Sandbox Cake and Beating The Winter Chill – HBHW Newsletter

February 3rd  2010

Editorial

I hope you had a great week. I had a very busy one. I spent Thursday – Monday at a conference in Atlanta. One of the highlights for me was to meet Scott from the Fatloss Quickie workout program in person. He is such a caring and warm person and has made it his mission to fight Obesity.

I did really well with the workout program for about a week, but sadly didn’t do a single one at the conference or since, but I’m determined to get back on that horse today. I decided to share my weightloss and fitness journey on the Healthy Hillbilly Housewife website and would love to have you join me. Look for it at  Healthy.HillbillyHousewife.com later today.

Now that things are slowly going back to normal, I’ll be working hard on finishing a recipe collection for the crockpot cooking made simple guide and I will let you know as soon as that is available.

Don’t miss this week’s inspirational story. It’s near and dear to my heart, because it is something I struggle with all the time. It’s so easy to get discouraged about anything you set out to do when you hear doubt from those around you. And as hard as it is to ignore, sometimes we just have to close our ears and go for it. One thing that helps me is to ask myself  “What’s the worst that could happen?” Since it is usually something silly like the fact that I may not lose as much weight as I’d like to or that someone tells me no they can’t do what I’d asked them to, it gets me over my doubts rather quickly.

Make an effort this week to become “deaf” to all those naysayers around you and just go for your goals.

That’s it for this week. As always, I welcome your comments and suggestions. Feel free to email me at susanne@hillbillyhousewife.com

Warm Regards,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife

Inspirational Quote

Life is not about surviving the strom, it’s about learning to dance in the rain.

News From The HBHW Club

This section is all about the HBHW Club. Each week I’m going to share some tidbits of what’s going on at the HBHW Club with you. I hope you enjoy these extra tips, recipes and ideas and of course would love to have you join the club.

As a HBHW newsletter subscriber, you can join for only $10 per month here: http://www.hillbillyhousewifeclub.com/special.html And to make it even easier, I’ll let you try it out for just a dollar for the first 7 days.

What has been going on at the HBHW Club? We’ve been talking a lot about our financial goals for 2010 and about losing weight. In fact we just added a whole new section all about weightloss and exercise to the Hillbilly Housewife Club Forum. It’s a great place to post your goals, check in to see how other members with similar goals are doing and to support each other. It’s quickly becoming my favorite section. I’m sure you have a lot to contribute to the conversation. Ready to join us? Try The HBHW Club for only $1. We’d love to have you! http://www.hillbillyhousewifeclub.com/special.html

There’s a new monthly resource report waiting for you in the HBHW Club area as well. It’s all about making and keeping resolutions in 2010. I did the lot of research and am sharing quite a few tips that have helped me over the years. The tips and strategies will apply to all common “New Year’s Resolution” type goals including losing weight, getting out of debt, stopping smoking, getting more sleep, exercising more, and finding some “Me” time.

Join The Hillbilly Housewife Club for Just a Dollar

Here’s one of the recipes that were submitted this past week.

Sandbox Cake

This cake recipe is a great one to make with kids.  All the ingredients are mixed in the cake pan, the “sandbox”, then the kids get to dig holes in the dry ingredients and fill them with the wet ingredients.  This is one case where you can tell your kids that it’s alright to play with their food!

* 3 cups flour
* 2 cups sugar
* 2 tsp. baking soda
* 1 tsp. salt
* 6 Tblsp. cocoa powder

* 3/4 cup oil
* 2 Tblsp. white vinegar
* 2 tsp. vanilla extract

* 2 cups cold water

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In cake baking pan, mix together the first 5 ingredients.

Take your hands or a spoon and form 3 craters (or holes)  in the dry cake ingredients in pan, evenly spacing the craters.  Pour the oil in one crater, the vinegar in the second, and the vanilla in the third crater.  Slowly pour the cold water all over the top.

Take a fork and gently stir ingredients in cake pan until smooth.  Put the cake into your preheated oven and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 45 minutes or until firm in the middle. Take out of oven and let cool.

Use any frosting you wish or serve unfrosted with a scoop of ice cream.

And here are a few more recipes that have recently been added to the member area.

• Pork Chop Dinner Casserole
• Quick Scalloped Potatoes
• Chicken Spaghetti Bake
• Mexican Monterey Jack Bake

All in all, we have over 290 new recipes in the member area already.

My favorite part of the HBHW Club is the Member Forum. Here are just a few of the most recent posts.

The Latest Member Forum Posts

• Allo!…
• Everything in moderation…
• Anyone Interested in a Weightloss / Exercise Section?…
• What’s Your Financial Goal For 2010?…
• New Year’s Resolutions…
• January Resource – Making and Keeping Your Resolutions…
• out of town…
• Vegetable Smoothies…
• It’s A Wrap…
• Slacking!…

Why don’t you join us and join in the conversation. I’d love to chat in the member area.

http://www.hillbillyhousewifeclub.com/special.html

Featured Article

It’s still very cold down here in the south. In fact, Monday was our first Snow Day at school for the year. I tend to get a bad case of the winter blues when it stays cold and gray for too long and I’m ready for spring. Thankfully, there are a few winter comfort dishes that always make me feel better – in addition to warming me right back up after an afternoon of playing in the snow and ice. I’ll share them and invite you to share your own in the article below.

Beat the Winter Chill with some Good Home Cooking.

Healthy Hillbilly Housewife

Here’s what’s new on the healthy hillbilly housewife section. You can also go straight to http://www.healthy.hillbillyhousewife.com

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Frugal Tips

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Do you have a tip to share? Fill out the submit a frugal tip form and I’ll be glad to add it to the site and share your tip in an upcoming edition of the newsletter.

Recipes

Here are some of the most recent recipes that have been added to the HBHW site. Enjoy!

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Do you have a recipe you would like to share? Click here to send it to me and I’ll be happy to add it to the website.

I’m Looking For:

This section is going to be all about you. If you are looking for a particular recipe or a tip on how to do something, submit it here and I will post it in an upcoming newsletter. I’ll give you my input and other readers of the newsletter will have the opportunity to share their recipes and tips as well. So take a moment to post your questions and of course if you have a tip or idea for any question posted in this section feel free to leave a comment under the appropriate post.

I’m Looking For Requests
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I’m Looking For Responses
Below you will find some of the recent responses to the “I’m Looking For” Requests. You may also want to go directly to this section and browse through all the recent submissions and replies. To do so, click on “I’m Looking for” here, and start looking through them.
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Inspirational Story

THE FROGS AND THE TOWER

Author Unknown

There once was a bunch of tiny frogs…

… who arranged a running competition. The goal was to reach the top of a very high tower. A big crowd had gathered around the tower to see the race and cheer on the contestants…

The race began…

Honestly, no-one in crowd really believed that the tiny frogs would reach the top of the tower. You heard statements such as:

“Oh, WAY too difficult!!”

“They will NEVER make it to the top”.

“Not a chance that they will succeed. The tower is too high!”

The tiny frogs began collapsing. One by one…

… Except for those who in a fresh tempo were climbing higher and higher…

The crowd continued to yell

“It is too difficult!!! No one will make it!”

More tiny frogs got tired and gave up…

…But ONE continued higher and higher and higher…

This one wouldn’t give up!

At the end, everyone else had given up climbing the tower. Except for the one tiny frog who, after a big effort, was the only one who reached the top!

THEN all of the other tiny frogs naturally wanted to know how this one frog managed to do it?

A contestant asked the tiny frog how the one who succeeded had found the strength to reach the goal?

It turned out…

That the winner was deaf.

Final Thought

That’s it for this edition of the Hillbilly Housewife Newsletter. I hope you’ve had as much fun reading it as I had creating it for you. I also hope that you have found the information helpful and useful. And by all means feel free to forward the newsletter to family and friends or even better, encourage them to subscribe to it.

Do you have a question, a tip, a recipe or a story you’d like to share with us? Email it to me and I’ll include it in a future issue. Can’t wait to see what you have to say.

Warm Wishes,

Susanne – The Hillbilly Housewife