GIVEAWAY CLOSED

I don’t know how many of you know this, but I love Asian food. I guess it started when I was in Jr. Highschool. My dad became very interested in Japanese culture and cuisine around that time.

Since rural Maine is not known for its international cuisine (shocker) my mom and dad started cooking it at home occasionally. My teen years hold fond memories of eating homemade miso soup and stirfries as well as occasionally making our own Tempura and Sushi.

I luckily married a man who is as adventurous as I am about trying new food-when Yankee Bill was stationed in Korea as a bachelor for a year he had about 5 local restaurants that he frequented. In each he started at the top of the menu and worked his way down, ordering a different dish each time.

Finally one of the owners asked him “Why doesn’t your wife cook for you at home?”. They had assumed that the only way he would have been interested in eating so many different kinds of Korean food was if he had a Korean wife!

We’ve passed the gene along to our kids. Princess’s favorite food of all time is Sushi, and if you give Buddy a choice of any restaurant to eat at his first choice is always Chinese!

Now I’m a pretty fair cook, and I do a decent American style stir-fry, but I don’t really delve into a lot of truly authentic Chinese food. Yes, I have soy sauce and Chinese 5 spice mix on hand, but so many of the other ingredients, especially spices, are either obscure, expensive, or something that I would ONLY use for one dish (and then why buy a whole big bottle of it). So I’ve never tried making General Tso’s Chicken, Pad Thai or Kung Pao Chicken at home.

Enter SunBird Asian spice mixes! Now normally I won’t write about a product until I’ve had a chance to taste test it myself, but in this case I made an exception. The mixes are on their way to me, and I will write a review, but there is a time sensitive issue with a cool sweepstakes* (more about that later).

SunBird offers 21 different spice mixes to include General Tso’s Chicken, Sweet & Sour, Chow Mein, Fried Rice, Beef and Broccoli, Hot & Spicy Scheshwan, Pad Thai and Kung Pao Chicken. Imagine the cost savings of cooking these favorite take-out dishes at home! Cooking at home is always such a cost savings because you can purchase your ingredients on sale and substitute where necessary (hey-if pork is on sale you can make Kung Pao Pork just as easily as chicken!)

Now to be clear, these spice mixes are that-spice mixes-not “all in one” mixes. To make them up you will need to add the rest of the sauce ingredients, such as soy sauce, oil, sugar, water and cornstarch. And of course you will have to add your own meat, vegetables & rice as necessary. Each package clearly lists out the ingredients needed.

So now on to the fun part!

SunBird has generously given me not only a case of SunBird Asian spice mixes (variety pack of 24 spices valued at $25) to give away to one lucky reader, but also a $25 Visa Giftcard to buy the groceries you need to create these Asian meals at home.

This giveaway will run from Sat Jan 9 through Thu Jan 14.

To enter:

1. Head on over to the SunBird Chinese New Years sweepstakes (ends Jan 15th & hence the short time frame) and enter then come back and leave a comment letting me know!

and/or

2. Head on over to the SunBird site then come back and let me know which mix you are most interested in trying.

Want even more chances to win? Here you go!

3. Tweet about this giveaway up to 1X a day: Here’s a chance to win a case of SunBird Asian Sauce mixes and a $25 Giftcard! http://bit.ly/6ogo6e

4. Tweet about the SunBird Sweepstakes up to 1X a day: Enter to win a VIP trip for 2 to the Chinese New Year Parade in San Francisco! http://bit.ly/8QCX8K

5. Subscribe to Frugal Upstate (up top there on the right!) or let me know you are.

There you go~Good Luck to everyone!

***This is a sponsored post***

Note: The SunBird The Grand Prize Winner will receive a VIP experience package at the parade on Feb 27^th, 2 VIP Tickets to the TV Broadcast Viewing area for the parade, 2 roundtrip airfare tickets to San Francisco, 3 nights hotel stay and dinner for two at a select restaurant. Two second place winners will get $100 grocery gift card and five 3^rd place winners will receive a $50 gift card. You do not have to enter my giveaway in order to enter the SunBird giveaway. Sweepstakes closes on Jan 15th

Note: As always, this giveaway is not open to my family members.

Tagged as: Sponsored