Top 10 Ketogenic Diet Recipes

After yet another year of not meeting the health goals I had set for my family, I decided it's better to try try again rather than give up and succumb to being a quitter. This year is no different from any other year except that my 28 year old is a cancer survivor and it's imperative that I try to lead by example and encourage healthful eating. I have adopted a thought process of baby steps as all or nothing never works for me and I slowly or more so rapidly, watch the scales skyrocket up. This time, I'm going to incorporate smaller steps to encourage and change the mindset of eating better and/or reducing consumption. One diet my son-in-law has had extreme success with is a ketogenic type diet. He joined the Navy and has had to lose weight and keep it off in a relatively short amount of time. He met his goal and he looks amazing and I do believe he feels better. With all the diets, it's hard to keep track of what is good, what is bad or what is different as the high protein, high fat, low carb diets are springing up all over the place with minor variations. 

Some feel they just can't follow such a rigid diet and utilize other means whether it's calorie counting, choosing a particular brand like MorningStar to reduce meat intake or combining exercise with smart food choices. For this post, I wanted to showcase some of the recipes my son-in-law included in his weight loss journey as a ways of possibly encouraging others to never give up. 

Ruled.Me has some great recipes and optional plans and books you can purchase. I am not affiliated with Ruled.Me nor do I get anything in return for posting rather I wanted to share what worked for my son-in-law. Here are the top 10 and recipes can be found with the link above.

Homeschool British Themed Recipes: Pork Pie

We started on a little road of discovery all about Britain.  I'm a dual citizen (by descent) since my mom is from there thanks to a changed law that recognizes the maternal link.  I'm also an ardent Jane Austen fan and that is slowly creeping into my daughter's interest.  I instantly fell for a quirky movie based on the love of Austen titled Austenland.  Low and behold, my younger who is a self-proclaimed 'mini-me', loves it too which has inspired all this new found interest in England.  We previously had our first tea party with homemade strawberry scones followed by a luncheon with finger sandwiches which didn't go over well since they are not egg fans.  Our latest dish was pork pie which was very tedious to make and required me to learn what ramakin dishes were as I had no idea what their official names were.  Luckily Walmart had four but remembering how the Walmart here is not too good as I've opened spices that were already opened along with a couple of other incidences, I decided to remove the lids on each dish to make sure they were not cracked.  Of course, one was so I'm glad I checked as it would have been a real damper to find I was out a dish.  

So, with only three dishes on hand, we proceeded to make our British Pork Pies.  I called my mom since she's the resident expert in this area and when I told her what the recipe entailed, she proclaimed it wasn't like the pork pies she grew up with and that they ate them cold and they had a gel substance inside.  I can honestly say I can do without the gel thank you very much!  So here are our pictures of the long process but very condensed:

The dough is made after the pork and bacon mixture have been prepared and is cooling in the refrigerator.  It was a basic flour and lard recipe and was simple to make.

The skillet included onions, garlic and green apple:

Half the pork butt and thick bacon mixture is pulsed in a food processor and returned with the other half.   It does not look too appetizing!

My two girls are the pickiest eaters ever but they really enjoyed the pork pies!  It was a win!

Not quite like the recipe picture but it was still good!  Want to try it?  Here is the link for British Pork Pie recipe.

My Daughter, the Seamstress and Her Paris Inspired Dress

My oldest has found yet another skill she excels in and that's sewing.  For my younger one, she's the very happy recipient of many fine dresses.  I've been encouraging her to start selling dresses to help their family income since she's an at home mom.  She's also excellent in planning birthday parties down to each detail as well as many other things.  I'm really liking her desire to move forward with making dresses and can't wait for some of my own!

This is her Hi-Low dress she made inspired by Paris.  We bought the hat at Sears and even though it's a woman's size, it will grow with her helping to offset the costs.  My younger one is a diva and I suspect she will always be a fashionista.  She also has a huge love for all things British which makes sense since her maternal grandmother is from England and both sides of my mother and father's side originated from England and France.

She admits the front should be longer but my youngest is somewhat tall but her width makes her a smaller size.  My oldest is learning as she goes and this is providing her with great experience in understanding how to choose the different pattern pieces to match the size of the model.  All in all, she's having a lot of fun and she can turn out a dress in no time!

Cinderella Themed Birthday Party

My youngest chose a Cinderella party theme this year for her party and she fell in love with an idea from Pinterest even though I didn't nail it.  I was a bit behind in the planning stages as I was supposed to be out of town but things were cancelled so my oldest and I had to move fast with the party.  For the carriage above, I purchased an orange bulb, blue sheer curtains for the table skirt, a shade tent and gold paint from Amazon.  The cupcakes included these cute edible pumpkins that my oldest daughter made.

I ordered the clock, crown and letters from Hobby Lobby.

The invitation I made by taking a sketch of the castle and colorizing it and using the Cinderella font along with other font.

The cake was a traditional doll cake mold with the addition of the Cinderella doll.  Floral icing was added as well as a fondant top and butterflies.

Have a Very Merry Best Buy Minecraft Christmas

The reviewer has been compensated in the form of a Best Buy Gift Card and/or received the product/service at a reduced price or for free.

My children and grandchild love Minecraft and they are active in both the console version and the PC. It's really a great game not just for fun but we utilize it also for homeschooling lessons. Minecraft is loads of fun with children and adults (my oldest) placing blocks and going on many adventures. My youngest thoroughly enjoys exploring especially caves to mine gems as well as creating worlds and building amazing things to surprise her sisters and niece. She takes such joy in creating the smallest of things like a simple house to a grandiose castle that she would see in one of my shows from England.  We have found that Best Buy has an array of Minecraft games and collectibles. Her Christmas list is full of every possible Minecraft item.

My youngest has requested the Mattel - Minecraft Flying Ghast Quadcopter with Remote Controller which I have obliged much to her surprise. Right now, you can even save $20 by visiting Best Buy to purchase and it's not too late for Christmas to order between the ship to home or pick up options.

Another great gift idea is the Minecraft - Mini Figures Case that can allow your child to transport up to 32 figures. It's a great way to store and travel with them without the fear of losing them. They can even flip it over to discover Minecraft world complete with a playtime portal.

All my children enjoy the Creative Mode since they have unlimited resources or they can mine deep in Survival Mode. The weapons and armor they can create to help defeat the expected and sometimes unexpected mobs is a lot of fun either by themselves or with their sisters or niece. It's a great family-friendly game and I would highly recommend it for children. The other great thing about Minecraft is there is such a huge choice of items that make great gift ideas from the game itself but also the toys that are available at Best Buy. One of the big items my children have been wanting is the Xbox One S console bundle that Best Buy has and I can imagine it would be their favorite gift from Santa. 

This Christmas, they are going to have a Merry Best Buy Minecraft Christmas!

TOP PICTURES FROM THE TOOTHSOME CHOCOLATE EMPORIUM & SAVORY FEAST KITCHEN™ IS ENCHANTING

THE TOOTHSOME CHOCOLATE EMPORIUM & SAVORY FEAST KITCHEN™ 

We loved Universal's CityWalk's Toothsome Chocolate Emporium that we had to return.  Unfortunately, my youngest wasn't feeling well and the service this time was less than stellar.  We waited over 40 minutes at a non-busy time to receive our appetizers and the $10+ french fries on the appetizer menu arrived cold and equated to a single serving of fries anywhere else.  I did return them without a problem but overall, it was disappointing from the first time we were there.

My youngest loved the hostesses dresses so I had to capture a picture.

I think the picture captures my youngest's thoughts on Jock. We thought he was adorable!

To read more about our experiences, click to visit tHE TOOTHSOME CHOCOLATE EMPORIUM & SAVORY FEAST KITCHEN™ IS ENCHANTING post.

Maleficent Birthday Party

When I started this post, I was in the process of moving yet again and my middle one is turning 12 in April.  She chose Maleficent as her party theme so I need to kick it in overdrive.  I normally use Pinterest and Word for my planning but this time, I decided to blog as I go to share what I'm doing.  I started with designing the invitation although I'm not completely sure I like this.  If I use this one, I will use my Cricut to cut out the scalloped outer circle and then my HP Printer for the glitter circled printed area.  I could have used the Silhouette but will opt to just print it and use the Cricut for the largest area.  

Invitations:

I tried another couple of examples by using a movie ticket type design and just a different background and she ended up choosing the movie ticket so here is the "current" final design followed up by the runner up's.  The envelope is actually black along with the circle and paper.

Banner:

I will also make the banner out of the same files for both the scalloped outer circle and the printer for the inner circle.  See below for an example middle section and the first letter "H" with a picture of the completed banner together.

Cupcake Picks:

The cupcake picks were also created the same way using the same shape to simplify the preparations.  I will hot glue a pick or toothpick to the back and if I don't want the back to be unsightly, I will just place another one on that side to cover it.

Book Prop:

I just ordered the book holder and will recreate the spell book with a real book to look like this.  I used old, online, manuscript paper and printed with the HP Printer after copying and pasting using the Maleficent font and clipart.

Potion Labels and Drink Bottle Labels:

Next step was putting together potion labels and drink bottle labels.  When I create the finished label, I will be using the Cricut again for the scalloped shape so the image on the bottle below is very crude but the finished image will not look like that.

Lotion/Nail Polish Bottles and Labels:

I've been playing with labels again and am probably going with these except I will print them on a light brown paper or on parchment to give it an old time feel.  I purchased the Purple 2 oz Plastic Jar Silver Lid 6 pk with Mini Jar and other bottles from Amazon.

Mini-Candy Bar Wrapper

The mini candy bar wrappers are just colored/patterned paper with purple jewels, lace and I used this horn template.

Wrapper Template

Money Coin Bank Favors:

I really like this idea but finding coin banks that are inexpensive proved to be harder than I thought.  So I'm going with these I found for $1.49 each at Church Supplier.

Wall Decorations:

I'm using this poster Maleficent - Movie Poster / Print (Regular Style 2) (Size: 24" x 36") (Poster & Poster Strip Set) and making a frame.  I also purchased these wings Hee Grand Halloween Sexy Adult Angel Feather Wings.  I'll cut out a template to make the picture outline to save money.  I found these inexpensive curtains too New 2 Pc Sexy Sheer Voile Window Curtain Panel Set Dark Purple.

I am borrowing ideas from Catch My Party.  I already purchased my glitter dust from Etsy seller A Heavenly Touch Cakes to create the cake pops in purple and green.  I will also make Rice Krispie Treats dipped half in chocolate and drizzled with colored white chocolate. 

The ornaments for the food picks were purchased from Etsy seller The Amateur Naturalist.  I also borrowed the idea from Catch My Party.  This is where a hot glue gun comes in handy for placing the ornaments on top and I'll use the HP Printer to print the flags.

I'll have my oldest make these cookies because she's good at hand drawing images and making cookies look and taste magnificent!

For some of the room decor for the set up, I just ordered this through Etsy although I could have made it with my Silhouette.

I'm still trying to decide which picture I will print from the one's I altered as well as making the candle that follows using the HP Printer and Silhouette this time.

We just had the actual party and because I moved recently, I wasn't able to do all that I wanted to do but here is the outcome.