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The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook Review & Giveaway (Ends 5/3)

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ALDI Unofficial Cookbook

Baked French Toast with berries.

Chicken Parmigiana.

And even Poop Emoji Cupcakes with frosting!

These are just a few of the recipes in The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook: Delicious Recipes Made with Fan Favorites from the Award-Winning Grocery Store.

I received a copy for review and I also have a copy to GIVE AWAY! Be sure to enter my giveaway at the end of this post…but first check out what’s inside!

The Unofficial ALDI Cookbook

Our family has been shopping at ALDI for years. We LOVE the prices and quality – it’s excellent for every frugal family and shopper! So since we get so many of our groceries there anyway, I was thrilled to try out this cookbook.

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Cleaning My Home Naturally with Arm & Hammer Essentials Disinfecting Wipes

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Arm & Hammer Wipes

As a brand ambassador for Arm & Hammer Essentials Disinfecting Wipes, I received products and compensation in exchange for my review. This post also contains affiliate links that help support this site at no cost to you. All opinions are 100% mine.

Having a clean home has always been a priority to me, especially with kids and our family’s active lives. But in the past year, keeping surfaces virus and bacteria free has become so much more important than ever.

I’ve always used disinfectants but they were always so harsh, so I’ve used a combination of disinfectants to get the job done, with more natural cleaning products like vinegar for every day use.

But now I’ve discovered Arm & Hammer Essentials Disinfecting Wipes, which are awesome because they not only disinfect, but they are free of harsh chemicals!

Many other disinfecting products contain harsh chemicals, but Arm & Hammer Essentials Disinfecting Wipes use citrus based disinfection instead. They’re both effective and natural, all-in-one. 

And YES – they kill cold and flu viruses, including coronavirus! In fact, these wipes clean 99.9% of viruses and bacteria.

Arm & Hammer Wipes

These wipes can actually be used on all your surfaces including:

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Veggies Made Great Food Review & Giveaway (Ends 3/22)

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Veggies Made Great

March is National Nutrition Month, and it’s National Frozen Food Month, and I have a NUTRITIOUS, frozen food review and giveaway to share!

If you struggle to get your kids to eat more veggies, or if you are trying to get more veggies into your own diet, there’s a great option that I tried that is super yummy and good for you!

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Experiencing a Salt Cave at Just for Me “The Spa” in Stillwater

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Salt Cave Just for Me

Girls Weekend!

This past weekend was a girls weekend as my close friend visited from out of town, so we made it a full one! (As well as we safely could during COVID!)

We spent time outside in Stillwater on Saturday, which was a beautiful day. We walked along the St. Croix River and enjoyed the scenery. (Stillwater is such a beautiful city and so close to the Twin Cities.) We also enjoyed some shopping (masked and socially distanced from others – we took our masks off for pictures).

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Driving Through the Saint Paul Winter Carnival in 2021 (Our Review)

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Saint Paul Winter Carnival Drive Thru Review

Our family experienced the Saint Paul Winter Carnival Drive-Thru on opening day, January 28, 2021, and here’s what we loved and what you can expect!

I posted about this unique event a few weeks ago. The Saint Paul Winter Carnival of course isn’t new (far from it!), but the drive-thru experience is new this year, thanks of course to COVID.

But it’s a fun experience nonetheless!

St. Paul Winter Carnival Drive-Thru

This new drive-thru experience combines TWO of the Winter Carnival’s signature events – the Ice Carving Competition and the Snow Sculpture Contest. It will be each day of the Carnival – January 28th – February 7th, 2021, at the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.

We went on opening night and enjoyed a slow drive through the Minnesota State Fairgrounds, admiring snow and ice sculptures on both sides of the road, and members of the Royal Family and Vulcan Krewe!

These guys welcomed all the cars as they arrived and posed for pictures!

Saint Paul Vulcans

Each car got a goodie bag with items, like a light-up snow wand, granola bars, and information about the event. There’s also a Bingo activity sheet you can turn in at the end if you want to do it for a chance to win prizes.

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Stillwater’s Ice Palace Maze is Cool Winter Family Fun!

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Stillwater's Ice Palace Maze

This week our family visited the new Ice Palace Maze in Stillwater, Minnesota, and it was a perfect winter family outing!

It’s a winter playground and it’s outside the Zephyr Theatre in downtown Stillwater.

The Ice Palace Maze is a half-mile long, has 8-foot-tall walls, and there are fun things to discover throughout like sculptures and even ice thrones. It’s made of 1500 real ice blocks, and even has 36-foot ice slides at the end that you can go down if you want!

This attraction will be here January 22nd through March 7th, 2021, weather permitting.

“Visiting our Ice Palace MAZE will be a fun, safe, family-focused way to celebrate winter,” said Calyssa Hall, The Zephyr Theatre’s executive director. “We hope it will bring a lot of joy to Stillwater residents and visitors.” 

It’s open during the day and evening. We went at 6pm and it was lit up so pretty! There were also fires burning for roasting s’mores – or just keeping warm.

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eMeals 14-Day Free Trial (& a Glimpse of My Subscription!)

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Have you tried eMeals? 

It’s been around for several years, but I’ve been hearing about it so much I decided to give it a try!

What is it?

eMeals is an app that allows you to pick a meal plan based on your preferences, how you like to cook, and how many people are in your family. You can pick and choose your meals from the meal plan, and it automatically makes a shopping list for you. PLUS – you can order groceries directly from the app!

eMeals How it Works

Right now you can sign up for a FREE 2-week trial. I signed up so I could see what it’s like and check it out for myself.

So far, I’m impressed with all the yummy meal options and how easily it works. And you can switch between them anytime.

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Dry Cleaning at Home with Dryel (& Giveaway!)

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Dryel products

I have partnered with Dryel as an ambassador and am excited to share how Dryel works and how it can help you save money! I have received free products and compensation as part of this partnership.

As frugal moms know, dry cleaning is not cheap, and the costs can add up fast if you get your clothes professionally dry-cleaned regularly. Plus, it takes time to drop off and pick up your items, especially if you do it often. 

To keep costs low (and life simpler), most of my wardrobe consists of business casual and casual clothing that are easy to take care of like blouses, jeans, and leggings. 

But some of my items aren’t ideal for just throwing in the washing machine with the rest of my clothes. 

This is why I’m SO glad that the Dryel At-Home Dry Cleaning System exists! (And read to the end for a GIVEAWAY!)

Dryel starter kit

The Dryel At-Home Dry Cleaner Starter Kit has all you need.

It includes:

  • Stain Removing Pen
  • Odor & Wrinkle Releaser Spray
  • 4 Dryer Activated Cleaning Cloths
  • Dryel bag to use in the dryer

How does it work?

The answer is STEAM. (And not the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Math kind of steam.)

The heat from your dryer activates the cleaning solution in the Dryel Activated cleaning cloths. This releases a steam that removes body soils and odor from your clothing (ick).

The patented Dryel bag both protects your fabric and balances out the cleaning agents and the heat, slowly venting the vapors out of the bag and dryer. [Read more…]

Our Review of Portable North Pole (Get a Free Personalized Santa Video!)

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Portable North Pole

Earlier this month I shared that you can get a FREE personalized video message for your child from Santa. Did you check it out?

You can get it free from Portable North Pole just by going to their website.

They also have a ton of other videos you can customize, and your child can get personalized calls and video calls from Santa! 

Their library of options is pretty impressive, and we had the opportunity to try out their Magic Pass, which includes ALL THIS for only $13.99 right now:

  • Unlimited access to all Premium videos and calls for unlimited kids
  • Christmas Eve messages
  • Choose your adventure videos
  • Multi-name videos
  • The Reaction Recorder
  • Exclusive video for the family
  • An exclusive video for the whole family to enjoy
  • 1080 HD downloads of all your videos
  • Calls and video calls from Santa
  • New kids corner app game
  • Multi-device scenarios

With our Magic Pass we have access to SO much. I created some personalized videos for both my kids – they even have one for teenagers!

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Sever’s Holiday Lights in Shakopee are Magical and Fun

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Sever's Holiday Lights

On Sunday my kids, mom and I all went to Sever’s Holiday Lights Drive-Thru Event in Shakopee, and we all agreed – it was magical and fun!

We have attended the Sever’s Fall Festival in previous years, and even went to their Stories, Riddles & Rhymes drive-thru event this year which was cute and whimsical. But with this COVID-quarantining at home going on month after month, we knew we had to go back for their Holiday Lights event for some more COVID-safe cheer! 

I had previously written about Sever’s Holiday Lights in my guide, Holiday Lights Drive-Thru Events in Minnesota 2020. Sever’s Holiday Lights is a “magical drive-through display of 1,200,000+ lights synchronized to festive music in Shakopee.” This was one we definitely wanted to visit as it’s privately owned, AND you it’s the only one where you get a free goodie bag when you enter!

Plus – you can go back through again and again if you want!

Sever’s Holiday Lights runs from November 26th, 2020 to January 3rd, 2021. I had heard families have been saying positive things about it and it moves along quickly. Sever’s had some busy nights including this past Saturday, but I learned that was due to another nearby lights show losing power, so they had more people than they typically would have. I should note that when we went you could buy a ticket when you enter, but they changed that since this weekend so now you MUST buy a ticket in advance online.

Pricing is:

$25 per car (for 1-7 people)
$40 per 8+ vehicles

This does not include sales tax.

Note that it’s the same price as Christmas in Color at Valleyfair which is nearby.

Our Experience

We got our ticket online in advance for the 5:00 – 6:30pm timeslot. We arrived right at 5:00pm, and there was a short line ahead of us, but it moved continuously. 

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