11.30.2011
11.29.2011
Home Remedies That Work #3
created by lyn. @ 00:06 0 footnotes.
categories. Tips and Tricks
11.28.2011
Crispy Sweet Potato Hash Browns in the Waffle Iron
When the iron is hot, fill the bottom half with 1-2 teaspoons of coconut oil. Brush it over the top and bottom irons. Squeeze the potatoes again to release any excess moisture. Season the sweet potatoes as desired by mixing spices into the grated potatoes.
Place about 1 cup of potato in the iron, spread it out, and close it. Cook until the hash browns are golden brown and crisp, about eight to ten minutes. Repeat with the remaining mixture.
Variations: grate in an apple, throw an egg on top for a great breakfast, or serve as a side with lunch or dinner.
created by lyn. @ 00:05 2 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Paleo
11.27.2011
Choir Notes
created by lyn. @ 00:02 0 footnotes.
categories. Choir Notes, Gospel
11.26.2011
Braised Short Ribs in a Crock Pot
6 lbs boneless shortribs
2 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion
4-5 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
4-5 strips of bacon cut into 1 inch pieces
1/8 cup of almond flour
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water
2 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 1/2 tsp dried rosemary
Directions:
Preheat oven to 325º. If boneless ribs are in a long strip, cut them into 3 inch long chunks. Heat olive oil in a dutch oven over medium high heat and sear the ribs on all sides to brown. Remove from pot. Dice onion. Add bacon, onion, and garlic to the pot and cook until onion gets soft. Add in almond flour. Put in crock pot with spices, tomatoes, and water. Put foil over crock pot and then the lid. Cook on low for 4-6 hours.
via paleomama
created by lyn. @ 00:02 0 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Paleo
11.25.2011
Stuffing
created by lyn. @ 00:04 0 footnotes.
11.24.2011
The Power of Thank You
The Benefits of Expressing Gratitude
For example, people who are grateful have higher levels of positive emotions like love, optimism, joy, enthusiasm, and happiness. The practice of gratitude as a discipline protects a person from the destructive impulses of envy, resentment, greed, and bitterness. Those who are grateful are able to cope better with stress, sleep better, have more energy, and even have more resilience toward illness and have greater physical health.
Gratitude works because, as a way of perceiving and interpreting life, it recruits other positive emotions—like joy, contentment, and hope—that have direct physical benefits, most likely through the immune system or endocrine system. When people experience gratitude, they feel more loving, more forgiving, and closer to God.
On the flip side, ingratitude can have the opposite effect. Those who are ungrateful show signs of loneliness, increased depression, and lack of meaning in life. Like gratitude, it too has a direct effect on your body’s health.
If ingratitude is combined with hostility, resentment, or cynicism—as it often is—then the cardiovascular disease risk is increased. Ungrateful people may also be at greater risk from stress-related diseases because they handle stress more poorly than do the grateful people.
So how do you show gratitude? You can always “count your many blessings,” which has proven to be a great help. But, here’s where the thank-you letter comes into play. By sharing gratitude, all of the above benefits are amplified. So expressing thanks to someone else doubles your joy.
When people write a thank-you letter to someone they feel they have never properly thanked, deliver the letter and personally read it to the person, they were happier and more content, even over long periods of time.
The power of a thank-you note is incredible. There are three main benefits:
1. Expressing emotions magnifies the feeling, so expressing thanks makes our gratitude stronger.
2. Expressing thanks builds and strengthens relationships. Gratitude is the relationship-building emotion, so not only do we benefit on an individual level, but we create better bonds with others.
3. It humbles us. The natural man has a self-serving bias and the tendency to take sole credit for everything positive. Acknowledging that something good is a result of someone else provides us with a humbling experience.
Thank-You Note Basics
So how does one write a proper thank-you letter, making sure to express sincere gratitude for another person? A lot of people don’t write thank-you notes because they either don’t know what to say, feel like they can only write generic, impersonal things, or they’ve forgotten and it’s too late to send one now. Don’t let these stop you. Remember, silent gratitude benefits no one.
The key is to focus on the giver. What does the gift mean to you? How does it make you feel that the giver acknowledged you. Try to concentrate more on the person than the gift, although mentioning the specific gift is a must.
Here’s an outline for a typical thank-you letter:
1. Greeting: “Dear Johnny,” or more personal, “Hey Johnny!”
2. Thank them for the gift, and be specific: “Thank you so much for the lovely pearl bracelet.”
3. Mention something about the gift, like why you like the gift, and/or how you are planning to use it: “It is absolutely stunning, and I feel so beautiful when I wear it.”
4. Express gratitude for the time, effort, and thought the giver put into the gift: “It was so nice of you to think of me, and you knew exactly what I would love.”
5. Mention a brief personal comment about the giver, like the next time you plan to see them, mention their family, or express feelings about your relationship: “You are such an amazing person, and I feel so lucky to be your friend.”
6. Sign off with “Love,” “Sincerely,” “Thanks again,” etc., and sign your name.
It’s that simple! You can elaborate and, of course, add more than one sentence to any or all of these steps, making it as short or long as you feel appropriate. Writing an uncomplicated letter like this can mean the world to someone, and make a tremendous difference in your relationship with them.
An easy way to get your thank-you notes written quickly is to have envelopes already stamped and labeled with your return address, and to always have stationary on hand. Make it a goal to immediately sit down and write a quick note as soon as you receive a gift. Think of it as the quicker you write a thank-you, the more grateful you are.
Also, you should never feel indebted. There is a difference between indebtedness and gratitude, and the difference in crucial. If you feel like you have to repay the debt or have a sense of obligation to the person, no good will come of your thank-you. True gratitude is where we are glad to be indebted to the person, truly happy to give thanks.
Just remember in your thank-you writing endeavors, any letter is better than no letter, so despite tardiness or embarrassment of poor writing skills, or whatever is keeping you from the task. Just do it—your happiness depends on it!
Thank-you Note Etiquette
When writing a than-you note, make sure you don’t do one of the following:
1. Don’t talk about yourself—the point of the letter is the gift, not you.
2. When thanking someone for money, don’t mention the amount in the note.
3. Don’t print out a thank-you card. Take the time to write a hand-written letter. After all, they took the time (and money) to buy the gift.
4. Don’t include fewer than three sentences.
5. Don’t write a thank-you note for receiving a thank-you note. It gets too confusing and isn’t necessary.
6. Don’t wait more than two weeks to write a thank-you, and don’t wait a year to mail letters for wedding gifts.
7. Don’t get personal with a business letter. It’s best to just stick with thanking them.
8. Don’t email thank-you letters. Unless you know them really well and speak with them often, email is too impersonal.
Thank-you Writing for Kids
Getting your kids to be as enthusiastic about writing a thank-you letter as they were about receiving the gift can be a challenge. But it’s a good habit to develop early on and kids should know that gratitude is important. Here are some ways to get your kids excited about writing a thank-you note:
1. Make their own stationary: pull out the crafts and let them color, paint, sticker and design their own personal cards. They can even make a stockpile for the future.
2. Give them their own address book: help them fill out an address book of their own that they can take with them on vacations or to summer camp.
3. Take a picture thank-you card: if your child is too young to write a letter, take a picture of them with their gift and have them sign their name on it.
4. Create a drawing thank-you letter: again, if they’re too young to write, have your kids draw a picture of themselves with their gift.
Via Ashley Evanson, The Power of "Thank You," LDS Living, Nov/Dec 2008
created by lyn. @ 00:08 1 footnotes.
categories. Thanksgiving
11.23.2011
11.22.2011
Home Remedies That Work #2
When volunteer students rubbed poison ivy leaves on their forearms and then washed with dish-washing soap for 25 seconds before rinsing, the soap prevented a reaction in almost half the volunteers and reduced the inflammation in the rest by 56 percent. The volunteers used Dial dish soap, but any brand will work.
created by lyn. @ 00:03 0 footnotes.
categories. Tips and Tricks
11.21.2011
Favorite Pies Coast to Coast
Pecan Pie
created by lyn. @ 00:04 0 footnotes.
categories. Food and Drink, Thanksgiving, Traditions
11.20.2011
Choir Notes
created by lyn. @ 00:03 0 footnotes.
categories. Choir Notes, Gospel
11.19.2011
11.18.2011
Curry Coconut Chicken
3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves
2 teaspoons yellow curry powder
1-2 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon pepper
¼ teaspoon chili powder
1 medium red onion, chopped
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 jalapeno peppers, seeded and finely chopped (by seeding the jalapeno you lose most of the spice/heat but retain great flavor)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 14-ounce can light coconut milk
1 tablespoon arrowroot powder
1 tablespoon dried basil
1 teaspoon grated fresh ginger
DIRECTIONS:
Cut chicken into 1-inch pieces. Place in medium bowl. Stir together curry, 1/2 teaspoon salt, pepper and chili powder. Sprinkle over chicken, tossing to coat evenly. Cover and chill for 1 to 2 hours.
In a large nonstick frying pan, stir onion, basil, garlic and peppers in hot oil over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, until onion is translucent. Add chicken and remaining 1/2 teaspoon salt and cook for 5-6 minutes until no longer pink.
Combine coconut milk and cornstarch and whisk well to combine. Carefully add to skillet, whisking vigorously. Cook and stir until slightly thickened and bubbly. Stir in ginger. Cook and stir for another minute. Serve over hot cauliflower rice (see below). Serves 4.
CAULIFLOWER RICE
Trim and discard the leaves from the cauliflower, and wash the white part. Put a steamer pot on to boil.
Grate the cauliflower with a fine cheese grater or (preferably) shred it in a food processor (fine shredding disc). This can be messy, so work on an oilcloth or a baking sheet to contain the shreds.
Next, wrap the shredded cauliflower for steaming. The best way to do this is to place your cauliflower into a 1 gallon paint strainer bag (available for about $1 at a hardware store). Another, less optimal way is to bundle it up in fine cheesecloth or a cloth nutmilk bag.
Put the cauliflower bag into a steamer pot and steam for 10-15 mins or until soft. Remove from heat.
Rinse the bag under cold water to stop the cooking and cool the cauliflower. Wring the bag firmly 3-4 times to remove all liquid.
Inside the bag is a firm, fine, rice-like ball of cauliflower ready for serving. If you used a strainer bag, removing it is very easy and clean — just reach in and pull it out. If you used cloth, you might find find that more of the cauliflower rice sticks to the bag and requires some scraping.
Enjoy cauliflower rice as a side dish with clarified butter, or use it as a platform for saucy dishes like curries and stews, or saute it with veggies and meat for a biryani or fried rice style dish. Experiment with adding spices like cumin, garlic, curry or coriander during steaming for added flavor.
created by lyn. @ 00:06 1 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Paleo
11.17.2011
One-Minute Chocolate Cake
1 Tbsp plus 2 tsp cocoa powder
3 Tbsp spelt flour or almond flour, etc.
1/8 tsp salt
2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1 stevia packet,or 1 more Tbsp sugar)
1 Tbsp coconut oil or vegetable oil (some people sub applesauce or mashed banana.)
3 tablespoons nondairy milk of choice
1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
Combine dry ingredients and mix very, very well. Add liquid, stir, then transfer to a little dish, ramekin, or even a coffee mug. Microwave 30-40 seconds. If you don’t want to eat it straight out of the dish, be sure to spray your dish first (and then wait for it to cool before trying to remove it).
If desired, top with Chocolate-Fudge Frosting or fresh berries, jam, or coconut milk ice cream or whipped cream.
Chocolate Fudge Frosting
1/2 a medium, very ripe banana (80g)
4T Artisana coconut butter or Homemade Coconut Butter
2 Tbsp (or more!) cocoa powder (10g)
scant 1/16 tsp salt
optional: feel free to sweeten, if needed
Blend everything together in your blender, food processor, or Magic Bullet. (Taste before eating, in case you wish to add sweetener.)
Homemade Coconut Butter
1 bag shredded, unsweetened coconut
Simply blended the coconut in a Vita-Mix for about 2-3 minutes. (Note: If you use a food processor, blend for 10-ish minutes.) That’s all there is to it!
via Chocolate-Covered Katie
created by lyn. @ 00:03 1 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Paleo
11.16.2011
11.15.2011
Home Remedies That Work #1
Honey coats and soothes an irritated throat to help calm repeated coughing. It is generally safe and can be used repeatedly as needed; two teaspoons per dose. Older adults should make sure their cough is because of a cold and not a more serious condition that may not respond to honey. Also, honey does have a high sugar content, that may me inappropriate for older adults with diabetes.
created by lyn. @ 00:09 0 footnotes.
categories. Tips and Tricks
11.14.2011
My Go-To Cornbread and Honey Butter
1-1/2 cups flour
2/3 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup oil
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 eggs, beaten
1-1/4 cups milk
In a large mixing bowl, blend together the cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients, and add the oil, melted butter, beaten eggs, and milk in the center. Stir until just mixed (batter will be runny – don't be alarmed). Bake in an 8" square pan at 350º for 35 minutes. Can also be cooked as muffins for 25-30 minutes. This recipe also doubles perfectly for a 1x13 inch pan or 2 dozen muffins.
Honey Butter
2 sticks butter, softened
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup marshmallow fluff
Whip all the ingredients together with an electric mixer and serve at room temperate (can be refrigerated and softened)
created by lyn. @ 00:09 0 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Bread
11.13.2011
Choir Notes
created by lyn. @ 00:01 0 footnotes.
categories. Choir Notes, Gospel
11.12.2011
Almond Butter Cookie Dough Cookies
1/4 cup + 3 Tbsp. raisins
Salt to taste (1/8 -1/4 tsp.)
2 Tbsp, roasted nuts (almonds, cashews, hazelnuts, macadamias, etc.)
1/8 tsp. pure vanilla extract
Throw everything into your food processor, and combine until very smooth. Roll in balls, cookies, bars, or simply shovel the dough into your mouth, straight from the machine.
Dough can be stored on the counter, in the fridge, in the freezer, or in your belly.
Note: if you you salted nuts, reduce the amount of addition salt.
created by lyn. @ 00:07 0 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Paleo
11.11.2011
11.10.2011
11.09.2011
11.08.2011
Guacamole Salsa
created by lyn. @ 00:08 0 footnotes.
categories. Recipes Dips/Sauces
11.07.2011
11.06.2011
Choir Notes
Obstacles are a part of life, but most of us don’t realize what a vital part they are, building in us the traits we need to succeed in life. We often see difficulties and failures as doors that have slammed, opportunities we’ve lost, when in fact these trials can be gifts.
Look at the everyday heroes around us who overcome setbacks—a child without sight who learns to swim, a single mother who puts herself through nursing school and later helps all her children through college, a man who takes on an extra job to support his family during tough economic times. These are people who refuse to be beaten; they persevere through the storms and use challenges as a catapult.
Every bird in flight is an example to us of this same perseverance. Each one had to break through its shell, one chip at a time, determined to live, determined to fly. The shell was an obstacle but also the very tool that built strength and tenacity.
Those who understand this truth refuse to let bumps in the road define their entire journey. If we resolve never to give up, then our obstacles, instead of becoming final verdicts, can launch us to greater heights. Joni Hilton
created by lyn. @ 00:08 0 footnotes.
categories. Choir Notes, Gospel
11.05.2011
11.04.2011
5 Simple Rules to Be Happy
No one can go back and make a brand new start. Anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending.
When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There's a purpose to life's events, to teach you how to laugh more or not to cry too hard.
You can't make someone love you. All you can do is to be someone who can be loved.
It's better to lose your pride to the one you love, than to lose the one you love because of pride.
We spend too much time looking for the right person to love or finding fault with those we already love, when instead we should be perfecting the love we give.
Never abandon an old friend. You will never find one who can take his or her place. Friendship is like wine; it gets better as it grows older.
created by lyn. @ 00:06 1 footnotes.
categories. Life Lessons
11.03.2011
Punny
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you'd be in Seine .
21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.'
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did
created by lyn. @ 00:01 0 footnotes.
11.02.2011
11.01.2011
Christmas Countdown