The Day After Christmas Treats...

The frenzied unwrapping, running from house to house to visit family and friends and loading vehicles with piles and piles of presents is now over and if you are anything like me, all you want to do is sit and relax. The Tony Hawk shoes and rocawear boots are tucked in the closet with the new Abercrombie clothes and the sweater Aunt Edith made you, the toys are scattered throughout the house and the kids are, at least temporarily, entertained. But now it is dinner time and everyone is going to be hungry soon, and you don't know what to fix. Dinners for the last few nights have included hams and pies, gravy's and casseroles, rolls and butter... all the fixin's. You want something light, healthy and most importantly, easy! Here are some yummy ideas to get you out of the "Christmas Food Funk."

Quick & Easy Kid Munchies:

Turkey Quesadillas:

6 Large Flour Tortillas
1 1/2 Cup Leftover Turkey (shredded)
1 Cup Shredded Cheese (cheddar & mozzarella)
4 oz. Cream Cheese
4 oz. Sour cream
3 Tablespoons chunky Salsa
1 Tablespoon Butter

Melt 1/2 of the butter in a skillet over medium heat and add turkey, salsa and cream cheese. Mix until the cream cheese is melted. Remove from heat and add the sour cream and shredded cheese. Melt the rest of the butter in a frying pan and lay one tortilla in the skillet. Spoon 1/3 of the turkey mixture onto the tortilla and spread around to cover the whole tortilla. Top with another tortilla and flip over. Fry until the cheese is melted and remove from heat. Cut and serve immediately.

Warm Up and Relax:

Butternut Squash Soup

2 tablespoons butter
1 small onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 medium carrot, chopped
2 medium potatoes, cubed
1 medium butternut squash - peeled, seeded, and cubed
32 oz chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a large pot, and cook the onion, celery, carrot, potatoes, and squash 5 minutes, or until lightly browned. Pour in enough of the chicken stock to cover vegetables. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover pot, and simmer 40 minutes, or until all vegetables are tender.
2. Transfer the soup to a blender, and blend until smooth. Return to pot, and mix in any remaining stock to attain desired consistency. Season with salt and pepper.

Cooking for the Health of your Skin?

Believe it or not, chocolate is not the worst thing you can do for your complexion. There is far more to it than that. The foods you eat, the air you breathe and even the sleep you get are all major factors in the condition of your skin. Much more so than eating chocolate. Drinking plenty of water will help your body flush toxins that would otherwise be eliminated through your skin. Eliminating your exposure to inhaled chemicals such as gasoline vapors, paint fumes and even make-up removers will decrease your chances of a breakout since these kinds of chemicals put stress on your liver are are ultimately released through your skin.

Eating a diet low in sugars, msg's, artificial colors and flavors and preservatives will also help your skin. Our body can not process these unnatural additives and will therefore eliminate them through the skin, causing an acne breakout.

Treating acne is not an exact science, but more a way of life. There are hundreds of acne remedies out there from diet to exercise to chemical treatments and beyond. Personally however, I prefer to be more careful about what I put into my body because what goes in, has to come back out.

Baking up Your Holidays

I remember Christmas as a child. It always involved decorating the tree with beautifully hand crafted ornaments that my mother had created for each of us. Each one unique, each one special. I don't remember when the tree stopped being decorated with the salt dough ornaments that had come to mean so much to my brother and I, but a few years ago, one Christmas day, my mother brought out a box full of ornaments wrapped up in old newspaper. As my brother and I unwrapped each one, the memories flooded back. Each ornament signified a specific time in our lives, something we cherished at that moment in time.

That was one of the most magical Christmas' to date. But it reminded me that Christmas is not about expensive christmas decorations, lots of tinsel and more lights than your neighbor. It's about family and memories, celebrating life and the ones who make life so special, remembering our savior and the love he wants us to share. Christmas is a way of strengthening our families and building up the kingdom of Heaven.

With that in mind, I have started a new tradition of my own with my children. It still involves cookie cutters and salt dough, but with a twist. New decorations every year. Stars painted in neon pinks and greens or princess crowns and guitars with lots of bling, whatever suits my family best that year. Then I carefully pack them away with newspaper in a box and stick them under the stairs for that Christmas, not too far away, when my children have grown up and have children of their own and have long since forgotten about the days spent sitting around the kitchen table, cookie cutters in hand, flour on faces and the sun shining in through the kitchen window. Then a new tradition will begin.

Getting Rid of Acne

Acne is something that plagues teens and adults alike with little to no relief. However, I believe that the best acne treatment is not necessairly a treatment at all but rather a lifestyle. Washing your face too often and with highly abrasive and drying soaps trains your skin to produce more oil to compensate for what is being lost in the washing process. Wash with soap just once a day and rinse it only the rest of the day. Do not sleep or lean on your hands. This creates the dirt from your hands to transfer to your face. Change your pillow cases regularly. Use a mild, non pore clogging moisturizer regularly. Then your body will not need to produce so much oil to keep your skin moisturized. There are also natural treatments you can use like whipped egg masques that will help to kill the bacteria that causes acne. Hopefully these work as well for you as they have for me.

It can be done!

I just wanted to drop a quick note to let everyone know that it can be done. You can eat well, prime rib, steak, ginger shrimp, delectable salads and rich desserts and still lose weight and do it fast. So here is my solution on how to lose weight very fast. You get a job that requires you to visit the Southern California area once a year, eat like a king and walk your hiney off (over 60 miles in 10 days)! When all is said and done, if you have not lost weight, I don't think there is anything that can help you!