)

VOTE EARTH

Calling all bakers!

March 27, 2009

At the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest in 2008, Carolyn Gurtz walked away with the million-dollar grand prize for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies!

This wife, mother and grandmother with a passion for baking was introduced to cooking at age seven and she hasn’t stopped since then. One contest judge stated that Carolyn’s recipe was “a new twist on an old classic.” Other judges called out its simplicity and approachability and described it as a delightful taste that combines two classic cookies – a snickerdoodle and a peanut butter cookie.

Anna Ginsberg, a stay-at-home mom who you might know from her blog, Cookie Madness, earned the $1 million prize for her Baked Chicken and Spinach Stuffing in the 42nd Pillsbury Bake-Off Contest. At the 2004 competition, the 41st Contest, former librarian wrote her own page in history by capturing the top prize with her Oats ‘n Honey Granola Pie recipe. Inspired by pecan pie, Conrad adapted a family-favorite pie and caught the judges’ attention with its wonderful flavor and simple preparation.
All it takes is one easy and delicious recipe idea, so it’s time to get creative in the kitchen for a chance at a million! One hundred finalists will win a trip to the finals, April 11 – 13, 2010, at the Waldorf-Astoria Orlando and Hilton Orlando Bonnet Creek hotel in Florida. Pillsbury is looking for original recipes that taste and look delicious, are easy to prepare and that families across America will love to eat. There are four recipe categories – Breakfast & Brunches, Entertaining Appetizers, Dinner Made Easy and Sweet Treats. Yum!

Entries are being accepted online between now and April 20th, 2009, at http://www.bakeoff.com/. You’ll also find contest details, including eligible products, prizes and the official rules, at the web site.

Earth Hour 2009, Saturday, March 28th at 8:30PM

March 27, 2009

Celebrate Spring…and WIN!!! {Giveaway}

March 26, 2009
There’s nothing like a shameless plug. But…the best part about this is that it includes a giveaway! And who doesn’t like a giveaway, right?!

Well…it’s officially Spring! It’s a time of renewal and rejuvenation. And I can’t think of a better way to celebrate that than with a giveaway!

So here’s what’s up for grabs…It’s a 5 piece hair clip set called “Garden Party” from Lil Boo & Co. valued at $15.00!
Lil Boo & Co. is owned by a Chester County Mom

Click HERE for your chance to enter and win!!!

Sun & Earth Giveaway Winners!

March 26, 2009

Congratulations to Erika and ahillestad, the winners of our Sun & Earth goodie bag giveaway! We hope you enjoy using all of the fantastic Sun & Earth cleaning products that are coming your way!

Mark your calendars for our Earth Day week of green giveaways! You won’t want to miss it!

And the winner is…

March 26, 2009

Local middle school students participated in Chester County’s 2009 Youth Essay Competition and we are happy to announce that, YingYing Shang, a student at Fugett Middle School is the winner of Chester County’s 2009 Youth Essay Competition. YingYing presented her essay, “Jeanne’s Cigarette”, on 3/5/09 at the Chester County Book & Music Company, along with 15 fellow finalists in support of National Kick Butts Day.

Congratulations, YingYing, on winning the essay competition and to all of the other kids that participated… you all Kick Butts!!!!

1st place: YingYing Shang, Fugett Middle School, “Jeanne’s Cigarette”
2nd place (TIE): Hope Corry, Great Valley Middle School, “In Memory Of Mom” AND Devonne Moore, Phoenixville Area Middle School, “A Smokey Story”
3rd place: Emory Saia, Great Valley Middle School, “Guardian Angel”
4th place: Jack Halliday, Great Valley Middle School, “The Day My Life Changed”
5th place: Meaghan Young, Lionville Middle School, “Big Tobacco Shouldn’t Be Big”

Caitlyn Burruss, Great Valley Middle School
Danielle Autieri, Saint Joseph School
Ellie Delany, Phoenixville Area Middle School
Hannah Weisman, Charles F. Patton Middle School
Justin Herget, Great Valley Middle School
Kenneth Ramondo, Great Valley Middle School
Olivia Warrington, Fred S. Engle Middle School
Paige Rodgers, Great Valley Middle School
Peggy Findeison, Saint Joseph School
Will Miller, Phoenixville Area Middle School