So, by now we all know my pregnant self is a little lazy about cooking- I keep cooking my own old recipes from posts past, and my food creativity has turned into strange concoctions that nobody would want to eat anyway! Plus, my taste buds have temporarily changed a little and this third trimester has me craving sweets in a totally unhealthy way. I’ve also turned somewhat vegetarian this trimester as most meats seem to weigh on my stomach and make me feel gross for hours. However, I need some protein other than beans and since I went so crazy on eggs in my second trimester, I haven’t been in the mood for them! So, I’d like to tell you about the fantastic buffalo jerky I found last week! Also, remember my awesome Le Creuset Giveaway courtesy of CSN stores? Well, they contacted me again and though the last time I unselfishly chose to do a giveaway, this time, I selfishly chose a diaper bag for me!!! Any mom out there knows how difficult it is to find a proper diaper bag and most of us end up using gigantic purses anyway…which don’t really cut it when you have a baby on the bottle!
First, I’ll tell you how the CSN deal…ever heard of CSN stores? I love them- they have a million (ok, I’m exaggerating) different stores with so many different products to choose from, it’s awesome since they somehow have low prices and cheap to free shipping! Need a bed? No problem! My personal favorite is cookware.com - but if you just get on this pageto see everything at once. Anyway, I will tell you more about my diaper bag saga when I actually receive the bag and review it, but when my son was a baby, I went through FOUR different diaper bags and sadly just wasn’t happy with any of them. I sold two at a major loss at a garage sale recently, and kept the best one for myself, but I’m not excited about using it again. The other diaper bag we have is a camo one for my husband, which is tiny and I’ll get into brand names in the next diaper bag post! Since I’m expecting a girl this time around, I picked this girly diaper bag pictured above - can’t wait to tell you all about it! (…oopsy, they sold out now, the next diaper bag I choose is this one!)
And onto the Buffalo Jerky! I love beef jerky, love it. But it’s so hard to find it minimally processed without nitrites, nitrates, msg and you never know where the meat comes from. I’ve been on a constant search specifically for good, affordable buffalo jerky with the above attributes, but of course only find very expensive versions on the web and can’t seem to find any here. So, I was psyched to be at my local nutrition store (No Name Nutrition) and walk by these Tanka Bars and Tanka Bites. I was somewhat skeptical to buy them since they have cranberry bits inside, and I typically like my jerky peppered, but I figured I’d give it a shot since I’m desperate for some good protein at this point. Yummyyyy! The cranberry bits are a nice little chewy addition, but I do wish they’d make a version without cranberry for when that mood strikes. These bars are only 70 calories and have 7 grams of protein. Usually they would probably tide me over for awhile but I’m a bit of a hog recently. I’m excited to have these on hand for when the baby comes! These jerky snacks are made by Native Americans and sold in all 50 states. These may be old news to you, but in Omaha, they are only sold at one store and so it’s easy to see why I missed them before! Ironic that Omaha is named after a Native American tribe yet it’s difficult to find great Native American goods here.