BzzAgent campaign - Fried chicken from Kroger

I'm here with a review on some food that I got from Kroger with coupons through BzzAgent. From BzzAgent, I received coupons for a free 8-piece fried chicken, a free Kroger kettle chip and a free 1.25 L of any Coke product.

So one thing that I think is really awesome from Kroger, is that they guarantee that they have fresh chicken available between I believe it was noon to I want to say 7 p.m. or it's free. So if you walk up to the deli counter (or in my Kroger there's also a warmer near the self-checkouts) and there isn't chicken readily available, it's free. When I walked up to the deli, they did not have any fresh, but when I asked, they had some ready in less than two minutes, so I said I would run to get my other items and come back. At my Kroger, the 8-piece chicken was $7.99, so $1 per piece of chicken, which I think is very reasonable. You could also get a meal with 2 large sides for $12.99 (my coupon only covered the chicken so I didn't get the meal). Comparably, an 8-piece chicken at KFC would run you $10.99 - $14.99 depending on where you live, with the meal costing $16.49-$20.99. In terms of price, if you are on a budget and a few bucks makes a difference to you, Kroger fried chicken is honestly a great alternative! And between you and me, I have a thing for mac & cheese, and the Kroger mac & cheese looked AMAZING! Wishing I could have tried it too!

So while I waited on the fresh chicken - which I was perfectly happy to do by the way - I went to pick up my kettle chips and Coke product. The 1.25 L size was new to me, I honestly had never noticed them in the store before. They were sold for I believe $1.59 or something around there. The only options were Coke, Diet Coke, Sprite and maybe one or two other things... so the selection wasn't great, however, I love Coke, so I was happy with that! Next I went to pick up my kettle chips. At my store, the only option in Kroger brand kettle chips was plain, mesquite BBQ or salt and pepper. Not being one for plain chips or anything with pepper flavor, I went for the BBQ. These retail for $2.99 at my store. Again, prices will vary by region, so what I paid may not be what you see in your stores! But all totaled, I received about $12 worth of coupons and that made a whole meal for me and my parents!

Now let me give you a little view of my goodies when I brought them home:

Looks delicious doesn't it! And it seriously was such good chicken! I don't have occasion to eat fried chicken very often... I love it, but it is fried, so it's more of a thing that's an every couple months kind of treat, and we usually always order from KFC. However, this is a great alternative and the lower price is really appealing, along with the many options they had as sides were you to chose the meal instead of just the chicken. From Kroger's website: "We bring fresh chicken to our delis every day... (T)ry our Fresh Hand Breaded Fried Chicken. Yes that is right... our Chicken comes to our stores fresh everyday and we use our own special hand breading recipe to hand bread and prepare it fresh for you....We were one of the first retailers to move to 100% trans-fat free oil to provide you with a better choice for your chicken."

I can honestly say the breading was delicious! It was so crispy and packed with flavor and I LOVED the fact that it was hand breaded! I thought it wasn't skimpy on the breading at all and I had good fried crispy bits all over my chicken that were scrumptious! I prefer to eat white meat and my white meat was seriously juicy and delicious! Sometimes you can get fried food and it just tastes greasy or like the oil was old or that kind of thing, but this truly was delicious, fresh, crispy chicken. Oh, with the 8-piece chicken, you get 2 legs, 2 thighs, 2 breasts and 2 wings!  Also from Kroger's website and also an option with the BzzAgent coupon: "For our more health conscious consumers, Baked Chicken is available every day in our delis. Deli Chicken is the perfect solution to provide a wholesome meal for your family during busy times." Kroger also offers the ability to order their fried or baked chicken in large quantities for parties.

I was really impressed with the chicken! I had no opinion of it going in to getting the coupon for it, and I honestly think that I would choose to buy this again!

The chips were on par with other kettle chips, but honestly nothing special. They were nice and crispy like kettle chips should be. I didn't notice hardly any burnt chips or chips that look like they came from a bad potato. The flavoring was just kind of par for the course. The mesquite label attached to the flavor excited me, but the flavor was just pretty standard. I see mesquite and think bigger, bolder smokey flavor. They weren't bad at all! They really were quite tasty! But they were just pretty humdrum in the grand scheme of chips. I also would have liked to have seen more flavor options for the kettle chips. It was kind of a bummer to have such a limited flavor selection for someone who likes flavored chips. I don't ever buy plain chips, therefore with my coupon, my only choice was BBQ. Again, I like BBQ, but if Kroger is going to get into the kettle chip game, they need to step up their flavor options. Maybe they're offered in more flavors at other stores, but my particular store only had those three choices. 

Overall, I LOVED this BzzAgent campaign! I was impressed that I got a whole meal worth of food provided to me through coupons and the food was all very good! I was really impressed with the chicken! I can't say going in I thought chicken from a grocery store would be that great, and I was extremely pleasantly surprised! The chips were good, but pretty standard. Would have loved a bolder flavor from the BBQ, and even more than that I would have liked a wider selection of flavors in the store!

BzzAgent Review: Dr. Scholl's For Her

Hey guys! So today I am coming at you with a review of the Dr. Scholl's For Her High Heel Insoles!

From the company's website, these insoles are purported to do these things:

• Helps prevent foot pain caused by high heels
• Proven to improve the way you feel in heels
• Unique ultra-soft FabuSTEP^® gel arch shifts pressure off your ball of foot
• Immediate and all day comfort
• Stays firmly in place
• Removable without damage to shoes
• Slim design won't make shoes feel tight
• Practically invisible, even in strappy heels

Now, I will begin by saying that I was SO excited to try these out! I am a flats girl 99.9% of the time because heels are uncomfortable to me! But I do work in an office where business casual is the dress code, and spicing up my work wardrobe with some heels is appealing to me - especially with the comfort and features that these insoles supposedly offer. So I couldn't wait to whip these out of the package and try them out!

Right off the bat, I will tell you that I wear either a size 10 or size 11 in women's shoes. So when I opened this up and saw that *wah wah wahhhhhh* these are the insoles for women with feet sizes 6-10, I didn't have high hopes that they would be very suitable for my feet. Normally, I can make things that fit size ranges work for me just fine. Things such as socks aren't a big deal... but socks stretch! Insoles unfortunately cannot stretch. So as you can see in these pictures, these weren't the best fitting for my larger-than-average shoes and foot size.

However, I was sent them for free and wanted to give them a fair shake and try to see if they made a difference for my feet, even if they were on the small side. So I put them in my shoes like I showed in the picture. I was impressed with their stickiness. They seemed like they would stick to the shoes and stay in place well. I did initially put one in a little on the crooked side, so I did peel it up and restick it down and it seemed like they were just as sticky as the first time I stuck them down. They did not leave a residue or stickiness whatsoever in my shoe, which was something I wanted to consider, because what if I didn't like these insoles and wanted to take them out? Or what if I did like them really well and wanted to put them in a different pair of shoes? So I loved the fact that they can move in and out of shoes, stay sticky and won't leave a residue! That is definitely a bonus.

When I initially put them in my shoes and put my shoes on my feet to walk around a bit, they felt pretty good. I could tell that they were short for my feet, but the heel and toe parts of the insole were both thin enough and spongy enough that I didn't feel an uncomfortable ridge under either place. One of the things they boast is that they're thin enough that they don't make shoes tight... and while that may be true in the foot and heel areas, the thickness of the arch area definitely made my heels stretch a bit tighter. I also do have feet that are on the regular to wide side. I rarely have ever purchased wide shoes, but sometimes my feet look too wide for some sandals in particular, so this is also a consideration for these insoles... they are not very wide at all. While that isn't the best for me, that is something that I'm sure a lot of women would consider a bonus, especially in heels which tend to be on the slimmer side than some shoes. But for me, they made the widest part of my foot even bigger, and stretched the straps tighter. However, like I said, even though they didn't fit the best lengthwise, I didn't particularly see it as an issue, even though my feet probably weren't getting all the benefits of the insoles.

Where I really ran into trouble was with the arches. The company website says that "the ultra-soft gel arch shifts pressure off the ball of your foot while providing guaranteed all-day comfort." That sounds awesome, doesn't it? However, I found that this arch support was extremely painful! It was entirely too high! And it hurt! And it wasn't the whole arch that was supported like that, it was only in an oval shape on the inner part of your foot. I took some more pictures to better show how high that arch support really is.

This last picture was on my steering wheel after I ripped them out of my shoes following hours of discomfort and pain! You can see how thin the rest of the insole is, but that arch is really tall! I found that even while just sitting, I was getting constant pressure and pain on my arches! It would be one thing if it were too much while I was walking around... but the fact that it hurt while I was sitting too was crazy to me! Who would want to wear these when they're like that?? So this was a major factor for me. I gave up after a few hours because I could not deal with that pain! I can honestly say that I considered trying them in another pair of heels to see if it made a difference, but the fact that my arches ached for hours after put on different shoes and took the insoles out made me reconsider.

I also wasn't a huge fan of the texture of the insole. I wore these with bare feet in my sandal heels, as most women would, but it's summer in Indiana and my feet did get some sweatiness going on. Don't lie, you know it happens to you too! And with that bit of moisture, these insoles stuck to my feet in an unpleasant way! It wasn't comfortable to feel like my feet were sticking to the insoles. However, with socks, stockings, nylons, whatever, that obviously would not be an issue! So if you're someone who never puts your feet into shoes bare, don't sweat that detail.

Now, one thing that I saw as a pro, that I know other people will as well, is the fact that they are slim and they are clear. I wore them with strappy sandals and no one would be the wiser that they were there at all. I meant to take a picture of my feet from the side while wearing them and just forgot. But you honestly cannot tell that they're there. I love that it offers concealable comfort for the girls who love their strappy heels.

To recap, my biggest complaints are the size and the arch support. I'm sorry, but something that's suitable for someone who has a size 6 foot will not work for me, who has a size 10-11 foot. It just doesn't make sense! For something like this, one size won't fit most! What makes sense to me would be smaller size ranges... maybe 6-8, 8-10 and 10+. How difficult would it be to offer insoles for smaller size ranges and also ones for larger feet? I am not the only girl out there with bigger-than-average feet! Payless shoes carries women's shoes now in 11s and 12s! Nike finally started making women's shoes in size 11! How can you assume that a size 6-10 is going to work for women with bigger, wider feet?

The pros that I saw were the invisibility of the insole... you really didn't see them when I had the shoe on. And the fact that even though they were short for my feet, they were designed well enough to where I didn't feel a ridge under my feet. I also think that the removability is a great selling point, along with the fact that they stick well.

This obviously is not something I would ever spend my money on. Insoles in general, yes....I've had Dr. Scholl's insoles before and had success with them. But these I would never buy. If you have smaller feet and arch support is something you're looking for, I think these could be really successful for you. I think it's a great concept for an insole, most women are probably looking for something to shift the pressure in their feet when they're wearing heels, but I don't think this was successful.

Hey guys! So coming soon I will have another couple of posts for you! I've received two new campaigns from BzzAgent and can't wait to share them with you!

My first experience with BzzAgent and getting free goodies

If you haven't heard yet about BzzAgent, get yourself over to their website and sign up. The premise of the site is that you take a whole bunch of surveys and based on your answers, you get matched up with campaigns where they send you products to try. If you do get sent products, they want you to try them out and give your feedback on them. 

Also when you take surveys, you earn points that you can then cash in on a website called MyPoints, and can exchange them for things like Amazon or Target gift cards. I have yet to utilize this service yet, but I plan to when I've earned enough points. 

For now, I want to talk about the items I received from BzzAgent with my very first campaign. The first campaign I qualified for was one through Bed Head. I received a full size Straighten Out cream and three sample packets of Elasticate and Recharge Shampoo & Conditioner! 

Before you try the Bed Head Straighten Out cream: At Ulta, this 4 oz bottle retails for $17.99. It does have a light, fresh fragrance, so if you're one who is bothered by scents, maybe sniff before you buy. But! It's not a smell that I notice remains strong in my hair, it stays light and fresh, not overpowering. Also, nowhere on the packaging or on Bed Head's website does it say that this is a heat protectant. This product serves only as a straightening cream so I did use my thermal heat spray in addition to this cream!
 
First off, I LOVE the Straighten Out cream, which claims to be a 98% humidity defying cream. It says that it will keep your hair straight and frizz-free for up to 48 hours. Now, I've been using it for a few days and absolutely cannot get enough. I have straight hair, but I have problems with the hair around my face suffering from heat damage and constant breakage because of all the heat and touching it goes through every day. I take around 3 baby pea size amounts and run it through my damp hair, one drop on each side and one in the back from shaft to ends. Then I take my wide-tooth comb and comb the product through to make sure it gets into my hair well. Then I blow dry and use my straightener as usual. And let me tell you, the difference was immediate! I don't deal with a lot of frizz, but I do deal with some serious fly aways and that cream completely tamed all those fly aways. I think my hair is more shiny and smooth looking all around. I absolutely love it. I wish I had taken a before and after picture, but didn't think to and definitely will the next time I am doing a comparison and blog post like this. Something else to note, the product smells GREAT! Not too overpowering, not flowery or perfumey, just a great, fresh and clean hair product smell that I LOVE!

I have yet to try the shampoo and conditioner, but definitely check back in the next few days as I plan to try them out. One thing I can say about the samples is that they are huge! Not a tiny little sample packet that has become common place in many 'free' kits or sample kits. I have very thin hair and can envision myself getting two uses out of these packets. So times 6 packets, I have 12 uses of shampoo and conditioner! And I love that they sent three of each kind. I could easily share these with a friend, or I could use them all myself and get a really good idea about how I like these products!