Chocolate lovers have a reason to celebrate. David Edwards, a professor of biomedical engineering at Harvard University, has developed an alternative to the pesky wrappers keeping chocoholics from enjoying a delicious indulgence: "Le Whif."

Edwards' "Whif" is an inhaler that puffs micro-particles of calorie-free cocoa bliss into your mouth that's exceeded the inventor's wildest expectations. Le Whif isn't lasting long on stores shelves, with its initial production run of 25,000 selling out in a few weeks last May in Paris.

"We did not imagine the reaction that we got at the end of the spring," Edwards said in a Reuters story on CNBC. Women seem to be "Whif's" biggest fans, stashing the inhaler in their purses to satisfy anytime chocolate cravings.

What's in a name? The pork industry is discovering the wrong name can become a multi-billion dollar calamity.

Since April, when many of us first heard the name "Swine Flu" used for the H1N1 virus, the pork market has been in a tailspin.

According to the National Pork Producers Council, this is the second body blow absorbed by hog farmers in the last two years, resulting to date in $5.3 billion of lost revenue.

The first was the sudden dramatic increase in the price of corn, which almost doubled within the six months following September 2007. The second blow was the Sw*** flu, a misleading moniker for a virus that you cannot, cannot, cannot contract by eating pork.

After two deaths and more than two dozen people taking ill from E.coli, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is recalling 545,699 pounds of fresh ground beef products sold from Maine to North Carolina.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention along with health and agriculture departments in Connecticut, Maine and Massachusetts connected the E.coli cases to beef that was prepared at a plant in upstate New York, the USDA said. All the meat was processed at Fairbank Farms in Ashville, N.Y.

UPDATE: The CDC announced the outbreak now has victims coast-to-coast, stretching from Maine to California. The 28 people known to have gotten sick with the same strain of e.Coli live in 12 states: California (1), Connecticut (4), Massachusetts (8), Maryland (1), Maine (2), Minnesota (1), New Hampshire (4), New Jersey (1), New York (1), Pennsylvania (2), South Dakota (2), and Vermont (1), the CDC said. Of those, 16 were hospitalized and three suffered kidney failure, the CDC reported.

Last Christmas, I got a Starbucks gift card for $50 from my boss (a nice gift but with a semi-intentional hint that caffeine may help me do a better job).

I used it up within a month but when a barista tried to lure me into getting the Starbucks Rewards Gold card, I wasn't even tempted. Paying a $25 annual fee upfront for the right to 10% discounts on coffees didn't seem like a deal when I didn't know if I'd have the money for the remaining 90% of the cost of my once-daily lattes.

Guess I'm not the only one who felt that way, and Starbucks got the hint. It recently announced it is consolidating its Starbucks Card and Gold Card reward programs into a free, easier-to-follow customer loyalty program called "My Starbucks Rewards" that launches Dec. 26.

You'd think any fast-food chain would have taken a lesson from KFC and the Great Free Chicken Fiasco of 2009 and avoid offering customers an outrageous deal via the Internet, where word of just about anything -- good or bad -- can spread faster than greased lightning.

Nevertheless, Boston Market stepped into similar pile of fowl doo-doo last week when it offered its loyal customers a coupon for a $1 chicken entree via its Web site. While not free, it was still one hen of a deal. For $1, diners got a choice of a quarter white or 3-piece dark chicken dinner, along with mashed potatoes and cornbread. Vegetables weren't part of the deal.

Keeping your family well fed is becoming more of a challenge each day. Not only do you have to take into account what the kids will and won't eat, what's in season, and organic versus non-organic, there's the issue of cost. And according to the Agriculture Department, your grocery bill will climb even higher as the economy starts to recover.

To help, WalletPop will occasionally feature recipes from famous chefs and restaurateurs. The price tag: $15 or less to serve a family of four or more. To kick off the series, celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck recommends this hearty but easy to make Southwestern Strata with sausage recipe.

Halloween trick or treat night night came early this year at our house, and thanks no doubt to the H1N1 flu scare, we were visited by very few ghosts and goblins. We were despairing (drooling) over the amount of candy left over to tempt us, until I discovered Halloween Candy Buy Back, a program by dentists to buy candy from kids and their parents and send it to soldiers overseas.

Here are this week's Five Fabulous Finds from Coupon Cravings, including free tacos, burritos and frozen yogurt on Halloween. Plus, get free pumpkin stencils and carving guides, as well as extra-cheap ambiance music, costumes and coupon booklets.

1) Stop by Taco Bell between 6 p.m. and midnight on Halloween for a free Black Jack Taco. Or, dress up as a burrito and head to Chipotle between 6 p.m. and close on October 31 for a free Burrito. You can also get a free 12 oz Frozen Yogurt at Menchie's when you wear a Menchie's swirl top hat on Friday or Saturday (October 30-31).

2) Send in candy wrappers from trick-or-treating and get a coupon by mail for a free YoCrunch from Breyers.

3) Get free pumpkin stencils, jack-o-lantern carving guides and coloring pages. Or, download more than an hour of Halloween ambiance sounds for just $.99.

4) Need a last-minute Halloween costume? Stop by Old Navy on Friday or Saturday (October 30-31). All Halloween costumes and apparel will be just $2. Then pop by Sears with your child in costume to get a free Mattel toy.

5) For just $1, get free food Halloween coupon booklets from Burger King (free fries), McDonald's (free ice cream cones, hamburgers, apple dippers and milk), Wendy's (free jr. frosties) and Friendly's (free kids cones).

This game of chicken is getting interesting.

After KFC offered up a free piece of chicken on Monday, Boston Market upped the ante by offering its online customers a $1 chicken meal. That's a complete meal with a quarter white or 3-piece dark chicken served with mashed potatoes and cornbread. All for one humble greenback.

Now that's finger lickin' good.

The offer lasts through Nov. 1. Get your printable online coupon here and bring it into any participating Boston Market. Limit one meal per customer per visit.

Would you eat chicken imported from China? Overwhelmingly, 96% of WalletPop readers say they wouldn't touch the stuff.

Now that a 2004 ban on chicken imported from China has been lifted, it could be awfully tempting for some of America's favorite fast-food chains to buy the cheap meat. We asked seven of the biggest fast food chains in the U.S. whether they would buy the chicken when it becomes available. Three said they will only buy American chicken. Three would not say what they'll do. And one, a very big one, left the door wide open.

Costco has started to accept food stamps at its warehouse clubs nationwide, which could be great for poor people looking for deals on food, or the worst decision in the history of buying groceries.

Anyone who has been to a Costco store knows the enticements of impulse buys that you'd normally walk by without a thought at any other store. Four pounds of red king crab for $99.99? Sure, why not? A deli meat party pack for $44.99? Yeah, we'll eat it eventually. Enough cashews to keep a squirrel happy for the winter? Bring it on.

Buying in bulk is great if you plan on emptying out your pantry within six months and the purchase was a deal too good to pass up, as I discussed in a recent podcast with a frugal chef.

And with a record 35 million people being helped through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, in July, they sure can use the discounts offered at Costco. That's a 23% annual increase in the number of people using SNAP, proving that the recession hasn't ended yet.

The average monthly SNAP benefit last year was $101.52 per person. For a month. Try spending about $25 a week on groceries for yourself and see how far you get.

It's been clear for some time now that the recession has taken its toll on consumers, leading them in many instances to winnow purchases down to the bare necessities. And the food industry, always on the outlook for a new gimmick to sell its wares, is paying attention.

It's one reason you may have seen the word "simple" or "simply" appearing on more packaging. Marketers such as Starbucks, Kraft and Campbell's are paring down ingredients and using simpler language on their product labels, as a way to appeal to a new generation of thrift-seeking consumers.

WalletPop's Aaron Crowe talks with frugal food expert Elise Cooke about how to cook frugal meals at home in today's podcast.

Cooke's tips include planning meals ahead of time, buying at sales and cooking many meals at once.

If you want to be popular on Halloween night, give out chocolate. That's among the many fun Halloweeen facts I found on the spooky night.

• The Census Bureau estimates that 36 million kids between the ages of 5 and 13 will trick-or-treat this year on Halloween. (Many of the ghosts and ghoulies that visit my house are under five, while some are old enough to drive from house to house, so the total number of TOTers is certainly higher.)
• There are 111.4 million occupied housing units in the country, also known as targets to this ravenous horde.
• 41% of givers scarf down some of the candy they bought for the night, and 90% of parents admit to stealing some of their childrens' plunder.
• Chocolate is the most common handout (52%). Thirty percent of households give out hard candy or lollipops. One in four spring for full-sized candies. The rest hand out the misnamed "fun" size.
• The most popular candy gifts as ranked by children:

1. Chocolate, 68%
2. Lollipops, 9%
3. Gummy candy, 7%
4. Gum, 7%

I wonder if I'm making a mistake by handing out dental floss this year?

• Happily, 93% of people residing in households consider their neighborhoods safe. I wonder how many nations in the world can match that?
• The U.S. grew 1.1 billion pounds of pumpkins last year, equivalent to over 1,100 B-747s. The most gourd-friendly state? Illinois, which produced almost half of the Jack-o-lantern blanks.
• The average American consumed 23.8 pounds of candy last year. Yes, I did my share of the work.
• We will spend around $2.23 billion on candy during the seven days leading up to Halloween, according to a spokesperson for the National Confectioners Association.
• The Jack-o-lantern is a tradition brought to the U.S. by Irish immigrants, who back home had carved them out of rutabagas and other root vegetables.
• The pumpkin originated in Mexico around 7,000 B.C.
• The winning pumpkin in the Circleville Ohio Pumpkin festival this year weighed 1,635.5 lbs., more than the combined weight of the Cleveland Cavaliers starting lineup plus their coach.

You might wonder what could be done with such a pumpkin? How about this?

Ordering grilled chicken or cooking it home may not be as healthy as you think.

Last week, the Cancer Project, a Washington D.C.-based group, sponsored a class-action lawsuit in Connecticut against McDonald's, Burger King and Friendly's alleging that the restaurant chains failed to warn consumers about a dangerous carcinogen in grilled chicken.