Lighter on the Salt, Heavy on the Taste
I am always looking for healthier alternatives to my favorite snacks and Lays Original potato chips are by far my favorite chips. They contain 180 mg of sodium (the same as white bread) and with my and my husband’s current high blood pressure issues, I have to avoid them. So, when I was contacted by a representative from the Zócalo Group with an offer to try a sample of the Lays Pinch of Salt Potato Chips, I jumped at the chance to do so- and I was not disappointed.
The chips arrived in a very large box considering the size of the bag (a regular large bag of chips), which made me chuckle. But a big box was needed to contain the flavor of these chips. They were amazing. My husband, who NEVER wants plain chips, enjoyed them as well. And while sodium is still off limits to us, it’s good to know that we can indulge every now and then with a better choice.
I do want to share some nutritional information that Jen, the Zócalo Group representive who sent me the free samples, forwarded to me. I cross-checked this information with the USDA and it is accurate.
SODIUM COMPARISONS OF FRITO-LAY PRODUCTS AND COMMONLY CONSUMED FOODS AND SNACKS
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LEADING FRITO-LAY PRODUCTS |
AVERAGE SERVING OF COMMON FOODS* |
AVERAGE SERVING OF COMMON SNACKS* |
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Pinch of Salt Lay’s, Fritos, Tostitos and Ruffles chips (75mg/oz) |
Glass of 2% Milk (100 mg/cup) |
Baby Carrots (66 mg/85 grams= about ½ cup) |
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Tostitos Restaurant Style Tortilla Chips (120mg/oz) |
Fruit yogurt (140 mg/cup) |
Trail mix (170mg/ ½ cup) |
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SunChips Multigrain Snacks Original (120 mg/oz) |
Whole wheat English muffin (155mg/half) |
Microwave popcorn (120mg/3 cups) |
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Ruffles Potato Chips (160 mg/oz) |
White bread (170 mg/slice) |
Graham crackers (190mg/2 sheets) |
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Fritos Corn Chips (160 mg/oz) |
Angel food cake (210mg/piece)… Continue reading |
Product Review: Smilebox Helps You Make Beautiful Memories
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| Make a Smilebox photobook |
I love the idea of scrapbooking and now with digital scrapping I actually love doing making scrapbooks. Smilebox is a free (with limited options) program that allows you to make scrapbooks, slideshows, and greeting cards right on your own computer. You can then chose to share your creations with friends and family, or if you purchase a Premium membership ($39/99/year) you can print your artwork.
I tried Smilebox because I was looking for a way to make a nice slideshow of my daughter’s first two years.. I took monthly pictures of her and wanted friends and family to see how much she has grown. The program is now compatible with Macs and iPhoto, so that was a huge plus.
Here are some of the most important things I noticed:
- There are many designs to choose from. You can find something to satisfy any occasion and you don’t even need to use PhotoShop to do so. However, you have to become a Premium member to take advantage of the designs.
- There is a pretty extensive music library with kid friendly songs. Again, you must become a premium member to gain full access.
- The layouts are predesigned and makes it very easy for you to drop pictures into the templates. Unfortunately each design has photo limits and those are different for each design.
- The iPhoto integration sis minimal at best. While you can drag and drop photos into the photo sidebar, you cannot see any dates or information about individual pictures. You have to make an album in iPhoto and arrange the pictures by date if that is important. Unfortunately, you have to keep programs running and they use a lot of resources so this slows down the response time on a computer.
- You can add titles and… Continue reading
Product Review: Slow Cook Your Way to More Time
My husband and I eat fast food way more than I usually like to admit (which pretty much explains why we are so overweight). But despite our busy schedules, we have made a promise to cook more for ourselves in order to save money and how health. My sister-in-law has long been a fan of her crock pot, so when she found out that we did not have one, she bough us a Crock-Pot® 5.5 Quart Slow Cooker w/ Little Dipper for Christmas this past December.
And we love it.
We use it for stews chili, gravy (what non-Italians call sauce), roast beef, pot roast, and so much more. And, because my husband works the second-shift, he puts meals on in the morning and by the time I get home around 4:00 pm, dinner is ready for both me and my daughter. I love walking into the house and smelling the great fragrance of a one pot meal.
Product Review: Verizon Has Got To Get It Together- NOW!
We signed up for Verizon FiOS in November of 2007. We are still trying to get it right. Everything started out so well- we signed up and they sent a tech out on a Sunday to hook us up. He was there about 4 hours and when he left we had a better phone service and a faster internet connection. And the cable, well let’s just say that I now know what the Backyardigins actually look like. We were told that our free HDTV Television would be in our possession in 6 weeks. I thought all was well.
But then the trouble began.
Around December 15, 2007 I noticed that we were getting an obscene number of calls, all around 2-5 in the morning. They were for a “Nya Perez”. During the day we were getting even more calls for “Seven Brothers Video Store”. Now the calls for Ms. Perez did not bother me much because with the recycling of numbers, someone is bound to be receiving calls from Columbia House for Kristina Brooke. But the calls for the video store seemed weird because they had been out of business for a good 2 years. a Quick search using Verizon’s website Yellow Pages showed me that my phone number was registered to this video store even in the updated 2008 list of numbers.
Continue reading