Foundation Highlight of the Month- Ways to Work

It's about that time again and It's tax time too, so I'm sure it should be easy to use that money to contribute to what you need to do to be more self sufficient. I'm sharing with you another program that will assist you in that.  I recently spoke with a rep from the Bartko Foundation (previous blog post) and he informed me that they will help if you go through certain programs like Ways to work or Community Auto.  I decided to highlight the Ways to Work program, because it is a program that is across the U.S and not just in Pittsburgh, you must live in the PA area for BF and CA foundations. W2W gives people with challenged incomes and credit the opportunity to get a low interest loan of up to $6000 towards transportation in order for them to stay in school or continue working. Here's a direct quote from their website as to their purpose, "As an asset-building and economic self-sufficiency program for underserved populations without access to conventional financial resources, Ways to Work helps families move off of and stay off welfare and dependency programs.  Instead of handouts, it provides families a helping hand-up toward a more stable financial future."

 Sometimes it can be difficult for people, especially those with children to get kids to daycare then go to school or work vice-versa everyday on the bus. Let's face it, without transportation, we are limited.  I have money saved up for a car and I am still saving but I have had a bad stroke of luck with unreliable cars, and now that I have a child being stuck on the side of the hwy is NOT an option for me if I can help it.  Also I'm not trying to pay a high car note on top of full coverage insurance at this point.  I'm trying to make smart purchases at this point in my life, it's not just about me any more. My 9 month old is my first thought when considering anything. This seems like a great program and as long as you meet the following criteria this can be of benefit to you.  If you have been employed at least 6 months OR in a post high school education program, AND a parent,AND unable to get a loan from a bank or credit union, AND you agree in writing to repay your loan to Ways to Work then you qualify.  If you are in PA you can apply to the Bartko foundation and use W2W to be your sponsor and if you qualify, that can knock about $3k off of your loan.  I just feel there are too many people struggling and there are programs out there to help people but no one knows about them to take advantage.  For those of you that would like to Donate to these programs click on either of these links Ways to Work and PA programs North Hills Community Outreach Community Auto and Bartko Foundation.

Find Ways to Work in your area click here.

♥♥♥ Have a productive and creative day!! ♥♥♥

Overdose of Holiday Treats?

         During the holidays we look forward to those delicious traditional good eats.  The forbidden foods shall I say that are prohibited all year long or maybe just not worth cooking unless it’s for a special occasion.   For me it’s all of the above.  I come from a huge family and it’s sort of like a pot- luck for my family.  We all bring something to contribute to the celebration, and if you are like my family you help yourself to more than just that so called one plate….yeah right, who are we feeding a 2 year old here?? It’s not until we have the infamous –itis or the politically correct term macajuel syndrome from overeating and we are feeling guilty.  Then thinking about a new year’s resolution in an attempt to counteract the heinous crime we committed to slaughter our health in the first degree.

  It’s no secret that holiday gatherings bring about happiness, family ties, togetherness, and STRESS.  .  When we are stressed we tend to eat more and it also produces the hormone called cortisol that’s linked to abdominal fat.  Eating and bonding with family and/or friends produces a hormone called oxytocin, which has been linked to creating those feelings of happiness and love.  Our brains are more sensitive to this hormone the more that’s produced, foods that are highest in fats seem to produce more, which in turn means that we find joy in those fatty foods around family and friends.  So what’s the point here? I think you get it and I would say the first step in creating something anew is being somewhat informed and also knowing the why(reason for doing something) first. 

  Here are a few tips to try and prevent holiday overeating….

Eat something healthy and satisfying before you get to the party that way you won’t be eating your guests out of a house and a home;).

 Pay attention to what you are eating and how much, its all about moderation, and if you are looking at a movie or TV while eating you will continue to eat and you will not even notice you are full. 
 Go easy on yourself, you may try to deny yourself those dirty dishes, but having a taste won’t kill you, it’s when you say “having a taste won’t kill me,” and end up eating 3 of the same kind of 300 calorie per brownie and 5 of those 115 calorie per cookie x-mas servings.

  If you are falling prey to social pressure of overeating, try showering your host with compliments on how delicious the food is and politely say you are stuffed!  Trust they won’t be upset.  If they are just fix you a plate to take home as a good gesture.  There you have a meal for tomorrow…leave the deserts on the table, you will be tempted to eat it all at once before it “goes bad”.

 You may also want to try to eat lower calorie meals throughout the week…I do not know how much of an advantage that may have because if you do this and overeat that one day it will just counter all of that work. 

If you are cooking you have a slight advantage…try to use 100% whole wheat  bread, brown sugar, natural sweeteners such as maple syrup or honey, try to use whole wheat flour, and brown rice, trans-fat free margarine, whipped butter in container or low fat butter.  If you aren’t sure how it will taste without it maybe you can experiment with these ingredients beforehand it’s always possible to make a small serving and try it.  Try to keep an open mind, because when you think about it too hard that you are subbing then you may make it up in your mind that it won’t taste as good…and then when you taste it voila! It’s not as good…

 The final of them all is EXERCISE!  We all know that new year’s resolutions are a JOKE! Instead of making it a new yrs resolution we could control how we eat during the holidays and could at least keep a simple workout regimen going its better than sitting on the couch and letting all of that fat and carbs accumulate and by mid year we have gained 2lbs a week instead of losing 2lbs a week. Okay, I’m done.  I hope this helps someone in 2012!

♥♥♥ Have a productive and creative day!! ♥♥♥

After the Holiday

Hello my courageous creators! Just stopping through to say hello, I have been on "vacation"... A very baaad vacation!:( :) It's okay...As long as I realize where I'm headed and adjust.  I'm going to post an article about holiday overeating soon...it may be overdue but there's always next yr!:) I am actually thawing out some shrimp right now, I'm going to try my hand at shrimp and asparagus casserole.  Yes I will turn into an asparagus because I absolutely love it!  I have a couple of more recipes to post that turned out absolutely delicious!! I've been kind of worried about posting recipes that aren't 100% healthy, but I'm no super chef yet! I just love to cook (my mom bought me a Wok pan for Xmas, she said since I love to cook so much, lol). So, in my attempt to find healthier alternative recipes I guess I have to be committed to being the "test dummy"...how will I know a good substitute if I don't know the original flavor!:) I'm sitting back listening to smooth jazz, just put my daughter to sleep, feeling so wonderful! Don't have a reason to feel any other way! This post is about NOTHING you may be interested in reading, but I guess I can leave with a good quote to finish your day, “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending.” -Maria Robinson

♥♥♥ Have a productive and creative day!! ♥♥♥

Foundation Highlight of the Month- BartkoFoundation

BartkoFoundation- Single Minority Mothers

   I am in the process of getting a new vehicle and my mom informed me about this really encouraging foundation that assists single minority mothers.  I have saved up a good amount of money, so I'm not just looking for a hand out but there is help out there and I was unemployed for a year and was blessed with a job working from home, and now I'm just looking to move forward for my daughter and I.  It's no sense in not sharing what I find out with others who may benefit.  This foundation is called the Bartko Foundation and they assist in helping single minority mothers become self sufficient.  I think this is a great program for the simple fact that a lot of minority women get welfare because they need it and then don't want to get off of it, and this helps push them out there.  There is no excuse.  "Our purpose is to assist these women in achieving goals they have set for themselves and to help them continue positive progress in their life’s journey. We generally focus our support on goals related to education, transportation, housing and employment.

Working Mom

We believe these areas have the most profound impact in the lives of our recipients and, therefore, our investments. We seek to help these individuals reinforce their own sense of accomplishment with their self-sufficiency goals."~ BartkoFoundation

This is located in the Pittsburgh area but I am unsure if it is limited to women that live in Pittsburgh, PA.  I will get more information and update you on it.  But those of you looking for help in reaching your goals and these very important things such as housing and transportation are holding you back, this may be for you.  You will either find a way or make one...not reaching your goals should not be an option.

"....our support is driven more by our hearts than by our heads. We hear the stories of women who are struggling to give their children a good start in life. We feel the pride when a young mother struggling to go to college while holding down a part time job and caring for two children says “I want to do this so my children can be proud of me and have a positive role model.” We feel the struggle when a mother sacrifices everything to get her family into their first home. We appreciate the effort of taking two buses to get to work and child care, let alone carry a toddler and all the paraphernalia that children need to get through the day. We know how it hurts when someone says “Sorry, but we can’t help you with that”.~BF

Eggplant Parmesean and Poorly Cooked Delicious Tomato Sauce Anyone?

I know this has NO RELEVANCE! #StillFunny

Sooooo....  I call myself making some tomato sauce! LOL! #fail....lol You wanna know why I failed??? Well, ummm the FIRST thing you are supposed to do is look at the cooking time and ingredients and serving size before preparing to cook...its best to look at a recipe the day before so you know what you need and you can prepare the ingredients, marinate for maximum taste if need be...yadayadaya...I made some DELICIOUS Oven fried eggplant parmesean and while it was in the oven I proceeded to make the tomato sauce...the end of the recipe, all of my ingredients chopped, pureed, primed and ready to go and 5mins into a preheated eggplant ready oven I see that the simmer time is 2 HOURS!!!lol and the total cook time was 4HOURS! You know what I did??? I let that bad boy simmer for about an hour, reheated what was left over of my eggplant parmesean and poured that tomato sauce right over it...it was decent...I had to add some seasonings to it because I guess it didnt marinate the flavors long enough, I ate it all though...Gladly, I have the golden touch and I can fix just about anything with a dash of this and a dash of that ;)  If you want to know the recipe for Oven Fried Egg plan Parmesean:

 

• 1/2 cup fat-free mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon minced onion
• 1 lb unpeeled eggplant , sliced-about 12 (1/2 inch slices)
• 1/3 cup fine dry breadcrumb
• 1/3 cup grated parmesan cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon dried Italian seasoning
• vegetable oil cooking spray

Directions:

1. 1
   Combine first 2 ingredients, stir well.
2. 2
   Spread evenly over both sides of eggplant slices.
3. 3
   Combine breadcrumbs, cheese, and Italian seasoning in a shallow bowl; dredge eggplant in breadcrumbs mixture.
4. 4
   Place eggplant on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray.
5. 5
   Bake@ 425 degrees for 12 minutes.
6. 6
   Turn eggplant over; and bake an additional 12 minutes or until golden.

Read more: http://www.food.com/recipe/oven-fried-eggplant-aubergine-49387#ixzz1gZXmmgWF

The Sandwich Modifier

Romaine lettuce, tomatoes, mayonnaise, ham and turkey, and a toothpick to get rid of the evidence;)

Good Afternoon my courageous creators! If you eat salad you can eat this! I ate a turkey, ham lettuce wrap for lunch. It was, I must say delicious! :) Yes, I added mayo...next time I'm going to look for a delicious sauce that would go with it that's not so fattening.  I used romaine lettuce and tomatoes as well.  Now, What a healthy lunch alternative to two large pieces of white bread and your so called wheat bread.  It doesn't always have to take an elaborate cooking session to have healthy lunch.  This took all but 5 minutes to make and voila.  It was very delicious.  We all know why white bread isn't good for you because of the white flour in it that just strips it of its nutrients and turn your carbs into sugar...if ya didnt know now ya know ;) Wheat bread is just as bad because they can call it wheat bread but only have traces of wheat in it....if you are going to get your healthy carbs be sure to get 100% WHOLE WHEAT bread.  I believe if I'm not mistaken there are about 4 calories to every carb and in one slice of bread there's appx 70 calories.  For various reasons, people think calories and carbs are bad, I was guilty of this...until I wasn't :)  One word, "Research."  Its mainly calories from bad fat you should be worried about and I was told that basically anything white is forbidden in the kitchen.  Yes that means sugar, flour, MAYO;), lol, bread, etc and all of that good stuff we use to make all of our favorite knick knacks and gravies!  Ok Yes I'm working on minimizing my "white" in the kitchen...I am definitely more conscious of it and I figure I'll start with white bread and sugar... There is always wheat flour and brown sugar...Anywho, I'll update this when I find a good healthy sauce to go along with my wrap, but to K.I.S.S, it's all about the little changes and you will go far.  Yeah, I didnt pull my hair out to find recipes for a healthy lunch but just modified a normal snack into a delicious alternative.  Another healthy alternative to bread may be a whole wheat wrap.  Enjoy creating your lunches tomorrow!  ♥♥♥♥

An Obese Problem in the African- American Community

     I'm sitting here thinking about what I love to do and one thing I never get tired of is cooking...it may be something I can in corporate in my life....I'm African-American and I love to eat..so many of us are stuck in our ways and we are constantly feeding our children this nonsense. Obesity is major and we don't want to change our eating  habits...We turn or noses up at anything that's not originated from the "soul food" menu...We call it "white people food"....What we don't realize is there is always a way to get that flavor you seek without throwing in ham hocks or all of these fat producing foods...We turn our nose at the thought of eating healthy and we feed our children this same mess.  I shall include my daughter in all that I do because children of today will be teachers of tomorrow.

We have to do better as a people. We have to motivate each other. We don't all have to be extreme but a small handful of us need to be in order to make an impact in our society. We don't have to keep eating the scraps we had to make work when we were enslaved. We can and WILL rise above this. Why is it that when we go in a predominately white neighborhood people are walking running or exercising but when we go to a predominately black neighborhood people are having cook outs, out in the street fussing and cursing and shooting each other or fighting. Not saying white people are high and perfect or even better because we can go round for round in comparing our best to their worst vice- versa. I'm just pointing out a major health issue in our community...and it is VISUALLY noticeable. There is no other way to put it.

Obesity is an issue and we have been making excuses for way too long. We are one of the most talented, intelligent, strong, and courageous groups of people and we are also some of the most self sabotaging  groups as well.  We have the power to overcome what our predecessors have endured. Some how we feel we have to still make excuses and put our selves through the unthinkable because we are "in too deep" ...We blame the white man... Its time to stop blaming others and take responsibility....When you know better you should do better. I am challenging you too start doing the little things to change your life...and tackle obesity in our children today. I know its hard because we have grandparents and we love their cooking and we WILL NOT SAY NO TO IT. We don't dare say no, that's the ultimate disrespect huh? What do you think?
 Maybe it s time to say grandma sit back let me cook for you, you've been taking care of me all of my life. Also, at the same time, think about that its not like they cook for you EVERYDAY so if you can't turn it down I say at least in moderation, but make it a habit to eat healthy or healthier and show your children a new tomorrow.  Start new traditions. Traditions that don't start from slavery but that start from freedom. New Day New Creation.  My goal is to help lower obesity within our children and our community. It starts at home.

Making it Work For ME!

Good morning my courageous creators!  Ok! So I did exactly what I said I would do, and took the "super" 3 in one machine back and purchased two separate ones.  I got the food processor/blender for Ninja, since I happen to like the chopping power of it, and I also purchased a dedicated juicer.  Now, as I checked the reviews for the Ninja I read people saying "juicers are so messy!" and "so hard to clean!" and "you have to do too much to clean it."   Here's my 2cents if you care to hear it!  I love the Stainless Steel Sharper Image Super Juicer for the fact that it is easy to clean and it actually juices and I don't have to extract the pulp on my own unlike my last one...lets see...I don't know a whole lot about juicing but if I'm correct its supposed to take ALL of the juice from the veggies and fruit, but when I was cleaning the chute it had chunks of apple and the pulp was VERY moist...maybe I'm wrong, but I don't think its juicing correctly....We'll see how long I'm going to keep this...I'm probably going to end up taking this back to BBB and getting a more expensive one...luckily it doesnt matter how long I use it...they'll take it back...I only paid $59.99 so it wasn't that expensive for me and the other Ninja I bought was 59.99 as well.

  Good morning my courageous creators! I got up this morning and knew that I had to do something with these sweet potatoes.  I went on a 30 minute journey to find some delicious breakfast recipes for sweets potatoes.  I know that anything is possible! In the middle of my search I went ahead and put 2 potatoes in for boil...and continued until I found something semi normal.  I don't have the ingredients to do anything exotic today so lets K.I.S.S! (keep it simple stupid for all that are confused :) So anyways I found this recipe at allrecepies.com.It is sooo delicious! I never thought to make sweet potato pancakes my mom refused to eat them because she said she cant imagine having sweet potatoes as a pancake...her loss( shrugging shoulders).  I made more than I needed so I'm going to refrigerate the rest I think I may have them for breakfast again.

My Desk space and "Amnesia" board lol

My calendar

I don't know! I'm really feeling the motivation to just DO!  I am feeling so good right now!:) Let me calm down before all of my sentences end in exclamation marks...lol! I'm just feeling good because I'm doing SOMETHING productive...for me, it wouldn't matter what I'm doing to be productive as long as I am doing something, instead of feeling worthless and more worthless as the days go by! 

OK, so I am feeling the motivation to do the "21day Challenge"and actually DO it this time. Okay before I commit to it...I'm just going to do as I have been doing...That takes away the obligation to do it.  Here's why I know the obligation is what messes me up... without planning to do anything I just knew I wanted to eat healthy, I attempted to look stuff up online and see what was healthy and what was not, and I found out what I shouldn't eat...the key was items with ONE recipe is what we should be sticking to when making a purchase.  I decided to not purchase bread, whole wheat or not, because we all know that bread makes it harder to lose weight! Not saying whole wheat is bad ijs it will not aide me in weight loss, At least for me it wont.  OK, well I purchased a whole bunch of vegetables like zucchini,squash, asparagus, tomatoes, cucumbers, carrots, sweet potatoes, papaya, mango, bananas, apples, grapefruit, red potatoes, etc...I cant eat too many red potatoes even though they are good carbs, still trying to lose weight.  So anyways, I came home and started juicing and blending and cooking again.  Last night I sauteed shrimp(my favorite) in olive oil and threw in some cut up onions, red & yellow peppers along with all of the previous veggies I just mentioned. It was so delicious.  I also use sea salt, which I was bombed to find out that it doesn't matter whether I use table salt or sea salt :( Click here for the article on that).    But in the mean time I am looking up things as I go and learning more and more about what I'm eating.  I'm not sitting around trying to find out the info 1st then doing something about it, hence never even doing at all.

Anyways, I'm so rambling lol, but yes, OK, so instead of planning something and beating myself up for messing up and then falling off completely I'm just being more conscious of what I'm eating.  It helps me to make a good choice at that moment because I am already committed to eating healthy.  That works in other aspects of my life, I'm sure of it, but for now, I'm taking it one step at a time.  I've even gotten organized and its AMAZING what a little bit of organization can do for your life.  I realized that I over booked myself for the 15th and I have soooo much to do! Had I not put this calendar up I would have been cancelling at the last min and not showing up for something  etc.  Now I can change up my plans a little bit to accomodate.  I also put up a board to remind me of stuff and I did stuff today that I normally would forget in appx 2.5 secs after thinking of it.lol Now it is time for me to start getting my schedule organized meaning filling my "dead" time and being more productive consciously.  The purpose right now is to live a conscious and intentional life.

Banana Smoothies....smooothelicious! (corny...I know)

Good Morning my Creative Creators! Ok I know my attitude seems different today...Well thats because it is! :) Its something about just doing the little things that dont seem to make a dent in your life but they make ALL the difference. I woke up this morning and fixed me a banana smoothie w/1 banana, about 3table spoons, and some lol, of peanut butter (I ♥ peanut butter) and a little bit of coconut milk(i never really measure,its really according to texture you want because it doesnt really change the flavor by too much) and 4 cubes of ice.  It wasnt slush like as usual because I put so much peanut butter in it, but it was literally smooth! Hence smoothie lol.  Yesterday I used the Ninja Kitchen System again for juicing.  This time I did celery, cucumber, and carrots...and you know this is too time consuming using this ninja and having to drain and add water to get it to have a drinkable texture.  That kind of defeats the purpose of juicing to me.  So I would have to say #fail for the Juicing portion of the all in one blender, processor, juicer.  I do how ever like the power of the blades and the easy cleaning and the lock portion of it so therefore I am taking this system back to Bed, Bath, and Beyond w/ their lovely return policy and I am going to exchange it for a Ninja blender and then w/ the remaining half of the credit purchase a separate juicer, a REAL JUICER! :-) I was kind of mad at first because I kept this box unopened for a couple of months to wait to see if the price would go down and I wasnt really ready to use it yet neither... but I went online to BBB and the price dropped almost $40 from what I paid! I just checked it last week before I opened it and there was no price cheaper :/ But it's cool now because that just allows me to get more w/my store credit.

2/3 Papaya, 1 Bananai, 1 Mango and about 1/4 cup of coconut milk (I didn't measure coco milk i just added until i got smoothness I wanted, but i do estimate that it was about 1/4 cup.)

So, I bought the Ninja Kitchen System w/Blender, Food Processor, and Juicer all in one.  I didnt want to spend a bunch of money on separate machines plus we just dont have the space.  I am more interested in the juicing part and the strength of the blades without having to add too much liquid to get my smoothies to blend and chop well.  The only problem is that when juicing you have to strain the juice otherwise its just undrinkable and the texture is just disgusting.  The way I strained it was in a way where it still left some of the pulp (those good nutrients) in my juice.  The first thing I made was cucumber and carrot and apple juice.  It was very "fresh" tasting of course with that needed natural sweetness.  Today is only my 2nd day using it and I froze mango, papya and bananas overnight to make a smoothie so I wouldnt have to water the flavor down with ice.  It was soooo delicious.  I did not want to add dairy so I used coconut milk and bananas for the smoothness and to soften the flavor a bit.  I must say it was rather delicious! :)

What's going on???

I am at a different place in my life...a place that is unknown to me...I mean I've experienced THIS place before but I could never figure out the source.  Excuse the previous post...I promise I did more than one day...I just didn't blog about it...I guess as far as the "act" of blogging, I didn't have that on my list lol...I still didnt do the whole 21 days...simply because no where on that list did I have to master what I am already doing...and while I was doing the other things my immediate life almost fell to waist side...Over and over I have attempted to try to figure out what works for me...I hear all of these different concepts and I TRY to adopt them but....welllllll.....you know.."inevercompleteanyoftheprograms"(in my whisper voice)  I even have TONS and TONS of blog posts that I started writing and did not complete...smh! Thats pretty much what my WHOLE life has been like..well I completed high school and I completed 98% of all of the fasts that I've ever attempted...thats about it...I know all too well the habit, it becomes a habit in itself to not complete things.  I just have to prove to myself that I can FINISH something.  No matter how small or large.  I know in my mind that I can do ANYTHING I put my mind to, but I lose focus soooo easily!  Also I'm the type of person that loves to have a support system to motivate me, which is what made me start blogging in the first place, but I have no idea of how to get this blog known or even if anyone would be interested in reading about my life and all of its self imposed issues :-/  I honestly need to stay consistent in my blog posts, who wants to  read a random blog post every 2months???  I guess first things first I need to find a niche...What is most important to me?  Do I have to find one topic? Can it be a variety?? Because I have no direction per say, I can not choose one particular niche...I guess I can only, with my state of mind, talk about what I am going through at the moment...and the most dominating topics would have to be my physical health and my mental health.Spiritual health is important, but it is a touchy subject that I have yet to even partially understand...I guess you will know when I figure it out ;) I'm out falling asleep at my laptop and the baby's is sleeping perfect opportunity to catch some z's myself!