Chocolate! Chocolate! Chocolate! Don't miss this giveaway!

Congratulations to Catherine G.N.A.T.!  You're the winner of the Equal Exchange chocolate giveaway!  Please e-mail me your shipping address ASAP (less dot sweet at gmail dot com)!

I love it when companies whose products I already buy contact me to review their products!  I love Equal Exchange chocolates.  Their dark chocolate has a luscious, deep chocolate flavor, and the company is a worker-owned Fair Trade company to boot.  Equal Exchange is "building equitable trade relationships with co-ops of small-scale farmers, while also working to reform an increasingly consolidated and unjust food system."

Equal Exchange has two new chocolate offerings just in time for Valentine's Day.  The first is Organic Ecuador Dark Chocolate (65% cacao content).  This chocolate has a fantastic deep chocolate flavor.  My kids (also dark chocolate fiends) loved it as much as my husband and I did.  It's a delicious chocolate that I would happily buy.

The second new offering is one that speaks directly to my heart.  I love caramel as much as I love chocolate, and add sea salt to the mix...swoon!  Equal Exchange has a new Organic Chocolate Caramel Crunch with Sea Salt (55% cacao content) bar.  This bar is so good that I gave my husband a small square to try and hoarded the rest for myself.  If you like caramel and chocolate, this is a bar that will make you go weak in the knees.

Giveaway!
Here's the best part - Equal Exchange is giving one lucky reader a box of assorted Equal Exchange fairly-traded chocolate bars!

To enter, simply leave a comment telling me which Equal Exchange chocolate bar you would most like to try.  Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm Saturday, Feb 5.  The winner must provide a valid shipping address by noon MST on Monday, February 7. 

Everyone wins!
Equal Exchange is also offering a coupon code for $5 off a case of Equal Exchange chocolates on the Equal Exchange webstore.  Use the code chocolate5 to take advantage of this coupon.  The coupon is valid through 2/28/11.

Good luck!!


Disclaimer:  All chocolates were provided by Equal Exchange.  All opinions are my own.

Celestial Seasonings Tea giveaway!

Congratulations, Wendy!  You're the winner of the Celestial Seasonings Tea giveaway!

When I was a grad student in Boulder, CO, my husband and I lived in the condos across the street from Celestial Seasonings.  We both have fond memories of Celestial Seasonings.  Not only do they make good tea, but they were good neighbors too.  I particularly loved watching the prairie dogs that lived on the Celestial Seasonings property and walking and rollerblading on the service road (nicely marked for distance) around the building.

Today I'm having a Celestial Seasonings tea giveaway!  Celestial Seasonings has four new teas - Celestial Seasonings Antioxidant Max Green Teas in Blood Orange Star Fruit, Dragon Fruit Melon, and Blackberry Pomegranate flavors and Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Decaf Green Tea in Lemon Jasmine flavor. 

The Celestial Seasonings Antioxidant Max Green Teas boast 100% natural ingredients as well as 20% RDI Vitamin C per serving.  As you might expect from the name, these teas also have 35% more flavonoid antioxidants than other flavored green teas.  These teas contain caffeine, so they're good for a soothing, flavorful pick-me-up during the day.  My favorite is the Blood Orange Star Fruit flavor.  I like the subtle citrus undertone of this tea.  These teas have a stevia-based sweetener inside of the tea bag, so the resulting tea is already slightly sweet.  I usually add a little sugar to my tea, but I didn't feel like these teas needed any extra sugar.

The Celestial Seasonings Sleepytime Decaf Green Tea in Lemon Jasmine also has 100% natural ingredients and flavors.  This tea is naturally decaffeinated and has no added sweetener making it the perfect relaxing tea to drink before bedtime.  My husband has been enjoying an occasional cup of this tea before bedtime lately.

Giveaway!
Celestial Seasonings is graciously giving away a box of each of these teas to one lucky reader!

To enter, friend @SleeptimeBear on Twitter or like Sleepytime Bear on Facebook - one entry for each that is done.  Leave a separate comment for each entry.  Simple!

Entries will be accepted until 11:59 pm Thursday, February 3.  The winner must provide a valid US shipping address within two days of the winner announcement on this blog.

Happy drinking!

Disclaimer:  All teas were provided by Celestial Seasonings.  All health claims are from Celestial Seasonings.  All opinions are my own.

Superbowl Giveaway!

Congratulations to Stephanie Rose Carol SB Party Gal!  Please e-mail me at less dot sweet at gmail dot com ASAP with you shipping address.

Who are you rooting for in the Superbowl?  Ok, really, who cares about the teams?  I want to know what you're eating during the Superbowl!  Chances are pretty good that chips are on the menu.

One of my favorite brands of tortilla chips is Garden of Eatin'.  Their tortilla chips are light and crunchy, and they don't drown you in salt.  These chips are made with organic corn and simple ingredients.  We first switched to Garden of Eatin' tortilla chips when we really started thinking about our sodium intake.  Their Blue Chips have half the sodium of the name brand chips we were buying before.  I like a little bit of salt on my chips, but they have a no-added sodium tortilla chip that is very good if you want all of the salt to come from your salsa or dips.

If you aren't really thinking about your sodium, no worries!  These chips taste great!

Giveaway!
Whether you're having a Superbowl party or not, this is a giveaway you won't want to miss!  The winner of this giveaway will receive:

• 1 bag of Garden of Eatin' Blue Chips
• 1 bag of Garden of Eatin' Red Hot Blues Chips
• 1 bag of Garden of Eatin' Multigrain Tortilla Chips with Sea Salt
• a ceramic football serving bowl
• paper plates, napkins, and utensils.

In short, you'll get everything you need for the start of a great party with this giveaway!  

To win, leave a comment telling me something you plan to eat while watching the Superbowl.  You can get an extra entry for each of the following:

• Like A Life Less Sweet on Facebook
• Follow A Life Less Sweet on Twitter
• Subscribe to A Life Less Sweet's RSS feed

A separate comment is needed for each entry - no exceptions.   Comments will be accepted until 11:59 pm on Monday, January 31.  The winner will have two days to provide a US shipping address. 

Disclaimer:  Giveaway items were provided by Garden of Eatin'.  All opinions expressed are my own.

Eat your applesauce and help the Breast Cancer Foundation!

Disclaimer:  The cookbook and applesauce were given by Musselman's for review purposes.  All opinions expressed are my own.  

Quick!  Go to your grocery store and buy some Musselman's applesauce!  Musselman's is pairing with the National Breast Cancer Foundation (NBCF).  Musselman's is donating ten cents for every package of Musselman's Natural and Healthy Picks applesauce purchased in the month of January.  It's part of their Simple Steps, Big Impact initiative.  Musselman's hopes that by pairing with the NBCF their consumers will be reminded to take the first simple step of having a mammogram for early breast cancer detection in 2011. 

 On a personal note, my family loves Musselman's Natural Unsweetened Applesauce.  This applesauce has the simple ingredient list that I like - apples, water, and ascorbic acid (aka vitamin C as a preservative).  I like to keep this applesauce on hand for my baking, and my husband likes to take it up to work for a midday snack.

We've also become big fans of their Healthy Picks line.  My husband adores the Granny Smith flavor, while my son and daughter ask for the Blueberry Pomegranate and Raspberry Acai flavors in the lunch boxes.  We've not been such applesauce fiends in the past, but these Healthy Picks flavors have managed to win us over.

Musselman's was kind enough to send me a cookbook as part of their promotion - Substitute Yourself Skinny by Susan Irby.  It's full of recipes that lighten up by using sensible substitutions - like replacing fat with applesauce when baking.  There are lots of good looking recipes in this cookbook (and applesauce is only one of the many substitutions in the book).  We recently tried the Cinnamon-Apple Pancakes.  Delish!  This recipe makes a great pancake using very little processed sugar and no fat - both are replaced by unsweetened applesauce.  This recipe got two thumbs up from us all!


Cinnamon Apple Pancakes
from Substitute Yourself Skinny

1/2 cup plain flour (I used 1/4 cup unbleached all-purpose and 1/4 cup whole wheat flour)
1 tsp brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon (I doubled this because I'm crazy for cinnamon)
1/8 tsp sea salt
1/4 cup nonfat milk
1/3 cup unsweetened applesauce

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.  Mix well.  Add the milk and applesauce, and stir to combine.

Heat a griddle to medium heat and spray with nonstick cooking spray.  Pour about 1/4 cup of batter* onto the griddle for each pancake.  Cook until the center begins to bubble and the edges are dry.  Using a flat spatula, flip the pancakes and continue to cook until lightly browned.

*The batter for these pancakes is very thick.  I had to use a spoon to kind of help the spread the batter out a bit on the griddle.