Add a Favorite Flavor to Holiday Baking with Butterfinger

Disclosure: I got this product as part of an advertorial.
**I was provided with a sample bag of Butterfinger Bites to facilitate this review. No other compensation has been received**

Butterfingers are one of my top 5 favorite candy bars. If there is an option for Butterfinger topping or addition like a sundae, I’m all over it. I’ve seen a few recipes here and there with Butterfingers and I thought to myself that I’d have to buy several Butterfingers bars and smash them up. I’m completely sure the recipe would be tasty but I don’t buy myself a Butterfinger bar often, it’s a real treat for me. Butterfinger has made it easier though with Butterfinger Bites!

YUM! I’m excited about this for several reasons, one it lets me portion better when I want a sweet snack. Two it makes it real easy to add them to desserts. Three because if I do bake with them I can snack on a couple and not feel too guilty. Butterfinger Bites are new and it’s Butterfinger’s 90ish anniversary! I don’t know, 90ish, it’s what they told me, lol. I’m happy thought because they partnered with dessert food trucks to help created lots of Butterfinger recipes from ice cream sandwiches, cake pops, cookies, and more. To think that these little bites:

Can help you create something like this (which I will insist on being my next birthday cake):

I received some Butterfinger Bites to try in a recipe myself. Since I’m still in the process of my holiday cooking baking I thought it would be nice to make a Butterfinger cookies. I searched some of the recipes on facebook.com/butterfinger there were so many. Ultimately I wanted to make a cookie so I found a great recipe simply called “Butterfinger Cookies” The recipes was very easy to make. My youngest son, my little baker, loves to help. He enjoyed helping me with this recipe.

I used an electric beater and it broke up the Butterfinger Bites with little effort. My cookies ended up turning out kinda flat but I think it’s because my baking soda might be outdated. Even thought they didn’t look like the example picture on the recipe page they still turned out super yummy.

As a matter of fact they were supposed to be for Christmas and hubby has been eating them by the handful. I may have had a couple myself already. I think there’s only about a half dozen left. My little assistant of course got to taste a couple as well. Oh well, guess I’m just gonna have to go buy more Butterfinger Bites. Shucks!

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.

JOLLY TIME Popcorn Holiday Recipe Ideas

**I received a kit from Jolly Time to facilitate this review. No other compensation has been received**

I love working with JOLLY TIME. Each time I do I try a different recipe that my family always seems to love. I always like to have some treats sitting around other than cookies for guests and my family. We usually do a bunch of baking throughout the month freezing cookies and such and then put everything out on Christmas Eve and everyone can indulge a little . I’ve already made a few cookies so what else to make, after checking out the recipes available on JOLLY TIME’s website. I knew just what that other treat would be, White Chocolate Pecan Popcorn.

The recipe is super easy and you don’t need a lot of ingredients. All you need is enough JOLLY TIME popcorn for 12 cups of popped popcorn. I brought out all the JOLLY TIME I had but in the end I only ended up using 2 popped bags of the JOLLY TIME Butter with Smart Balance. I used a bag of Hershey’s white chocolate morsels but you can use white chocolate bark or whatever you have and a 1/2 cup of pecans. My youngest son loves to help me bake so he helped me measure out the popcorn.

After putting your popped popcorn in a large bowl you simply melt down your white chocolate in the microwave. Once melted you mix in your 1/2 c of Pecans to the melted chocolate. The pour the mixture over your popcorn in the bowl. Here’s my tip, my chocolate didn’t “pour” it kinda glopped so I spread it around the best I could on the top, mixed it, then added a little more, and so on until all the chocolate mixture was in there.

After it’s mix you spread it out on a cookie sheet to dry.

After it dries you can pack it up how you want to. Frugal tip here, save your cookie and popcorn tins from previous years. I had a small holiday popcorn tin from when my boys were in boy scouts. This recipe filled the small popcorn tin.

It honestly did fill up the whole tin but I may or may not have had about 3 handfuls of this already lol. Seriously this recipe is so simple but is so good. This would also make an excellent budget friendly last minute gift for a neighbor, mailman, etc. Packed in a nice tin, yummy.

You can find this recipe and more on JOLLYTIME.com I also recommend creating a profile on the site. They have printable coupons on the site as well as free offers and free with shipping offers with JOLLY TIME UPCs . Right now they have a pedometer, water bottle, and reusable shopping bag deal.

Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park Perfect for Cabin Fever

**I received free admission to Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park as a member of the US Family Guide, PittsburghKidsGuide.com. No other compensation has been received.**

The minute I heard about Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park in Greensburg, PA I knew I had to take my boys. I thought “This will be awesome for the holiday breaks or a weekend over the winter when there’s not much to do” When they start getting cabin fever this will be a good change of scenery and a place to let them exert some energy safely.

I had never been to Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park prior to this visit. I didn’t know exactly what to expect but I knew my boys would like it. My boys are 11, 9, and 4 years old. I definitely recommend checking the Fun Slides website before you go: http://www.funslidespark.com/. The website let’s you know when they’re open, the address for your gps, birthday party info and more. They have 2 hours time slots reserved for skating. You don’t have to be there on the dot, we actually were 20 minutes late in getting to the 4-6 pm time slot. They set you up with one of the staff if you’ve never been there before and they fit you with the fun slide skates (which I’ll explain in a minute) give the little ones helmets, and they give you an explanation of what to do and how to start off. It was very helpful. They were patient with the 4 of us including my 4 year old who kinda just wanted to do his own thing.

Now back to the “skates” I was talking about. They’re actually slides. I had the chance to talk, to one of the managers, Candy. We talked for a while. Her dad was the one that actually invented those little slide things you put under your sofa or whatever to move it around. She said the kids would take them and use them to skate around on the carpets and he thought, if he could find a way to strap those to the kids’ feet safely they might be on to something. So he created the fun slides that are available nationwide in stores like Target and more. You can also buy them at the Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park.

The atmosphere was really fun with black lights and other party lights, glow in the dark necklaces, and all ramps and floors carpeted in the skating area. Oh speaking of skating areas, one of the reasons the Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park came about was because they were invited to participate in the Gravity games with Fun Slides. They were asked to set up a little area for the kids to skate around. Again Candy’s father didn’t think it would be much fun to just skate around in a circle the whole time so that’s when the first carpet ramp was built. She told me the kids kept lining up to come back. So the idea of the carpet skate park was born. As of right now, the one in Greensburg, PA is the only one in existence. BUT they’re in the process of starting another one in the North Hills area of Pittsburgh. Wouldn’t it be nice to see more of theses around the country?

All my kids and myself had such a good time. They even had these little ones called butt slides you can sit on and slide down and longer ones called body slides you can lay on, kind of reminded me of sleds in a way. My 4 yr old just loved used the body slides and butt slides.

There were two connected sides. The first side was the tamer side with small and medium ramps and an area to just skate around. This is where I stayed when I skated. The other side was more advanced with a sort of quarter pipe and bigger hills and jumps. My older boys worked up to that. To answer any questions, yes you’ll most likely fall at some point. The bottom picture above is my oldest son taking a spill. This picture is me taking a spill lol

The nice part is it’s carpeted so it cushions the blow. You still get bumped around a bit but it’s not so bad. I would suggest however wearing a thin long sleeve shirt and pants. My oldest son did get a carpet burn on his one arm from his spill.

They also have a party room that overlooks the skate park. I tried to take a picture, it’s not real clear but it’s windowed so people can watch those in the park. There are lots of tables and chairs and rooms can be sectioned off. Candy told me they even do Christmas parties, award dinners, and more.

My recommendations for your Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park trip:

–Visit the site and get the address for your GPS or for mapping your trip if you don’t know where it is. If you see the Family Dollar plaza that helps you find exactly where it is

–Wear a long sleeve t-shirt and pants to prevent carpet burn

–Check the website to see what the time slots are before heading out. You don’t want to get there at 5:30 for a 4-6 time slot. Otherwise you’ll either only get a half hour or have to wait for the next session.

–They do have lockers you can use for belongings like purses, wallets, etc if you like.

Also definitely follow them on facebook for updates as well: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Fun-Slides-Park/163376563727108

Check out this fun video to see Fun Slides in Action:

If you’d like to visit Fun Slides Carpet Skate Park in Greensburg, PA here’s a coupon for buy one get one half off admission: http://www.pennsylvaniakidsguide.com/coupon.php?bid=11337&lid=14670&dealid=1492&regionid=208

Give A Gift That Gives More: World Vision

**I received the below mentioned product in exchange for this post. No other compensation has been received. Giveaway is sponsored by World Vision**

Wake up call statistics, did you know that one in every five children in the US live in poverty? Yes I said the US. Of those living in poverty 44% of those are in “deep poverty” in other words living below half the poverty line. That number includes nearly 10% of the children in the US. I’ll be honest, I had no idea it was that high. I try to make sure do donate to different charities during the holiday season. I do my town’s local toy drive. The school collects hats, mittens and scarves and we donate to that. We’ll do a couple others as the cause calls to me. I’ve always had a soft spot for children’s charities though. But what can we do to help this holiday season?

World Vision Gift Catalog helps better the lives of children, adults and communites in the US as well as other countries. Helping causes like clean water, food, education, sexual exploitation, job training, and more. If you think you have to hand over a few hundred dollars to make any kind of difference, you might be surprised. Just $18 can help feed a family in the US for a day. Other gifts in the catalog that help the US include Family Food Kits, Backpack and school supplies, clothing and shoes, and disaster response supplies.

Here is a short YouTube video that shows how World Vision Gift Catalog Works:

You can choose donations based on what you want to give (or can give). If you just want your donation to go to where it’s needed most or donate and give an product gift to someone with a story behind it, you can choose the donations with the free handcrafted gifts. I had the opportunity to review one of these gifts and the they are real quality pieces. This Christmas ornament set is a free gift when you donate to the greatest need with $150 donation or more.

These are beautiful hand beaded ornaments with inspiration from Nairobi. Made from recycled materials. They are made by Kenyan artists that received loans from World Vision to grow their business to get themselves out of poverty.

I love the idea of giving gifts through the World Vision Gift Catalog. You can choose donations that stay in the US or to a cause outside the US that you prefer. One of my fave donations from the catalog is only $25 provides $250 worth of clothing and personal care items to a family in need in the US (multiplies because of corporate backers too)

I encourage you to check out the World Vision Gift Catalog You can also find them on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/worldvision Twitter: @WorldVisionUSA

GIVEAWAY

1 Luv Saving Money reader will win

a hand beaded ornament set like I received

US only

Entry -Form

Energy in Chocolate Form: Yes Please!

**I received samples of the below mentioned product. No other compensation has been received. Opinions are my own**

The holidays can be a very busy time. Baking, shopping, cleaning, decorating, entertaining, wrapping, I’m sure I could add a few more verbs there. In a word the holidays can be exhausting. Some days I just don’t have the energy to do everything that needs done, (maybe I should say most days). I’m one that has tried the energy shots and I love my coffee. But now there a new portable, and tasy I might add, way to give yourself some extra energy. With Energems.

In my opinion, energems look like giant M&M candies. They are made with milk chocolate. They use caffeine and B-Vitamins as the ingredients that help give you energy. There are 3 flavors available: chocolate, peanut butter, and mint. One servings is 3 energems and trust me this is NOT a chore to eat these on the go. All the flavors were tasty but the mint was probably my favorite. The mint reminds me of something I had before. Sort of the flavor of a junior mint or mint M&M maybe. Another thing I liked about energems is the fact that I could understand the ingredients in them: milk chocolate, sugar, natural mint flavor, etc. They do use artificial colors though.

energems are available at Dollar General and other retailers nationwide. They are offering Luv Saving Money readers a $1.00 off coupon to try energems for yourself. You can also save 20% when you purchase online on their website: http://energems.net/ by using code: NRGTOMO code expires 12/15/13

They are also holding a contest to win a 6 months supply of energems (6 X 12 cartons of energems in any flavor combination) For some reason the widget code isn’t working so you can enter there: http://ptab.it/1FKfy

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.