This week’s second SWAG ALERT is going to make you say Yummm AGAIN!!! We are giving TWO lucky readers a full 1-year subscriptions to Relish! sweetly packaged with a Crate and Barrel spatula!

To enter, visit www.relishrelish.com and comment on this post with what you think about their company/website/product for your chance to win!

This SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, January 19th at midnight PST.  Our same fabulous SWAG ALERT rules apply, including EXTRAS, but if you need a refresher on the details just CLICK HERE or visit our “SWAG INFO” page by clicking the tab at the top right of this page.

Thanks to Relish! for sharing their fabulous dinner saving ideas with us and, of course, to you for reading BellazizasFavorites.com!

Also, be sure to check out the Praline Pork Tenderoin recipe that they are sharing exclusively with you, our fabulous readers, that is posted below…

How important is it to you that your baby eat the healthiest foods available?  Breast or bottle, a common question…but what about after that?  Choosy moms everywhere are spending up to around $1.30 per jar for the better branded organic baby food in a jar and much more than that for the new frozen gourmet foods.  Seriously though, how great is it actually, considering it’s been on the shelf for how long – preservatives or not?  Lots of moms prefer the ‘make your own’ baby food, but how many of us really do have the extra time?  It’s totally worth it, but if there were only something that made it just a little easier?

There is!  The Beaba Babycook has been around in Europe for years and has recently been made available in the United States!!  We are really excited here as it’s yet another tool for all of us supermoms who CAN have it all!  Life is all about having our cake and eating it too!

First of all it is totally safe for baby being BPA free and made with only the best materials…whew!  The Europeans have always been stricter with all of the kids products being safe, so it’s just a little more trustworthy in our opinion.  It’s both a steamer and a food processor and makes FRESH baby food in 15 minutes or less!  It’s a huge time saver and with the fact that you can use fresh fruits, veggies, meats, etc., your little sweetie can have his or her cake and eat it too…ok maybe not CAKE, but you know what we’re saying.  It’s a great time saver, a money saver – considering the high cost of the better baby foods, AND the quality of what you will be feeding your baby will be absolutely up to where it should be and of course made with love…thanks Marie!

The Beaba Babycook retails for $149.95 and can be purchased at www.babycookstore.com and it ships for free!  They are also sold at Williams Sonoma stores nationwide if you just can’t wait for shipping:).  So go supermom!  Be the baby gourmet that you know you are… quickly and with care, the Beaba Way!

Now wouldn’t it be just fabulous if in the middle of your day as supermom, that FAQ ‘What’s for dinner?’ no longer left you stumped???  Relish! is an online weekly meal planner with a dash of style and a whole lot of flavor and is a very welcome addition to our Favorite Things!!  We just love it, and we know you will too!

What we love most about this hip new way to plan meals is how incredibly easy it is to use!  It’s as simple as picking your faves from the weekly selections and Relish! does the rest!  Instantly you have a meal list, recipe list and grocery list ready to print!  Relish! offers the solution and the tools to help families get back to the dinner table, establish healthy eating habits and save money at the same time.  With Relish! by your side you will avoid that last minute rushing to the grocery store to find dinner… and of course the fast-food drive thru!  Doesn’t Sauteed Pork Chops with Pomegranate and Fennel Relish or Pasta with Carmelized Onions and Arugula and Lemon Garlic Bread sound better than heart-stopper hamburgers!?!

For only $7 a month, Relish! will provide you with the following amazing services!!

• Five dinners and sides costing about$85-$95 a week!
• All Relish! recipes require only 30 minutes or less prep time!
• Monthly freezer menus are included for those nights when you need something fast!
• An easy to use Recipe Legend helps you easily choose meals in each category like Kid Friendly, Quick, Vegetarian and many more.
• Extra menus for seasonal dinner parties and other specialties like desserts and horsdoeuvres provide recipe ideas for every occasion!

We all know that there is nothing like a family dinner to bring us closer together.  Another one of the ways Relish! will help you make your Family Night the coolest on the block is with their Dinner and Movie menus.  A meal and dessert plan is made to go along with your family’s favorite movies!  We loved King Fu Panda night with Jack Black Punch, Kung Pao Chicken, Sugar Snap Peas with Lemon, Chinese Noodles and Panda Cake.  What a creative idea and so much fun!

Check out Relish! on your own at www.relishrelish.com and you will see why it’s one of our Favorite Things!  The Relish! slogan sure has it right…Time. Food. Life.  Need we say more?

In the spirit of helping you spend more time with our families around the dinner table in the new year, Relish! has shared one of their favorite recipes exclusively with you, our readers!

Praline Pork Tenderloin

Prep and Cook Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients: 1 1/4 pounds pork tenderloin, 1/2 cup chopped pecans, 3 tablespoons brown sugar, 1/2 cup maple syrup, 2 tablespoons butter, olive oil cooking spray

Instructions:  Preheat Oven to 350 degrees, Place pecans in a small skillet and toast for 3-4 minutes, until golden.  Pour pecans into a small bowl and set aside.  Spray an OVEN SAFE non-stick skillet with cooking spray and brown pork on all sides.  Transfer pan to oven and baked until cooked through, 20 minutes.  (Careful of the hot handle!)  Transfer pork to a cutting board and let rest for a few minutes before slicing.  While meat is resting, pour off grease in skillet, then add sugar, syrup and butter.  Bring to a boil over medium heat, scraping up any brown bits.  Continue to cook, stirring until thickened, about 5 minutes.  Stir in pecans.  Serve sliced tenderloin with pecan sauce.

Nutritional Information: per serving: 375 calories; 30 grams protein; 13 grams total fat; 1 gram fiber; 3 grams saturated fat; 35 grams carbohydrates; 96 mgs cholesterol: 77 mgs sodium

It’s a beautiful, chilly morning.  I  take a sip of my perfectly infused tea as I watch my little ones enjoying a wooden train se, playing so happily, with such innocence.  Then, suddenly, a wave of sadness comes crashing over me.  No, I’m not mentally unstable (well, I guess that’s up for debate).

“Why so blue?” you ask?  Because after feeling such a strong sense of pride and joy in my boys, I look over at my oldest son (he just turned eight, but he’ll always be my baby!) and he says those words that make every mom cringe…”I’m bored!”  There he is, my perfect little angel, snubbing his nose at something so childish as a wooden train.  The coolness of things like video games, Star Wars and various other super heroes call to him like a beacon in the night.  “Play with us!” they call, waiting to destroy that last bit of innocence that hangs in the balance.  I try and try to shine my own light in his eyes.  “Look at how this track can be rebuilt different ways!  How cool is that?!”  But alas, nothing!

So what’s a momma to do?  “Let him go!” shouts my husband, video game controller in hand.  But I can’t bare to do it.  I am hanging on for dear life to that little boy with rosy cheeks and a freckled nose that thinks one day he may just marry me.

Congratulations to subscriber Shari and commenter #44, Jennifer S., who are the winners of Alexis Martin Neely’s book, Wear Clean Underwear AND the Kids Protection Planning Kit, a $500 value!!!

Congrats also go out to our 5 lucky winners, David B., Danielle C., Leah, Connie M., and Susan F.  who will all receive a copy of Wear Clean Underwear AND get the Kid’s Protection Planning Kit for half off as well!!  Now that’s some fabulous prizes for some fabulous readers!

Thanks for reading and watch for TWO fabulous SWAG ALERTs this week!!!!

There are not many things better for a family than to simply have meals together. Families, especially kids, benefit enormously from frequent positive family meals:

1.  Improves family communication

2.  Improves nutrition and eating habits

3.  Improves literacy development among preschoolers

4.  Develops a protective factor for adolescents against tobacco, alcohol, drugs and low grade point averages

“Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 2004 Study: Correlations between family meals and psychosocial well-being among adolescents.”

The more meals your family has together, the more you’ll enjoy these amazing benefits! And remember, keep the meals positive, lighthearted and fun.

More specifically, according to research by The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA) at Columbia University, children and teens who have frequent family meals:

• Are at half the risk for substance abuse compared to teens who dine with their families infrequently
• Are less likely to have friends or classmates who use illicit drugs or abuse prescription drugs
• Have lower levels of tension and stress at home
• Are more likely to say that their parents are proud of them
• Are likelier to say they can confide in their parents
• Are likelier to get better grades in school
• Are more likely to be emotionally content and have positive peer relationships
• Have healthier eating habits
• Are at lower risk for thoughts of suicide
• Are less likely to try marijuana or have friends who use marijuana

Information courtesy of www.ftfgames.com
Image courtesy of "Daddies" Little Golden Book, Illustrations by Tibor Gergely

With this week’s SWAG ALERT, we are ready to help you accomplish your New Year’s resolution of setting your priorities straight and securing your family’s future!  To one of our readers, we are giving away Alexis Martin Neely’s book, Wear Clean Underwear AND the Kids Protection Planning Kit, a $500 value!!  We are ALSO giving away 5 copies of Wear Clean Underwear AND offering the Kid’s Protection Planning Kit for half off to those 5 lucky readers as well!!

To enter, visit www.wearcleanunderwearbook.com and tell us what you think!   Are you highly prepared (phew), moderately prepared (hmmm), or not prepared at all (yikes!)?  Tell us how this product would help you in whichever category you fit into.  Comment on these questions and what you think about the company/website/product and you’ll be given your chance to win!

This SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, January 12th at midnight PST.  Our same fabulous SWAG ALERT rules apply, including EXTRAS, but if you need a refresher on the details just CLICK HERE or visit our “SWAG INFO” page by clicking the tab at the top of this page.

Thanks on behalf of Alexis and her great team for your feedback, and of course for reading Bellaziza’s Favorite Things!

Every Mom has said it at one time or another, but this mom/lawyer/author took the phrase to a whole new level when she wrote the book appropriately titled Wear Clean Underwear! A Fast, Fun, Friendly – and Essential – Guide to Legal Planning for Busy Parents.  Alexis Martin Neely is the ultimate multi-tasking mom that has saved the day and eased our minds when it comes to making sure our kids are taken care of in the event of a tragic death in the family.  With the new year beginning, what better time to set things straight in this area of your life… the most important, by the way!

Have you ever wondered what would happen to your kids if something tragic happened to you or your spouse…or both of you?  We like to focus on pretty things here at Bellaziza, but our kids’ safety is always our number one priority, and we know you feel the same way too!  That’s why we wanted to take a moment on the serious side to tell you about this informative book.  But don’t get bummed out!  Once you read this book and make some easy adjustments to your legal documents you will feel great and your family will be protected!

In an easy to read format, Wear Clean Underwear helps you discover in simple to understand terms exactly what would happen to your kids in your current emergency plan, what would happen if you had no plan at all, and what would  happen if you took the time to be prepared.  It’s an absolute must-read in our opinion.

There is much more than just a paper back book though.  You can also purchase a Kids Protection Planning Kit.  This binder is full of informational instruction on setting up your will and other legal documents (which it actually includes!!) and also comes with a Free Family Planning Session with a Family Wealth Planning Institute Personal Family Lawyer ($750 VALUE) among other things!!  You can purchase the kit at www.kidsprotectionplan.com/kit and while you can not put a price tag on keeping your kids safe, at $497 we think it’s a small price to pay for a complete kit that brings this level of peace of mind for yourself and your family!

THIS JUST IN:

“EXTRA ENTRIES” on V.I.P. SWAG will be limited to those for referring new confirmed subscribers as of today.  All entries previous to this post will of course be counted and DO BE ON THE LOOKOUT since we just may surprise you and open it back up again randomly for another big EXTRA ENTRIES fest:)!

So again, just to recap, our current V.I.P. SWAG ALERT will be open for regular daily entry until Monday, March 30th, 2009 at midnight PST, but EXTRA ENTRIES will be limited to those for referring new confirmed subscribers. Thanks,  and GOOD LUCK to all!!!

Grass stains…on the knees…of fifty dollar jeans.  Spaghetti sauce…on the sleeve…of a thirty dollar shirt.  As a mom, you are probably used to this.  As a Mom of a boy, I guarantee that you despise this!  Seriously, how can a little boy get so darn dirty is so little time?!  Just walking from the house to the car on the way to Church is like torture!  I’m just waiting to see what those little hands and feet are going to get into on the small journey to the car.

That’s why I carry the Tide To Go Stick in my bag at all times.  Sure, it’s not super eco-savvy or the hottest new product on the market.  It’s Tide…in a stick.  But I can not tell you how many times it has saved me from losing it in the middle of dinner at our favorite Italian restaurant when one of my boys (husband included) inadvertently “forgets” that their sleeve is NOT a napkin!

Yes, the Tide To Go Stick works.  Moms, go get one.  Moms of boys, go get a few!  Hey, if it’s good enough for Kelly Ripa’s handbag, it’s good enough for mine!

Congratulations to subscriber, Lilly N. of CT, who is the winner of our BELLAZIZA BARRETTE MAKEOVER SWAG!  She wins her choice of 30 of our absolutely exquisite little barrettes found at www.Bellaziza.com!

Thanks so much for all of the great comments that came in!!!  We SO appreciate it!!!  Also, don’t forget – from now until January 13th take 30% off orders of 6 or more barrettes with exclusive discount code “BellazizaVIP”!!  Basically, you’re buying 4 and getting 2 FREE!!!

STAY TUNED for more on that and more of the best of the best for the family who has everything, but deserves more!!!

Who says a dessert can’t be healthy and delicious at the same time!  When we saw this recipe on epicurious.com, we knew it was one worth trying and sharing with you!  It is quick and easy too,  so you just can’t go wrong!  If plums aren’t available, pears are an easy alternative.  And with calories this low, go ahead—indulge in seconds!

Ingredients:

Parchment paper, 6 dark plums, halved and pitted, 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted, 1 tablespoon sugar, 1/2 cup 2 percent Greek yogurt, 2 tablespoons hazelnuts, toasted in the oven at 375°F for 7 minutes, chopped , 2 teaspoons honey

Directions:

Heat oven to 375°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Place plums cut side up on sheet, brush with butter and sprinkle with sugar. Bake until soft and some juices run off, about 15 minutes. Divide among 4 bowls, top each with 2 tablespoons yogurt, sprinkle with nuts and drizzle with honey.  Makes 4 servings.  Nutritional Information Per serving: 140 calories, 6.4 g fat (2.5 g saturated), 19 g carbs, 1.8 g fiber, 3.7 g protein

We’re ringing in 2009 with our absolute best SWAG yet!  Oooh yes, we’ve done it again!  You thought the Phil&Teds Vibe was great, but a $1,000 Toy Makeover from Plan Toys!?!?  Too much?  Not for our fabulous readers!  Just think of all of the incredible and totally green toys that you could get from Plan Toys with $1,000 to spend!!!  This could take some time and thought, so we’ll give you plenty of chances to make your decision and enter for this, our biggest and best giveaway yet!!!

To enter, FIRST, you must be a Bellaziza V.I.P.! This is done by subscribing to our updates via email.  Most of you already are, but without subscription and that V.I.P. status, you will not qualify to win this SWAG.  You can CLICK HERE to sign up.

Plan Toys has asked that you, our fabulous readers, suggest what you would like to see included in PlanToys products, their website or any other efforts made by their very socially conscious company.  How would YOU suggest they improve? To enter, please visit www.plantoysusa.com, and comment on this post answering their request.

This V.I.P. SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, March 30th, 2009 at midnight PST. We will announce the big winner on Tuesday, March 31.  Our same fabulous SWAG ALERT rules apply, including EXTRAS for referring new confirmed subscribers only. If you need a refresher on the details just CLICK HERE or visit our “SWAG INFO” page by clicking the tab at the top of this page.

Thanks in advance for your feedback on behalf of our wonderful friends at Plan Toys, and GOOD LUCK TO ALL!!!

UPDATE (1/6/09):

Just FYI, as of Tuesday January 6, 2009, “EXTRA ENTIRES” on V.I.P. SWAG will be limited to those for referring new confirmed subscribers.  All entries previous to this post will of course be counted and DO BE ON THE LOOKOUT since we just may surprise you and open it back up again randomly for another big EXTRA ENTRIES fest:)!

So again, just to recap, daily entries through March V.I.P. SWAG ALERT will be open for daily entry until Monday, March 30th, 2009 at midnight PST, but EXTRA ENTRIES will be limited to those for referring new confirmed subscribers. Thanks,  and GOOD LUCK to all!!!