Fighting Asthma and Allergies with the New Dyson Animal + Allergy from Best Buy

This post is sponsored by Dyson and Best Buy and includes a review of the new Dyson Animal + Allergy.

There is nothing scarier than waking up in the middle of the night to find your child gasping for breath beside your bed. I'll never forget the time my son came tripping down the stairs at 2 am clutching his throat and trying to breathe. He has long struggled with allergies and is borderline asthmatic.

Did you know that Latino families are more likely to be affected by asthma than any other group? According to the Environmental Defense Fund, "Latino children are 40 percent more likely to die from asthma than non-Latino whites, and nearly 1 in 10 Latino children under the age of 18 suffer from this chronic respiratory illness."

Indoor and outdoor air quality plays a major role. We live on a small farm in the country and our home has a lot of carpeting. Every day someone is tracking in dirt and who knows what. In the spring, pollen and dust come wafting in every time somebody opens the door. My kids spend time playing with the horses and dog , then come in covered in hair. I'd love to be able to just rip the carpet out and finish the wood floors underneath. One of these days I will. But in the meantime, I have to try and stay up with vacuuming, changing the air filters on a regular basis, and dusting.

You might remember me posting a year or so ago about how I started using a Dyson to vacuum. It has made such a difference! While I've been thrilled about the easy way to dump everything in the trash without having to buy those little vacuum bags, I still had to was filters on a regular basis, which I wasn't that crazy about.

But now, there's a solution for even that. The new Dyson Cinetic Big Ball Animal + Allergy is a new tool for parents in the line of defense against pollen and other allergens.

It's the first vacuum cleaner to never lose suction and that requires NO FILTER MAINTENANCE!! Dyson was the first to get rid of the bag and now they’re getting rid of the filter. Sometimes I absolutely love advances in technology.

Even with the relatively new Dyson I had before, I had to rinse the filter because it would eventually stop sucking up dirt. Sometimes it would get clogged with hair and paper and leaves and pine needles so I'd have to take it apart to clean out the suction line. Not anymore! Here's how it works:

Dyson Cinetic Big Ball Animal + Allergy

• New Cinetic cyclones are smallest yet, so they can spin out the finest dust and dirt. They oscillate to dislodge any particles that would typically get stuck in a cyclone that small.
• Cinetic cyclones allow for dust capture so small, that a filter becomes unnecessary. Thus, there are no dirty filters to wash, maintain or replace.
• Tested and proven with 10 years’ worth of dust. (Others claim “no loss of suction” by only testing one bin full of dust. Dyson used the equivalent of 10 years’ worth, and Dyson Cinetic never lost suction.)
• Cleaner head self-adjusts to seal in suction across carpets and hard floors.

It also comes with an assortment of attachments to help you clean those hard to reach spots. My absolute favorite is that little curved one in the middle left. You just snap it on to the extension hose and then use it to suck up all the dust that gathers on top of your ceiling fan blades or the top of your bookshelves. It is simply awesome. 

I'll tell you right now that it is a little pricey. It's valued at $699. But Dysons last forever so I consider it a worthy investment not just in keeping my house clean, but in my family's health. I'd rather invest in this vacuum than pay ER bills when I have to take my son in because he can't breathe. I know that using this vacuum doesn't guarantee that will never happen, but it makes me feel better knowing that I'm able to suck up and toss out those allergens that wreak havoc on his little respiratory system. And combined with other steps such as washing his bedsheet regularly and staying away from harsh perfumes and detergents, it is simply one of the steps I take to ensure my family's health.

If you feel the same way, or if you suffer from asthma or allergies yourself, you'll be able to find this model at Best Buy stores starting on March 1st. 

Disclosure: I received this product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed in this post are strictly mine.

The Philips Airfryer & a Croquetas de Pollo Recipe

Since we're on the topic of planning healthy back-to-school lunches for your kids, I thought now would be a great time to share with you my current favorite kitchen gadget. If you follow my Instagram account, you know that a few weeks ago I got a Philips Airfryer. I've been wanting one ever since I happened to see a tweet from Best Buy. I was interested because I read that it fried food with at most two tablespoons of oil. It's the healthy way to fry!

Now you should probably know that against my will, we eat a lot of fried food in this house. Soft tacos, salmon patties, fried okra, chimichangas, fried potatoes...they all make their way to our table on a regular basis. So when I heard there was a new fryer on the market that fries food without you having to immerse it in hot oil, I was almost sold on the idea.

Then I actually got my hands on it.

My daughter and I have been experimenting with it and we are thrilled with the outcome. For the first time ever, I decided to try and make chicken croquetas using a very old family recipe from Spain. My Tía Visi gave it to me when I lived there for a short time after I graduated from college. The idea suddenly popped into my head after I was inspired by looking through the included cookbook and saw recipes for various croquettes. So I asked my daughter if she wanted to learn a family recipe and try out the new airfryer at the same time.  Always a willing assistant in the kitchen, she grabbed her apron and chef's hat and happily helped me with my little experiment to take that old recipe and merge it with a modern appliance.

We were all thrilled with the results!

I'm going to share my recipe below, but don't be passing it all around or I'll get in trouble for sharing it! But first, I want to tell you about the airfryer.

The Philips Airfryer

The most important thing that you know is that you don't add ANY oil to the fryer AT ALL. It uses something called Rapid Air Technology to move the air around your food quickly and precisely for faster cooking and perfect results. The starfish design on the bottom of the drawer circulates the air in some secret, magical way that makes it cook just right. In fact, it cooks so well, the little timer on the front of the model that I bought only goes up to 30 minutes because that's all you'll need to cook anything in this thing. An adjustable temperature control up to 390 degrees lets you fry, bake, roast and grill all sorts of foods.

The only oil I used was two tablespoons of EVOO that I mixed in with the breadcrumbs in which I rolled the chicken. And after only eight minutes in the airfryer, they were almost perfect!

Now, I don't claim to be a food blogger or even a good cook (as is evidenced by the picture above), but these croquetas de pollo were SO GOOD. The only mistake I made was in not tearing the chicken into small enough pieces. (Hey, it was my first time to make these.) We're making more this weekend and have already shredded our leftover chicken from some tacos we ate this evening into what I hope is the perfect-sized pieces.

Do you know what else it cooks? (Ahem. Practically everything.) It makes the BEST cheese sandwiches any of us have ever eaten! We just brush a little melted butter on the bread, then fill it with shredded cheddar, preheat the airfryer, and stick in the sandwich. Five minutes later - BING! It's done! And 5 minutes after that - Whoops! It's gone.

And do you know what the best part is? Clean up is a breeze because you can stick the food basket and the drawer directly into your dishwasher! Boom!

It also comes with a cookbook with recipes for different types of low-fat fried dishes things like potato croquettes, crispy fried spring rolls, bacon wrapped shrimp, cod nuggets, chicken tenders, french fries, and more. The recipes showcase the versatility of the appliance so that you can grill, bake and even roast food healthier, faster and more conveniently.

You can find a ton of videos on YouTube about cooking with the Philips Airfryer, but this one is my favorite. I'm dying to try and cook a steak in it!

Tía Visi's croquetas de pollo

And now! Just in case you'd like to try your hand at making my Tía Visi's croquetas de pollo from my family in Spain, here's a little recipe I modified to be used in our airfryer. They are so good, you will never look at croquetas the same again? Click on the picture below to download/print the file.

Abrazo!

Disclosure: I received product for the purposes of this review. All thoughts and opinions are strictly my own. 

Mami Time Saver: HP Instant Ink Available at Best Buy

This is a sponsored post.

This is part of my Mami Time Savers series.

One of the most frequent expenses I've faced as a homeschooling mom has been ink for my printer. If you are a homeschooler, I know you can sympathize. I don't have the space or the money to invest in a big, industrial printer that uses giant ink cartridges. I really prefer a desktop printer and have always preferred HPs. And because I'm big on saving SPACE (as well as time!), 3-in-one or 4-in-one printers are best in my opinion. I like that I can copy, print, scan, and/or fax from one device. 

So when I had the chance to review the HP Envy 5530 AND the HP Instant Ink Service, I agreed.

Let me tell you: It is life changing for me! First, let's talk about the printer.

The HP Envy 5530 e-All-in-One Printer

This is one of technology's greatest inventions for educators and parents. A wireless printer, the HP Envy can be accessed from ANY digital device. You can print from your smartphone, tablet, laptop, or PC. 

You don't even have to be at home! 

If you're at the library and take a photo of your kids enjoying the summer reading program, all you have to do is snap a photo and then hit print. If your printer is on at home and has wireless access, then when you get home your photo will be printed and ready to go!

Setting it up is super easy and only takes a couple of minutes. I LOVE that it prints both sides of the paper at the same time! It's not slow, either, but fast a quiet. I'm used to desktop printers that are noisy, especially when scanning. But this printer is so quiet, I thought it wasn't working when I was standing next to it waiting for it to scan a document. Only to see the screen say that the scan had already been sent to my email. Whaa?? I thought. Sure enough, my email had a scanned pdf file waiting for me.

The other thing that I have been searching for FOREVER is a borderless printing printer. Ta-da! This is it. And it prints photos beautifully! 

There are a lot of perks to owning this printer, too. When you sign up on the HP Connected website, you gain access to a LOT of free printables from brands like Highlights, Crayola, Disney, DreamWorks, Education.com, LeapFrog, and many others. You can also print recipes, calendars, puzzles, greeting cards and much, much more. And it is all FREE!

The site even keeps a log of all the files you've sent to your printer over the last month. You can print up a report if you want to keep track. 

And lastly, the site gives you access to...

HP Instant Ink Replacement Service

You will NEVER run out of ink again! This service is a goldmine. Your printer tracks your ink usage and when you get low, it notifies HP who sends you more ink in the mail.

You just select your plan...

... and ink, shipping, and recycling cartridges are included! Yes, they even provide postage-paid shipping materials to return used cartridges. HP Planet Partners will recycle them as part of your service. 

Color and black-and-white copies are the same. The monthly plans are based on the number of pages printed, not the number of cartridges you use so you can print as many high quality photos as you want. There's no annual fee and you can cancel at any time. (Psst! If you sign up now, you can get a free month of service.) Billing and service start after you insert you first HP Instant Ink cartridge.

PLUS the ink cartridges come with more ink than the ones you buy in the store (each one prints more than 500 pages), so you save a lot more moolah! I did the math. Last year I spent almost $200 in ink. If I had been on the $4.99 plan, I would have only spent $60 for the whole year! 

So, if you are like me and homeschool your kids and spend a small fortune on ink printing up worksheets, activity sheets, images, pictures, and pages out of books so you can resell them later, then THIS is definitely worth considering.

Do you have a cloud printer? Do you love it as much as I do?

Disclosure: I'm a Best Buy ambassador and received this product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions, though, are strictly my own. If I don't like a product, I simply refuse to write about it and won't think twice about returning it.

Mami Time Saver: The New Bissell Steam Mop at Best Buy

This is a sponsored post.

This is part of my Mami Time Savers series.

Time is precious. At least for me it is. I juggle homeschool, raising kids, supporting my husband, launching a business, blogging, freelance writing and so much more. I will be the first to admit that cleaning house is not a priority and I'm always in a rush when I do it.

So I treasure anything that saves me time when I have to race throughout this house cleaning because someone has tracked mud (or something else) all over the kitchen/bathroom/whatever and we have company coming for dinner (at least once a week) in 2 hours and I haven't even started cooking.

Enter the Bissell Symphony All-in-One Vacuum and Steam Mop.

I got one last month from Best Buy and I kid you not, I LOVE this thing. I don't have to sweep the floor first. I don't have to fill a mop bucket and rinse the mop. I don't have to buy disposable mop pads. I don't have to use chemical cleaners. I don't have to empty dirty mop water or guiltily throw dirty mop pads into the trash.

All I have to do is just plug it in and push two buttons. One of them starts the vacuum. The other starts the steam.

The vacuum sucks up dirt and other stuff, while the steam cleans (Grease? Sticky goo? No problem!) and sanitizes up to 99.9% of germs and bacteria. Remember: NO harsh chemicals! Which means we can walk around barefoot without worrying about what our feet are absorbing and I don't have to worry about what I'm breathing in when I'm mopping. (This really is my favorite part!) It works on sealed hard flooring such as ceramic tile, vinyl, laminate, marble, stone, and hardwood floors.

I can even satisfy my inner sense of social responsibility by not throwing away the mop pads to pile up in landfills. The Symphony comes with 4 Microfiber mop pads (2 soft, 2 scrubby). They're easy to remove and toss into the washing machine.

The debris tank is easy to pull out and empty into your trash can. I don't know how, but it stays dry so the dirt and grime I vacuum up aren't soggy from the steam action of the mop. This makes dumping and cleaning easy!

It's also small and lightweight. The handle collapses down into the machine and I can store it in my pantry without it taking up a lot of room.

So moms, if you are looking for a super time saver when it comes to cleaning the house, this is my #1 recommendation!

Disclosure: I'm a Best Buy ambassador and received this product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions, though, are strictly my own. If I don't like a product, I simply refuse to write about it and won't think twice about returning it.

Mami Time Saver: A Simple Plan

This is part of my Mami Time Savers series.

Homeschooling takes a lot of preparation and organization. Keeping my kids' lesson plans organized is crucial not only for me to keep track of what they've learned and what they need help with, but also with tracking the number of days they've been in school and what topics we have coming up.

A Simple Plan Homeschool Planner

For years, I used a blank teacher's journal that I bought at the dollar store. But last year, I won A Simple Plan homeschool planner from Mardel and Social Savvy Mom. And now I don't think I can homeschool without it! (Okay, I probably could, but why would I want to?)

So much thought has been put into designing this planner, it is obvious that the author is a homeschool mom herself. And in addition to the practical planning pages, it is just beautifully designed to delight the user.

A Homeschool Teacher Time Saver

This is really the ultimate time saver for me as a homeschooler. The planner comes with everything I need in one place:

• Sample pages
• Weekly schedule forms for each student
• Curriculum and semester goal pages
• Yearly overview pages
• To-do lists
• Special activities section
• Reading lists
• Attendance keeper
• Space for notes, prayer requests, and supply lists
• Heavy-duty interior pockets on both the front and back covers
• Curriculum tracker
• Grading chart
• Extracurricular activities tracker
• Encouraging Scriptures at the beginning of each new month

I don't use everything in the planner you see listed above, but it is nice to know that I have the option of the various elements if I decide to use them. 

I only work in pencil allowing for unexpected changes in our schedule or carrying over specific lessons to the next day. It's also very easy to change direction and add in new materials. When we're ready to start school in the mornings, all the lessons for that day are right in front of me so I don't have to go searching through books and wasting precious learning time. The only thing I don't like is that the assignment sheets you see in the picture above are only for Monday through Friday. We typically do school every day except Wednesdays and Sundays, so I have to adapt for that change.

The calendar is already divided up into six different subjects, but you can fill these in depending on what you're studying. And each subject has space for six lesson plans which means you can write in the assignments for six different kids, or if you are like me and cover a lot of ground each day, then you can assign each child a different shade and fill in their assignments as needed.

Having an attendance log attached to the same lesson planner is also a blessing because I can easily switch back and forth to determine how far along we are and how far we have left to go.

So if you are already thinking about next year and how to organize and streamline your lessons, perhaps A Simple Plan is the right planner for you!

UPDATE: The 2022/2023 planners are now available! There is one teacher planner and two student planners. Check them out:

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Mami Time Saver: MOMables

As a homeschooling, work-from-home mami the number one thing I don't have a lot of is time. In fact, I frequently go to bed thinking about all the stuff I didn't get done that day. (A really bad habit, I know, but reality none the less.) Anyway, this got me to thinking about how there are no doubt a ton of moms out there who feel the same way, so this week I'm focusing on Mami Time Savers, a series of posts that help (homeschooling) moms like myself save time (and money!) so they can focus more on their children and their education.

Today's feature mami time saver is MOMables. It is the first meal-planning service for healthy and fresh school lunches. Created by Latina mom, Laura Fuentes, MOMables helps parents every day make lunches their kids will actually eat. Born in Spain and raised with tapas, Laura loves all things lunch! She lives in what she calls southern suburbia and has three kids.

Last year, I received a free 3-month trial so I could understand how the program works. And we love the QUICK and healthy recipes. (By the way, YOU can enjoy a free trial, too!)

It is like a virtual kitchen assistant! Once you subscribe, you just login to the website and you'll be taken to the Subscribers' Weekly Menu Page where you can find your current menu plan, as well as the one for the previous week. You'll also find links to specific recipes to try for breakfast or dinner, and downloads of helpful guides. The Homemade Resource Guide helps you get away from boxed/processed foods at the store with these homemade recipes. You'll be able to make your own whole wheat pancakes, tortillas, croissants, and even oreos! 

To view your current menu plan, just click on the link to download it to your computer. You can see a sample menu here. Each week's menu comes in a downloadable pdf format that includes:

• Kitchen Notes with time saving tips and schedule of recipes
• 5 individual recipe plans with picture
• 1 page with complete recipes for all 5 lunches
• And a shopping list with all the ingredients you'll need for the week (BIG TIME SAVER!!)

And if your child suffers from gluten allergies, there's even a Gluten Free Resource Guide.

TIP: You can save even more time by printing up the recipe cards and having your child make their lunch for that day. They can practice their reading skills, following directions, and get the satisfaction of learning how to make their own meal!



Now there is even more to be excited about because Laura has just written, The Best Homemade Kids' Lunches on the Planet: Make Lunches Your Kids Will Love with More Than 200 Deliciously Nutritious Meal Ideas, which you can pre-order using my affiliate link above. It will be available on July 1st, 2014 - just in time for school to start this fall! So you can kick off the school year totally organized and saving time each morning!


It doesn't matter if you homeschool your kids or send them off to school each morning, this is a super Mami Time Saver that helps you feed your kids healthy lunches without wasting time trying to plan out meals and then going back to the grocery store over and over for supplies.