Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets - Do they really make a difference?

This product test has been one of the harder ones that I've done so far. Everyone who knows me knows that I really like to bake cookies, and so a product that alters my cookie routine was challenging. But I do like to try new things, so I went ahead and tried Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets. They are pre-cut sheets of parchment paper that are the size of a large cookie sheet.  Their purpose is two-fold. They are supposed to help your cookies bake more evenly and to reduce cleanup afterwards.

The first cookies that I tried Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets on was a new Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe that I found on the Reynolds® Kitchens Website. I only made half a batch of these cookies, since I wasn't sure how they would turn out, but they turned out nice and soft and tasted yummy. I personally prefer fewer chocolate chips, but I can adjust that if I make this recipe again.  I did find it very nice that I wasn't left with any chocolate chip residue on either my cookie sheet or on my cooling rack, but I needed to try another recipe to determine if the parchment paper really helped the cookies cook any better.

Next I threw together some chocolate cookies from a cake mix for a friend's birthday. This time I baked half of the cookies on a cookie sheet lined with a Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheet and the other half on just a greased cookie sheet. After they baked, I thought that the cookies baked on the parchment paper may have been a little fluffier, but after they cooled they turned out the same, so for these cookies I didn't really see any difference in the way they cooked.

I didn't feel like I had come to any conclusion yet, so I tried another batch of cookies. This time I used my tried and true Gingersnap recipe that I make a lot because it's my husband's favorite. I also baked half of this batch of cookies on a lined cookie sheet and the other on just a plain greased cookie sheet. And for the first time I had a result when it came to how the cookies baked. The cookies that were baked on the cookie sheet lined with a Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheet were still nice and chewy on the inside, but they were a little bit more firm on the outside. I was also able to remove the cookies immediately from both the pan and the parchment paper without the cookies falling apart.  I generally let the cookies set on the pan for a few minutes before I remove them, but this time I tried to remove the cookies from the greased pan immediately, just like from the lined pan, and the cookies crumbled and either fell apart or lost their shape. I was also surprised by the residue left behind on the greased cookie sheet. I guess after a life of making cookies this way I've just never noticed it until now.

Now, before I made any final conclusions about Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets, I decided to try one last test. This time I used half of one sheet to line the bottom of a 9 x 13 cake pan and made a batch of brownies. Brownies are always messy and I generally have to soak the pan afterwards to get it clean (even when I grease it well). My results of this test are below. The parchment paper absorbed much of the cleanup damage, although a little bit of the batter leaked around the edge and I still had to clean that out of the pan, but there is a whole lot less to clean up than normal. I also think that the brownies cooked a little more evenly than they usually do, so this final test was a win for Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets.

So what's my final opinion of Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets? I like how they reduce the mess involved with the pans I use when I bake, but I'm not sure that alone is a good reason to just abandon the way that I've baked my entire life. With a couple of my recipes the cookies/brownies seemed to cook a bit more evenly, but on the other two I didn't really see much of a difference.  I also think that having to trim the pre-cut sheets is a little bit annoying if I don't use a large cookie sheet.  Overall, I liked this product and may possibly purchase it again, but I think that I may be more likely to purchase a roll of parchment paper and use that instead of the pre-cut sheets.  I also haven't ever tried any other brand of parchment paper, so I can't really say that Reynolds® brand parchment paper works any better than other brands. It's a good product and I'll continue to use the rest that came in my test package, and then maybe I'll be able to decide one and for all whether or not Reynolds® Cookie Baking Sheets are going to become a permanent part of my baking routine.

**The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Product samples and program incentives were received as compensation for this product review. Product testing and review were performed in compliance with guidelines provided by Crowdtap and Reynolds®.**

Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners - Yummy Meals and Easy Clean-Up

I love cooking, but lets be honest, I hate cleaning up after I cook. So when I had an opportunity to try and review Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners, I was extremely excited. They say right on the box: "For Fast Easy Cleanup" and that claim is everything that it should be.

The first recipe that I tried with Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners was Balsamic Pork Roast.

Ingredients:
3 lb pork roast
1 Cup Chicken Broth
1/2 Cup Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tbsp Worcester Sauce
1 Tbsp Soy Sauce
1 Tbsp Honey
1/2 tsp Red Pepper Flakes
1 tsp Dried Parsley Flakes
1/2 tsp Dried Oregano
1/2 tsp Dried Basil
1 tsp minced garlic
1 Cup Cold Water
1 Tbsp Corn Starch
1 Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liner

First I lined my slow cooker with my Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liner

and gathered my ingredients.

I placed my pork roast fat-side up in my lined slow cooker

then mixed together all the sauce ingredients except for the 1 Cup of Cold Water and Corn Starch and poured it over the pork.

Then I placed the lid snugly on the slow cooker and cooked it for 6 hours on low.

Once the pork was cooked, I removed 1 Cup of the sauce from the cooker to a small sauce pan, mixed together the 1 Cup Cold Water and 1 Tbsp Corn Starch, and added it to the sauce in the sauce pan. Then I brought the mixture to a boil and let it simmer for 1 minute to thicken.

Then I serve the sliced pork roast and the sauce with rice and a nice healthy vegetable. 

After dinner was over and the pan had cooled, I removed the remainder of the sauce and the Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liner from the slow cooker and disposed of it.

The Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liner left my pan nice and clean and all I had to do was wash the lid, rinse out the pan, and my slow cooker was clean and ready to be used again.

I tried another recipe only a few days later. This time I chose a recipe from the Reynolds® Kitchens website - Italian Meatball Soup.

The Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liner worked just as well this time as it did before, and my family got to try a yummy new recipe.  It tasted really good and the only draw back that it had was that the meatballs, made with ground turkey rather than ground beef, didn't hold together as well as I would have liked. But we liked this noodley soup well enough that this recipe will be added to my collection.

Overall, I really enjoyed this #sponsored #Crowdtap mission. I was very impressed with how well the Reynolds® Slow Cooker Liners did what they were supposed to do and made my duties in the kitchen easier.  I will definitely be purchasing and using this product again in the future to make many more yummy meals for my family.

**The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Product samples and program incentives were received as compensation for this product review. Product testing and review were performed in compliance with guidelines provided by Crowdtap and Reynolds®.**

Mucinex® Fast-Max® Liquid Gels - Relief for a Busy Mom

This was a product sampling that I was hoping that I wouldn't have try too soon, but this past week it turned out that I was glad to have Mucinex® Fast-Max® Liquid Gels on hand. Last Thursday I started feeling rotten. My head was stuffy, my muscles were aching, and I just wanted to curl up and sleep all day. But then my 18 month old daughter woke up from her nap, my 3 year-old got bored with her TV show, and whether I liked it or not, life resumed. So, I figured I might as well give Mucinex® Fast-Max® Liquid Gels a try.

Since I was pretty busy with my little ones, I'm not sure exactly how fast this medicine started working, but the next time I took a break I noticed that I did feel a bit better. My head wasn't as stuffy and my body wasn't aching so bad that I just wanted to cry. I still hurt a little bit, and I didn't forget that I wasn't feeling good, but I was able to keep on being mom and that was a blessing. Also, that evening, to help me sleep better I took Mucinex® Fast-Max® Liquid Gels for Night and my aches and stuffy head didn't keep me from sleeping (my teething baby did, but that's a completely different story).

As for how this product holds up to the competing DayQuil and NyQuil products, which I have use quite a bit in the past, it does some things better and some things about the same. I didn't notice any major difference between the two when it came to pain relief. They both seem to help me push through the headache and muscle aches of having a cold. But I did notice a big difference when it came to the stuffy head.  Mucinex® Fast-Max® Liquid Gels seemed to do a better job controlling the build up of mucus in my head and relieved the pressure in my sinus and helped slow my runny nose. Overall, this product seems to do what it claims to and did a great job breaking up the mucus that came with my cold and I will definitely turn to it in the future when mucus rears it's ugly head.

**The opinions expressed in this review are entirely my own. Product samples and program incentives were received as compensation for this product review. Product testing and review were performed in compliance with guidelines provided by Crowdtap and Mucinex®.**