Coca Cola Life | New Bzz Campaign!

BzzAgent sent a bottle of the new Coca Cola Life to sample. See the pretty green bottle? The green connotes health, nature, plants, and Coca Cola Life contains the plant-based sweetener stevia and cane sugar. The stevia lowers the calorie content and lowers the glycemic load of the sweet treat, and the cane sugar is a more natural and tastier sweetener than the traditional high fructose corn syrup.

Some people find stevia tasty but complain of a funny aftertaste. When I tried Coca Cola Life alone, the aftertaste was noticeable, but with food, it was not detectable. I would drink it again with food, but I think for plain soda drinking, I will stick to all cane sugar Coke until I get used to the taste and aftertaste of stevia.

Read more about Coca Cola Life here.

And here's what I did with my lovely bottle!

Thanks again, BzzAgent!

Paula's Choice Resist Hyaluronic Acid FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Paula’s Choice Resist Hyaluronic Acid Booster is a new product I received from BzzAgent to evaluate and share with others. I have tried many skin care products but none with hyaluronic acid. Reading a bit about this compound, I discovered that it's a naturally occurring molecule in the human body that has a wide variety of metabolic functions, and that one of the functions is is skin cell repair. Sounds like extra hyaluronic acid topically might be a good thing!

When I first received my sample, I washed my face and applied the Booster directly to my skin. It has a non-goopy and non-oily feel and a nice light scent. The product can be applied to the eye area, so I put some there as well. A few minutes later, I felt like my skin needed more moisture, so I put on a layer of my regular daytime moisturizer and felt fine. Since then, I have been mixing the Paula's Choice Hyaluronic Acid Booster with my moisturizer and applying the combination, and actually "boosting" the power of my moisturizers.

My skin feels very smooth and I am looking forward to seeing what longer term use of this interesting new product does to my skin!

Thanks again to BzzAgent for this great opportunity!

Smarterer - New BzzCampaign

Smarterer is a website that allows users to take and create tests and quizzes that demonstrate their proficiency in various online and other computer-based tasks. It's fun and easy to use, and after I joined, my first try with Smarterer quickly showed my BzzAgent proficiency.

Look! I'm a Expert!

Check out Smarterer, create a profile, and start taking some tests. You can post your results in a wide variety of social media services.

Have fun!

Our Experience with Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Dog Food

We received a free 4-pound bag of Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Dinner Dry Dog Food from PetFoodDirect as part of a BzzAgent campaign.

Our dog absolutely loved this food, going back to lick his bowl several times after he had eaten. We appreciated that the food was made with real animal protein and that it doesn't contain corn.

Before we switched his food, we had been feeding him dog food from BJ's - Berkley and Jensen’s Holistic Dog Food - that has a similar nutritional profile as the Hill's Ideal Balance.

While PetFoodDirect carries a larger, more economical size of the Hill's dog food, at this point, we are going to go back to the Berkley and Jensen's food while we still have our BJ's membership.

Here is a comparison of the prices of the two dog food brands:

PetFoodDirect:  Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Adult Chicken & Brown Rice Dinner -  30 lb for $53.39 - $1.78/lb

BJ's: Berkley and Jensen’s Holistic Dog Food - 16 lb for $19.99 - $1.25/lb

Thanks again to BzzAgent and PetFoodDirect for allowing us to try this food!

How to Make Ogi (African Millet Porridge)

Ogi is a fermented grain porridge from West Africa. Two different methods for preparing this dish are described in Sandor Ellix Katz's "Wild Fermentation" and Sally Fallon's "Nourishing Traditions": Katz recommends grinding the millet before soaking the grain in just water, while Fallon recommends pre-soaking the millet before grinding it and then soaking it in water mixed with whey. Both methods create a tangy, rich, thick porridge that can be eaten in both sweet and savory preparations.

This is Katz's method from "Wild Fermentation":

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Ogi (African Millet Porridge)
2 cups millet
water
sea salt

1. Coarsely grind millet using a grain mill or other technology.
2. Soak the millet in about 4 cups of water. Soaking time can range from about 2 hours to 1 week, and the taste will become progressively more sour as the days pass.
3. When you are ready to make porridge, boil about 1/2 cup water per serving, with a dash of salt.
4. Mix the fermented millet blend to a uniform consistency and add about 2/3 cup per serving to the boiling water. Lower heat and stir constantly to prevent burning, until the porridge cooks and thickens, just a few minutes. Add more water as needed to reach the desired consistency.

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We use a Vitamix with a dry container to grind the millet. We usually soak the millet for about 3 days and prepare it with roasted garlic, nutritional yeast, and salt and pepper.

Gross but True

We've noticed some changes in the dog's poop since he's been eating the Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Adult dog food that we got from BzzAgent. His poop is more compact and less stinky, and we are guessing that this food is more easily digested and more effectively absorbed than other foods.
It's gross but true, and it's a good thing!

Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance for Dogs

The package from PetFoodDirect.com arrived on Thursday and the dog has been enjoying Hill's Science Diet Ideal Balance Adult dog food for the past few days. He's a dog, so of course he loves the food; we noticed that he goes back to lick his bowl a few times after the food is gone, but he does that sometimes with other brands of food and when we put special treats in his bowl. So it's hard to tell if it's good in terms of taste, but we are expecting to see some other benefits of this food (such as shinier coat and more energy) over time.

The dog says, "Thanks for the food, BzzAgent!"