We love ice cream, mint chocolate chip happens to be my personal favorite, but eating too much can easily go to the waist line and all that sugar and fat isn’t the healthiest choice.

So how do you take care of your ice cream craving while making a healthy choice at the same time? We asked ourselves this question often and in the process have tried numerous frozen yogurt shops all over Southern California. Most of them were really lacking in flavor and texture so we made the decision to stick with real ice cream until something better came along.

Something better did! Within a 7 minute walk of our home a new Golden Spoon Frozen Yogurt store opened. My wife and kids tried it out first, I was skeptical given my experience with other frozen yogurt stores so I held off for about a week. At that point my wife was adamant that it was the best she had ever eaten so even I decided to give it a try.

My first time at the store I ordered a mix of mint and chocolate malt (given my love for mint chocolate chip ice cream). Let me tell you it easily cured my craving for ice cream. The quality, texture and flavor were perfect but even better is that I didn’t have that heavy feeling in my stomach like I do after a bowl of ice cream. This is great stuff!

From there it’s history. My kids typically get peanut butter, chocolate or strawberry banana. My wife likes to mix it up and try all of their new flavors, which they switch out each month but her current favorite is strawberry.

The health benefits: Besides being lower in calories than ice cream you also get a nice kick of protein and calcium. And we mustn’t forget what makes yogurt, yogurt….the three live active cultures added to California Grade A Skim Milk. The store makes sure the cultures are active and present in the final product.

The texture: apparently, the incredible texture comes from Golden Spoon’s freezing process. They keep the product in liquid form and only add to their soft serve machines when ready to be eaten, the ultimate in freshness.

We believe Golden Spoon is the best frozen yogurt in town so give them a try, and if you need to eat lunch or dinner before dessert we recently wrote about the great Mexican Food that is right next door.

There is a location on the border of Rancho Cucamonga and Upland. This is just off the 210 and Campus exit.

1902 N. Campus Ave, Unit B
Upland, CA 91786
909-985-1625

View Larger Map

CBS News reports on this remote gas station in California and how the prices there for 87 have risen above $5/gallon. Our most recent gas purchase was at a Chevron in Rancho Cucamonga. We paid $3.55/gallon, obviously better than $5 but still painful.

So what do you do when fuel costs rise as they have done recently? For us the choice was easy and twofold. First, drive only when necessary. Second, purchase a more fuel efficient vehicle.

One of the vehicles we had was only averaging about 16 mpg and had 10,000 miles left on the warranty so it needed to go. We had purchased several vehicles from Rotolo Chevrolet in Fontana so we thought we’d visit them again and see what they had to offer. I live in Upland but had been looking for a Rancho Cucamonga Chevrolet dealer, Rotolo was on the edge of Fontana and Rancho.

Big SUV’s were obviously out but we also weren’t interested in a car that would be too small. Where did we end up? The Chevy HHR was just right. In our first tank we’re getting 34mpg on the highway and an overall city/hwy average of 28. This is actually higher than what the sticker quotes, which was a pleasant surprise. We do however, take it easy when we drive, no fast starts and we try to maintain between 65-70 mph on the freeway. This seems to be the optimal range for most cars.

Why didn’t we get a hybrid? In our opinion a gas engine that gets 34 mpg on the highway is perfect. Yes, maybe we could get more with a hybrid but the cost of a hybrid is typically thousands more AND for some reason the cost of charging the regenerative battery is not taken into consideration. We know we pay for gas, last time I checked Edison wasn’t giving me free electricity. So for now, my new HHR has made more sense than anything and I know exactly what my cost is to run this vehicle.

I didn’t compromise my safety either, the HHR has a 5 star front and side collision rating (the highest possible).

Did it make sense to trade in my vehicle? Absolutely! My fuel cost has been cut in half and my payment is within 10 cents of the car I was trading in. I also got a 5 year/100,000 mile warranty. Initially I had no idea if this was going to work but the reality is that it’s a good idea to work with the finance manager from Rotolo. They’ve helped me with 3 car purchases so far and the customer service has been the best by far.

Our other vehicle is a 2007 Chevy Tahoe (also purchase from Rotolo). Obviously this is our family vehicle, which is only used when we need to tote our 3 kids, stroller, scooters and bikes around at one time. It’s the best design yet for the Tahoe and the fuel economy is decent with the active fuel management system. Basically, during certain types of driving the engine shuts off half of the cylinders to conserve fuel. When we need the power to merge, it’s there and all 8 cylinders kick in.

A fantastic site for calculating fuel economy and comparing vehicles can be found at Fuel Economy.Gov Just remember with this site that it does not take into account the cost to recharge a hybrid or the additional cost of the technology.

Citizen Auto Pick:

Rotolo Chevrolet
16666 S. Highland Ave.
Fontana, CA 92336
(909) 822-1111