Auntie Anne's At- Home Baking Kit Review

I have always loved a warm soft pretzel. They taste so good! I was excited to see that Auntie Anne's made a At-Home Baking kit so I can enjoy pretzels anytime I want. For the last 9 months I have started trying to cook and bake more. I have found a great joy in creating food. When I saw the recipe for pizza using Auntie Anne's Baking Kit I knew I had to try it. My son loves pizza but only if its soft and fluffy. I thought this pizza pretzel recipe would be perfect for him.

Recipe on the side of the box for pizza.

A great coupon for BOGO for Auntie Anne's locations. We have one in our local mall.

All the items included in the kit.

I prepared the yeast pack in warm water and poured the pretzel mixture in another bowl.

After mixing the two ingredients I made it into a dough ball.

All the items I need to make a great pizza.

After I made the dough ball I covered it and sat it in the window to rise. I let it rise for 30 minutes, I did laundry while I waited so it was not time wasted! After it had risen to be very big I twirled it and stretched the dough to make it the shape of my pizza pan. Then I added the pizza sauce, cheese and peperoni. It was really easy to make and I was looking forward to seeing how it turned out.

The pizza turned out perfect! It was just what I expected and more. It was a deep dish soft fluffy pizza that my son devoured! He can be picky about pizza if its over cooked or not the right taste. I loved it too. The pizza crust was so fluffy and a tad sweet. We both ate a few slices each. It was even awesome cold the next day for lunch. I will definitely be buying this again for pizza and to make pretzels. Its a great and frugal way to have a name brand food item at home.

If you like Auntie Anne's pretzels like we do you should "like" them on facebook too. You can sign up for Pretzels Perks to get coupons and discounts. We also follow Auntie Anne's on twitter for updates and more.

Here is a useful Auntie Anne's YouTube video on how to make the perfect pretzel.




*I was not paid or compensated for this post. The opinions in this post are 100% mine and may vary from other opinions. I was provided for a Auntie Anne's At- Home Baking Kit for this review.
I wrote this review while participating in a Blog Friendly PR campaign on behalf of Auntie Annes. I received a sample for my participation, all opinions are my own

Winnie the Pooh DVD Movie Review and Honey Snacks #CouchCritics #Cbias

 I have always loved Winnie the Pooh. I had all sorts of Winnie the Pooh items even up to my teenage years. I loved the silliness and sweetness of all the characters in the 100 acre woods, Pooh being my favorite. As a kid no one wanted to watch it with me, so it was just me and Pooh. Now that I am a mom a was thrilled when I learned that there was going to be a new Winnie the Pooh movie. I had to wait until it arrived on DVD to watch it since my son is a bit too wild for a movie theater setting.

I wanted to rent Winnie the Pooh before purchasing it in case, gasp! my son would not like it and I did not want to be an adult watching Pooh Bear alone. We rented it from RedBox and it was a tough one to locate. I looked at a few Redbox machines while I was in stores I already planned to visit. When I realized the were all out of stock I knew I would need to locate it online and reserve it. It was so easy to do at redbox.com. I wish I would have thought about checking the Redbox facebook page since I would have seen the promo code. I was too excited about seeing Winnie the Pooh with my son and forgot! Next time I rent from Redbox I will check Redbox twitter too since they often have codes to save. It was super simple to reserve it online then pick up in the store. It took less than 2 minutes from button pushing, card swiping and then getting my movie. A huge time saver to reserve it online first.

For my Winnie the Pooh day my son and I went to Walmart to get a Honey Snack to eat while we were watching the movie. Snacks and movies always go great together. We went to Walmart without a plan. This is not the usual way we shop but I thought it would be fun to look at all the products that had honey in it and see if we would find something great.

I was surprised at all the products containing honey. A lot of them we already purchase and a few new ones we want to try. We found cereal, nuts, cookies, crackers and of course honey. I found the cutest Honey Bear container that was a Winnie the Pooh. We had to have it! After shopping around I decided to make a Vanilla Pudding no bake Pie using Honey Graham Crackers topped with Honey.

When we arrived home with our Winne the Pooh DVD and Honey Snack from Walmart we were ready to have a fun afternoon. I first made the pudding, then crushed up the honey graham crackers, put it in a small dish for one for me and one for my son. Then drizzled the top with honey and put in the fridge to set. While we were making our honey snack we had honey on graham crackers by itself, my son got very sticky but he enjoyed every bite. I tried honey on Tyson chicken nuggets and oh my it was good!

While our Honey snack was getting cold I started Winnie the Pooh. My son grabbed his little chair so he could get a good view of the movie. I was very happy to be sharing Winnie the Pooh with my sweet boy! The movie is about Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Kanga, Roo, Eeyore and Tigger all set off on an adventure to find Christopher Robin who they all assume had been captured and needs to be rescued. During their quest to find Christopher Robin Pooh Bear gets very hungry, as all Poohs do, and has a Honey fantasy filled with all the honey he can imagine. This part of the movie was my favorite. It had a great honey song and dancing. My son was dancing, clapping and smiling the whole time. While we were watching the movie we enjoyed our Pudding Pie Honey snack. It tasted awesome! It was sweet and honey filled. I had a hard time getting my son to look at me for a picture since he was too busy watching Winnie the Pooh.

In the end Pooh and his friends find Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh realizes that friends are more important than honey. But since his friends love him and know he loves honey the give him a gift of a giant honey pot. The movie was wonderful. Sweet and stayed true to the classic Winnie the Pooh stories. Watching my son enjoying this movie made me remember how much I adored Winnie the Pooh as a kid and that made me tear up!

I am so glad we rented this movie and I will be adding it to our holiday wish list. I know I will not be watching it alone, I will have my own little honey to enjoy it with me!

You can see my Google+ story of my Walmart shopping trip, honey snack creation and movie watching experience by clicking the picture below.

Winne the Pooh Movie Review and Honey Snack #CouchCritics #CBias

*This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias. #CBias All opinions expressed in this post are mine and your experience may vary. #CouchCritics

We Met Tillman the Skateboarding Dog!

Everyone knows how much my son adores DOGS! He doesn't say it he shouts it lol. He is so sweet, he still adores Kitty-Cats but recently dogs have been his favorite thing. I must admit I love it! As a kid I adored dogs. I have great memories of some of the dogs I had growing up. Its tough to have kids and animals but thankfully we are able to have our dog for my son to enjoy. 

We were watching the morning news and saw a story on how the famous Tillman the Skateboarding dog was going to be near our local mall at The Fountains of Roseville. After seeing a preview of the dog and my son getting excited to see him on tv we decided we had to go see in person.

We arrived just in time to grab a free bag of treats for our dog at home from Natural Balance Dog Food and get a good spot right in front. Tillman was here to celebrate the grand opening of Pet Food Express store in Roseville. We went into the store after meeting Tillman and we were impressed with all the cool stuff for dogs. They had cookies, balloons and more for the kids and pets alike! 

My son had a blast seeing Tillman Skateboard and technically its his first celebrity encounter, even if it is a dog!