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Organic cookies :)

**CLOSED**
**WINNER: random​.org #36, congrats Allie!! Winner has been emailed. Thanks to all who entered and thanks again to Home Free!**

Sometimes the organic products are hard to find at the grocery store – like they’re hidden away in the corner or behind posts or in the last place you’d think to look. I wish they weren’t because then maybe more people would buy them… I definitely think they’re better for you and your kids. We try to stay away from GMOs (genetically modified organisms) as much as possible in this house. So when I was given the opportunity to review some organic (and allergy friendly) cookies, I couldn’t wait. I was really curious to see how they tasted.


Home Free was founded by mom (whoohooo!) Jill Robbins. She was a clinical psychologist and turned to creating these snacks when her son was diagnosed with food allergies. These cookies are organic certified, free of trans-fats, and rich in whole grains. They’re also peanut-free, egg-free, dairy-free and tree nut-free. You should check out the info on their kitchen and baking/shipping process–they go to great lengths to ensure their products really are allergy friendly! Of course we don’t know yet if Ryan has any food allergies, but I love the cookies because they’re organic (and yummy)! They have:

Cookies: chocolate chip, chocolate chocolate chip, and oatmeal – all are also sold individually wrapped or in boxes and they come in mini-size
Coffee Cakes: apple or cranberry
Cookbook/Baking Ingredients: everything you need to get started!
Gift baskets


I was sent the mini chocolate chip cookies and the regular sized oatmeal cookies. LOVE the chocolate chip. I’m a huge chocolate fan, I could live on it. I should say though that they are crunchy. I wouldn’t have even noticed (because that’s how I like my cookies), but my brother-in-law likes soft cookies so he wasn’t a huge fan of these. On the other hand, the oatmeal cookies are very soft – they were good (my husband loved them), but like I said, I prefer crunchy. I suppose I could tell a difference (compared to regular store-bought cookies), but maybe only because I knew that’s what I was eating. I think you’d be surprised at how “normal” and delicious they taste while still being organic and dairy/peanut/egg free.

An individual cookie is $1.79 or buy a box of 6 for $5.49. The mini-sized box comes with about 31 cookies… my box was gone in about 2 days (THIS IS WHY WE CAN’T HAVE SWEETS AROUND THE HOUSE! DID YOU SEEEEE MY MCFATTY MONDAY POST?! lol) But really, I’d love to have these around the house as a special treat!!

One lucky reader is going to win TWO boxes of cookies!!!

Mandatory first entry: Visit Home Free and tell me what product you’d most like to try!

Extra Entries: Please leave a separate comment for each additional entry.

1 entry – follow me on twitter
1 entry – tweet about this giveaway: “Win some #organic and allergy-friendly @HomeFreeTreats cookies from @babydickey! #giveaway” (can tweet once a day)
1 entry – follow Home Free on twitter
1 entry – subscribe to this blog by RSS (top right of site)
1 entry – subscribe to this blog by email (top right of site)
1 entry – follow publicly with google friend connect
1 entry — like Home Free on facebook
1 entry – vote for us on Top Baby Blogs by clicking this link (& then click the top link to add your vote; can be done 3x a day with an hour between each)
3 entries (leave 3 separate comments) – put my blog button on your site (AND, if you already have my button, please update the code so it directs to my new domain name!)
3 entries (leave 3 separate comments) - blog about this giveaway, leave a link to it (the post must link here and to Home Free– and you cannot simply copy and paste my post)
1 entry – enter any of my other current giveaways (1 comment per giveaway)

**Giveaway ends June 30th 2010, at 11:59 pm CST. Random​.org will be used to choose the winners who will have 48 hours to respond to my email before new winners are chosen. Good luck!**

Looking out for its own: Callaway putts toward new DB plan; Golf company hires consultant to analyze design and cost of new vehicle.(Callaway Golf Co., defined benefit plan)

Pensions & Investments November 25, 2002 Byline: Arleen Jacobius CARLSBAD, Calif. — Callaway Golf Co.‘s board is investigating starting a defined benefit plan.

Board members at Callaway, Carlsbad, hired Buck Consultants, New York, to analyze plan design and cost of a hybrid defined benefit plan for all full-time employees, said Julie Adamik, Callaway’s senior manager of global benefits.

Currently, Callaway has a $70 million 401(k) plan for its 2,000 domestic employees.

So far, Callaway’s board has postponed making the decision on the defined benefit startup until possibly next April. Launching a defined benefit plan would be “a huge, huge undertaking,” Ms. Adamik said.

Callaway isn’t alone.

Earlier this year, Baker Hughes Inc., Houston, which has a $1.2 billion 401(k) plan, also added a cash balance plan. The company’s old defined benefit plan has been frozen for six years, and Baker Hughes executives added the cash balance plan to bring retirement plan values up to industry standards, said Jim Wilhite, director of compensation, benefits and corporate human resources.

When it became clear to Baker Hughes executives that they needed to do something to bulk up retirement benefits, they chose a hybrid plan instead of sweetening the company’s $1.2 billion 401(k) plan.

More sense “It made more sense to create a separate plan than improve the 401(k) plan by itself,” Mr. Wilhite said. “The 401(k) plan came out to be quite strong. It was not really short compared to other 401(k)s.” Executives chose to add a cash balance plan rather than another traditional defined benefit plan because of the hybrid’s simplicity, Mr. Wilhite said. “We wanted to have a plan that was easily understood by the employees.” Callaway Golf executives are considering a pension equity plan, a defined benefit plan with some defined contribution plan features. (A PEP’s benefits are expressed as a lump sum, but unlike with cash balance plans, the amount is tied to the plan participant’s final average pay.) Executives are considering the defined benefit plan because they are concerned about their employees’ and their own financial well-being, Ms. Adamik said. website defined benefit plan

Previously, Callaway employees were offered stock options. But recent tax changes make stock option grants less desirable, she said, leading them to consider the PEP plan. The tax changes also are prompting Callaway executives to consider converting the 401(k) plan’s company stock investment option to an employee stock ownership plan, she said.

“When corporations granted stock options, they did not have to account for them as an expense until employees exercised them,” Ms. Adamik said of the old tax laws. Now if corporations have to expense stock options at the time they grant them, it would have a negative affect on the corporations’ balance sheets, she said. go to web site defined benefit plan

What could stop Callaway Golf from implementing the plan is cost. Two weeks ago, the company cut 5% of its work force. Although the Buck cost study isn’t completed, Ms. Adamik said, “As soon as they put the cost numbers out there, I would be surprised if they (the board) took it to the next level.” But she added, “I’ve been wrong before.” ‘Fairly unusual’ Few companies that only have a defined contribution plan add any type of defined benefit plan. Typically, companies are more likely to add a defined contribution plan to an existing defined benefit plan.

“It’s fairly unusual to see a company with a defined contribution-only approach adding a defined benefit plan,” said Alan Glickstein, senior consultant with Watson Wyatt Worldwide, Washington.

“Our hope is that as people get perspective over market cycles, there will be an enhanced appreciation for both (defined benefit and defined contribution) plans as part of a company’s retirement package.” According to a recent study by The Vanguard Group, Valley Forge, Pa., the number of defined benefit plans is declining at a rate of 1% per year, while the number of defined contribution plans is growing at an annual rate of 4%.

Among Fortune 100 companies, 83% either have a traditional defined benefit or hybrid pension plan, according to an analysis by Watson Wyatt. However, only 35% of plan sponsors with 1,000 to 4,999 participants in their defined contribution plans also have some sort of defined benefit plan, according to the 2002 survey of the Profit Sharing/401(k) Council of America, Chicago.

CAPTION(S):

Julie Adamik, global benefits manager, said starting a defined benefit plan would be a “huge, huge undertaking” for Callaway Golf.


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June 16th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Contests

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