Bottle Tops Review

February 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Click Here To Visit the Bottle Tops Site for your Free Bonus gifts

So I have seen these things in store for a very long time. Since I got my SodaStream soda maker just over a year ago, I really didn’t think that this would be a product I would need. But alas I was wrong. Sure I make my own soda at home, but I sometimes forget that during social gatherings, BBQ’s, and even a quick stop at a convenience store while on the road, or even camping these would be a huge help.

My package came with 12 Bottle Tops, in a wide variety of colors. So the first thing I’m going to say is how great it is because I no longer get my soda confused with someone else’s. So that’s a huge plus.

Then I’m going to point out that at just about any outdoor setting you are going to have insects or bugs. From bees to ants they always want to climb in open cans to the sticky sweet deliciousness of my beverage. With Bottle Tops, I don’t even have to worry that if I turn my back I might unsuspectingly drink any 6 legged creatures. Yuck. That gives me the heebie jeebies just thinking about it. Luckily this has never happened to me that I can recall, but I have known a few people who have experienced such a horrible thing. You can’t imagine how glad I was when I bought these just in time for camping this past summer. I only wish these had been invented back when I was a kid when we went camping every summer. I ALWAYS remember finding bees in my soda can, and I always remember inspecting my cans often.

This past summer my husband and I were fortunate enough to be able to purchase a more gas efficient vehicle, and since doing so, we spent nearly every weekend in August/September taking rather lengthy road trips. For those long drives we were always sure to stop as a gas station or grocery store to load up on sodas and energy drinks which as we all know, don’t travel well and often spill. So again Bottle Tops solved yet another problem for us. Not to mention that since they have such a great seal, if I happened to take a short nap while on the road my drink was still carbonated as ever when I resumed drinking it. There is nothing I hate more than soda that has gone flat. YUCK

Anyways, I’m going to jump right to the bottom line, this is an ingenious product and I LOVE it. We love them so much I almost always keep some in my purse or car just in case.

Two quick things I want to be sure to mention, is that you don't want to accidentally put the Bottle Top on your beverage can before opening, because they are incredibly difficult to remove at that point. And In case you dont read the instructions for some reason, I just wanted to mention, that they can be somewhat difficult to remove since they fit so snugly, that when you are finished there is a little trick to removing them. You want to be sure you squeeze the can as you pop off the top. After watching the infomercial, its almost not even noticeable that the actress does this, but because i was looking for it, i could tell.
 

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sliceOmatic Review and Demo

January 16, 2012 by 2 Comments


About a year ago my husband and I had seen on tv an ad for a really nice mandolin, and I was very close to buying it. Sadly, we did not end up getting it, and still wanted one up until recently. Last month at my annual family Christmas party, I was preparing a salad and to save time I borrowed my aunt’s mandolin (it actually happened to be the same one we saw on QVC the year before). So I was slicing up my fennel julienne style on her mandolin when near the end it got stuck. Me, being super afraid of cutting myself stood there trying to figure out how to free the piece of fennel without injury. Not a second later, a relative (who shall remain nameless. LOL) peeked over my shoulder to say “Don’t cut yourself!”, then as I explained my dilemma they took it upon themselves to assist in removing the fennel. So what did they do? With the blades exposed, they used their FINGERS, yes I said FINGERS to try to free the stuck fennel! I’m sure you can easily guess what had happened?….. Yup, they got 3-4 gashes in their finger and started gushing blood. So right there, the exposed blades triggered the fear factor in me, suddenly resulting in my complete disinterest in buying the mandolin. Oh, and after my one time use, I realized the mandolin wasn’t as easy to use as they had made it look. It actually took more force than I had expected to slice and dice.

Another quick story I would like to share is that just two weeks ago my husband cut a sizable chunk of skin off his thumb while slicing onions, with blood gushing everywhere, it was so bad it has taken nearly 2 weeks to heal. Funny thing is I got this product review request from one of my readers just days after this happened. I can’t help but think that if we had already owned the slice-o-matic, that probably wouldn’t have happened. Anyways, I can’t even say how glad I am that I got this request because now I never have to worry that this will happen again.

Another thing I want to mention is that I hadn’t even seen the infomercial for it until I got the request. After watching it I definitely saw a need for it in our home. And after a quick reflection on recent events, I decided this was a product I needed to purchase asap.

One confession that I’m going to admit is that I’m terrified of injuring myself in the kitchen. I’m sure that’s nothing surprising and I’m sure that I’m not alone in my fear, but I can’t but help to cringe and look away anytime I even see someone else using a paring knife, or cutting anything with the blade facing their hand or any other body part.

Because of my fear, I have always paid extra special attention and care while preparing any sort of food.

Anyways, so here’s where I get to the good stuff. Now, I’m going to tell you about my first time use of the sliceOmatic.

On this mid January snowy Sunday I have decided to cook up some stew for dinner and to aid me in this I decided to use my sliceOmatic.

The first thing I tried to slice was celery which was super easy to do, so easy I could do several pieces of them at once, then I sliced up some carrots, which was a little harder as it is more dense of a vegetable, so I sliced those one at a time. Next I sliced up my onions and for fun I sliced up some zucchini. This was so ridiculously easy to use, I’m pleased to say that I love my new sliceOmatic! It took just a few minutes to prep all of my ingredients for my stew. I was so thrilled with my results, I definitely had to try cutting my zucchini julienne. Holy cow! My results were equally as amazing as before.

Another quick confession is that I’m a person who doesn’t care to cook since it takes so much time and often results in an intense back pain. No back pain today folks! I will gladly help my husband prepare dinner anytime, as long as I can use my new sliceOmatic.

A few other things I want to mention about this product is that you have to use the chute, don’t use the product without it. It’s also really simple to assemble with locking mechanisms in place to secure the blade and to also secure catch tray. It is also super easy to insert the julienne blade. (You can see me show you how to do this in my demo video).

I like this product so much, the only thing bad I can find about it is that it isn’t dishwasher safe. But with a quick soapy water rinse/soaking , that is in no way an inconvenience.

Filed Under: Food ·

Eggies Review and Video Demo

January 2, 2012 by 1 Comment

This is another one of those concept products I just had to try for myself. It seemed simple enough. I do hate the hassle of cooking hard boiled eggs the traditional way and the way some shells peel away the egg and how hard on my hands peeling the shells can be. So I put Eggies to the test and I have to say I’m slightly disappointed in my results.

I followed the directions exactly as I was supposed to. First, I had to clean all the parts before use. I guess they are dishwasher safe, but since I didn’t want to wait nearly 1 ½ hours for the dishwasher, I decided to hand wash them since it would be faster. Then there was the somewhat tedious paper towel application of the nonstick cooking spray. Next, it was time to assemble my Eggies….

I had a little difficulty getting a good grip on my Eggies because they are so small for my rather large hands. I thought I had secured them as tightly as possible, with one of my Eggies, it seemed to leak the whites. So this was possibly my fault, I’m not 100% certain.

So once I had them mostly assembled, I cracked my eggs and put them into my Eggies. This is when I noticed that one of them didn’t seem securely fastened and that I had some leakage. Next I had to secure the lid. It seemed to me that I might have had an easier time securing the lid if perhaps there were some guide arrows which when lined up would speed up the process.

I loved that I could season my eggs prior to cooking, seems to me they would be more flavorful when they were all ready to eat.

So I cooked my eggs in a pot on the stove for approx 15-17 minutes, removed them from the water and let them cool for about 5 minutes. I thought that since I had used a nonstick spray that my eggs should just glide right out of their Eggie, but alas, that was not the case. I removed the top, and shook and shook and shook. Only one out of six eggs came out of the Eggie by shaking. The other five had to be aided out with a spoon. Using the spoon didn’t damage them, so I suppose that is good.

Once I got all my eggs out and onto my plate, I was pretty disappointed in the shape of my hard boiled egg. They were not oval…. They were oval-esque and completely flat on one side. I love hard boiled eggs and more than that I love to make deviled eggs. So to see half my egg as being flat, this is a problem…. A big problem. When I make my deviled eggs, as I’m sure you do the same, you slice them down the side long ways making for two perfect “egg boats” as we used to call them when I was a kid. Because of the shape, one egg, makes ONE EGG, not two. Deviled eggs are a huge family favorite. If each egg only makes one deviled egg, its going to take a lot more eggs to feed my family and in turn it will cost a lot more.

Perhaps if the Eggies were made just a little bit smaller, I think it might have made for better results in the shape department.

Another thing I noticed was the texture of my hard boiled egg. The outside wasn’t all smooth but more of a soft and spongy bumpy feeling. Texture in my food is just one of those things I cant always get past and this is one of those times I just cant do it. I need my hard boiled eggs to be smooth.

I did decide to preseason my eggs, and sadly it didn’t prove to make as much of a difference as I had hoped.

Pros:

You don’t have to peel any egg shells

You can season eggs before cooking

 

Cons:

Possibly leak

More dishes to wash

Longer preparation time

Each Eggie is made of four pieces, which is more pieces in which could get lost

Eggs do not come out in traditional perfect oval shape If making deviled eggs, you can only make one deviled egg per hard boiled egg ( so it makes less and you will need twice as many eggs)

Texture of the egg is less than favorable in my opinion

Filed Under: Cooking, Food · Tagged With: ,

The Gyro Bowl Review

January 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Ok, so the first thing I have to admit is that I never even saw the infomercial to the Gyro Bowl until just right now. And that’s after owning it for nearly four months. I heard about it from a friend who had actually asked me about it and I stumbled upon it the same happy day I found my Ahh Bra at Walmart in the “As Seen on TV” section.

 Anyways, my daughter was about a year and a half old when I bought it, and she’s 3 weeks shy of turning 2. In the time I have tried to get her to use the bowl, it hasn’t seemed to be as much of a success as I had hoped.

 It is true that it does stay right side up, however with our very active girl, I still have spills. I’m more than certain she is dropping it which is causing the spills, so it isn’t 100% mess free. And I have no idea what my daughter does to the Gyro Bowl, but when I am picking up the house, and I find it, almost every time she has managed to almost take it apart. The initial “bowl” part has two holes on the sides in which the “gyro” part fits in those holes. Somehow, the little peg like things that fit into the holes are always coming out. It isn’t always easy to fix either. I might point out that the packaging does say for ages 2 and up, so possibly this product didn’t work for us as much as I had hoped, (which is part of the reason I held off on writing the review for so long) but I figured by now, she is close enough to age two I would be able to have more accurate test results.

 I did find it slightly amusing at how easily they demonstrated putting the Gyro Bowl into the dishwasher, because from my first hand experience it isn’t as easy as it looks. For one thing, its meant to always stay right side up…… and if the water sprays upwards from the bottom of the dishwasher, it isn’t going to get very clean since it isn’t really getting sprayed. Not to mention, I’m sure we all know and hate it when a plastic cup or bowl or whatever gets tossed in the dishwasher and when the load is done washing its full of water and all the icky gritty food residue. So, bottom line, if you don’t make absolutely sure that you get the bowl part faced down in the wash, it will not get clean in the wash.

 Another quick thing I want to mention is that the lid that comes with it doesn’t exactly provide a nice and tight secure fit. It’s a softer type of plastic that when exposed to heat makes it quite flexible and even more so loose fitting.

Filed Under: Food · Tagged With: ,

FoodSaver Review & Personal Results

June 14, 2011 by 1 Comment

This is another one of our top, most frequently used kitchen tools/appliances. I actually remember my dad owning one many years ago, and until now, I never really realized what an awesome thing this is. Growing up in a family of 6, buying in bulk was always what had to be done. Stocking up and freezing most of the food, was also something that needed to be done.

Now that I have my own family to feed and care for, we try to be as thrifty as possible. We can not afford to be wasteful, letting any food go to waste. I hated throwing out expensive meats which had gotten freezer burnt, and almost entirely full boxes of cereal or bags of chips which gone stale, most often only having had about a serving or two eaten from them.

We probably threw out at least $30 a month in food.  Food which could have easily been kept fresh. Lucky for us, we were able to receive the FoodSaver as a generous gift from my aunt after our wedding 2 years ago. Now, we use our FoodSaver every single week after our shopping trips, and we also use it every opportunity in between. Every time I pour a bowl of cereal, I use my FoodSaver and re seal the cereal bag. Every time I snack on some chips, I use my FoodSaver and re seal the bag. It doesn’t matter if a week or even a month goes by; those chips and cereal remain fresh until they are gone. I can reseal cookies, frozen veggies, and just about any plastic bag. I love how long my meats stay fresh, and because I’m able to stock up and seal everything, I always have a good variety to choose from each night, none of which I ever have to worry are freezer burnt.

If you are a person on the go, and you feel like you have no time or want to even cook on certain nights, the FoodSaver is great for precooking your meals and freezing them right on the plate. The bags are microwave safe, boil safe, freezer safe, refrigerator safe, washable and re-usable. Now how awesome is that?!

The uses to the FoodSaver are pretty much endless. And you don’t even have to use them on food. You can seal collectibles, you can preserve silverware from tarnishing in between uses, preserve documents, you can also seal your lotions, shampoos, and conditioners when traveling. Don’t you just hate it when they everything explodes in your suitcase?! That exact thing happened to me last January when I took a trip to Cali and my Clinique eye make up remover leaked EVERYWHERE. What a pain!

One of the problems I do have with my FoodSaver, on occasion some of the bags don’t always seal completely, or they get a hole, I’m not really sure which, but maybe once a month I go did through our chest freezer and find one meat that puffed back up and it will have freezer burn. Nothing is perfect, I’ll admit that, but those are still some really great odds. Otherwise, everything is still all nice and vacuum packed. Sometimes I wonder if we had possibly newer model that was a little more expensive how different our results would be. Perhaps we might upgrade in the near future, so stay tuned.

Filed Under: Food · Tagged With: ,