In chapter twelve of "The Joy of Being Disorganized" it reminds its readers to “quiet your adult mind long enough to hear your inner child's voice.” Having a clean, cozy, peaceful home includes letting that fun-loving child in you remember what you love to eat! In this cooking video, you'll get a wonderful recipe for bone broth and a tasty chicken salad made from what was left on the bones after making the broth.

Every single tasty morsel of meat is simmered along with some yummy vegetables seasoned just right.

When the voice of your inner child starts on a whiny, crave, it just means you need protein. Having bone broth and chicken salad on hand will stop the craving within 20 seconds and your inner child's voice will stop its belligerent rant.

What is it really with us women and our appearance? Do we want to look younger or just not look older? When we were children we wanted to be older, that’s why we’d answer, “I’m seven and a half.” But we didn’t think about wanting to look older. I remember being carded in my twenties because I looked younger than 21, but I didn’t have a desire to be or look older, because drinking wasn’t my thing and age really didn’t concern me.

However, at about 35, I started seeing the first signs of looking older, as daring, stray, gray hairs began sprouting at my temples. I paid the kids a penny a hair to pull them. By the time I was 55 my offspring had moved on to better paying jobs and besides if they’d still been willing to work for me, I’d be 2/3s bald.

At 60, I dyed my hair for the first time in my life, but after about four years I let my real color grow out and the gray took over. I also got tired of hearing a wolf whistle, turning around and shocking the life out of some young guy who thought he was going to get the attention of a young chickie only to find an old lady glaring at him. I actually prefer being a “Q-Tip” (that's an appropriate name to describe a person with white hair) because the wolf whistles have stopped and I am officially invisible to the wolves. It’s a good thing. 

There’s a wonderful cartoon by Gary Larson depicting two mosquitos on the skin of a human and one of the mosquitos has her sucker in her victim's arm and her body is swollen up like a balloon that’s ready to pop. The other mosquito says, “Pull out! Betty! Pull out!!! You’ve hit an artery!”

Most of us know that learning lessons from illness is a must if we want to grow spiritually.

During my illness, which turned out to be a virus that had to run its course, I really learned a valuable tool for mind control. I noticed that when I’d start to entertain scary thoughts (mainly of dying) it was like dipping my toe into a stream of thought that if I allowed myself to go there, I’d get swept away in fear.

That’s when the image of Gary’s mosquito cartoon came to me. So whenever I’d start to think a negative thought that could go into a rushing stream of more negative thoughts, I’d say to myself, “Pull out! Betty! Pull out!!!”

So far it has stopped me every time and made me giggle! It was great to put such humor to my situation and I know it aided in my healing. I love the name Betty for a mosquito and I love Gary for his incredible humor.

Why buy bottled salad dressings when it's so simple to make them in your own kitchen.

It takes more time to choose a bottle and the store and pay for it, as it does to make it. See for yourself in this video from my kitchen.

Whad’ya Want?

To Look Younger or Just Not Look Older?

Did you happen to watched the Academy Awards the year Barbra Streisand sang a tribute to her close friend Marvin Hamlisch who had passed away? She sang The Way We Were but she wasn't the way she used to be. It's because she was trying to look the way she used to so she had a facelift and bless her heart, she looked wonderful, but when she sang, her lips didn’t move! 

She's a genius as a singer, actor and producer, so why did she put herself through that procedure? We’re the same age and she definitely looks younger than I do, but at least my lips move when I talk!

Whoa Mama! Nelly, my inner child, has control of the keyboard for this blog! Look out! She’s wild!!! WARNING, this blog could make you hungry, but it might help you lose weight!

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Pam just spent a week in Seattle taking care of her son’s monkeys. That’s what they call the kids; Brooklyn 16 and Jackson 14. She was so excited to get to play with them! Except Brooklyn had finals all week and spent most of her time in her room studying, or at the library studying, or at her girlfriend’s house STUDYING and she couldn’t play with her very much. But Jackie and she played Gin Rummy a lot and they got to talk like two grown-ups when he wasn’t at school (I just listened in).

But here’s the part you’ve got to know: the monkey’s house was loaded with carbs!!! Oh there was lots of healthy food too, like fresh berries, broccoli, romaine, tomatoes, bacon, eggs, milk, avocado and yogurt (full fat Greek), but the carb section was impressive to me.

FEDERAL GOVERNMENT URGES AMERICANS TO

LIMIT SUGAR TO 10% OF DAILY CALORIES

That was the headline in the Friday, January 8, 2016 issue of USA Today.

This is great news and it's about time the word got out to the masses. It'll send warning ripples to the food manufacturers, drug companies and of course the doctors who have been prescribing statins all these years.

YES, the very first paragraph in the article says, “Concerned about the cholesterol and fat in your diet? That’s so 2015.” (It should have said, “1960” because the science has been known and ignored since then).

The article went on to say, “If you want to stay on the cutting edge of nutrition advice, what you should really worry about are added sugars, according to a new report from the federal government that urges us to cut back—way back—on sugar.” 

If you wonder what that means to you, the dietary guideline recommends you have no more than 12 teaspoons of sugar a day and there are 10 teaspoons of it in a Coke or most soft drinks.

What I learned from Dr. Childers, my low-carb physician, was that by going on a low-carb diet (synonymous with sugar-free) fat is good for us. It’s not the evil we’ve been told it is. Once you know that, it’s so easy to cut out sugar! You quit buying low-fat this and low-fat that and you get fat back in your diet and your cravings for sugar literally disappear!

See, in order to cut out fat in food, food manufacturers had to add sugar, because foods with the fat sucked out of them, suck. So we ended up with shelves full of low-fat, processed food loaded with SUGAR. And we all got fat and sick. (The article goes into depressing detail on the medial costs because of what we’ve been previously told to eat and not eat.)

A healthy, low-carb diet will help you lose weight, but staying sugar-free this time of year is tricky.

It's that time of year when the candy companies are gearing up for one of their biggest campaigns of the year and if you are on a low-carb diet to lose weight, this is a hard time of the year for you to succeed because they are out to trick and treat you.

Just think, your mouth is the gateway to your stomach. Ultimately, if you don't put something in your mouth, it won't go into your stomach. It's so simple, and yet we gain weight just because we are able to go unconscious when we're tempted. Candy company executives have a secret credo and it's tattooed on every exec's chest: the mouth trap:the butt stops here! 

If you're a chocolate lover and you're not careful, you'll eat way too much chocolate this month. So I've come up with a solution to help you stay relatively sugar-free.

My husband and I went to a neighbor’s surprise birthday party last Saturday night. It’s always exciting to go to this home. The couple is exotic. The birthday man was a concert pianist and opera singer, turned executive of a large company. He has an adorable French accent and is movie star gorgeous. His wife, who is also stunningly beautiful with a tall, slim body crowned by a head of flaming, (not from a bottle) red hair, was an opera singer turned wife, homemaker and mom. The house is enchanting. It actually looks like an Italian villa perched high on the hill overlooking its own vineyard (all the neighbors are wondering when our resident herd of 36 elk will decide to frisk among the rows of pinot gris grapes). 

We arrived with our donation to the potluck, hot chili from my freezer. I always make double batches of stews, soups and chili and freeze half. For this party I mixed three different batches (no two are ever alike) spanning three different seasons from last year. The combination was an interesting melting pot of past chili feeds.

Michelle, one of our neighbors brought a homemade German Chocolate Cake for dessert. She’s the best baker in the neighborhood and the cake looked alluringly attractive. Nelly (my inner child) said,

“We can have some can’t we?”

“No, sugar is poison, remember what we read in Why We Get Fat?”

For most of us, to lose weight has been an ongoing...and losing..battle.

For four years I have maintained my weight right where I want it....okay, okay close to where I want it....and have eaten delicious food. 

To lose weight, cut out anything wheat, white or sweet. Here's a recipe that cuts out the wheat and the sweet, and you and your family will love it.

It's for delicious, healthy low carb flourless tortillas.

They'll chop out about 60 carbs from your day.

That'll help you lose weight and that'll help you be healthier.

This is just one of many of my low carb videos.

It’s Not Your Fault ~ Blame it on Mother Nature

If you have a sweet tooth, you have an inner child. While you’re out and about today, notice how kids light up when given sugar! That delight in sugar comes from a natural instinct. (If you’ve ever tasted human breast milk, it’s sickeningly sweet.) Mother Nature used sugar (lactose) to get the baby to suck. And the rest is history!

Fast forward to what you are now…an adult who loves desserts, cookies, candy, cake, pie, ice cream etc. If your mouth is watering just reading that previous sentence, and if you’re overweight, my guess is that sugar has a hold on you.

Sugar is addictive whether you want to admit it or not.

I got an email the other day from a lovely woman who has decided to cut out all processed sugar from her life and she’s asked me to help her. She messed up over the weekend and said she didn’t know why she caved and she asked what she should do now?

Here’s what I told her and I know it’ll help you if you struggle with eating too much sugar.