Ideas & Tips — Home

How do you throw a pizza party for grown-ups? Make it gourmet! Fun and unique, this is one dinner soiree that your guests will be talking about for weeks. Here are our ingredients for making you the host with the most:  Antipasto: Lifestyle magazine Southern Living recommends starting your meal with a prettily prepared antipasto platter. Your cured meats, bruschetta, veggies and gourmet cheese will look particularly distinguished arranged on a brushed stainless steel serving plates.  Cheese: Be sure to buy mozzarella — the classic pizza cheese. Asiago, Parmesan and/or Romano are also delicious. Ricotta, goat, blue, Brie and Manchego cheese work...

We recently discussed some healthy snacking options, but even the best snack in the world won't turn your day around if you failed to eat a healthy breakfast. After all, it's called the most important meal of the day for a reason! Here are some of our favorite ways to start the morning:  Breakfast burrito: Women's Health Magazine suggests a lighter twist on your favorite breakfast burrito. Use a whole-wheat tortilla and egg whites to add fiber and cut fat. Some black beans and fat-free cheese provide extra protein.  Cereal: Make Cooking Light's three-grain breakfast cereal with walnuts and dried...

If you're like most people, you probably make ambitious goals with the best of intentions but then find yourself struggling to meet them. Here are some tips for setting yourself up for success from sociologist, life coach and O Magazine columnist Martha Beck: Identify your goal: You'd be surprised how many people fail to clearly identify their goal. Rather than saying you plan "to lose weight," commit to losing 10 pounds.  Break it down: Next, Beck suggests breaking down your goal into a single daily task, such as exercising for 30 minutes. Then keep dividing it in half until it...

It's the middle of winter, your garden is frozen, and the herbs you can get in the grocery store just aren't cutting it anymore. What's an herb lover to do? You might think you would need an elaborate indoor lighting setup to grow herbs indoors during the winter, but fortunately, all you really need is a spot that gets a good amount of light and the right knowledge and techniques. Here are some tips to get you started: Start out with a strong plant. If the plant you choose already has brown or wilted leaves before you even bring it home,...

Making your own soap is a great way to be creative and thrifty at the same time. Throughout its long and colorful history, soap making has taken on a life of its own as a sub-culture with numerous enthusiastic participants. Ann Bramson, a handmade soap pioneer and author of Soap, writes in her book, "Where the hard pastel-colored bars sold at the drugstore are anonymous and indifferent, homemade soap has character. It charms…it smells good…feels good…is comforting in ways which manufactured soap can never be." When the process is broken down to its most basic elements, soap is merely the outcome...