First off, I want to be clear that today's edition of Retail Beat has nothing to do with the holidays. The products featured would make fairly disappointing stocking stuffers as far as I'm concerned. Not one of these products was purchased on Black Friday or Cyber Monday. These are just some things I have discovered/re-discovered and wanted to share with you.
Product: J.R. Watkins Natural Home Care All Purpose Cleaner in the Aloe and Green Tea scent
Source: Target
Price: It's been awhile, but I'm thinking $3-4.
My college friends and I used to assign "code names" to guys we knew or wanted to know. One such person of interest was dubbed "PSG" by my dear friend and fellow blogger Actchy. "PSG" stands for "probably smells good." PSG probably did smell good, but I don't think any of us ever got close enough to make a good judgment. This cleaner, my friends, is SSG, as in SURELY SMELLS GREAT! I love, love, love the scent of it, and it seems to be a more-than-adequate cleaner as well (though, as I've admitted before, my standards are low in this area). If the promise of a smellsation does not draw you in, I will also add that this cleaner is supposedly all natural, that its label boasts (a bit pretentiously perhaps) "Conscience-Clearing Power" and urges you to "Free Yourself," and that its bottle is quite attractively retro. I also purchased the same brand of window cleaner in a Lavender scent. It is fine, but not the nirvana of the aloe and green tea variety.
Product: Johnson's No More Tangles Detangling Spray
Source: most retail establishments that sell hair products
Price: Again, can't recall, but I'm thinking $2.99
When my Bub goes out into the world, I like him to look freshly-scrubbed. Though he is always cute, NTB, he is even cuter when his hair does not lie flat on his forehead. I prefer it a bit feathered, if you will. I used to employ a little spray bottle filled with water to help me style his hair in the morning. That worked fine enough, but this spray works even better. I spray it on wet hair after bath and on dry hair before school. Just a little heavier than water, the spray helps me to deal with really challenging cases of bedhead. The main attraction, however, is that this detangling spray is another SSG item! I want to bury my nose in the Bub's hair because it smells so great, and I am sure his teachers want to do the same (not really, but I figure they may notice how good he smells!).
Product: Marshmallow Fluff
Source: any grocery store
Price: usually $1.29 at the Jewel
I've been a fan of Marshmallow Fluff for years. Near the end of my pregnancy with Little Bit, I rediscovered my love for the fluffernutter (peanut butter and marshmallow fluff sandwich) and have continued eating them these past five months since he's arrived. It's a great snack for ravenous nursing moms because it contains protein, is easy to make, and can be eaten with one hand. I enjoy my fluffernutters with a nice cold glass of skim milk. Awesome. I am currently rocking Skippy's natural peanut butter, but I'm sure your own peanut butter of choice would do nicely. My only recommendation is that you buy the jar with the red lid (as pictured) as opposed to the one with the blue lid that claims to be "jet-puffed." The red lid kind is just better. Also, make sure the bread you are using is as fresh and soft as is possible, which leads me to . . .
Product: Healthy Life bread
Source: the Jewel and, I assume most other grocery stores
Price: usually $2.50, sometimes $2.00
I have been a fan of Healthy Life bread for years. It is whole grain bread with a good amount of fiber per slice. It's not as soft as the Wonder you may remember from childhood, but it is soft for healthy bread and also only 35-40 calories per slice. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy a hearty, dense, textured piece of bread as much as the next girl . . . but not for a fluffernutter. Plus, I find that many other whole grain breads are also high in calories. I prefer not to spend 150-300 calories on bread alone if I am making a sandwich. I also use this bread for the Bub's grilled cheese sandwiches.
That's it for this edition of Retail Beat. As always, I turn to you, readers. What smells and tastes good to you these days?
6 comments:
i bet the girls in bub's class have dubbed him "PSG"
Lately, I have been thinking that I wanted to start using more natural stuff around the house. I'm pretty sure it is one of the rites of passage as a new mom that you start using natural cleaning products. I'll have to give JR Watkins a go because I'm all about smellsations.
Do you know that J had never even HEARD of Fluff until about a year after I met him? And it's not even because he came from healthnut upbringing. This is the man who eats what he calls Pizza Pootza Pies (sp?) which are white bread slices smeared with Open Pit BBQ sauce, topped with a slice of American cheese, and baked in the oven. Anyway, he's in the know about Fluff now, though we may need to revisit it for the fluffernutters -- O may actually eat one.
I have never tasted Fluff.
But as an enviro attorney who has sat through more than her share of info-sessions on clean air, I would strongly recommend natural cleaning products, especially if you have children, asthmatics, or elderly folks in your home.
I'm cracking up at the idea of the girls in Bubby's class calling him PSG. But I should say, for the record, that I'm not sure if I was the one who actually came up with "PSG" or if it was one of my roommates?
As for my own retail obsession, just the other day I grew tired of the strawberry Stoneyfield Farm Organic Yogurt (I buy the big tubs and they come in limited flavors.) I spent some time considering "Banilla" flavor, and, I am loathe to admit, actually thought "Banilla' was, perhaps, Spanish for "Vanilla" for a few moments. Um, no. Apparently "Banilla" is a marriage of vanilla and banana flavors. I tried it out yesterday at lunch for the first time and was in raptures.
I love my laundry to smell good. My best combination for this is Tide Mountain Fresh with a side order of Downey Lavender Vanilla fabric softener. Divine!!! m
I have to make two comments...first, I may have been the originator of "PSG," though it all runs together. I do, however, remember when we were loudly talking about PSG only to have him come and sit down next to us at dinner. Not with us...just next to us.
Second, I love that Actchy describes herself as being "in raptures" over her Spanish vanilla yogurt. Personally, I've been making myself the microwave s'mores...no fluff required, just your plain old marshmallow, graham crackers, and a few chocolate chips and voila! deliciousness.
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