Homemade Gourmet Microwave Popcorn Video Recipe

If you have got a huge group of people coming over for a night of movies and munchies, you will be better off using the hot air popper to make large bowls of popcorn.

But if you have only a small number of people coming over, you can make your own gourmet popcorn in a paper bag in the microwave and put exactly what each person wants on it.

Ingredients:
Microwavable popping corn
Brown paper lunch bags
A ½ cup measuring cup

Seasonings:

butter
cheese
salt
pepper
caramel sauce, and so on

[kaltura-widget uiconfid=”535″ entryid=”1_x75vjayq” width=”400″ height=”330″ addpermission=”3″ editpermission=”3″ /]

Instructions:
Image 1-Assemble your ingredients
Image 2- Put 1/2 cup of popcorn in each bag.
Image 3-Fold the top of the bag over twice, creasing it tightly.
Image 4- Place the popcorn, one bag at a time, in the microwave. Put on your high setting, NOT the popcorn setting, for about 2 minutes, or until the duration between pops is longer than one second. Avoid leaving in too long, as the corn can start to scorch.
Image 5-Carefully open the bag, avoiding burns from the hot steam, and add your preferred toppings. Close the bag and shake well to distribute all the seasonings.
Image 6- Once all your bags are ready, you can serve.

Helpful hint: If you have a large group, write each person’s name on the bag so that they don’t get mixed up, especially if it is a child’s party and they tend to be a picky eater. This is also a must if they have any food allergies.

Other serving suggestions to add variety:

chili powder

sugar

peanuts

chocolate chips

dried fruit

Personal popcorn bags are fun, easy and make any occasion special without spending a lot on snacks. Best of all, popcorn is a whole food, so you are getting plenty of antioxidants, fiber and other nutrients.

Share

More Muscle for You or Your Spouse?

One of the best ways to lose fat is to replace it with lean muscle. But who has time to spend hours in the gym? One of our friends has just released this program to help you build muscle. It is targeted at men, but honestly, it works well for women too. Do a little yoga or pilates each day along with this program and you will have a long, lean profile that will be the envy of your friends and you will be amazed at how fast you can lose weight and keep it off too.

Share

How to Exfoliate Gently Without Expensive Skin Care Products

When it comes to skin care, it is important that you cleanse, tone, moisturize, and exfoliate on a regular basis. Many people spend a great deal of money on a range of products, but there is no need to empty your bank account and fill your medicine cabinet to perform all of these tasks.
Natural beauty remedies can save you a great deal of money and work just as well, if not better, than many of the commercial products for sale in stores. They can be better your skin because the natural remedies you use at home will not be full of chemicals, additives and preservatives.

If you want to utilize a natural, holistic regimen for skin exfoliation and save money at the same time, try gently rubbing a mixture of honey with a teaspoon of sugar mixed in on your skin. The honey soothes and tones and the sugar offers both a scrubbing effect, and fruit sugar acids to remove dull looking skin cells and help expose the radiant new skin underneath.

Once you have exfoliated by rubbing the mixture on your face gently for one minute, leaving on for another minute, giving one final massage, and then rinsing off thoroughly with warm water, it will be time to tone and moisturize.

If you want great looking skin, no matter what your skin type, this is an effective method for exfoliation which will cost pennies compared to what you would buy in the store and you will soon see the difference as your exfoliating reveals more healthy and radiant skin.

FURTHER READING:

Antioxidants and Free Radicals: What You Need To Know

How to Get Started Making Natural Homemade Beauty Products

Winter Wellness: Top Health Tips to Stay Looking and Feeling Great All Winter

Green Tea: Health Benefits, Home Remedies and Recipes

Share

Housekeeping Hints

1. A paste of butter and cigarette ashes do a good job of removing white water marks on wood. Spread onto the spot and rub with a damp cloth.

2. To prevent damage to delicate clothes when washing them inside a washing machine, place the garments inside a pillowcase and wash on the gentle cycle. This can help you save a great deal of money on dry cleaning. You can also freshen up wool sweaters in this way-it will actually do far less damage than trying to wash them by hand, since they will go through a spin cycle in the pillow case and not lose their shape due to the weight of the water in the wool stretching the fibers.

3. To remove crayon marks from your walls, try using a small smear of toothpaste on the marks. Leave it to stand for a minute, then rub off with a clean cloth.

4. Regularly set aside a time each year to clean out storage areas and take stock of what you have. Either keep it, or put it aside for a yard sale and/or charitable donation, or sell it on eBay. In this way you can keep your house clutter-free and easier to clean.

5. Make your own kitchen air freshener for the holidays. In a saucepan, bring a small amount of water to a boil and add cinnamon sticks and orange peel. Simmer under a low fire, and let the homey scent fill your kitchen. This will also work well with cloves instead of the cinnamon. For a fresh scent every day, use any discarded orange or lemon rinds you might have.

6. Do you have a child who wets the bed? Or a pet who has soiled his and you’re tired of washing the dog bed all the time? Remove nasty urine odors on mattresses with borax. Dampen the affected areas with cold water, and sprinkle borax over them. Rub the borax vigorously over the affected areas and let dry. Then brush off the remaining powder and it should be much fresher and cleaner.

FURTHER READING:

Saving Money, Investing Wisely in 2012: Insider Secrets on How to Make the Most of Your Money in this Ongoing Recession

Make and Freeze Recipes

More Make and Freeze Recipes

Even More Make and Freeze Recipes

Share

How to Deal Naturally With Ugly Stretch Marks

If you are a woman who has given birth, or even a woman who has dieted and lost a significant number of pounds, you might be suffering now from stretch marks. If you are like most women (and not a few men) who have ended up with stretch marks due to weight loss or related factors, you are probably looking for something that can help reduce the unsightly appearance of your stretch marks.

If you are a woman who is pregnant, you can try to prevent stretch marks by massaging your belly every day with olive oil. Other areas to pay attention to because of baby weight gain or swelling as the pregnancy advances are the thighs, buttocks and the backs and sides of your knees.

If you have developed stretch marks as the result of weight loss, especially rapid weight loss, it can take some time to treat them. The first step will be to apply olive oil and massage it into the affected area for a few minutes each day.

The second solution will be to try to spot-trim that area with appropriate exercise. For example, if you have stretch marks on the backs of your upper arms, you can do tricep kick backs to firm up the muscle tone in that area to reduce the appearance of stretch marks and those unsightly ‘wings’ that particularly women can get, especially as they get older.

Many people have found regular massages with olive oil in the affected areas can improve the appearance of stretch marks in a very short period of time. Then the key will be to keep it up and watch what you eat and drink in order to maintain good skin and muscle tone.

Massaging every day or at least three days a week can help diminish the appearance of stretch marks, particularly the ones that look like deep purple grooves.

There are some commercial products on the market that claim to offer miracle cures for stretch marks, but in most cases, they are using only similar moisturizing ingredients and often a good deal of chemicals, and charging a far higher price for their remedy. Save your money and use the olive oil you have right in your own home to help get the better-looking skin you are looking for.

FURTHER READING:


The Smart Woman’s Do-It-Yourself Guide to a Greener Home

Going Green For New Moms: A Beginner’s Guide to Raising Your Baby in an Eco-friendly Way

The New Green Family Guide: A Beginner’s Guide to Going Green As a Family

Share