Our Favorite Kids Podcasts (that adults won't hate!)

The kids and I have a 40 minute commute to and from their school every day. We have a lot of time for podcasts! Here are some of our family favorites:

Brains On

   Brains On is a science podcast that answers questions sent in by kids. The adult host, Molly Bloom, is great and she always has a kid co-host as well. The show is well researched and gives answers that are kid friendly, but not dumbed down. They have several ways of telling the answers, from straight reporting to fun and engaging skits with funny characters and original songs. We also really enjoy trying to guess the Mystery Sound. It's harder than you think sometimes!

The Big Fib

The Big Fib is a game show with two grown ups and a kid. One of the adults is an expert and one is a liar. The kid contestant has to guess who is telling the truth by asking questions and listening carefully to the answers. Most of the time, this show is great and we really enjoy it. LISA (Live In Studio Audience) is a "sound effects robot" and the co-host Deborah are entertaining and fun to listen to. Unfortunately, not all of their "experts" have been real experts and there have been times that I have been screaming at the show for spreading pseudoscience and flat out nonsense. I have also developed some hypotheses about how and why people think other people are lying based on this show, unfortunately mostly based on gender. It is one of the kids' favorites!

Circle Round

Circle Round was Liam's first podcast. He was around two when it came out and it would keep him quiet in the car like NOTHING ELSE would. I'm not ashamed to admit that I used listening to Circle Round as a bribe to get him in the car more than once. He wants to go to Boston to meet Rebecca Shier, the host. Circle Round pick folk stories and adapts them for radio. They have celebrities as the voice actors, and feature a new musical instrument every episode. One of Liam's favorite parts is learning about the new musical instrument every week. Each folk tale has a lesson for kids and they give a lesson to try to carry that lesson into real life. Circle Round claims to be for kids 4-10, but Makayla still enjoys the stories at 12. We highly recommend!

Earth Rangers

Earth Rangers is a podcast out of Canada. It's host, Emma, travels all over, finding cool animal facts to share. The segments on this show vary, from guessing games to interviews and anything in between. We recently enjoyed the new series on the show "Emma's Chemistry Corner" because it acknowledges that CHEMISTRY IS LIFE! and gave fun experiments to try at home. Earth Rangers is pretty new, and they're still kind of settling in to the podcast. There are frequent changes, but we've enjoyed them all!

Forever Ago

Forever Ago is from the creators of Brains On and it's a history podcast. It explores the origins of one thing every episode, from sandwiches to video games in a fun and engaging way. It seems to be on hiatus for right now- I'm not sure if it's coming back, but there are some back episodes to listen to in the meantime!

Greeking Out

Greek mythology is one of the kids' latest obsessions and they LOVE Greeking Out. It tells a story from Greek mythology every episode. Their theme song is very catchy- probably because it's by the king of catchy kids songs- Perry Gripp. Obviously, there are some dark themes in mythology- but there's always a warning at the start if you don't want your kids exposed to particular aspects. 

Mystery Recipe

Mystery Recipe is a show that makes one dish throughout the season, with each ingredient getting it's own week. Each episode dives into where the ingredient is from, how it's grown or harvested and what it's used for. You're supposed to guess what the dish might be throughout the season and before the final episode there's an opportunity to buy all of the ingredients and cook along. We're still in our first season, but we're really enjoying it!

Smash Boom Best

Smash Boom Best is a podcast that pits two things against each other. The two contestants debate through four rounds:

• The Declaration of Greatness- where each debater gets to make their case about why their thing is the best
• The Micro Round- which varies, but gives them a scenario that they have to think on the fly to come up with an argument
• The Sneak Attack- where the host makes them do something creative, like write a Haiku for your side, etc 
• The Final Six- where the contestants sum up why they are the best in 6 words

There is a kid judge for each show who picks who they think is the winner, but you are encouraged to play along at home too. We've had some fun car debates over things like Avengers vs. Star Wars, Chocolate vs. Cheese and Unicorns vs. Dragons to name a few. We ALL love this show!

Story Pirates

The Story Pirates take stories submitted by kids and turn them into sketch comedy and songs. They also have a running story line throughout, which is super funny. The production quality on this podcast is tops and they do an amazing job taking stories written by kids as young as two and making them into creative works of art. Over time, you'll become invested in the running story line and you'll come to know and love the characters.

The Ten News

The Ten News is our newest podcast, it's a 10 minute news podcast for kids. It doesn't shy away from the hard topics, but it does present them in an accessible, kid friendly way. It doesn't focus on only one area of the news, but all areas. So far, the kids are enjoying learning about current events.

Tumble

Tumble is another science podcast that we enjoy. It's less flashy than Brains On, and doesn't have the same level of fun, but it's still enjoyable and we get to learn about all kinds of science topics. 

What If World

What If World is an world of imagination created by Mr Eric's improv stories, sparked by a "What If" question submitted by listeners. He takes the question and creates a fun and engaging story using a cast of characters, all voiced by him. The kids enjoy this podcast, although I must be honest and say, Jeff hates this one. I could take it or leave it. 

Wow in the World

Wow in the World is another of our favorites! Guy Raz and Mindy Thomas lead us on a crazy, wacky journey exploring a recent scientific discovery. There's nothing that I don't love about this podcast and it cracks me up with it's dorky science puns every week. They also have a two new series, "Tinkerclass" which guides kids on an engineering journey based on one of their episodes and "Two Whats and a WOW!" which is a game show where you get to guess which one of the three statements is the WOW! and which are the made up WHATS!? Both of these are available in the Wow in the World feed, so no need to subscribe to another podcast. 

On Santa

 Why do we think that we have to tell our children THE TRUTH about Santa? Why does it matter if they continue in their wonder and happiness? What makes it so important to burst that bubble of childhood by X age? Who decides what X age is?

I've been thinking a lot about this lately (tis the season!) and I just don't get it. I believed in Santa until I was 10. That Christmas, Santa brought me a spinning wheel and I KNEW my parents couldn't afford that. I would have continued believing for much longer, except I was getting in fights about it at school and my Mom told me. And then I told my sister. Because I'm an asshole. The fact that my parents "lied to me" for years has never had any impact on my trust in them or my relationship with them. I find that argument completely illogical. 

Makayla just turned 12. She absolutely believes. I know that she has plenty of friends who don't, but I guess kids are just nicer now, because none of them have ruined it for her. I hope it continues. Eventually, I expect that she'll figure it out and ask me about it and I'll tell her the truth. 

I love being Santa. I love finding the things that will prolong their belief in the magic. I love watching their looks of wonder every Christmas when they see the things Santa brought. 

I'm an atheist. I see no difference in believing that there is an all knowing god who loves you, but also might send you to hell if you're an asshole, and the belief that an all knowing magical man loves you and brings you presents but also might give you coal if you're an asshole. I recognize that most people will be offended by the comparison, but I don't really care. If believing in a god brings you comfort and joy, believe. Kids grow up too fast as it is- is there really anything wrong with letting them hang on to their childhood a few more years?

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas 2018

Yes, it's February.

Cookies are good any time of the year.

This years' cookie parade had to be slightly modified from my usual tradition of making one cookie every day of Christmas because we were on vacation visiting family far away from home. I still got to make twelve new cookies, I just spread them out over the whole of December/ January and shared them on the twelve days of Christmas.

For the first day of Christmas I made 5-Ingredient Peppermint Chocolate Truffles. I shared these with my kids's school board of directors for our holiday party. They were very well received! I didn't bring many home. It was a really easy recipe with no changes required. Highly recommended!

For the second day of Christmas I made Eggnog Snickerdoodles. This recipe is billed as "healthy", I guess because it says to use dairy free or light eggnog. I didn't do that, because it's not healthier and I don't make cookies to be healthy, I make them to indulge. She also goes in to detail about measuring the flour correctly, but I just weighed it. It's more accurate and faster. The bake time in the recipe is far too short. They were definitely underdone, so I cooked them a little more. Another note, this recipe is only for 12 cookies, and I only got 11. Basically no one got to taste these. If you try them, double or triple the recipe and bake them longer. Despite all of that- they were still quite tasty and I would make them again.

For the third day of Christmas I made Double Chocolate Cherry Cookies. These were very good. I had the opposite problem of the previous cookies- I over baked these a little and they weren't as fudgy as they should have been. The flavors were delicious though and we all still enjoyed them.

For the fourth day of Christmas I made Hot Chocolate Cookies. These seemed to be really popular this year- even though I had never heard of them before now! They were really easy and good and the kids enjoyed getting to sprinkle them. They called for chocolate extract- which I've never used or seen. I had to order it from Amazon. To be honest, I'm not sure if it really added anything- they were already chocolatey and delicious! Everyone loved them.

For the fifth day of Christmas I made Eggnog Cheesecake Cookie Cups. These were soooooooooo good. Everything about them was delicious but if I made them again I would make one important change- I'd use mini muffin cups. The recipe specifically says to use standard muffin cups but they were just too big as a cookie. I also highly recommend using silicone muffin cups. It's so much easier to get the muffins or cookies out. (I also use them when I'm making eggs for breakfast sandwiches!) I also needed to bake the gingerbread cookie cups slightly longer. You do need them to be somewhat soft in the middle so that you can press them down in to cups, but they were a little underdone with the bake time in the recipe. Really, these were so, so good. Highly recommended!

For the sixth day of Christmas I made Red Velvet Shortbread Cookies. These were really not that good. They were too dry and not very flavorful. I wouldn't recommend. The recipe also says to knead the dough until smooth, but that is contrary to everything I know about making shortbread cookies, so I didn't. I shaped the dough in to a log, wrapped it in plastic wrap and chilled it, then cut the log in to cookies. The amount of handling specified in the recipe would only lead to cookies that are tough as nails.

For the seventh day of Christmas I made Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Blossoms. My mom specifically requested peanut butter blossoms this year, so I decided to try this cute fancied up version! Makayla got to decorate them and she loved it. For some reason, I decided to use the recipe I linked, instead of my own recipe that I've been making for years. That was a mistake. Mine is better. Here is what I SHOULD have done:

Christmas Tree Peanut Butter Blossoms (Kate McAfee edition)
1/2 cup shortening
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
1 egg
2 tbsp milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 3/4 cups flour
1/4 cup granulated sugar for rolling
Hershey Kisses

Preheat oven to 350F. Cream together shortening, peanut butter, sugars, baking powder and baking soda. Beat until light and fluffy. Add in egg, milk and vanilla. Mix until combined. Add in flour. Mix until just combined. Roll dough in to 1 in balls. Roll in granulated sugar, place on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 10-12 minutes. Immediately press Hershey Kiss in center of each ball. Remove to wire rack to cool. Allow to cool and harden completely before decorating.

Buttercream Frosting
1/4 cup butter
1/3 tsp vanilla
2/3 tbsp milk
2/3 cup powdered sugar

Beat butter until light and fluffy, beat in powdered sugar. Add vanilla and milk. Adjust milk level to achieve desired consistency. Put in piping bag with writing tip. Start at the bottom of each kiss and swirl up to the top. Add sprinkles and decoration.

For the eighth day of Christmas I made Grinch Heart Raspberry Filled Sugar Cookies. The dough for these was a bit finicky. It wanted to stick to everything and keeping the hearts in the correct shape was kind of difficult. Still, they were really good and super cute. 8 out of 10 would make again.

For the ninth day of Christmas I made Lemon Pistachio Wreaths. These were so pretty and so fresh! The cookies and the icing had a nice lemony flavor and the nuts were an excellent addition. The picture on Pinterest also had cranberries to top them but that wasn't in the recipe so I didn't have them. It would probably be delicious though! We loved them!

For the tenth day of Christmas I made Dark Chocolate Candy Cane Cookies. Something went wrong for these and they spread too much. It was probably my mistake- I either softened the butter in the microwave instead of waiting for it to come to room temp, or I used cold eggs instead of room temp. So the texture was wrong, and they didn't win any beauty contests- BUT they were STILL delicious. They also used an ingredient I was unfamiliar with (and had to head to Amazon for) black cocoa powder. It's used mostly as coloring agent to make cookies really dark instead of the usual chocolate brown. I have so much extra, I'll have to make these again. Maybe I'll get the texture right this time!

For the eleventh day of Christmas I made Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies. I actually made these at the start of December for a cookie exchange at the kids school. I thought they were great! I couldn't find Hershey Candy Cane Kisses anywhere this year so I used the crushed candy cane option which gave good flavor, but I think the melted kisses would have been better, personally.

For the twelfth day of Christmas I made Gingerbread Thumbprint Cookies. This recipe came from the same place as the shortbread cookies that no one liked. These ones were great though! Gingerbread with a delicious chocolate pool in the middle. Loved everything about them!

So there you have it! The Twelve Cookies of Christmas 2018! Try some out- hope you enjoy them as much as we did!

The ONLY Way to Hard Cook an Egg

I apologize for the click bait-y title. I've been on a quest to find the best way to hard cook my eggs for years. I make deviled eggs for nearly every potluck. They're easy, nut free and mine are pretty badass. Plus, I make salads every day for work and a lot of times, I rely on hard cooked eggs for my protein source. Of course, the worst part about hard cooked eggs is peeling them without peeling off half the egg. I have finally completed my quest! A fast and easy way to hard cook an egg with shells that peel off amazingly easily!

I was an early adopter of pressure cooking/ multicooking technology. We have a Fagor Multicooker- but it's just like the super popular Instant Pot that you probably got for Christmas. We have been using it in conjunction with our freezer cooking lifestyle for about two and half years now. I also love to make yogurt in it! Until three weeks ago, however; I had never used it to hard cook an egg. It's so simple, it takes maybe 15 minutes from raw to peeled and ready to use. Here's how it works:


1. Put raw eggs in the inner pot of your multicooker. Add 1/2 cup of water.

2. Put the lid on the cooker and seal the steam nozzle.

3. Set the cooker for 5 minutes on "pressure cook: high". It will take about 5 minutes to build pressure and then 5 minutes at pressure. 

4. When the cook time is done, quick release the pressure. 

5. Open the pot and take out the inner pot. Place in the sink and run cool water in to the pot.

6. When cool enough to handle, enjoy the easy peeling!

7. Make salad, or deviled eggs, or whatever else you do with hard cooked eggs!

Now you know the secret! Go forth and cook some eggs!

This method is also perfect for making eggs to dye for Easter. Just stop after cooling them and dye them!

The Twelve Cookies of Christmas 2017

Merry Christmas! By Christmas, of course, I mean all twelve days of it! For the last three years I've been marking each day of Christmas with a different cookie or treat. It's a tradition that my family has really enjoyed and it gives me the opportunity to try out 12 new recipes! For 2017, I decided to up my game with this round-up post and a review of each recipe. I'm including links to all of the recipes I used and any modifications I made.

December 25th
On the first day of Christmas, I made Red Velvet Chocolate Chip Cookies!

These were easy and fast to make on Christmas morning after the presents were open and before we headed over to my parents to spend the day with them. They are delicious, fudgy and festive. Everyone loved them and I think we only came home with two left.

December 26th

On the second day of Christmas, I made Peppermint Shortbread Cookies! 

If you've never made shortbread cookies, you'll probably be confused about how this dough comes together. Shortbread has almost no liquid in it. You cut the butter in to the flour, add flavors and additions and squeeze it all into a log shape and chill it. Then take it out, cut it in to slices and bake. I have made shortbread before, and I still had trouble with this recipe. It was quite crumbly and took a long time to get in to log form (not log like you think I mean log, you understand). I didn't use the andes mint chips specified, I substituted white chocolate chips (chopped) and crushed candy canes. I also used a few drops of red food color. As you can see, they just didn't come out very pretty. They look like raw chicken patties! They still tasted good, but I like the Cranberry Orange Shortbread cookies I made last year way better. 

December 27th

On the third day of Christmas, I made Gingerbread Cookie Dough Truffles!

Do you like gingerbread? You'll love them. They are great, I just had a hard time coating them evenly. I used melted white chocolate chips to coat them instead of the specified candy melts (which are whiter). I'm accustomed to coating buckeyes, where I get to leave a hole at the top, so trying to coat them all over without leaving marks was a challenge for me.

December 28th

On the fourth day of Christmas, I made Cream Cheese Mints!

This recipe was a disaster from start to finish. First, the blogger who wrote this recipe did one of my pet peeves when they posted it. They didn't include a printable recipe. It's so annoying to go to print and have the printer say "32 pages" then have to go and hunt out the pages you want out of 17 full page photos. Ugh! Second, the recipe said it made ~250 mints! No thanks! I cut that down to a quarter of the recipe, wrote it into a word doc (eliminating cutesy extraneous details) and printed it like that. Now to the making. I mixed everything up and then found out I had used my last piping bag. No problem! I'll just cut the corner off a Ziploc like I always do! Well that was a disaster. The recipe is MUCH thicker than the egg yolk I usually pipe (in deviled eggs) so trying to get it through the star tip in a Ziploc made the bags blow out the seams. After trying with a normal bag and a freezer bag and having it explode on my hands twice, I ditched the star tip and started just piping little dots. After they were piped, they set up in the freezer and then were to be stored in the fridge. They didn't really "set up" in the way that I was expecting, they just froze and then when thawed reverted back to soft, not set form. And they don't taste like the little after dinner mints I was expecting. They taste like toothpaste. I hate giving bad feedback but really, don't waste your time on this recipe. It's not good.

December 29th

On the fifth day of Christmas, I made "Rudolph" Cookies with the kids!

Obviously, our cookies don't exactly look like reindeer. I followed the recipe to the letter for the cookies, making dough balls "just smaller than a golf ball" and they turned out very large. To compound this error, I bought "Itty Bitty Mini" pretzels from Synder's of Hanover because generally, every time I've made reindeer type cookies, the mini pretzels are too big! We also used pre-made eyes in a package instead of making them from mint M&M's. The kids had a BLAST decorating these and they were completely delicious. Definitely a win, and no one cared that they looked like bears instead of reindeer.

December 30th

On the sixth day of Christmas, I made Pumpkin Gingerbread Biscotti!

This was my first time making biscotti and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be! They turned out great, the flavor is delicious. They were a little hard by themselves but that's kind of how biscotti is! Great when dunked in coffee!

December 31st

On the seventh day of Christmas, I made White Chocolate Fudge with Cranberries and Pistachios!

This was a very simple and delicious fudge recipe. The flavor of the white chocolate tended to dominate over the pistachios and cranberries so if I made it again, I'd probably increase the amount of mix ins to give it more intense flavor.

January 1st

On the eighth day of Christmas, I made Grinch Cookies!

I have to be honest, I only put these on the list because Liam heard the story of the Grinch for the first time this year and he was really in to it. This was such an easy recipe and everyone LOVED them. For me, I thought they were just too plain and I had a really hard time finding a good sized heart sprinkle/ candy. I also would have baked them for at least 3 more minutes if I made them again.

January 2nd

On the ninth day of Christmas, I made Chocolate Sprinkle Cookies!

I have had this recipe pinned FOREVER but I've never made it until now. They are delicious! It's just a really good chocolate cake cookie rolled in chocolate sprinkles before baking. Pure, simple, perfect!

 January 3rd
On the tenth day of Christmas, I made Salted Caramel Turtle Thumbprint Cookies!

 It's easy to look at this recipe and all it's fancy pictures and be intimidated. They were surprisingly easy to make and obviously, stunning. Using store bought caramels instead of making your own really simplifies things and makes it accessible for the masses. I made caramel once and said "NEVER AGAIN!" Other recipe notes: I'm not convinced the egg white wash is necessary to make the pecans stick, the dough is pretty sticky on it's own. I'd probably eliminate this step next time and see what happens. These taste AMAZING! Try them, you won't regret it.

January 4th
On the eleventh day of Christmas, I made Chocolate Kiss Powder Puff Cookies! I combined two recipes: Chocolate Kiss Powder Puff Cookies (using a premade pie crust, something I can't stand) and Snowball Christmas Cookies

I think the combination of the two recipes REALLY made a great cookie. Supposedly Russian Tea Cakes are "just like Pillsbury pie crusts in a can" but I'm not buying it. My Mom would never abide me buying a pie crust and pie crust cookies just aren't that good. Basically, I used the second recipe and stuffed the balls with a Hershey Kiss. They are really, really good. Light and buttery, with a chocolate surprise inside!

January 5th

On the twelfth day of Christmas I made Nutmeg Log Cookies!

These were not what I was expecting. I thought they'd be like soft batch sugar cookies with nutmeg but they're actually more like shortbread cookies with nutmeg (but a little softer). They're really good but if I made them again, I'd make the frosting a looser consistency, it was too firm!

There you have it! The Twelve Cookies of Christmas 2017!

Family Rankings:
Me: Red Velvet Chocolate Chip
Jeff: Grinch
Liam: Rudolph Cookies
Makayla: Salted Caramel Thumbprint

Freeze Along with Me: What’s All This?

    After our second child was born and I went back to work, I had a very hard time adapting to the exponentially greater demands placed on my time. I was working full time, running a 5 year old to and from after school extracurricular activities, caring for a newborn, and trying to keep the house from falling down. Jeff was in school full time with mostly evening classes. I’d get home from work and he’d be leaving for school shortly after. We’ve always placed a priority on eating dinner together as a family every night but there just wasn’t time to cook and eat in between. Jeff is a decent cook and he certainly tries, but he’s not what I’d call “creative” in the kitchen. Every day, he’d ask me “What should I make for dinner?” while I was at work. Then I’d have to try to think about what I had in the pantry and fridge from memory and make suggestions (while trying to do my actual job at the same time). We found ourselves eating a lot of meat with some kind of brown sauce and a starch or a “hamburger helper” type meal almost every night of the week. On top of that, his cooking always resulted in using half of the kitchen pans and cutlery every night. Life was stressful, messy and out of control. We needed to make a change. Enter freezer cooking.

What is freezer cooking?

Freezer cooking is the process of preparing meals in advance to a certain point of the cooking and then stopping and freezing the meal to be thawed, finished and eaten at later date. It is also sometimes called once a month cooking (OAMC), bulk cooking or batch cooking.

Why freezer cooking?

There are so many reasons that people choose freezer cooking!

Save Time!

When you combine all of your cooking in to one weekend a month, you save a vast amount of time planning, preparing and cleaning up every single day. If you spend 30 minutes a day cooking dinner and another 20-30 minutes cleaning up, that’s about 30 hours a month. Cooking once a month takes one full day (~10-12 hours) plus an additional 2-6 hours of prep on the day before cooking day.

Save Money!

When you can buy in bulk, you save money. We have a membership at BJ’s Wholesale Club and get most of our bulk items there. We can also do things like buy a 40lb box of chicken breast at deep discount ($0.99- 1.49/lb) and freeze it for use over several months. It doesn’t eliminate the need to shop in between cooking day shopping trips, but it does reduce the weekly bill a lot! Some people like to freezer cook for all meals. I do an entirely dinner menu every month (16 recipes/ 32 meals), so we eat each meal twice. I also do a mini menu of 5 recipes of lunch main dishes for the kids every 4-5 months. On a cooking day shopping trip for our family of four, I usually spend between 300-400 dollars. Weekly fill in trips are usually less than 100 dollars for food expenses.

Save Sanity!

Removing the stress of “what’s for dinner?” is AMAZING! All you have to do is take a meal out to thaw the night before (or even the morning of) and cook it when it’s time. It’s so easy! Preparation makes my life possible. I would absolutely not be able to do the things that I do if I had to plan, cook and clean up dinner every night.

Eat Healthier!

Planning ahead makes it easy to eat as healthfully as you want. When you get home after a long day, it’s hard to muster up the energy to get a healthy dish together. It’s fast and easy to pop a convenience meal in the microwave or order fast food. And while I live by the motto “Everything is fine in moderation”- most convenience meals and fast foods are too calorically dense to be considered “moderate”. Having prepared freezer meals eliminates the extra work and makes them just as convenient as the alternative. You can also create your menu to suit your dietary needs. The website I use www.onceamonthmeals.com has monthly menus for every kind of diet: traditional, diet, vegetarian, vegan, gluten free/ dairy free, whole30, etc. You can completely customize your menu to whatever diet you’re trying to follow.

Wait a minute…

I know what you’re thinking- this sounds amazing! Too good to be true! What’s the catch?

There are a couple of cons:

1. Cooking day is tiring. It does take an entire day to do a full month of freezer dinners. Over time, you’ll get better and faster and learn tricks that make it easier, but it’s still a lot of work condensed in to one day.
2. If the number of people you cook for varies frequently, it can be difficult to plan, although not impossible.
3. You need freezer space. For most people, this means having a separate chest freezer. It’s not impossible to do with just a standard refrigerator/freezer combo, but it is very tight.

That’s really about it! If you’re looking for a change, a way to give yourself more time, a way to save money or eat healthier- freezer cooking just may be your answer. Stay tuned for more how to’s and tips and tricks to come in future posts!

Survey Says... Taking Surveys Pays

I've been taking surveys for money for about 3 years now. I could lie and say I started because I wanted to have an impact on manufacturers, marketers, etc but I've always just been in it for the rewards. I regularly take surveys with three different programs and I thought I'd give a quick run down of the pros and cons of each.


VIP Voice


VIP Voice is the company that asks me to take the most surveys. It also nets me the most rewards. One of the unique features of this program is that you are rewarded for EVERY survey that you are sent- even if you end up being screened out. Points are awarded for each survey and the points can be saved and used to bid on a good assortment of prizes (gift cards, board games, electronics and more) or they can be used to buy entries into sweepstakes for larger prizes like trips. The number of points that you earn for each survey depends on your "level", which increases the more surveys you take. I'm a level 5 (top) and I earn 200 points for a survey that I am screened out of and 550 points for a completed survey. The surveys that VIP Voice offers are always the same and if you stick around, you will know as soon as you start it whether you will qualify or whether you will screen out each week. They survey about things like: clothing purchases, electronics purchases, dining out, video game/ tv usage and other household and car purchases. They also have a "Food Diary" survey that they tend to offer me about once a month. It's a special survey that lasts a week and asks you to record everything you or one of your kids ate for the whole week. You earn points for every day that you complete the diary and after 7 days you earn a 25.00 gift card to a selection of places (I always choose Amazon, but there are other options). Over the past 18 months I have taken this particular survey 15 times and earned $375.00 from Amazon. Also over the last 18 months, I've won two mobile battery packs (to play Pokémon GO, of course), 3 Xbox One games, 2 board games, a popcorn popper and a restaurant.com gift card for $50.00. Click here to join.


Springboard America

Springboard America offers me about 3-4 surveys a week. They are always different. They award a dollar amount for each survey- ranging from $0.75 to $2.50. If you are screened out you will receive an entry in to a monthly drawing for a cash prize. I have never won this prize :). What I HAVE earned though- is $200.00 in the past 18 months. Springboard America has a "cash out" minimum of $50.00. When you reach $50.00 in survey dollars, you click redeem and you are given the choice between an Amazon gift card and a Paylution account that is like a virtual Visa card to spend anywhere you like online. If you are interested you can click here to sign up OR you can let me know you want to sign up and send me your email and I'll send you a link to earn myself $2.00. Either way :)

American Consumer Opinion

American Consumer Opinion is the first survey company that I signed up with. I receive the least amount of survey opportunities from them. I unfortunately screen out of most of the opportunities I am sent. A screener is worth 10 points and a completed survey is worth 200-500 points. The points translate to a penny each. You need a minimum of 1000 points (or $10.00) to cash out. When you cash out, the payment is made to Paypal and then redeemed to your bank account for cash. I have earned $68.00 from ACOP in the last 18 months. Click here to join.

So, taking surveys isn't going to pay the bills, but it does get you some nice spending money on a pretty regular basis as well as some fun prizes. It takes a pretty minimal time investment, maybe a couple hours a week, spread out.