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Favorite Ingredient’s Friday - Side Dishes Edition - Asparagus-Stuffed Potatoes - repost from February 22

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Welcome to Favorite Ingredient’s Friday sponsored by Overwhelmed With Joy. This week is the Side Dishes Edition.

We’ve had a few problems changing the posts and sidebar information to the new blog template. All of last week’s posts were lost including Favorite Ingredient’s Friday Asparagus Stuffed Potatoes! I’m reposting this recipe.

Asparagus-Stuffed Potatoes

4 medium baking potatoes
1 to 2 tablespoons milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 teaspoon Watkins Onion Salt
1/8 teaspoon Watkins Black Pepper
1 pound fresh asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces and cooked
1 cup (4 ounces) shredded cheddar cheese
2 bacon strips, cooked and crumbled

Bake potatoes at 400 degrees F for about 1 hour or until done. Cut a thin slice off the top of each potato and discard. Carefully scoop out pulp while leaving shell intact. In a mixing bowl, mash pulp with milk, sour cream, onion salt and pepper until smooth. Fold in asparagus. Stuff shells; place in an ungreased shallow baking dish. Sprinkle with cheese and bacon. Return to the oven for 20-25 minutes or until heated through. Yield: 4 servings.

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Favorite Ingredient’s Friday - Pull-Apart Caramel Coffee Cake

Welcome to Favorite Ingredient’s Friday sponsored by Overwhelmed With Joy.

We’ve had a few problems changing the posts and sidebar information to the new blog template. All of last week’s posts were lost including Favorite Ingredient’s Friday Asparagus Stuffed Potatoes! I’ll post this recipe again as I have had a request for it.

Wishing you a Happy Leap Year Friday! This delicious, simple-to-make coffee cake is perfect for breakfast or brunch.

Pull-Apart Caramel Coffee Cake
Taste of Home - Simple and Delicious

2 tubes (12 ounces each) refrigerated flaky buttermilk biscuits
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
1 teaspoon Watkins Cinnamon

Cut each biscuit into four pieces; arrange evenly in a 10-inch fluted tube pan coated with cooking spray. Combine the brown sugar, cream and cinnamon; pour over the biscuits.

Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Cool for 5 minutes before inverting onto a serving platter. Yield 12 servings.

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Jolie-Pitt and Super Bowl star baby news!

Photo credit: AFP Getty Images

The rumors have been swirling, and now it’s been confirmed, according to People magazine… Angelina and Brad are “thrilled” and “very, very happy”, according to the mag. Angie’s bump caused a lot of talk and speculation at the Film Independent’s Spirit Awards last week (picture above).

This will be the fifth Jolie-Pitt child. They have a daughter, Shiloh (1), and have adopted three children from various countries: Zahara (3), Maddox (6) and little Pax (4), whose adoption was just this month made official.

Congrats to Brad, Angie and all the kids, who I’m sure will also be thrilled to have another sibling. I know some people are adopting an “Oh, please” attitude over all the adoptions and what not in Hollywood these days, but I honestly think it’s great, as I’m sure a lot of our readers do as well! (Feel free to leave your thoughts and opinions to let me know!)

On another note, New York Giants star David Tyree became a father again on February 20th, this time to twin girls Sophia and Hannah (he and wife Leilah already have two sons, Tevon (6) and Josiah (3).

What a great month for him, huh? First, winning the Super Bowl, which I’m sure was an absolutely unbelievable experience, and then welcoming two darling girls into his family. Congrats to them as well!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and a great Leap Day!

Take care and come back,

~Amanda~

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Quick and Dirty Facts About Google Adsense

I recently revamped my eBay Coach blog to try and take advantage of the passive income associated with Google Adsense. I will admit, I just kind of threw it out there last year and didn’t spend a lot of time fine-tuning how Adsense works on my blog. I put the word out last week on my business groups for tips or helpful hints regarding Adsense. Boy, do I have a lot to learn! Rachael Towle of WAH Station was kind enough to spend some time explaining some basics to me, and critiquing my blog.

1) Create the ad units so that the blend in with your blog. You will need to go into your Adsense control panel and enter the hex color codes from your website or blog. Make sure the text color, back ground color, and link colors all match your blog.

2) Don’t use borders around the ad unit boxes. Again, you want the boxes to blend. Just color code the borders to match the backgroud, and they become invisible.

3) Utilize all 5 ad units on every page. You are allowed 3 text units. Use those. Always put one at the top below the header of your page. It is imperitive that this one match your page.

4) Use different kinds of ad units that will appeal to your target market, and for products or services that you can cross-sell to your visitors. For example, on my eBay Coach blog, I have 2 referral ads. One is for the eBay Video Professor, the other is for Stamps.com. Both of these services are directly related to eBay selling, so my visitors may be interested in them.

5) Don’t put an ad unit at the very bottom of the page. Chances are, no one is going to see it.

6) There are oodles of programs, eBooks, and kits you can buy regarding Adsense. I have not gone that route yet. Be careful what you buy from “experts” regarding Adsense, there is alot of fluff out there.

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Slow Cooking Thursday - Beef Pot Roast

For more slow cooker recipes visit Sandra at Diary of a Stay at Home Mom. If you are looking for some delicious slow cooker recipes visit the other cooks in this recipe exchange.

Unfortunately, while changing to the new blog template, all of last week’s posts were lost including my Slow Cooking Thursday post. I’m not sure what happened, just a little discouraged.

Beef Pot Roast

1 large onion, diced
1 cup baby carrots, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 rib celery, sliced 1/4 inch thick
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 boneless chuck roast (about 3 pounds), tied
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon Watkins Granulated Black Pepper
2 cups sliced white button mushrooms or 1 package (8 ounces) small whole mushrooms
1 teaspoon Watkins Thyme
1 Watkins Bay Leaf
1 cup beef broth made with 1 1/2 teaspoons Watkins Beef Soup Base and 1 cup boiling water
1/2 cup dry red wine
2 tablespoons tomato paste
2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 pound egg noodles or mashed potatoes

Directions
1. In 5- to 5 1/2-quart slow cooker, layer onion, carrots, celery and garlic. Scatter the mushrooms over the vegetables in the slow cooker. Add bay leaf. Rub the roast all over with the 1 tablespoon olive oil; season the roast with the salt and pepper. Brown roast on all sides in skillet. Place the chuck roast on top of vegetables. Sprinkle with thyme.

2. In medium-size bowl, whisk together beef broth, wine and tomato paste; pour over meat.

3. Cover slow cooker; cook on high heat for 4 hours or on low for 6 to 8 hours.

4. Remove chuck roast from slow cooker; keep warm.

5. Pour the liquid with the vegetable mixture from the slow cooker into a medium-size saucepan; remove and discard the bay leaf. Bring to a boil.

6. In a cup or jar, stir together 1/2 cup of water and flour until well blended and smooth. Stir the flour mixture into the liquid and vegetables in the saucepan. Boil, stirring, until liquid is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Sometimes I leave the cooked vegetables as they are and sometimes I push them through a seive or strainer into the sauce before I add the thickening for a smooth sauce.

7. Meanwhile, cook noodles in large pot of lightly salted boiling water following package directions. Drain the noodles well. Or cook potatoes for mashed potatoes.

8. Slice pot roast. Serve with gravy and cooked noodles or mashed potatoes. Makes 10 servings.

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All About Affiliate Programs - Part 2

Now that you know what an affiliate program is all about, let’s talk about starting one that will benefit you as a seller or owner of a product. I started two affiliate programs for my products. One program is for my eBook, “The Stay-at-Home Mom’s Guide to Successful eBay Selling.” The other is for my membership group, The eBay Coach VIP Library. Participants who make a sale for either of these items receive a $4 commission. Both programs were set up through Payloadz in about 2 hours, and it is free to start an affiliate program with Payloadz. When a participant makes a sale thru a visitor clicking the link, her payment is automatically transferred via Paypal. The payments are automated.

Now you’re thinking, why would I want to go to all the trouble to set up an affiliate program, just to share the profit with other people? I’ve got two words for you - FREE MARKETING. An affiliate program encourages participants to add your link or button to their website- especially if they can participate for free with no sign up costs. With each person who signs up for your affiliate program, you are extending your reach to new potential customers that you would not otherwise have access to. I see my affiliate programs pop up all the time on websites, blogs, and eBay About Me pages. Other people are spreading the word about my products for free. What could be easier? Take advantage of the viral nature of the internet by starting or participating in affiliate programs.

Even if the affiliates don’t make many sales, you are getting your product in front of many more visitors than you could buy driving that same traffic to your blog or website yourself. Also, consider the repetition factor. Let’s say I have 100 people participating in my eBook affiliate program. Visitors may see my button in multiple places and begin to recognize it. Advertising wisdom states that a consumer must see an ad for a product 13 times before taking action. Having an affiliate program gives you brand identity, and recognition. Finally, let’s say those 100 participants in my affiliate program refer others to join. I can exponentially increase my reach as the program grows, and grows, and grows over time.

Do you participate in any affiliate programs, and if so, how are they working for you? Do you see any payouts?

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All About Affiliate Programs - Part 1

You’ve probably heard the term “affiliate programs” but maybe you aren’t sure exactly what they are, how they work, how to start your own, or why you should have one. This article will help you understand more about affiliate programs.

An affiliate program is an arrangement where someone other than the owner or creator of a product sells a product on her website or blog, for a commission. Visit most any blog and you will see buttons and links to different products, membership groups, and eBooks. More than likely, the blog owner is participating in more than one affiliate program. Most affiliate programs are free to join. You simply sign up through the person who sells the product, and place a button or link on your website or blog. You can write blog posts and articles and include the link to the affiliate program or you can include the link in your signature on your emails, forums, and groups. Or, you can just email someone the link to when they inquire about a product or service.

Affiliate programs are an easy way to earn passive income, but you must continue to put your links in front of people, or drive traffic to your site to get the clicks. Don’t expect to put a button on your site and watch the money come rolling in. But, the good news is that you are probably doing this anyway for other reasons such as Google Adsense, or to sell your own product. You must constantly promote an affiliate program to make sales.

One of the easiest ways to make affiliate sales is through article marketing. You can go to sites like eZine or GoArticles, write an informative article with content related to the affiliate program, and then include the link. If you get into the habit of submitting an article or two a week, you will be building income producing links that last forever. It takes time to build these links, but the rewards can be great.

The best strategy for success with affiliate programs is to add those that relate or correspond with your website or blog. For example, let’s say Melanie sells handmade, personalized baby blankets on her website. She also has a blog about baby and infant care. Melanie will want to participate in affiliate programs that relate to babies, mothers, child care, birthing, nursing, etc. She might choose an affiliate program for nursing products, organic baby food, eBooks about infant care, or other types of personalized baby items like bibs or pacifiers. Melanie probably won’t make many sales by participating in an affiliate program for accounting software. The visitors on her sites don’t have accounting on their minds when reading her material and looking at her images.

Check back tomorrow for part 2 of this series and find out how to start your own affiliate program, and how an affiliate program can help you grow your business.

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Gorgeous Celebrity Mom-To-Be’s

Having babies seems to be the thing to do in Hollywood this year (now if only MY husband would play along…..) Check out these GORGEOUS mom-to-be’s from tonight’s Academy Awards red carpet.

Jessica Alba - absolutely GLOWING!!! Photo source: yahoo.

The VERY pregnant Cate Blanchett, and the newly-pregnant Nicole Kidman. Photo source: People.

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It’s a boy…and a girl for J.Lo & Marc Anthony!

Photo credit: INF

Jennifer Lopez gave birth to twins around 12:45 a.m. this morning, according to Lopez rep Simon Fields. Born somewhere in Long Island, New York, the girl arrived first, weighing in at 5 pounds, 7 ounces. Her brother followed mere minutes later, coming in a 6 pounds.

Fields told People Magazine that “Jennifer and Marc are delighted, thrilled and over the moon.”

Well, of course they are! This is Jen’s first time being a mom, it’s gonna be overwhelming with twins but twice the work only means twice the fun, love and joy as well! I’m so happy for her. And since these two are Marc’s third and fourth children, he’s got loads of fatherly experience already. I’m sure they’ll be great parents!

There haven’t been any updates to Jen’s website yet, but I’m hoping they’ll post a personal message about the birth to fans soon!

Take care & come back,

~Amanda~

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Real Moms Talk About Shaklee Basic H2

A Review By Real Moms Review Panel Member: Laniea Millare’-King

After receiving box package in the mail, I was excited to open it and read about all of the cleaning that I was going to be doing to test the Shaklee Basic H2 product. Compliments of my husband and his willingness to give me the night off from cooking, I had the perfect starting place.

Our Stove does not have a splashguard behind it to prevent anything that may pop or splatter while cooking from getting one the wall. This is a problem because the wall can get pretty greasy from time to time, and now was that time. My husband treated me to a night off of cooking but also treated me to an extra few minutes of cleaning because he made a huge mess when he prepared dinner. Not to mention that I have been trying other cleaning product to try to degrease the wall but nothing has worked for me 100%. I prepared the Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner as directed, grabbed a sponge, and hoped that this was going to work as well as cut back on my cleaning time (considering that I still had a ton of other surfaces to try).

To my surprise, it did not take long before I started to notice that the grease started breaking up and disappearing. I then thought “Ok, that just means that the new grease did not have time to set yet”, so I decided to keep going and was pleasantly surprised to see that not only did it take off the new, but it also got rid of any old grim that was there. To be honest, it looked like the wall had never been greasy at all. The test was still going to be whether my husband noticed or not, and he did. He then asked if it got rid of crayon since our 1 ½ year old daughter has become familiar with crayons and decided to color on our TV screen and glass top coffee table.

I told him “If it could clean the grease and grim off of the wall behind the stove, the crayon did not stand a chance”. I let him take this task so that he could use it for himself (he loves buying and using great household cleaning products as much as I do) and see how effective it was. Lets just say that he was not disappointed, he then asked “Where did you say you got this stuff, we need to make sure that we keep some on hand all of the time”. I told him that the best part about it was that it was completely organic and nontoxic so there are not harsh chemicals or smells that could harm the kids. I also love the bottle that it comes in, very different from anything that I have seen

I was very glad to have been able to try the Shaklee Basic H2 cleaner and I will definitely recommend this product to any and everyone that I come across.

EDITORS NOTE: I just wanted to add how AFFORDABLE it is as well! The 16 oz bottle is a concentrate, and once it is mixed with water, it makes 48 GALLONS of cleaner!!! That’s a lot of cleaner, for only $11.95!

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