Julia Child Printable

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One smart steak lover. 

On August 15th it was Julia Childs's birthday, and her famous saying "The only time to eat diet food is while you're waiting the steak to cook," started to become quite famous on Facebook and social media sites. I really couldn't agree more and that is why I loved this printable from www.irockwhat.com.

Isn't it great. Maybe the only thing that could make it better would be a little asterisk with
*Remember though there are 29 lean cuts of meat that will fit into your diet. Sirloin and tenderloin are two of those cuts. 
Ok probably not necessary. Hope you have a great weekend, and find some steaks for the grill!

p.s. IROCKWHAT also has this amazing Bacon Egg Cupcake recipe on her blog. You are going to want to check it out. 

Corn Report: How much corn is in that field

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Me, the men and the corn. 

On Friday, I went on a brand new adventure called a crop tour. The Boy will tell you about how geeked up I was about the whole deal, but seriously I was pretty excited.

So what is a crop tour? Well, our crop tour was just in our county. People divided up into teams (teams does not mean a competition I found out) and explore corn fields in the area to try and determine the possible amount of corn that will be harvested.

Have you heard on the news how this year's corn crop is going to be way down? How in the world do they determine that before the corn is even harvested. Well there is a formula and I learned all about it on the crop tour.

First you need 30 feet of rope. You lay that rope down against a random row, and count how many ears are along the 30 feet. Next they picked the ears off of the 3rd, 8th and 11th stalks and brought them in for counting. You do this in a couple different spots in the field to get a more accurate idea.

OK back at the truck now. There is a formula where you count how many kernels around the corn is (16 is ideal) and measure how long it is and then include the pervious stalk counts in your calculation. Boom you have an approximation of how many bushels an acre you will get in that field.

Now what does any of this mean to you that don't live on a farm or have anything to do with a farm. Well the bushels (bu) in our area are going to be way down. The fields we did were anywhere from 80+ bu to 211 bu. Our area of the country is corn country, and is known for consistently producing 200+ bu corn. Bottom line. Food prices are going up. 

You can see that there was a lot of variation, and that guy at the bottom
isn't very healthy. All these ears came from the same field.

Because livestock are fed corn in addition to forages like grass, and corn syrup is found in all those sugary sweets we enjoy like pop our country needs a lot of corn, and there isn't going to be a lot of it this year. If you want to see more pictures you can check out www.newscoffeeshop.com or on Twitter find the hashtag #croptour12

Here's you chance to #AskUSDA about #SchoolFoodsRule

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They are giving us a forum.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, August 29, the USDA will be talking about the new changes to the School Lunch Program at 1:00 PM EST

Some things that I hope are discussed:

1. Does this one-size all approach to nutrition really work?
2. Will those children who rely on school lunches as a vital part of their nutrition suffer?
3. How should children who are athletes deal with the restriction in calories?
4. Why can't we provide more lean protein for our growing kids?

The good news. By tweeting to @USDA with the hashtags #AskUSDA and #SchoolFoodsRule your questions could be answered. Janey Thaney, Under Secretary for Food, Nutrition and Consumer Services will be leading the chat. Hopefully, she has a much clearer understanding of the new changes that Secretary Tom Vilsack did in this interview.

For more perspective on these changes check out this great post from mom Debbie Blythe "School Lunches are Not Making our Kids Fat."

I'm talking about what comes from playing for a Midwest school

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I am K-State Proud. 

Recently, a gentlemen known as the K-State Mask has entered the college football scene. And whether or not you have any desire to bleed K-State purple you've got to watch. He is moving (I literally get goosebumps), hilarious, motivating and ridiculous. Below is a quote from today's video as we get pumped up to play Miami this weekend.

I think I fell in love.


This quote goes on longer and get pretty funny after the heartfelt stuff in the K-State Mask video. You can watch it all hear. 

And this is the link to the K-State Mask's Missouri State Post Game Video. It is amazing. My Iowa loving husband even felt a little purple pride. 
Be sure to follow K-State Mask on Twitter. 
"We need to be loud, proud, and a helluva a crowd. Mark that down."- K-State Mask

Pumpkin Cheese Cake Muffins and winners announced!

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Pinterest wins again.

Last night I went on a bit of a cooking binge. Made supper, pumpkin muffins and raspberry cookies. I took most of it over to the grain elevator so the guys doing harvest could have a treat. One of them asked the Boy how do you get your wife to get start cooking as soon as she gets home from these trips. The Boys response was it just happens! She likes cooking and since she can't when she is on the road she makes up for it when she gets home.

Pumpkin cupcakes are delicious. That is a fact.

The recipe I want to first share with you is a pumpkin muffin/cupcake. I have really been craving pumpkin and since this recipe only had two, I repeat two ingredients I thought they would perfect.

Ingredients needed:
1 Box of yellow cake
1 Can of Pumpkin (15 oz).

Instructions:
Blend two ingredients. Put into muffin wraps and back for 20-25 minutes at 350 degrees. I felt like my muffins definitely needed the full 25 minutes.

As an added touch I topped my muffins with some cream cheese icing. I'll admit it, I bought store ready made icing. And it was delicious I might add. I guess this is a pretty popular Weight Watchers recipe. That means healthy right? And it was no big deal that I had two?

Now onto announcing the winners of the Boot Barn Cody James contest and the Cowgirl Crush Earrings.

Emily Writer you won yourself a pair of Cody James or Shyanne Cowboy Boots from the Boot Barn and Sara Wall you are the winner of the Cowgirl Crush earrings! Please find my email under the About tab and email me with your contact information.

Glade Expressions review

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Thanks for looking at my Glade Expressions review for bzz agent. I received 2 free coupons so I was able to try this newer product and write a review.I love them!

These work so much nicer than other diffuser's I have tried and are so pretty .I also got to try the room spray with its lovely design that makes it so you do not have an unsightly air freshener can sitting one your counter. I will explain more about design in the video review because I can actually show you how it works but for now Ill talk about how well these work.

The diffuser I picked to try with my coupons was the Lavender and Juniper Berry this is a really pretty scent and so much better than the fruit scents, I know fruit is popular but they really just makes me hungry. I have been on a diet and the last thing I want my room to smell like is a desert lol so I was so happy to find the Lavender scent at target.

The Glade Expressions diffuser, will fill your whole room with its lovely fragrance and look good doing it. I love that its very stable and really not easy to spill as some diffusers are because everything is nicely protected.

The other product I got to try is the lovely Glade Expressions room spray in cotton and Italian mandarin, this one smells very nice and fresh and I love that the decanter cover hides the spray bottle so its so much less unsightly on my counter..I hope you get a chance to see the video because I can shouw you how these work better. thanks for looking

Kashi chocolate Soft Baked Squares Review

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I was able to try Kashi chocolate Soft Baked squares recently and got several samples so I could have my family and friends try them as well. I must say they were a big hit, The only person who was none to fond was my oldest daughter but I think that because she saw healthy on the box and is rebelling agents anything healthy :). Anyway I really like these they are soft and chewy and very chocolaty. The softness really surprised me because it rare to find a whole grain healthy snack that so moist and tender.

Kashi continues to amaze me with the great tasting and healthy snacks they come out with. These would be perfect for any child to take with them in their lunch box and will not only provide them with a sweet treat but the whole grains we all want our kinds and in my case grand kids to have.

These are a great twist on a familiar favorite, These yummy chocolate squares are made with good-for-you ingredients like seven whole grains, sweet potatoes and black beans. And with natural sweetness from agave, 4g of fiber and 300mg of ALA omega-3. The texture is a bit different but they are wonderful and you can even can some tasty Ice cream sandwiches with them by cutting them in half and adding ice cream I love these that way.

Nutritionally they have 160 calories with 60 from fat so this makes them way lighter than a conventional baked square. They have no cholesterol and 2 g of protein. This all makes Kashi Soft Baked Squares a great choice to add to your kids lunch or for an after school snack, I only wish we had these when my son was small.

I did a video revew for these so you can see just how moist and tender they are. I hope you have a look at it soon thanks for looking at my review.