Author: ZenGirl

What Is A Blog? How Can You Start One Today?

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What is a Blog?

If you asked this question around 2005, not many people knew what blog was and what that word meant. Now many people are writing on blog today and blogging has became a huge phenomenon. There are many free ways to start a blog such as from blogger and wordpress sites. There are hosted sites you can get from website hosting companies.

While my blog is surely not about how to start blogging or making money, I do often get asked by new readers who may want to start a blog, either to express themselves, show off their recipes, poems and what not. I am certainly not blog expert, but I know a few things since blogging since mid 2009, it has been over 3.5 years so I have picked up things that I want to share.

One caution is, blogging is never get rich quick thing for most of us, I am blogging for a few years and making money takes time and true passion. If one want to make money, then keyword and seo is important. I recommend expert such as Pat Flynn at smart Passive Income blog and Darren at Problogger to find out more on how to blog for making money as they are far better and expert in the blogging to make money field.

I started out on free blogger site first. However, I personally prefer to have my own site hosted on web hosting account, as it give me more control over design and content of my blog sites. I use BlueHost for hosting and I am quite happy with them. However there are many web hosting choices to choose from.

If you are starting out check out how to get blog set up  and website tools needed to get you started off on right Path.

Various Types of Blogs and Sites

As long there is a internet alive, blogging will be too and it has future. It may change with time as internet changes.

Type of Blogs:

Personal Blogs: This is where people write about themselves as a journal, to keep in touch with long distance friends and families, to create a online journal to keep a goal such as losing weight or saving money etc.,

Information Blog: These type of blogs are great for sharing and learning about some particular topic such as gardening, cooking or fitness.

Some people do it for fun, some do it for making money. I like to do it for mostly fun, however it would be nice to make money to recover cost involving hosting, domain and time spent a little for most people.

Details about Type of Sites:

Static Websites: These type of website do not change, they are usually few pages long and have information about one subject and people can learn, click and go. Example includes many bank sites, picture images site, how to articles.

Blog: Blog is where content is often updated and posted. Some on daily basis or some on weekly basis. People can blog how often they like about one subject to multi subjects they like. Fresh content makes it easier for search engine to find and rank your site. That is one of the reason many site including corporates site now has a blog section.

Forum: Some site has a blog and forums and some sites are only forums on specific topic. Even many money and parenting sites has several forums which are quite popular among people. It could be addicting. Forums are best for asking questions and learning from it.

Knowledge/Wiki: Some sites are open for others to share their reviews or point such as IMDB or wikipedia, where people may learn and post knowledge they have.

Podcast Blog: These type of sites have audio based postings, such as interviews you can listen to, music you can listen to and so on. It seems to be popular with many people who can listen to podcast while driving or doing other things.

Video Site: You tube, Vimeo are popular example of these sites that are big. One can start his or her video blog by recording a topic or places to put on the blogs and share the knowledge on subject they are expert on.

I think it is best to use all or some combination of above types of site to get more exposure! What is your view on blog sites?

How To Stay Fit During Holiday Season

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How to Stay fit during any Holidays

Holiday season usually means several parties to celebrate, Thanksgiving feast, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and New year among other celebrations! One of the great thing about holidays are get together, eating yummy food and being with family and friends: loved ones. However, I dread January as I tend to gain a bit weight somehow From Diwali, to Thanksgiving, to Christmas and New year eve party and party food. Are you like me? If you are then know what I am talking about. If you do not gain weight, then write quickly and tell us your secret!

There are so many parties during last few months of the year:

  • Office Christmas Party
  • Family gathering
  • Friends parties (Some of us have more than one different gatherings)
  • New year Celebrations

When we had Thanksgiving gathering, where we had so much food, and 5 types of pies, plus more desserts dishes. We shared and ate leftover for days! It sure was fun, but not for my body. I have already plan to make sure my end of year gatherings are fun and healthy both.

That means we will be eating, drinking and be merry! So no wonder when it comes January 1st, we all have new year resolution to lose weight and be fit.

Download my free ebook : Meaningful Holidays (No need for email)

10 tips to staying fit during Holidays

Prevention is always better than a cure, if we are just bit careful on what we eat, we might be able to avoid weight gain that happens to most of good people. I admit it, it is hard for me as I love to cook, I am always cooking and sharing meals or eating out in those gourmet restaurant does not help.

However my biggest problem are my mom who think, that only way can show our love towards each other by finishing their food! And if you say” Mom, I am careful and eating healthy and I can not eat your fried dumpling”, oh the guilt trip she gives, oh my. No one can resist it, not me either, specially when my mom’s cooking is so yummy to me!.

Do you have mom or relative like that? Than you’ll know what I am talking about.

Here are my top ten ways, I am trying to keep my health, fitness and little sanity intact during this holidays. Hope this will help you celebrate meaningful holidays that are healthier.

  1. Eat a healthy snack before going to party. When I host a party, I try to keep some healthier but when I go to my relatives and friend’s party there may or may not be healthy or vegetarian choices so I usually eat a little before going to party and it helps me when I am not famished to choose better food.
  2. Eat more vegetables: Being vegetarian it is easier for me to choose vegetables and fruits but even if you are not vegan or vegetarian, you can choose various vegetable choices with your meat and potatoes to balance out the nutrition and fat.
  3. Skip gravy, cheesy and high fat choices: These gravys, cheese dips and friend snacks are high in fat and if we eat too much, it sure will add to our waist and other places on our bodies. If you can not resist and skip it like me, make sure you take little for taste only. Everything in moderation will be much better thing to do.
  4. Drink more water: Sometimes we are thirsty, no other liquid quenches our thirst like cold glass of water, so drink it through out the day. 8-10 glasses is generally recommended for most people. Added benefit of drinking water is also, that it will keep us hydrated and it is calorie free.
  5. Reduce Alcohol: For some people there can not be celebration without alcohol and that is fine. If you drink alcohol, do it in moderation and always munch some food with your wine or beer so to make sure you do not have hangover next morning.
  6. Please your relative other ways: If you have relatives like mine who insist that if you loved them, you will finish their cheesy and fried dish, you have to be careful to stay healthy and not get fat. You can take little to show you love them and ask them that you loved the food so much you will get take out for home so you can eat it next day as well. They may just be happy enough to pack it for you, and not force you finish it right there. It may just work for you as well.
  7. Less dessert: Not many can skip dessert and I am included in there. Our gathering have lot of sweet dishes such as pies, chocolates pudding, and more. Have little pieces of dessert instead of skipping it all together so you will not have deprived feeling of not having a sweet.
  8. Exercise: Winter time is bad for going out and with many parties with food can be tough on staying healthy. So make an extra effort to exercise, dance and just do lot of walking when you can to keep fit during winter time.
  9. Bring your healthy food to share: If you host a party, make sure you have plenty of healthy choices for you and others who might want to eat healthier along with traditional food choices. If you are going to friend’s party, offer to bring a potluck meal to share which is healthier so if there is nothing you can be sure to eat at least your own food you brought. This has helped me a lot, as a vegetarian I will always have a choice to vegetarian choices and host does not have to go out of her way to make a special meal for me.
  10. Do not worry and enjoy it: Holidays comes once a year so take precautions but if you can not, just enjoy it and do not worry about it much. It is not fun to be party popper who does not join in fun, so do not make it obvious and go with flow.

We all deserve break once in awhile, so have little fun and eat food your aunt made specially for you. Wear that ugly christmas sweater that your mom bought you. Have a laugh and silly fun once in a while!

Famous Homeschoolers

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Homeschooler You May Know

There are many famous who were homeschooled in past and our present. Some of the famous actors, writers, scientists, composers, US presidents who were homeschooled. Did you know? I sure did not. Here are some of the famous homeschooler, that you know but did not know they were homeschooled until now.

Here are some of the famous actors and artists of our time that were homeschooled.

  • · Louis Armstrong – king of jazz
  • · Charlie Chaplin – actor
  • · Whoopi Goldberg – actress
  • · Hanson – sibling singing group
  • · Jennifer Love Hewitt – actress
  • · Yehudi Menuhin – child prodigy violinist
  • · Moffatts – Canadian version of Hanson
  • · Frankie Muniz – child actor
  • · LeAnne Rimes – teen-prodigy country music singer
  • · Barlow Girl – Alyssa, Rebecca, and Lauren Contemporary Christian Music
  • · Jonas Brothers – Kevin, Joe, and Nick Performers
  • · Jacob Clemente – Broadway Actor

Famous Homeschoolers

Famous US Presidents Who were Homeschooled:

· John Adams

· John Quincy Adams

· Grover Cleveland

· James Garfield

· William Henry Harrison

· Andrew Jackson

· Thomas Jefferson

· Abraham Lincoln

· James Madison

· Franklin Delano Roosevelt

· Theodore Roosevelt

· John Tyler

· George Washington

· Woodrow Wilson

Homeschooling resources

U.S. Supreme Court Judges

· John Jay

· John Marshall

· John Rutledge

· Sandra Day O’Connor

Scientists

· George Washington Carver

· Pierre Curie

· Albert Einstein

· Michael Faraday – electrochemist

· Oliver Heaviside – physicist and electromagnetism researcher

· T.H. Huxley

· Blaise Pascal

· Booker T. Washington

· Erik Demaine –

Artists Who were Homeschooled

· William Blake

· John Singleton Copley

· Claude Monet

· Grandma Moses

· Charles Peale

· Leonardo da Vinci

· Andrew Wyeth

· Jamie Wyeth

Inventors

· Alexander Graham Bell – invented the telephone

· John Moses Browning – firearms inventor and designer

· Peter Cooper – invented skyscraper, built first U.S. commercial locomotive

· Thomas Edison – invented the stock ticker, mimeograph, phonograph, and perfected the electric light bulb

· Benjamin Franklin – invented the lightning rod

· Elias Howe – invented sewing machine

· William Lear – airplane creator

· Cyrus McCormick – invented grain reaper

· Guglielmo Marconi – developed radio

· Eli Whitney – invented the cotton gin

· Sir Frank Whittle – invented turbo jet engine

· Orville and Wilbur Wright – built the first successful airplane

Composers

· Irving Berlin

· Anton Bruckner

· Noel Coward

· Felix Mendelssohn

· Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

· Francis Poulenc

· John Philip Sousa

Writers

· Hans Christian Anderson

· Margaret Atwood

· Pearl S. Buck

· William F. Buckley, Jr.

· Willa Cather

· Agatha Christie

· Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain)

· Charles Dickens

· Robert Frost – Pulitzer Prize-winning poet

· Charlotte Perkins Gilman

· Alex Haley

· Brett Harte

· L. Ron Hubbard

· C.S. Lewis

· Amy Lowell

· Gabriela Mistral

· Sean O’Casey

· Christopher Paolini – author of #1 NY Times bestseller, Eragon

· Isabel Paterson

· Beatrix Potter – author of the beloved Peter Rabbit Tales

· Carl Sandburg

· George Bernard Shaw

· Mattie J. T. Stepanek – 11-year-old author of Heartsongs

· Mercy Warren

· Phillis Wheatley

· Walt Whitman

· Laura Ingalls Wilder

 

Famous Homeschoolers

 

Good source to check out homeschooling resource homeschool world

Giving Thanks: How Gratitude Can Improve Your Life

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This article is repost and re-edited from my 2010 post, just in time for Thanksgiving day! Not really shopping Grey Thursday or Black Friday or Cyber Mondays deals here. Just pure Thanks, Gratitude and feeling of contented-ness!


We as an Indians just celebrated festival of Diwali last month, which is Major Hindu Indian festival celebrated through out India. Living in USA also means, we also celebrate other festivals such as Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Holidays makes many of us in festive, generous mood and I can feel the festivities, parties and business around that comes with holidays.

Along with generosity and Thanksgiving holidays, the point of these holiday is to remember things that we are thankful in our life for. We should thankful for not just for food, water and shelter but many more little and big moments and events and blessing that we get every day and through out the year.

Being thankful is easy to say but hard to follow sometimes, when we are going through some issues in our lives. We as people tend to remember bad memories and things much more than good deeds. I want to show you how giving thanks or gratitude can change and improve our life. We should be thankful and show gratitude not only during holidays but through out the year.

Here are a few ways we can give thanks and gratitude, through out the year.

  1. Write down things in Gratitude Journal: When I started writing in one, I started writing everything in it like good and bad and ugly things, that should be your regular journal should be. However, gratitude Journal should only have positive and things that we are truly happy for.  For example, I wrote yesterday: “I am truly grateful to see sunny day in November.” It does not have to be life changing, simple thanks surely adds up.
  2. Focus on What you have: Many times we compare ourselves with other people so much that we forget many good things we already have. For example, “I am truly fortunate to simplified my life to point that we can survive with savings while we are trying to focus on our passion and compassion for life”.
  3. Thank your Spouse and Kids: Your life is going smoothly is might be because the help we get from family and friends around. Friends and family makes life worth living and more enjoyable. For example, I was feeling bit down right now and my 5 year old R came and give me a kiss and told me a joke. That totally changed my mood. I am also thankful to Zenguy, who is watching both kids so I can finish writing this article. That are many small and big things that our friends and family do, through out the year for us, let us thank them from bottom of our heart.
  4. Thank your Parents: Your parents have done so many things for you since you were born. I did not realize how blessed and hardworking parenting can be until I had my first child. Now, life has become very busy and hectic but I truly appreciate my mom and dad, who took care for me, taught me things to make a better person.
  5. Thank you In-laws: In many culture in-laws can be dreaded words as some of the in-laws tend of overly critical of you or very possessive of your spouse that may make pleasing them bit harder. There are good in-laws also who become your second sets of parents for you. Regardless of how you feel about your in-laws, I think we should thank them. I am truly thankful to my in-laws for raising a wonderful guy like Zenguy, who is good husband, best friend and greatest dad and most of all kind human being who wants me to make my life more positive.
  6. Thank your friends: Friends are family that we choose for ourselves. Many times friends have been there for us, when we were down, when we needed some lifting up. You may have one good friend or many, thank them for truly what they do everyday, just for being there for you.
  7. Thank other people you do not know: Now, this might be a alien concept, how to thank someone you do not know but it can be done. Many times people are helping you without us realizing it. For example, I am truly thankful for parents who started homeschooling and making it legal in USA so that I can choose to home school my kids today, if that is what I choose to do. I am thankful for technology advantages to I can blog today and share my thoughts to who wants to read.
  8. Think positive from bad situation: If you thought #7 was tough, this may seem even harder and tough. How can we see anything positive from a bad or worse situation. I will show you how, for example, “I am thankful to that slow driver who cut in front of me so I had to slow down and avoided getting a speeding ticket from a police who was just 200 yards from where I was.”  Do you see the difference? There is a silver lining or positive in almost all situation, so let’s try to improve out life by thinking positive.
  9. Thank Animals: Many times we only think of thanking only humans and our loved ones, when we stretch the limit to thank other living things in life that have given joy, our life truly becomes happier as it is filled with gratitude. For example, I had great fun with my brother’s dog Ruby and my room mate’s dog, when I took them walking, and playing with them, they gave me unconditional love and tremendous joy. If you have dog, cat, fish or any pet that gave you moment of joy and cheer, thank them truly. Think about the any animals that have given joy in your life: Dogs that love you as soon as they see you or  cats that think your lap is the best place to nap in the whole world, birds whose songs uplift your spirit and so on.
  10. Thanks Plants and Vegetables: Have you ever visited a tranquil garden with flowers, butterflies and bird chirping? It has so calming and soothing effect on me and I am sure many of you as well. I am thankful to all trees that have provided shade to me from sun’s heat, flowers with beautiful colors which has given me an inspiration to draw something or sing a song. And most of all, I am thankful to all vegetables and fruit plants to give me nourishment to live and eat healthier.

How to share Gratitude and give Thanks in simple ways

While some things may sound weird to a few of you, go ahead try it. there are many ways to take your part in random act of kindness and you can help during bad economy too.

  • Thank someone or something today. If friend has helped you, send him or her an email or call and just say thank you for being there.
  • Hug your spouse and kids, just because they are part of your life.
  • Tell your parents how much you appreciate them
  • Sing a song with bird in garden, even though you think you can not sing.
  • Find a positive in worse situation to lift up your mood.
  • Pick up garbage and put in trash bin, just because you want to.
  • Give thanks not only during holidays but every day.
  • Write in your Gratitude Journal for things that makes you happy and smile
  • Make someone happy today
  • Help someone at grocery store, who might be struggling with bags
  • If you see any child cry somewhere, instead of being critical, help the mom or dad to see if you can help.

This article is my contribution to Eric’s Eden Journal’s this month’s campfire. See below.

Your Turn:

How do you give thanks? Do you have gratitude Journal?  Did you share your gratitude with anyone today?

Check out other related articles:
Being enlightened
How to reuse Halloween Candies
Stress Free Thanksgiving Party

What is the Personal Development Campfire?
Imagine all your favorite personal development bloggers gathered around a campfire. Campfires are great center pieces of relaxed and free flowing conversations. Think of all the wonderful conversations and the wealth of topics that might arise. That’s the idea behind the Personal Development Campfire. Your favorite bloggers all gathered together discussing a new topic every month. (Bloggers click here for details on participating in the Personal Development Campfire.)

  1. Eden Journal
  2. Giving Thanks: Heart and Mind
  3. 5 Reasons to Give Thanks | Han of Harmony
  4. Gratitude – How to be thankful in trying times

Image: br3akthru / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

How To Get Rid Of Mouse From House

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We had mice problem in our house while ago, while the I wanted to get rid of mice without killing them. Like any vegetarian, animal lover and compassionate person I was stumped on ideas how to do that as most solutions were somehow did not appeal to me, specially glue traps. I wrote about it in how to how to get rid of mouse naturally. before in detail post here at heart and mind.

While cold and rainy season started, I thought of seeing mouse sighting again after long time, so I had to learn more about mouse in general and repeat the compassionate process of getting rid of mice again. I think and hope this is last of we see any mouse in our house.

Learning about Mouse

Mice have been living along side of human for ages. There are so many type of mice and rats. One of the common problem many people have in city or in rural setting is having a mouse or rather large mice problem. Before you learn how to get rid of mouse, learning a bit more about them would be useful thing to do.

Mouse and Rats are some mammal that belong to order of rodents. There are so many type of mouses, the most common is called “house mouse”, field mouse and white footed mouse along with other types.

Some kids and school have kept mice as pets at home or in science lab. Mice’s natural enemy are cat, fox, snake, some dogs and bird of prey. Many pet store sells infant mice for food for pet snakes as well.

Mice are naturally nocturnal, meaning most active during night time. They have bad eye sight but they keep them self by keen hearing and smelling talent from predictors. Unless you have a mouse as pet, it is not funny to open up a kitchen cabinet to find mouse jumping or running over you. No one is immune to having a mouse in house, not even Prince William and Princess Kate, all of us can have mouse problem sometimes or the other.

Top reasons you do not want mouse or mice in your house:

  1. They damage the furniture, electronic wires and walls in your house.
  2. They eat and damage the food in your house such as from seeds to crackers and more.
  3. They spread dies ease to human through their feces and parasites.
  4. They multiply very fast, meaning in no time you can army full of mice in house if not properly taken care of.

How To Get Rid of Mouse Naturally

There are many ways to get rid of mouse from your house. Instead of cruel glue traps and poisoning them, we can get rid of them humanely and naturally as possible.

Here a few ways to get rid of mouse naturally:

1. Seal Entry to the house.

2. Fill wall holes with steel wool, as mouse can not chew through it.

3. Try humane live traps to catch and release in wild.

4. Try peppermint oil or mint for detterent.

5. Some people have success using moth balls as mouse do not like its smell

6. Get a cat in house.

7. Try electronic pest beeps to keep them away.

8. Cover and seal all food in tight lid containers.

To learn more in details about being compassionate see: 13 ways to be compassionate

Image source: Wikipedia

Importance Of Laughter

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Importance of Humor

They say laughter is the best medicine for any one of us, and it is so true when we read or hear funny quotes or funny jokes. I thought of sharing some of the best lawyer jokes humor I have read with you for either small chuckle or big burst of life. Why lawyer jokes? law and lawyer seemed to be dreaded word for most of us. I recently went to lawyer with my friend and it was stressful to say the least, and I thought why not balance it with some of the best lawyer jokes to smile with. You do not have to visit lawyer recently to enjoy this. Hope all of us can enjoy lawyer jokes and its humor without needing the services of any attorneys.

More Q and A and Humor

Question:What do you call parachuting lawyers?
Answer:Skeet.

Question: What’s the difference between lawyers and vampire bats?
Answer: One’s a bloodsucking parasite and the other is a mouse-like creature with wings!

Question:What’s the difference between lawyers and vultures?
Answer:Vultures can’t take their wing tips off.

Question: What’s the difference between female prosecutors and terrorists?
Answer: You can negotiate with terrorists.

Question:What’s the difference between a porcupine and an ambulance chasing BMW carrying three lawyers?
Answer: A porcupine has the pricks on the outside.

Question:How many lawyers does it take to change a light bulb?
Answer: Fifty-Four — Eight to argue, one to get a continuance, one to object, one to demur, two to research precedents, one to dictate a letter, one to stipulate, five to turn in their time cards, one to depose, one to write interrogatories, two to settle, one to order a secretary to change the bulb, and twenty eight to bill for professional services.

Question: What separates witnesses from the lowest form of life on earth?
Answer: The partitions around the witness stand.

Question: What do lawyers use for birth control?
Answer: Their personalities.

Question:What’s the difference between a lawyer and a boxing referee?
Answer: A boxing referee doesn’t get paid more for a longer fight.

Question:Why should you not run over a lawyer on a bicycle?
Answer: It might be your bicycle.

Question:What do you call a lawyer who doesn’t chase ambulances?
Answer:Retired.

Question:What’s the difference between a lawyer and an onion?
Answer: You cry when you cut up an onion.

Question:What does “NFL football player, NBA basketball player, preacher, lawyer” represent?
Answer:pro’s and con’s

—

Lawyer Jokes

Old Man, Priest, Doctor and Lawyer:

There was this old man was on his death bed. He wanted badly to take all his money with him. He called his priest, his doctor and his lawyer to his bedside. The Old man said: “Here’s $30,000 cash to be held by each of you. I trust you to put this in my coffin when I die so I can take all my money with me.”

At the funeral, each man put an envelope in the coffin.Riding away in a limousine, the priest suddenly broke into tears and confessed that he had only put $20,000 into the envelope because he needed $10,000 for a new baptistery.

Doctor said “Well, since we’re confiding in each other, I only put $10,000 in the envelope because we needed a new machine at the hospital which cost $20,000.”

The lawyer was aghast and said. “I’m ashamed of both of you, I want it known that when I put my envelope in that coffin, it held my personal check for the full $30,000.”

Image source: 2013 calendar

101 Changes: Change 15: How To Get Beautiful With Nature Bounty

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I am writing a series of 101 small changes that we can make to make the quality of our life better and build and lead a more happier life that is in tune with our heart and mind. These are small changes that I have made and am working on right now, so I know they are possible for anyone to do.

If you have not read previous posts, check out a few posts on the changes from the past:

101 changes: Change 104: Try New Food; Pomegranate

101 changes series:

I am lazy occasionally to make special time for me to feel beautiful and relax. Another reason that I do not use many store bought beauty products is some of the products my skin is sensitive to it so I like natural way to get beauty as much as possible. I took a special course on how to use natural plant product for beauty treatment when I was in college. It has been awhile, so I forgot all about it until I found my hand written notebook recently and it had some good ideas that made me get started and pumped about using some of the tips.

How To Get Beautiful Natural Way: Tropical Fruits

 

I further did search on how to use natural raw fruits to make beauty regime that is easy to make, does not cost much and easy on my skin. Here are some of the ideas that may work for all women who want natural ways to make skin, nails or face better and beautiful.

1. Softer Skin With Papaya

Papaya has high skin regenerating antioxidant and Vitamin A which helps skin cell and making skin smooth and glowing.  To best use papaya for beauty treatment blend or mash 1/2 cup ripe papaya, 2 table spoon honey and mix it well. Place the puree over clean damp skin on face, hand or feet. Keep for 10 minutes and rinse it warm water and pat dry with soft towel. The mixture can stay in fridge for 1 week.

2. Use Coconut for Shiny and Long Hair

Creamy Coconut milk inside the green coconut has lot of  protein and fatty acid that helps the hair for growth and make it shine. It is instant conditioner of putting shine and life back in to your hair. Break open green coconut (hard part) and get creamy coconut milk from it. If you use canned coconut milk, make sure it is unsweetened before using it on hair. Warm the coconut milk for 30 seconds and massage it in hair and scalp with fingers. Leave it for 15 minutes and then shampoo as usual way. In Indian store you can buy coconut oil for hair and it is simply marvelous.

3. Banana for Double Duty on Skin and Hair

My kids love bananas so we always have some bananas on hand. Banana is rich on Potassium, protein and fatty acid like coconut so it is surely great for hair and as well as skin nourishment.  Mix mashed banana and 2 table spoon of honey and massage in to hair and scalp. Leave it for 10-12 minutes and rinse with shampoo as usual. For skin, use plain mashed banana for a facial peel and leave on for 5 minutes of so, before rinsing it with warm water.

4. Glow Your Skin With Kiwi

I love kiwi fruit but I admit, I do not buy it as often as I should. Now this tip gives me reason to buy these small fruit and eat some and use rest for beautifying my skin. Kiwi fruit are high on Vitamin C, it reduces skin discoloration and makes even tone on skin. Peel the brown skin from Kiwi fruit, add cut and peeled kiwi to blender, add 1 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil and blend it well. Massage the paste over the clean and dry skin. Leave on for 5 minutes and rinse it warm water. Doing twice a week for 1 month will make sure skin glow with radiance!

5. Get Rid Of Pores with Pineapple

Pineapple is great as skin softner as well cleaner. If your pores are visible like mine are, they are clogged with extra oil and dead skin. To reduce or get rid of pores is to mix 1/4 table spoon of fresh pineapple juice with your regular face wash. Use it on your pores daily to minimize the pores. For dry and hard patches of skin area such as elbow, knees and heel, use a thick slice of pineapple and use it as a sponge like to rub on your rough skin area to soften and refresh the skin.

6. Get Stronger nail with Mango

Mango is my favorite fruit and same goes for my whole family so finding any leftover mango for this treatment seems very tough however, I may just try that in season by hiding a mango for me. Take fresh ripe mango and 1 table spoon of extra virgin olive oil, add 3 tablespoon of white sugar until it becomes like a scrub consistency. Take a dab with small finer and rub it over each nail cuticle for minute or so. Rinse with warm water. Scrub will keep for 2 weeks in a fridge.

7. Strawberry for spa facial at home

Once I saw strawberry being used in spa facial and I thought why not to try it at home myself at much cheaper price and without having to drive anywhere. Did you know that some of the teenage acne products has strawberry as an ingredient? Strawberry has type of acid which helps troubled skin of teens with acne problem as well sun spots on adults too. Mash ripe strawberry with fork or blender, add 1 table spoon of sour cream to make a facial mask scrub. Gently massage on face or other troubled skin area, leave it for about 5-7 minutes. Rinse it with warm water.

Summary:

There are many fruits and vegetables can be used for beauty treatments such as peaches, potatoes, cucumber and more. I will have to write part 2 for more beauty from nature tips. You can get more ideas from Nature’s Beauty Secrets: Recipes for Beauty Treatments from the World’s Best Spas.

Image source: http://www.womenworld.org

Cookbooks for Vegetarians : For Healthy and Easy Cooking

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Vegetarian Cooking

Being vegetarian is not new for many, some do it for health reason, some do it for ethical reason. One of my friend has gone vegetarian for saving money and being healthy. Even if you are meat eater, having vegetarian meal along with your meat and potatoes will balance your diet.

Many think Vegetarian diet means eating salads and Raw fruits, it is not the case. There are so many great vegetarian choices that are not only healthy, quick and delicious. If you are like me and sometimes need an inspiration from a cookbook, look no further. These 5 books in my cookbook collection is perfect for any cook who wants to make great tasting vegetarian meal. All you need is simple cookware pot, a few kitchen gadgets and vegetarian cooking recipe to start off making a vegetarian meal. When you cook at home, food is not only healthy but you will save money on eating out as well.

Top 5 Cookbooks for Vegetarian Eating

There are many of us eating more vegetarian diet for various reasons. One of the main reason for is that in general vegetarian diet is more healthier, unless your diet consist of soda and french fries only. One of our friend would like to try more healthier food, but he think that vegetarian diet is boring. In reality vegetarian diet can be full of variety food and you will not need to eat salads everyday. For those who might be in same boat as our friend or fully vegetarian, you will love our top 5 vegetarian cookbooks choices. These top rated and best selling vegetarian cookbooks have easy, fast, healthy and delicious vegetarian recipes to whip by anyone at home.

1. Quick Fix Vegetarian: Healthy home cooked meals in 30 minutes of less

This book is written by Robin Robertson, and great for anyone who are short on time and wants to eat healthy home cooked meals. Who is not busy now a days? Not many. Quick Fix book also has dairy free recipes for those who are lactose intolerant or vegan. Quick fix book offers easy, simple recipes for new cooks to seasoned cook. The book has many recipes from salad, main meals, appetizer and more. It also has slow cooker recipes and shows us how to use pre-made food to create a quick meal. With these tips and recipe idea, cooking for yourself or party can be fun and stress free. It is not for purest who wants to cook everything from scratch, still offers fast healthy alternative to eating at fast food joint. Our favorite recipe are, Spinach and sun dried tomatoes quesedilla, Mediterranean Orzo Salad,and No-Bake Oatmeal Almond Cookies.

2. How-Cook-Everything-Vegetarian

‘How to cook everything vegetarian’ is written Mark Bittman who has written and published numerous successful cookbooks. This cookbook has over 2000 recipes with illustrations. Book offer simple and delicious recipes for new cook to follow, there are no complex recipes or instructions which makes it lot easier for many of us cooking at home. A few of our favorite recipes from the book are Fava Bean and Mint Salad with Asparagus and Red Lentils with Chaat Masala.

3. American Vegetarian Cookbook : Fit for the Life Kitchen

This popular cookbook is written by Marilyn Diamond, who also has published many successful books in cooking and getting fit for life with focus on eating to stay fit and healthy. This cookbook has over 500 fit and healthy vegetarian recipes. It also shows why fitness and health matters and reasons we should eat certain way. The book makes it simple explanation making us want to be better at taking care of ourselves while eating good and diverse healthy food at home.

4. Students Vegetarian cookbook Revised

This paperback cookbook by Carole Raymond is perfect for students or those of us, who wants to cook frugal vegetarian meals. Make sure you get the revised copy, as new version is more updated with new and updated recipes. This cookbook has a few tofu and Nori recipes but most of the recipes are simple and easy to make and ingredients that you can find in most grocery stores.One thing we like about this cookbook is it offers lot of healthy alternative for everyone’s favorite food such as pizza, burritos and burgers and pasta. Our favorite recipes are Orange Rice and Black beans salad and Broiled Tofu with lemon vinaigrette.

5. Everything Vegetarian cookbook

This paperback cook book is authored by Jay Weinstein and has over 300 recipes inside. The book has simple ingredients that you will find in most groceries store, without hunting for those hard to find spices. Jay explains everything listed with recipe such as what is that? where to find it? and other possible questions. His writing has humorous tone with tons of fun stories about food and family. Our favorite recipes inside are, baked Ziti lasagna.

Conclusion:

I have many cookbooks as I love cooking, but these top 5 picks will be great for any home chefs from a beginner cook to expert cook. Enjoy Cooking.

How to Make Vegetarian Food at Home:

In addition to these vegetarian cookbooks, please check out Videos of: How to Make Vegetarian Pizza by Vah Chef, he is very funny, energetic and shows great way to make many vegetarian and non-veg recipes.