Degustabox - March

I'm going to have a busy month, so I'm getting this one done early - or I might not have time to get it done at all. However, I did get a chance to cook a few things from this box, so that's a plus. The sampling is easy.

The March box includes:

Good Thins sweet potato crisps
I've had a bunch of different varieties of Good Thins products. The sweet potato ones are made from sweet potato and wheat and are a good lower-fat substitute for potato chips. They have a nice satisfying crunch and are a little sweeter than a standard potato chip, but are still savory enough to go with a sandwich or with a savory dip. Yum. I love crunchy stuff.

Mrs. Thinsters cookie thins
Speaking of crunchy, we have cookie thins. Thin cookies. Crisp. Satisfying. Crunchy. Really nice as a little snack, but I think they'd be fun for making ice cream sandwiches, too. I haven't tried that yet, but it seems like it ought to work.

Tolerant Foods legume pasta
Sounds like a good option for folks who are gluten free. I passed these along to someone who need gluten-free foods. I'm perfectly fine with wheat.

Goya Quinoa Blend

I've used a LOT of Goya products, so I was pretty sure I'd like this. It's an interesting combo of quinoa, rice, and black beans, along with spices. Great as a side dish, and really flavorful. If you prefer milder flavors, you could easily mix this with more rice, or add a can of black beans, and it would still be nicely flavored. I needed to use more water and cook for a little longer than the instructions recommended, but that's to be expected since I live at high altitude. Besides using it as a straight-up side dish, this would make a really nice addition to a vegetarian burrito with some roasted vegetables and maybe some avocado.

Loacker cookies
I've gotten varieties of these cookies before. The ones I got had dark chocolate and hazelnut cream. Oh heck yeah. The cookie part is a crunchy wafter that's crisp but not hard, and the chocolate is really nice. A lovely treat.

Paul's Quinoa Bars
I don't really eat a lot of bars like this, but I tucked this one away as a traveling snack. It's got quinoa flakes and puffs, pumpkin seeds, flax seeds, almonds, peanuts, and honey. Sounds reasonably healthy and filling, right?

Energems
These are little bite-size chocolate and caffeine goodies with a dose of vitamins B and D. Three gems have the same caffeine as a cup of coffee, so they'd make a nice pick-me-up for days when you're too far from your coffee cup. Maybe that mid-afternoon slump.

7 Days croissants and bagel chips
Bagged bakery snacks. I got a croissant with peanut butter and jelly that I passed along to a friend. I like peanut butter and I like jelly, but I'm not fond of the two together. It looked good, though.

Boboli
I'm sure you've seen these before. They're baked pizza crust rounds that you can just top and bake to melt the cheese and warm the rest of it. It's an easy dinner or snack or lunch or cut the finished pizza really small for appetizers. The great thing about these is that they're pre-cooked so they're not as perishable as raw dough. This isn't quite the same as pizza from your local pizzeria, but it's better than an English muffin pizza. I made mine with a tomato-based jarred bruschetta instead of sauce with cheese and vegetables. It was pretty good and crazy easy.

Lemoncocco
This is a non-carbonated lemon and coconut drink. Like coconut lemonade, I guess. It might be fun for cocktails, but I'm not a fan of coconut, so I gave it a pass.

I get these Degustabox packages at no cost to me so I can describe them to you. Yum.

A Gift Basket for Mom - Or Dad. Or YOU. (Yes, there's a giveaway!)

I'm not a person who received a lot of gift baskets these days. But I've experienced the joys and let-downs of baskets before. They look marvelous until you unpack, and then you find that you're left with more packaging than product.

So when a company called GourmetGiftBaskets.com contacted me to see if I wanted to do a review and possible giveaway, I thought, "Aha! This is my chance to unmask the trickery of the gift basket industry!"

No, seriously, that's exactly what I thought. I might have even twirled an imaginary mustache and wiggled an eyebrow while thinking it.

And then THIS showed up.

Pretty, isn't it?

Here it is without the  plastic wrapping so you can see it a little clearer. 

Still looks impressive There's a lot of fruit and some stuff in boxes. Let's unpack it, shall we? It looks full, but we don't know how much packing material is under there, right?

Here's everything that was packed into the basket.

That's a freakish lot of stuff. There were two pears, two oranges, three red apples, and two green apples. The other perishable item was some Cabot cheddar cheese (the red item in front of the fruit). The container to the left of the fruit is a caramel dip for fruit, but I'm more likely to use it for ice cream. And there were crackers, candy, popcorn, cookies and other snacky things.

And here's the basket, without packing materials and with all the items piled into the basket.

I didn't do a great job of re-packing in an attractive way. but you can see how full it still is. Yes, there were packing materials, but not a huge amount. I mean, you don't want fresh fruit bouncing all around, and there was some padding in the bottom to keep everything in place and looking good.

I don't think I could have packed it all so neatly and securely with less padding.

And the basket itself has uses after it's empty. It would make a nice picnic basket or a display basket. It might be a little big for a bread basket unless you're serving a huge crowd, but you could store magazines in it, or towels and goodies in a guest bathroom. Or ... I'm sure there are other uses.

Want to see another one?

This is a wine basket with a bottle each of red and white wine.

This one was packed pretty full, too. Check it out!

The wines are real wines by real wineries that sell in stores - not some weird-branded mysterious swill. And then there are other wine-related noshes and nibbles, including a small wheel of cheese and a chub of sausage.

I have no idea what wine wafers are (the large item in the back), but that's part of the fun of a basket like this. You get to try things that you might not be familiar with.

Instead of a wicker basket, this one was a metal-mesh basket with a cloth liner and metal handles with wooden grips. The cool thing about sending an actual basket to someone (rather than a box of stuff) is that after all the edibles are gone, the recipient has the basket to keep and use.

Just like the first basket, this one had just enough packaging to keep things neat and tight and safe and nicely arranged - particularly important since glass wine bottles are breakable.

So I guess I was fooled, eh? These are legit gift baskets that aren't overstuffed with Styrofoam. I have to say that I was pleased that I was wrong.

Anther great thing about ordering from this company is that there are no surprises when you're choosing a basket. Each description lists of all the basket items, including the brand names and the weight (or volume) of each item. You'll always know exactly what will be in the basket. Exactly.

Since I was pleased with these baskets, I've got a GIVEAWAY for you. One lucky winner will get the basket of their choice priced at $69.99 or less. If you want to splurge on a bigger basket, you can use the credit and pay the difference.

But trust me, there are plenty of gift baskets to chose from for $69.99 or less. Check out the Mother's Day Baskets! And, if you're not into baskets, there are cheesecakes, popcorn tins, cakes, chocolate-covered berries, and a whole lot more.

The giveaway will run past Mother's Day, but there are Father's Day baskets as well, or choose something for an upcoming birthday, or a treat for yourself. Many, many choices.

I received gift baskets from this company for myself, and they are providing the product for the contest winner as well.