My girlfriend’s baby shower was tonight and she asked that I bring a dip of some sort. Was paging through a magazine I read, and found this recipe. Ended up being a hit with the ladies, so I figured I’d share with you guys too!
Makes 16 servings.
Ingredients:

1 pkg. (10 oz) sharp cheddar cheese, like Kraft, shredded.
1 pkg. (8 oz) Neufchatel cheese, softened.
1/2 cup mayonnaise
3/4 tsp. Tabasco sauce
1 clove of garlic, peeled.
1/2 cup finely chopped roasted peppers

In bowl of food processor, puree cheddar cheese, neufchatel cheese, mayonnaise, tabasco and garlic for 1 minute. Stir in chopped roasted red peppers. Transfer to a serving bowl, Serve cheese spread with assorted veggies, like sugar snap peas, yellow squash and carrots. Can also garnish with some red pepper curls if you’d like (I did, and it looked great!)

If any of you make this, let me know how ya liked it!

So says Lisa Strohschein, Ph.D. Her research overturned previous beliefs that fractured homes don’t (or can’t) function as healthy havens for kids. In fact, divorced parents scored equally as well in the areas of the study- nurturing, consistency and discipline- as those who were married.

I believe many of you parents out there have experienced this. You have a daughter (or more than one) and you have a son. At some point, he starts idolizing his sister or his mother and acts like them to some degree. I was speaking with my cousin around Easter time and he was complaining about his little boy acting like a girl, so I watched him during our time together.

He loved dancing – not the kind of moves that we see male dancers make. He wanted to float around and prance as if he were a ballerina. He’d ask for dresses and ribbons and even went as far as to say “I am a princess!”

Understandably, my cousin was alarmed by all of this. Should he be, though? As I watched my nephew more, I noticed that behind his little princess act, the young boy was still there. Sure, he’d dance around but he couldn’t resist trying to frighten the girls with scary moves. When they would all play with Barbies, he’s be gentle with them, then all of a sudden his inner boy would come out and a head would pop off of poor Barbie, inciting cries from his siters.

I told my cousin this – some boys do go through this stage, especially if the role model in their life is a woman (or girl). There was a kid in our neighborhood who acted exactly like this when he was 5 or 6. Now? He’s the toughest guy on the block.

I don’t think you should discourage boys when they start acting like this, as it could potentially be a good thing. Will help to keep them in touch with their feminine side, but of course, you’d have to have talks that will help him distinguish gender. What do you guys think?

Funny little story for you ladies.. Yesterday my husband and I had gone with the rest of the family to visit my grandparents. At one point, my son came up to me on the back porch and asked if he could have a cookie. I noticed a plate of cookies on a small table by the door. “Sure,” I said, “But only one, we’re having dinner pretty soon.”. As soon as he took a bite, he spit the cookie on the floor and whined, “Yuckyyyyy!!”. Thinking he was just being a butt, I walked over and tried one myself.. Ugh! It was awful! I tucked it in my pocket and said nothing for fear of embarassing Grandma. Later, after finishing dinner, someone asked, “What’s for desert?” “Cookies,” I said. “They’re on the back porch. I had one before dinner.” My Grandma looked at me surprised.. “Oh no sweetie!” she said. “Those aren’t for you! I made those for the puppies out of table scraps!”
Needless to say.. I got pretty red in the face. Eek!

After writing the walking tips earlier today, I came came across a study from Cornell University that really inspired me to try it! Go ahead, buy your favorite cookies, then simply wrap them up in individual-sized portions, rather than eating them from their large-sized original packaging. Cornell Univerity students conducted a study and found that we eat fewer treats when we have to unwrap them one by one! Amazingly, volunteers who received 24 individually-wrapped cookies, took an average of 24 days to eat them all, while those given 24 unwrapped cookies, polished them off in just six days!
Now I don’t know if you ladies are like me.. But I’m a sucker for ice cream! After reading the results of this study.. I thought to myself, “Hmm.. If this works with cookies, I bet it could help me with my ice cream obsession!”. My solution? Taking that great big half-gallon of ice cream, and dishing into single-serving portions in Dixie cups! And what do you know.. I truly felt more satisfied eating one serving out of the small cups than I would if I were to eat out of the container! Also, I found it to be more satisfying to use a small spoon rather than a big spoon.