Review of the Day: Market Day Chicken and Wild Rice Soup

I know by now you're tired of Thanksgiving leftovers. Looking for something hearty to eat? Something that will stick to your ribs? Well there's a company called Market Day. They sell food products and it's used mainly by schools to raise money. They have a soup called chicken and wild rice condensed soup. To me it's the most creamy best tasting chicken and wild rice soup I have ever tasted. It can be a meal by itself, but I like to pair it with rolls or a crusty bread.

Be prepared to wait for about an hour to eat it. You prepare it from frozen. First you remove it from the box. The soup is in a plastic bag. You place the plastic bag in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes. Then you remove the soup from the bag and put it in a pot. The soup cooks for 30 minutes. I like to add broccoli florets, onions and green peppers to it while it's cooking. It's 32oz so it could easily feed a family of 4. Even though it takes an hour to make it. It's worth the wait.

http://www.marketday.com/shopping/products.aspx?sk=0&itemid=7164&cat=103

Happy Thanksgiving!

I'm very thankful for my family and friends. I'm looking forward to sharing the day with my family. We here at The Elements of Review would like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Holidays! Recipes, Decorations, Holiday Traditions, Party Ideas - BHG.com

Who knew that there were so many ways to make stuffing. My mom makes a delicious cornbread stuffing every year. Here are some stuffing recipes that look so good and some aren't your traditional stuffing! Give them a try. Let me know which one you tried and how it turned out. Happy cooking! Happy Holidays! Recipes, Decorations, Holiday Traditions, Party Ideas - BHG.com

Vegetarian Alternatives to Thanksgiving Turkey

Sometimes I have a difficult time trying to figure out what to cook for my husband for Thanksgiving. Usually it's macaroni and cheese or spinach lasagna. I know he loves those 2 dishes, but I think this year I should spice it up a little and make something else. Here are some ideas for what to cook the vegetarian in your life this Thanksgiving! Vegetarian Alternatives to Thanksgiving Turkey

Review of the Day:Body By Bethenny

Wanted to try a new workout so I searched the On Demand menu and I found this one. I don't watch The Real Housewives of New York City, but I know Bethenny Frankel has written some cookbooks and lost her baby weight after giving birth. So, I was willing to give it a try. She says she wants you to unleash the "skinny girl" in you. I said I have just the one?

Anyway, it's basically a yoga workout. I'm not really a big fan of yoga. I stuck with it though. The workout is lead by yoga instructor Kristin McGee. It's a very basic yoga workout. I liked that Kristin and Bethenny gave us choices on how to perform some of the poses. Like instead of doing a chaturanga they said we could do a child's pose or go straight into downward dog. Kristin and Bethenny seemed to get a long well and I liked that it didn't seem scripted. They chatted like two friends taking a class together. Sometimes Bethenny would talk over or interrupt Kristin so that was a little annoying.

It's a basic, but challenging workout. It did raise my heart rate and it flowed at a nice pace. The one pose I could not do was the back bend. Was too scared to try it. There was a 10 minute strength training workout with some really basic moves like bicep curls, tricep kickbacks and shoulder presses. We did about 2 sets of 12 of each. Then there was a booty bonus. Three standing exercises specifically for the booty.

I like the workout and for those days I don't feel like sweating buckets or jumping around the room for an hour I would do this workout instead.

What's That Smell?! It's Air Wick's Crackling Fire & Warming Spice

Next week is Thanksgiving and you'll be gathered together with friends and family. The house will probably be smelling good because of all the food that's being cooked, but I'm a sucker for these scented oils. I was in the store and saw the Air Wick Winter Luxury Edition. The one that caught my eye was the Crackling Fire & Warming Spice. I tried the scratch and sniff and the package, but I really couldn't smell anything. I took a chance and bought it. Right now my house smells like cinnamon, cloves and creamy vanilla. It's a warm, comforting smell. All the best scents of the holidays. Enjoy! And Happy Holidays!

Happy Holidays! Recipes, Decorations, Holiday Traditions, Party Ideas - BHG.com

If you haven't planned your Thanksgiving menu by now don't worry. Here are some recipes to make creating that menu simpler.From the classic turkey to a yummy sweet potato casserole with pecan topping. Also, if you have vegetarians coming to dinner there are some veggie recipes too. Take a look! Happy Holidays! Recipes, Decorations, Holiday Traditions, Party Ideas - BHG.com

Review of the Day: Bob Harper's Pure Burn Super Strength

I have to say this was the toughest workout I have ever done. I remember reading Bob's tweet when he was filming his latest workouts. He showed a picture of the workout talent and mentioned that she had just vomited because the workout was so hard. I believe him. This is how I felt today. There is a 60 minute workout and a 20 minute workout for beginners. Of course I did the 60 minute workout;-)

This is a pure strength training workout. It starts off with a warm-up and then immediately we start the workout. One nice thing about this DVD was that there wasn't a lot of junk at the beginning. It takes your straight to the menu. There's a clock on the bottom of the screen telling you how much time is left in the workout. I thought that was a bad idea because I would be looking at that all the time and time would stand still. Not true! I was so busy working out and sweating I barely paid any attention to the clock. I looked up one time and it said 60 minutes. The next time I looked up it said 35 minutes.

There are a lot of repetitions and isometric holds. The workout flowed nicely to me. You barely get any time to rest between the exercises so your heart rate stays up. The workout talent behind him were working really hard. I'm wondering if they did any rehearsals at all, because they seemed to be struggling just as much as I was during some of the workout. I felt bad for them, but also it was comforting. By the end I was completely drenched in sweat and ended up in a fetal position.

After some recovery I came out of the fetal position to do the 20 minute workout. Just to see what it was like. It was an extremely modified version of the 60 minute workout. It felt like a walk in the park compared to the 60 minute workout. I like Bob. As he mentioned in the DVD he is "the nice one", but he kicked my butt today. And because you like Bob you want to do your best and workout as hard as possible. Even though it was really tough I highly recommend it. I like tough workouts like this.

Review of the Day: Thomas Rosenthal Professional Cookware Review-Frypan

I purchased another piece of cookware from Jewel/Osco using the stickers. For 70 reward stickers I got the 10.2" non-stick frypan. I'm loving it. The food cooks evenly. The pan is definitely non-stick. Clean up is very easy thanks to the teflon. There's a hole in the handle to hang the pan up if you want to do that. I've cooked with it several times and I notice the handle doesn't get hot, but warm. I do wish it had a lid to it. I have the dutch oven and sometimes I use that lid, but the dutch oven is 9.4". So, it's a little small, but I make it work. Can't wait to get another piece of cookware. Still saving the stickers.

Molton Brown Candles

It's that time of year folks. Time to start worrying about what to get loved ones for holiday gifts. I was checking out Molton Brown's website and I saw these wonderful candles. They come in many exotic fragrances and some of them have up to 80 hours of burn time. The boxes they come in are so beautiful you don't even have to worry about wrapping. Give a little luxury this holiday season. http://www.moltonbrown.com/candles-and-scent/candles/

The Walking Dead

I love, love horror movies. Especially zombie movies. Imagine my delight when I found out that AMC was going to have a TV series with zombies in it. At first I thought well, they probably won't show too much gore. It is American Movie Classics. I was wrong there's plenty of gore enough to make a horror fan like me very happy. The Walking Dead is about County Sheriff Rick Grimes (Andrew Lincoln) who after being shot ends up in a coma. He wakes up from the coma only to find that there's a zombie epidemic in his hometown. The world has been taken over by zombies! Love it! During the series we will follow Sheriff Grimes while he fights zombies and looks for his wife and son who he believes to still be alive.

The first episode kept me on the edge of my seat. The acting and make-up effects were superb. I'm really looking forward to watching the rest of this series. Check out the website!
http://www.amctv.com/originals/The-Walking-Dead/

Review of the Day: Jari Love's Lean Machine

This workout is from her Extremely Ripped series. I enjoy doing all of Jari Love's workouts. She's a great motivator and I like that she always has modifiers even when using the step in her DVDs. This DVD is said to have three 30 minute workouts. Well, it's not broken down into 3 sections. The Lean Machine workout is around 60 minutes, but the workout isn't separated in the menu into two 30 minute workouts. So, if I just want to do 30 minutes I have to make sure to watch the clock and then stop. Secondly, the 3rd workout is the 30 minute resistance training from the Body Rock DVD. If I had the Body Rock DVD I would be upset that she included this workout on another DVD. I don't think it was necessary to do that.

The workout itself is different that some of her others. There's a lot more footwork. Sometimes to me the footwork and the arm movements are awkward together. I've done this workout 3 times already and I think a few more times it will feel less awkward. The music in Lean Machine is very good.

I have to say this is not one of her best. I love Get Extremely Ripped 1000. That DVD had chapter divisions where you could do the entire workout in 60 minutes or you could do the 30 minute workouts separately. And you could just do the aerobic section or the strength training section. Love that.

I do like that Jari Love always listens to her fans. You can tell with each DVD she releases that she has listened to us. Now she needs to go back to what she was doing before. I don't think the dancing and strength training works well together at all.

Arm Blaster Workout

Here's an arm workout from Gabby Reece. Many of the workout DVDs I have include these exercises, but it's nice to have them in one place if you just want to concentrate on arms for a day. She's really good with the explanations on how to do the exercises and showing us perfect form. And just look at her arms. It's working for her;-)

Sent to you by Kelly via Google Reader:

Arm Blaster Workout

via The Official Website of Gabby Reece by Editor on 10/31/10

Beginner Workload: 2 Rounds / 10-12 Reps
INT-Advanced Workload: 4 Rounds / 12-15+ Reps
1. Dumbbell Bicep Curl / Shoulder Press
up together down together
2. Dumbbell Triceps Kickback
keep elbows high and locked in
3. Pushups
ok to do on knees – keep head up, straight with spine – if you begin to lose your form stop
4. Dumbbell Open and Close Bicep Curl
two part move – bicep curl front then to the side for 1 rep
5. Dumbbell Tricep Pushup
keep elbows in close to your ears
6. Dumbbell Flys
sit back into your glutes, bend over and lift weight out to the side
7. Dumbbell Bent Over Row
use one leg for support or sit back and row with both arms using back muscles
8. Plank Row
this is tough – do on your toes or knees
9. Rotator Cuff
use light weight, go down to a natural distance

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