I wanted to really like this box. I was ecstatic finding out that I won the drawing for the Thanksgiving box and I was definitely excited for it because I thought the Cooking Light Cravebox was awesome. I don’t know if I had hyped it too much for myself to be excited about this. Or that I had read that several people weren’t happy with the Thanksgiving box. I think I am mostly disappointed because there was nothing new to me to this box, aside from the Folded Words offer – $35 off plus free shipping!
I will definitely use all of the items in the box but I think what I am feeling is underwhelmed. I guess it’s hard to impress me because I tend to try new products when I see them in the store. None of the products in these box are new to me. I have seen most of them in the stores, in ads and/or commercials.
Here’s the un-boxing!
This time the blue Cravebox was shipped by itself. It wasn’t within a plain brown box like it was for the Cooking Light box. My box was slightly crunched up because of that. This box is not as large as the Cooking Light box but it’s still relatively big, at least compared to the Conscious Box I placed on top of it for comparison.
On a sad note, I didn’t get the fun colored confetti as the filler for the box. I just got some plain wadded up paper for filler.
Not very attractive as the other boxes were…
Ta-daa! The unveiling…
Hmm..canned veggies and envelope gravy…Okay…
The informative card that came with the box – the packing list
Recipes and info leaflets.
1) Pillsbury Grands! Biscuits – A free coupon for the biscuits since they couldn’t really include that in the box since it’s a refrigerated product. I’ve never tried that kind of Pillsbury before and the commercials make them look very appetizing! I will definitely be using this coupon! I’m not sure how much one can is this is but these are regularly on sale.
2) Folded Words offer – $35 plus free shipping – I think this is the best offer in the box. I wasn’t aware Walgreens offered this kind of service. I definitely have holiday cards on my mind because I need to get one made soon so I can send them out for the holidays. I will most definitely use this offer especially since it’s such a great coupon!
Here’s the whole box!
I apologize because I didn’ t take close-up pictures this time.
3) Del Monte Specialty Whole Green Beans – this is kinda funny because just yesterday I saw a commercial for these green beans and was wondering how different are they compared to other canned green beans. I think it’s because these are whole and not cut up or anything. The commercial demonstrated many different uses for these green beans – in a casserole, a stir fry, sauteed with butter. They were marketing that these were just like any other green beans since they were canned at the peak of their freshness. I’m looking forward to trying these out. This link shows you several different ways and recipes to use these whole green beans. I received 2 cans of this. 1 can costs approximately $2.09 so 2 cans cost $4.18
I also received a recipe booklet from Del Monte using their products. Seems useful!
4) Knorr Homestyle Stock – Reduced Sodium Chicken Stock – I received the reduced sodium chicken stock. Note that there are other flavors available – Beef and Vegetable. The picture actually looks a lot larger than the actual product. That would make sense since it is a concentrated form of stock. If I wanted to make a broth soup, I would just use one of these containers and mix with 3.5 cups of water to make a chicken stock. They also contained recipes where I could use this in making mashed potatoes, or cooking grains, such as rice, pasta, quinoa (or maybe the freekeh I received!) in the concentrated stock broth to give it more flavor. This costs $3.99
5) Duncan Hines Frosting Creations Frosting Starter with Strawberry Shortcake Mix-Ins – Wow, look at all those varieties! This just prompts me to make more cake balls. The old fashioned kind. Not the cheater ones (I have the cake ball machine. Super easy and fast!) Or cupcakes! I used to bake a lot. I haven’t baked recently because of my munchkins and because Meanie and I are too fat. Ok, sorry, I’M too fat. LOL. The website is very helpful because it also has links to desserts that uses these specific Frosting Creations. How fun! The flavoring packet costs $1.40 and the frosting starter probably costs around $2.50-ish. Yikes, in searching for the price, I came across this link – they call the frosting an abomination. Eeks. I’m kinda scared to use this now…
6) McCormick Turkey Gravy Mix – I love gravy. I really do. I love drowning my food in gravy, only when it’s appropriate. I also love McCormick products..but gravy from an envelope? If I buy store bought gravy, I usually buy it in…gravy form. Not a powdered envelope. Yuck. I’ll try this but I don’t expect to be wowed. 😦 I just realized that McCormick doesn’t have a ready made gravy product. Ah, that makes sense. My bad! 1 packet costs $1.29 so 2 packets cost $2.58
7) Brookside Smooth Dark Chocolate Covered Pomegranate – 7 oz bag – These are really good but..I’m sick of them. 😦 My local Costco has been selling these for quite a while and I think we’ve gone through several bags of these. If you like dark chocolate, you’ll really like these. There are other varieties available, too, – Dark Chocolate Goji or Dark Chocolate Acai. I haven’t tried the other two nor am I familiar with the Goji or the Acai berries. They’re berries, right? 🙂 Note that these are not dark chocolate covered pomegranate seeds. The flavor of the pomegranate has been infused in the chocolate so you don’ t have to deal with the annoying pom seeds. Phew! Costco sells a 12 7 oz bags of these at $40.45 so one bag will cost $3.37
So that’s the whole Thanksgiving box! I mean, it’s not horrible but I’m not super thrilled or impressed by any of it. The box will not go to waste but I can and will use everything in there. The box costs approximately $18.02 (probably more than since I did not include the Pillsbury in the pricing). The box itself costed $14.00 for me so I definitely profited from this box. Also especially that that awesome Folded Words coupon, I definitely lucked out on this box.
For those of you who are not familiar with Cravebox, it is a subscription box program where you enter drawings for different themed boxes. It’s not a monthly subscription (it used to be but is no longer). I’m going to hold off of these boxes for a while. They’re very addicting but my subscriptions are winding down and I’ll need to cut down on my spending. 🙂
I didn’t win the drawing for the Coffee Lover’s box and I’m a little relieved. I’ll be definitely on the lookout for other people’s reviews for this box and for the Coffee Lover’s box. The next box I’m interested in is the Little Ones box but I’m going to pass on the rest of them.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, everyone! If you’re not in the states, then please have a terrific weekend! 🙂
Bitchings & Gripings 
