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US Potato Board Giveaway – Lose Weight, Not Potatoes!

May 5, 2011 By

I love potatoes. I love them baked, mashed, roasted, french fried, au gratined, hash browned, and home fried.  By itself, the potato is an amazing food. One medium-size potato (5.3 ounces) has just 110 calories, provides 45% of your daily value of vitamin C, has more potassium than a banana, is fat free, and costs around 25 cents!

The writers of diet books quite often put potatoes on the naughty list as a food not to eat because supposedly, carbohydrates like potatoes lead directly to weight gain. According to research conducted by U.C. Davis and the National Center for Food Safety and Technology at the Illinois Institute of Technology,  the role of potatoes in weight loss became clear. 86 overweight men and women were divided into three groups and monitored over 12 weeks.

One group ate high glycemic index foods but cut their overall calories by 500 a day, one group ate low glycemic index foods and also cut calories by 500 a day, and the third group stuck to the U.S. Dietary Guidelines and the Food Guide Pyramid. All three group ate between 5-7 potatoes a WEEK, and guess what? All three groups lost weight! It really does come down to reducing calories and sticking to a diet of nutrient packed, healthy foods.

To demonstrate how to include potatoes in a healthy diet, the USPB released a new recipe for Quick & Healthy Chili and Lime Potato Tacos, which I posted on my food blog MomCooks. They’re delicious and at just 250 calories and 7 grams of fat per serving, you can reinstate taco night guilt-free! This recipe and many more healthy potato recipes can be found online at www.PotatoGoodness.com in their searchable recipe database. Get more tips and recipes on these sites:

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/PotatoesTatersAndSpuds
Website: http://potatogoodness.com/
Blog: http://momsdinnerhelper.potatogoodness.com/

Watch this video to see more!

WIN IT: The USPB will send the winner of this giveaway a swag bag that includes:

  • The Secret to Skinny: Who knew Salt made such a big difference?! This book was such an eye opener. I never realized that salt can make those fat cells even bigger. Ugg. This book walks you through all the “secrets” to get thinner and less bloated, how to be healthier and look better with a step by step guide, including recipes.
  • Potato Gloves: Scrubby gloves that get all the dirt off of potatoes with just a few rubs under running water. Really handy!
  • The USPB Recipes: Included in a little pamphlet are great recipes that put the potato front and center. Yummy!

MAIN ENTRY: Visit Potatoes – Goodness Unearthed and browse around, then come back here and leave a comment telling me your favorite potato recipe or something you learned about potatoes from the site.  This must be done before any bonus entries will count. Comments left with keywords instead of a real first name or blog name will be DELETED, no exceptions.

ENTRY DATES AND RULES: Enter by May 19th 2011 at 11:59 p.m. EST. Open to U.S. mailing addresses only. One winner will be chosen using the “And The Winner Is” plugin and emailed for their mailing address. This information will be forwarded to the PR rep handling the giveaway, who will also be handling the shipment of the prize. MomReviews is not responsible for lost or stolen prizes.

BONUS ENTRIES: Earn a bonus entry for each of the following that you do or have done. Leave a separate comment for each-

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  • Tweet the giveaway link using the retweet button at the top of the post or by copy/pasting this message: I’m entering to win a US Potato Board Swag Bag from @MomReviews! Ends 5/19 http://bit.ly/kIDzRi . You can tweet once per day, leave a separate comment for each with your tweet URL. (1 entry per day)

    • THESE ARE WORTH THREE ENTRIES. LEAVE THREE NUMBERED COMMENTS FOR EACH THAT YOU DO:

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  • Link to MomReviews on your sidebar or grab my button from the sidebar and post it on your blog. Leave five separate, numbered comments with the URL.
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    • *******************
    I’ll choose the winner using the “And the Winner Is” plugin on May 20th, announce it by editing the post, and email the winner for their mailing address. Shipping will be handled by the sponsor. Thanks for entering and good luck everybody!

    disclosure: The USPB provided me with a free product, information, and the opportunity to host this giveaway. No other compensation was received.

    Filed Under: Food, Giveaways Tagged With: ,

    My mashed potato disaster

    November 7, 2008 By

    In 2006, Chris and I hosted members of both of our families for Thanksgiving dinner. Chris used our Betty Crocker cookbook to come up with a delicious herb rub for the turkey, which turned out beautifully, as you can see from the photo, and tasted delicious. We had crescent rolls, and stuffing, and Chris’ Grandma’s sweet potato casserole, and everything turned out really well, except for one thing-the mashed potatoes.

    See, despite having been 39 years old at the time, I had never actually made homemade mashed potatoes. I know! I always bought the instant kind, but for Thanksgiving dinner, especially my first Thanksgiving dinner, I wanted to make homemade potatoes. I peeled, cut, and boiled the potatoes, drained them, and put them in a bowl. I broke them up with a fork, then dumped in butter and milk and turned on my electric hand mixer. And you know what I got?

    GLUE. See, when cooked, potatoes are very starchy. And when that starch mixes with COLD MILK AND BUTTER (yes, I know now, you are supposed to bring them to room temp first), that potato starch turns to glue. Fortunately, I had a box of instant potatoes in the pantry which I made instead, and no one minded one bit. It could have been a disaster!

    If you have any questions about how to cook a turkey this year, you can call 1-800-BUTTERBALL to virtually talk turkey with their holiday meal preparation experts, or visit Butterball.com for Web chats with a few bloggers we all know and love – Chris Jordan (Notes from the Trenches), Susan Wagner (Friday Playdate), and Roxanna Missong (Miguelina) on November 11, 18 and 25 from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. CST. They’ll answer all your turkey related questions.

    But take it from me, if you attempt homemade mashed potatoes, please let the butter and a measuring cup of milk come to room temperature before adding them to your potatoes. Unless you want to serve a bowl of glue.

    This post was written for Parent Bloggers Network as part of a sweepstakes sponsored by Butterball.

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    Do I take shortcuts? Um YEAH, I have three kids!

    October 11, 2008 By

    For this weekend’s Blog Blast, Parent Bloggers Network teamed up with Ore Ida to promote their new Steam ‘N Mash potatoes. If you haven’t tried them yet, I bought some the second I saw them in the freezer case at the grocery store. It’s a bag of already peeled and cubed potatoes that steam in the bag in your microwave, then you pour them into a bowl, add butter and milk and mash. Voila, fresh mashed potatoes without having to peel! I bought the Garlic Seasoned Potatoes, they also come in plain Russet, Three Cheese, and peeled and cubed Sweet Potatoes which I want to try next!

    So, already peeled and cubed potatoes is one shortcut I can take to get dinner on the table quickly. PBN and Ore Ida want to know what other shortcuts I take, either in the kitchen or in everyday life. My most-used shortcut is one that probably a lot of other parents use, and that’s keeping a diaper bag completely stocked at all times. I have a large Land’s End diaper bag that always has a travel pack of wipes, two or three Pull Ups, a clean bib, a t-shirt and shorts or a long sleeve shirt and knit pants in Kaitlyn’s current size (depending on the season), a box of Crayola crayons, a coloring book, and a few inexpensive toys (Happy Meal toys are good for this). That way, if something comes up and we suddenly have to jump up and run out of the house for some reason, I can just grab that bag without having to stop and run around like a crazy person throwing things together.

    I figured out the diaper bag shortcut after having to buy entire packs of diapers or completely new outfits because I took one of my babies out on an errand and had them blow through the one diaper I had left in the bag. And after stuffing potato peelings down the garbage disposal and having them clog up the sink drain, requiring my husband to make several late-night runs to Home Depot for plumbing supplies, I learned that letting Ore Ida do the peeling for me is not such a bad shortcut to take :) Get more information about Ore Ida Steam ‘N Mash potatoes at http://www.ilovemashedpotatoes.com/, and check out the Parent Bloggers Network blog for more reviews.

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