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~Cool Picks by Phyllis~
In this weeks issue I'm sharing a site that is one of my personal favorites.... http://www.hungrygirl.com/ Whether you're trying to lose weight or just wanting to stay the same weight you are now, this is a great site full of recipes for "guilt free" snacks and meals. You'll also find survival strategies for eating healthier at fast food restaurants, product reviews and you can even sign up for a daily free email from HungryGirl. Face it...we all like to eat! So why not try to eat healthier when we can? The recipes you'll find at HungryGirl are low in calories and fat, but high in fiber, so they'll fill you up! Take a peek at the site, and here is one of my favorite HungryGirl recipes.
Bring on the Breakfast Pizza
1/2 cup fat free liquid egg substitute
1/4 cup shredded fat free mozzarella cheese
1/4 cup canned tomato sauce
2 tbsp chopped green bell peppers
2 tbsp chopped mushrooms
OPTIONAL: salt, pepper, oregano, garlic power, red pepper flakes, etc
Season tomato sauce to taste with optional ingredients if desired. Set aside.
Bring a small pan sprayed with nonstick spray to low heat. Pour in egg substitute. Cover and cook for 3 minutes until egg "crust" starts to form.
Carefully flip your egg. Cover and cook another minute. While egg crust is cooking, microwave the chopped veggies for 30 seconds.
Next, top the egg crust with tomato sauce, cheese and veggies. Cover again and cook over low heat for 2 minutes, until cheese is melted.
This filling breakfast pizza has 127 calories and 0.5 g fat. Just ONE cake donut is at least 200 calories and 10g fat, and an average muffin has about 450 calories and 15g fat.
And here is another that I thought this would be cool for this time of the year. Its a site to find haunted houses and corn mazes in every state.
http://www.hauntworld.com/index.cfm
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How to Winterize Flower Beds
As winter approaches and nature begins to settle in for a long nap, our flower beds will need a little attention if we want them to produce beautiful, hearty plants in the Spring. With just a few basic steps you can winterize your beds and encourage healthy plant growth.
The annuals will need to come out first, root and all. It is rare that seeds from them can survive the winter so it is best to remove them from beds.
Cut back rose bushes, crepe myrtles and other perennial bushes carefully. Remove and either dispose of cuttings or use them in a compost bin. If using in a compost bin, break them down as much as possible. Usually, ornament grasses can be left untrimmed, but do remove any dead or brown leaves and stalks. Evergreens should be cut back well after the first frost. Again, remove cuttings and dispose or use in compost.
It is probably best not to add fertilizer at this stage. Plants need to be allowed to go through their natural wintering process so they can naturally recover as temperatures warm.
Fall is an excellent time to plant bulbs. Start with healthy bulbs and plant them according to directions. Remember, many bulb plants spread so you may want to allow for that when planting them. Fall is also a great time to plant certain trees and shrubs. It is best to consult a nursery to find out which shrubs and trees do well in your planting area.
Rake back any old mulch from around plants and bushes. Spread an even layer of rich topsoil over the entire bed, using a rake to get an even covering. Put extra soil around the base of young perennials. ut back the old mulch and add new mulch evenly over the bed. Again, add additional mulch to the base of young plantings. Be careful not to over-cover your bulbs!
Clean and store tools, flower pots and birdbaths, etc. Putting them away before the harsh weather starts will prolong the life of these garden essentials.
Take a day to clean up after the beautiful summer display of flowers and foliage and you'll be rewarded with a renewal of beauty in spring.
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A yummy-sounding recipe from Lib:
Hi, I just copied this off for myself, and thought your John might like it. It seems a little bit involved and it says to cook it in the microwave. I think I would bake it in the oven just like any other meatloaf though.
Sweet and Sour Meatloaf
1 egg
5 Tablespoons ketchup - DIVIDED
2 Tablespoons prepared mustard
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
2 Tablespoons onion soup mix1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 pound ground beef
Topping -
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
Lightly beat egg. Add 2 Tablespoons of the ketchup, mustard, breadcrumbs, dry soup mix, salt and pepper. Crumble beef over mixture and mixwell. Shape into oval loaf. Place in shallow one quart microwave safe dish; cover with waxed paper.Micro on High for 11-12 minutes or until meat is no longer pink. Drain In small bowl, combine the sugars, vinegar and remaining ketchup.Drizzle over meatloaf. Cover and micro on High for 3-5 minutes. Letstand for 10 minutes before slicing. Time will depend on your microwave.
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~Handyman John~
John has been a bit busy with his favorite hobby to do a column for us this week...
________________________________________________~Marie's Laughter~
Two rednecks go on a fishing trip. They rent all the equipment - the reels, the rods, the wading suits, the rowboat, the car, and even a cabin in the woods. I mean they spend a fortune!The first day they go fishing, but they don't catch anything. The same thing happens on the second day, and on the third day. It goes on like this until finally, on the last day of their vacation, one of the men catches a fish.As they're driving home they're really depressed. One guy turns to the other and says, "Do you realise that this one lousy fish we caught cost us fifteen hundred bucks?"The other guy says, "Wow! Then it's a good thing we didn't catch any more!"
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~Diet Column by Phyllis~
In this weeks column I'd like to talk about food journals. Most diet experts recommend them, and a recent study showed that people who kept food journals lost almost twice as much weight as people who didn't. Thats a good reason to keep a food journal!
A food journal is easy to keep. You don't need a fancy diary type book.....a spiral notebook from the school supply section will work just as well.. (Although I do personally like to have a nice book which I decorate according to my mood.) In my food journal I record everything that I eat each day, along with the time I ate it and how many calories were in each item of food, trying to always stay within my goal of 1500 calories a day. Writing it down helps me to see how many calories I'm really getting in my diet and also what types of food I'm eating...which makes me aware of where I am taking in too many calories and why I'm gaining or not losing weight.
In addition to writing down the food and calories you take in, you could also write a short entry on why you ate the foods you did or how you were feeling when you ate them. This will let you know what your 'triggers' are...the things that make you turn to food when you're not even hungry. (My personal trigger is usually boredom.)
So if you want to lose weight, try keeping a food diary. Writing it down definately makes a stronger impression in your mind, and it just might help you have more success in sticking to your diet.
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New stamp releases:
On October 23, 2008, in New York, New York, the Postal Service™ will issue a 42–cent, Christmas: Virgin and Child with the Young John the Baptist by Sandro Botticelli special stamp, designed by Richard Sheaff of Scottsdale, Arizona.The 2008 Christmas stamp features a detail from a work by the Italian master Sandro Botticelli, entitled Virgin and Child with the Young John the Baptist. This painting, tempera and oil on wood, dates to around 1490 and is now in the collection of the Cleveland Museum of Art. It presents one of the most common figural groups in religious art.On October 23, 2008, in New York, New York, the Postal Service™ will issue a 42–cent, Holiday Nutcrackers special stamp in four designs, designed by Derry Noyes of Washington, DC.Nutcrackers have been around for centuries. They range from simple utilitarian devices to elaborate collectibles, with a host of creations that fall somewhere in between.During the winter holiday season, nutcrackers of all shapes and sizes are familiar sights in toy stores, on Christmas trees, on mantel pieces, on book and magazine covers, and in performance venues.Four eye–catching nutcracker designs — Santa (or “Father Christmas”), a king, a captain, and a drummer — add colorful, humourous touches to winter holiday correspondence in 2008.
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Well I do believe this week we're up to Arizona:
Arizona leads the nation in copper production.
Petrified wood is the official state fossil. Most petrified wood comes from the Petrified Forest in northeastern Arizona.
Arizona is home of the Grand Canyon National Park.
The amount of copper on the roof of the Capitol building is equivalent to 4,800,000 pennies.
Arizona observes Mountain Standard Time on a year round basis. The one exception is the Navajo Nation, located in the northeast corner of the state, which observes the daylight savings time change.
The battleship USS Arizona was named in honor of the state. It was commissioned in 1913 and launched in 1915 from the Brooklyn Navy Yard.
In 1926, the Southern Pacific Railroad connected Arizona with the eastern states.
Arizona's most abundant mineral is copper.
Bisbee, located in Tombstone Canyon, is known as the Queen of the Copper Mines. During its mining history the town was the largest city between Saint Louis and San Francisco.
The state's most popular natural wonders include the Grand Canyon, Havasu Canyon, Grand Canyon Caves, Lake Powell/Rainbow Bridge, Petrified Forest/Painted Desert, Monument Valley, Sunset Crater, Meteor Crater, Sedona Oak Creek Canyon, Salt River Canyon, Superstition Mountains, Picacho Peak State Park, Saguaro National Park, Chiricahua National Monument, and the Colorado River.
The original London Bridge was shipped stone-by-stone and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City.
The state's precipitation varies. At Flagstaff the annual average is 18.31 inches; Phoenix averages 7.64 inches; and Yuma's annual average is 3.27 inches.
Located in Fountain Hills is a fountain believed to be the tallest in the world.
Four Corners is noted as the spot in the United States where a person can stand in four states at the same time.
The age of a saguaro cactus is determined by its height.
Arizona, among all the states, has the largest percentage of its land set aside and designated as Indian lands.
Rising to a height of 12,643 feet, Mount Humphreys north of Flagstaff is the state's highest mountain.
The Hopi Indians of Arizona are noted for growing their multicolored corn.
Grand Canyon's Flaming Gorge got its name for its blazing red and orange colored, twelve-hundred-foot-high walls.
Grand Canyon's Marble Canyon got its name from its thousand-foot-thick seam of marble and for its walls eroded to a polished glass finish.
Arizona became the 48th state on February 14, 1912.
The world's largest solar telescope is located at Kitts Peak National Observatory in the city of Sells.
A person from Arizona is called an Arizonan.
Tombstone, Ruby, Gillette, and Gunsight are among the ghost towns scattered throughout the state.
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Here is some fun facts sent in by Cheryl:
'Stewardesses' is the longest word typed with only the left hand. And 'lollipop' is the longest word typed with your right hand. No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver or purple. 'Dreamt' is the only English word that ends in the letters 'mt'. Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never stop growing. The sentence: 'The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog' uses every letter of the alphabet.
The word s 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the same whether they are read left to right or right to left (palindromes). There are only four words in the English language which end in 'dous': tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous. There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in order: 'abstemious' and 'facetious.' TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on one row of the keyboard. A cat has 32 muscles in each ear. A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds. A 'jiffy' is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second. A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes. A snail can sleep for three years. Almonds are a member of the peach family. An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child reaches 2 to 6 years of age.
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LANCASTER, Calif. - The folks who silenced the nation's first "musical road" are singing a different tune.
Lancaster city workers this week carved grooves on Avenue G that produce notes of the "William Tell Overture" when cars drive over them.
The high desert city north of Los Angeles placed the grooves on another road, Avenue K, last month for a Honda commercial. The quarter-mile strip was engineered to play the notes — better known as the theme for "The Lone Ranger" — when motorists in Honda Civics hit them at 55 mph.
It was believed to be the first such musical road in the United States, although there are others in Japan, South Korea and Holland.
The city paved over that stretch two weeks later after neighbors complained the noise was annoying and kept them awake.
The city, however, received hundreds of calls praising the road and decided to recreate the road in an industrial area away from homes.
"It will be a tourist attraction. It will pull people off the freeway," Mayor R. Rex Parris said.
Many residents also liked it.
"You drove over it and you didn't know what to expect. When we got to the end of it, I was smiling ear to ear," said Genevieve Skidmore, 80.
The City Council has approved spending up to $35,000 for the work, but officials said there has been interest from several companies in sponsoring the road and reimbursing the cost in return for publicity.
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Did you know...
Hector Boiardi
Yes, there is a Chef Boyardee, although his name is not spelled that way. Hector Boiardi, an Italian immigrant, came to the United States in 1914 when he was only 17.
Upon his arrival, he immediately got a job as a chef at New York's Plaza Hotel, where his brother worked as a waiter. After moving to Cleveland, he perfected his spaghetti and meatball recipe in 1929. His customers kept asking for bottles of his pasta sauce so they could have it at home, and he obliged. He then added cheeses and pasta to the sauce.
The results were so popular that he started to sell the products in area stores, and later in stores outside the area. Boiardi remained an advisor in the canned pasta business until his death at age 87 in 1985. And yes, that is Hector's picture on the label...
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More species of fish live in a single tributary of the Amazon River than in all the rivers in North America combined.
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This is one of my cool picks... http://www.sunrisesunset.com/custom_srss_calendar.asp This site allows you to check sunrise and sunset times for most any area. I found it especially interesting to check out Barrow Alaska to see how long they are in complete darkness in the winter and full daylight in the summer.
And here is one from John... http://www.dryday.com/ This site gives you long range rain forecasts. John and I are both really into weather-related things so I'd not be surprised for him to share another weather site at some point.
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As the temperatures plummet, the only things that are rising seem to be heating costs. Shoo away those winter chills with a few frugal tips to help keep your heating bills down and the temperature inside your home at a comfortable level.
Lately, as you walk through various rooms in your home, you may have noticed drafty cold spots. Perhaps near an older door that you may not use very often or windows that you haven't gotten around to replacing.
1. Clear Tape works wonders in sealing around the edges of Un-used Doors. The tape removes easily in the spring, prevents cold air from blowing in and is virtually invisible.
2. Keep in mind when you turn on your bathroom fan that you are essentially sucking heat right out of your home. If you don't like your bathroom mirror steamed up after a shower, simply turn a hair dryer on for a minute or two and "dry" your mirror. It will dry the steam streak free, avoiding unnecessary heat loss from the fan. The extra moisture in the air from the shower will help add some humidity.
3. Window Covering Kits work wonders for sealing out the drafty air. Not sure whether your windows need to be covered; simply light a candle and hold it near the edge of the window, if the flame flickers or goes out, chances are you need to cover the window with plastic. While heavy curtains are great during the evening and at night, allowing the sunshine in during the day will warm your home.
4. Electrical outlets in your home frequently allow in cold drafts of air. A great inexpensive way to block this cold air in un-used outlets is to plug in child safety plugs.
5. If you have a basement, be sure it is insulated in cracks and crevices. While it may seem expensive to buy a roll or two of insulation, you will save literally hundreds of dollars per year with the investment. Get in those hard to reach places with a can of expanding insulation foam.
6. If your home has Ceiling fans, be sure to set the in the "Up" (or clockwise) position during the winter months. This allows the warm air that has collected to push to the outside walls, distributing the heat down evenly.
7. Check the duct work in your home, they may be crushed, dented, flattened, torn, etc. Be sure that the cracks and crevices at the joints are properly sealed, ensuring that the heat is not spilling out into your attic or walls. If your clothes dryer is vented outside, don't forget to make sure that a dryer vent seal is properly installed to prevent cold air from blowing in the duct, into your home. (This will also help prevent unwanted rodent problems!)
8. Change your Furnace filter monthly. Low cost filters are available at the hardware store. You will greatly increase the heater's efficiency by creating proper airflow. In addition, to make your home smell great, you can add a couple drops of essential oil such as peppermint, clove, cinnamon, etc to the filter. Each time the furnace kicks on the whole house will have the scent you applied to the filter.
9. Remember to turn back your thermostat at night. By turning your thermostat back 8ยบ for 8 hours each night, you will reduce your annual heating bull by 10%.
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Awhile back I promised you a recipe for Applesauce Pie. This is a recipe I got from my Grandma Brown. She used to make these at least every other week. The ones she made were so much better than mine because she canned her own applesauce and she also stirred in special grandma love, but I will give you the recipe for my attempt at what she baked up.
I prefer a glass pie plate and you'll need 2 pastry crusts. Bake at the temperature your crust calls for until the crust is just how you like it. This recipe isn't very "exact" but that's how most of my grandma's recipes were. It's really easy to make.
Pour into a sauce pan a 25 ounce jar of applesauce. Turn on low heat and whisk in 3 Tablespoons flour, cinnamon, all spice and white granulated sugar. Also add in a splash of either lemon juice or orange juice. As you heat the mixture, taste it and add spices till it tastes right to you. I've never done it myself, but I'm sure instead of granulated sugar you could use sugar substitutes or nothing at all, depending on your tastes and/or diet restrictions. As you're cooking this, go ahead and put your bottom crust in the pie plate and preheat your oven. Now cook the mixture (stirring often) till it starts to bubble and let it bubble maybe a minute or two. Turn off the heat and add it to the crust while it's hot. Put on the top crust and vent it and bake till the crust is how you like it. It is very important to let the pie cool completely so the applesauce mixture will set up. It needs to be stored in the fridge and so sometimes I go ahead and put it in the fridge for awhile before cutting just to be sure it's set up good.
This pie is good all by itself, but if you're so inclined, a scoop of vanilla on top is yummy too.
Hope you like it and remember my grandma Hazel Brown when you're eating it. :)
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