carmel corn

This is a simple Frugal Friday post. A delicious snack of Carmel corn that cost a fortune at the the grocery store can be made very easily at home.


I really love the stuff and was craving it a few years ago when I found the recipe on the Hillbilly house wife web site. It may not be the healthiest snack but we only enjoy it every 6 months or so!! It's great for when you are going to parties or when you are having company!!!


For more frugal ideas head on over to biblical womanhood.

Muffin Magic

I have heard a lot of talk on how great silicone cook wear is for a while now. However whenever I would look at it in the stores it was so expensive I just couldn't justify using it without knowing anyone who really LOVED using it. Well my mind was changed when my friend Niki posted about her experience using ones she had picked up from our local dollar store.



Immediately I needed to get to the dollar store to pick some of these up and try them for my self. I am pretty sure it was probably the next day that I ran out to get some to see for myself if they really worked. I mean for $3.00 I picked up 18 cups. Some stores wanted $8.00 for 6 cups!!!! The next morning (after washing them) I whipped up a batch of my favorite Honey Bran Muffins, lined the tines, scooped in the dough and waited 20 minutes to see how well they worked.

So here are my conclusions:

1. The lining peels off like nothing even when they are hot.


2. Half the muffin isn't left on the lining
3. The muffins are a perfect shape (not like that matters to little ones but to some of us it does)
4. Best of all the pan is soooooo clean!!!! I didn't take a picture because I figured some people may not believe me, may have thought I just took a picture of my clean muffin tin... heheh. For this one you will have to find out yourself.


Also some may be wondering if this is safe to use. If you click on Niki's link there is an article in her post about the safety of using silicone to bake with.

Since I have picked this little guys up we have had a fresh batch of muffins every week. With the no hassle clean up...its a great way to start my day!!!



Head on over to rocks in my dryer to see whats working for other people

Question Tuesday

~ Can Canada's Food Guide be used for weight loss??~


What a great question!!! You see Canada's Food Guide defines and promotes healthy eating for Canadians. It describes what amount of food individuals need and what type of food is essential for a healthy eating pattern.





Healthy Eating Pattern is what I would like to stress here. You see this NO DIETING picture is the same as a little pin I wear on my jacket. It attracts a lot of attention from people especially when they know that I am a Dietitian. You see as a Dietitian we stress healthy eating habits because we see from a lot of clients, family members and friends that fad dieting, which offers a glorious ending, doesn't end in long term weight management. Here is just a short of list of why diet's don't work

• They are hard to follow over the long term and they do not teach us how to change our eating patterns.
• They are nutritionally unbalanced usually leaving out one or more of the food groups.
• The weight that was lost from the diet is quickly regained.
• Decreases metabolism making it easier to gain weight.
• Fosters poor eating habits which lead to periods of starving and binging.
• Diets decrease your self-esteem when the weight is re-gained and you feel like you have failed.
  

Now that I have quickly covered why diets aren't good for you lets start looking at what you can do to maintain a healthy weight for your body type. Before we look at Canada's Food Guide which is the best model for a healthy lifestyle lets take a glace at Body Mass Index (BMI). In basic terms your BMI, lets you know if your weight is in a healthy weight range for your height. Using this calculator you can determine first if you need to drop some pounds to be in a more healthy weight range. Now that you have your BMI lets get started on a more healthy life style.

Meet the new Food Guide...OK so its not that new. This food guide was released February 2007 after being worked on for several years by many different individuals. It contains more information than before to help Canadians make wise choices about the food they eat and how to stay healthy.



The beautiful food rainbow is still seen in the newer food guide. With each arc representing a different food group. The emphasis of the food guide is lots of vegetables, fruit and whole grains while limiting foods that are high in calories, fat, sugar and salt.



The guide is now more specific to gender and age. Now you can simply look up how many servings you should be consuming each day. It may seem like a lot but that is where the middle section or portions comes in. You know that when we look at 7-8 grains a day we think "oh my I am going to gain so much weight eating that"; but the other morning I went to grab a bagel and noticed that the label was for 1/2 the bagel which was equal to 2 servings. Meaning if I would have eaten the whole bagel I would have consumed 4 servings just for breakfast.


This should help show you what a serving is. Also this is a good list of portions you should be consuming. If you are trying to loose weight you could cut back on the number of servings, say if the food guide recommends 8 then you could eat 6 or even 7 servings. Here are three important things you can do to start your healthy life style according to Canada's Food Guide


1. Portion your food. Actually eat the serving sizes recommended. To do this in our house I have what I call the magic ladle. Its a scoop that is 1/2 cup measure. That way when I am serving our mashed potatoes, rice or vegetables I know that we are getting the right serving amount. That way if I need to give hubby two servings he is getting the right portion and not too much.

2. Make wise choices: This food guide gives examples of foods you should consume that are the best foods with in their food group. For example consume one dark green and one orange vegetable every day.

3. Satisfy your thirst with water: This is one category where many people could cut back on calories. So many people consume large amounts of pop and juice. This has what we call lots of empty calories. Meaning they are adding to your daily diet but they don't help you nutritionally. Next time you are thirsty go for a glass of water instead of the soda or juice and save yourself those calories.


The guide provides lots of information to help us Canada's live healthier life styles for example limit fats, sugar, salt, and increase physical activity. The Food Guide is filled with so much helpful information to get you started on a healthier life style. Once you begin to recognize what a proper serving is and begin to consume more fruits, vegetables, whole grains, low fat milk products and leaner cuts of meat you are on your way to becoming a healthier family.

Another way if you want to get the members in your family eating according to the food guide have them do this fun activity of printing out their own personalized food guide. This has been helpful for us to have these posted up in the cupboards. That way we can make sure we get our recommended servings with the foods we enjoy.

If you want to get started teaching your family how to eat healthier and you are the main cook I would encourage you to read this post on menu planning and begin planning your family's meals according the plate description.



If you have a nutrition question please email me at:




Also if you feel like you would like me to help you get started on a healthier eating plan email me, I would love to help !!!

Meal Plan Monday

Last weeks menu went very well. The new recipe from last week was winter vegetable casserole. I found this recipe in a vegetarian cook book that hubby gave me years ago. The winter vegetables I choose (because they were on hand) was potato, squash, and carrots. The recipe called for pumpkin and turnip but I didn't have these. You parboil the peeled and chucked vegetables for ~8 minutes; while they are cookin you mix up a batch of basic white sauce when the sauce starts getting thick you add nutmeg. Dump the sauce over the vegetables and top with crushed bread crumbs mixed with walnuts or pecans. Since I have a large box of bran flakes I used them instead. OH this tasted very yummy.

Also another recipe I tried just last night was home made donair sauce. I got the recipe from Niki; but when it wasn't getting fluffy I started searching the net quickly to find some tips. Here are some recipes and tips that I found for next time. I learned that the less you stir the better (I over beat mine) because it comes out thicker.

Oh and one last thing about last week. I used my slow cooker to make beef stew and it turned out delicious!!!

What's cookin in the kitchen

Sunday: Left over pizza, garlic fingers and donair sauce

Monday: Veggie Pot pie

Tuesday: Sweet and Sour sausages, rice and frozen veggies

Wednesday: Supper in the car

Thursday: Crock pot Chicken and Quino

Friday: Pizza Braid with carrot sticks

Saturday: ?? Leftovers ??

For more meal plans head on over to organized junkie

Frugal Friday

After watching my mother- in- law whip up a pair of leg warmers for the babe in seconds I figured that I could probably start learning how to sew as well. So I made a "play date" with my cousin for our babes to play and asked if she could teach me how to sew. She was more then will to help me out. So I sent her along directions for the two projects I wanted to do. The first one was for leg warmers since I still had a couple of pairs of socks to do and the second set of directions was for these lovely hand bags!!



Thats right readers these hand bags were made from old T-shirts. Most often it turns out whenever I attend events I am usually left with an over sized T-shirt that I can only wear when 9 months pregnant. Some of these T-shirts are really nice and I just find that they sit in the closet or get used as rags. It wasn't until one day my good friend Laura told me that she had been making re usable grocery bags out of old T-shirts with a quick search on google I found the directions and it became my number 2 sewing project. Here is how they turned out.

They can be used at the grocery store to put your groceries in. One thing they suggest in the directions is not loading them up with really heavy stuff like jugs of milk.


With the remaining scraps from the sleeves I put in a inside pocket on the inside back of the bag. This will be useful to put my grocery list, pen, calculator or anything else I may need to take to the store.

These bags may also be used for a diaper bag for when I am just running some quick errands. All my belongs plus some diapers (its big enough for the cloth diapers) and wipes can be placed in here. I also made this beautiful purple bag out of my favorite ZOOM T-shirt. I will be using this one as a purse as I made the handles a little larger to put over my shoulder.


After my first sewing day (2 T shirt bags and 2 pairs of leg warmers) I feel very accomplished! Because T shirts can be picked up quite inexpensively I think that these will be come my new gifts. Little baby or child size shirts also work great for lunch bags and gift bags.

OH now I need to get my self a sewing machine! heheh... For more frugal ideas check out Biblical Womanhood

A special thank you to my wonderful guest model Rebecca

More Apple Treats

With the abundance of apples we still have from all our picking adventures I decided the other day that I need to start making more things. Apple butter was one recipe that I had not yet tried so I thought I would give it a go. Following a simple recipe I placed the peeled, cored and sliced apples into my crock pot to bake for the day. I don't really know what apple butter is suppose to taste like; it's a bit sweet but I think that it will be delicious on fresh biscuits.



This week I had to make snack for the Pregnancy Resource Center so with lots of pureed pumpkin in my fridge, that hadn't made it to the freezer yet, I decided to make Niki's pumpkin chocolate chip cookie recipe. I totally forgot until reading the recipe that it calls for 1/2 cup of apple butter (pretty sure apple sauce can be used as well).




The remains of the apples (peels, cores and seeds) were placed into a large pot to be boiled down for the juice. Instead of canning the juice this time I put it into the crock pot with some spices to make my first batch of apple cider.

Hot Apple Cider

8 cups apple juice or apple cider
2 cinnamon sticks
2 whole cloves
2 allspice berries
1 whole nutmeg
1/2 orange peel, cut into strips
1/2 lemon peel, cut into strips

1. Pour apple juice into a large pot or crock pot.
2. Place spice into pot along with orange and lemon peels.
3. If cooking on the stove top bring to a boil and then reduce heat, or put into a crock pot on low or warm, to low to keep drink warm. If you are making in the crock pot, put on high for 2 hours to allow it to get hot. Then reduce heat to warm or low.


This recipe fills your house with a delicious aroma! Its so nice to be able to enjoy a hot drink on these cold nights.

50 lbs of squash

This is an annual harvest time routine. Because we love squash this is the best time of year to get it and of course in bulk means even more savings. This bag cost us $16.99 at a local store that's 0.34 cents a pound!


Hubby and I have been doing this for a couple of years now so we got the hang of it down pretty good. It was such a blessing this year to have two extra sets of hands around to help out. First what we do is cut the squash in half, then the half's in half, and finally the quarters into 3rds. Did you follow all that! hahah

"Where are you Genieve??"

So what we are left with is a lot of little sections of squash. This makes it easy to scoop out the middle. That way we can hold the piece like a pistol when we are peeling it.



After the squash is peeled we chop it into chunks and place it into freezer bags. Then hubby takes this neon green straw that we have and sucks the air out of the baggies.

The assistant then uses a tie to seal the bags! When we have all the bags sealed they are taken down to the deep freeze to be stored until we need them. This is no easy job to do. Its one that makes your hands sore, tried and orange. But we did have fun...Right guys??


You just got to think of how pleasant the squash will be when you are enjoying it out of season. I will enjoy it even more when I know I only paid 34 cents/ pound!