This is a compensated review from BlogHer and So Delicious®.

You’d think, while raising five kids, my husband and I would find enough things to disagree on without having to invent things to argue about. But still, we will occasionally get ourselves all worked up over something silly. It’s almost always a product of our upbringing, too. For example, belly buttons. My husband is completely ridiculous about protecting his belly button at all times. He somehow got it in his head that you can rupture your intestines by sticking your finger into your belly button. No amount of evidence will convince this college-educated man that his information is…flawed. I am just as guilty of sticking to my guns, though. My mom wouldn’t buy us sugar cereals, so I won’t buy them for my kids, either. Even though I know there’s more sugar in the apple juice they drink than there is in the bowl of cereal. It’s weird, the way we tend to stick to our guns over the most ridiculous things.

Recently, we had a discussion about milk consumption. I am not a fan of milk. I’ve never liked it, and I really only use it to moisten my cereal. Contrast this with my husband, who not only adds milk to his ice cream, but will only eat a slice of birthday cake if it’s served in a bowl of milk. He has it in his head that I am heading straight toward osteoporosis thanks to my lack of love for dairy, and he’s convinced that our kids are going grow up with brittle bones because they don’t drink a glass of milk at dinner time. I don’t believe my kids are going to be in leg braces by their teenage years, but I do understand the importance of dairy in their diet. So when So Delicious Dairy Free offered my family a sample of their Coconut Milk, I was intrigued.

I was surprised to find So Delicious Coconut Milk directly above the generic skim milk I usually buy at my regular supermarket, and bonus, it was even on sale. I know lots of folks shop at stores like Whole Foods, but to be honest, I am much more likely to buy organic, “specialty” foods if I can find them at the store I usually shop at. The half-gallon comes in Original, Unsweetened, and Vanilla flavors. The single serve 8-packs come in Vanilla, Chocolate, and Sugar Free flavors. (Mmmm, chocolate!)

So what did we think of it? Well. One of the things So Delicous says to describe their Coconut Milk is, “Tastes Just Like Milk – Only Better!” I didn’t think it tasted like milk. Milk is nasty. This stuff is GOOD. I didn’t chug down a whole glass of it or anything, but my kids did! I served up four little glasses to my kids at dinner, and all but one asked for seconds.

We went through that coconut milk lightning fast, and my kids have been bugging me to buy more of it ever since. They loved it on their cereal, and guess what? I did, too! In fact, we found all sorts of uses for it.

Here are 7 ways to use coconut milk!

1. Pour it in your coffee, instead of that vanilla creamer that doesn’t even require refrigeration.
2. Dip your Girl Scout cookies in it.
3. Add it to your mashed potatoes. YUM. (Uh, don’t use the vanilla flavor for this.)
4. Pour it into your hot oatmeal. (Definitely use the vanilla flavor for this!)
5. Smoothies!
6. Throw it in a lunchbox.
7. Make a cocktail. Hey, those kids have to go to bed eventually.

But the easiest, most satisfying way to use So Delicious Coconut Milk is to just drink it! The taste is smooth, creamy, and refreshing. It’s a good source of vitamin B12 and calcium. It’s dairy-free, soy-free, certified non-GMO, gluten-free, cholesterol-free, kosher, vegan, and hey – it’s even endorsed by Jillian Michaels.

Want to win some awesome stuff? Check out the 100 Days of Change Giveaway on the So Delicious Facebook Page, where one change-for-the-better prize will be awarded every day for 100 days from February 10th through May 20th, 2011. It’s easy to enter! You can log in with Facebook, and enter daily to increase your chances of winning the Grand Prize trip to the Kamalaya Wellness Sanctuary & Holistic Spa.

And if that’s not enough for ya, So Delicious and BlogHer are teaming up in a sweepstakes of their own, from February 23rd through March 20th, 2011. You can win a $100 Visa gift card! First, Visit the Official site and then leave a comment here telling me which So Delicious Dairy Free coconut based product you’d be most likely to try. Some quick rules: No duplicate comments. You may receive (2) total entries by selecting from the following entry methods:

a) Leave a comment in response to the sweepstakes prompt on this post
b) Tweet about this promotion and leave the URL to that tweet in a comment on this post
c) Blog about this promotion and leave the URL to that post in a comment on this post
d) For those with no Twitter or blog, read the official rules to learn about an alternate form of entry.

This giveaway is open to US Residents age 18 or older. Winners will be selected via random draw, and will be notified by e-mail. You have 72 hours to get back to me, otherwise a new winner will be selected. The Official Rules are available here: Visit the Official Rules and Visit the Exclusive Offers section for more chances to win. Good luck!

I recently learned about a fun little contest – 8th Continent Soymilk is asking kids to draw and submit their own sun-inspired artwork, to go along with their newly unveiled carton design. Kids ages 5 and up can submit their artwork to the 8th Continent website, or even use the drawing tool right on the website. (Fun! My kids LOVE stuff like this.) One hundred winners will each receive $1,000 in art supplies for their school art programs, and the winning designs could be featured on 8th Continent soymilk cartons this fall.

More details about the contest, from their press release:

Children five years and older can submit their own sun-inspired artwork at www.8thcontinent.com

Entries can also be created online through an interactive drawing tool at www.8thcontinent.com

Contest participants can submit one artwork entry per day through 11:59 pm EST on June 12, 2010

All design submissions will be featured on www.8thcontinent.com in an online gallery where the public can vote for their favorite work of art

The number of public votes in the online gallery will determine 50 contest winners and a panel of judges selected by Stremicks Heritage Food will determine an additional 50 winners

The 100 winners will each be recognized with $1,000 in art supplies for their school art programs – for a grand total of $100,000!

Winning designs may also be featured on 8th Continent soymilk cartons beginning this fall!

Here’s some stuff you probably didn’t know: 8th Continent soymilk is made from soybeans grown in here in the U.S. (My oldest daughter has lots of extended family out in central Illinois, growing vast amounts of soybeans – wonder if any of them make their way to 8th Continent?) 8th Continent soymilk is an excellent source of calcium, and is the only American Heart Association-certified soymilk containing less than 3 grams of fat. It’s available in four different varieties: complete, regular, light, and fat free – and it’s lactose free, vegan, and Kosher.

And, it tastes good! Know how I know? 8th Continent was kind enough to hook me up with a prize pack, which contained a coupon for me to try it myself, along with yummy cereal and darling melamine bowls (my kids are fighting over them right now – two bowls don’t go very far in a family of seven!) In addition to the breakfast items, the prize pack also contained some art supplies so my kids could enter their sun drawings in the contest. And, because they’re cool, they’re giving me a second prize pack to award to one LaLaGirl reader. Could be you! Yes, could be. In order to win, just leave a comment on this very entry. You can get a bonus entry by LIKING me on Facebook. But you already do like me, right? Right? One winner will be drawn on Monday, May 24, 2010.

Hey, you might as well check out 8th Continent Soy Milk on Facebook, while you’re at it!

It was only because of this, that I realized Lucky Charms is not really as bad as I thought it was, sugar-wise. It has 11 grams of sugar per serving. Still higher than the 10 grams or less that I usually shoot for, but certainly not as bad as, say, RAISIN BRAN. I know I’m probably being lame about the whole sugar thing. It’s not like they aren’t eating yogurt, which has a crapton of sugar in it. What’s my problem, anyway? I guess I just like bossing my children around with my arbitrary, “haha! Mommy says this has too much sugar!” rules.

I probably should focus my attention a bit more on the amount of calcium and Vitamin D my kids are getting. I was told recently that the American Academy of Pediatrics recently doubled the vitamin D recommendation for children. Probably not as big a deal in Colorado, what with our 300+ annual days of sunshine, but there ya go. I just learned that General Mills Big G kid cereals are calcium and vitamin D fortified – this list includes Kix, Lucky Charms, Trix, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, and others. They also have at least 8 grams of whole grain per serving.

You can learn more at growupstrong.com.

Mmmm! My kids love these, and you can get a free sample of custom designed Fruit Roll-ups by signing up for the Boxtops for Education newsletter. Just click the button above!

Besides packing their lunches, I also pack a snack in their backpacks so they have something to much on in the afternoon. Being a kindergartener makes you hungry! I’m always trying to find some healthy treat for them to take once in awhile, to break up the monotony of eating fruit and string cheese. Here’s a GREAT option for little kids – EnviroKidz Crispy Rice Bars. We’ve tried these in the past and they’re delicious, and I just had a chance to sample two brand new flavors – Lemur Peanut Choco Drizzle (chunky peanut butter and peanuts with chocolate drizzle) and Penguin Fruity Burst (‘marshmallowy’ taste with colourful bits of fun fruity bursts). These low fat bars are made from whole brown rice, they’re low in sugar and sodium, and they’re also gluten free. And they’re GOOD! We received samples to try a few weeks ago, and I had to track down some promo images to use in this post because my family scarfed down the samples so quickly I didn’t have a chance to photograph them.

Aren’t they cute?

Want to try them for yourself? Leave a comment here letting me know your favorite healthy snack option for your kids, and I’ll draw one winner on Monday, September 15th. The winning commenter will receive both flavors in the mail!

Kellogg’s is actually making it pretty easy for me to pick out an acceptable box of cereal, though – I noticed recently that they print nutrition info at-a-glance right on the front of their cereals. Check it out:

I love it!

Why don’t more manufacturers do this sort of thing? Save mama a little time and effort, and you can have my money!

I, however, am a big cheapskate, and generally speaking, our financial situation most days falls under the category of Broke As A Joke, so I wasn’t about to spend seven bucks on a frozen pizza. You could spend a couple dollars more and have your pizza delivered, y’know?

This all changed yesterday. We had to run out to the supermarket for eggs, right in the middle of making a birthday cake for my 13-year-old. It was a long, hot day, and I didn’t feel like cooking, so I impulsively grabbed two of these pizzas from the freezer case at our local King Soopers. One was cheese and pepperoni – the other one was sausage and, I think, grilled vegetables. I threw them in the oven, both at the same time, while the kids were tearing up the backyard on their bikes.

Well. Damned if those weren’t the BEST frozen pizzas I’ve ever had in my life, and probably the best pizza, PERIOD, I’ve had in a long time. We oohed and ahhhed over a pizzeria in Big Bear while we were on vacation, and this pizza tasted very much like that. The crust was exquisitely flaky, the grilled peppers tasted really fresh, and the cheese was all stretchy, just like it’s supposed to be. Seriously good pizza, and totally worth fourteen bucks for two of them.

Check out the Home Run Inn website and see if your grocery store is listed there. While searching for them on the web, I found that you can buy a 2-pack of their pizzas at Sam’s Club, but apparently not all Sam’s Club stores carry them, so you may be out of luck there. You totally need to track down some of this pizza, though – it’s fantastic! Thumbs up all around from here!

Jazz Apple – WTH?, originally uploaded by lalagirl.

What is a Jazz apple? I don’t know, but I couldn’t find any Pink Ladies and these seemed like a reasonable facsimile. I’ll let you know how they are.

Congratulations, Mandy! I’m passing your info along to the folks who will send you your prize!