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2012 Wrap-up: Nifty Finds and Favorite Things

OK, so we’re a few days into 2013, but I still want to share some of the nifty things I found over the course of 2012 in the hopes that someone else may find them useful.

So here it is; my list of nifty finds and favorite things.

Writing Books & Tools:

  • Outlining Your Novel: Map Your Way to Success – This book by K.M Weiland has become somewhat of my pre-writing Bible. I fell so much in love with it and talked about it so much, my sister ended up buying a copy. Don’t let the “Outlining” part of the title fool you; this book has so much more. It covers brainstorming your ideas, developing your characters, setting, conflict and story premise and how to turn all of that work into one big story map. And yeah, it covers outlining too.
  • Evernote – This free and nifty tool was my introduction to Cloud Storage. I have it on my computer, my tablet and my phone and use it on all three. It allows you to store photos, scanned images, PDFs, collaborate with others through “shared” notebooks, and store your favorite websites with the click of a button or swipe of a finger. My sister and I are currently using it to collaborate on a project. One note about the shared folders: you can share a folder and allow a person (or persons) to view the notes within, but if you want him or her to modify those notes, that requires the “Sharer” to have the premium version of Evernote.
  • yWriter – Another free tool that became an obsession this year is Spacejock’s “yWriter.” It’s a word-processing program designed specifically for fiction writers by novelist and computer programmer, Simon Haynes. It acts as a digital story bible that keeps track of all the pertinent details of your Character Sketches, Setting Sketches, Plot Sketches, Summaries and, of course, your story itself. If you’re interested in taking a peek at it, you can find it here: http://www.spacejock.com/yWriter5.html

Favorite Writing Blogs:

  • Terribleminds – Chuck Wendig –  Ok, this one needs a slight disclaimer. It contains some foul language. If you find the “f-bomb” offensive, you may want to pass over this one. But don’t let it scare you if you can stomach a little “colorful metaphor” mixed in with top-notch writing advice. According to his bio, Chuck Wendig has done a little bit of everything: Screenwriting, fiction, game design, zombie hunting… Ok, I added the Zombie hunting myself. But I can totally see him doing it. Catch the action at: http://terribleminds.com/ramble/
  • Make a Living Writing – Carol Tice – Carol Tice is a successful freelance writer and she started “Make a Living Writing” as a way to pay it forward. Her site and blog are full of years worth of experience in how to make it was a freelance writer. She’s not shy about sharing the secrets of her success with other aspiring and professional freelance writers. I stumbled on her blog (from another blog) over Christmas 2011 and have been a faithful reader since. Read all of the great advice at: http://www.makealivingwriting.com/ 
  • Wordplay: Helping Writers Become Authors – K.M. Weiland –  Wordplay is author K.M. Weiland’s blog. The same, in my opinion, genius, that brought us the “Outlining Your Novel” book mentioned above. ‘Nuff said! You can find her blog at: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com

Gluten-Free Goodness:

  • This first favorite is a combo Gluten-Free blog and Cookbook find. Gluten-Free on a Shoestring is the brain child of ex-attorney and mom of a Celiac child, Nicole Hunn. She has this crazy notion that gluten free food should be a) affordable and b) not taste like flip-flops with a coating of beach sand. After sampling some of the recipes on her blog, and loving them, I found both of her cookbooks under the Anniversary Tree (thank you, Husband!)

That’s it for now; some of the things I’ve stumbled on over the year. Thank you for reading and feel free to all “Sound of Music” on me in the comments below and share a few of your favorite things!

Disclaimer: I’m nearly positive that none of the people I mention above know that I exist. These reviews were not solicited by any of them. I share these things because I either found them incredibly cool or incredibly useful. Though, if any of the above mentioned folks do know that I exist, that would border on nearly cosmically cool. Also, those boxes are Amazon affiliate links. If you happen to click and buy, it will NOT raise the price of the product for you.

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If You Can’t Eat It, Drink It! How I Learned to Like Fruit

Fruit in a blender.

I hate fruit. I’ll bite on a banana or nibble on an apple now and then, but grapes, berries, melons, citrus; they all make me gag.

One of my new year’s goals is to get healthier though, and that includes healthier eating. Since I have quite a few vegetable allergies, that means adding more fruit to my diet.

So, how to overcome the urge to vomit when I take a bite of berry?

To answer this question, I put on my industrial sized thinking cap and burned up some synapses. After a while my youngest child, tired of the smell of frying brain cells, offered his own solution.

“You could drink it,” he said, waving his hand in front of my face to clear away all of the smoke pouring from my ears and nose.

I felt the light-bulb blink on. What a fantastic idea. I don’t like oranges, but I love orange juice. I can’t stand strawberries, but I can easily scarf down a pint of strawberry ice cream.

So, I dug out the blender, grabbed the berries and bananas that I bought for my kids to eat, added some milk, yogurt (which I also hate) and some protein powder and 60 seconds later, drank a glass of pureed fruit.

By my third smoothie three days later, I’d quit gagging and managed to drink a whole glass of it and not hate it.

Problem solved! By my twelve-year-old no less.

So, lesson learned this week: If you can’t eat it, drink it!

How have you learned to eat foods you hate? Feel free to share your stories in the comments below.

There’s a lot of blog fodder coming up as I start a 90 day fitness challenge on February 14. Visit often as share my efforts to get healthy!

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Bread is How Much?

A receipt, debit card and a handful of cash.I feel like Jerry Seinfeld: “What is with the price of bread?”

Right now, the bread brand I usually buy hovers around $3.00. When money’s tight, that’s a lot for a loaf.

With my bank account whimpering like a little kid facing a tetanus shot every Grocery Day, I decided to look into how I can save a little dough on my food bill.

What things could I swap around to save a few bucks?

First went the bread.

In this instance, I spent a little money to save a little money and bought myself a bread machine. That baby’s paid for itself in the past few months. Instead of spending $3.00 on one loaf of bread I spend that money on a bag of flour and get three or four loaves. I haven’t bought a loaf of bread since October.

And making my own for the kids and husband has the added benefit of being healthier. I know exactly what’s going into that loaf and there are no additives, preservatives or words I can’t pronounce.

After the bread I ditched my “convenience veggies.”

I don’t mind cooking at home (which is a huge money-saver in and of itself) but I’m a lazy cook. The less I have to chop and prep to get dinner ready, the better. But I had an epiphany in the produce aisle not too long ago.

Why spend $2.00 on pre-washed, pre-peeled, pre-cut packages of carrots when I can spend $0.89 on plain old packages of raw carrots?

Needless to say, that rockin’ set of knives my husband got me for Christmas is getting a workout. All my veggies now come “unprepared” and I peel, scrape, and cut them myself.

And I’ll be a big girl admit that it really doesn’t take that much longer to do it myself. Plus I save a few dollars every week.

The next money-saving epiphany came while perusing the cheese selection.

Healthy or not, we’re cheese-eaters in this house. Shredded on chili, sliced in sandwiches, snacked on with rice crackers. But now, instead of buying cheese in bags or wrapped in convenient individual slices it comes in a brick and I slice and shred it myself. I save even more pennies if I get the store brand rather than a name brand.

Those are just a start. I see the fine art of couponing in my future. I’m also tossing around the idea of turning my brown thumb green and starting a small vegetable garden somewhere in the yard. Why buy it if I can grow it myself? Of course, growing it myself might be the problem… I can kill AstroTurf.

Anyway, those are a few of the changes I’ve made on grocery day. What tips and tricks have you come up with to help you save on groceries?

And do you have any tips on couponing? Feel free to share in the comments!

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Gluten Free Globe Trotting – Three Lessons Learned

My “Food” posts usually appear on Fridays. Since that got Kiboshed this past Friday, I’m sharing it today. Hopefully, I’ll be back on my normal schedule by this Friday.

Big Ben - Copyright Karen Bristow
Big Ben

While I love to travel, I haven’t had occasion in my life to actually be much of a traveler.

Then I married a British man and a month later, we’re spending the Christmas holidays in England with his family.

It was great. Beautiful. Fun. And most impressive, tasty. The British have it down pat when it comes to gluten free goodies. I enjoyed some actual dessert for the first time since October while visiting my extended family.

Now, if only I’d planned ahead a bit for the trip itself, I could have enjoyed getting there and back almost as much. We did the right thing in alerting the airline of my dietary restrictions, but I totally dropped the ball on keeping myself fed on the journey to the airport.

In an effort to spare other Gluten Free Globe Trotting Newbies, here are three of the lessons I learned.

Snack Up!

We had a four hour drive from our home to the airport (and then another 4 hour wait once we got to the airport). I discovered that there’s no guarantee that you’ll be able to find suitable snacks en-route. I didn’t think about packing my own until we were barreling down Interstate 10.

We stopped at rest stations but I wasn’t able to reach in (obviously) and read the ingredients before purchasing. Gas stations weren’t much better though I did find some “Apple Chips” and a banana.

Also, even if you alert the airline, there’s no guarantee that your gluten free meal is … good. You could end up with anything from half cooked rice and a stale rice cake to a totally delectable Indian Curry. It just depends on the caterer that flight is using.

So, Lesson 1 is: Pack your snacks. Make sure you’re prepared for your road trip and any waiting you may do. Thanks to my mother-in-law, I had plenty of gluten free snacks to get me through the journey home.

Restaurant Reconn

You’re in a foreign city and you’re itchin’ to act like a total tourist. You grab your camera, your money, your kids and run out the door to spend the morning doing touristy stuff.

Then it’s time for lunch. Where are you going to eat?

If I were stateside, I could whip out my phone and look up area restaurant gluten free menus while I stood on a street corner. Unfortunately, the cell phone didn’t work over there (unless I happened to hitch an Internet ride on Starbuck’s free wireless).

Lesson 2 is: Don’t leave home (or hotel) without hitting Google first. Do a search for gluten free friendly restaurants and check out their menus before you do the tourist thing. Have a list of suitable restaurants with you as you tour.

X Marks the Spot

Take lesson 2 one step further and know exactly where those restaurants are located. Or at least have a general idea. There’s nothing like coming out of the Tower of London, starving, and not knowing quite where your gluten safe eating place is.

Lesson 3 is: If you know what attractions you’ll be touring that day, take a moment to scope out the area on Google and note the address(es) on your restaurant list.

A few extra minutes of preparation could have prevented a few hungry moments on my part. Live, learn and share those lessons!

I’d love to hear from other savvy (or even not so savvy) travelers. Whether gluten free or not, what kind of tips do you have to share with us globe trotting newbies?

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Snack Attack

Once upon a time, the downstairs vending machine acted as my mid-day superhero.

You see, on top of being gluten free, I’m also hypoglycemic. If I don’t eat every few hours I turn into a shaky, lightheaded, snarly mess. Mankind, my family and my coworkers need me to snack regularly.

Gluten free or not, I always try to pack enough of my own food to get me through the workday. But you know how some mornings are.

The coffee machine spews on your alarm clock rendering it comatose and you’re rushing the kids out the door half an hour late with your lunch in the youngest’s backpack.

Pre-gluten free, those days weren’t a problem. I’d make an emergency mid-afternoon run downstairs to the vending machine and grab a granola bar or some trail mix (or, OK, a Twix).

Now though, my new dietary restrictions have turned my metallic, goodie dispensing superhero into a big, useless hunk of metal. If I forget my sack of healthy, gluten free snacks, my emergency options are limited to Fritos or fruit snacks. Neither option is very healthy or helpful.

Two months ago, I willingly paid a dollar to buy some Grandma’s Peanut butter cookies in a snack attack emergency. I’m equally willing now to shell out the same amount for some Blue Diamond nut chips. (Vending machine companies, are you paying attention? Potential goldmine to tap here!)

For now though, I guess I’ll just have to make sure I grab the right bag of food in the morning and not accidentally send my salad and nut chips with the youngest boy for lunch.

I’m sure he’d appreciate that too.

Just for fun, I’ll list some of my favorite gluten free mid-morning and mid-afternoon snacks below. Share some of your favorite snacks, gluten free or otherwise, in the comments!

  • Apple slices and peanut butter
  • Chobani Champions honey banana yogurt
  • Blue Diamond Almond Nutchips with Brie
  • Cinnamon applesauce