I know I’ve talked on this blog about how I hate to clean. So anything that makes my life easier I’m all about it even if it costs $40. I saw the infomercial on the Swivel Sweeper G2 and must say that I was impressed. It’s battery powered so I don’t have worry about plugging anything in which is awesome. Also, is super light and compact so doing a quick cleaning of my stairs would be snap. I have all sorts of surfaces that need cleaning. I’ve got carpet, hardwood and tile. I’m also a dog owner and so that makes my life that much more difficult when it comes to cleaning the house. I still believe in vacuuming once a week to get a real deep cleaning but it would be nice to have a little tool for quick maintenance cleaning.

I love how the Swivel Sweeper head not only swivels 360 degrees but also how the handle bar bends so you don’t have to bend over to get under tables, chairs, beds and the like. I watched a video online because I was interested to see how noise these things are. I was presently surprised that the swivel sweeper did not make too much noise.

From what I hear the main problem with these mini vacuums is that the battery. Most people report that they do not last the full 45 min like they are supposed to. For me this is not really an issue because I don’t plan on using the Swivel Sweeper G2 more than a couple min. Infact, anyone planning on using this device for more then ten minutes is just plain crazy. If, it takes you that long to vacuum something up with the swivel sweeper you should just use a regular vacuum.

So, I think I’m going to break down and get one of these bad boys. Right now they have a special on them if you buy one then you can get a second one free. I don’t know why I would really need two swivel sweepers…I guess I could give one to my sister for a Christmas gift. Perfect!
I’ll post again on this and let everyone one know how my experience was with the Swivel Sweeper G2.

Why Get a Bread Machine for Gluten Free Bread?

Bread Makers Give You Fresh Gluten-Free Bread – We love having fresh bread. It’s not something you want to do every day, certainly, but having a bread machine takes the drudgery out of what would probably be a weekly chore. Not only that, but many bread makers have timers so that you can set them to have the bread finish when you wake up in the morning. Some bread makers even have a “keep warm” function so if you keep hitting your snooze button, the breadmaker will still have fresh gluten-free bread waiting for you when you get out of bed.

More Successful with Baking Bread – Gluten free bread machines take the guesswork out of making bread. When you’re making bread by hand, you have to knead the dough. Unless you have a lot of experience, it’s hard to know when you’ve kneaded the dough enough. The bread machines are made to do just that: knead dough the perfect amount.

Kneading Gluten Free Bread with a Programmable Breadmaker - With gluten-free bread, it’s a good idea to knead the dough very little, so it’s good to get a programmable bread maker so that you can program it to knead the dough less.

A Bread Machine Keeps the Perfect Temperature for Rising your Gluten-Free Bread – Another way that it’s easier to use a bread maker is when you’re letting the bread rise. Although it’s easy for the home bread maker to get their oven to the right temperature for baking, finding the right temperature for making the bread rise can be a pain. Before I got a bread machine, I used to use this warm area on the top of my refrigerator. I have no idea why it was the right temp up there. Maybe it was the exhaust from the fridge? who knows. All I know is that I could never get my oven to the correct temperature. Most ovens aren’t made to go to those low temps. A bread machine is.

You Know what Ingredients You Put in the Bread Maker – You don’t exactly have to be on a special diet or have allergies to appreciate this, but it helps. In cases where you or someone you love is very sensitive to a particular ingredient, we often keep that ingredient out of our kitchens. That way there’s no cross-contamination. One of the really wonderful things about making your own gluten free bread with a bread maker is that you can avoid cross-contamination issues, and also you know exactly what’s going into your bread. That sort of leads us to our next point.

You Can Make Healthy Gluten-Free Breads – Let’s face it, a lot of the gluten-free breads out there are made of mostly refined rice flour and potato starch. When you bake your own bread with a bread machine, you have an amazing number of new choices. You can use quinoa, teff, amaranth, buckwheat, millet, and garbanzo and fava bean flours. Many of these flours are way better for you. The bean flour especially have protein.

Bread Machines are Convenient and Fun to Use – Since you’re not worrying so much about the kneading, the hours spent rising and punching down, and the temperatures of the dough, a large number of the variables of bread-making are taken out. This is especially great when you’re making gluten-free bread, which is harder to make than bread with wheat. You’re left with the fun part. Experiment by adding walnuts or seeds to your favorite gluten-free bread. Once you gain more experience with making bread, you can also change the recipes so that the bread is more dense, or rises more. It’s a good idea to get a programmable bread machine when making bread. Here’s a list of gluten free bread machine.

Bread Machines do More than Just Make Bread – A lot of bread machines have a dough setting, so you can use it to make ready-to-shape Pizza dough, pasta dough, and jam.

I guess that’s it. Of course, I can’t make you go out and get a bread maker tomorrow, but these are some good reasons to.

Are you thinking about remodeling your kitchen? Well, before you get started you need to realize exactly what you want to accomplish. Remodeling a kitchen is no small task and can take a lot of time and money. If you want a major transformation including top-of-the-line appliances and cabinets then you can expect to pay at least 40,000. As for time, allow at least four months for a remodeling job or, more sensibly, six to eight months. It takes about two months for convention breakfront tips, more time for preparation, order giving out, shipping, annihilation, system, moving back into your kitchen and re-organization.

While it’s alluring to get started as soon as possible, it’s not advised. Really take some time to evaluate your needs and what you are trying to accomplish with the remodel. One thing that often gets over looked is storage space. Now day’s closet organizers in kitchens are becoming very popular. Do your research and think by means of your plans because you don’t have the time or money to make mistakes.

Start with the nuts and bolts. Think what the fundamental uses of the kitchen will be then gather ideas for enhancing your development. Put together some sketches prior to hiring construction contractors. Kitchen remodeling is a massive topic and I will be posting more on this later.

I spend a ton of time in the kitchen cooking. It’s my favorite place in the whole house but it gets dirty quickly.  Especially when the kids are helping out ☺ As I was cooking dinner a while back I was watching tv and saw a commercial for a Shark Steam Mop. It looked like the perfect match for cleaning my messes. I had many questions however. Does this steam really work? Is it worth the price? Since it was pretty reasonable I decided to order it. I really liked the idea that I could clean with out having to use chemicals. I went back and forth on either the Bona mop or the Shark Steam mop. I decided to go with the steam mop since I have kids running around, not to mention 3 cats and 2 dogs.

When the Shark steam mop arrived In a box with the dreaded notice that is must be assembled I was bit worried. However, the steam mop was a breeze to put together and in no time the Shark Steam Mop was in action. Well, that’s not entirely true, I did have to charge the batteries of the device first.

So I bet you are wondering how this clever little steam mop works. The handle of the mop slides back and forth as you mop. Each stroke pushes steam out the end of the mop head. I love that the mop is ready to use in less than 30 seconds!  Another thing I love about the Shark Steam mop is that it comes with reusable pads. I could see this being a huge draw back if you constantly had to order pads for the darn thing. Another thing I really like about the Shark Steam Mop is how easy it is. It’s almost as easy as they make it look on tv. I love that I don’t have to wring out a gross dirty mop.

In the end I was very happy with my $70 dollar investment from Amazon.com. If you have hard wood floors or tile for that matter than I would highly suggest you taking a look at this little Shark Steam Mop. I have only had it about a month now, so I will make another post later when it’s had more use.

Since I wrote this post the people of Shark have introduced a new version of their famous steam cleaning product. They call it the Shark Steam Pocket Mop and I will try and review it when I get some time.

Healthy recipes for children should be rich in vitamins and nutrients. The importance of vitamin C for growing children is sadly often overlooked. The good thing about Vitamin C is that it is present in most fruits and vegetables and acts as a anti-oxidant and even an anti-inflammatory.

Children need a daily ingestion of Vitamin C because it is key for maintaining a strong immune system. Children can get their daily dose of Vitamin C by overwhelming a assortment of fruits and vegetables. Fruit is a luscious food with magnificent colors and textures that are attractive to kids. Fruit is one of the easiest health foods to get kids to eat.

Fruits as well as vegetables are vital for the shape and well being of offspring. Raw fruits are great because of their high fiber and water satisfied. Frozen fruits and vegetables are not as good but are still a workable source of Vitamin C.

Some nutritionist recommends a daily intake of up to 200 mg./day of Vitamin C. If a child consumes the optional daily amount of five servings of fresh fruit or vegetables per day, they would be in this ultimate range.

The bad news is that less than 20% of children or adults munch through the recommended daily payment of fruits or vegetables. It’s really pretty simple fix. You need to make extra effort to make sure your kids are getting the right about of vitamin C.

I will be posting some more recipes to help make it easy to get your kids all the vitamin C they need.