Sweet and Sour Meatballs

Ingredients

• 2 pounds lean ground beef
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup dry bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup finely chopped onion
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 teaspoons granulated sugar
•  
• 1 (20 ounce) can pineapple chunks, drained with juice reserved
• 1/3 cup water
• 3 tablespoons distilled white vinegar
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon seasoning salt
• 1 large carrot, diced
• 1 large green bell pepper, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a large, shallow baking sheet.
2. In a large bowl, thoroughly mix the ground beef, eggs, bread crumbs and onion. Sprinkle with ginger, seasoning salt, pepper, Worcestershire sauce and sugar. Shape into one inch balls.
3. Place meatballs in a single layer on prepared baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven for 10 to 15 minutes; set aside.
4. To make the sauce, mix enough water with the reserved pineapple juice to make 1 cup. In a large pot over medium heat, combine the juice mixture, 1/3 cup water, vinegar, soy sauce, and brown sugar. Stir in cornstarch, ginger and seasoning salt, until smooth. Cover and cook until thickened.
5. Stir pineapple chunks, carrot, green pepper and meatballs into the sauce. Gently stir to coat the meatballs with the sauce. Simmer, uncovered, for about 20 minutes, or until meatballs are thoroughly cooked.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes
Chocolate chip cupcakes stuffed with cookie dough (eggless) and topped with chocolate frosting and mini chocolate chip cookies.

Ingredients

• 1 Betty Crocker Supermoist butter recipe yellow cake mix (and ingredients package calls for)
• 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
• 1/4 cup (4 Tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
• 6 Tablespoons light brown sugar
• 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons flour
• 7 ounces sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/4 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips, plus more for decorating
• 1 container Betty Crocker chocolate frosting
• (optional) 1/4 package of Pillsbury refrigerated cookie dough for cookie garnishes

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line cupcake pan with cupcake liners. Make cupcake batter according to directions then stir in 1 cup of regular chocolate chips. Bake cupcakes according to package directions. Let cool.
2. While cupcakes are baking make the cookie dough filling. Combine butter and brown sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium speed until fluffy for about 2 minutes. Mix in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla. Beat until combined. Stir in the mini chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for about 15 minutes or until slightly firm.
3. When cupcakes are cool, cut out a cylinder shape in the top of the cupcakes about an inch deep. Fill hole with about a Tablespoon of cookie dough filling. I like to fill mine a little on generous side and use about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of filling.
4. Frost cupcakes with chocolate frosting. I like to put the frosting in a plastic storage bag and snip off a nickel sized hole in one of the corners to pipe the frosting on in a cone shape.
5. Garnish with mini chocolate chips and mini chocolate chip cookies (Make sure you don't add the cookie garnishes until a little before serving or they will get soft.).
6. *To fancy up your cupcakes, garnish with mini chocolate chip cookies. I used 1/4 of a package of refrigerated cookie dough. I placed nickel sized balls of dough on a cookie sheet and baked for 8-9 minutes at 350 degrees.

11 Step Program to Prepare You for Kids

I found this on another blog and I had to share it. It is so true. ENJOY



Thinking about having kids? Do this 11-Step Program first!

Lesson 1
1. Go to the grocery store.
2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.
3. Go home.
4. Pick up the paper.
5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2
Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...
1. Methods of discipline.
2. Lack of patience.
3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.
4. Allowing their children to run wild.
5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.
Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3
A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...
1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)
2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.
3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.
4. Set the alarm for 3AM.
5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.
6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.
7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.
8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.
9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)
Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4
Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...
1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.
2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.
3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.
4. Then rub them on the clean walls.
5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.
6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5
Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.
1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.
2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.
Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6
Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.
1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.
Leave it there.
2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.
3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.
4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7
Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8
1. Hollow out a melon.
2. Make a small hole in the side.
3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.
4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.
5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.
6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.
You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9
Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10
Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11
Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

Counting Calories

Like most people I am always looking to lose weight and get in better shape, but I struggle to find something that is not trying to sell a quick fix. So I have been on the look out for something that will help me choose better food. I found this awesome website that you can track your food, your exercise, it tells you how many calories you should be taking in and weather you have consumed more or less calories than you burn. It offers free recipes, free workout guides, forums and groups where you can get support from others who have the same goal as you. I just found it yesterday but I had to share it. Let me know what you guys think of it.
 Calorie Counter

How to Make Your Own Body Butter Cream or Lotion

I had a friend of mine give me some awesome homemade lotion for Christmas. This stuff smelled amazing and made my skin so soft, that I had to find out how to do this. Durning the winter my kids skin gets so dry I have been looking for something that won't irriate their skin. This is what I have found. You'll have to let me know what you think.

Homemade Body Butter Cream or Lotion
All of the ingredients can be easily sourced – but the trickiest may be the beeswax.  You buy it buy the pound so one block will make a lot of lotion!  You can find it at Michael’s for $20 – but I found for less money, not to mention a more trusted source on Local Harvest.

This lotion recipe has 3-4 ingredients, is easy to make and you’ll have the pleasure of knowing every ingredient that went into it.

Diva Honey Citrus Body Butter

2 Tablespoons of Beeswax
1/2 Cup of Grapeseed Oil
2-3 Tablespoons of Distilled Water
10 Drops of Citrus Essential Oil – or to preference

Combine the wax and oil together in a wide mouth jar. Microwave until the wax is almost completely melted.

Use a hand blender to whip – ensure it’s completely submerged for safety reasons!
Slowly add water and continue to aerate, then add fragrance. It will turn white and be thick and goopy.
Allow the lotion to settle for at least 15-20 minutes.
Scoop into a lotion container of your choosing, empty lip balm tubs.
Apply a small amount to any dry spots and enjoy!

Trainning for a 5K

I want to start doing something to help me relax and something that I have always felt like I could never do but I wanted to create a challange for myself. So I have set a goal to complete a 5K this year. But I really don't know where to start with the whole thing and I do so much better if I have something to follow and know if I am on track for success or not. So I started search the internet and found this great website with a article that breaks down exactly what you want to do and what to expect. So I am sharing it with anyone interested. I plan on posting updates to my progress. Anyone else up for joining this challange with me. I would love to hear from you.

The Couch-to-5K Running Plan

Our beginner's running schedule has helped thousands of new runners get off the couch and onto the roads, running 3 miles in just two months. By Josh Clark

Too many people have been turned off of running simply by trying to start off too fast. Their bodies rebel, and they wind up miserable, wondering why anyone would possibly want to do this to themselves.
You should ease into your running program gradually. In fact, the beginners' program we outline here is less of a running regimen than a walking and jogging program. The idea is to transform you from couch potato to runner, getting you running three miles (or 5K) on a regular basis in just two months.
It's easy to get impatient, and you may feel tempted to skip ahead in the program, but hold yourself back. Don't try to do more, even if you feel you can. If, on the other hand, you find the program too strenuous, just stretch it out. Don't feel pressured to continue faster than you're able. Repeat weeks if needed and move ahead only when you feel you're ready.

A few minutes each week
Each session should take about 20 or 30 minutes, three times a week. That just happens to be the same amount of moderate exercise recommended by numerous studies for optimum fitness. This program will get you fit. (Runners who do more than this amount are doing it for more than fitness, and before long you might find yourself doing the same as well).
Be sure to space out these three days throughout the week to give yourself a chance to rest and recover between efforts. And don't worry about how fast you're going. Running faster can wait until your bones are stronger and your body is fitter. For now focus on gradually increasing the time or distance you run.

Run for time, or run for distance
There are two ways to follow this program, to measure your runs by time or by distance. Either one works just as well, choose the option that seems easiest for you to keep track of. If you go with the distance option, and you are not using a track to measure the distances, just estimate. It's not important to have the distances absolutely exact.
Before setting out, make sure to precede each session with a five-minute warmup walk or jog. Be sure to stretch both before and after. Read "Stay Loose" for some suggestions.

The schedule

Week 1: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 60 seconds of jogging and 90 seconds of walking for a total of 20 minutes..

Week 2:  Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk. Then alternate 90 seconds of jogging and two minutes of walking for a total of 20 minutes.

Week 3: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then do two repetitions of the following:

• Jog 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Walk 200 yards (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 400 yards (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 400 yards (or three minutes)

Week 4: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 2-1/2 minutes)
• Jog 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Walk 1/8 mile (or 90 seconds)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week 5: Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week 5: Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
• Walk 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)

Week 5: Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog two miles (or 20 minutes) with no walking.


6: Workout 1 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 3/4 mile (or 8 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1/2 mile (or 5 minutes)

Week 6: Workout 2 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then:

• Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)
• Walk 1/4 mile (or 3 minutes)
• Jog 1 mile (or 10 minutes)

Week 6: Workout 3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2-1/4 miles (or 25 minutes) with no walking.


Week 7: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.5 miles (or 25 minutes).


Week 8: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 2.75 miles (or 28 minutes).


Week 9: Workouts 1-3 Brisk five-minute warmup walk, then jog 3 miles (or 30 minutes).