Tastefully Tuesday - Top That, Oatmeal!

When staying in hotels, my favorite part about the trip is the continental breakfast – especially if oatmeal is on the menu! Oatmeal is so wonderful for your health. It is an amazing source of fiber that keeps your digestive system moving smoothly, and helps you feel fresh and ready to conquer your day. This complex carb and high fiber food slows digestion and stabilizes your blood-glucose levels.

Oatmeal isn’t only a breakfast food, though! It can be enjoyed at nearly anytime of the day in order to gain its plethora of benefits. If you eat oatmeal at least once a day, whether for breakfast or any other meal of the day, you could significantly help in lowering your cholesterol levels. This is because it contains a high amount of fiber. With a healthy, low-fat diet, oatmeal could also help in preventing heart disease due to the amount of beta-glucan within the oats.

From Bland to Bliss

Oatmeal doesn’t have to be bland. There are lots of ways to spice it up – and some don’t even require spices. Here are some fantastic ways to make your oatmeal even more delicious!

• Fruits and Berries – Combine fiber with fiber for the ultimate healthy breakfast! Many fruits are excellent sorts of fiber, and if not fibrous, then they still have amazing benefits. Fruits and berries will naturally sweeten up your oats!
• Sugar and Spices – These are good when you want a little something more, but just plain oats to go down. Cinnamon is wonderful in your oatmeal, giving it a nice aroma as well as the benefits that come from cinnamon, such as an increased metabolism. If you don’t want the extra calories that come in sugar, then you can easily substitute in a sweetener that doesn’t have the calories. There are a great number of sweeteners out there now, and many that come from nature.
• Nuts – You’d have to be nuts to not try this. Nuts are fantastic because in addition to putting a little bit of crunch in your oatmeal, they are a fantastic source of protein. It’s a delicious twist! When added with a fruit or berry, such as a raisin, nuts are a wonderful crunch to go with the sweet chewy flavors, not to mention even more vitamin-packed.

Just remember, if it comes from a plant, then you'll want to put it on your oatmeal. And if it was made in a plant, then you should probably avoid eating it anyway!

Extreme Oatmeal, FTW

Some people, however, go to great extremes when it comes to their oatmeal toppings. They put such outrageous things over the normally nutritious meal that it basically counteracts the nutritional value. Chocolate chips are included in some varieties of oatmeal, so they’re not all that out of the ordinary. But here are some of the more outrageous toppings.

•  Nerds the candy, not the human variety – aren’t such an unusual oatmeal topping. If you are what you eat and pride yourself on your nerdisms, then you definitely will not put this candy over your oatmeal. All they are is sugar coated in an even more unhealthy sugary coating. Talk about counteracting the health benefits of oatmeal!
• Gummy candies are horrible as an oatmeal topping, regardless of how it tickles your tastebuds. No matter which variety, whether worm, flower, or bear, gummy candies aren’t good for you. They are not only gummy on the exterior, but they are also gummy in your tummy! Why ruin such a wonderful nutritious meal? You’re better off adding a heaping spoonful of brown sugar instead.
• Marshmallows are some people’s favorites for their campfire s’mores, and others favorites to put over their oatmeal. While everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, needless to say this sticky treat is rather counteractive in the work that oatmeal tries to provide to your physical well-being. While oatmeal aids in clearing everything out, marshmallows and the other candies previously mentioned bulk everything together, making a big glob of mess in your intestines.

This isn’t saying that you should never indulge. There’s nothing wrong with treating yourself but the fewer and farther between it happens, the healthier the results. And one of two things is bound to happen as a result – either you’ll appreciate the treats more because you have them less, or you’ll lose all desire for them and automatically choose the healthier options instead.

The Bottom Line about Spicing Up Your Oatmeal

Oatmeal really doesn’t need to be made extreme, even if you don’t like the taste of just plain oatmeal. There are plenty of ways to spice it up or sweeten the flavor, and most of them are right in your pantry waiting to be added. Oatmeal is truly a breakfast that can tempt the taste buds of your entire family. What are you waiting for? If you hop offline now, you could be enjoying a warm bowl of oatmeal sweetened with your favorite toppings in less than ten minutes!

5 Things You Probably Didn't (Want to) Know about Chickens

The question of which came first, the chicken or the egg has plagued humans long before Colonel Sanders began covering these succulent birds in a special blend of seasonings and deep frying them. As someone who enjoys eating both chicken and eggs, I found the Smithsonian's Surprising Science article that listed some fun facts about chickens an interesting read. Here are my 5 favorites within their list of 14.

1. Tastes Like Chicken - Chickens do not only eat seeds and worms, but they have also been known to eat small creatures like lizards and mice.
2. I Believe I can Fly - Chickens are able to catch enough air to fly into the low-lying branches of a tree or escape the boundaries of a short fence.
3. Size Matters - Hens pay more attention to a rooster with a larger, brighter crown. They've also been known to eject the sperm of roosters who rank lower in the overall pecking order of the flock.
4. Name Game - A chick is a baby chicken. Pullets are adolescent females. Hens are females who produce eggs. And if you're from the United States, a boy chicken is called a rooster.
5. Battle of the Birds - The first domesticated chickens were used in cockfights long before they ever saw the inside of a deep fryer. 

So the next time you order some McNuggets or go to bite into a piece of greasy fried chicken, remember that there's more to these birds that meets the eye. Why not head on over to the Smithsonian site to learn more about them?

Tastefully Tuesday - Trick or Treat!

If you've been following my blog, then you know I'm a huge fan of Mexican food. This Taste of Home recipe provides a way to get your candy corn on without driving into the plastic pumpkin full of sugar. And if you're suffering power outages from Hurricane Sandy, then put your cast iron skillet on the grill and cook them up that way instead. Enjoy, and Happy Halloween!


Prep: 25 min. Cook: 10 min. Yield: 24 Servings

Ingredients

• 1 rotisserie chicken, cut up
• 1 jar (16 ounces) salsa
• 1 cup frozen corn, thawed
• 1/4 cup barbecue sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 cup butter, melted
• 8 flour tortillas (10 inches)
• 1 jar (15-1/2 ounces) salsa con queso dip, warmed
• 4 cups (16 ounces each) shredded Mexican cheese blend
• 2-2/3 cups crushed nacho-flavored tortilla chips
• 1/2 cup sour cream

Directions

1. In a large sauce pan, combine the first five ingredients; heat through.
2. Brush butter over one side of each tortilla. 
3. Place one tortilla, buttered side down, in a large skillet. 
4. Spread with 1 cup chicken mixture; top with another tortilla, buttered side up. 
5. Cook over medium heat for 1-2 minutes or until bottom is lightly browned. Flip.
6. Spread 1/2 cup queso dip over top of quesadilla. 
7. Sprinkle cheese around outside edge. 
8. Cover and cook for 1-2 minutes or until cheese begins to melt. 
9. Remove to a cutting board. Sprinkle chips over middle of quesadilla. 
10. Spoon a dollop of sour cream into the center. 
11. Cut into six wedges. 
12. Repeat with remaining ingredients.

Yield: 2 dozen.

Nutritional Facts
1 wedge equals 310 calories, 17 g fat (9 g saturated fat), 56 mg cholesterol, 613 mg sodium, 21 g carbohydrate, 3 g fiber, 15 g protein.

Originally published as Candy Corn Quesadillas in Simple & Delicious October/November 2011, p11

Tastefully Tuesday - Breakfast Enchiladas

Unwilling to leave the comfort of my yoga pants and oversized tshirt to go out for breakfast last Saturday morning, I decided to stay in and cook something from whatever we had in the freezer and pantry. Your ingredients might be different, and that's okay! The important thing is to try something new. You might like it!

INREDIENTS:

• Flour tortillas
• Sausage
• Sausgae or Country Gravy
• Scrambled Eggs
• Shredded Cheese

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Cook sausage, drain and set aside.
3. Scramble eggs.
4. Spoon sausage and eggs into flour tortillas and roll up, seam side down in a baking dish.
5. Pour gravy over the enchiladas.
6. Sprinkle with a generous helping of shredded cheese.
7. Bake for 30 mins or until cheese is melted and bubbly.

As I was typing this, I had the idea that strips of chicken fried steak would also be a good idea to try! Because that's a little beyond my capabilities, the fireman will have to be the one to experiment with those. If you try this - or some variation of the recipe - I'd love to hear how it worked out for you. Ours were delicious!

Tastefully Tuesday - The (Yogurt) Cake Is Not a Lie!

The source behind the catchphrase “The cake is a lie” is the popular game, Portal. The game is built around the message of false promises without any intent to deliver. One of those promises is cake, which is never seen by players until after the ending credits roll up and even then it’s only temporary and changes back to the standard background screen after a short while. As the Portal character GLaDOS would say, “This is your fault. And the cake is gone. You don’t even care, do you?”

Actually, I do care. If the fireman and our teenage sons devoured an entire cake without leaving me even one slice, then I'd be pretty ticked off. After learning about Dr. Oz's new, healthier version of cake made with Greek yogurt, Thing2 said he'd never eat it. This presented two challenges for me. First of all, was the recipe as easy as it sounded? And secondly, could I trick my precious snowflake into eating it?

The answer is yes, to both. And it was really tasty. It's probably no healthier than cakes that use oil and eggs, but at least it didn't cause me to break out in hives or develop an itchy, burning sensation in the back of my throat. Now I want to try other variations of this recipe. Vanilla cake with flavored yogurt. Vanilla yogurt with flavored cake. Et cetera. Have you tried this? I'd love to hear tips for future success, or even at your unsuccessful attempts.

Tastefully yours,
Becky

Tastefully Tuesday - Chili Cupcakes

I know, right? They sound disgustingly delicious. This is actually a recipe that we haven't tried yet, but found online. We'll be creating them for NFL Day, which occurs every Sunday afternoon from early September-ish until late January-ish.

The recipe I'm using is very easy. It involves pressing biscuit dough (pre-portioned from the can, because we all know I don't cook) into a muffin tin, topping it with an ice cream scoop full of chili and a sprinkling of shredded cheddar, and then baking until the biscuits are golden brown around the edges and the cheese is just melty enough. Top them with yummy extras like sour cream, crumbled corn chips or nachos, more cheese, onions, or even a jalapeno pepper.

I'm pretty excited about it. Here are some pictures I found online, and one even uses wanton wrappers which might come in handy for my friend Dawn of Dragonflies@Dawn fame. And if it doesn't, I'm sure she'll offer up a tasty alternative in the comments section.

Thrifty Thursday - The Eyes Have It

These shoes cost $1600. Eye kid you not.

The Fireman and I have a deal - I won't buy any shoes that cost more than a house payment. $1600 is about four times our house payment, so this pair is something I won't be purchasing unless we hit the lotto. In the meantime, I can make my own!

Just take your favorite pair of black pumps, some randomly sized googly eyes, and some E-6000 glue. (That stuff is fairly awesome in the strength category.) then go to town, gluing the eyes to the shoe.

Be creative! And why limit yourself to shoes? Hair clips, bangles, eye glasses - they call can be improved with a few googly eyes.

Your ensemble isn't complete if your nails aren't accessorized accordingly.

Can you imagine this on a black pleather motorcycle jacket? Neat!

Everyone will be eye-ing your new look. Can you think of other fun items? Have you had any success with adding googly eyes to your unique fashions? I'd love to hear about in the comments section below.

Stay thrifty!
Becky

Something Else Saturday - National Buy a Book Day

Did you buy a book for National Buy a Book Day Yesterday? Did you even know it was National Buy a Book Day? Here's the official logo. Even though I didn't design it, I think it's pretty snazzy.

Logo by Clifton Hill

I only know about it because I was invited on Facebook. And yes, I did buy a book. I bought this one:

Actually CLICK HERE to look inside.

I've already read this book, but as I confessed on the National Buy a Book Day Facebook Page, I borrowed this from my community library without officially checking it out. That's right, I stole The Book Thief. And then after I read it, I misplaced it. So after my boys and i read this copy I'm going to do the right thing and donate it back to the library. It will be a weight off my conscience and then someone else can enjoy the wonderfulness that is this book.

What books have you bought lately? I'd love to hear all about them in the comment section!

Thrifty Thursday - Free Magazines

This morning I woke up to an email from FreeBizMag.com. In it was the following link:

http://www2.freebizmag.com/10023695/welcome.html?ref=email2&tcode=&fid=104273008495

If you want free magazines, click the link. Whether you need some for crafting or you just need extra reading material, they have a huge selection of informative literature with colorful pictures. You'll be taken to a page where you have to give up some information to continue. This combination has always worked for me in the past. If you aren't sure what to put, just select whatever. They make it easy for parents of home schooled children.

1. Industry
   - Education
   - Other education
2. Job Area
   - Education
   - 08: Teacher / Educator
3. Company Size
   - 1 - 4

Next, select the featured title. Then, scroll down and click "Continue".

You'll be taken to a page called "Qualify for Your Selections" like this. While you have to answer every question. However, you do not have to answer YES to every question. You might have to answer something multiple choice like the size of your company or your business industry. And of course, you have to provide the first letter of the state you were born in, to prove you're a real person. Once this is done, click "Continue" again.

This will take you to a page called "Please Sign In". If you have an account, sign in. If you don't, it's safe to create one. You can always set up a gmail account called something like homeschoolfreebies4me@gmail.com or something so your regular inbox doesn't get cluttered with mail. This site's pretty good and only sends me email a couple of times per week.

Now you should be at a page called "You've Reached the Last Step".Just fill in your name and address and at the bottom, click submit.

THIS PART IS VERY IMPORTANT -- YOU ARE NOT DONE YET!

See this page here? It's the "Check out Our Great Offers" page. Click no on everything, and then click "Submit" again.

This is going to take you to an offer for magazines. In huge letters it will say "YES! SHIP MY SELECTIONS >>" and in teeny, tiny letters beside it, "no thanks" -- you'll want to click "no thanks". Magazines are free, trust me on this.

Then a pop-up comes up that asks if you're sure you want to click this offer. Yes, yes you are sure!

And that's it! Your application is complete. Wasn't that easy? And now you're getting a free magazine!

Our family has skipped some of the titles offered. Most of the ones we take them up on are automotive or science related. Honestly, my boys have shocked me with some of the titles they actually wanted to read like Tech Briefs, Solar Today, and something about farm machinery.

If you're looking for free magazines, whether for crafting or just to have extra reading material around, try this site. I don't think you'll be disappointed!

Tastefully Tuesday - Chicken Parm & Picky Eaters

Different people look at this picture and they see different things. Quite literally, the picture is of a plate with a serving of chicken parmesan. I look at it and see a mouth-watering dinner option. The Fireman and Thing1 feel the same way. My friend over at Dragonflies@Dawn looks at it and probably sees a trip to the ER for too many allergic reactions to list. (Although she probably also sees the chance to share a healthier, gluten/soy/etc-free version in the comments section below, which is better for everyone. Hint-hint. Not that I'm hinting or anything.)

However, Thing2 looks at the picture and thinks, "OMG WHY THE FRUIT IS THEIR FOOD TOUCHING?!" I know this because when I showed him the picture, he vocalized his thoughts using just about that same phrasing. Then he launched into a monologue that declared his dislike for the meal, the directive that if that's what I'm fixing then he's eating something else, and a lengthy explanation about why some foods should not ever touch. Apparently it messes with the universe or something.

Little does he know, he's been eating chicken parmesan for ages. I just fix his plate a little differently. Here's how to fix a picky kids' version of one of my family's favorite meals.

• Fix spaghetti noodles like normal but replace red sauce (or if you're Italian, the gravy) with cheese sauce. Call it "long macaroni and cheese" if they balk about the noodle shape.
• Instead of chicken breast, use chicken nuggets and serve them on the side.
• Whereas you'd normally melt cheese over the chicken, try serving up some mozzarella sticks instead.

And there you go. While your picky eater's plate may not look like everybody else's (which is half the fun in being a picky eater in the first place) at least he or she is getting all the same foods so you don't have to feel like your family is eating several different meals during the same mealtime session.

What are some ways you get around picky eaters? I'd love to hear all about them in the comments section!

Becky

Something Else Saturday - 5 Tips for Freelance Writers

As a freelance writer, I get a lot of my work through Elance, an outsourcing company. Contrary to popular belief, not all outsourcing takes place by underpaid workers holed up like sardines in a tiny office somewhere in a third world country. And I've yet to meet "Peggy" from the credit card company's commercial.

Don't get me wrong, a LOT of outsourcing comes from those places, but quite a bit of it takes place right here in the good old, U S of A. It's not bad work. Because the Fireman's paycheck goes for bills, any money I bring in goes for fun things like hotel stays, video games, or upgrading things in the house - for instance, the 15-year-old gas grill.

Starting out, freelancing was difficult. On more than one occasion I debated if I was doing the right thing and there were a couple of clients who made me consider throwing in the towel altogether. But then good clients began hiring me. They praised my talent with words - a huge boost to my self-confidence - and then even more flattering, they rehired me for a few more jobs.

If you're thinking about freelancing, here are some suggestions that have helped me along the way. Hopefully they save you a little pain and suffering.

• Be patient. I signed up on January 1st and didn't start getting jobs on a regular basis until mid-February. Don't give up. The right job will find you but it takes time. You're worth the wait for the right client to find you - trust me on this one. 
• Communicate. I can't stress this enough. There have been a few times when I had a question or ran into a snag. In most cases as long as I communicated while being honest and polite, my clients were more than happy to oblige requests to answer questions, or even for extra time on a deadline.
• Keep your word. If you say you're going to deliver 500 words of written work in two days, then do it. Don't deliver 250 words in 36 hours, or 1200 words in 6 days. Deliver what the client asked for within the deadline. I try to deliver a day early so that I have time to revise. Does it always work out like that? Absolutely...not. I'm a mom of two teenage boys and married to the Fireman who is dealing with a shoulder injury. Sometimes life has to come first.
• Don't give away custom samples. One thing Elance does that I love is that they will not allow clients to ask for custom samples based on their specific jobs. That means if you're hiring someone to write about sweaters made from a certain type of goat wool and ask the person for a 400 word article about goat wool, you're violating the policy. This is because there's nothing stopping you from taking that article and using it on your own blog.
• Don't under-bid. When you want high-quality products and services, do you settle for second-rate things for discount prices? Probably not! Your clients will feel the same way. At first I bid too cheap and got crappy jobs. I was astounded when people who charged much higher kept getting selected over me. Then I inched up my prices - and was selected! And then I inched them up a little more, and was selected again! Right now, my rates are up between 300% and 500% of what I initially charged, depending on the job, and I'm still getting hired. While some potential clients will claim you're out of your mind, others will be glad to pay you for your professionalism.

If you've ever wanted to try your hand at freelancing, whether it's writing, art, or IT work, why not sign up for Elance? The basic account is free - no strings attached. You have nothing to lose!

Thrifty Thursday - Keep Calm

By now practically everyone has seen a Keep Calm sign, especially if you're on Pinterest or Facebook. However, if you haven't, it looks like this:

Where did these posters come from? Wikipedia states that: Keep Calm and Carry On was a poster produced by the Government of the United Kingdom in 1939 during the beginning of the Second World War, intended to raise the morale of the British public in the event of invasion. It had only limited distribution, so was little known. The poster was rediscovered in 2000 and has been re-issued by a number of private companies, and used as the decorative theme for a range of products.

And it's true. Everyone from Etsy to Amazon is selling stuff with variations of the logo, but did you know it's very easy to just make your own? And you don't need any kind of special program. Here's a quick screenshot tutorial of how to make your own Keep Calm sign using MS Paint.

1. Open MS Paint by going to Start > All Programs > Accessories > Paint

The rest of the steps are a series of screen shots because it was more fun than trying to type it all out.

And here's the finished product! Isn't she adorable?

Here's one I previously made for my friend Ellen, the proprietor of Bitchy Bee Aviary.

Here are some of the more unique ones I found while perusing Pinterest early this morning.

   

   

 

   

Why not make something with your new Keep Calm sign? Here's a card someone else made with theirs!