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Cutting Grocery Costs without Cutting Nutrition

Simple, healthy, and affordable ways to weather the rising price of food

by Karen Collins, R.D., American Institute of Cancer Research

Grocery prices are projected to increase again in 2008 – that’s following 2007’s highest annual increase in 17 years. But surviving these tough economic times doesn’t have to mean sacrificing good nutrition. Some simple strategies can help you cut food costs and eat more healthfully, too.

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Madlynn is Kid of the Month

Biggest Loser Family Cookbook: Budget-Friendly Meals Your Whole Family Will Love

by Devin Alexander, Melissa Roberson

As grocery costs continue to rise, many family cooks are finding themselves in a tough predicament: How can they feed their families healthy, satisfying meals without breaking the bank? In The Biggest Loser Family Cookbook, New York Times best-selling author Devin Alexander shows families that eating on a budget can be easy, nutritious—and delicious! With more than 125 recipes that will satisfy every member of the family, Chef Alexander provides complete, affordable options for breakfast, lunch, and dinner, along with mix-and-match side dishes, healthy snacks, and desserts. From Broccoli & Cheddar Frittatas to Steak Fajita Quesadillas, Family Sized Meatball Parmesan to Peanut Butter Fudge Sundaes, these wholesome, satisfying dishes will become an essential part of every family cook’s repertoire. In addition to an overview of the Biggest Loser eating plan and Chef Alexander’s recipes, readers will find helpful cooking and cost-saving tips from favorite Biggest Loser contestants and online club members. They will also find simple ways to get kids involved in the kitchen and fun ideas for family.

10 Tips for Improving Your Family's Eating Habits

With today’s busy lifestyles, families don’t always eat as healthfully as we would like. But by practicing healthy eating habits at home, you can make it easier for your family to eat right. Try these 10 tips designed to encourage healthy eating habits:


Be a good food role model. Telling children to eat nutritious foods is one thing — showing them is better. If you offer nutritious foods regularly — and if they see you eating them — your children likely will learn to like them.
Serve a variety of fruits and vegetables daily. In addition to bananas and apples, try something new like kiwi or papaya. Add vegetables to stir fries or casseroles.
Schedule a snack time and stick to it. Space snacks at least two to three hours before a meal.
Involve kids in meal planning and preparation. Children often will eat foods they help plan and prepare.

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Angie's Money-Saving Tips

by Angie Ketterman

Tough, fatty cuts of meat are best for slow cooking. Buy inexpensive cuts like pork butt, pork spare ribs, beef short ribs and beef shoulder.


Leftovers can do double-duty — use pork butt in pulled pork sandwiches or shred short ribs to serve with rice and beans.
Tortillas are a great way to use up leftovers — you can put anything into them.


Potatoes are inexpensive and make soups and stews more filling. You can also try pasta, beans or grains.
Homemade soups cost a fraction of the canned version and are usually healthier. Freeze extra in single-serving portions for quick lunches.
Buy extra sweet corn at the farm stand, cut kernels off the cob and freeze in plastic bags. It's great sautéed with butter or tossed in soups and stews.

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Single Moms - find here resources on financial aid, scholarships, help with basic needs, food, prescription drugs, health care, housing, legal info, and much more...

Sugar Ghost Cupcakes Recipe

 

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INGREDIENTS
1 package (18-1/4 ounces) chocolate cake mix
FONDANT:
1 package (16 ounces) miniature marshmallows
4 to 5 tablespoons water
1 package (2 pounds) confectioners' sugar
1/2 cup shortening

 

DECORATING:
1 can (16 ounces) vanilla frosting
Blue, orange and green paste food coloring
Miniature peanut butter cups
Malted milk balls
Clear vanilla extract

 

24 Servings - Prep: 3 hours - Bake: 20 minutes plus cooling

 

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DIRECTIONS

Prepare and bake cake mix according to package directions for cupcakes; cool completely on wire racks.

In a large microwave-safe bowl, combine marshmallows and 2 tablespoons water. Microwave, uncovered, on high for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until melted, stirring every 30 seconds. Stir in three-fourths of the sugar; turn onto a work surface coated with 3 tablespoons shortening.

Knead until smooth and pliable, gradually adding remaining sugar and shortening. If necessary, moisten with remaining water. Wrap fondant in plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.

To decorate, set aside 1/4 cup frosting. Tint remaining frosting blue; frost cupcakes.

For ghosts: Invert two peanut butter cups and stack, securing together with a small amount of reserved frosting. Top with a malted milk ball, attaching with frosting. Repeat, forming 24 stacks.

On a work surface lightly sprinkled with confectioners' sugar, roll a 1-1/4-in. ball of fondant into a 4-in. circle; drape over a stack. For eyes and mouth, gently cut out shapes using pastry tips. Repeat for remaining ghosts.

For pumpkins, stems and tendrils: Tint desired amount of fondant orange. Wrap fondant around malted milk balls; shape into pumpkins. Add imprint lines with a veining tool or toothpick.

For stems and tendrils, tint a small amount of fondant green. Shape into stems; attach to pumpkins using vanilla. For tendrils, roll out remaining green fondant; using a pizza cutter, cut into thin strips. Gently wrap strips around toothpicks; set aside to dry. (Tightly wrap any remaining fondant in plastic wrap and store in a resealable plastic bag for another use.)

To finish cupcakes: Place a small amount of reserved frosting on top of each cupcake; top with a prepared ghost. Carefully remove tendrils from toothpicks and attach to pumpkins, using vanilla. Attach pumpkins to cupcakes as desired. Yield: 2 dozen.

Editor’s Note: This recipe was tested in a 1,100-watt microwave. This recipe was tested with Kraft brand marshmallows.

 

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Top 8 Tips for Reducing Kids Screen Time This Summer

Reducing time spent in front of televisions and computers is one of the easiest ways to improve your family's health. Here are eight simple ways to limit screen time so you can help crank up your kids’ energy, re-charge their minds, and improve their health.

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What would you change?

Weekly Column, by Annette Bridges

Change -- some people dread it, and others can’t get enough. It may be much like the idiom, “One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.” When it comes to what we would alter or why we would make a modification, the answers vary because we all have different things we value, want, need and consider important.

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Being a Role Model

by Laurie Cesario-Overton

If I had to choose one sentence that would best describe what I feel parents need to learn, it would be this: Be your child's BEST ROLE MODEL in all the ways that truly count. Be your child's HERO. Whatever you do, do it for all the right reasons.

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How to Find the Best Car Loans for Single Moms

Financial Advice for Single Moms

The best car loans for single mothers might be just around the corner at your local car lot.

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3 Money Rules for Stay-at-Home Moms

As we all know, life is unpredictable. We lose jobs, get divorced and even become widowed...
Here are three steps stay-at-home parents should take to better manage their own and the family’s finances.

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You May Have Too Much Debt But You Also Have Options

How Life Works

If you feel like you're in over your head with personal debt, you're not alone. Millions of Americans have become overextended, many as a result of easy credit and the recessions. Credit cards, medical bills, personal loans and raising interest rates do not make a good financial mix.

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Could fat babies mean fat toddlers?

A new study from Harvard Medical School found that babies who gained weight quickly had a sharply higher risk of obesity. The study followed close to 600 babies and found those in the top quarter of weight for their length at 6 months had a 40 percent higher risk of obesity by age 3 than smaller babies.

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Crystal Bowersox - A Single Mom And A Real American Idol

Read how the amazing Crystal Bowersox. the runner-up of American Idol Season 9, handles fame and life as a single mom, raising her 17 month old son.

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5 Ways for Single Moms to Save Money

Single moms are always looking for ways to save money, and for good reason... It’s important to find ways to cut corners on the little things that perhaps you don’t think about too often, because those are usually where your biggest money drains are.

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Suze Orman's Recession Rescue Plan - helps you survive in times of financial crisis

OPRAH.com

Do you know what your family would do if you lost your job - or worse, your home? Financial expert Suze Orman is ready to help you devise a recession rescue plan to survive - and possibly thrive - during this deepening financial crisis...

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Your Just-in-Case Emergency Plan

by RealSimple

Who do you call if you can't make it home in time to meet the kids' bus? Who do you trust to take in your mail when you're on vacation? Who do you trust with the extra set of keys to your house?

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How to save $10,000

By Liz Pulliam Weston

If you were hoping for a list of small tweaks you could make in your spending to save $10,000 a year, sorry. The reality is that $10,000 is a lot of money. And saving big money usually means making big changes in the areas where we spend the most, such as: Housing, Transportation, Food.

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The Super, Sexy, Single Mom on a Budget

by Renee Rayles

A quick reference guide designed for the busy, single mom who has

little time to read while running the mom taxi, cooking dinner, helping with homework, and trying to fit in a date night every now and then.

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Single Mothers &
Male Role-Models / Mentors

Single mothers carry an enormous load of responsibility, especially those having sole and/or primary custody of minor children. They nourish, they nurture, they teach, they discipline, they shelter, they protect, and they provide… all without the assistance of another equally-invested adult.

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Mom's Obesity Raises Newborn's Heart Risk

from the National Institute of Health

The more obese a woman is when she becomes pregnant, the greater the likelihood that her newborn baby will have a congenital heart defect, a new study suggests. The finding raises concerns because 1 in 5 women are obese at the start of pregnancy in the United States.

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The 10-Ingredient Shopping Trip

By Tara Parker-Pope and Mark Bittman

... In his latest “How to Cook Everything” segment on the Today Show, New York Times food writer Mark Bittman makes it surprisingly easy to cook a week’s worth of dinners with just a 10-ingredient shopping trip.

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Your 5-minute guide to protecting your identity

20 steps to protect yourself from identity theft, and seven ways to clean up things if you become a victim.

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TheOnlineMom.com offers parents and consumers a guide to the top-rated, age-appropriate, kid-tested and parent-approved tech toys and gifts.

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Single Moms in the News

6 Best Celebrity Single Moms
Read about Halle Berry, Sandra Bullock, Michelle Williams, Reese Witherspoon, Kimora Lee Simmons, Mary-Louise Parker... read more

Diary of a Wimpy Kid: The Last Straw

by Jeff Kinney

For those wondering why tween boys don’t read very much, the answer is that more books aren’t like this...

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Ice Cream Tips

Make the easiest dessert even simpler

Scoop in advance for a crowd. To serve ice cream quickly and in well-shaped spheres, scoop it up to several hours before needed, place balls evenly on a wax-paper lined sheet, cover with plastic wrap and store in the freezer until needed.

Soften for easy scooping. If the ice cream is too hard for easy scooping, defrost it in the fridge for about 15 minutes or pop it in the microwave for about a minute, then give it a couple more minutes on the counter.

Treat ice cream with the coldness it deserves. When shopping, make the ice cream freezer your last stop. Bag the ice cream by itself or with other frozen items, go directly home and unpack and put in the freezer as soon as possible. In your home freezer, always store ice cream in the main section, not the door.

Be creative with serving dishes! Use juice glasses, coffee cups, colorful plastic wine glasses or even halved fresh fruit that's been scooped out. Freeze your serving pieces first to keepo the ice cream firmer.

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Cocktail and Dinner Party Menus

There was a day when entertaining a crowd meant making an extra big pot of chile con carne or spaghetti sauce. And while that certainly remains a possibility...

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