I’ve been on a seafood kick for a few weeks now in my kitchen. Seafood is highly nutritious and my kids love it, so why not?

Here is a recipe I cooked up last night that went over very well and required only one pot to wash! It is loosely based on a recipe from one of my favorite cookbooks ever, Glorious One Pot Meals by Elizabeth Yarnell.

In order to make it, you will need a large Dutch oven.

Shrimp Masala With Coconut Rice

First, coat the inside of your Dutch oven with butter, olive oil or coconut oil to prevent sticking.

Then add:

• 1 cup rice (for this recipe, white Basmati rice is best, brown rice may not be able to cook in time – you’ll risk overcooking the shrimp)
• 1/4 cup chopped onions
• 1 lb. shrimp (fresh or frozen, doesn’t matter)

In a bowl, combine:

• 1/2 C. yogurt (I used vanilla and it tasted great)
• 14 oz. can coconut milk
• 1/2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. garam masala (a spice mixture commonly used in Indian dishes)

Pour half of this over the rice and shrimp and smooth with a spoon.

Then top with:

• half a sweet pepper (red or yellow), chopped
• 1-2 cups green beans
• 14 oz. can diced tomatoes or 3 fresh tomatoes

Then pour the rest of the yogurt mixture over the veggies. Place the lid on the Dutch oven and cook at 450 for 45 minutes.

Serve!

Carrie Lauth is a busy mom who appreciates healthy meals that can be prepared quickly. Read her full review of Glorious One Pot Meals here.

Do you have someone in your life who regularly leaves you feeling angry, frustrated, guilty, and just plain manipulated?

Maybe it’s your ex husband, your mother in law (your mother!), your sibling, your boss. It could be anyone.

Conversation with a manipulator feels like having the rug pulled out from under you.

If you’re the type of person who feels guilty a lot, tries to be a people pleaser, has issues saying no or weak personal boundaries, you’re probably going to be a target of a manipulator sooner or later.

If you are, all is not lost. It takes two to play the manipulation game: a controller and a victim. If the relationship is basically good and worth saving, you can stop being the victim and the manipulator will either change or pick a new victim.

Here are some ways to deal with a manipulative person.

• Learn Nondefensive Communication

If you have said No to a request, there is no reason for you to defend yourself or your decision to the manipulator. Of course, you can expect offensive tactics from the manipulator. Things such as: name calling, threats (including threats to self), dire predictions, judgment, etc. Don’t fall into the trap.

Learn statements such as: “That’s your choice, but I’ve made my decision“, and “That could be“, and “You’re entitled to your opinion“.

• Stall

When a manipulator is trying to back you into a corner and force you to make a decision, sometimes the best thing to do is nothing at all. Stall for time.

Tell them: “Let’s discuss this later, I need some time to think about your request.” Even if you have to step away from the phone or excuse yourself to the restroom, get away so you can breathe and prepare a response.

If someone is pushing your buttons on a regular basis and you seem stuck, you might want to talk to a therapist about it. People who are adept at manipulation have usually been doing so for many years, perhaps an entire lifetime and are far more skilled at the game than you are at deflecting it. They may also be resorting to fear or intimidation to get their way. Talking to someone you trust about the problem can help you see what buttons of yours are being pushed and how to best deal with it.

Hmm, how ‘s that working for you?

If you’re like I was, you may be spending too much time in the gym for too little result. I easily worked out for one or two hours, three or four times a week. I felt great, but I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. My body just wasn’t toning up the way I wanted it to.

The New Rules

Then I came across this book: The New Rules of Lifting for Women: Lift Like a Man, Look Like a Goddess. It made me laugh out loud with its descriptions of how many women exercise: like Barbie dolls. It reminded me of that Saturday Night Live skit with Drew Barrymore. Anyone up for a little “Body Fuzion”?

Women tend to focus too much on aerobics and cardio and spend way too much time in the gym, when we would get faster results if we exercised like guys. Guys don’t do endless bicep curls holding a 3 pound Barbie dumbbell. They don’t run for an hour on the elliptical thinking it’s the ticket to weight loss either.

They work on building muscle and the rest takes care of itself. And we wonder why they can eat whatever they want!

In our defense, we’ve been sold a bill of goods. We’re afraid that we’ll “bulk up” if we lift heavy weights (so not true – most guys have to work very hard and eat a special diet to get bulky, much less women that don’t have the testosterone to support it). We have bought into the marketing tactics of exercise and fitness books and magazines that tell us we can “tone, tighten, lengthen and reshape” our muscles.

Honey, there ain’t no such thing. You can only do one thing to a muscle (other than nothing!) and that is to STRENGTHEN it.

The good news is, when you strengthen a muscle, it gets really hungry and eats the fat around it. That means you look cuter in your jeans. (That’s what we all really want, right?!) It also means you can eat really normal people food and not gain weight. Dieting is for actresses and models, not healthy women.

I told the trainer at my gym that I wanted to start working out like a guy. The man got a twinkle in his eyes, I swear it. He designed a 30 minute workout for me – each exercise targets multiple muscles in groups, nothing isolates – using heavier dumb bells and barbells.

I LOVE it. In 30 minutes 3 times a week, I’m seeing major results after less than a month of this approach. I have gained a couple of pounds, but my skirts are looser in the waist and my butt is a couple of inches higher.

Plus, it’s pretty cool to say I can do squats with an 80 pound barbell on my shoulders (even if those last couple of reps feel a bit like childbirth!).

Carrie has more to say about exercise and healthy living at her blog and podcast, Natural Moms Talk Radio.

I’m all about the reusable bags (when I remember to grab them from the back of my van). It’s a simple way to reduce the amount of trash I create on a weekly basis. Not to mention, the reusable bags are way stronger than the cheap disposable plastic ones and fit far more groceries without breaking. I can usually fit my week’s purchases into just 4.

But am I the only one who encounters resistance from the very people who should be supportive of reusable grocery bags?

It leaves me scratching my head.

I’ve encountered a variety of responses when I present my reusable bags to the grocery bagger at checkout time.

Attitude

Some of the baggers will flash me a look of disdain when I hand them the bags and when I say, “I have my own bags.” It’s as if I’m asking them to do something extra. Or something. Now I realize that the job of grocery bagger is probably not anyone’s favorite way of earning money, but does the bag the food goes into make their job any harder? Why the ‘tude?

Ignorance

Sometimes I hand the bagger my reusable bags and they place the groceries in disposable plastic bags, as usual, and THEN place those inside the reusable bags. Huh?

Consternation

Some baggers are totally clueless as to what to do next when I hand them my bags. They look at me as if to say, “What am I supposed to do with these?” Um, is it that hard to figure out?

I don’t get it. Anyone else experience this phenomenon?

Carrie is a homeschooling, single mom of 4 who writes about eco-friendly living and other aspects of natural parenting at http://www.NaturalMomsTalkRadio.com/blog

Bet you didn’t know that yesterday, March 12, was National Baked Scallops Day.

Did you do anything special to commemorate?

I admit when I found out that bit of trivia, I instantly got a craving. Today I came home from the grocery shopping with a big bag of scallops. Only, I’ve never cooked them in my life!

Trusty Google to the rescue. I’m not into deep frying (too messy), and the baked scallops recipes call for bread crumbs which is out (a couple of the family members have wheat allergy) so I’ll probably settle on a simple sauteed scallops dish with butter, herbs and a squeeze of lemon.

Scallops are very nutritious, like all seafood. They’re a great source of B12, Omega 3 fatty acids, magnesium and potassium.

How do you prepare your scallops?

I just got out of traffic court. For the first time in over 16 years (yep, I was 17 the last time it happened), I got a speeding ticket.

I am normally a very conscientious driver. Driving with 4 kids in the car, I have no interest in getting anywhere in a hurry. The thought of being in an accident with babies on board is terrifying.

But this particular day, I was on my way to a business luncheon and was alone. Of course! I was in a great mood, had some of my favorite music blasting in the stereo (another thing you can’t do with the kids) and paying NO attention to my speed. I wasn’t even running late!

Back to present. Did you know that (at least where I live) traffic fines have doubled? I heard the people in the courtroom around me being cited numbers like $250, $350, $450 for their speeding tickets. I thought I would faint. I decided to plead not guilty so I could at least plead my case and hope that my excellent, clean driving record would stand for something.

Then the clerk announced another option. One that would reduce my $350 liability down to less than half that amount, and give me a little time to play and come up with the money – with no ticket on my record.

Guess who is going to defensive driving school!

The best news is that the defensive driving class only takes 4-6 hours of my time (and can even be completed online) but will lower my car insurance premiums. So I might end up saving money by the time a year goes by.

This is one momma who will be using cruise control on the highway from now on!

After posting about one of my recent misadventures in frugality, I remembered some of the other frugal tips that just don’t seem to work for me. Am I alone?

Washing in Cold Water

My clothes just don’t seem to get clean with cold water. Nothing says “ew” like pulling a pair of “clean” undies out of your drawer and they’re obviously still dirty. Talk about crunchy! Don’t even try it with the kid’s clothing. And part of the problem is that the detergent doesn’t dissolve fully. Maybe this won’t be a problem now that I’m using up my supply of 25 POUNDS of homemade liquid laundry detergent!

Latte Factor

You always hear financial experts talk about the “latte factor”. While I get their point – that paying attention to the small daily purchases can add up to big savings – the problem is, my deprivation factor gets triggered. Being able to spend $1.67 on a nice hot coffee that I can’t brew at home (no coffee maker on the planet gets coffee as hot as Starbucks!) makes me feel like a million bucks.

The other day I went to the thrift store on half price day. I bought a gorgeous pair of grey Old Navy slacks, a couple of really cute summer tops, and a brand new purse for about $10. With savings like that, I can squeeze in the coffee.

What about you? Any frugal tricks that don’t work for your life?

I’ve made my own homemade laundry detergent before. A simple mixture of grated soap, washing soda, and borax – nothing too complicated.

But I recently came across a liquid version of this mixture that made a whopping 10 gallons of laundry soap, for just a few bucks.

As a single mom who survives on one income, I try to save money any way I can. Unlike some frugal habits (dryer lint costumes anyone?), spending a few minutes cooking up laundry soap could be a substantial savings for the cost in time. Plus, I could involve the kids and make it into a quasi-science experiment (kids, why does the mixture gel when it sits overnight? anyone?).

Except.

I read the instructions on the internet about half a dozen times before I got started. I wanted to make sure I had all of the ingredients as well as paraphernalia I needed.

And yet somehow, I still managed to misread the recipe. Instead of using only a half cup of Borax and a cup of Washing Soda, I dumped the ENTIRE box of each into the melted soap.

Sigh.

This meant that I then had to get more soap to grate to even out the percentages. And I was going to need more buckets! I had already filled two 5 gallon Quik-Rete buckets (thanks, Dad!) half full of the mixture.

After a mad dash to procure more buckets (Dad again!), I went home to grate more soap and dilute the soda/borax mixture. Everything went ok until one of the buckets struck a massive leak and hot soap started pouring out all over my kitchen floor. And have you ever tried lifting a 5 gallon bucket full of liquid? (That’s 40 pounds!) Even with the weight lifting I do, it was a challenge.

So, fast forward to the next day.

I have in my kitchen TWENTY-FIVE gallons of laundry soap.

At half a cup per load, I will not run out until my youngest child is ready to leave the nest. I’m out about $8 for the supplies. Anyone need laundry detergent? Come on over!

I put one of the buckets in my car (of course, they have no lids!) to take as a gift to my parents. One hard stop, and the bucket tips, spilling droplets of gelled, lemony liquid all over my rug. Guess that saves me a step next time I go to shampoo them! At least the van smells nice now.

The good news is, the soap works great!

Carrie is a single, work at home, homeschooling mom who blogs about frugality and other aspects of natural parenting inbetween money saving projects.

If you’re like me, you use every bit of whatever’s left over in your fridge and freezer and pantry before heading out to the grocery store to procure more foodstuffs.

Tonight I made up an easy one pot skillet dinner that did just that and went over great with the kids. Here it is:

In a large skillet with lid, I put:

• 1/4 pound ground beef (could use turkey)

I browned it, then added:

• one cup rice
• enough chicken broth to cover (use more broth for brown rice)
• sea salt and pepper

This I cooked for about 20 minutes on low, with the lid on, until the rice was done. Then I added:

• half a bag frozen mixed veggies
• 3 T butter

I cooked this until the veggies were done. Then I sprinkled it with:

• shredded cheddar cheese

The residual heat melted the cheese nicely.  It was delicious and I used up that last bit of cheese, that last bit of the bag of veggies, and that last bit of chicken broth.

No, I’m not joking.

1980′s hair aside, that Jim-Bob Duggar is one hot man. Have you ever watched any of the shows about his family? Besides being physically attractive and slim, he has a lot of awesome qualities going for him. Only one of which is potency.

Jim-Bob is a great husband

Have you ever heard him talk about his wife or tell the story of how they met? He says she is the most beautiful woman in the world. I’ve heard him say that watching Michelle mother his kids brings tears to his eyes. A man in touch with his emotions who treats his wife with love and respect?

That’s hot.

Jim-Bob is a great Dad

The man has 18 kids so far, yet doesn’t raise his voice in anger. They have a habit in the family of using soft words and never disciplining in anger. He’s also managed to keep his wife in the home full time and takes his job as spiritual leader very seriously. Being a great dad?

That’s hot.

Jim-Bob is great with money

The man feeds, clothes and shelters 20 people on one income yet has no debt. He’s always available for field trips, family vacations, trips to the Doctor with his ever-pregnant wife. He’s a serial entrepreneur. Being a great provider?

That’s hot.

Jim-Bob is handy

There is something just plain sexy about a man who built a house for his family from the ground up, with his own hands, with no previous experience. Oh and having the patience to have his two teenaged sons AND everyone over the age of 8 wielding a power tool. How many men can do that? He knows how to fix the family vehicles too.

A man who is handy around the house?

That’s hot

I can’t be the only one (besides Michelle of course!) who thinks so.