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Spring can change a person, it can awaken them in a way like no other season can. After a dreary winter full of rain, snow and cold; spring can feel like a fresh start.
People tend to have more energy, almost as if they are awakening from winter hibernation and feel like doing projects outsides again. Many will start walking or exercising in preparation for summer and “shorts” weather. People can return to their favorite hobbies like gardening, golfing or watching your favorite sport baseball. Spring is also a time where in some families gatherings become more frequent with holiday weekends and nice weather bringing everyone together again.
With the first day of spring happening tomorrow, March 20th, what is something that you are looking forward to this spring?
Share it with us and we will select our favorite response and send you a product of your choice. Post your response here, on Facebook, or by email to strikingskin@gmail.com. One winner will be selected on Fri, Mar 26th @ 9am/PT.
Did you remember to wear green?
If not, you might have some “green” in your wallet and technically you are “wearing” it if you are carrying your purse. It might be a stretch but it is okay to be creative.
Whenever a day comes along that bring smiles to many, enjoy it there are not enough days like this in the year.
March is National Frozen Food Month but March 6th is Frozen Food day.
What is in your freezer? Are you stocking up this month – there should an abundant amount of frozen food on sale this month.
Frozen food has come a long way from TV dinners in aluminum foil, frozen pizza that we described as cardboard and Hungry Man dinners that still left you hungry but 10 pound heavier from fat and water retention from the abundance of sodium. At least there are options with frozen vegetables and side dishes to family friendly meals that are conscious of nutrition.
Have you watched the Healthy Choice commercials in the last few months? I was intrigued with their marketing campaign and visited their website once I realized it was Frozen Food month. What I did not know is that they have been running a pseudo campaign to show how Julia-Louis Dreyfus becomes the Healthy Choice spokesperson. In the ads it seems as if she is saying that she doesn’t want to do it and that is what I thought the spoof was but Con Agra, the makers of Healthy Choice, has a website called Spokespersonwanted.com. It is funny to see the commercials again and she how it all comes together.
Also available on the Healthy Choice (http://www.healthychoice.com/) site is product descriptions, nutritional information and coupons to print at home. (http://www.healthychoice.com/news-special-offers/). Check other frozen food favorites of your and see if they have any coupons this month. Visit their corporate website for offers listed and check local ads.
Whether you zap it or bake it – enjoy some frozen food this month!
In honor of Peanut Butter Lovers’ Day (3/1) we are posting one of our favorite peanut butter recipes. This recipe happens to be one of Paula Deen’s called Magical Peanut Butter Cookies.
Ingredients:
1 egg
1 cup sugar, or 1 1/3 cup sugar replacement (recommended: Splenda)
1 cup peanut butter, creamy or crunchy
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Directions:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Combine the peanut butter, sugar (or sugar substitute), egg, and vanilla in a mixing bowl. Stir until ingredients form dough. Roll the dough into balls the size of walnuts. Place the balls on a greased cookie sheet. With a fork, dipped in sugar/sugar substitute to prevent sticking, press a crisscross design on each cookie. Bake for 12 minutes, remove from the oven, and sprinkle the cookies with some of the remaining sugar/sugar substitute. Cool slightly before removing from pan.
Yields 18 cookies.
This recipe can be found online at Paula Deen’s website or in Paula’s Home Cooking/Lady and Sons Too! cookbook Pg. 229. Visit www.PaulaDeen.com for more peanut butter recipes.
Stay tuned for giveaways featuring Paula Deen’s cookbooks and cooking accessories that we are hosting.
Photo courtesy of Photobucket.com
Having a cold is just plain lousy – it’s miserable to have a runny nose, coughs and sneezes. Be sure to drink plenty of fluids and keep your skin well moisturized with an extra dose of Striking Serum layered with Striking Creme. And to help beat the blahs and to give yourself a little TLC, we’re sharing some of our favorite comfort foods.
Cold season is here and when you feel lousy, you want comfort as well as healthy choices. Fitness Magazine highlighted some great choices that should help soothe your cold and keep your diet on track. Each one of these snacks is packed with cold-fighting vitamins, minerals, and amino acids that may help make your cold less severe.
Our traditional favorite – Chicken Soup!
It may be cliché, but Chicken soup is the perfect comfort food when you’ve got a cold! Drinking plenty of hot, nurturing fluids is essential when you’re feeling run down and research at the Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha showed that chicken soup helps control the production and spread of inflammation and congestion-causing neutrophils (white blood cells).
Recommended serving size: 1 cup
Calories: about 190
Soothing Ginger Tea with Gingersnaps
Ginger helps relieve congestion and has a soothing, spicy taste. To make a throat-calming, congestion-busting tea, steep chopped raw ginger in boiling water for about 10 minutes. Make your teatime a little sweeter by adding a teaspoon of honey to the brew and two crunchy gingersnap cookies on the side. We think this is good on a rainy day, too!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup of tea with 1 teaspoon honey and 2 small gingersnaps
Calories: about 85
Fresh Clementines or Satsumas
Easy to peel, fresh, sweet and tangy all at once, they are a great source of Vitamin C – just two fulfill 100 percent of your RDA of vitamin C.
Recommended serving size: 2 clementines
Calories: about 138
Open Those Sinuses Vegetarian Chili
A spicy veggie chili made with onions, garlic, kidney beans, tomato paste and a good dash of chili peppers not only warms up a cold-afflicted body, it may also have medicinal properties! Onions and garlic have antiviral effects, beans have good-for-the-immune-system B vitamins, and the spices can actually help clear sinuses!
Recommended serving size: 1 cup canned vegetarian chili
Calories: about 160
Tuna Salad
Packed with glutamine, an amino acid that helps step up your immune system’s efficiency, tuna is a great pick when you’re sick. Research at the University of Oxford showed that athletes who ingested glutamine after workouts were less likely to get an upper respiratory infection than those who didn’t; for regular folk, glutamine could have the same beneficial effects. Mix your tuna with a tablespoon of low-fat mayonnaise and serve it on 6 whole-grain crackers for a healthy mini meal.
Recommended serving size: 1 6-ounce can of tuna packed in water with 1 tablespoon low-fat mayonnaise and 6 whole-grain crackers
Calories: about 290
Excerpted from FitnessMagazine.com, January 2006.
http://www.fitnessmagazine.com/recipes/snacks/healthy/6-smart-snacks-to-feed-your-cold/
In some parts of the country, snow is abound and continues to fall but that is not the case in the Northwest. Almost overnight the trees have begun to bloom and spring is beginning to show its beautiful face. (Do not fret, the rest of you will catch up very soon.)
When spring begins to surface a feeling comes over us and we have the need to feel refreshed with the urge to try something new. It could be a planning a long, relaxing weekend, getting back to the gym, trying a new hairstyle or adding new pieces to your wardrobe.
Enjoy the changing of seasons and how it makes you feel as we begin to say goodbye to winter and hello to spring and all its beauty.
It could be just around the corner or already here, but here are some tips on the Top 10 Steps to a Healthy Menopause excerpted from MenopauseRx.com.
#10: This is not your grandmother’s menopause
#9: Know what’s happening physically
#8: Menopause can affect sexual function
#7: Talk with your clinician about menopause
#6: Focus on what’s important to you
#5: Menopause treatments are safe and effective
#4: Don’t accept a “one size fits all” treatment plan
#3: Know how hormone therapy works
#2: What to expect from your hormone therapy
#1: Stay fit and healthy
To read more on each tip visit their website and the post on Top Ten Steps to a Healthy Menopause: http://www.menopauserx.com/topten.htm
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEMomMWe5v0&feature=player_embedded
Heart disease is the #1 killer of women. Learn more at www.goredforwomen.org and www.americanheart.org.
As we watch the 2010 Winter Olympics this week it is hard to imagine what life sacrifices it takes to get there. We are inspired by all Olympians but there is one that caught our attention this week.
Her name is Tracy Sachtjen is from Lodi, Wisconsin and was born in 1969. As the oldest female on the US Olympic Team in Vancouver this year she will celebrate another birthday on Saturday with her team. She is an alternate on the US Women’s Curling Team in the 2010 Winter Olympics.
Tracy began curling in 1982 and has won several events since then. Here are only some of her career highlights:
2003 World Championships Gold Medalist
US Nationals Gold Medalist in 2009, 2008, 2003, 1999 and 1997
US Nationals Silver Medalist in 2001, 2000 and 1998
US Olympic Trials Gold Medalist in 2009
US Olympic Trials Silver Medalist in 2005 and 2001
US Curling Association Female Athlete of the Year in 1989
US Curling Association Team of the Year in 2003
Tracy is a support member for her team and a role model for kids across the US especially young girls. For more information on Tracy and the US Women’s Curling Team, visit NBC Olympics or read this article posted 2/15/10 on Tracy Sachtjen.
Happy Birthday Tracy!
SELF Magazine is sponsoring a contest called “Women Doing Good”. The contest is centered on nominating women who make a difference and inspire us. Someone who helps to improve lives and does it with passion and vigor. A woman who challenges others to also help or contribute time to help others.
Do you know anyone that would qualify? If so, enter her for the contest as a way of telling her that she is doing good.
The winner receives:
- $10,000 donation to her charity of choice
- Feature in the September issue of SELF Magazine
- Trip to New York City to attend the Women Doing Good Awards Ceremony
The contest began on November 24, 2009 and ends on March 30, 2010 (11:59PM ET). This contest is void outside the US. For more information on rules, go to http://www.selfconnected.com/winit_womendoinggood_01.asp.
