Tropicana Pure Premium Sweepstakes

Happy Thursday everyone!  The weekend is almost finally here. I have to admit that Sunday mornings are one of my favorites because our family gets a chance to all sit down together to eat breakfast.  I usually cook up a big breakfast.  I wanted to blog about how my family brings the farm to the table because I was approached by SocialMoms and Tropicana Pure Premium 100% Florida Orange Juice to participate in their program to tell folks about Tropicana’s fabulous orange juice and their current sweepstakes.   Our family loves and drinks Tropicana orange juice.   I was excited to blog about this and to learn even more about a product we use here in our home.

First, let me share the exciting details about Tropicana Pure Premium’s sweepstakes.  You can enter the sweepstakes via the Tropicana Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/Tropicana  for a chance to win 100 Florida prizes, including one-year-supplies of Tropicana (in the form of twelve 59 oz Tropicana Pure Premium containers) and a trip to Florida to visit an orange grove.  Ninety-nine winners will get a one-year supply of orange juice in the form of twelve coupons for (12) 59 oz Tropicana Pure Premium® containers. One winner will get a trip to a Florida orange grove and invite three (3) guests for: Round-trip airfare for four (4) to Florida, three (3) night stay at a Florida hotel.The winner will have an exclusive experience at a Florida orange grove. For official rules and regulations, visit the “sweeps” tab on Tropicana’s Facebook page at www.Facebook.com/Tropicana  I think these sound like awesome prizes and I’ve already entered myself. I can’t imagine how beautiful it must be to walk through a grove of oranges.  Check out this picture of one of the groves.

After hearing that you could win a trip to visit an orange grove, I found these facts to be very interesting.  Doesn’t this make you want to go visit the groves?  I know I’m ready to pack my bags and go!

·         Oranges have been grown in Florida since the 1560s, approximately 147 years before any other U.S. state.

·         Tropicana’s roots in Florida go back a long way. Some of its current grower relationships date to the 1960s.

·         The two major orange types in Tropicana Pure Premium are Valencia and Hamlin. Valencias typically have more intense color and flavor, while Hamlins can be sweeter. They each add unique characteristics to the TPP blend.

·         The different micro climates and soil types mean that fruit reaches peak maturity at different times, allowing Tropicana to harvest ripe fruit throughout the entire growing season.

And just think, someone is going to get lucky and win a trip to see all of that in person!  I imagine the smell in the groves must be heavenly!

As I mentioned in my post earlier, Sunday morning is my favorite morning to cook breakfast for my family.  We are all together and we don’t have to rush out the door early to go in opposite directions.  I usually cook a big country type breakfast. It is my way of bringing the farm to the table.  Of course we have Tropicana orange juice to drink.  The kids and my husband love when I make chocolate chip pancakes.  I personally love to make sausage and bacon because it tastes wonderful.  The smell of them cooking fills the house.  Sometimes I mix it up and I’ll make grits and sausage casserole, or other tasty dishes that I’ve previously shared on the blog.  This has become a family tradition that we all like and I’m hoping it will be a great memory for my boys as they grow up. 
Don't forget to go and enter Tropicana's sweepstakes via their Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/Tropicana and be sure to “Like” their page.  

 And if you win the big trip to Florida or any of the other great prizes, be sure to let me know.

“I wrote this blog post while participating in the SocialMoms and Tropicana blogging program, to earn My SocialMoms Rewards Points. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own. To read more posts on this topic click here."

Spring Break and Post Easter

How did it get to be Thursday of this week already?  I don't know where the week has gone.  We went out of town for two days to visit my sister and we've been on the go, go, go. 

I cooked a big dinner for Easter which everyone said turned out great. I don't think I've ever cooked so many items that needed to be cooked in the oven.  So rotating the food was a challenge.  But it all turned out great and we enjoyed the left overs.  I have to say I love having left over holiday food.  And this holiday convinced me that I'm now adding spiral hams to our holiday gatherings.  I had both a turkey breast and ham, plus a number of sides.

So I'm playing catch up today at home.  How are things going for you this week?  Are you doing anything exciting this week?  So many folks are on Spring Break. I love hearing about their adventures!

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!

Easter Egg Decorating

So we are in full swing here waiting for Easter.  This is the first year that we've had a chance to color Easter eggs where I knew the boys would be old enough to listen and I wouldn't end up with colors spilling all over the place.

After Easter last year, I found a great egg decorating kit at Walgreens that is an egg spinner.  I knew this would be perfect for us to use.  So we got it out of our Easter box and yesterday afternoon the boys and I took it out for a spin.  This was so easy to use.  You put a hard boiled egg in the machine, pour the color in, shut the top and then let the kids spin.  Color eggs on the egg so easy.  The kit came with a plastic bag that has a bunny on it. They called the bag a puppet. You use the puppet to take the colored egg out of the spinner.  I then put the eggs on a piece of newspaper to dry.  It was the easiest way I've ever colored eggs with the least amount of mess. The color easily washed out of the spinner.  I washed between colors.  But you could throw caution to the wind and see what happens with mixing colors. I think that would have been pretty too.

We also used stickers to decorate some of the eggs. My oldest son, Sawyer, decorated his eggs with Angry Birds stickers. Does anyone else see the irony in this? LOL  And my youngest is a huge Lightning McQueen fan and so he put those on his eggs.

Here are some pictures of our egg decorating adventures.

I found out that my Pampered Chef cooking rack when flipped over and covered with newspaper makes a great "holder" for keeping eggs from rolling off the table.

Hope you are having a great day in your neck of the woods!