Cans for Comments Results

Thank you to everybody that participated in Cans for Comments here and the post I did on Mara's blog.

Last year's total was 41 cans.

This year's total?? 57 cans!

Incidentally, I bought 114 items before doing the final tally, inadvertently doubling it! Pretty cool coincidence, if you ask me!

Oats, dried pinto and white beans, baked beans, two kinds of stuffing mix, canned tuna in water, and chicken noodle soup. (Please excuse the piles of sand in the back of my Jeep from this summer spent in N.C.)

Laura's total was 52 cans for Alaska's food bank!

And, I just learned that Roz also participated, collecting 24 cans for the Vancouver food bank!

Thanks again ladies and commenters! It's so exciting to see how a small act can turn into a big help, spanning different time zones and countries - donating hundreds of items of food to those in need!

Giveaway Winner and Cans for Comments

The winner of the Holiday Baking giveaway was #26..



Congratulations Brandy! I'll pass your information onto the sponsors and your baking package will be on its way!

Today is the LAST DAY to leave a comment (or 5) on my Cans for Comments post. For every 1 comment left, 1 can of food will be donated to a local Chicagoland food pantry. Please help me help others this holiday season!

Friday Firsts - Kale

Happy Friday everybody! (Click the image above if you need more information on Friday Firsts!)

My first for this week is trying and cooking Kale! Unless I've had it without my knowledge in something, I cannot ever remember eating kale. And I've certainly never cooked it- until now!


The result!? I loved it! I was a bit nervous because I've heard others' dislike for it. I will be sharing the recipe in the next post because I have a few announcements to share:

Holiday Baking Giveaway - going on HERE. A 3 pack of Gladware, Betty Crocker sugar cookie mix, and a $25 grocery gift card up for grabs. Ends Sunday 12/19.

Cans for Comments - going on HERE. Each comment left on the linked post will equal one can of food donated to a local food pantry. Please help me help others this holiday season! Ends Monday 12/20.

Now it's your turn to tell me about your first! To participate in Friday Firsts create a blog post featuring a "first" of yours. Next, link that blog post below and tell us about it! If you don't have a blog or a specific post to link to please tell us about your first in the comment section! Any and all participation is welcome!



If you would like to display the Friday Firsts button as a badge in your post or on your side bar, you can copy and paste the following code:

<a href="http://www.dinneratchristinas.com/" target="_blank"><img src="http://glc.dinneratchristinas.com/i/fridayfirsts.png" alt="Friday Firsts / DinnerAtChristinas.com" style="width: 220px; height: 220px; border: none"/></a>

Second Annual Cans for Comments!

I was listening to the radio the other day when the news came on. Two stories caught my attention. The first, was that the "Honeybee Killer" was shot and killed during a botched robbery in a strip mall Johnny and I had just been at not even two weeks ago. (I know!!!)

The second was a little more somber: The Salvation Army reports that donations this year are down 13% from previous years' figures. At first I thought "well, yeah that's because everybody uses debit cards and doesn't have change for the little red buckets." But then I realized that couldn't be the reason for a 13% drop. Debit cards have been around for years and it hadn't affected donations this badly before.

It made me stop and think how devastating it must be for many families this time of year. To not only be struggling to pay the normal bills and costs of life, but to add the stress of presents, a tree, decorations, a big Christmas dinner, and other holiday expenses that add up.

To hear that even the charities trying to help these families are struggling made me want to chip in! I emailed Laura to see if she'd be up for another serious ass-kicking friendly competition of Cans for Comments this year. Her response? "Hells yeah!"

So here's where you come in!

Each comment left on this post between today and Monday, December 20th will equal a can of food donated to a local Chicagoland food pantry.

Leave a comment for yourself, your mom, your dog. Tell me what your favorite color is, what you want for Christmas this year, or what your middle name is. Just leave comments so I can beat the pants off Laura donate tons to charity this year!

And if you'd like to join in too, just let us know! We'll add you to the list!

Cans for Comments 2010 Hosts
Hey What's for Dinner Mom?

Cans for Comments: Delivered!

As you know, you guys helped me reach 41 cans to give to a food pantry. Yesterday we shopped and dropped them off!



I live in Cook County, south of Chicago. In the map above, Cook County is divided into four sections. I'm in the orange section, so I searched in that area for food pantries. There were 55 results, just in my orange section alone - 1/4th of the county! Wow, 41 cans felt tiny all of a sudden!

With a heavy heart, I set out reading up on ones closest to our house until I settled on one I really liked. They offer a whole slew of services, not just a food pantry, so I know their staff is probably over-worked and under-appreciated.

I called to see if they needed anything specifically and the woman told me they were completely out of any proteins and the supplier that sometimes donates to them informed them it will be quite awhile until they receive anymore.

So, Johnny and I, with my visiting parents set out to Aldi (awesome canned prices!). We didn't stop at 41, though! It just seemed so small in the cart, we wanted to help more!

We ended up getting 48 cans of tuna, 12 cans of chicken breast, 12 cans of pork and beans, 16 boxes of stuffing mix, and 24 packs of ramen noodles! That's a grand total of 112 items and it felt great to drop it off, especially knowing that more than half were proteins, which they really needed!

Cans for Comments Results

Wow, guys! I'm shocked at the final number of my cans for comments drive! I have some awesome readers!

In less than 5 days your comments helped me reach a total of 41 cans I'll be donating to a local food bank!!

I want to thank all of you, your comments made this happen!

Also, thank you to the many who helped spread the word by blogging, Twittering, and Facebooking about it. I couldn't have done it without you! Thank you so much! This was truly an awesome way to celebrate the season and remind me to be thankful for the things I am blessed to have and remember those who are less fortunate in my actions.

In the spirit of the holidays and helping the many people in our communities who are struggling to feed their families, I challenge any of the other bloggers, friends and family who supported my cans for comments mission to consider matching my donation with a donation of their own.

If you will be making a donation (of 41 cans, or any number you're comfortable with!) to your local food bank, please share with us in a comment, below! Together we can give families the gift of a full pantry this Christmas season. Every little bit helps, and all of our little bits together equal full tummies.

Christmas came early!

Ok guys, good news-- I have some upcoming cooking planned - I know you're excited!

But, in the meantime, my package from winning Hey What's for Dinner, Mom's giveaway arrived today!!


Laura must seriously have mind-reader abilities because even though I'm not a major fan of chocolate, I love dark chocolate, and chocolate with nuts and fruit in them! This box was loaded with all of the above! And see the little lollipop thing?! It's a chocolate moose, how cute is that!???

And I seriously had the chocolate orange on my shopping list for Trader Joe's!! Now I get to cross it off! Thanks Laura! Johnny and I will be happy little people for awhile and can share the wealth with my visiting parents!

In the spirit of Christmas, giving, and goodies, I'd like to make this post an official Cans 4 Comments donation post! Any comments received on THIS post through Friday, December 18th will equal one can of food donated to a local food bank. I first read about this over on Mara's blog, in a guest post from To be the Whole Package and thought it was a great idea! To find other participants, search #cans4comments on Twitter!

I recently read an article written by David Green, the founder and owner of Hobby Lobby. He talked about growing up so poor they would create fake "leftovers" by putting foil overtop of empty bowls in the refrigerator and on the counter to fool visitors that they had enough to eat. Despite this, his mother told him and his siblings "we're not poor." Her reasoning? "You're never poor when you have something to give." She would crochet items to donate to charities for them to sell, hoping to help somebody that might be worse off than they were themselves. What a great lesson to teach her children and such a great philosophy to live by! So, even though Johnny and I don't have much to give, we still have more than others and that's a lot to be thankful for!

Edited to add:

Laura at Hey What's for Dinner, Mom? and Diva on a Diet at Beach Eats have started their own Cans 4 Comments posts, too! Go read their beautiful words, say hello, and help send another can to a needy organization!