Key Ingredient Review and Giveaway

One of the things I love to do when I cook and bake is try new recipes. My family likes to rip out recipes from the newspaper and magazines to try. Some of my favorite recipes were obtained that way.  I also have a lot of recipes that are really old and unorganized. Every year my family does holiday baking. One of the recipes we make is Peanut Blossoms, we always use the same recipe. It is from a cookie magazine from 1982.  That means my mom received the recipe when I was one years old.  If I ever lost that recipe I would be heartbroken.  I know whose recipe it is but it wouldn’t be the exact same.  I have kept all of my loose recipes in a Target bag.  There is a huge stack of them in there.  The bag has deteriorated over the years many times but I always replace it with a Target bag. Through the years I have lost recipes.  These are recipes that are secret. You can’t find them online. One of the recipes I lost is a cookie brittle recipe that was created by a family friend who passed away. That means I will never be able to make that recipe again.  I am very sad about this because it was an amazing recipe.  I am horrible about organizing recipes.  My mom used to put recipes in photo albums. We still have them but I would need many photo albums if I were to use her method. It isn’t space effective honestly. 

I had the opportunity to try out Key Ingredient Recipe Reader. Key Ingredient is an electronic recipe box.  It is similar to a tablet. Think of it as a recipe tablet. It has five built in timers. That is a great feature when you have all kinds of things going on in the kitchen.  Sometimes you are using the oven and the oven timer is on, you have something cooking on the stove and you are using the microwave timer. Then you realize you need the microwave to make a snack. You can’t run both the timer and microwave at the same time. You have to remember how much time you have to set it after it beeps.  When I say five timers, I mean heavy duty long timers. Noah decided to test it out.  It will go up to at least 1,000 HOURS.  It has Wi-Fi for too.  It comes preloaded with recipes and you can easily put your recipes on it and find others recipes too.  It has a feature that you can keep your recipes private if you want. I really like that because I have certain recipes that I will never share unless you are family.  Usually these are recipes my Grandma Rose created. I think they are great recipes but the memory of making them with her is sacred to me.

More about Key Ingredient:

A perfect gift for Mom, grandma or the pint-sized budding chef in the family, the Key Ingredient Recipe Reader lets home chefs access up to 4,000 recipes at the touch of a screen. Your readers may want to share a treasured family cheesecake recipe with the world. Or perhaps they prefer to keep the recipe secret and share only with other family members? The Recipe Reader also syncs with a free keyingredient.com account, which allows people to search, download and “cookmark” an unlimited number of recipes online. Just load it with favorite recipes and switch it on.

Earlier versions of the Key Ingredient Recipe Reader have been featured on national shows including The View, The Talk and popular cooking and family blogs.

With a color, large-font touch screen feature, built-in-timers, handy substitution and conversion tools, and durable construction that withstands the hazards of a kitchen, the Recipe Reader is a great gift for all the chefs in the family. Retailing at $149, the Recipe Reader is available at Key Ingredient, Costo and Amazon.

Sometimes I find great recipes online, I never seem to have a working printer or ink when I find them. I have done the whole running back and forth from the kitchen to my iPhone and back to follow a recipe.  I don’t want to ruin my phone or computer.  I want to keep it safe. I also have a seven year old who sometimes distracts me when I am en route, and I forget something, I either have to look again or think I know what I am doing, that usually results in one of my famous crisis cooking episodes. It always turns out great but it is funny because I am prone to doing something silly.  The Key Ingredient is totally kitchen friendly. It is made to withstand spills and splatters. I am an insanely messy chef.  Somehow I start in one area and dance around the kitchen because when I am done, it is a mess.  I think it is great that Key Ingredient is Sheila proof.  When I am cooking with Noah it is also fun chaos. I have had recipes disappear mid recipe, it falls off the counter or ends up in the trash. I catch it before it is lost for forever though.  Key Ingredient would be a great gift for anyone who likes to cook and bake. I think it would be a great gift to load with your family recipes before giving it as a gift.

For more information please visit the Key Ingredient Website.

I have a giveaway for you!

One super lucky winner will receive their very own Key Ingredient.  You can keep it or give it as a great gift.

Mandatory Entry:  Tell me about a kitchen mishap you have had

You must do the mandatory entry for the extra entries to count.

Extra Entries:

Follow @Sheilacakes7 on Twitter worth 2 entries

Tweet about this giveaway including a link to this post. Worth 1 entry but can be done daily.

Like Sheilacakes on Facebook worth 2 entries

Like Key Ingredient on Facebook worth 2 entries

Follow Key Ingredient on Twitter worth 2 entries

Please leave separate comments. 

This giveaway is open to US Residents ONLY.

This giveaway will end on December 7, 2013

Art 101 Review

As a mother of a budding artist, it seems like I can never keep enough art supplies in our home.  It seems like he is always losing colored pencils or running them down to where they have to be sharpened daily.  He really enjoys art class at school where he has had the chance to try out other mediums of art.  I really love that he is an artist, because I am extremely unartistic. He did not get the art gene from me.  I am great at coloring but that is about it. I took ceramics in high school thinking I would be good at it, I was not.  I really want to foster and embrace his love of art and implement some of the techniques that he has been learning at school.  I think in order to be a great artist you have to have talent, and the proper tools to succeed. There are a lot of art sets out there. I know, I have been looking for a while to get one for Noah. Most of them are just crayons, colored pencils and markers.  We have so many crayons that they fill a medium sized plastic box. I wanted to find more than just the standard stuff he was already used to and possibly starting to grow bored with.  We had the opportunity to work with a company called Art 101.  Art 101 sells really cool quality art kits for children and adults.  They have artist sets, and even a kid’s line called Art 101 Kids.

I finally found the art set I had been looking for. It has some of the basics and some not so basic items in it.  We received The Art 101 179 pc Double Sided Trifold Easel Art Set to try out. The Art 101 179pc Double Sided Trifold Easel Art Set comes with 48 crayons, 48 oil pastels, 24 color pencils, 19 watercolors, 12 markers, 10 sheets of paper, 4 large clips, 3 paper clips, 1 Art 101 Painting and Drawing Guide, 1 sketch pencil, 1 paint brush, 1 ruler, 1 eraser, 1 color wheel, 1 palette, 1 pencil sharpener, and 1 sponge with a double sided easel in a trifold organizer case. This set is every artist’s dream. Noah really likes the easel because he can draw and paint at different angles.  He says you can never have too many colored pencils which have been his tool of choice lately.  I was never really big in to colored pencils. I liked crayons.  He is also a great painter so we will have fun painting on our balcony with the watercolors.  I don’t really know too much about pastels so we will learn together. I forgot to mention that I am taking Art Classes. Noah is teaching me at art class. We have so much fun together. I try really hard but even then he thinks some of my creations are silly looking. Hopefully through the extra art lessons and the new set we received from Art 101, there might be hope for me after all.

This is a great gift if you have an artist or artists in your family. It is a great set because like I said, it is more complex than a hand full of crayons, colored pencils and markers.

For more information please visit Art 101. You can find Art 101 products at Amazon, Toys R US and Target.

Thank you to Art 101 for providing the sample for our review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

KOOLIO Personal Beverage Cooler Review

Noah and I love to go to the beach and to the pool. Thankfully we live in a place where it is pretty warm most of the time. Even if we can’t get in the water at the beach we like to walk on the beach, collect shells and play in the sand. We also go for walks around town and go to the park to play. Like most people who do a lot of activity we always are thirsty.  There aren’t too many places to buy something to drink so we always bring our own, it is cheaper that way too.  However I either have to do three things because we do live in a warmer climate.  Number one: drink it really fast, which makes me thirsty later on.  Number two: drink a not so cold drink, which when you are hot and thirsty that doesn’t really help.  Number three: I have to carry a cooler.  Now, if I were going to a picnic, I wouldn’t mind bringing a cooler along. However when Noah and I go to the pool. We have so many other things to bring like noodles, towels, and his snorkel and mask. A cooler is just one more thing to carry and they are heavy. We are normally not at the pool for too long. A cooler would pretty much be pointless.   Another thing I have noticed when Noah and I are walking and we have beverages is that I end up carrying it, because it’s too cold for Noah to carry at first.  So, I am double fisted with drinks freezing my hands off until the sun inevitably warms it up. 

I received a really cool product to try out. It is called KOOLIO Personal Beverage Cooler. We all know about the standard drink holders, usually with some business’s name on it.  They are usually made out of foam or cheap fabric. While they do keep your hands from getting cold, they don’t really keep your drink cold. In theory you would think they would, but we all know they don’t.  KOOLIO came up with an awesome product that enhances the typical drink holder. Instead of just putting your drink in a foam thing, you open up the system and insert a freezer pack.  The freezer pack keeps it cold. It’s like you have ice in it, without the melting and watering down.  They give you two freezer packs with each KOOLIO Personal Beverage Cooler so when the first one is no longer cold you can use the other one. I tend to forget to put Noah’s lunch ice pack and his ouchie pack back in the freezer right away. So it is great to have a backup just in case. It also comes in ten colors.  My favorite color is the green one while Noah likes the red one. You no longer have to worry about drinking out of someone else’s drink. All you do is remember your color. This is great if you have parties or picnics with many people.  

Here is some information from KOOLIO:

• Holds most standard 12-ounce cans or bottles
• Colorful band for comfort and grip
• Non-slip ring on bottom so your KOOLIO  stays in place
• Hole in bottom of base unit for easy removal of empty cans or bottles
• Easy twist-off lid to keep your gel pack secure
• Non-toxic gel that does not freeze solid to provide a secure fit and maximum cooling effect
• Does not contain BPA, Lead or Phthalates

KOOLIO would be a great gift for anyone who does a lot of entertaining, lives in a warm climate or really anyone who likes to drink cold drinks. I use them around the house too.  I keep my soda cold with them, I usually don’t chug a soda, I tend to drink it over time and I don’t want to keep running to the refrigerator every time I need a sip. It also works for my beer drinking readers. It will fit glass bottles of beer or Twisted Tea, which is my best friend’s drink of choice. We are also in football season and it would be perfect to take tailgating or even to watch the game. It is also an affordable gift. It’s only $9.99 even though it is worth so much more than that. Think about how many warm bottles of beer you have ended up throwing away. KOOLIO will help you save money by not wasting expensive beverages.

For more information and to purchase KOOLIO, please visit the KOOLIO website.

Thank you to KOOLIO who provided me with samples to try out in order to review. All thoughts and opinions are my own.