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®.**

Garnier Skin Care - SkinActive Product Party

Prior to this product sampling, I only associated Garnier with hair care. But now I know that Garnier cares just as much about my skin as it does about my hair. I have been learning about these products on Crowdtap for the past couple of months, but it's one thing to learn about something online and another thing to actually try it and see how it works for me and my unique body chemistry.  This sampling was different from others that I've done in the past, because not only did I receive samples for myself, but enough to throw a party and share this product with my friends. The products that we were asked to sample were Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water, Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water Waterproof, and Garnier Clearly Brighter Brightening & Smoothing Daily Moisturizer SPF15.

Garnier's Micellar Cleansing waters are formulated with a relatively new Micellar technology - the science behind the cleansing water. As you gently clean your face with a moistened cotton pad it is supposed to attract dirt (including makeup) and oil kind of like a magnet and draw it off of your face without any rubbing. You don't even have to rinse it off because all the dirt is supposed to stay on the cotton pad and leave your face clean.

Garnier's Clearly Brighter Brightening & Smoothing Daily Moisturizer SPF15 is not just another moisturizer. It absorbs into your skin quickly and its ingredients both nourish and protect your skin. It also has exfoliating ingredients that smooth out your skin and help reduce wrinkles.

I used the products myself for about a week-and-a-half before our sample party so I would be familiar with them and be able to teach my friends how to use them and share with them how I felt about the products before they used them. I found that the products were both easy to use, and I loved how well the normal Micellar Cleansing Water removed makeup and how the Clearly Brighter Moisturizer made my skin feel.  But more about that a little later, now we'll talk about the party.

Prior to the sample party, I dressed up the samples a bit and set up our work space:

After my friends arrived, I introduced the products and explained the product basics that I shared above. Also, to help explain how the Micellar Cleansing Water worked, I had my friends watch a short video clip which showed and explained the simple technique that we were going to be trying.

Next we tried Garnier's Micellar Cleansing Water, choosing either the normal or the waterproof version depending on what type of makeup we were wearing. My friend Laurie and I both took before and after photos - one with all of our makeup on, and one with half of our makeup taken off.

After we took the rest of our makeup off, I took a picture of the cotton pads that I used to remove my makeup. I know they're unsightly, but the bottom four show the makeup that came off at first, and the top one shows how little residue was left when I went over it one more time. It's amazing to me that one cleansing pad saturated with Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water can be so effective. My friends were all amazed how well the product worked and how clean their faces felt afterwards.

After all our faces were clean we applied Garnier's Clearly Brighter Brightening & Smoothing Daily Moisturizer SPF15. Everyone liked how well it absorbed into the skin and how it didn't detract from the clean feeling that was left after we had cleaned our faces.  One friend in particular said that after only one use she already liked Garnier's Clearly Brighter Moisturizer better than the product that she had been using for years.

To finish off our gathering, we enjoyed some refreshments and talked about our experience.  Our party included different age groups - early 20s, late 20s, early 30s, and 60s. We all liked both of the products - although there was some differing opinion when it came to the normal versus waterproof Micellar Cleansing Water.  I personally didn't care for the slightly greasy residue left behind by the waterproof variety - and any time I use it I rinse my face afterwards to remove the residue. However, I had at least one friend that preferred the way that her face felt with the waterproof variety over the normal. Several people commented that they really enjoyed the convenience of not having to rinse their face after cleaning their faces. They also liked that the formula is gentle enough for sensitive skin and that their faces didn't feel dried out after using it.  There wasn't as much discussion about the Clearly Brighter Moisturizer, but everybody agreed that it is nice to have a combined moisturizer and sunscreen so you don't have to remember or take the time to put on a second product.

Overall, we all enjoyed the party, enjoyed the product and left with clean, refreshed faces ready to face another day protected from the dry winter air and the strong sun of the mountain west.

Now for my observations and feedback from using these products for the past couple of weeks. First of all, I think that Garnier Micellar Cleansing Water is the best makeup remover that I have ever used.  It does an excellent job removing all the residual makeup that other products have left behind in the past. However, I have a really hard time not rinsing my face afterwards. There is a small residue left behind that slightly irritates my sensitive skin, but all I have to do to remedy that is to rinse my face quickly after I've cleaned my face.  I also don't care as much for the waterproof variety as I already mentioned above.  I also had to deal with a hormonal break-out the first week that I tried this product, and I was impressed with how quickly the Micellar Cleansing Water helped clear up my face.  It seemed to help my face heal quickly and that is something that is greatly appreciated.

Next is my view of Garnier's Clearly Brighter Moisturizer. When I first started using this product I wasn't sure how a moisturizer could also exfoliate my skin, and a couple weeks later I still don't know how it works, but I know that it does.  I started this sample with a slight tan left over from the fall soccer season, but now, only a couple of weeks later, it is gone.  I have another face wash with an exfoliater that I use regularly and I would have thought that using it for the past couple of months would have already removed my tan, but Garnier's Clearly Brighter Moisturizer took care of it in only about a week-and-a-half.  I also really like how quickly it absorbs into my skin and that it doesn't leave my face feeling greasy, like other products containing sunscreen usually do. My makeup goes on well on top of it and it keeps my skin feeling moisturized all day long.

I really enjoyed being able to sample these products from Garnier's SkinActive Product Line, and being able to share these products with my friends - both those who were able to attend my party and those who weren't. I have even been able to find Garnier's Micellar Cleansing Water at my local WalMart already, so I know were to find a replacement when my sample is used up.  Thank you Crowdtap and Garnier for this opportunity.


**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 Garnier.**

My Little Pony PLAYSKOOL Friends

"My little pony, my little pony . . . " The theme song for this TV show - both the original from my childhood, and the slightly modified song for the new one - starts running through my mind every time I see these cute little toys around my house. Both of my girls love these toys and we all really enjoyed having the opportunity to sample the PLAYSKOOL Friends My Little Pony Rainbow Dash Friendship Bus and Figure 2-Pack.

I remember both watching the TV show, and having My Little Ponies toys when I was a child, so I was super excited when my daughter discovered the new My Little Ponies show. I think that this was one reason why the PLAYSKOOL Friends My Little Pony toys were right up our alley.  First of all, these toys, both the Rainbow Dash Friendship Bus and the Figure 2-Pack were labeled as being for children aged 18 months and up.  My youngest daughter, R, is on the younger end of this age group and my older daughter, M, is 3. While they both like playing with these ponies, they fit R a little bit more, since they fit well in her smaller hands, and because she really likes putting things in and taking them back out of places.

Little R also got really excited when she discovered that she could push the button on the front of the bus and the door would open.  She also likes moving the sign open and closed, but doesn't really pay much attention to the spinning picture on the side.

Little M, on the other hand, really likes taking the "school bus" as she calls it, and driving the ponies around the house.  She knows who Rainbow Dash is from the TV show and she prefers her over the other two ponies, Moon Dancer and Minty. M will also make up stories about where the ponies are going and what they do once they get there. The girls also like playing together with these toys and it's fun watching M give R instructions as she explains to her little sister what the ponies are doing in her imagination.

Last week we also had the girls' cousin, E, come over for a play date.  E is about R's age and she loves ponies too.  She has the Rainbow Dash Friendship Bus at her house, as well as a My Little Pony Castle, so when she came to play she brought her castle and her ponies too so they could all play together.

While the girls played, I noticed one thing right off. The music that the castle played was a big draw and at first that's all that the girls wanted to play with, but it wasn't long before the novelty of the music and the castle wore off and both E and R went back to playing with the bus, while M could have just played with the castle the whole time.

During their play date it was fun watching all three girls load and unload the bus, drive it around, and take turns with both the bus and the castle. We (the moms) had to step in a couple of times to encourage sharing, but that's okay because kids occasionally need guidance when learning how to share. I especially enjoyed it when big brother, O, came upstairs and decided that he wanted to play too. I guess pony time and sharing is just contagious.

Overall, I was very impressed with the PLAYSKOOL Friends My Little Pony Rainbow Dash Friendship Bus and Figures. My girls (and boy) have really enjoyed playing with them. The pony figures are perfect for little hands and they don't have the crazy hair to get all tangled up when the girls play with them.  The bus is well built and has already held up well to all of the play time that it has experienced. It is easy enough for small children to understand how it works and to push around. It's also not very big, which is nice when it comes to minimizing the toy pile in my daughters' rooms. I hope that PLAYSKOOL continues to make more PLAYSKOOL Friends My Little Pony products because they will definitely be a welcome addition to play time at our house.

**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 the PlayskoolCrew.**