Prepare to step into a world of wonder where wishing is only the beginning and dreams really do come true in

Disney Live! presents Three Classic Fairy Tales.  Join Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy as they bring the timeless fairytale adventures of Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (my absolute FAVORITE) to life right in your hometown at:

Dayton’s Wright State Nutter Center, on Friday, February 17th, 2012.

Show times are 3:30pm and 6:30pm.

You can use code Use code MOM4 to receive $4 off regularly $24 and $17 seating. Code MOM4 can be redeemed through the Nutter Center Box Office, online at ticketmaster.com, or by phone 1-800-745-3000.
**Disclaimer: Offer Valid Jan. 30-Feb. 17. Offer subject to ticket availability. Excludes premium seating. No double discounts. Additional fees may apply.
Service charges and handling fees may apply. Valid on up to four discounted tickets. Not be used in conjunction with any other discount, premium or rebate offer.

Featuring dynamic storytelling, award winning music, stunning costumes and glittering special effects, audiences will be captivated by the humor, fun and adventure of these spellbinding stories. Dream with the princesses, cheer for the heroes as they conquer evil villains, and marvel as these classic tales are brought to life in a theatrical experience that’s pure magic.

My family and I got to experience this in Cincinnati, and it was amazing! I have to say, it was well produced, and the stage scenery was incredible. You really felt like you were part of the action.

Now- for the magical giveaway!

I’m giving away a family 4 pack of tickets to a showing of your choice!

All you have to do is one or all of the following, just be sure to leave separate comments for each entry:

• Tell me who your favorite Disney Villain is, and why!
• Share this post on Facebook, making sure you tag (and like!) Domestic Debacle. You may do this daily.
• Share this post on Twitter “@DomesticDebacle is giving away a family 4 pack to Disney Live in #Dayton! http://tinyurl.com/6s8ufk9  “
• Blog about this giveaway for an extra 5 entries. But make sure you put more than a title and a link. I want to see creativity!

The winner will be chosen on Friday, February 3rd at 10:00am. They will have 24 hours to respond. Thanks for being a Domestic Debacle reader, and good luck!

Disclosure: My family and I were provided tickets to see Disney Live! in exchange for my posting of the events.

Okay, so ringing in the new year has caused me to re-think some of my eating habits. They certainly weren’t the best choices before, but I am no doing my hardest to eat right, and seriously watch my portion size.

With this new outlook comes the realization that whole grain is really, really good for you. So changing my diet is easy with General Mills Whole Grain marked boxes. Their products actually have whole grain listed as the first ingredient on the nutritional panel. THAT’S HUGE! So many other cereals make the claims on the front of the box, but rarely back it up where it counts.

What’s great about General Mills, is that they’re adding the white check to the boxes so it’s easy to spot:

With all the health messages facing grocery store shoppers, it can be confusing to translate what appears on food labels into nutritional needs, and hard to determine which foods have a meaningful amount of whole grain. Dr. Stork has some additional recommendations to help you include whole grain easily into your diet. They include:

Start Early! The Dietary Guidelines recommend people get at least 48 grams of whole grain in their daily diets. Get a jump-start on the day´s nutrition by incorporating whole grain into your morning routine. For instance, when choosing cereal make sure whole grain is listed as the first ingredient. One easy choice is cereal with the white check, which have more whole grain than any other single ingredient.
Make Simple Swaps. Choose whole grain versions of the foods you love. Great options include whole wheat pasta and whole wheat bread or even whole grain crackers. Also, try different types of whole grain. Use brown rice instead of white rice as a side dish at dinner or popcorn, which is a whole grain, for a snack.
Don´t Judge a Food by Its Cover. The front of food packages provide good nutritional cues, but don´t forget to read the ingredients and check the nutrition label and side labels for additional health information. Cereals with the white check even include the amount of whole grain per serving on packaging.

To help with choosing products with whole grain, General Mills developed “Fast Lane for Whole Grain,” an online educational game. Consumers can navigate virtual grocery store aisles and identify products that have whole grain as the first ingredient, with the option to enter a sweepstakes to win one of each of the 50 cereals with the white check. Make a commitment to add more whole grain to your diet by simply pouring a bowl of cereal with the white check including Cheerios®, Lucky Charms®, Cinnamon Toast Crunch®, Honey Nut Cheerios® and Total®. For more information on the importance of whole grain and a chance to enter the “Fast Lane for Whole Grain” sweepstakes, visit www.WholeGrainNation.com.

Now, for the goodies! You can win this pack of General Mills Whole Grain Cereal:

All you have to do is one, or all of the following. Just make sure you leave a comment for each action you do:

• Tell me which of your favorite General Mills cereals with the white check will you kick start your morning this New Year?
• Share this post on Facebook, making sure you tag (and like!) Domestic Debacle. You may do this once a day!
• Share this post on Twitter “@DomesticDebacle #Giveaway #Win 5 General Mills whole grain cereals! #MyBlogSpark http://tinyurl.com/7gmw34w “ You may do this once a day!
• Blog about this giveaway for an extra 5 entries. Blog must contain more than the title and link. WOW me, people!

The winner will be chosen on Friday, February 3rd at 10:00am. They will have 24 hours to respond. Thanks for being a Domestic Debacle reader, and good luck!

Disclosure: The prize pack, information, and giveaway have been provided by General Mills through MyBlogSpark

Disney Live! Presents Three Classic Fairy tales!

Prepare to step into a world of wonder where wishing is only the beginning and dreams really do come true in Disney Live! presents Three Classic Fairy Tales.  Join Mickey, Minnie, Donald and Goofy as they bring the timeless fairytale adventures of Cinderella, Beauty and The Beast, and Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (my absolute FAVORITE) to life right in your hometown at:

Cincinnati’s US Bank Arena, on Sunday January 22nd, 2012.

Show times are 12pm and 3pm.

Tickets are:

Front Row – $55
Floor – $35
Lower Level – $22
Upper Level – $17

or, you can use code MOM15 to redeem online for a flat $15 ticket rate.

**Offer Valid toward regularly-priced tickets in seating Front Row and VIP Seats. Offer subject to ticket availability.
Service charges and handling fees may apply. Valid on up to four discounted tickets. Not be used in conjunction with any other discount, premium or rebate offer.

  Featuring dynamic storytelling, award winning music, stunning costumes and glittering special effects, audiences will be captivated by the humor, fun and adventure of these spellbinding stories. Dream with the princesses, cheer for the heroes as they conquer evil villains, and marvel as these classic tales are brought to life in a theatrical experience that’s pure magic.

Now- for the magical giveaway!

I’m giving away a family 4 pack of tickets to a showing of your choice!

All you have to do is one or all of the following, just be sure to leave separate comments for each entry:

• Tell what your favorite fairy tale is, and why!
• Share this post on Facebook, making sure you tag (and like!) Domestic Debacle.
• Share this post on Twitter “@DomesticDebacle is giving away a family 4 pack to Disney Live in #Cinci! http://tinyurl.com/6u72362“
• Blog about this giveaway for an extra 5 entries.

The winner will be chosen on Tuesday, January 10th at 10:00am. They will have 24 hours to respond. Thanks for being a Domestic Debacle reader, and good luck!

Recently, Ragu gave me the opportunity to host another party for myself, family and friends. So I did what I did last time- I organized a small Facebook group to ask my friends what they wanted to do.

Their answer amazed me. It made me so proud to know these women.

They wanted to bless two struggling families with a very Ragu Christmas instead of having a party.

Since we weren’t having a formal party, and just an open house to drop off gifts for the families we opened the group up for 40+ women to share in our very Ragu Christmas!

This year I was so blessed to be a part of the Ragu Team, by being a Ragu Mom’s The Word on Dinner ambassador. It meant so much to me that I got an opportunity to help others by sharing the gift of Ragu as my last “party” of the year. So, my friends and I hit the stores- mainly the Ragu aisle:

I picked up as many jars as my cart could hold. It was such a great feeling knowing that these two families wouldn’t have to worry about dinner for a very long time. And it made it so much better knowing that it was a healthy and fresh dinner (I had the opportunity to interview Frank the Ragu tomato farmer, and he said that his tomatoes are processed within 8 hours of picking- that’s more fresh than the tomatoes in your produce section!) with 2 servings of veggies every half cup of sauce.

With Ragu in hand, my friends started to come by my home with more gifts for the families. We kept it a private group, because we wanted this to be a complete surprise. With the help of family members for one, and the help of my daughter’s principal for the other, it was easy to keep the secret (which was really cool, considering I had over 40 women involved!).

As you can see, we had so much for these families! The bags were so full of Ragu, we actually had to move some of the jars to the baskets when it came time to deliver (which I cannot believe I forgot to take pictures of the delivery!). We even had a manager’s wife at our local Cracker Barrel find out what we were doing, and their family donated 2 gift certificates, one for each family. It was truly amazing how Ragu brought all of us together for one great Ragu Christmas. It was so awesome being able to sign the Christmas cards “From those in your community who love you, all thanks to Ragu for really making it happen!”.

To give your family a great start in 2012, I’m giving away another $300 AmEx gift card!

All you have to do is one or all of the following- just be sure to leave separate comments for each task that you complete.

• Leave in the comments below, telling me how you would use Ragu to make your life (or someone else) better.
• Share on Facebook about this post. This can be on a personal page or Fan Page. I want to get the word out about this great giveaway, and would love for you to help. You may leave one comment/entry per day as long as you post once a day. Make sure you like my page (c’mon, it’s the cool thing to do, when I hit 1,000 likers, I’m giving away an awesome prize) include the link to this post and tag Domestic Debacle and Ragu’s Facebook Pages in your post as well.
• For an extra 2 entries, upload a photo of you holding a jar of your FAVORITE Ragu Sauce on my Facebook page! In the description, be sure to tag myself and Ragu.
• Tweet about this giveraway on Twitter. You can copy this post “Win a $300 AmEx GC to have your own @RaguSauce & @DomesticDebacle #momstheword holiday http://tinyurl.com/cuxy5ea ” You may Tweet this once a day, but you must link to your tweet in your comment. If you do not, your entry will be deleted.
• Post about this giveaway on your blog for 2 extra entries, linking back to this post. The post must include the first entry, on what you would do with the $300 AmEx gift card. No entries with just the link will be accepted.
• For an extra 5 entries, upload a video to Youtube Tagging Domestic Debacle and Ragu Sauce (including the link to this giveaway) telling Ragu and Myself about what you would do with your $300 AmEx gift card and which sauce is your favorite!

Good luck! I’ll be choosing the winner on Sunday, January 1st at 10:00am! The winner will have 24 hours to respond to my email.

*Just as a “heads up”, I will be having someone help moderate my comments as I’m having surgery, so it might take a little while for it to be approved. I promise that they will all be approved before the winner is chosen.

This post/video was created in connection with my appointment as an ambassador in the Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner Program. Visit http://www.facebook.com/ragusauce to join the conversation.

Recently I was given the opportunity to host 15 of my closest friends for a Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner Dinner Party! I was so excited to bring all of them together for a special night out- and even one drove 2 hours to join in the fun!

Special thanks to those who came: Stephany, Cortney, Jenny, Andrea, Jessica, Tiffany, Andrea, Bridgett, Amber, Becky, Celia, Becky, Erin, Kristin, Cherie and the loves of my life; M and J!

Everyone enjoyed great company and food, prepared by myself and my husband! We put our own twists on Ragu’s sauces and recipes which everyone loved!We had a great time in the kitchen together lovingly preparing dinner for our friends…

On the menu was:

Ragu Double Cheddar spicy sausage, diced tomatoes and green chili dip

My own recipe of Ragu Fondue

Ragu Super Vegetable Primavera chunky baked ziti with fresh buffalo mozzarella

Ragu Classic Alfredo penne chicken and vegetables

Ragu Beefy Mac & Double Cheddar (this was a HUGE hit with my 6 year-old!)

The recipes not highlighted will be featured in Friday’s post- so make sure you come back to get those! They’re awesome crowd pleasers, and SUPER easy to make.

We even went “green” and had Ragu Centerpieces! They were a cute conversation starter- and a great way to recycle the jars used for the party:

And of course, no one could go away empty handed! M put together all of the gift baskets that included a jar of one of Ragu’s amazing sauces- and was so proud of herself! She even insisted upon handing them out to everyone.

I would love for one of my readers to host their own Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner- Dinner Party!

One lucky reader will win a $300 American Express Gift Certificate to fund their own party.

All you have to do is one or all of the following- just be sure to leave separate comments for each task that you complete.

• Leave in the comments below, telling me who you would invite to your Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner Dinner Party!
• Share on Facebook about this post. This can be on a personal page or Fan Page. I want to get the word out about this great giveaway, and would love for you to help. You may leave one comment/entry per day as long as you post once a day. Make sure you like my page (c’mon, it’s the cool thing to do, when I hit 1,000 likers, I’m giving away an awesome prize) include the link to this post and tag Domestic Debacle and Ragu’s Facebook Pages in your post as well.
• For an extra 2 entries, upload a photo of you holding a jar of your FAVORITE Ragu Sauce on my Facebook page! In the description, be sure to tag myself and Ragu.
• Tweet about this giveraway on Twitter. You can copy this post “Win a $300 AmEx GC to host your own @RaguSauce & @DomesticDebacle #momstheword party http://tinyurl.com/cmj6glg ” You may Tweet this once a day, but you must link to your tweet in your comment. If you do not, your entry will be deleted.
• Post about this giveaway on your blog, linking back to this post.
• For an extra 5 entries, upload a video to Youtube Tagging Domestic Debacle and Ragu Sauce (including the link to this giveaway) telling Ragu and Myself about the party you would throw and which sauce is your favorite!

Good luck! I’ll be choosing the winner on Friday, December 9th at 10:00am! The winner will have 24 hours to respond to my email.

This post/video was created in connection with my appointment as an ambassador in the Ragu Mom’s the Word on Dinner Program. Visit http://www.facebook.com/ragusauce to join the conversation.