See Hungry Girl and Consumers Talk About Yoplait Fiber One Yogurt and Try it for Yourself

Ever since I first had the opportunity to try Yoplait’s Fiber One yogurt last summer, I knew I had found my new favorite yogurt and since that time, my love for Fiber One yogurt has not wavered one little bit.

Before Yoplait’s Fiber One yogurt even hit shelves, it had already received Lisa Lillien, also known as Hungry Girl’s seal of approval. In fact, it is the first nationally-distributed yogurt to receive this seal of approval. In every 4oz of this yogurt is 5 grams of fiber (20% of the recommended daily value each and every single one of us need daily,) is a great source of calcium and vitamins A and D and is just 50 calories.

In the past, we have also had the opportunity to share with you coupons for Yoplait’s Fiber One yogurt–one for $1 off of a 4-pack of yogurt, and another for a free 4-pack of yogurt. Needless to say, this yogurt rocks and I am so excited to be able to share even more Fiber One yogurt love with all of you out there!

At a recent Fiber One yogurt tasting event, Lisa Lillien chatted with consumers about this tasty snack. Thanks to Yoplait, we have the opportunity to share a video with you from this recent tasting event so you can see what other folks think of Fiber One yogurt and also a downloadable $1 off Fiber One yogurt coupon!

Yoplait’s Fiber One yogurt comes in four flavors–strawberry, vanilla, peach and key lime pie, so you will definitely be able to find a flavor that you will absolutely love. Enjoy!

Progresso Souper You Giveaway Winner!

Thank you to everyone who entered our Progresso Souper You giveaway! We are so thrilled to be able to share the Progresso love, being huge fans of the brand ourselves and even bigger fans of a way to manage our weight and calorie intake in a very, very delicious way. The winner of this giveaway will receive the Progresso prize pack which has been provided by Progresso through MyBlogSpark, pictured above–2 cans of Progresso Light and 100 calorie soups, a Progresso soup mug and a digital jump rope that keeps track of your jumps and also of calories burned.

So, without further ado, the lucky winner is…

Congratulations, Jennifer T!

3/365 Days: Progresso

I recently had the opportunity to try 15 out of the 40 new flavors of Progresso Light and 100 calorie soups, thanks to Progresso and their new Souper You Debut contest, and MyBlogSpark. They are so delicious and like I mentioned in the full-length review of Progresso Light soups, I have recently been going through a great deal of physical pain because of my crowded, impacted wisdom teeth that I have not been able to get pulled and having Periodontal Disease, which also attributes to that major cheek-swelling you can’t help but notice in the above picture, so needless to say, soup is one of the major items on my extremely limited list of food items my mouth has been able to handle lately.

Progresso, you couldn’t have come at a better time.

We are also giving away a Progresso Prize Pack which consists of 2 cans of Progresso Light and 100 calorie soups, a Progresso mug (which you see in the above picture,) and a digital jump rope that keeps track of jumps and calories burned over time. Enter for your chance to win! The giveaway ends February 10th at 11:59PM EST.

Progresso Souper You Review and Giveaway

This giveaway has closed.

At the start of every new year, most of the women I know and connect with regularly openly talk about how their New Year’s resolution is to lose weight and/or to eat healthier. These are some great resolutions, especially the eating healthy one because while losing weight is a perk for a great deal of women, I whole-heartedly believe that crash dieting and the diet industry as a whole is a multi-billion dollar business for a reason, so if you do truly want to lose weight, it should be for purely health reasons, which is why eating healthy and choosing foods that will nourish you instead of just fill you is really important.

Now that we are more than a month into the new year, (by the way, can you believe that? I know I can’t!) a lot of women have been reporting on their progress with their New Year’s resolutions and if they have been able to stick to what they had planned before January 1st. I have noticed that a lot of women are increasingly strong-willed this year in the commitments they have made to themselves, nearly everyone I’ve checked up on who I had read on their blogs had made a New Year’s resolution has been sticking to it pretty phenomenally. So, for those of you who made the resolution to eat healthier and who are still on the fast-track to healthy eating, I have something really great to share with you!

I am a big, big, big fan of soup. I have been not-so blessed in the teeth department, having been diagnosed with Periodontal Disease and rapid tooth decay a few years ago after my wisdom teeth had started to push their way in. Because I am a professional blogger and also a freelance writer and web designer and developer who works from home, I have a very modest monthly income. I can pretty much cover my expenses month-to-month and that’s about it. That, coupled with the fact that I also live with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder and major depressive disorder, (which I have blogged about here before,) makes it impossible for me to hold a job outside of the home, it isn’t a possibility for me to go out and get a part time job to help pay dental bills. Needless to say, this causes me a great deal of excruciating physical pain where for days at a time, I am unable to open my mouth wide enough to get most foods in it. That is when soup saves my life and the sanity I would not have after getting insanely frustrated with how big bite-sized food is.

Progresso has always been a great source of delicious and nutritious soup and they have made it even healthier than before by offering an entire product line of light soups that are all 100 calories or less! It is officially super easy to get a great and satisfying meal in your belly and help manage your weight at the same time. To celebrate their line of light soups, Progresso has launched the Souper You Debut–a contest where you can enter for the chance to win a full makeover in New York City!

To enter the Progresso Souper You Debut contest, all you have to do is go to www.Progresso.com/SouperYou and submit an essay (200 characters or less) telling Progresso why you love Progresso Light or 100 calorie soups and why you would like a full makeover. You will also need to submit a photo of yourself that visually reinforces the theme of your essay. Three grand prize winners will be awarded a trip for two to New York City from May 21st-23rd and includes roundtrip airfare, a two-night stay in a NYC hotel, a full makeover, a $1000 wardrobe shopping spree and personal consultation at a New York department store. Pretty fabulous if you ask me!

Review & Giveaway

To get the good word out about new Progresso Light and 100 calorie soups, I had the opportunity to try them out for myself and thanks to Progresso and MyBlogSpark, received 15 cans of Progresso Light and 100 calorie soups in a variety of different flavors, along with a Progresso soup mug and a digital jump rope that keeps track of jumps and calories burned to help you start working out more, in addition to utilizing soup to help manage your weight.

The variety of soups I received is absolutely insane; I was completely blown away by the amount of different flavors offered and there is definitely something for everyone’s specific tastes. My partner, who usually despises soup and will not eat it regardless of what you bribe him with, loved the Italian-Style Meatball with Penne and I cannot get enough of the Chicken and Dumpling. I love, love, love the Progresso soup mug and now refuse to eat my soup out of anything else. It has a great little thumb indentation at the top of the handle to make carrying it from the kitchen to my computer desk very comfortable.

And we want to share the Progresso love!

Because Progresso is awesome like that and MyBlogSpark is always all about extending the opportunity to try awesome products to others, we have the opportunity to give one lucky Woman Tribune reader 2 cans of Progresso Light soup, a Progresso soup mug and a digital jump rope.

To win the Progresso Prize Pack, all you have to do is visit ProgressoSoup.com and tell us what flavor of Progresso Light soup you would love to try. [REQUIRED]

Additional Entries: [Leave a separate comment for each additional entry.]

• Tell us what steps you take to manage your weight.
• Subscribe to Woman Tribune
• Follow Woman Tribune on Twitter
• Become a fan of Woman Tribune on Facebook
• Subscribe to our videos on YouTube
• Tweet about this giveaway. Feel free to use the following tweet or write your own: [Can be done once per day.]
  

  Win 2 cans of Progresso Light soup, soup mug and digital jump rope from @WomanTribune: http://tinyurl.com/yf24hmk #giveaway

• Blog about this giveaway. [2 entries, so leave 2 comments.]

This giveaway ends Wednesday, February 10th at 11:59PM EST. This giveaway is open to all US residents over the age of 18. The winner will be contacted by email and has 48 hours to respond with their necessary information. If no action is taken, another winner will be picked.

Full Contest Disclaimer

Disclosure: I was given the opportunity to spread the word about Progresso’s Souper You Debut and new line of Light and 100 calorie soups from Progresso and MyBlogSpark. For this post, I received the factual information, 15 cans of Progresso Light and 100 calorie soup, a Progresso soup mug and digital jump rope from Progresso and MyBlogSpark. They have also provided me with the opportunity to give away two cans of Progresso soup, soup mug and digital jump rope to one lucky Woman Tribune reader. All opinions throughout this post are 100% mine.

Haiti Emergency Relief Milk Program Update–Red Cross Advises Against Breast Milk Donations

Earlier this month, as all of the different information on relief efforts and how people could lend a helping hand to the people of Haiti after the devastating earthquake that has left millions of people dead, homeless and in desperate need of resources, we published a post on how nursing mothers could donate breast milk to Haiti to benefit Haitian babies in need of a food source.

Information on how to donate your breast milk to babies in need in Haiti came to light after a press release was put out by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America. The International Breast Milk Project soon after launched the Haiti Emergency Relief Milk Program, who said that they would be helping to cover hosts for the Human Milk Banking Association of North America to collect, process and ship breast milk that had been donated to Haiti. While the International Breast Milk Project does have several updates on their website from up to January 28th reporting that donated breast milk has arrived in Port-au-Prince and awaiting pick up, the Red Cross has recently released a statement saying that they are 100% sure that they did not ask for breast milk donations and have asked women to stop sending it.

The Emergency Nutrition Network and the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance have asked the Human Milk Banking Association of North America to retract their press release, saying that breast milk donations to Haiti present an “unfeasible and unsafe intervention.” In fact, milk that had arrived in Port-au-Prince as part of the International Breast Milk Project’s efforts, has remained unused because of concerns raised by the Office of U.S. Foreign Disaster Assistance and other agencies. It has also been stated that nursing mothers donating breast milk with the intentions of it being sent to Haiti, while done with the best intentions of helping to provide emergency relief, has stemmed from quite a bit of confusion when the milk banking group, as well as several associations, bloggers and heavy-hitting media released information saying that their milk was in great need, while it turns out that there never was a need for donated milk.

Across the board, every major relief organization agrees that the best way to help Haiti’s struggles at this time, as well as the best way to help any relief efforts, is to donate money so that non-profit organizations and others helping to aid Haiti are able to continue their efforts. If you are interested in donating money to the relief efforts in Haiti, check out our list of worthwhile charities working towards relief in Haiti.

If you are a nursing mother and would like to donate breast milk to help babies in need in the United States, the International Breast Milk Project has stated that they, along with the Human Milk Banking Association of North America does collect milk to help critically ill babies in neonatal intensive care units, as well as babies that cannot tolerate formula. You can contact the Human Milk Banking Association of North America on their website or by calling 1-866-998-4550 for further information and the donation process.

Woman Tribune has been reporting on the relief efforts, current conditions, ways to donate and how people around the world are uniting to help Haiti in a time of serious and desperate need. We will continue reporting as information becomes available, so please consider following our reporting on Haiti to stay up to date on what is happening there.

General Mills Further Commits to Health and Wellness in Children’s Cereals

General Mills is the leading cereal brand, and has been commited to offering parents a healthy and nutritious breakfast to feed their children without worrying about massive sugar consumption. I know what you’re thinking, cereals like Trix and Cinnamon Toast Crunch not containing massive amounts of sugar? Well, it may come as a surprise, but pre-sweetended cereals, such as the two mentioned above, only account for about 5% of sugar in a child’s diet and General Mills is dedicated to cutting down the amount of sugars present in their cereals to single-digit grams while also increasing the amount of key nutrients in their cereals, such as calcium and vitamin D. General Mills’ brand cereals are also a great provider of whole grain; making ready-to-eat cereal the number one source of whole grains in a child’s diet.

Cereal Health and Wellness has made some really great information on calories per-serving of major breakfast items available, which you can check out below:

I would have thought that oatmeal would be a healthier option for a child’s breakfast, but as it turns out, cereal and skim milk comes in at 20 calories less than oatmeal and skim milk, which I found really interesting.

While we may know the cliche statement that breakfast is the most important meal of the day, there is a lot of weight to it that parents need to pay a little more attention to, instead of letting children fend for themselves if they’re a little older to find something to run out the door with. Cereal is a really fast and easy breakfast and a 1998 study showed that children who eat breakfast perform better in school, compared to children who skip the first meal of the day. Children who eat breakfast also score higher on tests, are less likely to miss class or be tardy and have fewer reported discripline problems. As you can see, breakfast goes a long way!

General Mills cereal is absolutely commited to you and your child’s health and nutrition and they are offering a coupon for $1 off of your choice of General Mills cereals. Click here to get your coupon!

Disclosure: I was given the opportunity to spread the word about General Mills’ commitment to reducing sugars in cereals from General Mills and MyBlogSpark. For this post, I received VIP coupons, the online coupon link, and the information from General Mills and MyBlogSpark.

Lions, Tigers and Bears, Yum! Yum!

The creamy peanut butter on celery is a long-time child favorite; I remember seeing variations of it years and years ago when I was a child, but it is so obvious that a snack like this is as timeless as mac and cheese. Peanut butter and celery is a great after-school or bed time snack and Kraft has put a great spin on it adding some Barnum’s animal crackers.

You will need:

• 3 tbsp. creamy peanut butter
• 3 celery stalks (6 inch)
• 12 Barnum’s animal crackers
• 1 Honey Maid honey graham cracker, crushed (about 1/4 cup crumbs)

1. Spread peanut butter evenly into hollow parts of celery stalks.

2. Stand 4 of the animal crackers in the peanut butter in each stalk.

3. Sprinkle evenly with graham crumbs to resemble dirt.

If your child has peanut allergies, substitute Philadelphia strawberry light cream cheese spread instead of peanut butter and there you have it, a healthy and fun snack.

Donate Your Breast Milk–Haiti Emergency Relief Milk Program

While most of the information you will find concerning the need for relief efforts in Haiti following the tragic earthquake that hit Tuesday will be about the many, many charities you can donate to who are in need of emergency funds in order to provide the people of Haiti clean drinking water, food, blankets, temporary shelter and other supplies, I have just learned that you can also donate something else to the people of Haiti; something that will undoubtedly save countless children’s lives and something relatively easy to donate, especially if you, like myself, have a very low number coming up in your bank account. Breast milk–that’s right, you are able to donate your breast milk to Haitian babies in need; that is, if you can keep up with your child’s needs, of course.

Children are the most vulnerable during emergencies. Due to malnutrition and respiratory illnesses that are common and rampant among children after an emergency situation, particularly in the days, weeks and months following a natural disaster, child mortality can soar from 2-70 times higher than average. In addition to ensuring that a baby in Haiti has a food source when other sources may not be available for them, breast milk can also be used to wash with and treat scrapes and other small wounds, which will go such a long way in Haiti, where hospitals have been demolished and doctors, nurses, volunteers and caregivers are waiting on relief and aid when it comes to all sorts of medical supplies that they are in desperate need of.

The World Health Organization/United Nations Children’s Fund had this to say about breast milk in emergency situations:

“Where it is not possible for the biological mother to breastfeed, the first alternative, if available, should be the use of human breast milk from other sources. Human milk banks should be made available in appropriate situations.”

To donate your breast milk, contact the Human Milk Banking Association of North America by calling 1-866-998-4550 for further information on how to get your breast milk to children in need. You can also check milk banks and medical centers that accept breast milk donations all across the country, as well as in British Columbia, Canada here. Because of the conditions in Haiti, the International Breast Milk Project has reported that breast milk donations may be difficult to make it to and be sustained in Haiti and if your donation is not possible, your breast milk will be used in the United States for babies in the NICU and cases where it is medically needed so either way, your breast milk donation will be saving and sustaining lives.

Woman Tribune has been reporting on the relief efforts, current conditions, ways to donate and how people around the world are uniting to help Haiti in a time of serious and desperate need. We will continue reporting as information becomes available, so please consider following our reporting on Haiti to stay up to date on what is happening there.

Ultimate Chicken Fingers Recipe

It’s always hard to get children to eat healthy, but by using Bisquick Heart Smart mix, you can make a meal that would normally be greasy and fatty much lighter and a lot healthier. This recipe for Ultimate Chicken Fingers will go over splendidly!

You will need:

• 2/3 cup Bisquick Heart Smart mix
• 1/2 cup grated reduced-fat Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or garlic salt
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika
• 3 boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut crosswise into 1/2-inch strips
• 1/4 cup fat-free egg product
• 3 tablespoons 40% vegetable oil spread, melted

1. Heat oven to 450°F. Line cookie sheet with foil; spray with cooking spray.

2. In 1-gallon resealable food-storage plastic bag, stir together Bisquick® mix, cheese, salt and paprika. Dip half the chicken strips into egg product; place in bag of Bisquick mixture. Seal bag; shake to coat. Place chicken on cookie sheet. Repeat with remaining chicken. Drizzle vegetable oil spread over chicken.

3. Bake 12 to 14 minutes, turning after 6 minutes with pancake turner, until no longer pink in center.

The Wheat Process, Discovered

This is a Sponsored Post written by me on behalf of Wheat Food Council. All opinions are 100% mine.

As very busy women are prone to do, myself included, going to the grocery store and sticking a bunch of items in your cart, dashing through the checkout and back home is a mundane and sometimes even tedious task. Very, very rarely do we think about the items we are throwing into our carts while checking our watches and making sure we’re out of the store in time to run the other errands we have on our lists. Where do these foods come from? How were the fruits, vegetables and wheat farmed? Where did our wheat come from, anyway? Well, thanks to a great new interactive, online multimedia program we can now not only find out where certain types of wheat come from and how they are planted, farmed and ultimately get to be served on our dinner tables, we can virtually see and even actively take part in the farm-to-fork process.

How Wheat Works is educating the masses on where wheat starts and where it ends up in four phases–growth, harvest, milling/baking and your local grocery store. This is all made possible by the Wheat Foods Council who are striving to shed new light on wheat education and its nutritional properties and will ultimately result in informed food choices for families everywhere.

When I first saw the website and started going through the process, I immediately thought, “This is awesome, I get to play a game!”, which is when you know a company is doing something right when it comes to educating people on making more informed choices on pretty much anything. Adults are a lot like children in that respect, because even as we have gotten older, we’re still willing to do just about anything if it means having a little fun in the process–and I am no exception.

But while there is a definite fun factor in addition to learning a lot more on where the most popular grain comes from and how it winds up on your kitchen table, the Wheat Foods Council is also giving back in a very positive way with this initiative. For each participant who signs up at How Wheat Works and plants their virtual wheat field, the Council will donate two pounds of flour, up to 90,000 pounds to Operation Homefront, a non-profit organization providing assistance to US troops and their families who are in need. That is a lot of flour and it will undoubtedly make a great difference in the lives of those who need it.

The Wheat Foods Council is also extending this program to reach the youth population with their additional website, wheatfoods.org, which is chock full of great resources about wheat, fiber and grains, Just for Kids education about wheat and even recipes and photos, a great deal of which look absolutely amazing and I know I’ll have to try!

I learned a great deal from How Wheat Works, including where certain types of wheat are grown and that my state of Pennsylvania only grows one type of wheat and my state had one, very small and lonely dot indicating wheat was grown here at all. So go check out the website, plant a virtual wheat field and above all, make a difference by getting the Wheat Food Council up to 90,000 pounds of flour donated to Operation Homefront.

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