Friday, May 9, 2025

15 Cheatsheets For Smoothies, Juices, Sauces & Snacks


What is happening on my Facebook page? A proliferation of charts! Of what, you may ask? Cheatsheets on how to grow vegetables, make smoothies, sauces, green drinks and more!

They are nifty charts you can put in a Google image search to see if you can link them back to their original sources. They seem to be passed around on social media. For our blog purposes, they are just a collection of practical information, all neatly on a single post that we do not claim ownership of and are free for all to read. Enlarge the ones of interest to you ...
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1. Romaine Lettuce 

Similar to celery. Keep the base of your romaine lettuce in a bowl with 1/2 inch of warm water. Let it sit in direct sunlight, and in a week or two, your lettuce stem will produce fresh, new lettuce leaves for all your great salads. Transplant your lettuce to soil to continue growing. They should be fully grown in 3 to 4 weeks. This process works for Bok Choy as well.

2. Garlic Sprouts

Are those tentacles?! Nope, those long green things growing out of your garlic are green shoots. You can put them in a little water, under a lot of sunlight, and grow a bunch of garlic sprouts. They are milder in taste than garlic cloves and are great in salads, pasta, and as a garnish.


3. Carrots

Plant the end of the carrot, and when it begins to sprout, take those seeds and plant them. Pretty soon, they will begin to sprout delicious greens from the top that are a nice addition to meals. Using a deeper container and more water, use toothpicks to keep carrots halfway in the water and wait for them to root. Once they root, you can plant them in your garden for a continuous supply!


4. Turnip

Like carrots, cut off turnip tops and leave them in a shallow container with water until they begin growing roots. This can take a couple of weeks. Once they’ve sprouted, plant them outside the same way you would your carrots!

5. Sweet potato

Unlike most vegetables, sweet potatoes aren’t started by seed but by slips (or shoots). Clean and cut a sweet potato in half, then place it half in/half out of a jar full of water using toothpicks. Over a few days, your sweet potato will begin to sprout slips at which point you remove them and place them in water to grow roots. You should have rooted slips with the week. Next, plant them in loose, well-drained soil and water every day in the first week, and then every other day (or as needed) the following weeks.


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  1. Asian Honey Marinade
 Ingredients:
 1/4 cup soy sauce

 1/4 cup honey

  2 tablespoons rice vinegar
 2 cloves garlic, minced

 1 teaspoon grated ginger

 1 tablespoon sesame oil

Instructions:

Combine all ingredients in a bowl. Marinate chicken for 1-4        hours for a sweet, savory, and umami flavor.


2. Jalapeno Garlic Marinade

 Ingredients:

 1/4 cup olive oil

 2 jalapenos, seeded and finely chopped

 4 cloves garlic, minced

 Juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon honey

Salt and pepper, to taste

Instructions:

 Mix ingredients well. Marinate chicken for 2-4 hours for a spicy and garlicky kick.


3. Italian Marinade

 Ingredients:

 1/4 cup olive oil

 1/4 cup red wine vinegar

  1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 teaspoon dried oregano

  Salt and pepper, to taste

  Instructions:

  Combine and marinate chicken for 30 minutes to 2 hours. Expect a classic, zesty Italian flavor.


4. Fajita Marinade

  Ingredients:

  1/4 cup olive oil

  Juice of 2 limes

  1 tablespoon chili powder

  1 teaspoon cumin

  1/2 teaspoon paprika

  1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (optional)

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  Instructions:

  Whisk ingredients together. Marinate chicken for 1-3 hours to get the vibrant, tangy, and spiced fajita flavor.


5. Honey Mustard Marinade

  Ingredients:

  1/4 cup Dijon mustard

  1/4 cup honey

  2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

  1/4 cup olive oil

  Salt and pepper, to taste

  Instructions:

  Mix all ingredients. Marinate chicken for 1-2 hours. The result is sweet, tangy, and creamy.


6. Nashville Hot Marinade

  Ingredients:

  1/2 cup buttermilk

  1/4 cup hot sauce

  1 tablespoon paprika

  1 tablespoon brown sugar

  1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (adjust to taste)

  1 teaspoon garlic powder

  Instructions:

  Combine ingredients, and marinate chicken for at least 1 hour. Expect spicy, smoky, and slightly sweet notes.


7. Teriyaki Marinade

  Ingredients:

  1/3 cup soy sauce

  1/4 cup brown sugar

  2 tablespoons mirin (optional)

  1 teaspoon grated ginger

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1/4 cup water

  Instructions:

  Mix until sugar dissolves. Marinate chicken for 1-4 hours for a traditional, sweet-savory glaze.


8. Cilantro Lime Marinade

  Ingredients:

  1/4 cup olive oil

  Juice of 2 limes

  1/4 cup fresh cilantro, finely chopped

  2 cloves garlic, minced

  1 teaspoon cumin

  Salt and pepper, to taste

  Instructions:

  Blend all ingredients. Marinate chicken for 30 minutes to 2 hours for a bright, zesty, and herbaceous flavor.

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The next 4 charts are healthy snack choices. Ideally a snack should be 100 - 200 calories. Protein snacks, including a handful of nuts, stop hunger in-between meals. At work I always got hungry at 4 PM, so began eating turkey sticks or almonds because pretzels, a carb, made me hungrier!  Protein is the better choice.
Fruit makes an excellent snack as well because fiber fills you up and takes time to digest. I consider fruit "free" food since it's packed with vitamins and doesn't add up to many calories. If I have a day I'm always hungry, I eat an apple, move onto a orange and if still hungry, follow up with a banana, or a pear, a handful of blueberries until my appetite stops bothering me!


Hope you learn a tip or two from these cheatsheets.


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Wednesday, May 7, 2025

The Parallel Makeup Bag

Without a doubt, at $78 for the small size, the Parallel Cosmetic Bag is expensive! Still we can admire how revolutionary it is. A traveler can organize her makeup essentials upright and visible instead of packing it in one big clump of brushes, powder, blush, and lipsticks. No riffling through the bag to find an item.

We are asked to pay for the attractive, sophisticated design that turns chaos into the clever organization of all our beauty tools, the patent-pending folding technology, its intuitive compartments and compactness, and the ease it gives us of grabbing our makeup on the road.



Nevertheless, we know it's only a matter of time before other retailers create a knock-off of the Parallel Travel bag and we could choose to wait and see if they're close enough for less moola.

A Savvy Shopper has choices. Take the concept: (1) Pay the piper if it fills an immediate need; (2) wait for a sale; (3) search for a close-enough clone; or (4)  try making one yourself if you can sew.

Scoring a steal or deal for the original Parallel Cosmetic Bag would be fabulous, but finding a budget-friendly compromise is super satisfying too.


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Monday, May 5, 2025

Othofeet Shoes


Support shoes to treat common foot problems such as plantar fasciitis, diabetes, high arches, heel pain, bunions or flat feet can be eye-poppingly expensive. But! Orthofeet are about the same price as regular reasonably-priced shoes.

According to the retailer, biomedical engineers are employed to design its shoes to ease the symptoms that cause the above named conditions.

The site's wide range of stylish sneakers, sandals, boots, clogs, mules, Mary Janes, dress shoes or specialty shoes for athletics, hiking, or handsfree slip-on-and-off shoes for men and women look just like regular shoes. I'll go farther and call them cute!

Othofeet shoes have built-in orthotic insoles to provide arch support and proper foot alignment. They have ergonomic cushioned soles to absorb shock. You can select features like wide toe boxes or seam-free, padded interiors. Also each pair of shoes come with an arch booster, 1/8” removable insole and another 1/16” removable insole, which other companies make customers pay extra to order. Remove them to wear thicker socks, and insert them as a spacer to wear sockless. Such great value for fantastic support!

Free shipping and returns plus promotions of $15% - 25% off to make already fabulous price points even more affordable!

The website is super simple to navigate making it easy to zero in on inventory that addresses your individual foot condition! Best of all, you'll never go broke to alleviate it! 

Know that my blogs aren't sponsored, I'm simply thrilled to find a brand that is about 1/3 of the price of other orthotic designed shoes! Plus they go on sale!!!

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Friday, May 2, 2025

I Love My New Bowl Cozy

Despite her busy life, my friend and schoolmate, Teresa, sews Bowl Cozies in her spare time. Recently a group of us classmates had a fun Saturday lunch chatting and catching up in her beautiful home. When we were leaving to return to our homes, she gave us one of her Bowl Cozies. Perhaps I'm the last person on earth who didn't know of their existence, but instantly I fall in love with them! They are so darn cute and useful. In addition to preventing burns while carrying a hot bowl of soup, the cozy keeps the soup warm for a longer period of time. When not in use, bowl cozies look super adorable sitting on your kitchen counter. Your house, co-op, or apartment becomes a home!



In life there are always new things for me to discover, but the knowledge that my friend, Teresa, is a women with many talents and a warm heart, is not one of them! The old saying, "If you want something done, ask a busy person," applies to her.

Our school must have done many things right. My schoolmates are a cool bunch of women. You feel proud to know them!😍😎

πŸ₯•πŸ₯•πŸ₯•My Impromptu Crock-Pot SoupπŸ§…πŸ§…πŸ§…

Ingredients: 

frozen butternut squash, 10 oz 
frozen mixed vegetables, 12 oz
1 large onion, diced
1 cup celery, diced
1 can pinto beans (Use any bean.)
7 cups water
2 large chicken-tomato bouillon cubes (Use any bouillon flavor or stock. If you use bouillon cubes, no need to add salt.)
1 teaspoon dried garlic
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
1 bay leaf
1/4 cup of organic cider vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce
a sprinkle Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cups of brown rice
3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

This is a forgiving soup, use vegetables and the starch of your choice. Feel free to make the soup with whatever you happen to have, fresh, frozen or leftover. Spice as you like it, and the soup cooks as well on a stovetop.

Directions:

1) Toss everything but the brown rice into a Crockpot and let cook on high for 4 - 5 hours.

2) Add the brown rice and cook for another 2- 3 hours. Although I didn't time it, avoid over cooked rice by tossing it in later. I also thought about diced raw potatoes, but went with the rice. Less work! :)

3) After the green beans, celery and rice are tender, dip some of the liquid out into a cup, let it cool, and mix it with 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour to add back into the Crockpot and cook for a final hour.

After thickening, it is ready to eat. You can top the soup with diced smoked ham if you wish. Brown rice with beans are a complete protein if you decide to eat lighter by skipping the meat.

 Bon appΓ¨tit!


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