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Awesome Halloween Party Ideas

Cover of Halloween Party (Salina Yoon Books)

Halloween is a great time of the year to show your creativity and fun side. Since kids and adults enjoy Halloween, this is the perfect occasion to pull out all the stops. When you are hosting a Halloween party, consider people of all ages. Here are a few things you can do to make sure you have an awesome Halloween party:

Boo-licous Food

Any awesome Halloween party will have a mixture of salty and sweet snacks and treats. There are some really great Halloween dessert recipes online. Choose a small variety of wonderful goodies to accommodate all guests. Some yummy choices include batty cupcakes, potato skin ghosts, pizza mummies, goblin grins, and then wash it all down with swamp juice.

Spooktacular Decorations

An awesome Halloween party should have appropriately themed decorations to set the atmosphere of the bash. Keep it cute and fun for a family party with friendly orange and black cartoon characters and streamers. But for older kids and adult only parties, go ahead and get a little scary. Dark walls, black lights and fog machines are fantastic. And, it’s always fun to put your hand in a bowl of grapes and imagine that they are eyeballs.

Goulish Games

Every fun party has party games, so make yours extra special for Halloween. Have games that don’t involve monsters and pumpkins. Do a quick search to get the instructions for the Black Cat Treasure Hunt, Fantasy Photos, Catch The Lion By The Tail, A Gift from Mummy, and Switcheroo.

These are just some things that will turn any gathering into an awesome Halloween Party. Jump online to see the wide range of tips and ideas on how to throw a great bash, and your party will be a memorable one.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Entertaining, Halloween, Halloween costume, Holiday, Parties

Protein in a Vegan Diet

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There’s a common perception that to obtain enough protein, one will have to eat lots of non-vegetarian food, as opposed to very little if one is consuming meat. This perception can be easily described as a myth. The vegans i.e. people who don’t eat any animal product also have plenty of high protein options to choose from as far as protein rich foods are concerned. The most common vegetarian food sources of protein include: beans, nuts, grains like pulses and lentils, peas, nut butters etc.

A vegetarian must ensure that his or her diet contains a wide variety of protein rich foods. This is essential because the essential amino acids required by our body cannot be obtained from a single vegetarian protein source. If vegans need to take a protein rich diet for fighting a medical condition or to build muscles, they should ensure that all their meals contain adequate quantity of protein. To have sufficient protein in your diet, you can take peanut butter with bread during breakfast. A teaspoonful peanut butter contains 8g protein.

A lunch comprising of beans and rice or beans and corn will also offer the required quantity of protein. Another great option fort such individuals is soybeans or other soy products like tofu, soy milk etc. A bowl full of soybean is known to offer as much protein as two egg whites. One cup soy milk, on the other hand, offers 7g protein. In dinner, vegans can take rice with lentils. One cup lentil offers 18g protein. You can consult your dietitian and know how much protein you need to take per day and plan your diet accordingly.

Filed Under: General, Home Cooking Tagged With: Protein, Veganism, Vegetarianism

Cooking Your Way to Success

Many people love to cook. They make masterful meals for the family and love buying fresh produce and making everything by hand. They watch MasterChef on TV and wonder if they can be the “Next MasterChef” as dubbed by Gordon Ramsey. If you’re one of these people, you may be wondering what you can do to make cooking your life.

Study Food

If cooking is your passion and what you enjoy more than anything, then the first thing you’ll want to do is study food. It may not seem practical, but if you’re passionate about it, then you’ll be successful because of that passion. Find the best school available to you and study the ins and outs of becoming a professional chef.

Get a Job

Once you’ve graduated, the next step is to get a job in a kitchen. The highest paying jobs are found at Michelin-rated restaurants as the head chef. It typically takes years of working, starting at the bottom of the job ladder, in order to be promoted to head chef. During this time, work on your creativity, continually making new and inventive recipes that wow the palate. Stay up with the newest techniques and contemporary dishes, so when you achieve your goal of becoming head chef, you’re ready to add specials that impress even long-time patrons of the restaurant.

You can be successful as a chef. It’s hard work, but when food is your passion, what else could you imagine yourself doing?

Filed Under: General, Home Cooking Tagged With: Cooking, Study Food, Success

Keeping Nutrition First in Kids

Image by BarrettB via Flickr

Parents understand that having their children to eat a well-balanced meal can be challenging at time. However, there are certain foods that should be kept in mind for children’s growth.

Dairy products such as milk and yogurt are good sources of zinc and potassium, as well as calcium for strong bone health. One to two cups a day should do the trick in making sure they receive these minerals. Cheese can also assist in this area as well. One thing to keep in mind is that dairy must be given in moderations to control weight gain in children.

Another good source of vitamins is found in seafood. Most likely young children will not sit down to a lobster, but different types of fish like cod carries omega-3 acids that are vital for brain and heart development. Salmon is an alternative for supply these acids and should be given to children about two times a week.

When it comes to meat products, they should be served in the leanest form. Protein is the source for muscle development. They are several ways to serve lean meats that children will become accustom to such as:

Rice with diced chicken
Fish sticks
Turkey meatballs with wheat pasta

Of course we can’t forget about fruits and vegetables in a young person’s diet. Green leaf veggies and fruits can boost metabolism which can assist in weight loss. Substituting lettuce with fresh spinach on sandwiches and adding tomatoes will do just fine. Also, chopping up fresh fruit like mangos or strawberries is best instead of store bought fruit cups due to high sugar content.

Filed Under: General, Home Cooking Tagged With: Fruit, Protein, Turkey

Eating Healthy Before the Wedding

One of the biggest moments in any woman’s life is her wedding. No matter what any bride says, fitting into that gown and looking great as you are walking down the aisle is vital.

Preparing for the Big Day

While most gown fittings and fittings for diamond engagement rings are a short time before the wedding it is important that you maintain your weight before the big day.

You can do this by eating right and sleeping well. Maintaining a diet filled with the things your body needs to function properly is vital to keeping your weight in check before the day comes. Make sure you include a great combination of fruits, vegetables, grains, fish and water in your diet. This will go a long way in maintaining your weight or even losing some weight before that moment.

Another great way to ensure you do not gain weight before your wedding day is to implement an exercise plan. Not only will this help with maintaining weight but it is also a great stress reliever and, regardless of how excited you might be, planning a wedding can be stressful to say the least. This doesn’t mean you need to hit the gym for hard weight training every day. You can get great results with things like walking or swimming. These are both enjoyable, relieve stress and can maintain weight or help with weight loss. By following some simple rules and sticking to your plan you will be in your dress walking down the aisle on the big day.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Health, Shopping, Weight loss

How Food Affects the Carbon Footprint

Women in a Publix grocery store: Tallahassee, ...

Image by State Library and Archives of Florida via Flickr

Have you ever considered where your food comes from? Next time you visit the grocery store, look at the sticker on your apples. Did it travel thousands of miles to get to your store, or did it travel just a few hundred from the next state over. There has been a lot of discussion lately about wasted resources, carbon footprints, and as always rising costs. Some families are considering eating only food that is available locally in order to reduce the effects of long distance shipping as well as their personal costs.

If your community runs a farmer’s market, hit that up for the freshest vegetables you can get—next to growing your own that is. Talk with your friends or neighbors about the possibility of purchasing your meat and chicken from local farmers. The price per pound is often less that you would spend at the grocery store. If quantity is a concern, go in on the purchase with several families so that there will be no waste.

Another way that families are trying to reduce spent resources is by growing their own gardens and raising their own chickens. Seed packets are cheap, but gardens do take some time. Chickens are inexpensive, easy to take care of, and an average family only needs three to four hens for a perfect supply of eggs. Canning is also making a comeback, which eliminates waste from an overly abundant garden.

If you don’t have a farmers market and have no desire to raise chickens, at lease pay attention to the food labels. Find out where your food is coming from and buy seasonal produce from local sources whenever available. Even baby steps will start to make an impact if everyone works to reduce their carbon footprint and the grocery store is a great place to start.

Filed Under: General Tagged With: Carbon footprint, Chicken, Family, Grocery store

Tired of Cooking? Renew Your Menu

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Cooking seems as if it often becomes a monotonous chore. Deciding which meal to serve on which night begins to seem like a chore. When cooking feels like a burden, it is time to mix things up a bit. As with many tasks, cooking the same things over and over puts you in a rut. There are a few things you can do to find your way out:

1) Start by planning your meals for the next month. Try not to repeat any entrees within that period of time. Some dinner ideas to help you get started:

-Lasagna, Italian Beans, Garlic Toast Strips
-Greek Turkey Burgers with Feta and Black Olives, Cucumber Slice and Baby Carrots with Yogurt Dip
-Baked Tilapia, Steamed Broccoli with Lemon and Ginger, Boiled Baby Potatoes
-Sautéed Veggie Stir-Fry, Whole Grain Brown Rice, Pineapple and Strawberries
-Mini Cheeseburger Meatloaves, Sweet Potato Fries, Zucchini
-Mushroom and Spinach Ravioli, Garlic-Wine Sauce, Garbanzo Beans
-Steak Fajitas, Pinto Beans, Mexican Rice
-Crepes, Thick Cut Bacon, Mixed Fruit
-Bruschetta Chicken Breasts, Diced Potatoes with Garlic, Beet Soup (served cold)

2) When you make meals that can be frozen, double the recipe. These frozen extras will come in very handy when your son’s soccer game runs late. Most frozen foods will keep very well if they are tightly wrapped in plastic and then placed in a freezer bag, or wrapped again in foil.

3) Start a Sunday cooking club. Get together with a group of friends each week and make a new dish together. Everyone brings the main ingredients needed, along with their own carrying dish, while the hostess supplies the basics such as flour, seasonings, and other cupboard items. Everyone brainstorms new meal ideas while the food is cooking and then pitches in to clean up. Alternate houses so it’s never a burden to one person.

Cooking should be pleasurable, not something you dread. Keep the new meals coming and you will be back in the spirit of meal-making in no time!

Filed Under: Dining Out, General Tagged With: cook, Lasagna, Pineapple