Silk for Milk 10-Day Challenge and Giveaway

I have a family that loves them some ice cold milk.  Add some chocolate and they are ecstatic!  So when I was asked to participate in the Silk for Milk 10-Day Challenge I jumped at the chance to try to bring some healthier options to the table for me and the men folk.  So for the last 10 days I have been substituting Silk Milks for regular milk in various meals and recipes at my house.  Here's how it all went down...

I started the challenge on April 11th.  The first milk I got was Silk Soymilk in the Vanilla flavor.  I decided that when the kids or hubby asked for ice cream, I would make smoothies instead.  The Vanilla Silk Soymilk was perfect for the mixture.  It added some great flavor to the berries and orange juice and gave the smoothies a creamy texture.  They were such a big hit that we had them almost every afternoon!

Using some of the suggestions from the Silk website, I also used the Vanilla flavored Silk in place of regular milk to make chocolate pudding and I added it to the custard mixture when I made french toast!  I like the fact that Silk has no cholesterol and no saturated fats, which makes me feel like the french toast and pudding were just a little more healthy than they would have been otherwise! 

This is actually the 12th day of my challenge.  I finished it today by having what was left of my 2nd carton of Silk Soymilk on my oatmeal.  It was just the regular flavor and it was just as tasty as regular milk.  Throughout the week we used the plain Silk Soymilk to make fluffier scrambled eggs, in our cereal and in mashed potatoes.  Me and the boys agree that we couldn't drink a glass of the Silk plain like we do with real milk, but it was really easy to substitute it into various recipes and snacks!

To help one of my readers take the Silk to Milk 10-day Challenge, I'm giving away a Free Silk coupon along with a cute little Chico bag (courtesy of Silk)!  To win, leave me a comment telling us how you would substitue Silk for regular milk in your daily routine.  Contest ends on May 7th at 12 midnight, MST.  US Residents Only.  

*Disclosure* - I was not compensated monetarily for this post.  SILK provided me with a product sample in order to facilitate this review.  My product reviews are always honest and my opinions are my own. 

Blackie Chan Strikes Again...Clean and Green Review/Giveaway

Okay, I have to say it out loud.  I haven't been a responsible pet owner.  I have had Blackie Chan for 3 years now and have still not had him neutered.  I know.  I KNOW!!!  It is irresponsible.  In my defense though, there are no spay/neuter clinics close to my house, they are all like an hour away and I have to have the cat there at 6 a.m.!   I used to use that as an excuse a lot...until my awesome neighbor who has the energy of five Energizer bunnies told me she made the trip for her cat a few months ago.  She's got kids and a job and all of the issues I have, but she was responsible and did the right thing.  And now I need to finally get my cat crap together and do the right thing too.  For my cat and for my neighbors.  Also because "Kitty Karma" paid me back in spades a few weeks ago for not taking care of Blackie Chan's maleness.

Here's how Blackie Chan's Ninja attack went down.  We're all sitting in the family room one day, watching TV.  Blackie is getting a major rubdown by Big Brother and loving life.  You could here him purring all the way upstairs.  Then all of the sudden he jumps up and starts running toward the front door, yowling his head off to go outside.  Well, apparently no one got there fast enough for him because while he was waiting he decided to spray my really nice, big brown, velvet comfy chair.  You know the smell, right?  It's freaking noxious and I swear I have never made it across a room as fast as I did that day to open the door and chase that cat outside.  I think I said some not very lady-like words while I was running him out the door.  

AAUUGGHHH!!!  Cat spray is one of the nastiest smells in the world, and now it was in my house!!!!   The kids were freaking out, Big Man was ready to nueter the cat himself and I was trying not to gag when I remembered a can of stuff I received in the mail a few weeks prior to the spraying, so I ran into the kitchen to grab it.

It's called Clean and Green and it is the most fabulous stuff on earth for removing pet odors!  I am so not making this up, people.  This really did happen and I really did get a sample of this stuff to try and I am telling you all about it because it is one of those wonderful products that actually does what it says it will do!  It literally saved my cat and my furniture.  I sprayed it on the area as directed and almost imediately noticed that at least the smell in the air started to dissapate.  As far as the chair goes, it took three applications to totally remove the smell, but I swear to you there is not one bit of lingering odor left on that chair.  It really is amazing stuff.  It's made by SeaYu® Enterprises.  Here's their bio:

At SeaYu®, we love animals – and we care about the world we live in. That’s why we’ve carefully developed safe, effective, pet cleaning products. Clean+Green® are eco-friendly aerosol pet cleaning products, delivering instant results in a non-toxic, eco-friendly solution. Based in San Francisco, SeaYu was founded 2002 by two fun-loving dog owners – one a former high-tech executive who is passionate about pets and cleaning her house, and the other a former apparel marketing executive who loves animals as much as he loves the planet. For more information, visit us at  www.odorandstainremover.com.

So what's the moral here?  People who don't get their cats neutered will eventually be victims of their own negligence.  So I have made an appointment at one of the clinics to get my cat neutered.  And I will drag my lazy butt out of bed at 5 a.m. to get him there so that no one has to endure his smelly spray again, although I am told that getting him neutered may not stop him from spraying, which means I'd better stock up on Clean and Green.

In the meantime, you can win a can of Clean and Green!  It's good for neutralizing all kinds of pet odors, so it works for dog owners too!  All you have to do is "LIKE" Clean and Green on Facebook, then come back here and leave me a comment telling me you did so. Easy peasy, right?  Contest will end on April 24th at 12 pm. Midnight.  US addresses only.