Saturday Stirrings ~ And a Giveaway!! – Time’s Up!!

Happy Valentine’s Day!  I hope you all have a love-ly day!

To celebrate this day of love, and because I love my readers, I have a giveaway for you provided by the love-ly folks that bring us all things Cheerios. (Details at the end of this post.) They would love to introduce to you a brand new cereal called Banana Nut Cheerios.

I have tasted Banana Nut Cheerios and they are as good as you would expect a Cheerios cereal to be.  And since I am on Weight Watchers, I was very happy to find that a serving of Banana Nut Cheerios was not only delicious, but only 2 points.  Add a cup of fat free milk, for a total of 4 points. Not bad for such a yummy breakfast! You might even say I LOVE them.

But wait, there’s more:  Banana Nut Cheerios® combines the whole grain goodness of Cheerios® with the great taste of real banana – a breakfast your whole family will love! Even better, Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal is a good source of calcium and Vitamin D, and is made with whole grain. It may reduce the risk of heart disease as part of a heart healthy diet. Visit www.banananutcheerios.com for discount coupons, great recipes and additional information.

You really need to to check out their website. It’s full of fun information, coupons, and recipes. Speaking of recipes, the one I am sharing below is from their site.

Chocolate Banana Bread

• 2 cups Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup canola or vegetable oil
• 3/4 cup buttermilk
• 2 teaspoons vanilla
• 1 egg
• 1 cup mashed very ripe bananas (2 medium)
• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup unsweetened baking cocoa
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips
• Topping
• 1/2 cup Banana Nut Cheerios® cereal

1. Heat oven to 350°F. Spray bottom only of 9×5-inch loaf pan with cooking spray. Place 2 cups cereal in resealable food-storage plastic bag or between sheets of waxed paper; crush with rolling pin to make 3/4 cup. Set aside.
2. In large bowl, beat sugar and oil with electric mixer on low speed until well mixed. Beat in buttermilk, vanilla and egg just until blended; beat in bananas. Stir in flour, cocoa, baking soda and salt until well mixed. Stir in 3/4 cup crushed cereal and chocolate chips. Spoon into pan; spread evenly.
3. Place 1/2 cup cereal in resealable food-storage plastic bag or between sheets of waxed paper; coarsely crush with rolling pin. Sprinkle over batter in pan; press lightly.
4. Bake 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center come

Anyway, I believe I mentioned a giveaway.  Courtesy of Cheerios and the wonderful people at MyBlogSpark, I have three Banana Nut Cheerios gift baskets to give away to three of my Saturday Stirrings participants.  Each basket will include a VIP coupon for Banana Nut Cheerios, a banana tree with a fruit basket, two plastic cereal bowls, and a very nice non-stick loaf pan. Here’s a picture of the prize package.

To enter, post a recipe on your blog, then link it here on Mr. Linky. Please be sure to link directly to your recipe post and not your home page.  Also, be sure to link back to this Saturday Stirrings post so your readers can hear about the Giveaway and find some really great recipes to try. If you don’t have a blog, feel free to post a recipe here in the comments.

Then, at 9pm EST on Sunday, February 15th, I will use a random number generator to select a winner from all the recipe posts on Mr. Linky and in the comments. I will post the winners names here on the blog, and contact them by email.

Ok, here’s Mr. Linky. Go to it!

Lots of Love,

Pssttt…

…wanna win a gift basket?

I thought you might, so I’m going to be giving away 3 Banana Nut Cheerios Gift Baskets right here at this very blog this weekend.

Three lucky winners will win everything you see in here (fruit not included) except that you will be getting a VIP coupon for Banana Nut Cheerios rather than an actual box (but the box shows up better in pictures).

I have tasted the Banana Nut Cheerios and they are simply de-lish! More to come on that on Saturday, but for now, here’s what you have to do for a chance to win this very banana-y gift basket.

On Saturday, or any time over the weekend, post a recipe, any recipe you choose on your blog then come back here and link to my recipe carnival, aka Saturday Stirrings.  If you don’t have a blog, post a recipe in the comments section of the Saturday Stirrings post.

Then, on Sunday evening at 9 pm EST, I will use a random number generator to select three winners from all the Mr. Linky participants as well as any recipes in the comments.

That’s it. It’s so easy a caveman could do  it. (Didn’t I hear that someplace before?)

Now go bananas and get a recipe ready to post on Saturday!

Progresso Perfect Recipe Gift Basket Winners!!

At exactly 9:00PM EST, Darling Daughter picked 3 names out of a bowl to determine the 3 winners of the Progresso Gift Baskets.  The winners are:

Mel @ A Box of Chocolates

Heather @ Not A DIY Life

Melanie @ Bella ~ Mella

Congrats ladies!  Please email me with your snail mail addresses at carol(at)ithrowlikeagirl(dot)com

Thank you everyone for playing!

Yippee! A Giveaway…Coming Soon!

Oh, I am so glad I decided to continue Saturday Stirrings!  Do you want to know why?  Well, I’m gonna tell you anyway.

Just today, I was contacted by the nice folks from Progresso and they offered me three Progresso Perfect Recipe Gift Baskets to give away!! (Doing a happy dance!)

The gift baskets include a free coupon for Progresso Broth (all-natural Progresso Chicken, Reduced Sodium Chicken and Beef-flavored broths), a recipe card holder, recipe box and wicker basket, as well as a set of serving spoons and a spoon rest.

Progresso’s broths are 99% fat free and contain no preservatives, artificial flavors, or MSG! They even come in convenient, re-sealable 32oz cartons.

I am so excited because this Giveaway fits so perfectly with Saturday Stirrings! You know recipes, coupons, samples, spoons…I think there’s a theme here somewhere. It doesn’t take much to get me excited!

I am holding the giveaway this weekend in conjuction with Saturday Stirrings. There will be several ways to be entered and I will give the details on Friday evening when I post my Saturday Stirrings recipe along with Mr. Linky.

But….if you want to get a head start, I will give one entry to anyone who writes about this giveaway on their blog between now and Saturday. You can just mention Saturday Stirrings and the Giveaway with a link to my blog.  Leave me a comment to let me know you did it and I will make sure you are entered.

Edited to add: I mistakenly thought each basket came with a sample of the Progresso Broth. They do not.  They DO include a coupon for free Progresso Broth. I apologise for any confusion.

I just realized something…(read to the end for a giveaway) Time’s Up!

The winner is Mel from A Box of Chocolates!  Congrats, Mel!  Enjoy!

Today is my blogiversary!  Exactly 1 year ago today I Throw Like a Girl was born.  

One year, 2 blog designs, 2 blog names, 218 posts, and many new bloggy friends later I want to say Thank You for stopping by, for reading, for commenting and for making this a great experience!

Since gifts are usually in order at celebrations, I have a gift for one of my readers!

One of my favorite readers will win an all expense paid pound of Starbucks coffee graciously provided by College Son who works at Starbucks.  I will even autograph it if you like (I can see you jumping for joy).

Who is my favorite reader you may be wondering?  It is whomever the random number generator chooses on Sunday evening at 9:00 PM EST.  

All you have to do to be entered is leave a comment. (Even though I love all my readers, I can only send the coffee to one who is in the US, sorry).

So de-lurk and start commenting for coffee!

Doing my part to keep the world caffeinated,

 

 

A little of this, a little of that, oh, and a giveaway!

Time’s up!! I’ll announce a winner soon!!

 

Not much is going on in my little corner of Bloggsville.  

Well, maybe a couple of things.

I do have a few little somethings up my sleeve in the near future.  The first few things I’m going to share with you are just because I like to keep you in the loop.  The third is just for fun.

Firstly,  this blog as you know it will soon look very different.  I am working with a wonderful blog designer to give it a bloggy makeover.  My baseball throwing girl up there on my header will soon be retired.  She may come out of retirement someday, like many ballplayers do after they realize how much they miss the game, but for now, she is on her way to the bench in the very near future.  Check back often for my new look. (That’s not just a trick to get you to read my blog, I honestly don’t know when it will be done.)

Next, I am very seriously considering participating in the Blog Your Face Carnival hosted by Chic Critique.  Two things are holding me back:

1) I am very concerned for your safety and well being.  If I were to blog my face “fresh as a daisy” with no make up on,  it may be scary enough to cause permanent damage. Also, I would not want to be responsible to moms for causing their children to have nightmares if they were to look at the computer at the wrong time.

2) On a more practical side, I would have to do it tomorrow because Chic Critique is ending the Carnival on Friday morning and I have a TON to do tomorrow already.  To take the pics and load them onto my blog with step by step descriptions would take this technologically challenged English major a very, very long time. I may do it anyway on my own at another time because something about the whole thing intrigues me.  I almost said it’s kind of like not being able to look away from an accident on the highway, but then I was concerned that you would think I was talking about the people who already posted their before and after faces, and that’s not what I mean at all. They are all truly very lovely and brave ladies.  I only mean that MY befores & afters would be that wreck on the highway that holds up traffic.  Hope I cleared that up.

Now, as I mentioned, I have a TON – a majorly long list of things to do tomorrow.  Thursdays are my day off from the Chiropractors’ office and I usually try to schedule appointments and errands, and whathaveyou then.  However, tomorrow is just jammed packed for a very specific reason. I need to pack and get ready to go on vacation with just my husband and about 50 of his co-workers and their spouses/guests!

But that’s ok, my kids are not coming.  I love my children dearly, but I really need a break from them and my husband and I really need to get away together.  As part of my husband’s job, once a year he gets to host the award trip on which his company sends the top sales people in his division. We will have “business” functions to attend, but it will mostly be a whole lotta relaxation and fun. 

And since I always feel a little bit guilty if I’m the only one having a good time, here’s where the giveaway comes in. Leave a comment and guess where I’m going with Dear Hubby and you’ll be entered into a drawing for a $25 gift card to Pottery Barn.  And here’s a little secret, the card can also be used at Williams-Sonoma. But don’t tell anyone. 

Oh, and if you guess correctly, you’ll be entered twice!

I will post the answer and the winner by 10:00 PM Friday night. One guess per customer, please.

Blog on,

Carol

 

We’re Havin’ a Party!

If you’re here from 5 Minutes for Mom, welcome!  If not, that’s ok, I don’t mind guests that show up without RSVP-ing!  This is my first Blog Party and I’m so glad you’re here.

I Throw Like a Girl has been around since October 2007.  So we are still very new.  It used to be called “Love, Hugs, and Prayers from Carol”  because I was so new at this I didn’t know that I would actually have to name my blog when I set it up.  Even when my daughter was born, they let me have the whole time I was in the hospital (all 2 days of it) to decide on her name. 

But I soon realized that even I wanted to gag every time I read the name of my blog.  It was just too sickeningly sweet.  So, in December, I held a ginormous Name This Blog contest.  There were all kinds of cash and prizes offered. The prize was a $5 Starbucks gift card.  My 1 faithful reader at the time, Linda from 2nd Cup of Coffee voted and – guess what? She won and cast the deciding vote that named my blog I Throw Like a Girl.  Thanks again, Linda!

I try to post several times a week.  I participate in Works For Me Wednesdays at Rocks in my Dryer and Saturday Stirrings at It Coulda BeenWorse.

I don’t have small children anymore, but I do have a 19 year old son who is away at college.  I may have mentioned about a kagillion times that I miss him  – A Lot. I also have a 16 year old daughter who is a sophomore in high school.  She is absolutely not going to college unless I get to go with her and live in her dorm.  She doesn’t know that yet. 

Since this is my blog, I pretty much write about whatever I feel like at the time.  Sometimes it’s a funny story or observation.  Sometimes it’s a devotional.  I don’t do pictures, though. Not because I don’t want to, but truth be told, I don’t know how.  Everytime I try, the picture comes out sooooo big that the whole screen is taken up with an eyeball or something.  That’s just not pretty.

So take a look around, make yourself comfortable.  I’ll be serving warm apple dumplings and vanilla ice cream shortly.  Oh, and if you leave a comment, you will be entered into a drawing for lots of cash and prizes a $5 Starbucks gift card! (The drawing will be held on the last day of the party, Friday, March 14th)

Enjoy!

Carol