If you are the person who is in charge of making meals in your home, you probably have used up all your tricks in trying to prepare non-boring meals. Well, it’s not easy trying to make up interesting meals – you have to be a bit creative. Perhaps this is why some parents tend to prepare the same things over and over again. Below are some ways to prepare quick meals that you can try to help you make meals less boring.

Make a meal out of appetizers – prepare finger foods like cubed cheeses and meats, fruits, pretzels, crackers and veggies. It’s fun too eat when there are a variety of tastes you can choose from. You can also try baking savory mini muffins with chopped and cooked bacon and chives or ham and grated cheese. Fruit muffins can also be a yummy treat. Try making mini pizzas, mini burgers or even chicken wings with some potato wedges on the side.

Have a dip – it’s always fun to dunk stuff. You can dip fruits or vegetables. You can use various dips from yogurt with cinnamon to hummus to cream cheese dips to sour cream and guacamole too. The possibilities are endless.

Have a Salad – salads are not limited to lettuce and tomatoes. Try some pasta salad or potato salad. You can make it as simple as you wish or add veggies, meat or even nuts to make it healthier and more interesting.

When making sandwiches, be creative with your bread – or perhaps don’t use any bread at all. There are so many bread options. Have you ever tried pitta bread, bagels, tortilla wraps, crackers or even breadsticks with your meal ideas? You can use these breads and fill them with your favorite sandwich fillings or you can just have the filling on the side. The person eating your prepared meal can assemble the sandwich any way they want. Perhaps having some extra fixings like condiments and seasonings available would make it more delicious.

Make it look fun – presentation is the key to making meals more interesting. You can cut them into fancy shapes. Try preparing meals in a different way like making pinwheels or tortilla wraps instead of regular sandwiches. You can also use cookie cutters to cut your sandwiches into different shapes.

Follow some or all of these tips and you can come up with meals that will surely make those who will eat the final product smile.

Let’s focus on saving money by paying less.

The most common way that consumers pay less for things that they purchase is by purchasing items that are on sale, buying the cheaper brands or buying in bulk. Items on sale are perfectly fine for consumption. They are usually on sale just so that the store can sell them quicker otherwise, the store might end up throwing them out.

When grocery shopping we can ensure that we pay less if we avoid impulse buying. Impulse buying is tricky because the products are strategically placed on the shelves in front of the shoppers. That is why it is recommended to make a grocery list and purchase only items on your list. It also helps not to shop when you are hungry cause when you are hungry, you are more likely to buy unnecessary things on an impulse.

Shop around. Check out the different stores to find the bargains and you will be pleased by all the saving you can come up with.

Be weary though of the sneaky supermarket tricks, They like to raise the price of popular brand itmes for a couple of weeks then, announce a “price cut” to just below the regular price to make it appear like a special offer. Supermarkets also raise or lower the price to match their supplier’s situation. So if a product supplier is struggling to supply tomatoes one week, then the price will go up, and when the tomatoes start flooding back in again, a special offer price will appear.

Coupons are a fabulous way to save money on groceries but, if you end up buying things that you normally won’t buy or use then it’s not called saving. Often times, the coupon offers are higher priced items than the store brands.

By the same token, be careful of store brand or value products that are cheaper imitations of the real thing. Buying lower quality can be a money saver if you choose wisely, but if you end up using twice as much and the product lasts half as long, then you might as well enjoy the real thing.

I just love memes and since Thanksgiving is just a few days away, I thought I’d host another meme with a Thanksgiving Theme. I hope you can join in. This will be super easy – all you have to do is blog about what you are thankful for this year. It doesn’t have to be super long or detailed – in fact you can just list some things down and add the ready graphic to your site (I’ll have the code below). Ready? Ok – I’ll start …. I am thankful for:
- an awesome and supportive husband (who tries his best not to complain even if the house gets messy sometimes) who takes good care of me and the kids
- my loving kids who even if they always try my patience – still are GOOD kids
- my pets who make me happy and who love me unconditionally
- family and friends (both offline and online) who make my life “more colorful” and enjoyable
This is just my short list. I am thankful for a LOT of things that I have and NOT HAVE. Every morning when I wake up I say “Thank You” because I know I’ll have another day to experience the wonders of life. Each night before I go to bed I also say “Thank You” for being able to survive all the challenges that day.

If you wish to join this simple meme, simply add the code below to your blog and make sure to add your link to “Mr. Linky” below. Leave me a comment for more Link-love.
Here is the HTML code to add to your blog. Highlight the code inside the text box and copy and paste to your blog.
<a href="http://mommycommunity.com/2008/11/24/i-am-thankful-meme/" target="_Blank"><img src="http://i249.photobucket.com/albums/gg230/mcowner/Thanksgiving-meme.jpg"/></a>

My special guest speaker for this audio is Carrie Lauth of SexyNursingBra.com. In our interview, Carrie answers the following questions:

• What are the benefits of breast feeding?
• How often are you supposed to breastfeed a new born?
• How can you tell if you are providing enough milk for you baby?
• What kind of foods should you eat when you are nursing?
• Is there anything you need to avoid eating/drinking when you are nursing?
• How can you produce more milk for your baby?
• For first time breast feeders, how do you get baby to nurse properly?
• If it hurts mom to breastfeed, are there options she can take to continue to give baby breast milk?
• What to do when your breast is engorged?
• Is it safe to freeze breastmilk? How do you freeze breastmilk? Does breastmilk expire?
• For those who need to go back to work or those who need to leave baby with a sitter, what steps do they need to take to ensure baby has enough milk and how do you keep a good supply of milk?
• What are some tips you can share on weaning baby from breast milk?

Carrie Lauth has a great resource (a digital book) called – The Happy Breastfeeder. It’s an information packed 89 page ebook for only $1. To download The Happy Breastfeeder, click here.

A few years ago, blogging was not the easiest thing to learn. Fortunately, these days, technology has changed and information on blogging is easier to get a hold of.

Blogs are essentially a mirror of one’s thoughts. Blogging allows a person to post their ideas, pictures, thoughts and more. It is a place where one can develop their very own fan club or following. Blogging is a great way for someone to learn how to write well. Since a blog allows you to dialog between you and your readers, you will slowly start to develop a relationship with them while practicing and developing your writing skills.

Expressing your thoughts using words is not an activity most people want to engage in. It’s not a matter of just making sure you include informative content – as a blogger, you need to make sure your posts are captivating. Below are a few tips you can apply to your blog to make sure you are able to keep your readers interested in your posts and continue to subscribe to your feed:

1. Check Your grammar - It is a turn off to read posts that are not grammatically correct. If it were me reading a blog post with lots of wrong grammar, I can see myself quickly hitting the escape button. Also, using the right grammar and punctuation helps get the idea across better. It is easy to check grammar, you can simply use the tools you already have in your computer for example “Microsoft Word”.

2. Improve your vocabulary - You do not have to use over-complicated words but avoid being redundant in your blog posts. It annoys me as a blog reader to keep on seeing the same words over and over again. Using a variety of words makes the blog posts more interesting. Having said that though, make certain that you know the meaning of the words you are using in your post. This ensures that you are aware of the message you are trying to share with your readers. You can access the dictionary or thesaurus online if you do not have the traditional dictionary in your home office.

3. Practice makes perfect – This is what will make you a successful blogger. The more you post entries in your blog, the more comfortable you will be and the more confident you will be in blogging. The more you post on your blog, the more traffic you can have. Before you know it, you would have your own fan club or followers.

One thing to remember while you are in your blogging journey, as a blogger, you are writing for other people and not just for yourself. That is why it is important that you write from the perspective of your readers and make sure that your blog is interesting to them.