Author: Tina

Decorating a Vignette 101

Tina0 Comments

Your personal space reflects your style so when you decorate it your things give the room character.  For example, you can decorate the walls with art you purchased from a garage sale or you can decorate the coffee table with books you’ve bought on your various travels. One way to decorate a room is to arrange a group of objects together on a flat surface, like a table, mantel, or night stand.  Professional designers call this a vignette. Here are some tips to help create a strong visual impact in your vignette by doing one or more of the below:  1.     Use …

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Black Bean & Chicken Chilaquiles

Tina0 Comments

Some of the best conversations with my husband have happened at Mexican restaurants.  We love Mexican food but it’s usually a treat because many of the dishes are not diet friendly.  Like almost everyone else, we too are on a constant quest to lose weight.  Since I splurge my calories at dessert time, it’s important to eat healthy dinners.  Here enters this “healthified” black bean and chicken chilaquiles dish! The original chilaquiles dish uses full-fat cheeses and fried tortilla strips.  While that sounds absolutely fantastic, my waistline would not be happy with me.  This dish is light and tasty and any fan of the …

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Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies

Tina11 Comments

I was organizing the food in my kitchen cabinets and I found that I had some macadamia nuts.  Hmmm, I wondered how could I use these up?  I instantly thought of Pepperidge Farm’s Sausalito Milk Chocolate Macadamia cookies and that inspired me to make these delicious chocolate macadamia nut cookies.   I should have been thinking of a healthy way to use them since I’ve been on a health kick lately but dessert wins again.    🙂 Chocolate Chip Macadamia Nut Cookies Recipe (Makes 24 cookies) Note on the preparation time: The dough is chilled for 2 hours. Ingredients: 1/2 cup butter (equivalent to 1 …

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Homemade Granola

Tina6 Comments

Granola is awesome.  Yup, that’s a fact.     😉   Let’s see.  It’s tasty and it can be eaten in a variety of ways to suit your mood. I used to eat store-bought granola all the time until I started reading labels.  Many of the ones in the store are full of sugar, fat, and processed ingredients.  What?!  I was shocked.  A food that is typically sold as “healthy” isn’t always so.  That taught me it is important to read food labels.  Most store-bought granola isn’t doing me any favors on my weight loss journey, so I stopped eating …

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Strawberry Muffins With Crumb Topping

Tina4 Comments

I think I’m obsessed with muffins.  Wait, let me re-phrase that…I AM obsessed with muffins!  I have been eating them for breakfast every day lately.  It’s not the worst thing in the world to eat for breakfast, right?     😉 My husband tells me that I’m basically eating a cupcake without frosting.  Oooh, frosting on muffins.  He may be on to something.  Can I consider this a low calorie cupcake then since there is no frosting ?     😉 I don’t have a favorite one yet but these strawberry muffins come pretty close.   Maybe I should re-name these the “Incredible Strawberry Muffins.”  That’s …

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