Skinny is yummy

I am not a big ice cream fan, but I have a tween who loves ice cream more than she loves shoes and that is a LOT. (When I told her that I had been chosen to be a part of the Skinny Cow blog tour from MomCentral the child did a cartwheel. Seriously.) Now, please don't misunderstand me - I may not be a big fan of ice cream in general but don't you dare deny me access to ice cream sandwiches when I get a hankerin' for one. Just don't.

My sister actually discovered Skinny Cows when she started Weight Watchers several years ago because the chocolate and vanilla ice cream sandwiches are have 2 Points apiece. The woman had a deep, meaningful relationship with Skinny Cows that year. I was skeptical about them because, well, let's just be honest: Sometimes low-fat food doesn't taste all that great. Either it's got a funky whang to it or it's devoid of all flavor. That is not the case with Skinny Cow ice cream sandwiches. I really do like them! They don't taste any different than regular ice cream sandwiches in my opinion. Each sandwich has 140 calories and 2 grams fat - in my mind it's guilt-free indulgence! The diet experts say you have to treat yourself occasionally - Skinny Cow products allow you to treat yourself AND stay on track!

It's heating up here in Oklahoma and let me tell ya, trying to find your favorite flavor of ice cream is difficult, so the day we took the coupons to Walmart the only flavor ice cream sandwich available was vanilla. No worries. I hadn't backed my van out of the parking space before the kids had already broken into a package and were scarfing them down. They seemed satisfied. Now, because I am a mother I have learned that keeping my mouth shut is essential when it comes to food and children. I waited until the last drip of ice cream was licked from the last finger before I asked the kids how they liked their low-fat treats. A few seconds of silence ensued while they decided if they still liked what they had just devoured or if they were going to get all weird about it. The unanimous decision was WHO CARES.

We managed to demolish the two packages in a matter of about 28.3 hours and today when we got about halfway home from grocery shopping Sam whined, "Mom! We forgot the Skinny Cows!" So we'll be making another quick trip into Walmart to pick up more this evening.

Thanks to Skinny Cow for making watching our weight a little easier and tastier!

And thanks to MomCentral for the opportunity to try out the treats!

Ragu to you, too!

From the time my kids were little their favorite thing to eat has been spaghetti. It used to drive my mom crazy that I'd just dump their spaghetti on their highchair tray and let 'em go at it - she said they would grow up to be savages. I'm happy to report, though, that none of them wear loincloths and they all three know how to use a fork. Savages, HA! I just taught them how to really enjoy their food.

And speaking of enjoying food, when MomCentral sent out the call for volunteers to try out Ragu's two newest flavors - Sweet Tomato Basil and Margherita - I put down my loincloth and signed right up. The store was out the first time I tried to buy them and then here in northeast Oklahoma we had to start drawing up a blueprint for an ark and lining up the animals in pairs, so I've been behind schedule on trying them out and then posting about them, but I'm happy to report I'm back in the saddle again and we have scrapped our ark-building plans.

Let me just be completely honest when I say that normally I buy the cheap spaghetti sauce and then doctor it up to make it taste good. I probably spend more in spices than I would to just buy Ragu, but I'm rather daft that way sometimes. It was so refreshing to make spaghetti and not have to do anything more than pour in the sauce and serve it. We opted to use the Margherita on our spaghetti and then we sampled the Sweet Tomato Basil with some cheese bread. The kids loved the Margherita and I've gotta say, it was my favorite, too. It was rich and thick and everyone had seconds. I froze the remainder of the Sweet Tomato Basil to use the next time I make my Party Pasta Bowl. The Ragu website also has recipe suggestions and meal planning ideas to help us busy ark-building mothers.

And even though my children may be borderline savages, they had over a full serving of veggies every time they ate a serving of Ragu the other night. That made me happy since only one of them is a vegetable lover - the other are very anti-veggie. Savages, indeed.

Thanks to Ragu for making something as simple as pasta sauce healthier for my crew and thanks to MomCentral for making this blog tour available!

And now I'm off to herd those dang animals back to the wild....