Fat Frog Diary

Woohoo!! I got the coolest "toy" for Mother's Day a week early! Anyone who knows me for more than a week, knows I love FlyLady.net and the organizational tools therein. Today, I can add another "toy" from FlyLady to my list of "you gotta try this!" items-- The Rubba Sweepa. Okay, I admit I was skeptical. Really, how great could a rubber-headed "broom" be? Brooms are brooms. You sweep with them. Not much to it, right? Wrong!! Brooms are a pain in the tush, and limited. They have to be somewhat tall, so they can't get under things easily. I never got my broom to reach all the way under my china cabinets, where the dust bunnies accumulated like tribbles on Star Trek. My broom never could get all the cat littler that accumulated around the litter box. I'd see a fine white-ish gray dust trail left behind and sweep until I gave up in frustration. Sweeping the entire house was even more of an exercise in frustration as the wind from my swee...

For those who haven't popped into my Yahoo Group, "Catitude" recently, I recently posed about a new concept for me-- Homemade Freezer Meals. The concept came from The Dinner Diva, Leanne Ely, who has recipes especially for this concept. She's the one who also came up with SavingDinner.com and she's a genius! Basically, the idea is to come home from the grocery store, but instead of putting away all the food, immediately pre-prepare your meals into Ziploc freezer bags. A roast might be seasoned before freezing. Ground beef may be made into an uncooked meatloaf and frozen. In the case of a soup or stew, the meat can be quickly browned and thrown into the bag with the other ingredients.Think how nom-nom good a steak would be if it marinated in its sauce for days. (Excuse me, my mouth is watering. ::Dab, dab::) Label with recipe and page number in cookbook, date, and store in the freezer. It works! I tried it! I'm sold on this method. (More on this ...

  Grapefruit Chicken Salad Serves 4 1 1/2 cups grapefruit segments; cut into bite- sized pieces 2 cups diced cooked chicken breast (no skin) 1/4 cup chopped celery 1/4 cup red onion, chopped fine 1/4 cup reduced-calorie mayonnaise 1/4 cup low-fat plain yogurt 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley Very easy! Just combine all the ingredients, mix thoroughly, and throw on top of a bed of mixed baby salad greens!   Lena Austin http://www.LenaAustin.com http://depravedduchess.blogspot.com

One of my Dinner Diva newsletters had an idea I just love. I may try this concept of making your own Freezer Meals. She specifically cited meatloaf. You make up the meatloaf, then freeze it raw. Defrost and cook when ready. That's what stopped me from making make-ahead meals before. They were essentially frozen leftovers that always came out soggy and terrible. With the Dinner Diva concept, you leave it raw and ready to cook. No soggy meatloaf when you cook it, because it hasn't been cooked before. Wow! What a revelation. I began to think of all my favorite recipes, many of which could be easily frozen in their ready-to-cook state, defrosted overnight, then popped into the oven or crock pot. My mind races ahead to soups and stews, casseroles, and even pre-preparing roasts/meats but adding the veggies at the last minute. Wow, now there's a marinade that really has a chance to work on a steak. I'm so thrilled with this concept, I can barely stand to go to work today. I s...