No matter what “diet” you follow or if you are truly changing your lifestyle, you need to have some recipes that you can use and know that you are making a good choice. I love soup, especially in the winter; I could eat soup for lunch and dinner. I will include one of my favorite recipes for soup today that I make. I got this recipe from http://bit.ly/1aVILDn. My husband and I follow the principles of the TLS plan of low glycemic eating. I hope that you enjoy this soup as much as I do. Enjoy!Heather 🙂

Italian Soup with Roasted Italian Susage

2 ratings | 2 reviews Prep Time:      15 mins   Cook Time:      2 hours   serves:  6

Ingredients   Tomato Paste, Canned, No Salt Added    –   2 tbsp     Basil, Fresh    –   2 tbsp     Fennel, Ground    –   2 tbsp, whole     Garlic,clove(s), Minced    –   1 Tablespoon(s)     Oregano, Dried    –   1 tsp, leaves     Olive Oil, Extra-virgin    –   2 tbsp     Onion, Chopped    –   1     Broth, Chicken, Canned, Low Sodium    –   4 cup     Chickpeas (garbanzo Beans), Canned, Low Sodium    –   2 cup     Cheese, Parmesan, Low Sodium    –   1/4 cup     Turkey Sausage, Italian, Links    –   5 oz     Water    –   1/2 cup     Tomatoes, Canned, Diced (no Salt Added)    –   1 cup     Lentils, Brown    –   1 cup   Directions Preheat oven or toaster oven to 400F. Lightly grease roasting pan with olive oil. Place turkey sausages on pan and roast about 40 minutes, until skins are slightly hardened and brown. When sausage has cooled slightly, cut into half length-wise and then slice. While sausage roasts, heat olive oil in heavy soup pot and saute onions about 5 minutes until softened and barely starting to color. Add oregano, fennel and garlic and saute 2-3 minutes more. Add diced canned tomatoes with liquid, tomato paste, chicken stock, water, garbanzo beans, and lentils. Simmer 40-60 minutes, until lentils are soft and starting to slightly break apart. Add sliced sausages to soup. Deglaze roasting pan with cup of water, scraping off all browned bits on the bottom of the pan and add to soup. Simmer 30 minutes more. Stir in fresh basil and cook 2-3 minutes more. Serve hot with freshly grated Parmesan cheese if desired.

Looking fresh even without 8 hours of sleep

We all strive to get 8 hours of sleep to feel rested and to look our best, but we don’t live in a perfect world.  Here are some tips to help you look your best even without a full night’s sleep. 

1. Use concealer to hide those dark circles.  Pat the yellow based concealer under your eyes.

2.  Brighten with an Motives eye base on your lids

3.  Add some shimmer in a neutral tone – Motives Vintage Glam works well

4.  Apply mascara to both upper and lower lids

5.  Finish with a matte blush in a light pink color – Motives Babydoll is my favorite

Feeding Our Future

I overheard a mother say, “I put a vegetable on his plate and I did my job.  He can choose if he wants to eat it.”  To give you background on this mom, she is referring to her 2 year old son.  Our job as parents isn’t just to simply put healthy food on our children’s plates, but to encourage them to eat them and learn about living a healthy lifestyle (including vegetables).  Now all 2 year olds are not going to like every vegetable, but it is our responsibility to be creative and encourage them to try different foods.

This exchange made me think about how we are feeding our future.  We feed our children in many ways, not just the literal way of giving them food.  Of course we do feed them and provide sustinance, but there is much more to feeding our future.  Everyone has heard the saying that children are little sponges; they soak up many things around them.  They listen to the words that we say and how we say them.  They watch us and learn from our actions.  To create a better tomorrow, we need to provide exemplary models for our children to follow in all apects of life. 

I recently read an article about body image and children.  A little girl at age 7 began thinking of herself in negative terms because her mother always used disparaging remarks about her own body.  The mom would say, “look how cute you are dear, but mommy is fat and ugly.”  The little girl changed her view of her mother from this beautiful person to thoughts of being ugly based on the words that her mom used and internalized that and as she matured she saw herself the same way that her mother labled herself.  Our words are powerful and we have to ask ourselves if we are feeding our children’s minds and attitudes the right messages.  

We all live very busy lives.  Do you stop and explain to your children what you are doing and where you are going?  Do they know when you are volunteering to help someone else or when you are improving your skills through additional learning or continuing education?  Do they know what you do and why you do it to help them start to think about their future and what they want to do?  Do you help your kids set goals and help them achieve them?  Do you have family goals or a family dream board?  All of these things are important to feed our children’s future. 

Let’s set a positive example for our children and feed our future. 

What is more valuable: time or money?

Last week I attended a continuing education seminar.  When I signed up for the seminar, I had the option to volunteer to be the site coordinator in exchange for a 75% discount on my registration fee.  As a frugal person, I took the opportunity and volunteered.  The only problem was that the seminar was one hour away and I was scheduled to be there at 6 am to set everything up for the seminar.  So, after everything was ready (6:30am and noone would be arriving until 7:30), I thought to myself, what is more valuable: time or money? 

Was it worth the $150 savings to get up at 4am to be able to leave my house by 5am?  At first thought, it was definitely worth it, but I now debate that in my head. 

On one hand, we only have 24 hours in a day, so every minute is precious, especially because we never know how many minutes we may have left.  There isn’t an invention or method to getting time back or making more time, everyone has the same 24 hours.  But, the day that I signed up for the seminar, I valued my money more than my time since the price was right.  The sacrifice of my time had a cascading effect since I had to go to bed early the night before (or tried to) and then I was exhausted from getting up at 4am.

I have heard people say, “you can always make more money.”  I know this to be true.  There are many opportunities out there for people to develop a variety of income streams to make more money, so as a woman with 3 income streams, I know I should value my time more than money, but how do you pass up a good deal, even if it is a sacrifice of time? 

 

Leverage

Definition of leverage is to gain an advantage from the use of a tool.  We all use and need leverage at different times in our lives.  Sometimes it is to get a task done faster and you leverage other people’s time such as asking friends to help you move. We all leverage our money when we invest in a 401K or an IRA.

One famous family from the television show 19 Kids and Counting uses leverage every day in order for their family routines to run smoothly.  As a parent of 3 children, I know how difficult it is to get all of the things done to meet everyone’s needs.  The Duggar family has figured out the power of leverage through their “buddy system.”  When a baby is born, one of the older children becomes their “buddy” and they are in charge of taking care of that child.  Through this system, the Duggar parents are able to leverage the time and energy of their older children to help with the needs of the younger children.

Those that truly understand the power of leverage know that they can earn more money and have more time freedom when they take advantage of leverage.  Would you rather get paid 100% of the work that you do or get paid 10% on the work of 10 people?  If you could work 10 hours per week, but also get paid for the work of 5 other people who are working 10 hours per week, you would be getting paid on 60 hours of work.  Now that is leverage.

How do you leverage your time and/or money?

What do you do with all of those business cards?

As a business owner, it is important for me to network to build my relationships, make new contacts and continue to grow both personally and professionally.  A recent interaction has me questioning what people do with all of the business cards that they collect.

This year one of my goals was to follow-up with people that I meet at networking events because a stack of business cards on my desk isn’t doing me any good.  If I meet someone once and collected a card, that doesn’t mean that I will automatically refer them business and I certainly don’t expect them to refer me business after an exchange of a card.

I recently set up a 1:1 meeting with a woman that I met at a networking event.  The day of the meeting, she cancelled due to being too busy with her workload.  So, I followed-up a few days later to reschedule.  She asked, “what do you want to talk about?” to which I replied, “I would like to see your shop, learn more about your services and share information about my business so that we can network and refer each other business.”  She then said that she will call me when she has time.  Translation – I don’t think that I will ever hear from her again. 

So, again, I ask, “what do other business people do with all of those business cards?”

What People Earn

My favorite edition of the Parade magazine was in this week’s paper- What People Earn.  I am always amazed at the ridiculous salaries of some and how little others make.  In a world where attitude and confidence play a key role in your success and how people perceive you, you never know how successful someone’s business is or what their salary may be.  As a business owner, networking is a key component to my business.  As I meet new people, I am always curious how much they make or how successful their business is.  The Parade gives a glimpse into the lives of some and what they make.

Whether you make $1 million per year or $10,000 per year,  what matters most is that you love what you do.  Tina showed her love for her job when she said, “I love watching the kids grow and learn”.  

Have you chosen a job, career or business that you love?  If so, it will show in all that you do.  

The Power of Business Partners

Do you have someone that pushes you?  Do you have someone that supports you when you need help with your business?  So happy that I do.  This afternoon we are all bouncing ideas off of each other and learning new tips for social media.  Now all of us have branded ourselves across our social media networks.  Love this stuff!  So glad that I am involved in a business that helps others reach their success. 

Hello world!

I am a mother of 3 small children ages 5, 3 and 18 months.  Being a mom is a fantastic job that allows me to watch my children discover new things and develop into their own person.  With being a mom you need to make lots of decisions and part of that is how you are going to support your family, make great choices and pay for all of the things that you need.  I have always been frugal and I am a seasoned coupon shopper.

Through my business, The Hamilton Shop, I help others learn ways to save money and find the best deals on the internet.  My website www.thehamiltonshop.com provides comparison shopping, coupon codes, hot deals, e-gifts, gift registries, and cashback too!  Whether you are looking for a book to read, a new shirt, a birthday gift, a new toy or a big screen TV, you can find it at The Hamilton Shop.  I am here as your personal shop consultant to make your shopping experience positive.  I show others how to use the site and I do the searches for you, whichever you prefer.

Future posts will focus on different types of deals or coupons from a variety of retailers.  Here are a couple of ideas for back to school shopping – check out restockit.com and you will get 5% cashback http://www.shop.com/thehamiltonshop/sR-i36-d0-a%5Fz%5Findex+260.xhtml and another great store is Discount School supply where you will get 7% cashback http://www.shop.com/thehamiltonshop/nbts/v195467-c+260.xhtml?vid=195467

Thanks and Happy Shopping!