Author: Angie

I’m reading Real Moms Love to Eat by Beth Aldrich.  I discovered the book through SocialMoms.com.  To some things up in one sentence the book teaches you  how to eat in an entertaining way, without torturing yourself.  Luv Saving Money will be part of the book tour.  I’ll have a complete book review coming up this month.

I’m not finished with the book yet.  What I have read has been very helpful to me.  I’m not the best at reading labels.  She talks about good and bad fats, alternatives to adding flavor to your dishes, and more.  I received a very generous goody bag as part of the book tour with some of the foods Beth talks about in Real Moms Love to Eat.  One item in the bag that really caught my attention was the “All Natural Peanut Butter and Co. Dark Chocolate Dreams” which is peanut butter blended with dark chocolate.  It has no trans fats, no cholesterol, gluten free, certified vegan, and does NOT contain high fructose corn syrup.

So, while it looks really good, and smells good, I had to wonder what it tasted like.  I decided to go for a healthy snack.  I put the recommended servings size on a small tea plate and cut up a banana.  Wow this stuff is amazing.  Very good on bananas.  I think it would be great with a number of fresh fruits like strawberries, peaches, apples, and would be great on some whole grain toast.   I’m sure it could be added in a number of recipes too.  You can find Peanut Butter and Co.’s Dark Chocolate dreams on their website: http://www.ilovepeanutbutter.com

You can also find Peanut Butter and Co. on twitter: http://twitter.com/#!/PeanutButterCo
and on Facebook:  www.facebook.com/PeanutButterCo.

Another think I like is the fact that when I read the ingredients section of the Dark Chocolate Dreams, I understand what every ingredient is. There’s no freaky chemical, sciencey words, just good stuff.  The cherry-on-top is that they only use 100% USA grown peanuts.

If you want to learn more about healthier eating and what Beth might suggest using this type of product with to eat healthier, you should pre-order Real Moms Love to Eat.  Anyone who pre-orders the book will be eligible for prizes in their sweepstakes.

Maybe you’re looking for a cute personalized wedding favor, maybe you want some nice favors for the baby shower you’re planning, perhaps you want to have some handout items made up to promote your business, whatever it is, PartyBeans.com can help.

Partybeans.com offers personalized gifts and party favors.  One of the nice things is that there’s no minimum to order.  If you only want one you can just get one.  If you want 100 you can get 100.  They have unique items like cute little 10 oz wooden barrels filled with Jelly Belly jelly beans, breath strip packs, 6 oz glass candy jars, and many more.  All can be personalized with a company logo, message, or announcement.

I decided to get the key chain mint tins and put my blog logo on them.  I was able to get 8 of them for $25 (including the shipping).

I love to have these kinds of things to hand out.  You get into a conversation with someone about your company. They have a genuine interest, you hand them a little token like this.  This would be a great thing to have for taking part in fairs to hand out.  Any of the items would be nice, personalized to welcome a new baby to give out to guests or as a Personalized Wedding Favors.   The mints in these are quality too.  They’re smaller and have a strong mint flavor. You only need one at a time.  To be quite honest, I didn’t even realize until after I placed my order that I could have added a background to behind my logo too which may have made them even nicer.  I’m still happy with the way they turned out though.

Shipping was very fast.  The only complaint I had was that when I ordered them I kept getting an error message with my logo.  It didn’t say what the problem was, if it was too big, not big enough, the quality wasn’t good enough etc.  I finally just put it through.  Then I got an email to say that my order was on hold until I made changes to my picture but  I still didn’t know what the issue was.  I just adjusted the size and put it through again and it worked.

I like that the items are well made and you don’t have to order so many.  This really opens up the possibilities of what you can use them for.

I received one or more of the products mentioned above for free using Tomoson.com. Regardless, I only recommend products or services I use personally and believe will be good for my readers.

Have you tried any of the Extra Dessert Delight gums?  Ever since I discovered them, they’ve been my favorite gum.  I love key lime pie but I don’t like the calories and the effects on my body.  Extra Dessert Delight gums help with their Key Lime Pie flavor.  This one is my fave so far.  In my opinion, it tastes very much like real key lime pie.  The fact that it only has a couple calories per stick and is sugar free is great.  I keep several different flavors of this gum in my clip board for work.

Extra Dessert Delights gum offers flavors like the one I mentioned above, strawberry shortcake, orange creme pop, apple pie, and mint chocolate chip.  Extra wants your opinion now on what the next flavor should be.  Go to Extra Dessert Delights facebook fan page to vote.

The competition is between Bananas Foster, Rootbeer Float, and Lemon Square.  It’s such a hard choice for me.  I love Lemon Squares but I think Bananas Foster would be interesting.  After weighing the options in my head I voted for Bananas Foster.  How about you, who will you vote for?

The winner of the fan flavorite vote will be announced on November 16, 2011 so get over there and vote.  Alternatively, you can also vote from your phone.

Disclosure: I was entered for a chance to win an Extra® Dessert Delights® gum prize package in exchange for this post.  No monetary exchange took place.

Everyone knows that college is a huge expense but well worth the money if you can find a job doing what you love.  One of the many expenses that empty you wallet are college text books.  You’re required to have specific books. If you buy them brand new, the price of each book is enough to make you sick.  If you’re lucky, you can get your hands on a used one to save a little money that way.  There’s another option though, Campusbookrentals.com.

Campusbookrentals.com offers free shipping both ways on the textbooks you need. They also offer a 30 day, risk free trial. They have the largest selection of textbooks in the nation. They also offer flexible rental periods. You can save up to 90% on your textbooks!

 If you bought books last semester and don’t have a need for them anymore, Campusbookrentals.com will buy books too.

Campusbookrentals.com is a company that cares.  For 2011, they have teamed up with Operation Smile. Operation Smile performs cleft palate surgeries on children whose family would otherwise not be able to afford it.  For every book rented in 2011, a portion of the proceeds will go to Operation Smile. Campusbookrentals.com goal is to help 1000 children.  Click the link in this paragraph to see other charities Campusbookrentals.com has worked with in previous years.

So let’s see: save money, get the books you need, help a company donate to a worthy charity, sounds like a good deal to me.

You can also find Campusbookrentals.com on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/CampusBookRentals
and on twitter: http://twitter.com/textbookrentals

***This is a sponsored post through Campusbookrentals.com. ***

While some of you have already had trick or treat with your kids, other towns are getting ready to have theirs. Our trick or treat is on Monday.  If you have already done your trick or treat it’s important to keep in mind that a town your driving through might be holding their trick or treat.  If you haven’t yet there’s lot of safety measures to take.  Acuvue has provided some safety tips for us here for both trick or treaters and drivers.

• It’s important that pedestrians dress themselves in a way that provides contrast and reflectivity, for example, by wearing light colors. Wear white if you’re going to bicycle at night or walk at night, and wear reflective tape. Put it on parts of your body that are going to be moving—this goes for Halloween costumes as well!
• Don’t let children run ahead of you and be sure to hold the hand of especially little ones.

For more great tips you can listen to the newest Healthy Vision^TM with Dr. Val Jones. Optometrist Dr. Christina Schnider and Group Vice President of the National Safety Council John Ulczyski will be joining Dr. Val Jones for the show to talk about how to take care of your eyes in the dark. This edition will air on Tuesday Nov. 1, 2011.  You’ll be able to check it out HERE, or you can download it on iTunes for free.