Monday, March 7, 2011
Our society is becoming more health conscious these days. With the increase of health conscious people comes the influx of preprocessed, ready to serve "health" food that is marked up so high that it's difficult for even the middle-class working man to afford.
Why buy all that expensive junk when you can stick to a healthy diet by making homemade meals from scratch, still be aware of the Nutrition Value of your recipes and save money in the process!
By knowing what the Nutrition Value of your homemade meals are, you will not only be able to keep track of your calorie intake, but you will also be able to experiment with healthy alternatives to making your old family recipes nutritious for you and your family!
To calculate the Nutrition Value of my family's recipe collection I use the Cook'n Deluxe Ultimate Recipe Organizer software! I not only can save old family recipes into the program, but it calculates the nutrition values for me, and adjusts my recipes whether I'm cooking for 4 or for 400!
This software was worth the price I paid for it several years ago. Being a military family on the move, it's nice to have all our favorite recipes together in one place so I can just pack my laptop into my carry-on bag and take it with me from Japan to Washington D.C. or where ever the U.S.A.F. sends us!
But let's talk sense here, sometimes all we want is something that is convenient and at our fingertips to do exactly what we want it to do at just a click of a button, and on a moments notice. I searched all over the net this evening, looking for a sensible website that offers a free Recipe Calculator where there are no strings attached.
I thought I wouldn't find anything until I remembered that Spark People always seem to have what I'm looking for when it comes to Diet and Nutrition! Sure enough, in the Spark Recipes section of their site was a free Recipe Calculator! You DO NOT need to sign up to use the calculator unless you wish to save and share the nutrition values of the recipes you punched into the calculator. The calculator is extremely easy to use and it gives all nutrition values for any recipe you key into the calculator!
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| Image: Recipe Calculator on SparkRecipes.com |
I highly recommend even becoming a member. Membership to Spark People and Spark Recipes is FREE with no strings attached and I guarantee you will love the site!!
I raise my glass to healthy habits! I love you all!! xoxo
Cheers!!
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Tis the season for Sicky Flu Bugs (Free Printable- Fever Log)
0 comments Posted by SouthShore Chick at 9:02 PM
....*Sigh* I never did get around to trying my hand at baking the Dainty Cinderellas today. I had to trade in my oven mitts for a stethoscope this weekend. After spending the past 4-days nursing my baby back to health I did nothing more than drag around lethargically feeling so tired I couldn't even make myself rest if I wanted to. (I'll try and bake those cookies tomorrow.)
It looks as though we are over the danger zone with this flu virus and my little one's fever has held steady not going over 101°F. today. She still has her icky cough but that's to be expected. I just hope it doesn't keep her up all night.
I was pleased that my kids let me retreat to my bedroom for a quick 2-hr nap this afternoon. The nap did me some good. It gave me enough energy to whip up dinner tonight! I think it will be safe to sleep in my room tonight. For the past 3 nights I had camped out in the family room with BbGirl at my side to have her temperature monitored.
Call me a nut but I keep a Fever Log when my kids are ill just in case we have to make an Urgent Care or ER visit. It helps to give the doctors an idea of what's been going on, and how I've been treating their symptoms before seeking medical attention. I started doing this when my oldest daughter was an infant and dealt with a series of unexplainable seizures accompanied by fevers that lasted for up to 10-days where tests could prove no trace of viruses.
I hope my daughter and I can get a full night's rest tonight. We'd like to be wide-eyed and energized for school on monday.
Below is an image of the Fever Log I use. If you CLICK HERE you can be redirected to the Printer Friendly Version. Make sure that your printer settings are set to "Landscape" before printing the document. After printing, if you'd like your log to be in Note Pad form (Like mine is, pictured above) print out 5-10 copies and cut each page down the center. Affix one staple at the top to turn into a super-cool notepad like mine!
Monday, January 17, 2011
I thought I'd give this "Organization" thing another try. last year was a flop. I think I managed to construct two menus last year, and then low and behold I got lazy and my idea of creating structure in my life flew out the window with my sanity. That's saying I had any sanity at all, which in reality I have very little of.
So two weeks into the New Year and I finally sat down to plan January's Menu. There it is below if anyone feels the need to jump on my bandwagon and attempt to gain back any organizational skills we once possessed. (Or did we?)
Tuesday, February 2, 2010
I recently put a new use to my Google Calendars app. I turned one into an interactive Monthly Meal Planner, grabbed my html code for the widget and added it to my blog. Now everyone can see what's cookin' in the South Shore Kitchen!
A very good friend of mine (Hey Khriss!) gave me a fabulous idea to add the recipe of each day's meal into the calendar. Why didn't I think of that? However, seeing as how most of the recipes will be posted in the blog, I ran with her idea in a whole different direction and decide, "Hey, why not just include the shopping & pantry list to the calendar description instead?" So I want to say "Thanks" to Khriss for plugging your fabulous idea into my brain! haha! (I will hop onto that task in a jiff.)
Ok so back to the Menu Planner. Not only does a monthly dinner plan save time in the kitchen but it helps save on impulsive spending at the grocery too! When your meals are planned in advance, you then know exactly what should be jotted down on those nifty little magnet grocery lists that you never use, but have set on the side of your fridge, and you "Save Money" too because you're sticking to your list!! Right?? haha! Ok, we stick to the list for the most part!
Sunday, January 10, 2010
As the years have gone by I finally realized that I am no Supermom. I used to manage all the household duties, cook, soothe an ailing cold and run errands all by myself. It was a breeze and I enjoyed it! Then again, I was a stay-at-home mom and college student. It was easy to keep the fort in order, make a full course meal and have enough time to catch a favorite sitcom after tidying up before bedtime. I never had to worry about surprise visits from friends and family because my home was always spotless. People used to boast that my floors were so clean you could eat off of them! haha!
Then one day my daughters started growing up and thanks to the good Lord we added two wonderful teen sons to our family!
Instant parenthood of teens can be a bit of a challenge especially when your two new kids came from homes where the word "clean" was never part of their vocabulary, Ha! Baby steps had to be established to teach my two new sons the habit of good 'ol structure, organization and cleanliness.
Having a well structured, organized home is very important to us, especially when you have one autistic child diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome who needs all the structure we can offer. I too need structure and organization to function smoothly otherwise I tend to become overwhelmed and stressed.
In 2007 we reintegrated our daughters into the public school system (we used to be homeschoolers), and the courts had finally awarded us custody our youngest son, life got ultra boring for me. I went stir-crazy in this big empty house with Brian and the kids gone to work and school so I decided that it was time for me to go back to work too!
When I leapt back into the work force organization seemed to have flown out the window. Now Brian and I are working hard at trying to come up with a good plan of attack when it comes to divying up the chores. It becomes a bit of a challenge when the busy schedules of everyones extra-curricular activities get thrown into the mix!
I was so very thrilled to have found this wonderful website called Successful Family Chores! You will love this site! We are always looking for new inovative ways to make parenting easier and stress-free! Chore Charts are printing and I'm working on my weekly menu planning! It's been years since I last used the menu planners and I'm excited be using them again!!
