Exploring Brazil with Eat2Explore

I've seen ads for several different food/cooking subscription boxes and most of them are the same, they send you some food and a recipe to try out which can get a little repetitive if you are looking for something a little more. I always try to look for fun activities to do with my family as a whole and Eat2Explore covers that along with being a food based subscription box. A one month subscription is $24.95, however you can save a little money if you opt for a six to twelve month subscription that will drop your cost a bit. If you have someone in your family that is allergic to Gluten they offer gluten free boxes.

Eat2Explore is a wonderful way to explore the world through food while connecting with your family, it allows you to experience what they call the three C's - Country, Culture & Cuisine. Each box features a different country each month and comes with three recipes (each makes 4 servings), the essential spices/sauce mixes you'll need, a shopping list for the fresh ingredients needed, educational activity/information sheets for the featured country, fun cooking tools, plus a pin/sticker/passport. Does someone from your family have a dietary restriction? They have you covered "We understand that each family has it's own unique food preferences, so we've ensured that our explorer boxes can accommodate different dietary needs. We leave the shopping for fresh ingredients up to you, allowing you to customize your eat2explore experience."

The box we received was for Brazil, all of the recipes we received looked pretty delicious and made us excited to try them out. One recipe was pork chops with sides, another was for meat filled pastries served with a watermelon/tomato salad and the last was for a shrimp dish. Thus far we've only tried out one recipe which you'll see below, the other two I am waiting on until we can get together with my mom/step-dad and make it during a family night.

I love that they provided a separate paper with all of the ingredients you need to pick up at the store, looking at the recipes online it looks like they provide a version of some of the recipes you'll receive in their boxes. For example the shrimp dish recipe we received is called "Moqueca" Online it states that it is a Brazilian recipe based on a salt water stew made various fresh fish caught off the coast however it is altered to be a "Shrimp Moqueca" which includes just shrimp to make it easier to shop for. For the Moqueca I purchased shrimp, spinach, rice, a lemon, a red bell pepper, and onion and a can of diced tomatoes. Eat2explore included the coconut milk and spices we needed.

My family got together at my mothers house to cook this with her and my step-dad so we could all try it out. The recipe states it makes four servings, however we added an extra cup of rice and it ended up feeding five adults and two children leaving us quite full. The dish was fun and easy to make! Like Eat2Explore stated all families have their own preferences when it comes to how they cook, I cooked almost everything as directed however I did make a few small changes instead of making it stew like I removed some of the liquids then mixed in the rice to make it more of a hearty dish. I also took a small portion of the dish and cooked it separate without shrimp because my daughter and mother do not like sea food.

We are big bread lovers so we served this with a roll on the side. Everyone really seemed to enjoy the dish and everyone finished their serving feeling full and satisfied after dinner. I was glad I added the extra rice because there are a ton of shrimp in this recipe and I think they would have over taken the dish a bit without the extra rice. The kids also had a lot of fun learning new facts about Brazil, and my daughter made sure to track everyone's rating/opinion on the meal in the little passport provided. I look forward to testing out the other two recipes as well once I get a chance.

Looking for a Brazilian inspired dessert to go with the recipes included in this box? My work has a small culture inspired project where we all made dishes for different countries assigned to us, for mine I made Arroz Doce which is a sweet rice. It is so good and I highly suggest trying it out, it would make a great addition to this explorer box.

Disclaimer- The products mentioned above were provided by Eat2Explore for the review free of charge no other compensation was provided. However, no product compensation will influence the outcome of any review. My honest opinions are used in all reviews, they are solely my own & they may vary from others.My reviews are posted for readers in order to provide an informed decision before purchase.

GoSports Review!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others.The products mentioned below have been provided by GoSports for the review free of charge.****

GoSports isn't just a sports equipment company, they also sell a wide variety of games that are fun for the whole family. I was recently sent a review box that contained a GoSports Premium Solid Wood 4 in a row game, GoSports Giant Toppling Tower with bonus rules, and a GoSports Mini over the door basketball hoop with 3 basketballs.

GoSports Premium Solid Wood 4 in a row game; The 4 in a row game comes with it's own carrying case, everything fits in it perfectly and it has handles to make transporting easy. I love that this game is completely made from wood it feels a lot more structurally sound than its plastic counter part. The stand itself is pretty tall and wide so you can see all the chips clearly, we haven't had any issues with putting this together, taking it apart to carry it or with playing it.

 

GoSports Giant Toppling Tower with bonus rules; The blocks for this game are huge! Does that look like one of my kids hands above? Due to the size of the block it would appear to be the hand of a small human however it is actually my hand. This toppling tower stands at 2.5 Feet tall and depending on how the blocks are stacked it will grow to five feet. What are the bonus rules? On the underside of each block there is a number that matches a sheet that comes with the game, each number has a different rule you must complete to go with the number you selected. You can choose to play with the rules or without it is completely up to you. This also comes with a handy carrying case that everything stores away into quite nicely.



GoSports Mini over the door basketball hoop; This comes with the pump you will need to inflate the balls along with everything you need to hang the basketball hoop over the door. To give my kids room to play I hung this up on my front door, you can see the hanger a bit from the outside but I don't mind because my kids have a blast playing with this basketball hoop. It fits onto almost any door frame and is very simple to get on and off, it simply slides right onto the door. You will need to assemble it when it first arrives but that only take a moment.So far it has held up and hasn't fallen down once, there is just the right amount of height between the ceiling and the hoop to get the ball in.

All of these GoSports products along with many more can be found on their Amazon shop page linked at the top of this post. Amazon is not affiliated with this review.

Pogo Pass Giveaway!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others.The products mentioned below have been provided by Pogo Pass for the review & giveaway free of charge.****

When summer hits and the kids are out of school we are always looking for family friendly activities to do together that don't cost an arm and a leg, but that can sometimes be a difficult feat. I recently found out about a company called Pogo Pass who offers what is essentially a city fun pass for select cities. Currently they offer passes for Phoenix,Az -Tuscon,Az - Austin/Waco,TX - Dallas/Ft. Worth,TX - San Antonio, TX and Las Vegas, NV. I received two passes in exchange for this post, I personally haven't been able to make it out to any of the venues yet but will make another post when I do to let you know how easy it was to use the pass.

What does the Pogo Pass offer? Each city has different sponsors that allow a certain amount of visits with your Pogo Pass that help save you money on being able to go out and do fun activities either by yourself, with friends or with your family. Normally Pogo Passes are $124.95 but if you use the promo code Burningmoon you will get 60% off and it will only cost $49.98 per pass which is an amazing deal for everything that is offered. Shown above is the Phoenix,AZ pass and what it has to offer and below is the Austin/Waco,TX pass.

Each venue or sponsor that is affiliated with Pogo Pass will have a set limit of visits or games you can redeem using your pass, for example the Phoenix Zoo offers pass holders two visits to the zoo (which is normally $24.95 per adult/visit) while Fat Cats bowling alley offers you one game of bowling per week using your pass. You will save at least $200 if not more using this pass to visit all of the venues listed, many of the passes also include sporting events like two Arizona Rattlers games. We plan on taking our kids to several of the venues listed on the Phoenix pass, just to name a few if did not use both allowed visits for the Phoenix Zoo, Makutus Island and Enchanted Island it would cost us $362 for the four of us to attend, but if we bought four Pogo Passes it would only come out to $200 so just right there we would be saving $162 and that doesn't include all of the other venues listed.

A pass covers only a single person so you will need to buy one for everyone in your family if you plan on taking your kids to the different activities listed on the pass and you will need your ID with you when you use your pass because all the passes include your name.  Each pass is good for one calendar year from your date of purchase and the passes are nontransferable. You can log onto your Pogo Pass account to keep track of how many visits you still have left of each venue which I think is pretty handy to have. Your passes can be printed out or you can show them your phone.

Prize Alert:
One lucky winner is going to win One pass to any of the available cities!

This is open to the City/States listed above. Please remember if you DO NOT leave a comment on this blog post as your mandatory entry into the giveaway then all of your entries will be void. Doing the Daily entries will increase your chance of winning. Winners have 72 hours to respond to the notification email!

Giveaway winners are announced on FACEBOOK, If you would like to see who won my latest giveaways please visit and like my facebook page.

 Giveaway entry question: Which city would you like a pass for & what do you like best about this pass?

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Fox in a Box Tucson Reivew!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others.The game slot mentioned below has been provided by Fox in a Box Tucson for the review free of charge.****

My fiance and I are the kind of people who always say we'd be alright during a Zombie apocalypse  and we are always up for an adventure so when I found out about a place called Fox in a box Tucson we knew we wanted to check it out and see how well we would actually do. Fox in a box Tuscon is a live escape the room adventure experience which can host 2-6 people per game slot, they have two rooms available to play in it costs $36-$28 per person depending on the number of people in your party. In one room you must work with your teammates to find all the clues to unlock a vault and steal all the diamonds from the bank, and the other room you must work together to find the cure for the zombie virus which broke out in a science lab. I spoke with Fox in a Box Tuscon and we set up a game for six so my family and I could attend, we all discussed the two rooms and opted for the Zombie science lab. You have 60 minutes to figure out all of the clues to unlock the final clue and win the experience! The game master (one of the owners) keeps and eye over your game while you are in the room, there are cameras and a mic but they are not recording you simply keeping an eye on your progress I will include more on this later in the review. I also want to note that none of the rooms have anyone hiding to jump out and scare you or any other scare factor, the whole point of the room is to have fun and figure out puzzles.

 

When we arrived we were greeted by the owners who explained the game to us, went over the instructions for the game and played a small movie for us that went over the background of the scene that was about to in fold in front of us. Our mission was to solve all of the clues to find a cure from the zombie virus which had spread across the globe, a group of scientists had been working on the cure but had become infected themselves so it was up to us to save the world. The room was set up with lots of different medical equipment pieces and supplies and also had lots of blood splatter and an over all feeling of a zombie virus outbreak which was wonderful for the experience. The point of this game/adventure is to work together, a great tip they give you before entering the room is that as you explore let your teammates know what you found and what your thoughts are because it might help you with a clue to unlock something, if you think there might be something there say something.

Some would think that because you are in just a single room that everything would be easy because after all how many places are there to hide things? You would actually be surprised how intricate the clues are and how well the room is set up, there were way more things hidden than I thought there would be and the time goes by quicker than you expect it to so you really have to focus, discuss clues and try your best. If you get stuck and need help the game master keeping an eye over your game can offer you hints along the way, you can rack up a "hint bank" where you get one hint every 10 minutes you are in the room. The hint will appear on a monitor in the room which also shows you the count down of how much time is left or via a speaker in the room. There hasn't been a single game where a group hasn't asked for at least one clue so don't beat yourself up if you find yourself needing a hint.



I do not want to give away any clues to those of you who want to go check this out so I won't offer much on what all was in the room but as you can see below there are lots of locks that need to be solved by finding clues and that wasn't even all of the locks! This experience was one that all of us enjoyed and we hope to do events like this more often because it gets you thinking and working together. Each of us figured out parts to clues and some of us were better than others at various parts of the tasks which is why it is really a good idea to not try to do everything alone. The entire time we were in the room we were laughing, trying to figure out clues and just over all having a great time because the room is a great way to escape from reality from the outside room for a while. After your game you can discuss your favorite parts, take pictures in the room and talk with the Fox in a Box team one on one and give feedback on anywhere you think could be improved. We personally didn't see or experience anything that needed to be improved everything was perfect.

So now the real question is, did we make it out of the room in time? Towards the end after a hiccup or two which pushed our time back a bit more than we had hoped we weren't sure we were going to make it out on time and that we would become Zombie chow but we did it and we did it with only 39 seconds to spare. After the game if you are hungry they are located in a wonderful spot near a whole bunch of restaurants and shops so you can grab a bite to eat after.

Want to check them out? They are located at 972 East University Blvd Tucson,Arizona 85719

Take a unique trip to Bearizona!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others.Admission fee's have been provided by Bearizona for the review free of charge.****

Every year thousands of people visit the Grand Canyon in Arizona, but they don't know about some of the other wonderful attractions located in the areas surrounding the Grand Canyon. One of those wonderful places to visit is called Bearizona that offers you a up close encounter with a number of animals including Big horned sheep,  Buffalo, Bears and more! Bearizona is located in Williams,AZ which is 30 minutes west of Flagstaff and an hour south of the Grand Canyon.



Bearizona is split up into two sections there is a drive-thru section and a walk-thru section that each offer a unique and fun experience. The first section of the park we visited was the walk-thru part, after a almost two and a half hour drive from Phoenix the kids needed to use the bathroom so we thought it would be easiest to do the drive-thru second. The bathrooms were clean and well kept, they were even better than some bathrooms I've seen in restaurants. I wasn't sure if you had to do the drive-thru part first or not so I asked a staff member and they were kind, friendly and very helpful. All of the staff members we seen feeding animals, cleaning enclosures, etc. all seemed happy, friendly and really seemed to care about the animals and the park. In the walk-thru section there is a Beaver (Named Justin Beaver), Porcupines, Otters, Bobcats, Baby and Teenaged bears, Foxes, and more! During various times through-out the day they offers a number of shows including their Birds of prey show, otter feedings and more.



The animals all had appropriate sized enclosures for the size of the animals, the baby bear shown above was the only bear in the enclosure at the moment so he/she had plenty of space to run around. The adolescent bears had a large enclosure with a small cave area to sleep in, a large metal tub for bathing/keeping cool and plenty of places to roam I wasn't able to count them all but there were at least five to six bears in the enclosure. They had an interactive spot where you could walk into a cave like structure to go in and see where the bears sleep, there is just a thick see through wall dividing you from the bears. They also have a mine shaft with various small animals to see it was pretty fun for the whole family to experience.



Next we moved onto the drive-thru portion, before you enter the park they give you a small list of rules to follow while in the drive-thru portion which include rolling your windows up while you are in the bears and wolves sections otherwise you are free to have your windows down, and drive 15mph. Please remember not to exit your cars, provoke the animals, and don't try to feed them anything these rules are put in place to keep not only you safe but the animals as well. Each section of the drive thru is divided by cattle guards and fences which keep the animals separated from each other. We really liked that the park had various feeding stations and drinking sections for the animals near where the cars drive so that everyone is able to see them, most of the animals were right up next to where everyone drives and many even cross the dirt road to reach the other side which is a chance for great photos and to see the animals up close.



The drive-thru section is three miles long and was amazing in my opinion, while you are in the bear section your car is pretty much surrounded by bears we lost count of how many bears they had. We seen bears playing together, bears scratching their butts on tree, bears sleeping and bears just doing bear things there was even one a few cars ahead of us who came up to their car to say hello. The park is monitored by video camera, park staff also keep an eye on things by driving thru in their jeeps and tour buses take people on the trip as well if you do not want to take your own vehicle in.They offer all of this plus more, I don't want to spoil it all for you so you will have to go visit to see what else they have in store for you. Entrance to the park is Adult: $20.00 + tax Children (Ages 4-12): $10.00 + tax Seniors (62 & Older): $18.00 + tax and you are allowed to drive-thru or walk around as much as you would like. Bearizona is privately owned and receives no tax dollars towards the care of their animals all funds are from the sales of ticket prices, as you can imagine with as many bears as they have on the property their food bill must be pretty hefty. My family had a blast and I know you will as well when you stop by to visit.

ThinkFun Review!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others. The products mentioned below have been provided by ThinkFun for the review free of charge.****

With Christmas coming up everyone is looking for fun and entertaining gifts their children will enjoy and I have a gift that fits all of those needs! I recently received a game called Lazer Maze Jr. by ThinkFun which is sold for $29.99 it is available through their website or on Amazon. Laser Maze Jr. requires you to use mirrors, beam-splitters, a little science and brainpower to direct the laser through a series of mind-challenging mazes and light up the target shaped like a rocket.

 

The box says ages 5 & up but my two year old also did perfectly fine with this game, and had a blast playing it with his sister, father and I. The game offers 40 Challenges from Easy to Super Hard, each card is slid into a slot on the game board and it shows you where to place the boulders, and rockets it also tells you what you need to complete that level. Some challenges only require one rocket and two mirrors, others you may need both rockets or a rocket, three mirrors and a boulder which makes the game more exciting since you have to think of ways to arrange the items to make the lazer turn on the rocket. The game comes with 11 Game Tokens (2 Rocket Targets, 3 Space Rock Blockers, 5 Satellite Mirrors and 1 Beam Splitter).

 

My daughter is six years old and adores this game because it really makes her stop and think about how she needs to place the mirrors and beam splitter, once she gets it figured out she gets so excited to see the rocket light up. This may be Lazer Maze Jr. but the Super Hard cards can be quite a challenge, even my fiancé and I have had to stop and think about where things will go and try moving things around a few times before we are able to get them, so it has been fun for the whole family. Lazer Maze Jr. along with their other fantastic games such as Compose yourself and Code Master would make wonderful Christmas & Birthday gifts and best of all they are all affordable. Head over to their website to see what other games they have that might interest you.

MacDonald's Ranch Review!

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others. The products mentioned below have been provided by MacDonald's Ranch for the review free of charge.****

October means a month filled with Ghouls, Ghosts, Spooky decorations and Pumpkin patches! My kids love visiting Pumpkin patches and mazes because they have so many fun activities for families to do and it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. This past Sunday my kids and I went to pick up my mother and we headed off to MacDonald's Ranch to spend the day and visit their Pumpkin patch. They are open October 1st to October 31st,2015 from 9AM to 6PM and admission is $10 per person Mon-Fri and $12 on the weekends.





One of the first things you notice as you walk in is that it is set to a Western theme, complete with a gold mine and a sheriffs office which gets the kids excited because it is something new that they don't get to experience every day. MacDonald's Ranch offers quite a bit for the kids to do, we couldn't decide what to do first so we decided to move in a circle to check everything out and see what there was to do. The first thing the kids wanted to do was visit the Petting zoo! if you wanted to feed the animals they had feed available for $3-$5 before you enter the gate. The first thing I noticed when we started into the petting zoo was how clean and well cared for the animals were, I've been to a lot of petting zoo's and I can tell you they aren't all nice, I've seen dirty animals, animals with sores and animals that just look plain nasty but this wasn't the case here. All of the animals look like they are tended to regularly, the goats were clean and pretty soft plus they were extra friendly not a single one tried to nip at our hands or clothing, even the pigs, sheep and donkey were all clean and well groomed, the kids had a lot of fun petting and seeing the different animals. Not only were the animals clean but all the games and activities offered were also kept clean, organized and well put together, there were no actual lines but all the kids were really good with taking turns at each game. All of the games around the Ranch are included in the price of the entrance fee, the only thing we paid extra for was the horse rides. The pumpkins and other goodies such as the delicious smelling kettle corn were extra as well, they also had food and drinks for anyone planning on spending a good chunk of their day at the ranch.

The ranch offers a variety of activities including Duck Races, Cow Milking, Conk the Crow, Shooting Gallery, Pedal Carts, Sack races, A hay maze and more which will keep you and your family engaged and entertained. The kids hay maze was fun and the hay stacks were short enough you could send your child in on their own and not have to worry about them getting lost like you would in a corn maze. You can take a wagon or a train for a short ride to their Pumpkin patch where they have pumpkins for sale and a wagon or train will pick you back up and bring you back to the Ranch. If you are hungry or thirsty by the time you come back they have food and drinks to purchase, the Kettle corn smelled heavenly. At the end of the day you can finish your trip off with a ride on a horse, two kids cost only $5 to ride which is a pretty good deal! Overall we enjoyed our time at the ranch, the parking lot was huge and offered plenty of parking, there were tons of people there enjoying the ranch with their kids and there wasn't a single un-happy face in the crowd. The staff were all friendly and helpful, I will be bringing my kids back next year! If you are in the Phoenix/Scottsdale area I recommend visiting MacDonald's Ranch located at 26540 N Scottsdale Rd Scottsdale, AZ look for the Horse and Pumpkin Patch sign located on the North-West side of Scottsdale Road. 

Disney Live! Review

****This was not a paid post and my honest opinion was used. The opinions are solely my own and may vary from others. The products mentioned below have been provided for the review free of charge.****

This last weekend my family and I had the pleasure of attending Disney Live! featuring Three Classic Fairy Tales, Disney Live! was in town for two days only and it was quite an exciting show, you really missed out if you weren't there. I enjoy the area they choose for this event, it had plenty of seating and the sections were easy to find, there were dozens of places to stop for a drink or something to eat and it had A/C which is needed when you are in Arizona. The staff was friendly and helpful when we weren't sure which side of the rail was our section and they made sure that there were people walking around offering drinks and food if you were wanting to buy something. All of the kids were quite anxious for the show to start, I heard plenty of children including my own asking when it was going to start kids will be kids.





The entire show had a very energetic feel to it which made everyone in the audience happy and excited to be at the show, not only were they doing the story of Snow White, Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast but Mickey, Minnie, Goofy and Donald were there to host the show which of course made all the kids very excited. I liked that the show was fast paced, kids can get really impatient so if there is a lot of downtime in between each story to reset the stage then the kids will more than likely become bored and upset. Instead of having long breaks between each story they simply closed the curtain for a few moments with Mickey and the gang speaking with the audience while they put up a few new props for the next story the main stage piece which is the stair case you see above stayed on the stage the entire time and it rotated to make it seem like they were going to a new scene, room, etc which I thought was a neat idea. Sadly my two year old was pretty tired and wanted to go home so we weren't able to stay for the last part of the show but we did catch the first two stories which were marvelous! There was thunder and lighting, fire and smoke along with shootings stars and more.

If you or someone you know is a big fan of Disney I suggest looking to see which Disney Live! will be heading to an arena near you.