For My Daughter: How to wear a printed t-shirt

For My Daughter: How to wear a printed t-shirt by saracarl on Polyvore

Solid Tiered Mesh Skirt / Solid Tiered Mesh Skirt / Lace Sleeve Tee / Johnnie b Skinny Jeans

For My Daughter: Combining Analogous Colors

For My Daughter: How to combine colors, part 2 by saracarl on Polyvore

Chambray Stripe Maxi Dress by Splendid - Girls - Garnet Hill / Splendid Slub Active Pullover / Splendid Rialto Drop Shoulder Tee

For My Daughter: Matching Patterns

For My Daughter: Matching Patterns by saracarl on Polyvore

Knit Bella Skirt Olive Juice / Striped Henley / Johnnie b Phoebe Printed Dress

For My Daughter: Neutrals go with Everything

For My Daughter: Neutrals go with Everything by saracarl featuring capri pants

Capri pants / Denim Tutu Skirt / Denim Tutu Skirt / School Uniform Short Sleeve Woven Shirt / Girls Ponte-Knit Super Skinny Pants / Old Navy Girls Ruffle Tiered Skorts - Black jack / Faux Fur Vest (Champagne) / Essential Pocket Tee Olive Juice / Wool Kilt / School Uniform Knit Skirt

For My Daughter: How to combine colors

For My Daughter: How to combine colors by saracarl on Polyvore

Gap Diane Von Furstenberg &Hearts; Gapkids Drawstring Shorts / Tucker + Tate 'Cameron' Skirt (Little Girls & Big Girls) / Soprano Stud Shoulder Sweater (Big Girls) / J.Crew Girls' everyday capri leggings / Terrific Tee | Tea Collection / Olive Juice / Sequin tank | Gap / Solid rib tank | Gap

9 Ways to Simplify your PTA

I've just finished a year as a local elementary PTA president, and here are my thoughts on simplifying the work a PTA does.

1)  Get out of the concessions business -- use food trucks instead.
Concessions are low-profit, high risk and take a lot of volunteers to run.  Instead, hire a food truck to come and feed your folk -- the food may be better, and it's a lot more fun.  Some vendors will even give you a small cut of their revenue from your event.

2)  Move your volunteer sign ups online.  Use SignUpGenius or VolunteerSpot.  You no longer have to nag the same people to get volunteers.  Your volunteer base will be wider.  Added bonus:  after a year, you'll have a record of how many volunteers you used last time!

3)  Hold Spirit Nights.  Spirit nights are events where your community shows up at a restaurant or entertainment venue to have fun together, and your PTA gets a cut of the money they spend.  Our most successful spirit nights were roller skating -- fun for the whole family, healthy, low cost.  All you have to do schedule the event and promote.  (Some require teacher participation -- which is more work.)

4)  Limit your spirit gear.  "Spirit gear" -- t-shirts, coozies, sweatshirts, key rings, bags etc with your school's name on them.  Inventory management is not simple, nor is it fun.  Simplify this job by limiting your gear to a single shape & color of t-shirt.  It's enough.

5)  Limit your fundraisers.  Pick the one that is the most profitable and/or "honest" and put a lot of effort behind it.  Fundraisers are also a ton of work -- even the "easy" ones.  Do one, and put a lot of effort into making it successful.  If you're going to work that hard, make it one that feels "right", rather than a peer pressure project.

6)  Look for high impact work.  For us this was grants & community sponsorship.  Find strong individuals to run that work. 

7)  Tie meetings in to school events -- and keep them short.  Related -- find out the smallest number of general meetings you are required to have per your bylaws, and just have that many.  Publicize board meetings or committee meetings for people who want to be involved.  Consider sending out meeting minutes from board meetings via e-mail to keep people informed.

8)  Provide information in as many ways as possible, but focus on electronic rather than physical media -- on a website, facebook, and an email list.

9)  See if you can use your school's phone system to inform parents of events.  This was our biggest PR win -- sending out voice alerts the afternoon before an event.  I never tested it, but suspect that we could have done this and skipped newseletters, stickers, etc.

How I eat

I've kept off a 40 pound plus weight loss for more than 4 years now, and a big part of how I've learned to eat  is by using decadent ingredients in small quantities.  I've also had to follow a low salt diet at times (harder than losing weight!), which introduced additional highly flavored  ingredients.  Here are my favorites.

Sweet Ones:

Callebaut Chocolate Chips (60% Cocoa Mass)
Valhrona Cocoa Powder
Frozen Cherries (no pits!)
No sugar added apricot jelly
Peanut Butter (in moderation)
Molasses (in moderation)
Brown Sugar (in moderation)
Pumpkin pie spice
Chocolate Syrup (Hershey's Special Dark)

Savory Ones:

Bacon Salt
Truffle Oil
Truffle Salt
Balsamic Vinegar
Ponzo Sauce (citrusy and soy together, yum!)
Eggs with runny yolks
Bacon bits
Chicken Sausage
Parmesan cheese
Pesto (find different types/flavors)
Roasted nuts (I find these hard to moderate, though)
Cultured Whey Chipotle Yogurt Cheese (low sodium, lactose free, reduced fat & hard to find)
Mrs. Dash Fiesta Lime
Lemon & Lime Juice
Fresh and roasted garlic
Bolthouse Farms Dressings
Hidden Valley Ranch dry mix
cherry tomatoes (plain, roasted or sauteed)
sliced mushrooms (adds unami)
onions
garlic gold garlic nuggets
smoked salt
smoked meats & cheeses
real butter (in moderation, and only where you notice it -- like on toast)
goat cheese (lower in fat than other cheese, and very flavorful)
curry paste
light coconut milk
avocado (in moderation)
artichoke hearts
heart of palm
salsa
frank's read hot
feta cheese (fat free or reduced fat)
muir glen fire roasted tomatoes

Healthy Base Ingredients:

These aren't super exciting by themselves, but they generally have a low calorie density and when combined with some of the ingredients below make for a good meal or snack.
Broccoli
Pumpkin (use as a substitute for fat in baking goods, also good as a flavoring)
Chickpeas (there are a lot of surprising recipes using pureed beans to get a good goey texture in both sweet and savory dishes)
Frozen Overripe Bananas
Quinoa
Steel Cut Oats (The other kinds don't keep me full)
MultiGrain Bread (La Brea or something similar) (in moderation)
plain popcorn
polenta/grits (easy in the microwave)
Egg Substitute
 lean proteins:  shrimp, shellfish, tofu, poultry, 96% lean ground beef, etc.
Nonfat Greek Yogurt
Skim Milk

Examples of how I use these:

Tonight's dinner (fend for yourself, so I wasn't pleasing anyone else) was a broccoli bowl.  Steamed broccoli (2-3 servings), an egg over easy dumped on top, truffle oil, truffle salt, and parmesan.  Yum.

Tomorrow's breakfast (for me and both kids):  Breakfast Quinoa.  I just made a batch of quinoa (thank you microwave rice button).  Tomorrow I'll reheat single servings and top with chocolate chips and defrosted cherries.

One of my default breakfasts is an egg scramble -- mushrooms and tomatoes, sauteed, scrambled with half a cup of egg substitute, topped with half an ounce of chipotle cheese.

Frozen fruits, microwaved to create a "sauce", topped with greek yogurt and a drizzle of chocolate sauce.

Most of my household loves savory oatmeal -- overnight steel cut oats (in the microwave), topped with bacon bits, some sort of cheese, and (for me, at least) sauteed onions/garlic/tomatoes/mushrooms.

A quick soup for a work-from-home day -- chicken broth, curry paste, shrimp, light coconut milk.

Greek yogurt with sauteed fruit & brown sugar, or sauteed tomatoes, or canned pumpkin & pumpkin pie spice.

Banana "ice cream" with peanut butter and cocoa powder.

Celery or apples with peanut butter.

Baked oatmeal (with banana for sweetness and consistency, and chocolate chips for decadence).

Tall-nonfat-no whip mocha.  :)

Shrimp & garlic sauteed in half butter half olive oil, served over polenta.



Is this a perfect way to eat?  No...  but it's better than a lot of the alternatives, and keeps my weight consistent and my family well fed. 

p.s.  I'd be happy to share specific recipes if anyone is interested.