Sweet Apple Pie - Take 1

BASE PIE CRUST
Ingredients
1 9” Mrs. Smith’s Deep Dish Pie Shell
Directions
Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Remove frozen pie crust from package – let thaw 15 minutes. Thoroughly prick bottom and side of crust with fork to reduce shrinkage and bubbling (I totally forgot to do this until after I bake the pie crust initially - I pricked with a fork then and it seemed to work just fine). Place pie crust in empty pie pan same size as pie crust. Place on baking sheet and bake on top rack for 12 minutes at 375 degrees F. Cool completely while preparing the apple pie filling and top pie crust. Turn oven down to 350 degrees F.

APPLE PIE FILLING
Ingredients
3 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 ½ cups apples, peeled, cored, cut into 16ths (about 6 apples)
1 teaspoons ground cinnamon
½ cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons orange, juiced
Directions
In a medium heated skillet add the butter then add the apples. Cook for about 2 to 5 minutes then add the cinnamon, brown sugar and orange juice. Swirl the apples around to make sure they all get coated. (Start mixture for Top Pie Crust below). Cook another 5 minutes until apples are soft and caramelize. Pour apple pie filling into cooled pie crust.

TOP PIE CRUST
Ingredients
¾ cups melted butter
1 cup flour
1 cup sugar
1 egg
Directions
Mix ingredients above. Pour top pie crust batter over apple pie filling in pie crust. Bake at 350 degrees F for 40 minutes until crust turned tan. Serve warm with Vanilla Ice Cream and Enjoy!!

RESULTS: Messy - but tasty! Try less liquid in pie filling for take too and cut ingredients by 1/4 for Top Pie Crust. Maybe add Cinnamon for taste? Stay tuned for Take 2...

Cool Toothbrush for Kids

Need help getting your little ones to brush their teeth? Check out "Dr. Fresh Firefly Blinking Children's Toothbrush". I originally bought this as a 2 pack in Target for like $2.00 (one for the Toddler, one for the Infant who has 2 teeth as well). I got it because I thought it was a good price. When I got home and opened the package, the toothbrushes started to blink (hence the name "firefly"). My toddler was very interested in this. To get her to brush her teeth longer and (hopefully) better - I told her she had to keep brushing her teeth until the light stopped blinking (it lasts about a minute). I wanted to pass this tip along to all of you parents who might be having a hard time trying to get your kids to brush their teeth. Good luck and happy smiles!

Swine Flu - Q&A - Take a Read

Some Frequently asked questions answered regarding the "Swine Flu".

Q&A: Swine Flu Myths and Mysteries

http://www.livescience.com/health/090427-flu-q-and-a.html

Swine Flu - Symptoms - Good Article

Here's another good article about symptoms regarding the Swine Flu and when you should seek medical care.

Swine flu: Know symptoms, but don't panic

http://www.detnews.com/article/20090428/OPINION03/904280305/1005/rss32

Swine Flu - Before you panic - read this

Swine Flu - Before you start panicing about another "plague" outbreak - read the following article.

1976: Fear of a great plague

http://www.capitalcentury.com/1976.html

Exercise Tips - No Excuse for No Time

Don't have time? No problem! Tries these tips to help you get in some form of exercise during the week:

• Take 15-20 minutes of your lunch break to take a brisk walk outside
• While brushing your teeth in the AM & PM - perform some standing leg work like lunges, leg lifts, calf raises, squats, etc.
• Right before bedtime - you can even do this while lying in bed! - perform some crunches and reverse crunches for those ab muscles
• Take 15 minutes in the evening or later afternoon - turn up the music and dance to your hearts desire!
• Doing housework? Instead of trying to carry everything up the stairs at once - make multiple trips to burn some calories.

Weight Watchers Tips

Trying to lose weight using the Weight Watchers Points system? Great start. Here are some tips that helped me to stay within my daily and weekly points range.

• Eat foods higher in fiber and lower in fat and calories – they are worth less points and keep you fuller longer
• If you are craving a snack or sweet – try having flavored tea first and see if it satisfies your craving. If you still have the craving for a snack or sweet pay attention to portion size - 2 cookies is the average serving, 1/2 cup ice cream, 1 oz M&Ms, etc.
• At night – brush your teeth when you put the kids to bed or around 7:30-8pm or so – you will be less likely to want to snack on anything other than water if you’ve already brushed your teeth for the night
• Save your extra points for the weekend – that’s where you will most likely use them the most. I found it more manageable to stay with my allotted daily points during the work week and then use the extra weekly points mainly on the weekends as my schedule was more up in the air and you never know what you would be eating where as well as what kind of events were happening.
• At meals, fill up on your veggies and fruits first - then move on to protein and carbs.
• Participate in activities and exercise to gain more points – a brisk 20 minute walk will gain you about 1 point to use - just imagine if you walked 20 minutes 5 times a week? That’s another 5 points to use on the weekends!

Hopefully by following these tips they will help you to lose the weight faster and keep it off!! Good luck!

So Sick of Cold & Flu Season!!

When will we be done with this winter and therefore this awful cold and flu season!?!? Less than a month ago we were dealing with two ear infections (both my girls had them - my poor babies!). I was also the lucky one to get that cold then - ugh! Now we are dealing with what the doctor's term RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) - in my mind it's a cold. Coughing, wheezing, sticky mucus (yes - tons of fun) and temps for several days. My kids have been through enough already! Let's be done with this year's cold and flu please!!! (On a side note, this cold seems to have bypassed me and gone right to my husband - let me knock on wood just to be safe!)

Cold and Flu Season

And so the fun begins with the Cold and Flu Season in our home. Both of our daughters have a cough, runny nose and fever - ugh! We are visiting the doctors today to check for ear infections (as my toddler was saying her ear hurt last night). I'm hoping it is just ear infections and not something worse or unknown because that poses another set of drama to put my poor kids through (urine samples, blood samples, testing, ugh!) - and I feel as though we have been through enough of that lately with my 6 month-old having a UTI and then being diagnosed with a grade 2 reflux of the urethra (which thankfully most kids grow out of but the testing and procedures to get to that point are not fun.) Keeping my fingers crossed that it's just the simple ear infections as I know how to treat those.

Sleep the past few nights has been spotty at best and I'm starting to feel the effects of the cold and flu season as well (thankfully enough I can take things such as Zicam which seems to help me ward off the worse of it). I'm hoping to get a decent night's sleep tonight as I'm starting my new job tomorrow and would like to not look like "death warmed over". (Isn't it odd how many phrases and sayings you find yourself using as a mother that your own mother used frequently?)

I hope everyone else out there is happy and healthy and stays so.