Attune Probiotic Bars

Recently I was contacted to see if I’d like to sample some probiotic bars from Attune. Since I’m somewhat familiar with probiotics, I agreed.

We’re a family who drinks Keifer (thick, sparkly, tickle-your-tongue, probiotic yogurt drink). It helps with some of the digestive issues we’ve had, and is a healthy snack alternative. I was curious about the bars that promise to deliver probiotics in a different form.

The bars arrived in this fancy silver package:

It came with a folder full of information on probiotics. Inside the shiny sliver package - a goldmine of bars: Lemon, Mango Peach, Strawberry Bliss, Blueberry Vanilla, Mint Chocolate, Wildberry and a couple Chocolate Crisp bars. The kids were ready to dig into them and try them out. We sampled a few different ones and placed the rest in the refrigerator (they arrived with a cool-pack to keep them cool and are supposed to be refrigerated).

The bars were about the size of a granola bar, maybe smaller. Chewy and relatively tasty, with a yogurt-y “frosting” on each bar. Major drawback: sickeningly sweet. If you look at the nutrition info on the website, the first few bars don’t look so terribly bad (12g carbs), but then, those are not the “granola” bars — they’re the chocolate bars. No one in the house was fond of the chocolate bars. The granola bars have nearly double that amount of sugary impact in them (22g carbs). That’s just too much for me. Keifer’s got a significant amount as well; the tendency to “sugar up” is not passed over even in the organic world.

Bottom Line: The kids liked them well enough, and it may be worth buying, especially after a child is on antibiotics, as a way to deliver the probiotics. But for me… my fiber pills have probiotics in them, and there’s no sugar involved. if I’m eating something sweet I generally go all the way and eat a real sweet, skipping the healthy part on the way.

Rating:

Links: Attune Foods
Probiotics Wiki - Probiotics after antibiotics (Google)

Meme stolen from Robyn.

Would you kill your neighbor?
Kill? No. Two are OK, there’s 3 that I would be joyfully celebrating if I saw the U-Haul pull up in front of their houses. OK. Really just one of them, the other two I can tolerate.

Keep reading… »

YoMommy Yogurt (free coupon for 4-pack)

Free sample of Aquaphor by Eucerin

Free sample of Snuggle Blue Sparkle fabric softener

Free Juicy Juice Sippy Cup

Free sample of Purex detergent

What it costs to fill up our tank.

Picture on Picasa

Are you brave enough to take a picture of the pump after you fuel up? I’d like to see it. If you do, leave your link here for me.

I know most people are sharing in the misery of paying for high-priced gasoline. The dent it makes in our budget is becoming more and more… tangible. We have a BIG van for our BIG family. Our van has a 30-gallon tank. Whenever I fill that sucker up, I feel the attendant’s eyes burning into my back, waiting for me to speed off without paying. I hear that’s been happening more and more.

Our little car has a 10-gallon tank and the price just to fill that little bugger up is nearly as much as the 30-gallon was (in what seems like) not that long ago.

So of coarse, the question is - What do YOU do to cut down on the impact of high fuel prices?

Some ideas to ease the blow?

1. Take less trips; plan more when we do. A gallon of milk costs $7 if I have to run out late at night to get it instead of planning ahead, or doing without until I can combine a trip.
2. Ride-sharing. Especially when it comes to the kids and practices (mainly the older ones). Think of it as “free” gas (gas you would normally be using, but found out a way not to). That helps me remember how important being creative about saving a bit on the gas bill is.
3. Combining errands (similar to the first tip, but if I’m simply driving somewhere, school, practice, etc. Think about where am I going, what (other stores) will I be driving by and do I really need to take this trip? If I know I have to drive D out to practice (which isn’t close, mind you), there’s a grocery store on the way. If I have my act together I can shop while he’s at practice. It is like getting “free” gas.
4. Figuring out the cost to certain destinations. Weigh the cost against the benefit of going. This helps me put it into perspective. I figured it costs me about the same amount of money to drive to work as it would to take the bus. I was contemplating taking the bus, but since there’s no real savings (on money), and there is on time, I opted for driving.
5. Teach your older kids to to be savvy bus riders. We are fortunate enough to have very good public transportation. Our kids can use their semester bus pass to board the buses, even when they aren’t going to school. We take advantage of that when we can. The bus that goes by our house goes right by my parent’s house as well. If Beaner’s visiting gramma, she can often take the bus. Again, it’s like free gas!!

On Monday, news broke that Vanity Fair was planning on running “discreet” and “artistic” photos from a topless shoot with pre-teen and tween hero Miley Cyrus. The photos include a shot of Cyrus, barebacked, clutching a sheet to her bosom… [link]

Click the link up there to read the rest. Great article by Ben Shapiro.

As I was setting my alarm (the television) last night, I caught the news (no idea what channel), talking about Miley Cyrus and the questionable photos. I guess Disney felt that bad or racy press is better than no press? As if Hannah Montana simply doesn’t get enough press.

Wordless Wednesday

Free is great. Cheap is good, too.

Got this in a FWD at work; thought it a nice parable.

A holy man was having a conversation with the Lord one day and said,

‘Lord, I would like to know what Heaven and Hell are like.’

The Lord led the holy man to two doors.

He opened one of the doors and the holy man looked in. In the middle of the room was a large round table. In the middle of the table was a large pot of stew, which smelled delicious and made the holy man’s mouth water.

The people sitting around the table were thin and sickly. They appeared to be famished. They were holding spoons with very long handles that were strapped to their arms and each found it possible to reach into the pot of stew and take a spoonful. But because the handle was longer than their arms, they could not get the spoons back into their mouths.

The holy man shuddered at the sight of their misery and suffering.

The Lord said, ‘You have seen Hell.’

They went to the next room and opened the door. It was exactly the same as the first one. There was the large round table with the large pot of stew which made the holy man’s mouth water. The people were equipped with the same long-handled spoons, but here the people were well nourished and plump, laughing and talking.

The holy man said, ‘I don’t understand.’

‘It is simple,’ said the Lord. ‘It requires but one skill. You see they have learned to feed each other, while the greedy think only of themselves.’

- Author Unknown

Another edition… Lists of 5 — sites with FREE Wordpress themes

1. bgthemes.com
2. freewordpressthemes.com
3. themes.wordpress.net
4. skinpress.com
5. wpthemes.info

Have you heard about the rising concern of a rice shortage?

There are no shortage of articles (The Daily Tribune, news.sbs.com.au, thedailygreen.com) about it.

Another point of view:

Because when hoarding occurs, when even, say, 10 percent of your customers suddenly buy 10 times the amount of a single product than they normally would buy, the product is quickly exhausted and the supply chain will have trouble immediately providing the product… So there is not a physical shortage of rice; there is a problem with the supply chain because hoarding has stressed the system. - cnbc.com

If you haven’t noticed, it isn’t just America dealing with the high cost of gas prices, costs of food, and living. It is really kind of scary. We’re feeling the pinch more than ever. Gas is high, wages aren’t keeping up, and now rice, a “filler” food is on the rise, too. What next, beans?

Wordless Wednesday

(in reference to this)

Picasa

“Work from home” takes on new meaning at a coffee shop. You can randomly change your office.