Upcoming Guest Post

Over the past year and a half I have shared a few posts with you about bullying. This has been something that has affected our family when our son started Jr Kindergarten. If you didn't have the chance to read the posts please check them out - Wear Pink and take a stance on Bullying and Bullying is even a problem in Jr Kindergarten.

I more recently shared this video on Canadian Coupon Mom's Facebook page:

This week we will take a look at a children's book that teaches kids about bullying and later today I have a great guest post written by Alex Vander Vlugt from Speak Out. Thank you Alex for the wonderful post. We all can help even if it is making people aware of what bullying is and where people get find help.

I am very amazed when I talk to people and some don't realize certain things are in fact bullying. Bullying happens at any age and it isn't just children or teens getting bullied. It can and does happen in the work place. We as adults need to remember to think before we speak and also think about our actions towards others be it friends, co-workers, family or even strangers. The internet is a great place to meet people and learn but it is a place where a lot of people do not think before leaving comments that may be hurtful and we need to be aware of our actions.

Please take a stand and help stop bullying.

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Agloves Sport Gloves Review & Giveaway

Living in Canada means cold winters and usually lots of snow. This winter hasn't been that bad for snow or cold but we have gotten hit some pretty cold days out there. I am always cold but don't like to warm heavy mitts or gloves and I find it very hard to answer my iPhone or text when outside. I have found a great solution to this with Agloves Sport gloves that are made especially for touchscreen phones, camera's, tablets or anything that is touchscreen.

I go everywhere with my iPhone and I have been known to freeze my fingers while answering my phone or sending of a quick reply to a text or tweet. I was very excited to try out Agloves Sport gloves. These gloves are made with real silver yarn (15%) along with 68% Acrylic, 12% spandex and 5% rubber thread. They are very soft and stretchy. I love how snug they fit which keeps out the wind and they are very cozy with warmth and softness.

Agloves were designed by a mother-daughter team (Jennifer and Jean Spencer) in the winter of 2010 when they were tried of being cold or having to use their nose to answer the phone.

The Agloves Sports are made to look like regular gloves, they have silver/gold like thread throughout the gloves but nothing that is an obvious to them being "different" kind of gloves. All fingers and the thumbs work on the touchscreen making the gloves very easy to use in the cold winter months. The only down side I found was that if they get caught on the Velcro on jackets the silver yarn pulls very easily but they still work. I love my Agloves and now where them daily always able to use my iPhone when I am outside.

They are a great investment to any smart phone user and I would suggest checking out Agloves website. They come in sizes S/M and M/L and retail for $23.99.


Here is a quick video of the gloves in action. The few times it doesn't move on the screen is actually myself not pressing firmly on the screen.

"Like" Agloves on Facebook and you can even follow them on Twitter @TheAgloves

One lucky Canadian Coupon Mom reader will win their own pair of size S/M Agloves Sports gloves.

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Goals for MMM in 2012!

I have made personal goals and Social Media goals now I am thinking as Marvelous Mommy Meals is a very new blog I should set some goals/plans for it also. As I want to stay true to achievable goals I will only be making a few to get started with this new year.

• Blog Design - Looking to get a simple, crisp looking blog design completed in the next couple months. I have visions of green background and maybe a girl avatar on the banner, something that includes food or small kitchen appliances. Have any idea's? Please share. 

• Weekly Menu Planning posts - These will be featured as Marvelous Menu Plannning Monday and will be posted weekly. I know there are other sites doing Menu Planning Mondays also and would love to start linking up with them again. Each weeks menu will also be added to the Marvelous Menu Monday tab above for quick reference.

• Recipes - I would like to add new recipes at least once a week. A big goal for myself is to start trying one new recipe a week and I will post it along with how we liked it. I also want to pull out my stand mixer and use it more as it has been collecting dust due to me being too busy to use it. I will also post by request recipes that you are looking for or want someone to try. Send me an email or a tweet @CouponMomCanada

• Reviews - I would love to review recipes, cookbooks and kitchen gadgets on Marvelous Mommy Meals. If you are a company looking for your product to be reviewed please contact me through email and we will go from there.

That's all for now and once those are completed or in full swing then I will add more idea's for Marvelous Mommy Meals.

~*Jennifer

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Marvelous Mommy Meals. All opinions are honest and my own. This is not a sponsored post.*~

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Hamburger Buns Bread Machine Style

While I was on mat leave with my daughter, A I got a bread machine. I was super excited to make homemade bread and searched the internet high and low to find easy cost efficient and tasty recipes. Nothing worse then making a loaf of bread in the bead machine and it not turning out. That has happened to us a few times and I think it may have a few factors, one could be altitude, weather (hot or cold in your kitchen) or miss calculating the ingredients. I have been told you have to be precis when measuring all ingredients.

Anyways we did find a few favorites then our bread machine died within the first 6 months. We were lucky and were able to exchange it only to have the second one die with in the next 8 months. After that I haven't wanted a bread machine unless I can find a great one that wont die on us.

I still make bread and buns but I use out stand mixer to do all the work for me as I have carpal tunnel in both my wrists.

I saw a tweet the other day from a follower on Twitter and it was asking if anyone knew of any bread machine breads or buns that do not require yeast. I replied to the tweet and offered up a great yeast buns recipe as at the moment I have not made any buns without yeast in a bread machine.  I am also on the look out for recipes without yeast and will post what I find. If you have a request please contact me I will try to help you out.

Hamburger Buns - Bread Machine 

Serves 12

Ingredients:

1 1/4 cup of milk, slightly warmed
1 beaten egg
2 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup white sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
3 3/4 cups bread flour
1 1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

Directions:

1. Place all ingredients in the pan of bread machine according to manufacturer's directions.
2. Select dough setting.
3. When cycle is complete, turn out onto floured surface.
4. Cut dough in half and roll each half out to a 1" thick circle.
5. Cut each half into six 3 1/2" rounds with inverted glass as a cutter or a biscuit cutter
6. Place on greased baking sheet far apart and brush with melted butter.
7. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour. 
8. Bake at 350F for 9 minutes. 

Note: Oven temperatures vary so check after 9 minutes to see if done. I will roll them out a bit thinner to make more then I stack them before letting them rise. This helps with a line for cutting. Something I played around with.

I hope to add photos very soon but wanted to get it up for the tweeter that asked about it. I think this recipe may be added to next weeks Marvelous Menu plan.

~*Jennifer

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Marvelous Mommy Meals. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Carrie Underwood Donates to Schools

I really do apperiecate when a celebrity does something selfless by helping out a charity, hospitals, school or other things. Yesterday we (kids and I) went to visit @AMotherhoodblog and her kids, while we were driving there I heard on the radio that Carrie Underwood asked the schools in her hometown of Checotah, Oklahoma what they needed for the students. Carrie Underwood donated $350,000 that will go towards new computer labs, fitness equipment, band uniforms, instruments, storage, furniture and playground equipment and more.

I decided to Google about this donation as I was super happy to hear another generous thing that Carrie has done and also because I like Carrie's music and my whole family loves Mike Fisher (We miss you Mike come back to the SENS!). I found out that Carrie started a foundation to help her home town in anyway that she can give back to them. The foundation is called C.A.T.S. Foundation — Checotah Animal, Town, and School Foundation.

Want to help Carrie give back to her hometown Checotah? Visit C.A.T.S. Foundation website or check out C.A.T.S. Foundation on Facebook. Also Carrie Underwood fan page on Facebook.


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom, this is not a sponsored post. all opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Wordless Wednesday January 4th,2012

New Years Eve at our house this year!

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Julep Maven Review

Do you love nail polish? How about beauty treatments for your hands and feet? And I know we all like to get a great deal right?

Julep Nail parlor first opened in Seattle by Jane Park. Jane wanted a place where girlfriends and sisters could get together, relax, get their nails done and socialize. With their friendly atmosphere and their fume free polishes this is a great place to get your hands and feet pampered at. Also Jane grew up in Toronto! She now lives in Seattle Washington.

Jane started Julep Maven which is a monthly subscription type service that delivers the best Julep products right to your door. The cost of the Julep Maven program is $19.99 US and you get full sized products worth $40+. To get started you are asked to fill in a quick beauty profile which will take you to one of their 5 different styles - American Beauty, Boho Glam, Bombshell, Classic with a Twist, and It Girl. Nice thing about Julep Maven program is that at the end of every month you will get an email asking if you would like the next months box, skip the month, send to a girlfriend or get another shelf pull (this is chose a different style).

I love the option to send to a girlfriend as this would be a great birthday, Mother's day, Mom to be gift. I also like how you do not have to jump through hoops to cancel if you don't like the colors or can't spend the money one month.
Julep nail polishes are professional quality "4-free" formulation. They are developed without carcinogens such as formaldehyde or formaldehyde resin, toluene and DBP. They have no strong odor which makes them much better around kids. I also don't mind letting my daughter color her nails from time to time.

Something wonderful that Julep does is support women through Powered by Girlfriends program with $1 from every nail polish sold.

What did I get to review you ask? I was very excited to try out the American Beauty box for the month of December. It included the Facial for hands Glycolic hand scrub along with two very pretty Julep nail polishes - Shania and Lindsey. Since it was the holidays they also added a cute little Happy Holidays card and a container of stars for my nails. I thought that was a really nice touch.

Right from the first use of the Facial for hands I could feel a difference in the softness of my hands. It has apricot seeds that exfoliate your hands and a naturally scented with orange oil is really refreshing. I love it!

I tried out the stars with the Lindsey nail polish which is a deep burgundy color. They looked really nice but they didn't stay on for long. I am thinking I may need more top coat? Have you tried these before, any tips?

I also tried out the Shania nail polish and I love it. It needs at least two coats but a third makes it more blue/silver. It is really nice for the holidays and drys fast. It didn't chip within the first couple days even without a top coat as I didn't have a chance to apply one. I am hooked I am now a Julep fan!

Our friends at Julep want to offer Canadian Coupon Mom readers an exclusive coupon code to make your  Julep Maven Sneak Peak box for $5.00 US. Please use CANADIANCOUPONMOM at checkout for your deal.

If getting over $40 worth of full size products for $19.99 wasn't good enough see what else a Julep Maven member gets:

•  Receive never before released colors and treatments first to you, before anyone else.
• Also inludes hit and cult favorites
• 20% off all julep.com purchases and free shipping on ALL your purchases!

Want to win a Julep Maven box? One lucky Canadian Coupon Mom reader will win a intro Julep Maven box of their own! Please fill in the rafflecopter form below. This giveaway is open to Canadian and US residents and will end January 19 at 12:01am. Thanks and Good Luck!

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How to Make Hard Boiled Eggs

For the longest time I could never hard boil my eggs without them going grey around the yolk. I really didn't like making deviled eggs or egg salad with gray eggs. I think it was about 7 years ago when someone told me how they boil eggs to perfection.

I want to pass this along to anyone that is having the same problems I was having. It's great to have yellow egg yolks when making Egg Salad Sandwiches or Deviled Eggs, isn't it?

Hard Boiled Eggs

What you need:

• Eggs - however many you need for what you are making
• A pot with a lid
• Water

1. Fill pot with cold water and place eggs gently in pot.
2. Put pot on stove on High and bring water to a boil.
3. Once water is to a rapid boil, remove pot from heat and place lid on pot.
4. Let sit in pot for 20 minutes.
5. Run eggs under cold water until they are cool to touch. I like to let them sit in cold water or move them to the fridge to cool longer.

Egg Salad

• Hard boiled eggs
• Mayo 
• Green Relish 

1. Chop hard boiled eggs as much as you prefer.
2. Mix eggs with mayo and relish to your taste and make sandwich.

Looking for more egg recipes? Visit Egg Farmers of Canada at www.eggs.ca. There is a new egg app for the iPhone and Android that I will be checking out over the next week or so. I will let you know what it is like.

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Genuine Jenn. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Marvelous Menu Planning Monday Jan 2-8,2012

Happy New Year Marvelous Mommy readers! Welcome to the first week of 2012 Marvelous Menu's. I still can't believe how fast 2011 went by!

Do you have any New Years Resolutions or Goals for 2012? I have a bunch of goals both personal and blog/social media related. I have posted some of my Social Media Goals for 2012 on Canadian Coupon Mom blog. I have also posted a personal goals today. I will be writing Goals for Marvelous Mommy Meals as it is so new and I have so many things I want to do here but I think it would be best if I wrote then down with a timeline and go from there.

Okay back to this weeks menu

Monday January 1, 2012 - Sausages, rices and veggies

Tuesday January 2, 2012 -Saucy Mexican Chicken served over pasta

Wednesday January 3, 2012 - Porkchops, potatoes and salad

Thursday January 4, 2012 - Hamburger helper from scratch 

Friday January 5, 2012 - Breakfast for dinner - Apple Cinnamon Breakfast Strata (new recipe for us)

Saturday January 6, 2012 - Taco Salad

Sunday January 7, 2012 - I think I will leave this to Hubby to decide

There it is for the week. I am hoping to get better at trying a new recipe at least once or twice a week. This helps to add a variety of recipes to our menu's. We could use a variety as we have fallen into a dinner slump lately.

Feel free to leave your link to your menu planning post for this week in the comment section below.

~*Jennifer 

~*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post, all opinions are honest and that of Marvelous Mommy Meals.*~

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This Year I Plan to.....

Each year everyone talks about their New Years resolutions. As I get older and realize most times we don't keep our resolutions be it that they are too hard to achieve or unrealistic. Sometimes it is also that they are something that we just lose interest in.. Instead this year I want to make a few goals that I will be working towards either way.

I want to find balance and peace within family and work life. I would like to stress less. This has been an on going battle for myself as I am usually a person who will worry right away. The past couple years I have had problems with my health as I stress out over mostly work. One thing I can say about this is that I have learned to recognize when I am stressed and work towards changing it.

This year I will be less stressed, working towards peace in my life. I have already taken a step to less stress in the work place but I will be working on figuring out where I want to be for work.

As I am working towards less stress in my life I want to also work towards being healthy. I need to find make time for exercise as this will also help with stress and keep my heart healthy.

We have one big goal this year that is a must. We must move to a bigger house. I will also start to rid all the extra things I have kept through the years and remind myself I don't need to keep them incase (mostly baby/kids stuff).

That's it, pretty simple right? Something I can achieve if I put my mind to it. What are your New Years Goals/Resolutions?
 

~*Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored post. This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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Creamy Potato Soup with Homemade Biscuits

After being sick for just over a week with a sore throat I craved soup a lot. I also really wanted a potato soup, this is what I can up with and want to share it with you. I will also share our go to simple homemade biscuit recipe we have been using for years. Enjoy!

Creamy Potato Soup

Serves 4

Ingredients:

6 large potatoes (add more or less depending on how many people you are feeding)
1 celery stock
1 medium onion
2 tsp minced garlic or 2 cloves of fresh minced garlic
veggie stock or chicken stock - whichever you have on hand will likely work fine
Cream - this can be half and half, milk, full cream again whichever you have on hand or your preference
Cooking oil your preference

Directions:

1. Chopped onion and celery small, mince your garlic. Preheat stock pot with a tablespoon of cooking oil then add veggies. Cooking 5 minutes or until onions are translucent.

 

2. Peel and chop potatoes add to pot with 3 - 4 cups veggie stock bring to a boil. Once potatoes are soft remove from heat. Using a hand blender blend potatoes to the consistency you would like. We like our potato soup still chunky.

3. Add cream/milk - add enough to make your soup creamy to your preference.
Sorry we were so hungry I forgot a picture of the finished product. This is the finished in the pot photo.

Easy Homemade Biscuit 

25 mins - 10 min prep
Serves 12

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose or whole wheat flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1/3 cup oil (canola or veggie)
2/3 cup water or milk ( I actually prefer using water)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 475 F.
2. Mix dry ingredients.
3. Put oil in measuring cup and add water or milk. Do not stir.
4. Add to dry ingredients.
5. Mix lightly to moisten ingredients and knead one or two times to form ball.
6. Roll out between to sheets of plastic wrap to about 1/2" thick. Cut into 2" biscuits. If you don't want to roll out dough you can form small 2" balls of dough and press lightly flat to 1/2" thickness, we do this all the time.
7. Bake on ungreased pan for 10-12 minutes, until lightly browned.

I believe I found this on Recipezaar.com a few years ago.

~*Jennifer

~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Marvelous Mommy Meals. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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My Social Media Goals for 2012

I have been reading a lot of peoples "resolutions" or "goals for 2012 and at first thought I was going to write one post with ALL my goals for 2012; personal and blog related but then decided I will split them up and give them each the credit they should have.

Today I will write about my social media/blog goals for 2012. I still consider myself "new" to blogging as I started Canadian Coupon Mom back in May of 2010. I hope to grow more this year and spend more time learning to improve my writing/creative writing skills, growing the Canadian Coupon Mom fan base and  sharing things with you, my readers.

Take a class - I would love to take a class either online or in a college setting for writing/creative writing. Writing has never really been my strong suit but I love blogging and actually now enjoy writing. I want to improve my creative juices and make my posts flow better.

Attend more Social Media events - As I attended two wonderful conferences this past fall where I learned so much more about blogging and about myself. I also met so many great bloggers and brands. In 2012 I would love to again attend Blissdom Canada and maybe even venture to a conference in the US.

Find more time for Social Media - Chatting on Twitter or Facebook, learning Google + and figuring out more time for Triberr. I also need to make conscious effort to leave comments on posts that I read on others blogs. It only takes a minute to leave a comment and it makes a blogger feel very special when we come online a see a nice comment little or big.

Maintain and build more wonderful Social Media relationships - This year I want to invest more time building relationships with brands, bloggers and of course my readers. The wonderful relationship I have made with some great people has been my favorite part of being a blogger.

I have also decided to start another blog as December 2011 called Marvelous Mommy Meals. This blog will be all food related from menu planning, recipes, how-to, personal food related posts and reviews (maybe even some giveaways, who knows what time may bring). I also would like to help families find favorite recipes and learn to stretch their food budget to include tasty meals.

I have many more goals for both blogs but I will start here and go from there. What are your goals for 2012? I would love to hear about them, please leave a comment with some of your goals or a link to your post.


~*Disclaimer: This post was written by Canadian Coupon Mom. This is not a sponsored post. All opinions are honest and my own.*~

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