MOM TRIED: Color Changing Cup
MOM TRIED and still testing… the Teckwrap Color Changing Vinyl and Holographic Vinyl. For a more fun summer cup, i added a little magical pizzaz!
Blog
-
Tried: Mystery Shopping
As a Stay-At Home Mom, I have been looking for ways to earn extra money. I have been seeing advertisements to become Mystery Shopper but at same time seeing scam alerts from the same industry.Researching further, I have stumbled upon some websites that doesn’t seem shady because they don’t ask for any payments to become a member of their mystery shoppers. So I tried…..
A couple of months being a member, not too many shops come close to my category (age or gender-wise). I even sent an email to the company asking for shop job within my age limit. Until this last 2 weeks…
So came a shop-job (or just “shop”) to evaluate a certain brand of smartphone to a certain carrier. I was still doubting the legitimacy of the job (or the payment) but I tried…. And what do you know… there really is an industry of non-scamming Mystery Shopping. I shopped, I answered the questionnaire, I got paid!
It’s not that big for an income, but at least earning a few bucks on spare (spare) time is not bad at all.
And fun too!
Clip Art from Windows
-
Tested: Blonde Apple Brownie
Have you ever had a problem feeding your kids fruits and vegetables?Well I do. At least one of my two boys. The younger one pretty much is a healthy eater. When he gets hungry, he grabs an apple or a banana or even finish half a pound of fresh strawberries. However, my older boy is very picky and eats selective fruits and vegetables. So since he was a toddler I would sneak in pureed vegetables or fruits in his food. I even bought J. Seinfeld’s book Deceptively Delicious (this book will be another blog to discuss) to get some recipes. Now that he is considered a “big kid” he still loves his breads, muffins and pancakes so I always find recipes that I can incorporate fresh fruits.
This recipe Apple Brownies from AllRecipes.com instantly became a favorite!
My changes from the original:
Just cut the sugar to 1/2 cup; it is sweet enough especially if you plan on using the sweet variety of apples. My family does not like cinnamon flavor too much so I cut back to 1/2 teaspoon.
All in all this recipe is one of those that you can never go wrong on the first try.
-
Hiking and Beach Time!
I have placed the bike in the garage for today and we hit the beach!
And tried and successfully climbed the dunes in Indiana!
And had a little visit with the “locals”.
Photos credits: Fiona, Bernard
-
Bike Obsessed: Gel Seats
OK. For the people who have read my previous posts: https://momtriedandtested.com/2014/05/18/bike-riding-mission/ and https://momtriedandtested.com/2014/05/19/bike-riding-mission-accomplished/ will know that I have just started to experience the joys of riding a bike.
Well the part that I just also learned about is that not all bike seats are made equal or COMFORTABLE!
In the first day that I tried to learn the art of riding a bike, I also learned that it was a “pain in the butt” — literally!
So, I shopped for a new gel seat cover…
I found one at Walmart for $16.95
which was great. I was able to test ride it around a few minutes then it started to rain 😦The next day, I went to Aldi and lo and behold saw this bike gel seat cover and is ONLY $6.99! One piece left!
I was a bit skeptical for the quality because of it’s price. But needless to say being a frugal MOM, I have to try it!. To my surprise, the cheaper gel seat is much more comfortable and better cushy for my tushy.
Definitely will be making a return to Walmart!. Aldi as always, surprise me. 🙂
#NewComfort #NewGelSeats
-
Spring Pork Loin in Cream of Mushroom
As usual, dinner in our house is (almost) always unplanned. So I looked in our fridge and see what ingredients I can use to experiment and here is what I came up with.
Ingredients: 1.5 lbs pork loin cut into 1″ strips
2 tbsp soy sauce or fish sauce
5 oz green onion, chopped
1 medium red bell pepper, strips
8 oz mushroom, sliced
1 small onion, chopped
1 tsp garlic, chopped
1 tbsp virgin olive oil
1 can cream of mushroom + one can water
Salt and pepper
Procedure: In a medium bowl, marinate the pork loin in soy sauce or fish sauce then keep in the fridge for an hour. In a large pan, heat oil then saute garlic until slightly brown, add onion next until caramelized, set aside. In the same pan, brown the pork, then add back the garlic and onion. Add a little water until pork is tender, simmer. Next add the rest of the ingredients ( mushroom, bell pepper, green onion, cream of mushroom and 1 can water). Add salt and pepper to taste. Simmer for about 5-10 minutes. Do not overcook the vegetables. Done!
If you’re going to be brave enough to test this recipe, please return for a comment, suggestion and/or kind criticism. Also, this is my first time to write a recipe – I am also open for any suggestion about that.Have the BEST Day!
#FirstRecipe
-
Bike Riding Mission
Have you heard of a 38 year old woman to learn to ride a bike for the first time?
Well, that will be me! Yes. Unfortunately, I learned how to drive first before learning how to ride a bike. My older son beat me to it but I will try my best to learn how to bike before my youngest learn how to!
I bought it on sale price $79.99 from Walmart and my husband assembled it for me.Tomorrow I will muster all courage I can find… and with heavy body padding, I will try to learn!
Wish me luck! Will keep you posted. 🙂
-
Baked Flounder
Tonight’s dinner is unplanned.
My husband and I are going back and forth whether to eat out or not . I got tired and then made a quick decision to thaw frozen flounder fillets…. not a very good idea (i guess). The original recipe I tried is entitled CRUNCHY BAKED FLOUNDER found here, but our dinner was not. But the taste was great although did not turn out crunchy…
To clarify, this is the first time I TRIED flounder. I like fish but hate the salt water fish taste, if you can ‘catch’ what I mean… I usually stick to fresh water fish like tilapia and milk fish or those farm raised salmon.
Original recipe CRUNCHY BAKED FLOUNDER
Ingredients: 1/2 cup panko, 1/2 cup grated Parmesan, 3 tablespoons unsalted melted butter, 4 flounder fillets (1 1/2 lb.), Salt and pepper
Preparation: Preheat oven to 425°F. Mist bottom of a large baking dish with nonstick cooking spray. Combine panko, Parmesan and butter in a small bowl and stir mixture well. Sprinkle both sides of flounder generously with salt and pepper. Arrange fish in prepared baking dish. Sprinkle panko-Parmesan mixture over fish. Bake until fish is cooked through and crumbs are golden, about 15 minutes. Serve immediately.
My revision: Instead of melted butter I coated the flounder fillet with olive oil mayonnaise. Sprinkled with the mixture of panko, grated parmesan cheese, salt and pepper. I baked it at the same 425°F for 20 minutes and still had to broil high for 2 minutes.
This was the easiest $7 dinner for a family of 4!
And to think we were planning to eat out and could have easily spent $30. 🙂
-
Welcome
Welcome to MOM Tried + Tested.
I have decided to create another blog site to streamline all my posts about recipes, travels, savings and many more under the sun – in one. So, in this blog I will be re-posting old loved articles and of course, new ones.
I hope that you will enjoy reading my creations as much as I have enjoyed creating it!
MOM Tried And Tested 