I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Mariano’s. #MyMarianos #cbias

While I try to keep it healthy with my children most of the time, the fact that it’s summertime is a great excuse to enjoy a little extra sweetness when it comes to food.

And I can’t think of a better way to indulge our sweet tooth than with a cup of Vero gelato from my local Mariano’s Lakeshore East store in Chicago. We made a trip there recently for a fun family day out.

I’d planned to visit Mariano’s to enjoy some gelato on the patio (which has a breathtaking view), and then head to the Lincon Park Zoo to finish our day with a little exercise.

It as a FULL but happy day.

Our Chicago adventure started with having to choose from a huge selection of gelato flavors at Mariano’s. One of my personal favorites was the cappuccino gelato, but that’s because I can’t live without coffee. The kids loved the cookies & cream gelato and the strawberry gelato. They all looked amazing, though.

When I say there’s a huge selection, I really mean there’s a wide range of gelato flavors. Just look at all the creamy, wavy goodness.

It’s a good thing that we have a big family. I was able to choose six different flavors of gelato, and since we share and all, I was able to taste almost all of them.

And a bonus is that the next time we treat the kids to gelato at Mariano’s, I’m going to save a little money, because I found out that when I use my Mariano’s rewards card, when you buy 10 cups of gelato, the 11th cup is free.

Vero Gelato on the Patio at Mariano’s
While I was in charge of the gelato, my husband was in charge of finding us seats out on the patio at Mariano’s. He found a great spot for the us, too.

I mentioned earlier that the view is awesome out on the patio, and it truly is. We saw blue skies, green grass, and Chicago skyscrapers…true beauty.

Here are a few more pictures that I captured from the patio at Mariano’s. For me, these pictures made Mariano’s even more amazing. Seriously. I was able to see these views at a grocery store. Just. Wow.

I *heart* Mariano’s in a whole new way after this trip. This was my first time to this specific Chicago location, and I’ll be back!

Overall, the Vero gelato was delicious, and to make this trip truly unforgettable for the kids, we had them pick out a few items from the bakery AND the candy aisle.

We went all out.

They enjoyed their bakery treats at the zoo, where we stopped after our visit to Mariano’s.

The sweet treats from Mariano’s made this summer day extra special.

What’s a favorite summer treat for your kids? What’s your favorite gelato flavor?

Did you know? You can find great recipes and ideas from the Mariano’s Community. And you can follow Mariano’s on Facebook and Twitter for their latest updates. You can also find out more about my shopping trip to Mariano’s here in my Google+ story.

The post Summer Treats for Kids at Mariano’s appeared first on The Sensible Mom.

A special thanks to ALL YOU magazine for the fabulous Arm & Hammer Gift Pack & issue of ALL YOU that I received for review purposes and to facilitate a giveaway for my readers.

Today hasn’t been the best day, but it’s slowly starting to get better.

The least of my problems was accidentally leaving a $7.50 package of bacon in the car for 3 hours. The whole wheat BLTs are going to have to wait for another day…and new bacon. The biggest problem of my day, well, I’m not going to mention it here, but it just brought my mood way down. This day started with my plans going out the window, worked up to an unexpected incident coming out of nowhere, and then the bacon thing just sent me over the edge.

I went to grab the bacon to prepare it, so that I could create sandwiches that I was going to share in a later blog post. But the bacon wasn’t in the refrigerator. It was still in the trunk of our car.

Finding My Way Back to Happiness

Anyway, in spite of all of this, I’m starting to feel better, because I’m getting to talk about one of my favorite products today — baking soda!

Specifically, I get to talk about Arm & Hammer Baking Soda and the many ways you can use it in your home. Baking soda is wonderful because of the plethora of ways you can make use of it. You can use it to make homemade air freshener and then you can use it to clean your bathroom.

Just this past weekend, I used it to clean my bathroom counter, and you can see for yourself the terrific result of using Arm & Hammer:

*I’m sparing you the “before” picture. Trust me. It wasn’t pretty.

I used the designer Arm & Hammer shaker for sprinkling baking soda and a damp sponge (or rag) to clean the counter and surprise my husband with shiny bathroom sinks when he got home.

There’s no shortage of ways to use baking soda, and if you’re wondering how else you might use it, there’s even a book with simple recipes and tips for how you can use baking soda more often in your home.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Baking Soda is the most versatile product in your home, and ARM & HAMMER™ is the most recognized brand.
• ARM & HAMMER ™ is the original, enduring household staple, trusted for more than 165 years.
• Baking Soda offers effective cleaning, freshening and deodorizing that’s also natural and gentle.
• Baking Soda is inexpensive and offers environmentally sensible household solutions.

More about Arm & Hammer:

The “magic” power of ARM & HAMMER ™ Baking Soda is that it’s gentle and non-abrasive, but still substantial enough to lift away dirt. And when it comes to odors, think of ARM & HAMMER™ baking Soda as being on the perpetual “search and destroy” mission: it travels to the very source of odors to completely neutralize and eliminate them.

You know that Baking Soda is great for cooking and baking. Now discover more than 100 ways to save time and money with Baking Soda, from cleaning your carpets to getting rid of pet odors, making laundry sparkle, and even enjoying a spa-worthy pedicure.

ARM & HAMMER Baking Soda is a naturally occurring mineral that comes… …from the earth. It’s real scientific name is bicarbonate of soda natural buffer for maintaining PH balance. It naturally deodorizes, cleans & whitens. It’s so safe that you can even bake with it!”

ARM & HAMMER baking soda is probably the one cleaner that really does do it all!

And now for the GIVEAWAY!

ONE very excited reader will win their very own Arm & Hammer Gift Pack! It includes a 5 lb. bag of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda, a 101 uses for Baking Soda book, and a designer shaker! How great is that?

How to enter
Simply enter this giveaway using the Rafflecopter below. I’ve included options for extra entries, too!

This giveaway will run from June 11th – June 18th at 12:00am. The giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above. The winner will be randomly chosen. I will promptly send the winner an email notifying them that they’ve won, and the winner must respond within 48hrs. of the giveaway’s end, otherwise I will have to draw a new winner.

Enter below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

What’s your favorite way to use baking soda?

The post Arm & Hammer Baking Soda: Review and Giveaway! appeared first on The Sensible Mom.

After a short trip to Maryland last week, I’m looking forward to a week of catching up and getting up to date on some blog posts that I’m behind on. I had a long list of things that I wanted to get done while I was away from my family, but alas, I ended up with less time than I thought I’d have.

It turns out the two hour layovers weren’t really two “free” hours. They were mostly spent standing in lines, searching for something to eat, and talking to my family. The planes didn’t always takeoff or arrive right on the dot, either, but that’s expected when you’re flying.

Oh well. This is life. I had a fabulous trip, met one of my best blogging friends at the event I attended, and made it back home safely. I’m thankful for that, and in the midst of my busy week, I actually got a few things crossed of my list of goals.

Here’s what I accomplished last week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Make a volcano with the kids

2. Read library books to the little ones — I ended up having to return the books before I had a chance to read them to the boys.

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice or smoothies 2 days this week

4. Read 10 pages of the book Desperate

5. Walk on the treadmill for 2 hours — I ended up only walking for 45 minutes total.

Home Management Goals:

6. Clean the master bathroom counter

7. Organize the entertainment area in the living room

Business Goals:

8. Go on a short business trip

9. Return emails

10. Write 4 blog posts

Here are my goals for this week:

Family/Mothering Goals:

1. Go to the movies

2. Go on a fun family outing

Personal Goals:

3. Drink juice or smoothies 2 days this week

4. Read 10 pages of the book Desperate

5. Walk on the treadmill for 2 hours

Home Management Goals:

6. Clean around my desk

7. Organize the bookshelf

Business Goals:

8. Create a Disney road trip video

9. Return emails

10. Write 4 blog posts

What are your goals for this week?

The post 10 Goals for the Week appeared first on The Sensible Mom.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and their client. #FamilyMobileSaves #cbias

Well, its been about a month since I started using the Walmart Family Mobile cell phone plan.

And I have only good things to say about it. I’m truly impressed, and I think I may have found the best wireless plan for my family.

You may remember how in my last Mom Talk post, I shared my dislike for my current cell phone service provider. I’m through with their shenanigans of promising something and not following through. This goes all the way up to their supervisors. I have stories, trust me. Just thinking about my past experiences stirs up negative feelings towards my current provider. When that happens, you know you have to end the relationship.

No Turning Back

With 100% certainty, I will be switching to a new cell phone service provider once my contract is up at the beginning of 2014. I may switch even sooner because my husband was doing the math, and we may actually save money by canceling our current contract and going with the Family Mobile Plan, which will literally cut our monthly cell phone bill in half.

 The Bottom Line

Honestly, I can’t tell you how many times my husband and I have talked to others about this plan, but it’s been quite a few. And just yesterday, I found out that someone in our extended family has the Family Mobile plan.

After using the plan for the past month, I can report that we’ve had a completely positive experience. I didn’t experience any problems with the signal, dropped calls, internet service not working, nothing. It was all good here in the Chicagoland area.

International Calls

I wanted to mention that the Family Mobile plan handles international calling fabulously! My dad is visiting from Mexico, and he makes calls to Mexico just about every night. He has no issues with calls being dropped, and best of all, the price per minute to call Mexico can’t be beat. Seriously. It’s only $0.05 per minute to call Mexico.

I simply logged into My Family Mobile account and added $10-$25 onto my Prepaid Extras Pack. This is separate from the monthly plan, which I think makes it even more convenient. Once there’s money in the Extras Pack, my dad calls Mexico and enjoys hours of talk time…for days. When the money has been used up on international calls, I can simply add more. Oh, and if the money runs out during the middle of a conversation…that conversation is over. And you don’t have to worry about overages.

Lastly, My Experience with the Actual Phone

The phone I’m using with the Family Mobile service is the T-Mobile Concord Smartphone. It’s a nice budget-friendly smartphone, and while it doesn’t look as cool as my current Android phone, it gets the job done. I like it, but if I do make the switch to the Family Mobile plan, I know I’ll probably upgrade to another phone.

Who’s Using the Phone Now?

For right now, I’ve passed the phone onto my dad. He’s currently staying with my brother and had thought it would be fine to make international calls from my brother’s phone. Um, no. It’s WAY too expensive to make those calls to Mexico with my brother’s current provider. So my dad called me up and asked it he could use my Concord Smartphone while he’s here in the United States. Of course, I said, “Yes.”

 Are you shopping around for a new wireless plan? Would you be willing to switch to a new cell phone provider if it cut your monthly bill in half?

You can see my experience and how I got started with the Concord Smartphone and the Family Mobile plan here in my Google+ story.

The post Mom Talk: Update on the Family Mobile Plan (and my search to find the best wireless provider) appeared first on The Sensible Mom.

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias®  and Neptune Retail. #EverydayDairy #cbias #SocialFabric

Tortilla chips are pretty much a staple in my home.

We eat them all the time, and with five kids, well, you can imagine how many times a day the kitchen floor needs to be vacuumed as a result. That doesn’t deter us, though. (I just have my 13 year-old son vacuum.) No, we love our tortilla chips, and while munching on them plain is good, creating recipes to eat them with is even better.

Vegetarian Nachos & Everyday Dairy

My latest recipe creation using tortilla chips, black beans, shredded cheddar cheese, veggies, and classic american cheese is vegetarian nachos. This recipe was inspired by a recent trip out of town. During a layover, I was looking for something somewhat healthy to eat in an airport as I waited to catch my flight home to Chicago. I decided to order vegetarian nachos from one of the vendors selling food.

Talk about delicious. Those nachos were sooooo good. I snapped a picture of them with my phone and decided I’d try to make my own version at home. And I did. I’m going to share my recipe with you, but honestly, these nachos are so versatile that you can make them any way your family likes them. You could even add toppings like guacamole, salsa, or pico de gallo.

Here’s my recipe (exact measurements are not necessary):

 Here’s the Nacho Cheese Sauce Recipe:

Saving on Everyday Dairy

In order to create these fabulous nachos, I took advantage of a great promotion that my local Safeway affiliate store, Dominick’s, was having (actually, it’s still going on). They’ve included a variety of ‘everyday dairy’ items in a promotion where you receive a $5 coupon at the register when you spend $15 on participating dairy items. Dairy substitues like almondmilk are also included in the sale. I love that.

You can see my shopping trip (and even a couple of pictures of my family’s recent visit to Chicago) here in my Google+ story.

Summer Classics

After I got home from the store, I noticed that I had brought home foods that were either classic summer foods or ingredients that could be used to create delicious summery meals. Let’s just say my kids were pretty happy.

Here’s a little inspiration for meals or snacks that you might incorporate into your summer routine:

Grilled Cheese

Adult Grilled Cheese

Ice cream bars

Orange juice

 What are some of your favorite summer foods? What foods are you most excited about this summer?

You can find even more great recipes and ideas on the Everyday Dairy website. You can also follow Dominick’s on Facebook and Twitter for their latest updates.

The post Vegetarian Nachos, Everyday Dairy, and Summer Classics appeared first on The Sensible Mom.