Tropical Traditions Golden Flax Seed {Review and Giveaway}

This past week I had the pleasure of receiving a box in the mail (don't you just love boxes in the mail!?) containing Whole Golden Flax Seed from Tropical Traditions. This, like everything I have ever received from Tropical Traditions, is a high quality product. It is packaged in a nice reclosable bag and the flax seeds are of great quality. 

 I have used flax seeds for quite a number of years for several reasons:

• Flaxseed oil is one of the richest sources of OMEGA-3 fatty acid, Alpha-linolenic acid (ALA) an ESSENTIAL FATTY ACID (EFA). This fatty acid is considered essential, meaning that your body cannot make it but requires it and so must derive all of it from the diet. The average American diet is lacking in this fat. Supportive but not conclusive research shows that consumption of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids may reduce the risk of coronary heart disease. One serving of Organic Whole Flaxseed provides 9 grams of EPA and DHA omega-3 fatty acids.
• Golden Flaxseed is unique in that 48% of its total fat content is omega-3 fatty acids.
• Flaxseed contains very high amounts of DIETARY FIBER, both SOLUBLE and INSOLUBLE. Golden Flaxseed is 28%-35% fiber, 1/3 of which is soluble, and the other 2/3 insoluble. Soluble fiber also plays an important role in maintaining the “good bacteria” in our bowel, like Lactobacillus Acidophilus and Bifidobacteria. Insoluble fiber increases the bulk of stools.
• Flaxseed is an outstanding source of many essential nutrients, including: proteins, carbohydrates, minerals, folate, vitamin B-6, pantothenic acid, magnesium, potassium, iron, thiamine, copper, zinc, calcium and phosphorus.

The way that I have found to be the easiest in using flaxseed is simply to add it to all of my baked goods. We I grind my grains I simply grind my flaxseed as well. It is also commonly added to smoothies or to top your  morning cereal. It is recommended that you have around 2 tablespoons a day. We don't always get that much but at least we do have it on a regular basis. 
 
   Here is a recipe that I made last week using Tropical Traditions Golden Flaxseed:

Rhubarb Cheesecake Bars

 

Crust:

1/3 cup butter

1 1/4 cup flour

4 tablespoons ground flaxseed

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup oatmeal

 

Filling:

8 oz. cream cheese OR homemade ricotta cheese (I used the homemade ricotta as we have lots of extra milk just now and to use it I added just a bit of milk and then blended it until smooth)

1/2 cup sugar (you might prefer 3/4 cup but we try to use as little as possible.)

1 egg

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1 1/2 cup rhubarb, cut into small pieces

CRUST: Combine all ingredients and mix until crumbly. Pat half of the mixture into ungreased 9x9 inch cake pan.

FILLING: Combine cheese, sugar, egg and cinnamon, beat until smooth . Add rhubarb and stir to blend .

Pour over crust, top with remaining crust crumbs. Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes. Eat warm or cool. Store in the refrigerator.

 

Would you like to buy Golden Flaxseed? You can find it here. It is currently priced at $10.30 for the 1 lb. package.

 

One person also has the opportunity to win a package!

 

If you would like to try to win please leave a comment on this post. Leave a relevant comment and please don't just say "I would love to win". :-) I would love to hear how you like to use flaxseed or how you have made your diet healthier or something like that.

 

Make sure to leave a way for me to contact you should you win! (If there is not contact information then you cannot win.)

 

~If you would like an additional chance to win please "Like" Tropical Traditions on facebook. Leave another comment letting me know that you did that. Thanks!

~For another chance to win you can subscribe to Tropical Traditions e-mail newsletter. Again leave me another comment letting me know that you did that.

This giveaway will end on June 2nd. so be sure to comment before then.

 

 

 

Book Review and a Giveaway

Disclaimer: I recieved this book free of charge from KCWC for purposes of reviewing. I was not required to write a positive review.


This is one of the posts that I would prefer not to write....
 Every so often I am asked or see the opportunity to review a book or some other item. I enjoy doing that as it allows me to enjoy a free product and I often get to host a giveaway as well so one of you can try something new too. I try to only review items that I think my family and I and you my readers will like. I thought that this book would fit that category. It was billed as a book especially for young male readers and they said it was a good read for Christians. I am always on the lookout for good books for my book worms (Mara and Jonathan) and so was excited about adding this book to the shelves for their enjoyment. Well this book won't make it on to our shelves. I don't like the idea of doing a negative review but since I said I would review it- I will.

I will let you read what the publishers say about the book and then I will give you my take.

Book Summary

RICKY BRADSHAW has never sailed the Caribbean Sea, searched for buried treasure or battled pirates on the deck of a Spanish Galleon. He’s never fallen through the floor of Davy Jones’ locker or watched an old fisherman morph into a porpoise. All Ricky knows is his lonely life with his widowed mom in a tiny apartment overlooking the Chesapeake Bay. But all that changes on a snowy Christmas Eve when Ricky’s apartment building burns down and he suffers a seizure, falling into the chilly waters. Suddenly Ricky finds himself thrust into a world where there is surprising beauty on every island, danger around every corner and great honor and glory ahead of him—if only Ricky can summon the courage to survive the curse of Captain LaFoote.

Author Bio
Eddie Jones

EDDIE JONES has authored four non-fiction books, one young adult novel, and written over a hundred articles that have appeared in over 20 different publications. He is co-founder of Christian Devotions Ministries and a contributing writer for, CBN.com, Common Ground Christian News, The Ocracoke Observer, and Living Aboard Magazine. He’s a three-time winner of the Delaware Christian Writers Conference and a member of the American Christian Fiction Writers and Boating Writers International. Eddie sails, surfs and writes in North Carolina. For more information see: http://www.captainlafoote.com/.

It's me, Abbi, again...

I will agree that Eddie Jones is an entertaining writer. I do think it would capture the attention of many boys. However the book doesn't fit the standards for what I want my children to be reading. Perhaps I shelter them but I think that is the purpose of a parent- to do some sheltering. In the book the main character is a teenage boy. There is quite a bit of talk of a crush he has on a fellow schoolmate as well as some of the yucky pranks teenage boys pull in school (One of the reasons I am glad we homeschool!). I expect that sort of stuff in Young adult fiction written by secular writers but I had hoped to not have to deal with that from a christian writer. Also as it speaks of the boys widowed mother he throws in the information that sometimes her boyfriend spends the night. I have no idea why that was added to the book but again I would hope not to find that in "christian" books. There were quite a few other things that bothered me as well but I guess I have told enough for this post.

 This books was supposed to teach various lessons but I had a hard time seeing them in the book. There was pretty much nothing in it to make me think that it was written by a christian author. Anyway I was pretty disappointed in this book and would not recommend it.

If you would like you can leave a comment and that will enter you in for the Grand Prize Giveaway that is listed below. I will draw one name from the commenters and then that will be entered in to win the grand prize drawing (25 bloggers will each get to put one name in for the prize). I will draw the name on May 29th.

Grand Prize Giveaway


All you need for a PIRATE PARY!

• 8 invitations

• 8 - 9" party plates

• 8 - 9-oz. cups

• 16 luncheon napkins

• 16 pc. blue cutlery set

• 1 red plastic table cover

• 2 rolls of streamers, 1 blue and 1 red

• 12 each of blue and red balloons

• 2 pkgs. of confetti, 1 blue and 1 orange

• 4 yds. deluxe creepy cloth

• 12 pirate swords with eye patch

• 72 pirate tattoos

• 8 dessert plates

• 16 beverage napkins

• 8 treasure chest-shaped filled treat boxes

• 1 10 ft. pennant

• 12 child-size pirate hats

• 1 photo door banner

• 1 piñata and toy & candy asst.

What will we pursue?

"He who tills his land will have plenty of bread,

But he who pursues worthless things lacks sense."

Proverbs 12:11

I really appreciate the Proverbs. They words in there don't mess around, the message comes out plain and simple. I love this simple reminder to work hard and don't waste time on useless things! This is a message that I need reminding on every once and a while and I am sure others do to. There are so many, many worthless ways to occupy our time if we let them. Let's not go there! Let's concentrate on the activities that are productive either physically, mentally or spiritually.



A busy but very fun week of homeschool activities

 Wow! This has been a full week. We spent time with other homeschoolers every other day! We had some very good times too but I am glad we stay home more on normal weeks. Here is some of the fun we had this week with fellow homeschoolers:

On Sunday afternoon we went to a birthday party for a boy that we have known since birth. They had invited quite a few homeschool families and the kids had lots of fun playing old fashioned games like the tug of war pictured above.

On Tuesday morning we had our normal monthly homeschool get-together. We got ready for a program which we held today (Saturday).

 On Thursday evening we had our first baseball game of the year. We had a good response and had 18 kids this first week. 7 other families have also expressed interest so we might have a big group this year!

The kids seemed to really enjoy baseball and the snacks that we had afterwards!

 Tonight we had an end of year program for our little group of homeschoolers that have been meeting monthly. Some weren't able to make it but we did have 15 kids there tonight.

The younger ones performed "6 little Ducks". It was quite fun!

 All of the kids had a band thanks to the idea of one of them. They didn't get a lot of practice in but "Twinkle Twinkle" sounded pretty good. "Go Tell Aunt Rhody" was a little rough but we appreciated their enthusiasm. :-)

 Some of the younger ones had stars to twinkle and ribbons to twirl.

 Each child was also offered the opportunity to present something on their own. Not all of them did but most did. Mara dramatically read a poem, Jonathan demonstrated his geography skills and Aaron dressed up like a revolutionary soldier and asked some trivia questions.

 The older children did a readers theater production.

And then we ended the evening with a spelling bee. Aaron was the first one up and he didn't get his word (I haven't worked on spelling much with him yet- next year I will!) but there were several pretty good spellers. Our older two did decently but didn't win.

All in all we have had some fun times!

Fix it up Friday

 One fun thing about having a little girl is getting to sew things for her and then take pictures of her wearing them. It is quite amusing to have a very creative model. Megan is wearing a jumper that I put together for her using a tank top and then adding some fabric for the skirt. Here is some pictures of our "photo shoot".

  

My "sleeping" girl

This "fix-up" worked very well for us as we don't wear tank tops around here but Megan loves having girly dresses to wear. It was also very simple to put together and so we like it for that.

Getting schoolwork done fast!

I don't know about you all but at our house we are kind of ready for the school year to be over. There are so many fun things to do outside that we would rather not spend to much time inside doing bookwork. We have a problem however- the kids aren't quite done with their books (though Mara will be this week) and maybe I'm weird but I like them to finish them. Other years we have been done by the end of April but it didn't work out this year so we are still working.

 Jonathan not only has workbooks left to finish but he also was having a very hard time focusing on his work so we needed to find a solution. I did some brainstorming with my Mom and between our ideas this is the solution that has worked:

 My kids are racing to get their schoolwork done each day. Each morning we start out with Jonathan and Mara reading through their Math lesson and doing their practice problems while Aaron reads aloud to me. For that we do not race. But then they all come to the living room and I say "On your Mark get set, GO!" and off they race to their desk and Jonathan does 10 Math problems (1/3 of his lesson), Mara does 12 problems (1/2 of her lesson) and Aaron does one page.  Whoever gets done first can have 5 chocolate or butterscotch chips. We continue to race through the rest of their work.

I have divided their work into pretty short sections so the races go pretty fast. They do have to correct any problems they get wrong so they aren't hurrying to the point of not doing a good job. The races have simply helped them (Jonathan especially- the other two generally already did a pretty good job) to stay focused and concentrate.

We have all loved the result as now we are all done with schoolwork (except our fun read aloud learning books which we do year round after lunch) anytime from 10:30-11:30 and we are starting our workbook time around 9:15-9:30 (after we pray, sing, memorize and read a little). That really frees us up for the rest of the day to get other stuff done. We have always tried to get done before lunch (which can sometimes be at 1:30 pm) but this extra hour or two of time is very nice!

Anyway- for now racing with our schoolwork is working very well for us!