Pillsbury Giveaway Time!.....Win Some Neat Stuff

 Unless you've been living under a rock for the last 45 years, you should know that the PILLSBURY BAKE-OFF Competition rolls around about this time each year.  And it is now in full swing for 2011!
Yes, can you believe that this Contest has been revving up the cooking mojo of home cooks for 45 years!?!
And if you love to create new recipes or dishes your family loves, why not go and enter your creation in this year's competition!

Pillsbury is looking for original recipes that taste and look delicious, are easy to prepare and that families across America will love to eat. Consumers can submit recipes in one of four recipe categories:

* The Breakfast & Brunches category includes casual brunch or weekend family breakfast ideas. For example, sweet rolls, pull-aparts, pastries, breakfast breads, egg dishes or breakfast sandwiches.

* In the Entertaining Appetizers category, entrants can submit appetizers and snacks to serve at casual gatherings with family and friends or for holiday entertaining. For example, bite size appetizers, tartlets, pinwheels, puffs, bruschetta or focaccia.

* The Dinner Made Easy™ category encourages home cooks to create easy-to-prepare main dishes that will delight your family. For example, pizzas, calzones, sandwiches, foldovers, casseroles, chilis, soups or savory pies.

* Quick and easy treats for anytime celebrations can be entered into the Sweet Treats category. For example, cookies, pies, tarts, brownies or bars.

Entries are being accepted online between now and April 18, 2011, at www.bakeoff.com. One hundred lucky finalists will compete for a chance at the grand prize during the contest finals, which take place March 25-27, 2012 at the Peabody Orlando Hotel in Florida. You’ll also find contest details, including eligible products, prizes and the official rules, on the web site.

The recipes will be judged for 1) taste, 2) appearance, 3) creativity and 4) consumer appeal. All entries must meet the requirements of the recipe category and appropriately use two of the eligible products in at least the quantity specified.

Sue Compton of Delanco, N.J. was named the grand prize winner of the 44th Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest in 2010 for her original Mini Ice Cream Cookie Cups recipe. At the 43rd Pillsbury Bake-Off® Contest in 2008, Carolyn Gurtz walked away with the million-dollar grand prize for her Double-Delight Peanut Butter Cookies. At the 2006 competition, the 42nd Contest, Anna Ginsberg, a stay-at-home mom who you might know from her blog, Cookie Madness, earned the $1 million prize for her Baked Chicken and Spinach Stuffing.

Who knows?  Maybe this year your recipe will take home the big prize?

The fine folks at MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury sent me a cute apron, pen with the Pillsbury Dough Boy on it and a Book of 100 Winning Recipes from the 44th Bake-Off Contest.   Each recipe is on a 5"x4" card(2 per page)that can be removed and filed in your own recipe card box or book.  Each card has a full color photograph of the recipe as well.

Here are a few recipes from the booklet that caught my eye...
*Maple-Bacon Breakfast Rolls
*Orange-Kissed Breakfast Bread Pudding
*Pesto-Quinoa-Spinach Quiche
*Sesame-Chicken Pot Stickers
*Bourbon-Street Muffuletta Braid

Are you ready to get cooking yet?  I know I am!

WIN IT!
MyBlogSpark and Pillsbury have provided me with a duplicate Book/Apron/Pen Gift Set to offer to my readers.
If you would like to be entered into the drawing for this prize simply leave  a comment on this blog post about what you feel makes a Prize Winning Recipe.  Is it the ease of preparation?  A small number of ingredients?  Using Bacon?....ok, that would be my idea of a winning recipe.lol  Or something else?

Just tell us what you think in a comment.  Be sure you leave your email address unless your email is linked to your Blogger account and I can access it through your Blogger Profile page.

EXTRA ENTRIES
You can earn extra entries(after your mandatory entry)by tweeting about this giveaway.  Please include the hashtag #myblogspark in your tweet as well as a link to this post directly in your tweet.  Leave a comment with a link to your tweet on this blog post for your extra entry.
This tweet entry can be performed once per day until the close of the Giveaway period.

This Giveaway will close at 11:59pm EST on Monday, March 7th, 2011.

Good Luck and Happy Cooking!

Legal Mumbo-Jumbo
**This is where I tell you that Pillsbury supplied me with the information, free products and giveaway prize through MyBlogSpark.**

Sluggy

Weis 9/12-9/18 GM/Purina Catalina Totals

I got a couple more trips in to Weis Markets on Saturday to finish taking advantage of the General Mills Catalina double dip Deal I talked about HERE.  I also threw in a 'roll of the Cats' on the Purina Pet Food Cat Deal as well.
I don't have the time/energy to gather it all together at this point and take a pic, so just use my 1st trip picture as a representative and multiple it x 4 AND add in 3 x 22lb. bags of Dog Chow....

Here are my totals for the Deals....

My Initial Out of Pocket is...$64.48(including the dog food and the tax)
Catalinas I have left....$13 in regular OYNO Cats & $24 in Meat OYNO Cats
Items I bought.....24 "Helpers"(beef and chicken), 24 Pillsbury bread products, 24 Old El Paso products=72 items and 66lbs. of dog food(kibble).
"Realized" Out of Pocket(after Catalinas)is....$27.48 for all, or $18.80 Out of Pocket for human food items and $8.68 for 66lbs. of pet food.
That breaks down to.....26¢ per item for people food & .13¢ per lb. for the pet food

Now this Deal was great for me whereas it might not have been as great for some one else.  Getting lots of products for cheap is wonderful only if you are going to use it all before it expires AND you have room to store it.
*We do alot of Tex-Mex cooking here and I was almost out of beans and shells from my last stock-up in February(another GM/OEP double dipping Cat Deal at Weis).  Stocking up on those products made sense for me.
*Between Marching Band fundraisers(where I am required to bake) and the Holidays ahead, all that Pillsbury stuff will save me time in the kitchen.  Plus having already made cookie dough is great for the teens to make up their own cookies(seeing as they won't make the dough from scratch and would nag me to make it). And at .26¢ per roll of cookie dough, that's some pretty inexpensive cookies!
*All that Hamburger/Chicken Helper.....what can I say?  Not the healthiest of choices but pair it with lean meat and fresh veggies and it's ok.  In my defense, at least I don't have a boxed Kraft Mac & Cheese addiction.lol 
I'll probably give a portion of these to relatives who have limited cooking skills or food bank them...yes, I just used 'food bank' as a verb.  The rest I like to have on hand for those rare occasions when Hubs is pressed into cooking duties since it's something he can comfortably make successfully.....and that's all I'm going to say about that. ;-)
*66 lbs. of dog kibble was needed as we are down to our last large bag.  Now that we are down to 2 dogs, these 3 bags should last us through the end of the year, if not a touch longer.

For our area, this Catalina Deal was a really good one.
I'm glad I had money in the food budget to take advantage of it.

Here's hoping a good Cat Deal comes your way very soon as well! 8-)

Sluggy

Bloggy Buddies are Giving Stuff Away.....Go Enter!

A few of my fellow bloggers are currently holding Giveaways.
And you know what that means, don't you?......You can win FREE STUFF! ;-)

Go check out A.Marie's Giveaway HERE for Yoplait Splitz.

Go check out Marilyn's Giveaway HERE for Pillsbury Sweet Moments.

Go check out Noreen's Giveaways HERE for Staples, HERE for Breyers Ice Cream & HERE for Seventh Generation.

And mention that I sent ya.... ;-)

Lots of goodies to win!

Sluggy