Digital Scale from OXO Giveaway!

What’s on your kitchen wish list? Is it a new appliance? New utensils because your plastic ones melted? Perhaps nice plates for photo taking? I started writing down my wish list because every time I’m asked for gift ideas, my mind draws a blank (actually, all I can think of is a stand mixer, but I can’t expect anyone to spend $200+ on me…). One tool that serious bakers swear by is a digital scale. Weigh your ingredients; don’t measure them! I see that advice constantly, so I put it on my wish list. It was at the bottom, an item I will never get, but guess what I own now thanks to OXO?





OXO is encouraging healthy eating with some of their new kitchen tools, including this Good Grips 5 pound Food Scale with Pull-Out Display. I’m a baker at heart, so I laughed at the “healthy eating” part. Then I took a few minutes to think about it. Healthy eating isn’t about losing weight. Sure, it’s one of the benefits and who wouldn’t want to see a lower number on the scale? Healthy eating is about watching what and how much you eat. It's about eating food packed high in nutrients and cutting back on those high in sugar and fat.



So what does this awesome digital scale have to do with healthy eating? Portion control. A healthy diet is one where you can eat anything you want, but you increase the good stuff and limit the bad. That way, you aren’t depriving yourself of your favorite treats and start binge-eating on potato chips. Did you know one serving of ground beef is 4 ounces? So that means this much ground beef is two servings:



The scale itself functions great. The screen has large numbers that display measurements in either pounds or grams. A meter indicates when you get close to the maximum weight, which is five pounds (2.3 kg). If you need to measure an ingredient in a bowl, you can zero out the scale so you can accurately measure the ingredient without including the bowl’s weight. And if you have a huge mixing bowl like me, the display pulls out so you aren’t tipping the bowl.




So why do you need this digital scale?

1. Portion control. Most of us, including me, don’t realize what one serving size really is. When a recipe calls for 1/2 pound of ground beef, I honestly just guess. If I use too much, not only are the other ingredients not balanced well, I am eating more meat (more calories) than what I should be eating.

2. Baking accuracy. I still have yet to test this theory out, but a lot of serious bakers say that scooping out one cup of flour and actually weighing one cup of flour is actually a different amount. This variation affects the final product.

3. Conversion. I won a cookbook I’ve been wanting for ages. However, all of the recipes are listed in the metric system, which means I have no idea what 250g of butter is. Sure, I can do the math, but I may not always be true in weight if the math doesn’t come out easily. Sometimes I have to round so I understand what measuring cup to use. With this particular scale, I can easily hit a button and measure in grams.



Now before you go running out and buying one, how about I give you one for free? Thanks to the awesome people at OXO, I have one digital scale, exactly like this one, to give one of you lucky readers.

To enter this contest, tell me (in addition to leaving your email): how are you incorporating healthy eating into your lifestyle? Are you adding more vegetables? Do you participate in Meatless Mondays? Perhaps you choose ground turkey over ground beef? Are you making your kids eat carrot sticks instead of potato chips? Perhaps you aren’t eating as healthy as you should. What are you going to do about it?

After answering my mandatory question (don't forget to include your email!), there are a few more ways to win. If you have already completed any of these steps, just say hey I already like you/follow you/follow OXO.

1. Follow @chocolatemoosey on Twitter. You can be a current follower or a brand new one. Either way, leave me a comment with your username.

2. Follow @OXO on Twitter.

3. Tweet about my giveaway using something similar to the following phrase: "I believe in healthy eating and want to win a digital scale from @OXO and @chocolatemoosey http://alturl.com/2df7y" Leave a comment telling me you tweeted about the giveaway with your username.

4. Like Chocolate Moosey's Facebook page. Leave me a comment with your name.

5. Like OXO's Facebook page. Leave me a comment with your name.

6. Follow at least one of my boards on Pinterest. Leave me a comment with your username.

7. Follow at least one of OXO's boards on Pinterest. Leave me a comment with your username.

This giveaway is open to US residents only. Deadline to enter is March 31 at midnight EST.

Disclaimer: As part of the OXO Blogger Outreach Program, I was given two scales for free by OXO, one to review and one to give away. All opinions are mine and was not paid for this review.