The salmon cups are 80 calories a piece and each contains 14 grams of protein with only 2 grams of fat (1 gram saturated).  A single-serving  contains 350 mg of Omega-3 EPA and DHA combined, which means it contains 218% of the daily requirement.

The salmon has a  mild flavor and was actually very tuna-like. I had to pour off a little of the juice  (package says it’s vegetable broth), but it went very well with my salad. The price was good and I’d definitely buy the cups again. It would work well spooned on top of a cream-based pasta dish or even on a cracker. You can find recipes at the Chicken of the Sea website.

Chicken of the Sea Salmon cups contain pink salmon, without the bones or skin. This is a great product for people who take a sack-lunch to work. It does not require refrigeration until after it’s opened.

Salmon can be controversial – wild or farm-raised, at the heart of the debate.  This salmon is from a fishery that was certified to be well-managed and sustainable.

Image credit: Michelle Smith

Post from: Blisstree

Chicken of the Sea Salmon Cups

Below is a shot of one of the first houses I messed around with on the program. FYI after practice you get better and can make more complicated landscaping choices, but still this shows some of the cool landscaping features you can add with this software.

Some of the landscaping features:

• You can plan decks, gazebos, fences, gates, and paths.
• Plan type of ground covering from gravel to pavement to wooden paths to stone and more.
• There’s an amazing Plant Encyclopedia included in the software with more than 7,500 trees, plants, flowers, shrubs and groundcover plant options plus information about light, watering and soil requirements.
• One perk is that you can plan your landscaping by season which is so cool.

If you are also interested in home design or interior design the HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite has you covered. Learn more about designing your home or working on interior design projects with this software.

Learn more: HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite

Post from: Blisstree

HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite

There have been some fabulous peaches at a small farm stand not too far from us, so I’ve been buying a fresh batch every few days. I decided to try them with a little of the frozen yogurt. The combination was yummy!

So what was my favorite flavor? I think I like the vanilla the best, but the peach frozen yogurt is a close second. Both are fabulous with the fresh peaches, or straight out of the container!

My favorite part is there are only 110 calories in a 1/2 cup serving. That makes it a guilt free mid afternoon treat.

Stone Ridge Creamery Frozen Yogurt is available at SuperValu stores nationwide.

Image (c) L Gerlach

Post from: Blisstree

Stone Ridge Creamery Frozen Yogurt

I found it in the refrigerated part of the vegetable section at the grocery store – next to the regular tofu. This was the first prepared smoked tofu product that I’ve tried, so I don’t have anything to compare it to. Usually I think, hhmm, no, too pricey, but Pete’s was on sale so I grabbed it.

Pete’s smoked tofu has a firm texture and a good flavor. I liked it, but Sarah did not. She kept trying to get me to eat hers. She said, “I’m not sure, but I don’t think that I like the flavor.”

We ate it warmed up with Edamame, brown rice, and steamed spinach – a quick lunch.

Here’s a bit about the nutrition information per serving:
Calories – 170
Fat – 4g total, 0.5 saturated
Sodium – 580 mg
Fiber – 3 g
Protein – 25 g
Iron – 25% of daily required amount
 

I might buy it again. It tasted fine, but it is a little pricey when not on sale.

Image credit: All Posters.com

Post from: Blisstree

Pete’s Soyganic Smoked Tofu – A Review

• All the basics of this home software.
• Exterior features, such as building a home and landscaping.
• Interior design and remodeling features.

Software pros:

Amazingly in-depth feature rich software. Everything you need to design and decorate almost any sort of home (minus green – see below).

Pretty easy to use. There’s a learning curve, but nothing I think anyone will have any trouble with. Plus there’s a massive 700 page user manual included, plus online help, plus a help guide in the software itself. You can use this software with just a little bit of practice.

Good software with no icky weirdness. I’ve gotten plenty of software to review in my time, not to mention all the software I buy myself, and every single time I hate having to worry – is this going to kill my computer? What the heck are they going to try and sneak onto my computer? You know? This software was not sneaky at all, it was a fast download, and I had ZERO issues with it. Plus it loads fast right away when you want to use it – no waiting.

Great price. Right now this software is on sale for a super deal – $79 (with a $20 rebate). Considering you could use this software for so many projects for the rest of the time you own a house, and that this software will help you avoid costly interior and landscaping mistakes; I think it’s an awesome deal.

Free technical support and a 90 day money back guarantee.

Things I LOVED:

The landscaping capabilities were amazing. Gravels, dirt types, millions of plants, trees, flowers, veggies, and herbs, plus almost every outdoor accessory imaginable.

The lighting feature. I talked about this in the interior post, but the lighting feature rocked. Big time.

It’s fun. This software is not only very useful, but fun and relaxing. If you’ve got a major crush on houses and design like I do, you will adore this software. It’s way chill to sit around and play with houses.

Software cons:

Only available for Windows XP or Vista. I like PCs, but so many of my pals are on Mac, it seems like they need a Mac version.

Not enough sustainable building features. This was my biggest issue with the software. I looked and maybe I missed it, but I didn’t find features like solar panels, solar tunnel lights, rain barrel set up, turbines, alternative bathroom fixtures (think composting toilets) and so on. I also didn’t see capabilities to plan things like cob or other alternative structures. The last time I helped to build a house, we built green. If I build another, it’ll have better, more advanced green features (my goal would be off-grid). In any case, this software is missing some key green building features. It’s still useful, I’d still buy it, but it would be nice to have more sustainable features.

NOTE: One feature of this software is that you can go online and pull ideas you might want to use, which might be a fix for this green con above. This software has the possibility of creating green exteriors and interiors, I just think it should be more present.

Overall score:

Five out of five happy faces. I would have given this software six out of five (a bonus point) if it had more green features. Overall based on features, price point, ease of use, and the major fact that it didn’t screw with my laptop, it earns 5 happy points and a high recommendation from me.

Learn more about HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite

Post from: Blisstree

Software Review: HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite

First of all, in case you missed it, we’ve been looking at this cool HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite software. Besides a basic look, I also showed you how you can design your own home. The house I designed was ok, but you can do a lot better if you’ve got the time. I wanted to share two of the HGTV sample home creations with you, to give you an idea of how extreme you can get design wise.

One sample home:

And this cool mountain home below, which I’ll be using to show off some interior features.

About the interior design features:
I thought the interior design features were a little tricky. However, I was being a smarty (or trying to) and launched into the program before reading over the directions. I like to learn software on my own. That said, I should have read the booklet section on interiors, because the process would have been quicker.

In any case, once you get going on the interior features, it’s pretty fun. You can change anything – floors, wallpaper, curtains, lighting, fixtures, and furniture. Below are some blank slate interior shots of the mountain home, to give you an idea of what the interior looks like, although, you can also view and decorate in 2D as well, not just 3D.

Living room:

Kitchen:

Loft area:

Something cool about the interior views is the hover feature. As you hover your mouse over the floors and walls, it tells you the materials used – like hardwood maple, 2×4 log frame walls, and so on. I took a stab at bedroom decor. Below is the empty bedroom before I started playing around.

Don’t forget, you can change interior views by turning the camera or using a walk-through feature as well. First of all if you don’t read the instruction manual, stuff like this happens…

Yup, I accidentally deleted the entire bedroom. That’s a punk rock decor choice for sure, but not all that realistic. Once I got the bedroom back, I decided to add lighting and a bed. This process was where I got stuck. There are plenty of furniture and lighting choices, and finding something I liked was a non-issue. However, placing the pieces correctly was a little iffy. The rotate feature is touchy, but after a bit, I got it working like I wanted it to. Basically, what I’m saying is that you’ll be able to use this software just fine, but it takes a little practice.

Here’s a bed and some lighting added:

Now, if I had the time, I could have made this super custom. You can go in and change everything, sheets, colors, wood grain on the bed, even how many pillow you want. This is just one bed choice too – there are all types available.

As for the lighting; this was my favorite interior feature hands down. I don’t know how easy it is to tell from the image above, but the lighting actually lights up the space. I must have played with the lighting for an hour. You can place a floor lamp in a corner, and it shows where in the room the light will fall. I messed around with track lighting, hanging lights, and more. It was very cool. Lighting a home is so tricky; you want lights to be properly placed for your home activities, and this software helps you make smart choices.

I could have done oodles more, but I don’t currently have all day to play with software (I wish). The other major interior feature is that you can upload your own images and then redesign them, as shown below:

This is a really nice feature for remodeling and simple to extreme decor projects – you don’t have to be building a house to need this software.

In the next post the round up of all the features, plus what I love about this software and what I think is missing.

Visit HGTV to learn more about this handy software.

Post from: Blisstree

HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite – Interior Design

First of all, this is pretty hefty software; it’s jam packed with loads of handy home makeover features – WAY too many for one post. In this post I’ll list some of the overall features, and then later during the week, I’ll show some examples of what you can do with this software, tell you what I liked (or didn’t like) about it, and share some info about computer issues (i.e requirements, if it worked ok on my laptop, and so on).

Main product features and some quick notes from me:

• No major design experience necessary – although, if you’d like to try the build a house from scratch feature, it seriously helps if you have some prior knowledge of measurements, and building supplies.
• Quick and safe download – so far I’ve had no issues with the software, and it didn’t appear to download any weird extra programs (I hate that).
• Printed user book (like 500 pages) and lots of HGTV Video Tips to help get you started.
• Photorealistic 3D visualization – or you can use the 2D viewer – plus change the dimensional look of how you see your projects.
• Includes thousands of 3D appliances, home building options (walls, doors, windows, etc), furniture, lighting, landscape objects and more.
• Appropriate for all home styles in the U.S. and Canada.
• Software includes free technical support.

What you can accomplish:

Build a house:

In order to actually decorate, remodel, and make home plans, you need the house. This software allows you to create a house of your choice. You can build from scratch or use and modify one of the included designs. Plumbing, electrical, and heating/cooling options can be planned too. EVEN plan the surrounding areas of your home, such as hills, slopes, and more. This is not, obviously architectural software, but it’s way in-depth enough for a home owner.

Plan interior design projects:

Change paint, stain and fabric colors in your own digital photos of your home. Paint colors from brands you know are included.

Remodel:

Plan room additions, roof extensions, stairs, walls around your home, and other projects easily. You can view changes in 3D and there’s a cool walk-around feature (i.e. take a stroll through your new digs).

Remake your bath or kitchen:

Tools are included that allow you to refinish cabinets, lay new floors, and replace countertops with new materials.

Plan for furniture and appliances:

Hundreds of tables, chairs, sofas, dressers, and much more are included. Many styles available and a fairly well sized library of large and small appliances and electronics are available as well.

Plan paint jobs, surface features, and fabrics:

Plan new hardwood, concrete, tile, or carpeted floors (plus more). Plan surfaces and explore new fabrics and leather upholstery options for furniture. You can even scan in your own texture or material.

Cabinet plans:

See what your home looks like with new cabinets in any room – corner, upper and lower styles included.

Plan cool new landscaping:

The landscape feature rocks. You can plan decks, gazebos, fences, gates, paths, and there’s even a Plant Encyclopedia with more than 7,500 trees, plants, flowers, shrubs and groundcover options plus with info about light, watering and soil requirements. Best of all you can plan by season.

As you can see, this is pretty powerful software. There are a couple things I think it’s missing, which I’ll go over in my personal review, but overall, this software offers enough features for almost any homeowner looking to remodel or make massive home and landscape plans.

Learn more about the features at HGTV, and stay tuned this week for my reviews.

[images via HGTV]

Post from: Blisstree

Home Handy Software Review: HGTV Home & Landscape Platinum Suite