What do you normally do on Mother’s Day? Do you stay home and relax? Go out to eat?

This will be my 5th year celebrating Mother’s Day for myself; before that it was all about my mami. Of course, that means that I share the celebrations with my mom now. Usually, this means I do a little relaxing at home with my family and then visit my mother for the other half of the day. I think once we all went out to eat together. But, we’ve never really done a family day out for Mother’s Day. I think maybe next year I will plan a beach trip so we can all enjoy the wonderful May weather and both my mom and I can relax by the ocean.

To celebrate Mother’s Day, Nestle Family is currently holding a national giveaway on their site and also offering a giveaway for ModernMami.com readers.

Mother’s Day to Remember National Sweepstakes

You could win $8,000 toward a family dream vacation plus $2,000 for a spa day or night out on the town with your friends. See details and enter at Nestle Family by May 31, 2010.

ModernMami.com Reader Giveaway

One of you could win a prize pack full of the following coupons and products ($150 value):

• $29.99 Shutterfly gift card
• 30-day supply of Glowelle
• Carnation Instant Breakfast Essentials
• Juicy Juice
• Dreyer’s ice cream
• Toll House
• Nesquik
• Cranberry Raisinets
• Stouffer’s
• Nestle Pure Life
• Wonka Exceptionals
• Wonka Sploshberries
• Recipe cards featuring recipes from meals.com

How to Enter

Required entry: If you’d like to enter this contest, simply leave a comment below and tell us how you normally celebrate Mother’s Day.

Extra entries (optional):

Each of the following will count as 1 extra entry. You’ll need to leave a separate comment for each entry.

1. Follow @modernmami on twitter.
2. Tweet the following: Enter to win $150 worth of Nestle products at @modernmami. Ends 5/13. http://bit.ly/dcoTFJ #giveaway #contest
3. Like ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment on this post with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing with your readers how you celebrate Mother’s Day and make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, May 13 at 11:59 pm EST. Remember to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Hope all you mamis have a wonderful Mother’s Day!

Disclosure: In conjunction with hosting this giveaway, I will also receive a Nestle Family prize pack.

Disclosure: I received Little Pim products for review purposes. No other compensation received.

By now you know that my husband and I have committed to raising bilingual children. Coming from different cultures ourselves, our daughter has the benefit of growing up multicultural and learning two languages – English and Spanish. Though my first language was Spanish, having moved to Florida at a young age and living here the majority of my life, has resulted in me speaking mostly Spanglish rather than true Spanish. I often have to force myself to think of the words in order to hold a Spanish-only conversation. That is why I love to compensate speaking Spanish around the house with Spanish books, shows, games, and music, so that my baby girl can be exposed to Spanish as much as possible.

I’ve had the pleasure of receiving some additional Little Pim products to add to the Little Pim Spanish DVD I had previously received and reviewed. This time, I was able to review the Little Pim Spanish Word and Phrase Cards, Little Pim Spanish Bop CD, and the new Little Pim Word Bag app for the iPhone or iPod Touch.

Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards

With 60 cards to choose from, my daughter has fun picking out a few cards at random and making up a story about Little Pim. I love this for two reasons: 1) She’s not just staring at the card and words and repeating them one after the other. It’s much more interactive, which helps (in my opinion) her learn the word or phrase better. 2) Making up stories is a great way to encourage imaginative play!

We take out these cards a few at a time and either make up stories or just review how to say the word/phrase in Spanish. But, we’re usually making up stories – it’s much more fun!

Little Pim Spanish Bop CD

This CD has 15 songs from artists like Dan Zanes and Milkshake. There are three songs that are repeated in English at the end and all the lyrics for each song are included in the pamphlet in both Spanish and English. My daughter especially liked “Tía Monica” and its merengue rhythm, but other fun songs include “Clap Clap Clap” and “Las Comidas.” Of course, a personal favorite of mine is “El Coquí” since Coquís are native to Puerto Rico (no bias whatsoever here).

Little Pim Word Bag iPhone/iPod Touch App

Little Pim’s Word Bag allows your child to play in either Spanish or French. We enjoyed playing with this app on our iPod Touch and I love how it matches the style and feel of the DVD. Using the app, my daughter was able to easily find what words were in Little Pim’s word bag. It’s easy for her to use her finger to “take” the words out of his bag, hear and see the word, and laugh along with Little Pim.

Image from AppShopper

However, I think that it would have been much more cool to be able to “match” the words to the picture and make it a bit more interactive and game-like. It would have been fun to play a game and perhaps help Little Pim find his way through a story scenario by finding the words he needs. Or something like that anyway. Clearly, I’m not a game designer; I just think an interactive element to the app might make it even more fun than it already is.

Where to Purchase

You can purchase the Word and Phrase Cards and the Spanish Bop CD directly from the Little Pim site for $14.95 each or you can also find them on Amazon for the same price (in case you have Amazon gift cards you want to use).

• Purchase Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards on Amazon for $14.95
• Purchase Little Pim Spanish Bop CD on Amazon for $14.95

You can buy the Little Pim Word Bag iPhone App for $1.99 in the iTunes App Store.

Giveaway

One of you will win a set of the Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards and the Spanish Bop CD.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a Little Pim Spanish Word & Phrase Cards and Spanish Bop CD, simply leave a comment below and tell us which product you think your kids will enjoy from the Little Pim site.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Follow @Little_Pim on twitter and tweet the following: “@little_pim Hola Little Pim! Following from @modernmami for the #modernmami contest!“
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing with your readers your favorite Little Pim product you found on the Little Pim site. Make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, March 11 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: This post is part of a “I Heart Beef” campaign with TheMotherhood.com on behalf of The National Cattlemen’s Beef Association. I will receive compensation for sharing my memories with you, but my opinions are mine. In fact, I have always loved beef.

We are what you would call meat lovers. That is to say that we could never be vegetarians. The word itself is one that would get you looks of “Are you crazy?” in our family. Now that’s not to say there’s anything wrong with being a vegetarian (Seinfeld anyone?), it’s just that we are carnivorous by nature.

Join me in a flashback real quick…

We had only been married a few months. Times were tough, of course, as is normal for a young couple just starting out. We were living off of rice, beans, and PB & J sandwiches. (How’s that for multicultural?) Since meat was the biggest expense on our grocery bill at the time, I began to make it last as long as I could. One day, after a tiring day at work, I came home and decided not to cook any meat that night. I remember my mami would sometimes make a great meal out of just yellow rice, beans, and a big salad. I opted to do the same.

A proud new wife, I set a plate of my home-cooked dinner in front of my husband and said “Buen provecho!” as I sat down across from him. He looked down at his plate, looked back up at me and said, “Where’s the meat?”

I can still remember that day. We laugh about it now, of course, but believe me that every meal since then has had some sort of meat in it. As I said…meat lovers.

Image from Wikipedia

And, though we’re equal opportunity meat lovers, this post will be all about the beef. We often ate beef growing up in a Puerto Rican house. From carne molida to bistec encebollado to barbecuing steaks at parties, many meals I grew up eating – and some of my favorites – involve beef. One of my all time favorites is bistec encebollado. I wish I had a nice video showing you how to make it, but I didn’t have time to make one right now (Note to self: Make video in the future!). So, I’m going to give you the basic recipe.

Image from CSU Meat Sciences

The key to making bistec encebollado is that you have to use cubed steak. If you can’t find it pre-packaged, just ask the butcher to run a piece of beef through the machine and it’ll come out cubed for you. Then, you really only need some onions and the basic ingredients for making sofrito – a staple when cooking Puerto Rican food.

Image from Puerto Rican Recipes Online

Recipe for Bistec Encebollado – Puerto Rican Cubed Steak with Onions

Ingredients

• Cubed Steak
• Onions
• Cooking Oil
• Adobo
• Meat Tenderizer
• Black Pepper

Cooking the Steak

1. Season el bistec with adobo, black pepper, and meat tenderizer.
2. Cut your onions into nice ring slices.
3. Using a large covered pan, heat a bit of cooking oil.
4. Put your steaks in and drizzle a little water under to help create steam.
5. Cover the pan and cook on low-medium heat.
6. When the steak is tender and nearly done, add your onions on top of the steaks.
7. The steak will cook slowly on low heat and the onions will wilt creating a perfect combination of steak and onions.
8. I highly suggest you serve over white rice and red beans with a side of tostones. Heaven!

I apologize for the lack in detail with the ingredients and the steps, but it is true to how I and everyone in my family cooks. We do not measure and just go along pouring items into the pot.

If you want to get some more ideas for cooking with beef, check out Beef It’s What’s for Dinner, which has many recipes, videos, and information for buying, cooking, and handling beef. February is actually “I Heart Beef” month so have fun looking up fun ideas for dinner this week; they even have a Quick Meals section with simple recipes fit for any busy parent.

Now, let’s get on to the contest.

Giveaway

One of you will win a $100 Omaha Steaks gift card!

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a $100 Omaha Steaks gift card, simply leave a comment below and share your favorite memories of making everyday occasions special with beef and let me know your favorite recipe from the Beef It’s What’s for Dinner site.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Follow @BeefForDinner on twitter and tweet them with a recipe you like from their site.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Become a fan of Beef It’s What’s for Dinner on Facebook.
5. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
6. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
7. Write a blog post on your own blog sharing with your readers something you found helpful on the Beef It’s What’s for Dinner site. Make sure to link back to this contest page in your post. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Sunday, February 28 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

A couple of months ago, I had the pleasure of joining the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon crew and helped hand out free cupcakes at one of our local malls. Little Debbie went around the nation with those cute little cupcake cars spreading word about Little Debbie Cupcakes and asking people to share their smiles. You can read all about it on the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon site.

I had a lot of fun making my own video inside the cupcake car and just handing out cupcakes to mall shoppers. Who can resist a free chocolate cupcake, right? Apparently? Lots of people can. I was shocked when folks actually said no to a free cupcake. They’ve got much more will power than I do. But, most happily took a cupcake and some even came back for more! And the kids were ecstatic!

The nationwide tour is over now, but you can still enter to win your very own Little Debbie Cupcake Car or other prizes via the Share-a-Thon Giveaway site. You know you want one. Even my husband said he’d drive around in a cupcake.

Plus, you can also win cupcakes right here from me! Again, WHO can resist chocolate cupcakes?

Giveaway

Three of you will win a prize pack of 4 boxes of Little Debbie cupcakes.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a Little Debbie cupcake prize pack, simply leave a comment below letting me know if you’ve seen the Little Debbie Cupcake Car around.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Post to your Facebook profile about this contest with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your Facebook status.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Wednesday, February 3 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I was compensated for participating in the Little Debbie Share-a-Thon tour at a local mall and also received Little Debbie goodies. But, I already ate chocolate cupcakes before working with Little Debbie.

Photos courtesy of Little Debbie

Viernes Social is back! This week, we have another fun contest for you.

I received a 2010 Entertainment Book from Airfoil Public Relations to review. In the past, I’ve bought the Entertainment Book on my own, but found that I didn’t use it as much as I would have liked to. For some reason or another, I would always forget it at home, or forget to look in the book before making a purchase. Before I knew it, the coupons had expired and it was time to purchase the next year’s book.

This time, though, I wanted to make sure to take full advantage of the coupons. It helped that I received the 2010 Entertainment Book before 2009 was even over. I’ve already taken advantage of quite a few coupons to purchase discounted movie tickets, as well as save a few bucks on various restaurant meals. There’s even a few coupons for completely free items (no purchase required) that I need to use.

My trick this time around? I put the Entertainment Book in the door of our car. That way, whenever we’re out and about on the weekends, we can check to see if there are any coupons we can use before we make a purchase or buy some food.

Want to save money in 2010? One of you will win your own 2010 Entertainment Book for your zip code or you can choose another location for your book (like Orlando, Hawaii, San Francisco, etc.) if you want to save money while on vacation.

Giveaway

One of you will win a 2010 Entertainment Book for the location of your choice.

How to Enter

If you’d like to enter this contest for a 2010 Entertainment Book, simply leave a comment below letting me know if you’ve used the Entertainment Book before.

For extra entries:

1. Tweet about this contest with a link back to this post and include @modernmami in your tweet. You must leave a separate comment with a link to your tweet for your entry to count.
2. Post to your Facebook profile about this contest with a link back to this post. Leave a comment with the link to your Facebook status.
3. Become a fan of ModernMami.com on Facebook and leave a comment with your Facebook name.
4. Subscribe to this blog via email and leave a comment with the email you used to subscribe. (You can use the email field to do this instead of putting your email in the comment if you prefer.)
5. Subscribe on friendfeed and leave a comment with your friendfeed ID.
6. Write a blog post on your own blog and link back to this contest page. Leave a comment with your post link.

All entries must be in by Thursday, January 14 at 11:59 pm EST. Make sure to leave a separate comment for each entry. The winner will be chosen using Random.org and will be notified via email. (Please be sure to provide a valid email address with your entry.)

Disclosure: I received a free 2010 Entertainment Book for review. No compensation received.