Ward Off Vampires This Halloween with Garlic Turbana Plantain Chips

I love Cuban food. I am sure some of you remember my recipe for Cuban Sandwiches on my blog. I am a pretty picky eater and I was unsure about trying plantains for the first time. I think I probably had to be coerced to try them.  I ended up loving them.  My favorite kinds of plantains are the chips. When I lived in South Florida, I happened to live pretty much across the street from my favorite Cuban restaurant that I ended up going to a few years earlier on vacation a couple times.  The smashed plantains are good too, but not as good as the chips. That was my favorite thing to order from the Cuban restaurant with my Cubano.  When I first fell in love with Plantain chips, I was living in Indiana. I remember going on a plantain chip hunt with my ex husband.  We probably when to four Latino grocery stores before we found plantain chips back in 2004.  So, when I had the opportunity to review some Turbana Plantain chips you knew I jumped on that opportunity.  Turbana is a company that is based in South Florida, close to where I used to live.  They make flavored plantain chips. They are a much healthier choice than the normal potato chips. They would be a better afterschool snack or even with Halloween coming up as a better alternative for Trick or Treaters.  You know that your kids are going to end up with tons of candy, it would be nice if some people gave out some Turbana Plantain Chips, hopefully the garlic flavor for two reasons. The first reason is to ward off those vampires.  #2 so I can eat them all. 

 When I received the Turbana plantain chips to try out, they seriously lasted a hour. I salivated at the thought of garlic plantain chips. I think that the company must have done their research on me and knew that garlic is one of my most favorite things to eat. Yeah, they were shoveled in my mouth by the handful.  I was so sad when they were all gone. I had Noah, who gets his picky eater syndrome from me, try one.  He thought the garlic ones were hot.  I wasn’t too sad, I said to him, more for me then.  I asked him if he wanted to try the regular plantain chips, I told him they weren’t hot, and he loved him. He said and I quote. Plantain chips are my most  favoritest food.  Noah doesn’t really eat any chips though so I am glad he loves plantains as much as I do.   I felt good about giving Noah them because they have 30% less fat than potato chips and twice the flavor. I am sure someone out there is unaware of what a plantain is. I didn’t know for most of my life. It looks similar to a banana, but it doesn’t taste like one.  It’s a tropical food, it is used a lot in Latino cuisine.  It sounds different but we love them.  So, from my picky eaters to yours, check out Turbana Plantain chips.  

For more information please check out the Turbana Plantainchips website.

I received some samples of Turbana Plantain chips for my family to try out. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

Seducing Christopher Mendoza

I have been known to watch some guilty pleasure shows in my time. Some of the shows I watched were on Fox Reality. It is not on any more and sadly Fox Reality, which was a channel full of reality shows, a lot of them are kind of trashy. I used to watch a show that was only on at like 3 or 4 am, and I have insomnia so, I was up and started watching it. It was about a woman who was a private investigator who busted cheaters. There wasn’t much on TV and I kind of found it interesting.  The show I watched all the time was called Seducing Cindy. I am not sure why I cared if Cindy Margolis found love or not, I found it interesting. Basically, there were 20 or so guys were fighting to win Cindy’s heart. There was this guy named Christopher Mendoza, who was Cindy’s number one fan. Christopher was the sweetest guy on the show and he was often picked on by Timmy Z. who was a total jerk.

I cheered loud enough to wake the neighborhood when Timmy Z. was told to leave.  I often tweeted with my friend about the show and I remember celebrating with her via Twitter when Timmy Z was gone.  I remember this one episode of Seducing Cindy, where they pretending Cindy was in a horrible accident to see who would be there for her completely.  Christopher was really afraid of needles and he almost passed out during the blood test for a kidney match.  He would have given her his kidney, and I was crying when he realized she was absolutely fine.  Christopher is a total catch. He is so sweet, and a total hunk.  I wish more guys were like him. He would always say a prayer before she said who was leaving.  He is stinkin’ adorable!

I watched the show for him, secretly tweeting to my friend Jessica about how I was going to marry Christopher Mendoza. I was going to take him from Cindy. Once he was voted off, I couldn’t bear to watch anymore.  I cried real tears because she threw away her Prince Charming. I wanted them to be together although, I am not sure she deserved such a loving man. I don’t think I would win in a fight with Cindy; she looks kind of like an Amazon woman. She’d probably knock me out.  She ended up picking this guy named Leighton. He was nice but he was no Christopher Mendoza. Cindy and Leighton broke up shortly after the show ended.  I wasn’t really surprised. I think she picked him for the wrong reasons.  I hope Christopher finds the woman of his dreams that is worthy of all the love he has.  Maybe he will pick me. I have family in San Antonio, so Christopher if you are reading this…let’s chat.

Mall Surveys

I went to the mall the other day with Noah and my friend Ben. We went to the Lego Store and a couple other places. Noah was really excited to go to the Lego Store because we had never been and he is huge in to Lego. As I am typing this I hear the sounds of Lego bricks being moved around. I let Noah pick out a set and we also filled a small container of odds and ends Lego pieces, like tires and other assorted random pieces. Noah made some really cool things with the pieces.  I had not been to that mall in at least six months if not longer, so I wanted to walk around and see what was new.  We only wanted to go to a few places but walking to the end of the mall it happened.  I am not sure if your mall has those people that come up to you and ask you if you want to answer some questions or do a survey.

I was aware of them because they have been frequenting the mall that I was at for many years.  I was on high alert, they are like secret agents that pop out the shadows and bam you are asked will you please answer some questions.  I always say no, because I know my adorable five year old doesn’t want to sit through it and neither do I.  Well, Ben being the guy that talks to anyone for long periods of time about anything, decided to say yes.  I was hoping that Noah would have thrown a fit at that time, to get out of it. I really like Ben; he is just really friendly to everyone. I am more reserved and shy.  So, we follow the lady who was very nice and she started asking us questions about fragrances. She said it would take only a few minutes, time had either stopped or we were misinformed.  I thought ok we will fill out her questionnaire and we would be on our way. No big deal, I can write fast.  I could already tell Noah was not thrilled to say the least. 

After we both answered questions, and filled out our information we were led in to an office. I remember a long time ago I did a survey for cough syrup, it was not a pleasant experience so I said never again would I do a mall one.  Maybe that is why the lady asked me if I did a survey with her before a long time ago. Maybe I was in the training video of upset clients. I don’t really remember the circumstances, but I remember it was bad. I think I ended up walking out and telling them to shove their cough syrup.  So, after we went in the office they verified our information, and then called us on our phones. What if it were a home phone? How could they verify? Noah and I were taken in a room and I had to be sprayed with a perfume, that smelled pretty good. It was citrusy, it kind of reminded me of Clinque Happy.  Then I had to wait and answer questions on a computer.  I had to wait until the timer ran out. I was relieved when I had finished, and then she sprayed my other wrist with a perfume that I didn’t like at all and wait and answer questions.  Finally I was done.  I collected my pay for my hard hours work, two George Washington’s , yes two dollars. Ben got three and didn’t have to do as much as I did.  I guess equal pay for men and women is still not in affect.  I think it was gender discrimination.  I am just kidding.

I don’t know if you have ever worn two different perfumes or colognes at the same time, but by the time we went to dinner I stunk. Every time I put food in my mouth I could smell it and as it worked out I am left handed and the stinky perfume was on my left wrist. I wasn’t allowed to rinse it off.  They were supposed to call me to ask me more questions, they called once and I was in the middle of dinner and I had really bad service in the restaurant and we got disconnected.   I had a great time with Ben though. I know Noah did too. Noah was so incredibly good.