Breast Cancer Awareness-Pink Together® Giveaway

I am sure most of you are aware that it is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I don't think I know of a single person that has not been affected by this awful disease in some way. Whether it is a friend, family member or even someone you don't know personally we all are touched in some way. There is an amazing online community on MySpace where those touched by breast cancer can connect and provide support, comfort, and encouragement to one another. It is called Pink Together®. Pink Together®, a national campaign to support those impacted by breast cancer and to help raise awareness of the disease. To support Pink Together, General Mills is donating $2 million to Susan G. Komen for the Cure® and is turning the packaging pink next month on an assortment of its most beloved brands. General Mills will also donate $1, up to $20,000, each time you post a comment of encouragement, send a virtual flower bouquet or share a story on PinkTogether.com in October. I would encourage you to read a few of the stories on this site. I sent a few virtual flowers as well as left encouraging comments to uplift family members and friends.


In the Ismail house we have been purchasing as many of our food products packaged in pink to show support. We always donate to a team that does the Cancer Walk each year. We also collect the Yoplait Yogurt lids (the pink ones) and mail them in. Yoplait donates 10 cents per lid and lids must be received before 12/31/09. It's a small way to give especially in a tough economy. Remember that every little bit counts!


I was fortunate to receive a beautiful Inspiring Hope gift basket from MyBlogSpark. The Inspiring Hope gift basket includes a sleeved travel mug, a running ribbon charm bracelet, a pink leather strap keychain, a pink cinch bag, and a set of inspirational note cards (retail value of $59) It is a beautiful gift and the quality is really great. All of the gift basket items are from ShopKomen.com, where 25 percent of the merchandise purchase price benefits Susan G. Komen for the Cure® in the fight against breast cancer.

MyBlogSpark has graciously offered for one lucky Momfiles reader to win this Inspiring Hope gift basket. Here's how to enter:

Mandatory- Leave a comment that is relevant to this post. Comments that say "thank you" or "count me in" will be deleted. Want an additional entry? (You must complete the above method to qualify for extra entries)

--You can Twitter this giveaway (one per day) and leave me a link to your Tweet. Example: Win an Inspiring Hope gift basket @momfiles http://bit.ly/1Cy93r #giveaway

-- Facebook this giveaway, and please leave a separate comment/link for each entry to count. (one per day)

--Follow me on Twitter @momfiles or friend me on Facebook (Sheliza Ismail) (leave a comment with a link) If you already follow let me know.

--You can also place our button on your blog or follow us (please leave a blog link in your comment or specify if you are a new or current follower).

Be sure to have a visible email address in your comment if you do not have a Blogger profile. Giveaway is open to US residents only. Deadline to enter is November 1, 2009 at 11:59 pm EST. Good luck! Special thanks to MyBlogSpark for sponsoring the prize pack for the giveaway.

Information provided by Pink Together.com

The Big Red Monster

Dwayne's dad came by this yesterday and look at what he brought over for us...

It's a bottle of red wine. Looks like some sort of demonic character on the label. hmm.

They warn you not to drink this by itself, that's scary! I will let you know what it was like.

Comfort Food

Since the weather reports said that we would have clouds and cool weather I decided to make a nice big pot of soup. It is full of yummy beans, corn, turnip greens, sweet potatoes, carrots, chicken and crab legs. Watch out now Bobby Flay!!

Flashback Friday- October '08

Vent Day Wednesday

Welcome to this week's edition of Vent Day Wednesday. Please be sure to leave your vents in the comments section.

E.V.O.O. saved dinner!

This morning I was washing up some chicken wings and preparing to season them up to cook for dinner. I still had to decide how I wanted to cook them. Do I want to broil, barbecue, bake or fry? After about 10 minutes I decided to fry them since I only fry 2-3 times per year. I just don't like what the house smells like when I fry so normally if we eat fried foods it is when we eat out. So I season these big wings to perfection and I pull out the old Fry Daddy and proceed to pour in the oil. This is where we run into a problem. I only had enough Canola oil to fill the deep fryer half way to the fill line. I became annoyed at this point. I glanced over on my counter and saw my bottle of extra-virgin olive oil. I have heard of people using olive oil for deep frying but never really considered doing it myself. My mind was so set on fried chicken so I grabbed the olive oil and poured it into the fryer. I lightly coated the wings with some flour and dropped the first few pieces in. I was so impressed with how they cooked up perfectly golden brown and crispy. The true test was the taste. They were perfect. Not greasy at all and quite frankly even better than if I used 100% Canola oil! I just had to snap a photo. Don't they look delicious?