Celebrate with a #CoronaRita at Chili's!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Chili’s Grill & Bar. All opinions are 100% mine.

I’ve just finished packing away our thick winter jackets and I’ve started wearing flip flops outdoors. The weather is definitely warming up and summer is almost here. I can’t believe the year is just flying by! April is almost over and May will be here in less than a week. Oh, I love the month of May. Not only is it the beginning of summer, but it’s also my birthday month and of course, Cinco de Mayo!  Oh yes, it’s one celebration after another!

Whenever I think of celebrations, I think of having fun and sharing of good food and drinks with good friends. There is no better place to do all that than at Chili’s! That is definitely my go to place when I am looking for a fun night out with the girls, a huge celebration dinner with the extended family or even date night with Kevin. With their vast selection of delicious food and drinks, there is always something on the menu to make everyone happy!

Cinco de Mayo is a week from now and guess where I’ll be going? That’s right, Chili’s! I can’t wait to order the Tripper Dipper as well as the Chicken Club Quesadillas. The Tripper Dipper is an awesome dish to share with everyone at the table. I would usually get the Southwestern Egg Rolls, Wings over Buffalo and the Loaded Potato Skins. They are just so so so good!

When you think of Cinco de Mayo and drinks, you think of Margaritas and Coronas, right? Mmm mmm mmmm, two of my all-time favorite drinks.  I love it so much, I have always hoped that someone would serve them together. Guess what? They do at Chili’s! I am so excited to try the new CoronaRita at Chili's. It’s made with Jose Cuervo Especial Tequila and a Coronita. Can’t wait to try it. I bet it would taste so good with my Chicken Club Quesadillas! Now that you know what I love from Chili’s, what’s yours? What do you think of Chili’s new CoronaRita Margarita? Are you as excited as I am to try it? Leave me a comment and tell me all about it!

*You must be 21 years or older to drink alcoholic beverages and as always, please remember to drink responsibly

Giveaway: Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

The days are longer and the weather is getting warmer. The frost is gone and you can see life beginning to sprout everywhere. Yup, spring is finally here! I don’t know about you, but each time spring comes around, it always signifies the beginning of gardening season in this household. I am not much of a green thumb but Kevin totally enjoys gardening. He would spend hours at the garden center each spring, making sure that he has the best products in order to get the best results.  He always says that the soil is the most important thing, if we want big and beautiful plants. I totally agree with him. That is why we only use Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix.  It’s a no brainer, really. We plant most of our plants in pots, so we would need the best possible soil. From our experience, this is definitely the best planting mix from Miracle-Gro®.  It expands up to 3 times when mixed with water and it feeds plants for up to 6 months. It’s really easy to use! Not only is it the best planting mix and easy to use, it is also hassle free. Since it’s a concentrated planting mix and expands only when water is add, its packaging is way smaller than all the other brands. No more lugging around huge and heavy planting mix bags! Who says maintaining a beautiful and luscious garden is difficult?
Now that I have told you how easy and hassle free Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix is to use, let me tell you about how it is different from basic potting and garden soils. Firstly, has a unique blend of Miracle‐Gro plant food and coconut coir fiber which comes in a compact, lightweight, easy‐to‐carry and easy‐to‐store bag. In short, Expand ‘n Gro can do everything a big, heavy bag of soil can do, only better! Also, this concentrated planting mix expands up to 3 times when mixed with water. Not only that, it also feeds plants for up to 6 months, makes native soil more workable and retains up to 50% more moisture than basic potting soil! With all that, it significantly improves soil for multiple years. Now, it’s this an awesome is that?
Now that I have told you all about the Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix by Miracle-Gro®, here’s your chance to try it yourself. How? All you need to do is watch the video below and leave a comment about what you think about Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix or how you would use it. I’ll randomly pick a winner from all of the comments after April 30^th, 2012 and I’ll send you a sample size to try out! Remember, get all your comments in by April 30^th, 2012, 11:59pm EST in order for you to be in the running to win this giveaway!

Giveaway: Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Scotts®. All opinions are 100% mine.

The days are longer and the weather is getting warmer. The frost is gone and you can see life beginning to sprout everywhere. Yup, spring is finally here! I don’t know about you, but each time spring comes around, it always signifies the beginning of gardening season in this household. I am not much of a green thumb but Kevin totally enjoys gardening. He would spend hours at the garden center each spring, making sure that he has the best products in order to get the best results. He always says that the soil is the most important thing, if we want big and beautiful plants. I totally agree with him. That is why we only use Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix. It’s a no brainer, really. We plant most of our plants in pots, so we would need the best possible soil. From our experience, this is definitely the best planting mix from Miracle-Gro®. It expands up to 3 times when mixed with water and it feeds plants for up to 6 months. It’s really easy to use! Not only is it the best planting mix and easy to use, it is also hassle free. Since it’s a concentrated planting mix and expands only when water is add, its packaging is way smaller than all the other brands. No more lugging around huge and heavy planting mix bags! Who says maintaining a beautiful and luscious garden is difficult?

Now that I have told you how easy and hassle free Miracle-Gro® Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix is to use, let me tell you about how it is different from basic potting and garden soils. Firstly, has a unique blend of Miracle‐Gro plant food and coconut coir fiber which comes in a compact, lightweight, easy‐to‐carry and easy‐to‐store bag. In short, Expand ‘n Gro can do everything a big, heavy bag of soil can do, only better! Also, this concentrated planting mix expands up to 3 times when mixed with water. Not only that, it also feeds plants for up to 6 months, makes native soil more workable and retains up to 50% more moisture than basic potting soil! With all that, it significantly improves soil for multiple years. Now, it’s this an awesome is that?

Now that I have told you all about the Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix by Miracle-Gro®, here’s your chance to try it yourself. How? All you need to do is watch the video below and leave a comment about what you think about Expand ‘n Gro™ Concentrated Planting Mix or how you would use it. I’ll randomly pick a winner from all of the comments after April 30^th, 2012 and I’ll send you a sample size to try out! Remember, get all your comments in by April 30^th, 2012, 11:59pm EST in order for you to be in the running to win this giveaway!

Fighting Hunger Together with Walmart!

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of The Walmart Foundation. All opinions are 100% mine.

Whenever we think of people suffering from hunger, images of under nourished children from Africa comes to mind. We have been exposed to so much publicity about starving people around the world, be it Africa, South America or even Asia that few of us realize that there are many people fighting hunger each day, in our very own backyards! Did you know that more than 50 million Americans don't know where their next meal will come from? That’s right, 50 million! You must be thinking, wow, that’s impossible. Let me tell you, it’s more than real. One of the principal causes of hunger is unemployment. With the current unemployment rate being sky high, it makes a whole lot of sense. Also, did you know that traditionally, during springtime, there is a decrease in food and charitable donations to food banks around the country? Yeah, I didn’t know that too.

To help bridge the spring hunger gap, from Monday, April 9 through April 30, Walmart will be working with Feeding America and four of the most recognizable food brands in America (ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft and Kellogg's) in a nationwide Fighting Hunger Together initiative. This initiative is expected to generate 43 million meals for families in need. That’s awesome, right? Guess what? As a consumer, you too can join the fight against hunger in-store or through Facebook!

How? There are two ways actually. The first way is to participate in store. Between April 9 and April 30, whenever you purchase select products from ConAgra, General Mills, Kraft and Kellogg's, you can donate meals to Feeding America or Action for Healthy Kids, a nonprofit fighting childhood hunger. Just remember to check out in-store signage and packaging to make a purchase and help make a difference!

The other way is to participate through Facebook. Between April 9th and April 30^th, Walmart will be hosting a Facebook campaign where fans can rally support for communities in need of hunger relief. Vote for one of 200 communities with the highest unemployment rate (as determined by a Department of Labor Report) and Walmart will donate a total of $2 million to the 21 communities receiving the most support. That’s right, $1 million to the winner and $50,000 each to the 20 runners-up! The winning communities will be announced on May 1^st. I don’t know about you but I will be voting for the people in the New York-Northern NJ-Long Island, NY-NJ-PA Metropolitan Statistical Area. This is where I live and hence, they get all of my support! You should vote too! Who will you be voting for? Remember to spread the word to your friends and get them to cast in their vote as well. Let’s all do this together. Vote to fight spring hunger with Walmart!

Boonsong Thai Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ

We were driving around last weekend, trying to find a new restaurant to checkout for dinner. We came upon this small stretch of shops along Broad St in Bloomfield and we noticed that it was mainly eateries. In that small section alone, there was a Greek, Japanese, Thai, Italian, Chinese as well as a few American restaurants and bakeries. After driving around for quite some time, trying to find a parking spot (there are only limited street side parking available),we finally parked a couple of streets away, in a residential area. We walked down the street a little and decided to check out the cozy looking Thai restaurant (the Greek restaurant looked good too though!).

The restaurant looked pretty empty for a Saturday night but we noticed that most of the servers were Thai. That's a good sign that the food might be authentic, right? *fingers crossed* Our server was really polite and pleasant, and for a moment, we felt as though we were in a restaurant in Phuket or Bangkok :P After being seated, Kevin ordered the Thai Iced Milk Tea (which by the way was really good) before we checked out their menu. The menu was rather basic, with all the 'usual' Thai dishes. However, I was pretty impressed that they had a rather large vegetarian section in their menu. So, vegetarians out there, please take note. You have to go check this place out!

After looking through the menu, we decided to order our food 'family style'. This means everything is served at once and is placed in the middle of the table, so that it we could share them. How can we go to a Thai restaurant and not order Tom Yum, right? So, we tried a small serving of Shrimp Tom Yum Soup ($4.00). When they asked us how spicy we would like it to be, we said very mild. I think that was a mistake, cos the soup wasn't spicy at all. In fact, it was rather tasteless. As you can see from the photo, there also wasn't many shrimps in the soup. Rather disappointing.

We also tried the Tod Mum Pla ($6.95). That's the traditional fried Thai fishcakes that has been spiced with Thai curry, string beans and kaffir lime leaves. The fishcakes were served with a side of sweet peanut sauce. Now, this was really really good! It tasted like the ones we tried when we were visiting Bangkok a couple of years ago, so yeah, very very authentic! I will definitely order this again.

There were also a whole bunch of different Thai curries to choose from. We finally decided to order the Gang Ped Yang ($14.95). Generous amounts of boneless roasted duck, cooked in red curry and coconut milk with large chunks of pineapple, tomato and chilies. Another home run! The curry wasn't too spicy, very creamy and had just the right amount of heat. I must say that this was my favorite dish of the night!

As a filler, we ordered the Pineapple Fried Rice ($9.95). I must admit that I was initially rather disappointed that the pineapple fried rice wasn't being served in a pineapple boat but I think the taste made up for it! Fluffy jasmine rice stir fried with jumbo shrimp, pineapple chunks, onions, scallions, green peas and cashew nuts. Mmmm mmmm mmmm, very very yummy too! Overall, I think that we had a pretty good dinner. Parking was a problem and it was a little bit pricier than other Thai restaurants in the area but I feel that the awesome service and authentic tasting food made up for it. Boonsong Thai Cuisine is definitely a hidden neighborhood gem!

Boonsong Thai Cuisine - Bloomfield, NJ
1040 Broad St.
Bloomfield, NJ 07003
Tel: (973)338 0507
Web: http://boonsongthaicuisine.com