I get so tired of recipes that get all dressed up with all sorts of ingredients.  It’s not that I don’t have an appreciate for flavor, fine foods, and variety but I guess I just have more of an appreciation for simplicity; the foods that our Moms and Grandmas made.  It’s not just that, it’s the fact that everyone is struggling so much in today’s economy that, well, who can afford all those fancy ingredients, you know?  I remember the days that our cupboards were bare, nothing in the pantry, freezer, or fridge.  We had beans, noodles, tomato sauce, milk, bread, eggs, and taters.  Those were our staples and by simply adding one or two extra ingredients, you could make anything out of it.

Macaroni and Tomato Sauce has been a family favorite for many years. I can remember my grandmother making it for us, then my mom, and now me.  You know, maybe it’s just that, knowing that it’s been something the family has eaten for many, many years that keeps me wanting to stick to the simple meals, the family traditions.

Simply boil your noodles with salt, drain, and put back in pot.  Pour in cans of tomato sauce (use as many or as little to suit your taste) and let simmer for just a bit.  You can add pepper to the pot but I make everyone add their own.  You may not know this but pepper and tomato sauce combined can become quite spicy so I try not to add too much to mine or Truett’s.  Enjoy!

Skinner pasta has been around for years.  I don’t know if it’s in your part of the good ol’ USA but it’s a staple in Texas grocers.   I guess their red, white, and blue packaging speaks for itself, if you know what I mean.  You don’t even have to see the name of the brand because you instantly recognize it, know it, and use it.

{GIVEAWAY}

One lucky winner will be able to create their own mealtime memory with this fabulous gift set which includes the following:

• Two boxes of Skinner Pasta
• One colander (like my pretty red one in the photo above)
• One set of Texas-themed serving utensils
• Two Skinner Pasta recipe cards

HOW TO ENTER

———>Simply leave a comment below sharing your Skinner mealtime memory and if you don’t have one, check out their huge selection of recipes and see what tickles your tastebuds!

As always, I encourage you to visit the sponsor of this giveaway and help them celebrate their 100th anniversary by sharing your Skinner mealtime memory with them (which ends on May 14th–you can win some great prizes over there!). They’d love to hear it and see your photos!  You can find them on facebook and on Twitter at @SkinnerPasta

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Additional, optional entries, leaving each one in a separate comment to count.

•  Join the  My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.  I’m always giving freebies like ecookbooks over there!
•  Follow @ACowboysWife on Twitter
• Subscribe via email and you’ll get updates when I post them! (You must confirm your subscription)

Giveaway ends on March 18th around 10pm CST.  Good luck y’all!

Disclosure: Similar prize package was provided for my time & efforts to create this post. Prize was also provided (sponsored).  All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be because that’s how I roll.  Duh.

No, this is not soup.  Creamy chicken and noodles is just that, chicken breasts and egg noodles cooked in a creamy sauce.  It’s simple, it’s filling, and it tastes good. 

I had all the ingredients to make this Creamy Chicken Florentine but when I went to search for the red peppers, they were nowhere to be found.  I was recently gone for 3 days to a Joyce Meyer conference and apparently my man used them with some fajitas he made for the boys.  So when ingredients get “lost”, you have to just make do because town is 60 miles round trip. It worked out fine. My boys loved the flavor which I totally took credit for even though it wasn’t actually me that created that tasty flavor.  I recently discovered Philadelphia Cooking Creme.  What a great way to make over some of your dinner solutions!  There are several different flavors; Italian Cheese & Herb, Savory Garlic, and Tomato & Basil,  I would have loved to have these cooking cremes in my early years of marriage when I didn’t know how to cook very well.  Using one of these would have made it, at the very least, look like I know how to create flavor.

I cooked this all in one pan.  Easy cleanup y’all, that’s what I’m all about these days.  Next time I’ll throw in some broccoli and red peppers but today, this is what you get:

If you’re wanting to change out some of your same old dinner recipes with new, fresh ones, consider signing up for the Recipe of the Month and learn new ways to use the Philadelphia Cooking Cremes.  I find that if for nothing else, it teaches me new ways to show off meals at get-togethers.  We have a lot of women of the older generation around here that can cook now but I ain’t skeered!  I use things like this to make my food flavorful and don’t even have to share the secret ingredient, unless I want to of course.

 GIVEAWAY

I always love to give you guys something and today I have a $150 Gift Card to Williams & Sonoma, one of my all time favorite places to shop for dinnerware, kitchen gadgets, pans, oh my!!!

HOW TO ENTER (only one entry method!)

Check out some of the recipes that are made with the Philadelphia Cooking Creme. Come back here to leave a comment telling me which one you’d change out your old dinner with!  I challenge you guys to try it out and if you do, I’d love for you to email me a photo so that I can share here on my blog!

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That’s it!!!  If you have your own recipe idea using these cooking cremes, please do share!  And while you don’t get any extra entries, I’d still love it if you guys shared this giveaway with others.

You can find Philadelphia Cream Cheese at these webspots!

• Philadelphia Cream Cheese on Facebook
• LoveMyPhilly on Twitter!
• CookPhilly.com

And you can find me and My Wooden Spoon at these webspot!

•  My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.  I’m always giving freebies like ecookbooks over there!
•  @ACowboysWife on Twitter
• Subscribe via email and you’ll get updates when I post them!

Giveaway ends on March 7th around 10pm CST.  Good luck y’all!

Disclosure: Compensation and coupons were provided for my time & efforts to create this post. Prize was also provided (sponsored).  All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be because that’s how I roll.  Who doesn’t love Kraft and Philadelphia products..come on now. 

Goat cheese is definitely a type of cheese that had never made it to our table in 18+ years, until the end of 2011.  Chavrie, the #1 go-to folks for America’s freshest goat cheese, sent my family some to try and I have to say, I didn’t expect me or my bunch to like it all, but 3 of out 5 of us did.  Truett wasn’t a fan but he’s 5 and he has lots of time to acquire a taste for new foods.  The other was Toby, who is probably as picky as I am but the main reason he wasn’t a fan was because of the pecans.  I should have taken that into consideration when I made it.

While I would consider goat cheese a food for the refined, I convinced myself not to be intimidated by it.  I looked in my fridge and pantry, thinking about how I could incorporate Chavrie authentically into our ranch style, family friendly menu.  I considered many things but decided on a finger food that I could serve up during holidays, get-togethers, and even for our Sunday Super Bowl party.    This really is very easy, very few ingredients, but there is a couple of things I’d change.

1) Instead of plopping a huge spoonful of the goat cheese spread on each slice of pretzel roll, I’d spread a thinner layer.

and

2) I’d probably bake for even longer to allow the pretzel roll slices to crust up a bit.  Although, I’m not sure how that would effect the goat cheese spread.

With that said, here is how I decided to use the Chavrie goat cheese.

I took the Chavrie Original 5.3oz package, mixed with honey and a few finely chopped pecans, and spread over slices of pretzel rolls.  I just baked until the roll slices were warm.  I used Sister Shubert’s Pretzel Rolls and sliced them into 4 pieces. Don’t ask me amounts because to be quite honest, I didn’t measure the honey at all. I just poured

NOW FOR THE GIVEAWAY!

This is a fantastic giveaway that includes lovely Crate and Barrel items and Chavrie Goat Cheese goodies.

This list is as followed:

• Crate and Barrel Sweets Pedestal $24.95
• Crate and Barrel 5-piece Mixing Bowl Set $34.96
• Crate and Barrel French Wire Wisk $10.95
• Crate and Barrel Set of 4 Magnetic Measuring Cups $9.95
• Crate and Barrel Set of 4 Magnetic Measuring Spoons $7.95
• Chavrie Fresh Goat Cheese Coupons
• Chavrie Dessert Recipes
• For the Love of Goat Cheese Cookbooks

———->To enter this giveaway, you simply need to answer the following question (this is required to be entered):

Which recipe would you make if you won this fabulous prize package?

Be sure to pay the kind sponsor of the giveaway a visit too!

Chavrie’s website

Chavrie’s Facebook page  They have a coupon on there too!

Chavrie’s Twitter page

This giveaway ends on February 9th, about 4pm CST.  In full disclosure, Chavrie sent me the same prize package, as well as, sponsored this giveaway.  All opinions are my own.

The other day I was in Subway getting a footlong Subway Club for Toby when I look up and see BBQ Pulled Pork!! I knew instantly that this was gonna be something my cowboys would LOVE and was thrilled to try it out. It was FABULOUS and I had it put on flat bread which was heaven! If you haven’t tried it, you should.

Subway wants to know your personality! Are you spicy? Saucy? or a Wiener?  HAHHAHAHA..okay, that was last one was mine!  Right now, you can go find our your BBQ personality and be entered to win a Subway catered BBQ party for you and your friends. How awesome would that be?!

WIN A SUBWAY PRIZE PACK!

The Prize:

• $200 Subway Card
• Cameron Stovetop Smoker
• A sample pack of the most popular flavors of hardwood chips

One winner will win the above prize package and here’s how!

HOW TO ENTER

Required Entry: Head on over to the Subway Facebook page to see what your BBQ personality is.  Come back to this post and tell me what your personality was!

Additional optional entries, leaving all in separate comments to count:

• Join the My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.  I’m always giving freebies like ecookbooks over there!
• Follow @ACowboysWife on Twitter and tweet this giveaway with the URL to this post! (DAILY ENTRY)
• Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! Coming soon, there will be special giveaways JUST for email subscribers! If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve already subscribed.

This giveaway ends at 6:00 p.m. CST on 8/13/2011 and is open to all U.S. residents.

Disclosure: Subway sent me the same prize package for my efforts to create this post and providing the prize so that I can share the goodies with some of you!  As always, my opinions are my own. 

Can you imagine cake and ice cream all in one?  Well yeah, if you’ve bought an ice cream cake then perhaps you can, but I can’t store those things in my fridge so when I learned that Blue Bunny & Chef Duff Goldman partnered up to create FABULOUS cake ice cream, I knew it was meant for me.  You can see their commercial for it here.

If you happen to live in a closet and don’t know who Chef Duff is, well, he’s the man from the awesome Ace of Cakes.   When I saw the flavors, I was drooling already.

The four flavors are:

Red Carpet Red Velvet Cake
Red velvet cake flavored ice cream swirled with cream cheese frosting flavored ice cream and red velvet cake pieces.

Chocolate Lovers Triple Chocolate Cake
Decadent chocolate ice cream served up with fudgy chocolate cake pieces and dressed in ribbons of thick, chocolate frosting.

I Do! I Do! Wedding Cake
Celebrate the marriage of sweet buttercream frosting ice cream and white cake pieces all wrapped up in delicate ribbons of raspberry sauce.

Strawberries are Forever Shortcake
The sweet taste of strawberry ice cream and real strawberries mixed with pound cake pieces and swirls of whipped cream frosting.

We gathered the fixins’ and Truett went wild!! All I could hear was him saying “mmm, mmmm, mom this is good, mmmmm, mmmm”  LOL  It was really cute!  When he was done, he rubbed his belly with happiness.  Blue Bunny sent me the ice cream flavors, the ice cream scoop and the napkins.  I got the Blue Bunny bowls from a blogger conference I attended one year.  When you put ice cream in them, they change colors! It makes it really fun for kiddos!

OH MY GOSH…AMAZING!!!!  We started with the Red Carpet Red Velvet Cake and man was it wonderful!!!!  Tasted exactly like a perfectly baked red velvet cake…only it was cold.  HEAVEN!  You got bits of cake in just about every bite. SOOOOO GOOD Y’ALL!!

So far all 3 flavors I’ve tried have been so dang delicious.  I haven’t tried the wedding cake but oh my goodness, can you just imagine how divine that will be?    I’m absolutely looking forward to that moment.

WANNA WIN SOME BLUE BUNNY BUCKS?!!

5 winners will receive a couple of Blue Bunny Bucks.  Bunny Bucks are a certificate for free Blue Bunny product at any retailer.   This will allow you to try the product and fall in love with it.

HOW TO ENTER

Required: Leave a comment telling me which one you want to try!!  I would absolutely LOVE to see a Pineapple Upside Down Cake creation!!!

Additional, optional entry methods, leaving each one in a separate comment to count:

• Join the My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.  I’m always giving freebies like ecookbooks over there!
• Follow @ACowboysWife on Twitter and tweet this giveaway with the URL to this post! (DAILY ENTRY)
• Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve already subscribed.

This giveaway ends at 6:00 p.m. CST on 6/21 and is open to all U.S. residents 18 years or older.  You can read rules here and visit the winner’s page here.

Disclosure: Blue Bunny sent me the ice cream for review, as always, my opinions are my own.  They are also providing the prize so that I can share the goodies with some of you!

With Father’s Day around the corner, I wanted to offer you guys a chance to win a $50 gift card from Dick’s Sporting Goods!  There’s a whole bunch of things that a fella would want from exercise gear to fishing supplies to NFL goodies.  Last I heard, there were closing the deal on the NFL so maybe we’ll have a season after all.

HOW TO ENTER:

Required: Leave a comment telling me what you’d pick out yourself from Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Additional, optional entry methods, leaving each one in a separate comment to count:

• Join the My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.  I’m always giving freebies like ecookbooks over there!
• Follow @ACowboysWife on Twitter and tweet this giveaway!
• Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve already subscribed.

This giveaway ends at 6:00 p.m. CST on 6/17 and is open to all U.S. residents 18 years or older.  You can read rules here and visit the winner’s page here.

I’ve talked about Propel for a long time and when Propel Zero came out, I was even more excited because this one contained the same natural fruit flavor, full of vitamins, but has NO calories!  And when you’re like me, drinking it in place of anything else, those 0 calories make a big difference.  I’m excited share their current sweepstakes with you where you can win a year’s supply of Propel Zero and also host a giveaway for a gift kit!  Read on y’all!

For 2011, Propel Zero is giving away 3 million samples in Walmart stores across the country from March 19th to April 24th in conjunction with a sweepstakes to win a year’s supply of Propel Zero. To enter that particular sweepstakes:

1. Attend a Walmart sampling date at your local store.
2. Snap a photo of yourself with your favorite Propel Zero flavor at a sampling event (or wherever you happen to be).
3. “Like” Propel Zero on Facebook.
4. Upload your photo to the Propel Zero Facebook wall and answer the question: “I stay active by… ” (running, taking the stairs instead of the elevator, taking my dog for a walk, etc.).
5. Fill out the sampling form and let them know A Cowboy’s Wife sent you.
6. Check back to find out who won April 29th!

MY PROPEL ZERO GIFT KIT GIVEAWAY

In the mean time, you can also enter MY giveaway here at My Wooden Spoon for a chance to win a Propel Zero Gift Kit.  There will be 10 winners!!!!  WOOHOO!  Gift Kits include (and is featured in the photo above):

• (2) 20-oz. bottles of Propel Zero
• Propel Zero t-shirt
• (3) FREE Single-Serve Propel Zero coupons
• Drawstring Backpack

TO ENTER

Required entry: Leave a comment here on this post telling me how YOU stay active.  Are you a runner?  Do you workout regularly? Play Sports?  What do you do?

Additional, optional entry options, leaving each one you’ve done in a separate comment to count:

• Join the Propel Zero Facebook Community and  My Wooden Spoon’s Facebook Community.
• Follow @ACowboysWife and @nowpropelled on Twitter and tweet the following. You may do this daily!

Enter to win 1 of 10 @nowpropelledGift Kits from @ACowboysWife: http://mywoodenspoon.com/propel-zero-gift-kits-giveaway-10-winners/

• Subscribe to my feed via RSS or email. You must confirm your email subscription for it to be a valid entry! If you’re already a subscriber, simply leave a separate comment letting me know you’ve already subscribed.

This giveaway ends at 6:00 p.m. CST on 4/24 and is open to all U.S. residents 18 years or older.  You can read rules here and visit the winner’s page here.

Do y’all remember when I talked about New West KnifeWorks last?  I was making my MIL’s squash goulash and slicing up the squash with them.  Let me tell you, these are beautiful knives and MAN are super sharp!!  And if the title didn’t get your attention, I want to stress “Made in the USA” because I know that sustainability and buying things made here in our homeland is very important to many of you.

New West KnifeWorks recently moved manufacturing from Japan to Shelburne Falls, Massachussetts. Prior to the move, the handle materials were produced in Vermont, shipped to Japan, and the finished product shipped to Wyoming. Now, the ‘Fusionwood’ is sustainably harvested and crafted in Vermont, then shipped 103 miles to Shelburne Falls. The move has reduced New West’s carbon footprint by 90%.

I personally think it’s an awesome move for New West KnifeWorks and I don’t know about you, but I love buying things that are made here in our great USA!  If you wanna a chance at winning a knife, scroll on down for my giveaway or sign up for the New West KnifeWorks newsletter before May 25th and you’ll be entered.

You know what I love about this Santoku knife?  First of all, the craftsmanship of the handle is just beautiful.  I love seeing all the rich colors blend together to make this gorgeous “rainbow” colored handle.  And talk about sharp….good lord these knives are sharp.  I always find slicing rings of onions difficult because no knife is ever sharp enough but all my New West KnifeWorks knives have handled the task extremely well. Truett wanted an orange so I cut up one for him.  That was like slicing butter.

Since my husband often builds bits, buckles, and spurs with steel, I’ve learned the differences between good and great steel.  These are outstanding.  You can see obvious visual differences when comparing the blade of this knife to other brands and there is absolutely no contest.   New West KnifeWorks wins hands down.

WIN YOUR OWN CHOPPER KNIFE!

Required Entry: Visit the New West KnifeWorks website, come back here and leave a comment on this post telling me which knife tickles your fancy.

Additional, optional entries, leaving each one in a separate comment:

• Answer this question:  Does the “Made in the USA” and sustainable factors matter to you? Why or why not? Leave your answer in a comment.
• “Like” New West KnifeWorks on Facebook. Come back here and tell me that you did (and your username).
• If you signed up for their newsletter, let me know what name you signed up under.
• Share via social networks like Twitter and Facebook.  Come back here and share your username.  You can do this DAILY PER SOCIAL NETWORK.

Giveaway ends on March 27th at about 10pm CST.  Good luck!

With two strong teens and a pre-k’r, we go through a lot of milk. My boys love nothing more than a tall glass of milk in the evening after a long day.  You know what I love? That it’s good for them. With all the hustle and bustle of school, athletics, chores, running around, and working, you know that kids aren’t getting all the nutrients they need.  It’s great to know that milk fills that gap and with just one more serving, they are filling that nutrient void.  You can read more about the study and facts here.

Here are some ways to get that extra serving!

• Pouring a glass of lowfat milk with every meal
• Pouring milk on your cereal or oatmeal in the morning
• Enjoying a skim latte
• Whipping up a smoothie made with lowfat milk and fruit

WIN FREE MILK FOR A YEAR!

Thanks to fine folks of ‘got milk?’, one winner will have the chance to win free milk for a year in the form of 52 coupons.   But that’s not all.  I will also be awarding 3 winners their own Pour One More Bowl and Tumbler set!  That’s a total of 4 winners!

TO ENTER

Required entry: In a comment below, share one way that you’ll fit that extra serving of milk into the everyday happenings.

Additional, optional entries, leaving each one in a separate comment to count please:

• Take 1 minute to ‘Pass a Glass‘.  $1 goes to the Feeding America organization and trust me, every single $1 counts!  Come back here and tell me that you did this.  You can do this DAILY!
• Share via Twitter or Facebook.  Come back here and tell me what you did.  You may share once per day, per social network.

Giveaway ends on March 20th at about 10pm CST.  Good luck and thanks for entering.

Time savers and convenience go hand in hand these days don’t they?  Dreyer’s ice cream has made things a little easier for you with their  Edy’s Shakes & Smoothies in a cup.  All you need is a 1/3 cup of milk and a spoon to stir!  You should know that this product is exclusive to Walmart.

This is a great fix and alternative to dragging out the blender to make a shake.  I found the portion size absolutely perfect and the whole a process a breeze.

Peel off foil and have your 1/3 cup of milk ready.

Pour milk in and stir…

Creamy chocolate shake!

Little cowboy enjoying chocolate shake!

The best part of all, is there’s really no cleanup. Toss and wash your spoon and viola!  The shakes come in Chocolate, Vanilla, and Cookies-n-Cream and the smoothies come in Strawberry Banana, Mixed Berry, and Tropical.  YUM!!

GIVEAWAY

One winner will receive a $100 Walmart gift card!  WOOT!

HOW TO ENTER

Required Entry: Leave a comment on this post telling me whether you prefer shakes or smoothies!

Additional, optional entries, leaving each one in a separate comment to count please:

• Share on twitter or facebook and come back here and tell me.  (2 per day)
• Upload a photo of you with the Edy’s (Dreyer’s) Shakes and Smoothies and I’ll give you a whopping 10 bonus entries!!  You can only do this once per person.  Upload your photo and add to the linky below. Remember, this is optional and no purchase is necessary.

This giveaway ends on February 21st, 2011 at about 10pm CST.  Good luck!

Disclosure: Compensated was provided for my time and efforts to create this post. All opinions are my own, always have been, always will be.  duh.