I have a fun giveaway for you today! September is Better Breakfast Month, and the Almond Board of California would like to send one lucky winner a better breakfast starter kit.   The kit contains:

• One $20 Visa gift card to buy anything else that makes your breakfast better – fresh fruit, oatmeal, almond milk, etc.
• One pound of whole natural almonds
• One jar of almond butter
• One pound of sliced almonds
• One reusable, insulated travel pouch for breakfasts on-the-go

If you’re a fan of almonds, you’ll definitely want to try to win this kit. 🙂

To enter:

• Leave a comment on this post and tell me your favorite way to eat almonds.
• For an extra (optional) entry, follow me on Pinterest and leave a separate comment letting me know. 

Giveaway ends Friday, 9/20 at midnight. The winner must have a U.S. address.

Good luck! 🙂

Thanks to the kind people at Silpat, I’ve got a really fun giveaway for you today! I get to give away a Silpat Half Size and a Roul’Pat Half Size to one lucky winner!

If you read my post on Monday, hopefully you noticed the awesome pan liner that my chicken sausage and broccoli packets were cooked on.  Silpat is the original nonstick baking mat, and I can now attest to just how good it is. Do you see that melty cheese up there in the picture? Well, I let it cool and harden before I cleaned the pan. I’d like to pretend I did it on purpose to test the silpat, but let’s be honest. 🙂 Anyway, that cheese came off in seconds, no scrubbing required. I was impressed!

I first wrote about the Roul’Pat about a year ago when I included it in my list of cookie baking tips. This thing is wonderful as a work surface! I use it for kneading bread dough, rolling out pie dough, and cutting out sugar cookies. It has a nonstick work surface, and also a non-slip back so that it doesn’t shift around while you’re working. Plus it’s easy to clean. I can’t say enough good things about this product.

Now,  on to the giveaway! As mentioned above, one winner will receive one Silpat Half Size and one Roul’Pat Half Size. To enter, leave a comment below letting me know what you would use your prize for.  For an extra entry, “like” Silpat on Facebook and leave a separate comment letting me know. Feel free to “like” me too if you want, but it’s not a requirement. 🙂 Giveaway ends Wednesday, 10/3 at midnight. Good luck!  🙂

p.s. you can also connect with Silpat on Pinterest, Twitter, and YouTube!

*This giveaway is provided by Silpat. I received one Silpat for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

As I mentioned in my mango ice cream post, Whole Foods was nice enough to send me a whole case of mangoes to play around with. And lucky for you, one reader gets to win their own case! The case consists of Mexican Ataulfo mangoes, which are soft, buttery and creamy. You will love these mangoes. I have to tell you, I used our last two today for smoothies and Mike and I are both so sad they’re gone!

To enter to win your very own case of mangoes, just leave a comment on this post telling me what you would do with all those mangoes. For an extra entry, “like” What Megan’s Making on facebook and leave a separate comment letting me know. The contest ends Sunday night at midnight and I will choose a winner via random number generator. Good luck!

Congratulations to comment #129 – Hazel! I sent you an email 🙂 Thanks so much for entering!

*Note: If you are worried about how hard mangoes are to peel and eat, check out this handy video from Whole Foods! It definitely helped me 🙂

We went on a family camping trip with Mike’s family last weekend, and of course we took Scamp with us! (By the way, we have become that couple that treats their puppy like their child…sad but true). Scamp loves being outside, loves being surrounded by people, and especially loves all kinds of new activities, so I was sure he would love camping. And other than a few harrowing experiences, I was right!

Good things about Camping (from Scamp’s point of view):

1. Lots and lots of people who walk up to him and tell him how cute he is.
2. Lots of little kids who want to play with the puppy.
3. Lots of little kids who drop food that Scamp finds before we do.
4. Sleeping on our sleeping bag with us instead of in his crate.
5. Not once being left alone during the whole weekend

Bad things about camping (from Scamp’s point of view):

1. The huge dog at the next campsite (and the many raccoons) left Scamp on high alert all weekend with little chance to relax.
2. Rain. It stormed on our last day as we were trying to pack up the tent and Scamp got soaked. He was cold and shivering and generally unhappy about the whole situation.
3. The boat ride. This started out innocently enough with a nice casual ride. We had Scamp up front thinking he’d love the wind in his face, and he did (video below). Then we started speeding up. 5-10 minutes at 40 mph left our puppy shaking and scared to death.
4. The lake. Scamp gingerly explored the lake by putting the very tip of his paws in it on the first day. On the second day, however, he got so caught up in a game of fetch that he plunged wholeheartedly into the lake after a stick I had thrown. The look of surprise and panic on his face when he realized he was swimming was hilarious. The dirty, wet and cold puppy that resulted from the incident was not hilarious.

**I haven’t given you a Nutro update in a few weeks, but Scamp is loving his food. We’ve been putting angel eyes on his food as well, to help with his tear stains, and I’m thinking he doesn’t love that quite as much as the Nutro food, but he eats it. I also discovered a stuffed turtle the Nutro people had sent for Scamp that I had forgotten about. Scamp absolutely loves that thing! It’s his favorite toy and he sleeps with it in his crate every night. Every morning after he eats his breakfast, he trots off back to the bedroom, grabs the turtle out of his crate and sprints out with the turtle in his mouth – it’s so cute! If he can’t get in his crate to get it, he stands at the door and whines and barks until someone comes and opens his crate door so he can get his turtle. 🙂

And now, the (somewhat boring) video you’ve been waiting for: Scamp takes a boat ride.

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

Based on some comments I received last week, apparently I owe you guys some updates on my puppy.  I guess it’s only fair after you gave me such good advice!

As far as the bells go, we’ve made amazing progress. I followed everybody’s advice and have been very consistent in putting him outside every time he rings the bells. Sometimes he rings the bells and runs like he wants me to chase him. Those times I just ignore him so he doesn’t get any attention for ringing the bells. Recently he’s done a lot better. He only seems to ring the bells when he wants to go outside, or when we are in another part of the house and he doesn’t know where we went. It has made our evenings a lot more peaceful. 🙂

The crate issue has shown less progress. We’re working on a trial and error basis, and so far nothing has made a big difference. We’ve tried leaving the radio on, giving him a shirt that smells like us, and the most recent change was making his crate a little bigger and giving him a sort of “den” in the back by covering the back of the crate with a towel. We tried that last night for the first time and he seemed to really like it. However, he has still peed in his crate every day this week. I’ll keep you updated if I find anything that works.

Now that it’s not quite so hot out, we’ve also been trying to tire him out by playing outside. I took a video of our favorite backyard game to show you. It’s not the best quality since I was playing and videoing at the same time, but it works. 🙂

p.s. A Nutro employee tweeted me that she made my chai banana smoothies and loved them! Extra points for Nutro in my book 😉

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

Thank you guys so much for all your help last week! You had some great advice for me on the bell ringing problem. In fact, it was so good, I’m going to go ahead and ask for your advice again. 🙂

Here’s the issue: Scamp cries in his crate every single time I leave him in it. He’s fine at night, because we stay in the same room as him, but when I put him in there and leave for work, he is a wreck. He cries, whines, tries to get out, etc. And he pees in his crate almost every single day. I thought he would grow out of it, but so far it hasn’t gotten better.

What can I do? He does this every time I leave him alone. We left the video camera on one day when we went to church, and when we got home, we realized it had taken him 18 minutes to settle down and go to sleep. 18 minutes! Does anyone have any input? Is there any way to make my puppy stop crying and peeing in his crate?  I feel so bad leaving him in there every day!

To end this post on a happier note, here is a picture of Scamp seriously inspecting something…I’m not sure what.

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

Scamp has made great strides in the past few weeks. He’s learning new tricks, waking up less often in the middle of the night, and hasn’t had an accident in the house in weeks. Thankfully he’s learned how to use the bells to ask to go outside. Unfortunately, he’s also learned to use the bells for any number of other things. He seems to be under the delusion that ringing the bells means “Pay attention to me” and I don’t know what to do about it. Watch below: (Note: He in no way has to go outside…he’s just upset that he can’t get to me.)

He does this all the time. If I’m in the kitchen and he wants to play, he rings the bells. If I go into another room and leave him behind, he rings the bells. If I’m doing anything but playing with him or paying attention to him, chances are he’ll ring the bells within minutes. Thankfully, he’ll also ring them when he has to go to the bathroom, but it’s difficult to figure out when he just wants attention and when he actually wants to go outside. I need some advice! How do I teach him that the bells are not his personal attention getting device? Help!

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

I absolutely loved reading about and seeing pictures of all your pets! I never expected I would get so many responses – my inbox was flooded with cute pictures of dogs, and even a few cats! (By the way, thanks to Nutro for sending your facebook fans my way!) I did my best to get all of the pictures into one of the collages below, and I hope I didn’t forget anyone. (*Note: I had to leave out some entries I got at the last minute since I’d already created the collages!) I loved reading the stories of your pets as well – it’s clear I’m not the only one who treats my puppy like a member of the family. 🙂 Check out all the wonderful pictures posted here, and read below for the winners of the Nutro giveaway!

Kali, Blitz, Nigel, Miller and Nugget, Diesel, Tank and Biggie, Paisley, Sampson, Jack, Loki, Mono, Chico, Scrappy and Chip, Rocky, Jayco, Ralph, Ryder, Hunter and Jax, Rambo, Chloe, and Eve, Scout

Beau, Reno, Quincy,  Mama, Oliver, Sugar Plum Dancer, Snugs, Chinee, Kiki, Ellie, Alex, and Abby, Homer and Alaska, Alfie, Jesse, Alice, Alice, Binky, Dolly Parton

Lilly, Chessi, Kouga, Button, Sophie and Beagles, Lucy, Louie, Brittney, Milele, Jasmine, Fozzie, Sarah Michelle, Kamila Marie, and Torrance Ann, Kaelyn, Lexi, Sherman, Memphis, Balder and Dexter, Bella

And now, the winners of the Nutro giveaway (as chosen by Random.org) are as follows:

Kristy said…We have two dogs. Reese is 2 years old and he is a chihuahua/terrier mix. Miley is 3 years old and she is a purebred yellow lab. Thanks for the giveaway.Amanda said…I have 2 dogs Ejlie a 5yr old Rott/black lab cross with an amazing personality loves to swim, fetch and lay around can open any door and scale fences like a deer. Benny a 10 yr old schipoo that is a grumpy old man and lays around. 2 cats Ma’ma and Bob which are both bobtailed not sure of the breed or where the bobtails come from. The only pets in our home that have tails are our 4 fish. Our animals are NUTRO pets to the max and I always encourage people to give them NUTRO. Wish NUTRO made fish food.

amanda @ fake ginger said…Yay, a doggy giveaway!! We JUST got a dog about 3 weeks ago – her name is Clementine and she’s a cockapoo.

josiey said…We have three american short-hair cats: Mimi, Pasha, and Lucy. Three dogs: Hank (beagle chihuahua mix), Kate (English Pointer Mix), and Klein (French Bulldog and dachshund mix) AND two horses, Blue and Leah (both girls, American Quarter Horse, and Paint Horses as well)…its a full house…

Shel said…We have 3 mixed breed dogs:

Bo: a chow mix
Sasha: a black lab/shepherd mix
Bailey: a terrier/boxer mix

Thanks for entering!  Winners, please send me your mailing address in the next couple days (I’ll be emailing you as well) and I’ll pass the information on to Nutro. Check back next week, where I tell you all of the difficulties I’m having with my puppy and ask for your expert help!

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

Scamp had some major breakthroughs this week. In one day (yes, one day!) he slept all night without waking me up to take him out, rang the bell by the door to ask to go outside (twice!), actually ate his food all in one sitting, and went all afternoon without peeing in his crate. By the end of the day, Mike and I were both calling him “perfect puppy.” We’re big on alliteration in our household.

To reward Scamp for his good behavior, I decided to make him some homemade dog treats. A wonderful reader sent me this recipe and they were reallly easy to make. Judging by Scamp’s incessant jumping up and down to get at the treats once he’d tasted them, I think it’s fair to say that he loves them. 🙂

Peanut Butter Dog Treats

Ingredients:

2 cups whole wheat flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 cup natural peanut butter
1 cup skim milk

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine the flour and baking powder. In a separate bowl combine peanute butter and milk. Add wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix together.

Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and knead until it comes together. Roll out to 1/4" thick and cut out desired shapes. Place on a greased baking sheet (or a baking sheet lined with parchment paper) and bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Cool on a rack and store in an airtight container.

from the Three Dog Bakery Cookbook (via Pat Cheesbro)

Scamp is staring intently at the treat I have in my hand right next to the camera 🙂

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.

Scamp has had a pretty fun week this week. He got to go on a few bike rides (he rides in my bike basket – I’ll have to show you a picture next week, so cute!), and on Wednesday, he graduated from puppy class! He’s doing pretty good learning most of his commands, but at this point will still only work for food.  We’re working on that, but he certainly loves his treats!

This week for Saturdays with Scamp, I thought we’d do something fun and have a giveaway! Nutrohas generously provided five wonderful prize packs – worth $100 each! Each winner will receive a prize pack containing the following:

• One bag of The Nutro Company Natural Choice pet food
• The Nutro Company reusable tote bag
• Dog treats
• Poop bags

To enter, leave a comment on this post with the name and breed of your pet(s). I’d love to know how many of you guys have pets and what kind!

For an extra entry, send me an email with a picture of your pet(s) [whatmegansmaking[at]gmail[dot]com] and leave a comment letting me know. It will depend on how many picture entries I get, but I’d love to do a post highlighting your pets! Include your blog address if you have one, and I’ll be sure to link back to you in my post. I would absolutely love to see pictures of all of your pets, and think this could be really fun! 🙂 *Note: only send me a picture if you don’t mind if it ends up on the blog.

Contest ends Friday, July 29th at midnight. Good luck!!

This is a sponsored post. Nutro provided me with products and promotional items and is compensating me for my time. As always, all opinions are my own.