Opinion Queen

To kick off 2011, many of us committed – as we do every year – to a whole bunch of resolutions.  At the top of most people’s resolution list is to get healthier in this freshly minted new year.  I can’t think of a better way to do this than by drinking Zoom Organic’s Zoe (which means “Life In A Bottle” in Greek)!  We were lucky enough to review Zoom Organic’s Zoe, which is a mixture of 100% organic Acai Juice, Goji Juice, Noni Juice, Mangosteen Juice and Camu Camu Juice.  In case you missed the full review, you can see it by clicking here: ZOOM Organic: Zoe Review

Zoe Juice Giveaway

We were thrilled when Zoom Worldwide told us that they wanted to help our readers kick off their new year to a healthy start by giving three – yes, you read that correctly – THREE of our readers a free 4 pack of Zoe.  Looking for a boost in antioxidants?  Do you want to help your skin glow and be perfectly clear from the inside out?  It is amazing what Zoe Juice is able to do for everything from eczema to acne!  Want a chance to win one of the free Zoe Juice 4-packs?  Here is how to enter the giveaway:

How to Enter the Zoe Juice Giveaway:

How to Win: You can win one of three 4-packs of Zoe Juice by visiting the Zoom Organic Website and leaving a comment in the Opinion Queen Comment Section (below) telling us what you loved the most their products.  This is a required step before getting extra points with the optional contest entry opportunities listed below.

Optional Contest Entry Opportunities: Each of the following will give you a certain number of EXTRA entries into the giveaway, so do as many of the following as you would like to increase your chances of winning!  Good luck, everyone!

1.  Subscribe to my updates via e-mail by clicking here: Subscribe to Opinion Queen by Email, confirm the subscription, and leave a comment below to let me know that you have subscribed to my e-mails (or tell me if you already are). (2 entries)

2.  Tweet about my giveaway with a link to my site, and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet.  You can do this every day! (2 entries)

3. Make your Facebook status about my giveaway with a link to my site, and leave a comment below with a link to your page.  You can do this every day! (2 entries)

4.  Grab my Banner in the right sidebar and post it on your website (or tell me if it is already there)! (3 entries)

5.  Add a link to OpinionQueen.com from your blog or website, and leave a comment below with a link to where you added the link. (3 entries)

6.  Follow me on twitter: TheOpinionQueen and then leave a comment below with your twitter name. (2 entries)

7.  Tell everyone about this giveaway on Digg, Stumble, in an internet forum, meme, Google Buzz, blog it, or any other social networking place (2 entries for each one that you do!)

8.  Leave a comment on a non-giveaway product review post on my site and leave a comment below to let me know what you commented on. (1 entry)

The winner will be selected on February 14, 2011 through a random number generator and contacted via e-mail.  If there is no response from the winner within 3 days, another winner will be selected.  Only US Residents are eligible for this giveaway.

As I listed the foods that I eat every day to my nutritionist a month ago, I could not help but be proud of what I thought was a healthy diet.  One of the first things that the nutritionist picked up on was that I was eating lots of yogurt, which is a good thing, but I was eating the wrong kind of yogurt.  She told me to start buying yogurt with at most 6 grams of sugar per serving, but ideally it should have only 3 grams of sugar or less per serving.  So off I went to the grocery store on a quest to find organic yogurt with less sugar (I hate the idea of non-organic dairy products from cows that are pumped full of hormones and antibiotics).  How can it be that every yogurt and kefir (other than plain or diet flavors) has 20 grams of sugar or more?  That is far higher than what my nutritionist was recommending.  So I decided that maybe I would give my yogurt habit a rest for a while.  A couple of weeks later, the fabulous people at Cuisipro offered to let me review the Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker and to give another one away to one of my readers.  And it finally struck me – why not make your own yogurt and have 100% control over all of the ingredients that are used!  Even if you are not a yogurt lover, you should definitely also read my Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Cheese Maker Review and enter that giveaway as well, because both the yogurt maker and the yogurt cheese maker work together so beautifully.

The Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker comes with 8 reusable yogurt cups, a cooking base, and a thermometer that is used in the process of making yogurt.  The only other ingredients that you need are milk and a starter.  The instruction book suggests adding instant skim milk powder into your cold milk before starting the process if you use low-fat milk (otherwise your yogurt can come out too thin), but I used a mixture of whole milk and 2% milk and had no problems with the thickness.  For the starter, you can either use 1-2 TB of plain yogurt that you buy at the store or you can use a package of dried yogurt culture.  For my first batch, I used Cuisipro’s Yogurt Culture, and then after my first batch I always made sure to save 1-2 TB of yogurt to use in my next batch.

How to Make Yogurt in the Donvier Yogurt Maker:

1.  I heated up a liter of milk in a glass container in the microwave until I saw that it was steaming.  This took me around 8 minutes in my microwave, and I stopped to stir and check on it every couple of minutes.

2.  Then I removed the milk from the microwave and placed the thermometer into it, because you need to let the milk cool until it is 110 to 115 degrees.  You can see in the photo above that the thermometer makes it super simple, because you just wait until the temperature falls in between the two black lines marked as “Add Starter.”

3.  Next, I added 1-2 TB of the starter yogurt or dried yogurt culture into one of the eight yogurt jars that comes with the Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker and I mixed some of the warm milk into the starter.

4.  I poured the starter / warm milk combination that I mixed together in my yogurt jar back into the big container of warm milk, and I mixed it well.

5.  For the next step, I filled each of the eight jars equally with the milk / yogurt mixture, covered them with their lids and placed them into the base of the Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker.

6.  I plugged in the base and for my first batch, I set it to run for 10 hours.  The instruction book says you can increase the time for thicker yogurt or decrease the time for thinner yogurt, and in a future batch I did let it run for longer and it made the most delicious, thick, creamy yogurt!

7.  That’s it!  Now I just had to wait.  There are several alarms to let you know when your batch of yogurt is about to be done, and then when the yogurt is finished, the machine automatically turns off and beeps for a minute to remind you to put your yogurt into the fridge, because you need to chill the yogurt for 3-4 hours before it is ready to eat.

How did the yogurt come out? Amazing!  Much tastier than store bought yogurt, and best of all, there are no preservatives or artificial ingredients.  I could control how much sugar was added to each serving – and I opted to use Agave Nectar rather than actual sugar to make it that much healthier.  I even added my own fresh fruit chunks or fruit preserves to make fruit flavored yogurt.

One final point I want to make is that the Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker is well-built and sturdy, and they only use safe materials.  If you look at the photo above very carefully, you can see that the yogurt cups are made of a plastic that contains no BPA, which is so important because any time you heat up a plastic container that contains BPA, the BPA can seep into your food and scientists do not even  know the long-term effects of this yet but it is not sounding good.  In fact, many states have already outlawed the use of BPA in baby products.  So I was thrilled to see the no BPA stamp on the bottom of the plastic yogurt container.

Now that I have a Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker, I think it is safe to say that I will never buy yogurt again.  I love to just set it up the night before, let the machine run all night, and then place it in the fridge the next morning.  In fact, I think I just might need to order another set of Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Maker Jars because my house goes through that much yogurt!

How to Enter the Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Maker Giveaway:

Where to Buy the Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Maker: You can buy one here: Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker

How to Win: You can win a Cuisipro Donvier Electronic Yogurt Maker by visiting the Cuisipro Website and leaving comment below with your favorite product on their site!  You must do this before doing any of the extra entries listed below.  And do not forget to read the Cuisipro Donvier Yogurt Cheese Maker Review and to enter that giveaway as well!

Extra Entries: Each of the following will give you a certain number of EXTRA entries into the giveaway, so do as many of the following as you would like!  Good luck everyone!

1.  Subscribe to my updates via e-mail by clicking here: Subscribe to Opinion Queen by Email, confirm the subscription, and leave a comment below to let me know that you have subscribed to my e-mails (or tell me if you already are). (2 entries)

2.  Tweet about my giveaway with a link to my site, and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet.  You can do this every day! (2 entries)

3. Make your facebook status about my giveaway with a link to my site, and leave a comment below with a link to your page.  You can do this every day! (2 entries)

4.  Grab my Banner in the right sidebar and post it on your website (or tell me if it is already there)! (3 entries)

5.  Add a link to OpinionQueen.com from your blog or website, and leave a comment below with a link to where you added the link. (3 entries)

6.  Follow me on twitter: TheOpinionQueen and then leave a comment below with your twitter name. (2 entries)

7.  Tell everyone about this giveaway on Digg, Stumble, in a forum, meme, Google Buzz, blog it, or any other social networking place (2 entries for each one that you do!)

8.  Leave a comment on a non-giveaway product review post on my site and leave a comment below to let me know what you commented on. (1 entry)

The winner will be selected on December 13 through a random number generator and contacted via e-mail.  If there is no response from the winner within 3 days, then another winner will be selected.  Only US Residents are eligible for this giveaway.

ZOOM Organic makes a health drink called Zoë, which means life in Ancient Greek.  ZOOM Organic’s concept is that the health drink can be equated to “life in a bottle.”  I approach “health drinks” with a cautious eye, because what companies often claim to be healthy are anything but that.  So when ZOOM Organic offered me to test out their product, the first thing I did was to research a bit more about what goes into their product.  What caught my eye was the fact that it is 100% organic juice and nothing else.  ZOOM’s Zoe is made up of Acai Juice, Goji Juice, Noni Juice, Mangosteen Juice and Camu Camu Juice.  If you have not heard of all of these antioxidant-rich fruits, I will elaborate on them shortly, but suffice it to say that this juice drink sounded very promising.

Of the five fruits that make up ZOOM Organic’s Zoe drink, Acai is the fruit that I have heard the most about.  According to ZOOM Organic, the Acai Berry has “antioxidants, amino acids, essential omegas, fibers and proteins” and is thought to help increase energy, strengthen your immune system, promote good sleep, improve digestion and slow the aging process to name just a few.    The Goji Berry is supposed to help people to age more gracefully and is thought by some to help with arthritis, cardiovascular health, diabetes, cholesterol and blood pressure.  The Noni Fruit is thought to help with back pain, your immune system and hypertension.  The Mangosteen is packed with antioxidants and has 40 Xanthones.  Mangosteen excited me because it is supposed to be great for acne, eczema, diarrhea, headaches and skin problems in general.  My husband has the worst eczema, so I am always on the lookout for new products to help him.  Last, but not least, Camu Camu is supposed to be a natural anti-depressant that also helps your liver, lungs, eyes and even cold sores.  Camu Camu fruits are about the size of a large cherry, but they have 20-30 times more vitamin C than an orange.  And that is all that is in Zoe — nothing else, no fillers.

When I received my bottle of ZOOM Organic’s Zoe Drink, I was not sure what to expect.  Several people have told me that Noni Juice tastes like cheese or like feet or at the very least, that it is bitter.  So I was a bit concerned that the Noni Juice would overpower any good taste that the other juices might have.  The bottle says to take 2-3 ounces daily as a nutritional supplement, so the first few times that I took Zoe, I measured it out exactly until I got a good feel for exactly how much liquid is in 2-3 ounces.  You can see the color of the juice in the photo above.  Unfortunately, you cannot taste the flavor from the photo, but I was impressed by how good it tasted.  Would I say that it is the best juice drink I ever tasted?  Probably not.  However, this is a nutritional supplement, not a juice drink that is sugary and aiming just to taste good.  The real test was how I felt after just a few weeks of drinking this juice.  I definitely felt more energized and my skin really did improve, which I did not appreciate nearly as much as I should have, but as soon as I stopped drinking the juice, I definitely saw the change in my skin.  If you are looking for a nutritional supplement with Acai, Goji, Noni, Mangosteen and Camu Camu, I would look no further.  If you are interested in trying out ZOOM Organic’s Zoe drink, please visit them here.

If you love peanut butter as much as I do, then get excited about Peanut Butter & Co’s peanut butters!  With flavors like Dark Chocolate Dreams, White Chocolate Wonderful, Cinnamon Raisin Swirl and Mighty Maple… what is there to not be excited about?  Peanut Butter & Co’s peanut butters are all natural and apparently are made from US-grown peanuts exclusively, so we can feel good about supporting the American economy too.  In addition, the peanut butters contain no cholesterol, trans fats, hydrogenated oil or high fructose corn syrup – excellent!  Dr Oz would be proud I  think.  One slight disappointment from the ingredient list is that Mighty Maple Peanut Butter does contain evaporated cane juice, which can be read as sugar.  So this is not really a “health food” but then again, you can certainly do much worse for yourself with other yummy treats.  If you happen to be a Vegan or have gluten allergies, all of Peanut Butter & Co’s peanut butters seem to be kosher, vegan and gluten-free.

Peanut Butter & Co’s Mighty Maple Review

I must admit, I have tried quite a few of Peanut Butter & Co’s peanut butters including their Dark Chocolate Dreams, White Chocolate Wonderful and now their Mighty Maple Peanut Butter.  One way that I love to eat peanut butter is on waffles, instead of syrup.  So there was no way that I could avoid trying the Mighty Maple Peanut Butter flavor on my waffles.  It is delicious!  If you like honey roasted peanuts… or honey roasted peanut butter… then you will LOVE Mighty Maple Flavor Peanut Butter.

I wish you could take a spoon out and take a big spoonful of this delicious peanut butter so that you could sample its delicious-ness!  But since that technology has not yet been invented, I figured an up close photo was the second best option.  I did read one review of Mighty Maple Peanut Butter that said it was gritty, and I would have to disagree.  Could the peanut butter be a smoother and creamier? Yes.  But is it gritty… I do not think so.  Perhaps it helps that I tend to eat my peanut butter on a freshly toasted hot waffle, and so the peanut butter melts a little bit into the waffle.  It tastes like warm, ooey, gooey, maple, peanut butter goodness on my warm waffles!  So here is what I recommend if you do not like the texture – cook with it.  The options are limitless – think about chocolate peanut butter brownies (just swirl the peanut butter into the brownie batter before baking) – peanut butter sauce for over ice cream – seriously, the sky is the limit.

Dr Oz has done multiple shows on how dangerous BPA (Bisphenol A) may be to our health.  Here are just a few recaps of Dr Oz’s shows that discuss BPA:

Hidden Obesogens

Poison in Food Supply

Water Supply Destroyed from BPA

One of the largest sources of BPA that we are exposed to is the BPA used in the lining of canned food products.  Especially now that my husband and I are hopeful about starting a family soon, we are trying to avoid any products that might contain BPA.  But how can I make all of my recipes that call for canned tomatoes?  Or tomato paste?  Or diced tomatoes?  Or one of the many varieties of canned tomato products?  After walking through my grocery store, unable to find any substitutes other than fresh tomatoes (which are not always in season), it struck me – use jarred tomato sauce products instead!

Ok, so I solved half of my problems with canned tomato products, but the other concern I have with processed tomato products is that non-organic tomatoes contain tons of pesticides and chemicals that are increasingly being shown to be bad for your health.  So we have been trying our hardest to avoid non-organic tomato products in our home.  Luckily, there are quite a few options of Organic Tomato Sauce.  So being the Opinion Queen, I had to buy every single variety of Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato Sauces to review so that I could make sure that none of us miss out on anything!  I tested out four Organic Tomato Sauces: Trader Giotto’s Organic Marinara Sauce, Trader Giotto’s Organic Spaghetti Sauce, Trader Giotto’s Organic Tomato Basil Marinara and Trader Giotto’s Organic No-Salt Added Marinara Sauce.  (Side note: Trader Giotto seems to be Trader Joe’s store brand for tomato sauces.)

Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara Sauce Review

The tried and true classic – regular marinara sauce.  Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara Sauce had a very fresh taste and a great chunky texture.  I think part of the reason that this marinara sauce tasted so fresh and like real tomatoes is because the first ingredient is literally organic tomato puree, as opposed to some other brands where corn syrup or other artificial flavorings and sweeteners are among the top ingredients.  None of the four Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato Sauces had corn syrup or anything artificial at all in the ingredients list – major plus in my book!  My only concern with the original marinara sauce is that it has 460 mg of sodium in 1/2 a cup, which is a bit higher than I would like to see.

Trader Joe’s Organic No-Salt Added Marinara Sauce Review

The healthier, no-salt added, version of Trader Joe’s Marinara Sauce only has 25 mg of sodium per serving, however the taste is MUCH more bland.  I would never recommend using this sauce straight out of the jar as a spaghetti topping for example.  However, I found that when I mixed the no-salt added marinara with the saltier original recipe marinara from above, I was left with a healthier but still tasty alternative.  Another reason that I love this no-salt added product is that I can use it to cook with in my recipes that call for canned tomato products and I can be in control of adding however much salt I want.

Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato Basil Marinara Review

Trader Joe’s Organic Tomato Basil Marinara is basically the same as the original marinara sauce, but it has the added flavor of basil, making this sauce perfect for any Italian dish.  I absolutely love the flavor of basil, but if you do not, or if you are using the tomato sauce for a non-Italian recipe, you might want to opt for the original marinara sauce.

Trader Joe’s Organic Spaghetti Sauce with Mushrooms Review

I am a major fan of mushrooms.  My favorite topping on a pizza is mushrooms.  So what is there not to love with mushrooms in a spaghetti sauce?  I love the taste of this sauce and it will probably become my go-to sauce for over pasta.  However, if I am looking for a tomato product substitute for a recipe, sometimes mushrooms are not a happy addition.  So my favorite substitute for tomato products in general recipes is going to be Trader Joe’s Organic Marinara Sauce.

A few weeks ago I was reading an article about how bad food coloring is for you while simultaneously sucking on a piece of hard candy that had so much dye in it that it colored my entire mouth a lovely shade of blue.  Giving up my afternoon piece of candy was clearly not an option, but surely there had to be delicious candy without artificial dyes, right?  Well I started to look for such a candy, and I came across Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops.  Not only do these lollipops contain no artificial dyes or flavors, but they are made from real fruit extracts and are 100% USDA Organic (certified by Oregon Tilth).  And for those of you with allergies, these lollipops are allergen-free, gluten-free, GMO-free, egg-free, soy-free, nut-free, casein-free, dairy-free and even certified kosher by Kof-K for the healthy Jews out there!  All of this sounds perfect, but do they taste any good?  I read on their container that the Today Show food critic said that Yummy Earth Lollipops are “the BEST lollipop I’ve ever tasted.”  Clearly Yummy Earth’s Organic Candy had to be reviewed!

I ordered a container of 150 lollipops, which comes in a very convenient plastic container with a lid… it kind of reminds me of a clear cookie jar filled with lollipops.  There are 8 flavors in the container: Wet-Face Watermelon, Tooberry Blueberry, Sour Apple Tart, Pomegranate Pucker, Mango Tango, Strawberry Smash, Very Very Cherry and Googly Grape.  I really wish that each container had equal amounts of each flavor, but this is not the case.  In fact, I read online that some people got flavors that were not even listed, such as a ginger lollipop.  My container had no ginger flavored lollipops though, much to my disappointment.  I also only got a few of the pomegranate lollipops, which I did love and I wish my container had more of them.  I did get an abundance of Tooberry Blueberry, which I do not love, but my husband enjoys them.  These Organic Lollipops do not taste artificial, they taste like the actual fruit they are named after (to a certain degree at least).  And they do not dye your mouth any crazy colors, which is definitely a plus for your health, though kids might miss this aspect

So what was my favorite flavor of Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops?  That is such a difficult question, and much tougher than picking my least favorite flavor!  If you absolutely forced me to pick just one flavor, it would have to be the sour apple organic lollipop.  I cannot tell from the ingredients list, but my guess is that they must use granny smith apple extracts to make the lollipop taste exactly like a sour apple.  A close second though is the Googly Grape flavor, which is sweet with a touch of tang that reminds me a bit of my favorite grape juice.

Just how bad for you are Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops?  Well in terms of all natural organic ingredients, they are fabulous.  However the first ingredient is still Organic Evaporated Cane Juice, which can be read as sugar.  Ideally, I would like to find hard candy that is sweetened naturally by just the sweetness of the fruit.  However, with what is available on the market right now, these are the best “healthy” hard candies I have found so far.  Coming in at just 70 calories for three lollipops (17g Total Carbohydrate from 17g Sugars), as long as you are not Diabetic, one (or even two or three) of the these lollipops will not destroy your diet!

How to Get Yummy Earth Lollipops:

Where to Buy: You can buy a fabulous reusable container of Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops by clicking on this link: Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops

How to Win: You can win a large container of Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops by doing the following.  Each of the following will give you a certain number of entries into the giveaway, so do as many of the following as you would like!  Good luck everyone!

1.  Leave a comment below about Yummy Earth Organic Lollipops or suggest another organic candy option that you think I should test and review.  (1 entry)

2.  Subscribe to my updates via e-mail by clicking here: Subscribe to Opinion Queen by Email, confirm the subscription, and leave a comment below to let me know that you have subscribed to my e-mails to enter this giveaway. (2 entries)

3.  Tweet about my giveaway with a link to my site, and leave a comment below with a link to your tweet.  You can do this every day! (2 entries)

4.  Add a link to OpnionQueen.com from your blog or website, and leave a comment below with a link to where you added the link. (3 entries)

5.  Follow me on twitter: TheOpinionQueen and then leave a comment below with your twitter name. (2 entries)

The winner will be selected on November 7 and contacted via e-mail.  If there is no response from the winner within 3 days, then another winner will be selected.  Only US Residents are eligible for this giveaway.

Congratulations to the lucky winner – Katherine!!!