• I received a free blender from Ninja in exchange for writing a review on the blog.  

My husband and I were on an 18 hour car trip with the family and we were talking about what our love languages were. This is how the conversation went. 

Wife: “What do you think your love language is?”

Husband: “No clue”. 

Wife: “I think mine is kitchen appliances”. 

If you didn’t notice, we got this marriage thing on lock after 12 years. 

I bought a blender a few years ago, on sale, and it’s been a nightmare. Let’s get this straight, there are some things you can get by with by going cheap but a blender ain’t one of them. Unless you like your smoothies to be chunky and your frozen drinks dumpy.

All blenders are NOT created equal and this Nutri Ninja Ninja BlendMAX Duo is at the top. Let me put this into perspective. I made a green smoothie yesterday with 2 CUPS of spinach and my kids lapped it up like ice cream. My kids, like any other kids, don’t love their veggies but using the Nutri Ninja Ninja BlendMAX Duo to make my smoothies made all the difference for them. The Nutri Ninja Ninja BlendMAX Duo got the smoothie so smooth it just tastes better.

Let me tell you some of my favrite features of the Nutri Ninja Ninja BlendMAX Duo:

• It has little sticky feet so it sticks to your counter. I have little hands in my house that I could see trying to pull this off the counter but thanks to the sticky feet, they can’t!
• 88 oz. Total Crushing blender pulverizes ice to snow in seconds.
• Auto-iQ technology for one-touch convenient blending
• Pro Extractor Blades Assembly delivers powerful Nutrient & Vitamin Extraction

Here is the recipe for the green smoothie my kids will actually drink:

This blender comes with an awesome recipe book, and I also love the Simple Green smoothie book  and that is where I got this recipe.

To order this book, go here: Simple Green Smoothies: 100+ Tasty Recipes to Lose Weight, Gain Energy, and Feel Great in Your Body.

This blender does way more than make smoothies so stay tuned to more reasons why I love this blender! And to order your own blender, you can order it from Amazon: Nutri Ninja Ninja BlendMax DUO with Auto-iQ Boost (BL2012)

This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CampaignHashtag #TrySomeTHINGood

Every summer we make a trek back to our hometown in Louisiana and it’s a grueling 17 hour one day drive and I can’t tell you how many snacks we go through with 4 kids. This year I made it my mission to only pack real food snacks for my kids. I stocked up on snacks at my local King Soopers before we left on our trip. My first stop was the cracker aisle to find some GOOD THiNS- The Potato One- Sweet Potato.

GOOD THiNS start with real ingredients (like wheat, potato and rice), combined with enticing flavors (like garlic, spinach and sweet potato) and baked thin and crispy without any artificial flavors, colors, cholesterol, partially hydrogenated oils or high fructose corn syrup.

I found my GOOD THiNS- The Potato One- Sweet Potato at my local King Soopers. Find your local Kroger/Kroger Family of Stores to get your GOOD THiNS here!

A few years back, on our road trip to Louisiana, I gave each of my kids $20 to spend on snacks so every time we stopped for gas, they could buy something with their money. While this taught them a great lesson about money and how to budget their money for the entire trip, all they bought was candy and junk food. 

And I don’t know about you but trying to argue with 4 kids in a gas station about their food choices is not one of my favorite things to go. Those stinkers gang up on me and it’s always a losing battle.

Fast forward to this year and check out my idea for packing real food snacks for a road trip! Besides all the snacks, you will also need a tackle box to hold all the snacks. My kids loved this idea because they all had their own boxes so they didn’t have to worry about someone eating all their snacks.

8 Real Food Road Trip snacks:

1. GOOD THiNS- The Potato One- Sweet Potato: Sweet Potato GOOD THiNS are made with real sweet potatoes and has 60% less fat than the leading regular fried potato chip. Score!
2. GOOD THiNS- The Beet One- Balsamic Vinegar & Sea Salt: A baked snack with a delicious tangy twist. Root for the Beet! Flavored with balsamic vinegar and sea salt.
3. Beef Jerky: Make sure and get the kind with no nitrates and one that is all natural.
4. Puff rice and corn snacks: These can get messy so make sure and put them in a plastic bag. These are baked and not fried so better for you.
5. Fruit and Veggie strips: I know you have seen fruit strips but I just found some fruit strips that also have veggies in them. A great way to get your kids to eat veggies and they won’t even notice!
6. Crisp dried apples: I cannot get enough of these! They are dried apples that taste almost like a marshmallow!
7. Vanilla almond butter packs: Be on the lookout for almond butter in one serving packs. My kids favorite is the vanilla almond butter.
8. Snack bars: While you are at King Soopers, go to the cereal aisle and look at all the protein/snack bars. They have tons to choose from. For my kids, I like the ones with the least ingredients. 

And one more to put on your list is the GOOD THiNS- The Wheat One- Ancient Grains. They must be good because my store was sold out! Rediscover wheat with ancient grains like quinoa, amaranth & millet. Baked deliciously thin & crispy. Plus they are made with 100% whole grain wheat. 

By just planning ahead a little, you can set up your kids for snack success for your next road trip! What is your favorite real food snack?!

I was given a free Ginger Snap crate for my review. All opinions are my own.

I will be honest, I don’t like monthly subscription boxes. I have tried a few and most come with travel samples of this or that and sometimes it’s even things I know I want use. But when Ginger Snap Crate approached me to review their monthly box, I was intrigued since it was items that this company makes from your own pictures. So what you have to do is fill out a form that lets them know all your favorite things in life, they custom design every item to your personal specifications, and voila you will get a box full of swag decorated with your favorite images. 

Not only am I a blogger who basically takes pictures for a living but I just love pictures! I literally got a bigger storage phone just so it could hold more pictures. Right now there are 7,000 pictures of my phone! Ginger Snap Crate creates amazing products from my pictures and I am in love. 

From the Ginger Snap Crate website:

“Every month you will scream with excitement when you see that box with a cute little camera on it on your door step because inside is pure happiness for you to use and share with your loved ones. In a world full of beauty products, razors and granola bars coming to you monthly. Now you really have something to get excited about.”

Not only do I love this for myself, but this would be a fantastic gift. We have family that does not live near us, and my in-laws miss their grandchildren terribly so they love getting pictures from us. This would be an awesome present to gift them with pictures of their grandchildren.

Probably my favorite item was the glass cutting board below. They took a few of my images from instagram and put them on a cutting board. I can’t wait to show this one off. 

And what about this tote bag? It’s a double-sided tote with 2 super cute pictures, one on each side of the tote. I guarantee no one else will have a bag this cool.

To find out more about Ginger Snap Crate, go here!