Who wants cake??? How about FREE cake??? (Giveaway!)

So... I had a complete brain burst yesterday!  I posted about my Cream Cheese Cherry Cake yesterday.  Did you see it?  If not... click here to view!



This cake was very easy to make, but it was delicious!  Light and fluffy cake with sweet cream cheese filling and decadent cherry topping.  (Don't tell... but I may even eat cake for lunch today!)

So what was my brain burst?  I completely forgot that I was doing a giveaway so that you could make a delicious cake of your own!!! 

I have 4 coupons for free Duncan Hines products.  I am giving away two sets of two coupons.  Why two coupons in a set?  You can use the coupons for cake mix, icing, or the new Glazes that DH has on the grocery shelves now!  So you can have cake AND icing!  (Which... let's face it... is the best part anyway, right?) 

So... you could be the lucky winner of two coupons to make a cake this holiday season!

How can you win?  You can enter up to three times.

1.  For one entry, leave a comment on this post telling me what kind of cake you'd make!
2.  For a second entry, share this giveaway post on Facebook.  (Leave a separate comment telling me that you did this.)
3.  For a third entry, you can tweet about this giveaway on Twitter!  Just share the link with your Twitter followers.  (Leave a separate comment telling me you did this.)

So there you go!  Three chances to win free cake and icing!  I'll randomly draw two winners on Friday afternoon.  Check back to see if you are the winner!

(Thanks to Foodbuzz and Duncan Hines for the coupons!  I received these coupons as a part of the Foodbuzz Tastemaker Program.)

GU Chomps and Giveaway Winner!!!

Happy Friday Eve, friends!!!  I am ready for the weekend!  A few weeks ago, my friend Diana wrote about “waiting for Friday.”  I try not to do this, because I hate to wish away time.  But sometimes I catch myself waiting for Friday.  It’s always nice to have time to refresh and recharge.  We have a very busy weekend coming up with lots of fun activities, but I am looking forward to it!  You’ll have to check back and see what I am up to!

After work today, I came home, “suited up” for Zumba.  

I forgot to mention my super-cute new Zumba pants!  I am loving them!

While I was making my playlist, hubby and Sadie snuggled up watching cartoons.  He’s teaching her about all the Marvel Comics superheroes.  A few times, she would call out, “Look!  There’s the Green Lantern!”  I thought Hubby was going to tear up, he was so proud.  He’s a huge comics fan.

Then it was time to make my Zumba playlist.

I want to tell you about a product I have tried the past 2 days.  Sometimes I need something to give me a boost just before I go teach Zumba.  When I have run 5K races in the past, I have used GU Energy gels, which sort of “fuel you up” before you get into the race.  I really like the GU brand, and I have been wondering if these would work well for Zumba, too.  Well, the hubs and I were in a sporting goods store the other day, and they had the gels!  I was about to pick out a few flavors, but then I saw these “Energy Chomps” made by the same brand.  I decided to try them.  Each pack has 2 servings or 4 chomps, which are really like a gummy candy. 

I really think these are helpful!  I used them two nights in a row and I didn’t hit a “wall” either night.  You can get them with or without caffeine.  Mine had caffeine, but I bought another pack without the caffeine.  I’ll try them out on Saturday and see how I like them!

After Zumba, as usual, I was starving, and on the way home, I remembered that I had a $5 gift card to Subway!  YESSSSSSS!

The perfect amount to get a $5 Footlong… I went with Black Forest Ham on wheat with lettuce, tomato, black olives, pickles, and banana peppers.  It ended up costing me only $0.45!  Yay for free Subway!

So now… it’s time to announce the winner of the big giveaway!   Thanks to all of you who entered!!!  I am so excited to announce that the winner is…

 

…pause for dramatic effect…

 

 

… Mandy Harmon!!!  You have won a $25 gift certificate to CSN!  I will email you directions so you can go shopping!  :)  Thanks again to all who entered and thanks to CSN for the giveaway opportunity!!!  Be sure to check them out! 

Special Announcement! GIVEAWAY!

Great news, everyone!


I was recently contacted again by Sean of CSN Stores.  He said that they got great exposure from my site and that he'd like for me to do a giveaway!  Yay! 


CSN has a HUGE variety of items to select from, many of which ship for free!  (I absolutely hate paying shipping!  Don't you???)  I really like their flat panel TV stands and all their media storage solutions.  We are looking at finally upgrading to a flat TV and I am definitely interested in CSN's storage solutions.  With a DVD Player, cable box, wii, and more... you really need an organized way to store all of that!


So... on to the giveaway! 


Sean is going to give one lucky reader a $25 Gift Certificate to use at ANY CSN Store!!!  This is awesome! 


Do you remember my fabulous bowls I got from CSN a few months ago?




They have great items!!! 


You must do two things to be eligible for the drawing:


1.  You must be a public follower of this blog.  (You can join by clicking where it says "Follow" on the right side of the screen.)  You have to be a public follower or else I can't see you.


2.  You must fill out the form below.  For this giveaway, don't leave a comment... just make sure you fill out the form.

3.  You must live in the US or Canada... sorry... that is where CSN ships.

GOOD LUCK!!!  The winner will be drawn on Thursday night at 9 p.m. (EST)

Giveaway Winner!

Several of you entered my drawing for the POM Wonderful bag.

and the winner is...

LYNN!!!

Thanks to everyone who entered by commenting!  I wish I had more bags to give everyone one!

Here's a look at what you're getting, Lynn:

For those of you who don't know Lynn, she's one of the most inspiring people EVER.  And she is a fellow blogger, too!  Check her out at her blog, Hill Warning.

Lynn, get ready to try pomegranates for the first time! :)

Ok, now I am headed to dinner at The Concord Cove in Lake Wylie for our anniversary dinner...

Happy Friday!  Hello weekend!!!

We Interrupt these Recaps for a Little Tutorial AND a Giveaway!

I've been busy recapping my POM Wonderful Dinner Party from this weekend!  If you'd like to take a look at my other POM-Related posts, please click on the links below!


Recap # 1: Preparations and Decorations
Recap # 2: Drinks and Appetizers
Recap #3: The Main Course


There is still more to come, such as...

• a very easy yet delicious dessert made by Ryan
• what we did with the leftovers!

But I wanted to take a moment to share some information with you.  The first time I bought a pomegranate, I didn't know HOW to eat it!  I cut it in half and then went, "Now what???"  I couldn't figure how to get into it to get all those little seeds (which are actually called arils) out!  Plus, I had always been told that you had to spit the seeds out.  So get a mental picture of this... I am standing over the sink, spitting these seeds out and my hands and shirt are completely stained with pomegranate juice.  I thought, "This is for the birds!"


So after that, I started looking into this.  Turns out, YES!  You can totally eat the arils/seeds!  They are good for you and can really aid in digestion!  As you've seen, they are great in salsa, as a garnish, on top of cereal, on yogurt... LOTS of possibilities for these little guys. 


But in order to eat them or use them, you've got to be able to get INTO them!  So I did a little cutting demo at my dinner party and now I am going to share the video with all of you here, so that you'll all know how to open a pomegranate, too!

Enjoy!


Now, POM Wonderful gave me gift bags for all of my dinner party guests.  I happen to have ONE left!!!  The gift bag is awesme.  It has 2 Pomegranates in it, a Wonderful Inside bracelet, a brochure with "How to Open a Pomegranate" in it, a set of recipes for using pomegranates, AND... a coupon for a FREE bottle of POM 100% Pomegranate Juice!

To be eligible for this drawing, you must leave a comment on this page related to pomegranates.  If you've never seen one, be honest!  If you have a favorite way you like to eat them, tell me that, too!

I'll draw on Friday afternoon!  So get your comments in before then!