MomCentral Review: Froose

Froose is a new juice beverage that combines organic fruit with whole grains in an attempt to provide a healthier drink for our kids. When MomCentral asked me to be a part of their Froose blog tour, I couldn't wait to see what the kids thought of it. My hope was that all three kids would like the samples and I would finally have something they all liked.
After trying each flavor though, we ended up with mixed reviews. Out of the three flavors available (Cheerful Cherry, Playful Peach, and Perfect Pear), the only thing I did get the kids to agree on was that Cheerful Cherry was the unanimous favorite. Here is what they said...

~My almost 17 year old said the Froose in general was "okay" but that it had a bad aftertaste. Unfortunately, after only one sip of the Playful Peach he wouldn't touch another box of the stuff so I'm pretty sure that means he wasn't too keen on it.

~My 13 year old said the exact same thing about the bad aftertaste but said she would drink the Cheerful Cherry again if I were to buy it. No chance of getting her to drink the other flavors though.

~The last to weigh in was my 5 year old and it was his opinion that I was most interested in. By the time he shared his thoughts, I had realized that Froose was not going to be something I could get all three kids to drink but that's alright. The 5 year old decided his favorite flavor was also Cheerful Cherry but he liked Perfect Pear as well. I asked him about the aftertaste and he said it tasted good to him.

I'm afraid Playful Peach didn't make the cut for any of them though. I eventually had to pawn that flavor off on the little boy across the street. Hey, I refuse to throw away perfectly drinkable juice boxes. *smile* I like knowing that Froose uses whole organic brown rice because it's gluten-free. While my family doesn't have problems with gluten intolerance, I have friends with children who do and know how hard it can make buying things.

To be honest, at this point I almost don't care how Froose tastes because they cover everything that is so important to us as parents when we are looking for portable juice drinks for our kids. Even the box (packaging) is cute and environmentally friendly as well! I also like how Froose explains their reasoning for the 4fl. oz size of their drinks. I quote, "Why 4 fl. oz.? We chose the 4.23 fl. oz., instead of a larger 6.75 or 8 fl. oz., size to help support the healthy growth and development of young children. The larger sizes are just too big – kids will either fill up on too much juice or it will be thrown out". That makes alot of sense and its nice that Froose is thinking about things to that degree.

All in all I would say that if you're just starting a child out on juice, have a younger child, or you usually have organic juices around then your kids will probably like Froose just fine. My kids are use to sugar-free non-organic juice though and noticed the taste of the brown rice water and syrup right off. I'm sorry to say I did too and it kept me from trying more than just a sip or two. I do wish Froose existed when my kids were little though because I have no doubt they would love having it now. Live and learn I guess.

Despite my picky kids, I give Froose the thumbs up and hope to see it become very popular.

Let Them Eat Cake!!!...With Veggies!

Anyone who knows me knows that I’m not big on the whole cooking thing. I usually cook for one reason alone...because I have to. I’m the mom and it’s part of the job description but that doesn’t mean I have to like it!

Currently I have around ten cookbooks sitting all neat and new on my kitchen counter collecting dust as we speak. They were either bought for me or by me in hopes of sparking that "Betty Crocker" instinct in me. Nope, never happened but I’m still always willing to give it a try.

So when Mother Talk said they were doing a Blog Tour for the cookbook, Deceptively Delicious by Jessica Seinfeld and that it's premise is helping you sneak veggies into your family’s food by using purees, I had to see if maybe this was finally the cookbook to get me cooking.

Did it work? Well, it got my five year old to look through the book and actually ask me to make him many of the recipes just because the pictures looked “yummy”.

After I informed him that you put butternut squash, cauliflower, and even carrots in some of the recipes he believe it or not still wanted me to make them! When I told my two teenagers about the recipes they informed me that as long as it didn’t taste or look funny they didn’t care. So with all that in mind I decided it was time for me to try to do some “deliciously deceptive” cooking!

The first recipe we tried were the Rice Balls at my 5 year old’s request. I decided to go with the butternut squash puree since I had just bought a really huge one to try cooking for the first time. I'll be honest and say that much to our surprise, the rice balls tasted really good. My only complaint was that they were a little dry but none of the kids seemed to notice and all three of them ate the whole batch!

Encouraged such a great response to the Rice Balls, I decided to try a Breakfast recipe next. This time I chose the recipe myself and went for the Banana Bread mainly because I have my own personal recipe that I really love and I wanted to see what the difference would be like. The recipe itself was very easy to make and only included a cauliflower puree. The end result was a very nice and moist bread and you could so totally NOT taste the cauliflower in it!! My 16 year old absolutely abhorrs cauliflower and he still ate two more pieces after I told him what was in it!

So I have finally found a cookbook that I can say I will definitely be using more than once and happily too. Every parent wants a child who will eat all their fruits and vegetables. The reality is that most of us are lucky if we can get our kids to eat even one vegetable and a few fruits. With Deceptively Delicious you can make both parents and the kids happy by giving them yummy foods they’ll enjoy and the nutrients we parents know they need.

Make sure you enter the Deceptively Delicious Sweepstakes at Harper Collins for a chance to win your own copy of the cookbook by Jessica Seinfeld. Cool right?! If you know someone with a picky eater then this might be a great Christmas present for them this year. Just think, a present that everyone thanks you for! Talk about a gift giving first!

Now fess up, have you ever tricked your kids into eating something because you knew it was for their own good? If so, what?

Review: Kate's Caring Gifts

This yummy review is thanks to Kate from Kate’s Caring Gifts. Last month she sent us one of the Make Your Own Chocolate kits regularly sold on her website to try out and give our opinion on. Since my daughter's birthday was coming up in a few weeks, I asked Kate if she minded me saving the kit until this month giving me a chance to have several girls do it together. She was very gracious and said "yes".

I will say now that I give the Make Your Own Chocolate kit a very big thumbs up on many different levels. As a homeschooler, I can use this kit to help teach not only a very yummy Science experiment but also culture, history, and the impact of what we buy and where we buy it from has on people’s lives. The instructions and stories that are included with the kit are so thorough that you could easily use this one single kit to form an entire unit study around South American studies and life.

This kit also makes a great consumable gift and party idea. If I were to recommend ages, I would say 11 and over for party use and any age as a family project.

We used the kit when my daughter's friend spent the night to celebrate her 13th birthday. It was easy for the girls to understand, follow, and succeed at with very little parental help at all. I think the only thing I had to do was help them decide when to put in the chocolate crystals and then I just made sure the goofballs didn’t mess up my kitchen too much! Everything else was easily handled by the girls and the results were fantastic.

What the girls ended up with were about 12 rich chocolatey little cups. You know the kind you can only eat a few of at a time? Oh yeah, THOSE ones. Let’s just say my first thought was “PMS’ing woman’s dream come true”. Yummmmy!

The Make Your Own Chocolate kit includes organic cocoa butter, chocolate starter crystals, confectioner’s sugar, paper candy liners, a thermometer indicator, the story of chocolate, and of course instructions. On the back of the instructions are several little cocoa facts and a story about a girl named "Lucia" and her family.

As a fun bonus, the company also includes two actual cocoa beans to try so you can experience what cocoa tastes like in pure form. Most children have never even seen an actual cocoa bean much less tasted one. I thought this was an excellent addition to include in the kit.

Kate’s motto is “People and Earth Friendly Gifts” but what she should also include is that many of the products she sells are educational as well. Besides the Make Your Own Chocolate Kit she also sells a Make Your Own Chewing Gum Kit, Make Your Own Gummy Kit, Adventure kits from ImagiPlay (wooden and hand painted), and much more. Plus, most products are organic so you can feel comfortable knowing what you are actually consuming when you eat, drink, or use these products.

To me, Kate’s Caring Gifts is a kind of one stop shop for the environmentally, economically, and socially aware shopper who is looking for chemical free and consumable gifts or products. With all the recent toy recalls it’s nice to know there is a site like this where you can find lead free and natural gifts for children and grown ups alike.

Thank you to Kate for allowing us to try out and review this kit. It was a lot of fun for the girls and something I will definitely be recommending to other parents who want to give something consumable for the holidays this year. Including myself!