review – Page 84 – Luv Saving Money

Making Popcorn Balls for Halloween with JOLLY TIME

**I received a kit from JOLLY TIME to help facilitate this review. No other compensation has been received*

Halloween is next week if you can believe it. The kids have their costumes and they’re getting excited for trick or treat. My son just went to his first middle school dance ( 🙁 I can’t believe it!) It was a Halloween dance. I thought it would be fun to make some Halloween treats with them especially since October is National Popcorn Month. JOLLY TIME has lots of recipes on their site for fun Halloween treats you can make yourself including popcorn balls. I’ve personally never tried to make popcorn balls but the recipes sounded pretty easy. I received some items from JOLLY TIME to make it easy for me to give one of their popcorn ball recipes a go.

I decided to try the Ghoulishly Fun Popcorn Balls recipe on the JOLLY TIME site. It sounded easy and I had all the ingredients handy. It called for regular marshmallows but I happened to have a bag of Pumpkin Spice Marshmallows handy and decided to try them. Having never made popcorn balls before I assumed things would get sticky, and they did. I wasn’t really sure the technique to use to mix the melted marshmallow and butter mixture in the bowl but I did the best I could.

One thing I was glad I had was the JOLLY TIME popcorn baller. You just scoop the popcorn into the bigger side then put the other half on top and squish it together.

For me it was a learning curve. I was afraid to put in too much thinking it wouldn’t form right but I actually didn’t put enough in and initially had some sad looking popcorn balls. But lesson learned and I added more and ended up with some nice round popcorn balls.

Now the recipes says you can use icing to decorate them or add food coloring if you are using regular marshmallows if you like. I didn’t since I used flavored marshmallows. The kids tried them. It was the moment of truth. Both of my oldest boys said they were really good. They must have been because my 9 yr old ate 2 of them. Use National Popcorn month as your excuse to try a fun and tasty popcorn recipes from JOLLYTIME.com

Also I used the JOLLY TIME Butter Light with Smart Balance so the popcorn was a little healthier than regular popcorn.

You can find JOLLY TIME on the following social media networks:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JollyTimePopCorn

Twitter: @jollytimepops

Design a Mother’s Bracelet in 3 Easy Steps

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete a review. This post also contains a referral link

If you’re looking for a gift for mom or grandma that’s personalized for them, has some meaning, and is affordable a Mother’s Bracelet from Pearls by Laurel could be the answer. For only $29.95 you can create a bracelet that uses genuine Swarovski pearls, sliver plated components, and czech-sourced rhinestones.

They have a genuine Swarovski pearl to represent each month out of the year. I was able to create an mother’s bracelet for myself. They use easy drag and drop features so you can create a mother’s bracelet in no time. You can arrange the the month colors how you want. I chose to do mine in descending order from oldest child to youngest. My kids’ birthdays go June, December, June, March. The drag a drop is visual technology so you can see what your bracelet will actually look like when it comes to you.

The bracelets come in different wrist size and it’s stretchy so it’s comfortable and has some give. I was surprised at how weighty this bracelet actually was. It is not a cheaply made bracelet. The pieces are all very solid and it is obvious they used higher quality rhinestones and Swarovski pearls in this bracelet. You can create a bracelet with up to 12 birthday months on it. There is additional cost for more than 6 birth month beads however.

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.

Tai Pei Asian Foods “Good Fortune in Every Box™” Plus a Coupon

**This is a sponsored post as part of the Social Moms blogger program with Tai Pei*®*

I love some good asian food so does the rest of my family. Very rarely do we get to go out to eat alone. Usually if we go out to eat it’s a bill for 5 of us. That has to be a once in a while thing because man, my boys can eat. I’m gonna be in trouble when they’re teenagers. Honestly with having an infant, sometimes going out with all of us can be a lot of work. Anymore more I’d much rather have a nice meal at home. My asian cooking skills are not up to par so if I’d try to make orange chicken or cashew chicken (2 of my faves) there is no way it would taste like the restaurants do. Everyone seems to have a different fave too. I love orange chicken but my husband doesn’t care for it. My oldest son doesn’t like broccoli so broccoli chicken is out.

Tai Pei has a surprising variety of asian foods in the frozen foods section. There are so many different entrees and appetizers you’re sure to please everyone in the family. Their slogan, “Good Fortune in Every Box” just might ring true when you’re in the mood for your favorite asian dish and it’s right there for you ready to eat in a matter of minutes.

Entree varieties include:

–Beef & Broccoli–Bourbon Chicken–Cashew chicken–Chicken Fried Rice–Chicken Chow Mein–Combination Fried rice–General Tso’s Chicken–Orange Chicken–Pepper Beef–Shrimp Fried Rice–Sweet & Sour Chicken–Sweet Teriyaki Chicken

Phew I told you there was a lot. They come in cute single serve boxes. Each one is Chef created and restaurant inspired. Tai Pei has over 20 years of experience in creating asian-style restaurant quality foods. They also offer asian-style appetizers.

Appetizer Varieties Include:

–Chicken Eggrolls–Chicken Potstickers–Pork Eggrolls–Pork Potstickers–Vegetable Eggrolls–Battered Green Beans–Edamame–Mini Chicken Spring Rolls–Savory Chicken for Lettuce Wraps–Spicy Mini Chicken Eggrolls–Mini Vegetable Spring Rolls

They also have an better-for-you option in the Tai Pei Asian Garden varieties

–Hunan Beef and Broccoli–Chicken Fried Rice–Spicy General Tso’s Chicken–Ginger Chicken–Glazed Chicken Potstickers–Mango Chicken–Sesame Chicken–Orange Chicken

Oh my with so many options you’re sure to find something you like. The Asian Garden varieties are low in fat, calories, and sodium each one containing only 300 calories and 8 grams of fat or less and include real ingredients like lean meats, whole grain noodles, and more.

Because this IS Luv Saving Money how about a couple? Like a buy one get one free coupon?

I’ll also have the coupon link in my side bar for a while if you want to come back at another time.

TaiPei is on facebook too, stop by and give ’em a like:

My husband gets these all the time. He loves the Tai Pei flavors. He said they are one of the few store bought chinese meals that actually taste like take out to him. We get them in the frozen food section at Walmart. Just look at the cute little boxes they come in. This particular flavor is the Bourbon Street Chicken.

My husband works late so he doesn’t get home until late. Sometimes late a night he’s not in the mood for meatloaf or whatever I might have made for dinner and put in the fridge for him so he’ll heat one of these up. I had my oldest son try one too. He seemed to enjoy it as well.

Don’t forget to print your buy one get one free coupon from the banner in this post or in my side bar!

**This blog post is part of a paid SocialMoms and Tai Pei® blogging program. The opinions and ideas expressed here are my own.**

Add More Fun To CupCakes with Batter Babies

**I received the below mentioned products to complete an honest review. No other compensation has been received**

My family loves cupcakes. I don’t know many that do not like cupcakes. It’s fun to create and decorate cupcakes for the holidays or special for someone’s birthday. It’s easy to create custom colors and add accents to the icing. Thanks to Batter Babies, now it’s easy to create custom color combos or even 2 different flavors for cupcakes. Make team colors, 2 favorite colors, or fun holidays combos.

Batter Babies are inserts for your cupcake pans to allow you to create cupcakes that are 2 different colors or 2 different flavors. Batter Babies are made of food grade plastic and are reusable. They come in packs of 6. You don’t leave them in to bake though. Only to fill your cupcake pan then pull it out before baking. We tried these. I let my kids choose the colors. They chose blue and white for their school colors. We also decided to add some lemon flavor to the white side to test that too.

Ok so we were a bit sloppy with it. Also our cupcake wrappers seemed almost too big for the pan but we made it work anyway. Even despite our sloppiness (we had fun though) the cupcakes still turned out pretty cool looking.

The divet in the side of the cupcake is from the ill fitting cupcake wrappers, not the batter babies. I honestly thought that once I pulled the Batter Babies out that the colors would just mix, especially since we left the one side white. As you can see, it didn’t. I was pretty impressed with how well it worked. It was really easy too. They Batter Daddy for cakes to make cakes two different colors which I think would be pretty cool too.

Kimber Cakeware makes both the Batter Babies and Batter Daddy. You can find them on these social media site:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kimber-Cakeware/146735632016017

Twitter: @KimberCakeware

YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/KimberCakeware

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.

Zaycon Foods Natural Chicken

I had received Zaycon Foods chicken through USFG. This post also contains my referral link

How does Zaycon Foods manage to provide such high quality super fresh meat and produce to its customers at such low prices? The answer is strength in numbers. And not our numbers, yours!

Zaycon Foods can sell its products at bulk rate prices to individual consumers and families because our unique sales event business model brings lots of people together, adding all their purchasing power into a combined bulk food purchase. And when you buy as part of a group that’s committing to such a large purchase, the power is in the hands of the purchaser! It’s the ultimate group buy in terms of both price and consumer empowerment.

You can pre-select exactly what you want to order from a given Zaycon sales event – sometimes you may want to stock up on our amazing meaty back ribs and sometimes it might be all about the Zaycon bacon – and then, on the day of the sales event, you and a whole big bunch of your neighbors will find yourselves in a nearby parking lot watching as an entire tractor trailer’s worth of high quality natural food is unloaded into all of your cars! You will be amazed at how quickly one of our refrigerated trucks goes from being filled with natural, fresh chicken or hundreds of gallons of grade A non-homogenized milk to being empty and back on its way to the farm!

A Zaycon Foods truck sales event often lasts less time than you would spend on a trip to the grocery store, yet you will leave with a whole lot more food than you’d get at the market, and for much better prices, too!

When you use the Zaycon Foods sales event as your preferred place to purchase meats, milk, and any of our other fine products, you get advantages even beyond the bulk pricing that comes with our special sales model. You also have the peace of mind of knowing exactly what you’re going to get! A trip to the grocery store can involve wasted time wandering around looking for various foods spread out across the store; at a Zaycon Foods parking lot meat truck delivery (or milk or berries or fish delivery, too!) you have pre-ordered your foods, so all you have to do is show up and wait for our friendly staffers and volunteers to load up your car. Below is an actual pick from the event I attended in Johnstown, Pa. The truck was right on time and the Zaycon Foods employees were efficient, friendly, and helpful.

Also, unlike in the grocery store, the prices you will pay for a Zaycon Foods product are locked in on our website, so you will know how much you are going to spend before you have committed to a purchase.

At a supermarket, you might pay one price for chicken on one day, and then a higher price on another day. With Zaycon, you decide that you want to order a case of our fresh boneless skinless chicken breasts, you check the price and then you commit to it, knowing that from that moment on, we are committed to getting you your fresh, natural food!

I got my 40 lbs of chicken. I took it home and separated it into freezer bags. The chicken breast were very sizable!

I separated and put 5 chicken breasts in each freezer bag just because there is 5 of us that would eat a regular meal (the baby of course doesn’t yet) You can see in the pic above that 5 chicken breasts weighed about 4.5 lbs.

To Get Started Click on this link: https://www.zayconfoods.com/refer/zf10064

**I received the below mentioned product in order to complete a review. This post also contains a referral link**

**I had received Zaycon Foods chicken through USFG. This post also contains my referral link**

I received the below mentioned product in order to complete a review. This post also contains a referral link

I had received Zaycon Foods chicken through USFG. This post also contains my referral link