Writer Art-Aspirations

Easy Gluten Free Coconut Flour Biscuits, Buns and Artisan Bread

If you've just found out you're gluten-intolerant, it feels like the bottom fell out of your world. What will you eat? You wish there was a magical way you could still have biscuits ... buns ... bread. And if you are also allergic to potatoes or trying to eat low on the glycemic index, most of the commercial gluten-free products out there won't help you because they contain potato starch and other high-glycemic starches. But the magic is here - with high fiber, low carbohydrate coconut flour! This wonderful recipe is easy and quick to make.

How to Write a Memoir

Have you ever had the idea that you should write your memoir? What a great idea! Of course you should. But how are you going to get started? You need a plan and a method.

First of all, we should figure out exactly what a memoir is and isn't. It's not exactly the same as an autobiography. For one thing, it's more about who you are and how you became that person, unlike an autobiography, which tends to be a complete life history.

Pumpkin Spice Pudding - Delicious, Nutritious and Gluten-free

Pumpkin pudding is an easy way to enjoy the unique taste and aroma of fall. Most people love pumpkin pie, but don’t go to the trouble of making it more than once or twice a year, if at all. Pumpkin pudding offers everything pumpkin pie does except for the calories, effort and guilt of the pie crust. 

Tiny Houses

Do we really need houses that are so BIG? How much square footage does a person truly need for a home? Maybe it's time to reevaluate.  

Pumpkins and Squash

Pumpkins and squash symbolize autumn and harvest time. The sight of them, piled up and abundant, reminds us to be thankful for the fruit of the earth. They also taste great and are easy to prepare. They're so simple to store in your freezer that there's no need to ever buy canned pumpkin again. So next time you see these for sale at a farm market or a roadside stand, stop and buy a few. You won't be sorry.

Growing Organic Vegetables at a Community Garden

Community gardens are becoming popular as people who live in apartments and townhouses sign up to be able to grow some of their own vegetables. A community garden begins when a group of people have the opportunity to divide up a piece of land into garden plots. Often this is city-owned land, but sometimes it is privately owned. Either way, the project usually starts because some people have a vision for sustainable living. They want to give themselves and others a way to get fresh, healthful vegetables. They want to have some control over their own food.

Gluten Free Herb Giblet Turkey Stuffing

Traditional holiday food is full of gluten. So what do you do when you’re suddenly faced with the challenge of cooking for someone who is gluten-intolerant? Or maybe a whole crowd of people who have read Wheat Belly and won’t eat wheat any more. 

Gluten Free Coconut Flour Fruit Cobbler

One of our family favorite desserts is Gluten Free Fruit Cobbler, and I’m happy to make it because it’s so good for us. Cobbler is a dessert with fruit in the bottom and a cake or sweet biscuit-like layer on top. Typically you would serve it in a bowl, often with ice cream, but we enjoy ours plain. This recipe for cobbler is completely free from gluten, wheat, and cow's milk, is high fiber and low in sugar. In fact, this guilt-free dessert is so nutritious, it would make an wonderful breakfast. 

Grow More Food with Square Foot Gardening

Square foot gardening is the most logical and efficient method of growing vegetables that I have ever encountered.

If you have a small, sunny patch of land, I hope you'll consider growing some vegetables on it. And when I say small, I'm talking about 4 feet by 4 feet. That's not much space, but it's the size of a single square foot garden. You'll be quite surprised at how much you can grow in just one 4' x 4' raised bed when you use the square foot garden method. 

Radio Theatre: Anne of Green Gables

So you’re trying to decide on a present for a nine-year-old girl. You want a gift that’s not trendy. Not a fad. It should have lasting value. It should make her life richer, and fill her heart with warmth. It should be deeply satisfying.

Keep a Pain Journal for Better Health

If you have health issues, especially related to pain, it's helpful to keep a pain journal. In fact, it's more than helpful. It can be the key to getting your symptoms diagnosed correctly so you can get the treatment you need. It can also help you discover pain triggers and how to avoid them.

Keep a Personal Health and Wellness Journal

Do you keep your own record of all your health and wellness information? Maybe that's something you'll decide to start in the near future. It could turn out to be invaluable to your future health care. In fact, it might be a good idea to create a personal health and wellness journal for each person in your family. 

How to Make Broth

You can easily make your own broth and stock to use in soup, gravy and countless other recipes. Once you understand the method, you'll be able to improvise with ingredients you already have on hand. Your homemade broth will add a savory aroma to your kitchen and a new dimension to your cooking.

Art-Aspirations' Leaves on Zujava

My pen name is Art Aspirations and this is my leafography, an organized list of my articles on Zujava. I joined Zujava in February 2012 while the site was still in beta. Since then, I've been writing three to five new leaves every month. I'm here for the long haul, and aspire to produce quality articles about topics that matter to me and that I hope will be helpful to other people.

Downton Abbey

Last year my husband and I were ordinary people placidly strolling through life.  A single Christmas present changed all that. In only a few short days, we got hooked on Downton Abbey. 

Gluten Free Butternut Cornbread

A tasty twist on a favorite side dish – cornbread that is completely gluten-free. It's also dairy-free and sugar-free.

I guess that makes it one hundred percent guilt-free! 

I cook for someone who is gluten-intolerant. You too? Living gluten-free gets easier with time and practice. We stop trying to find substitutes for our old wheat-based favorites. Instead, we learn to love the good things we can eat - a cornucopia of colorful vegetables, luscious fruit, delicious fish, poultry, beef, nuts and seeds. 

Keep a Travel Diary of Your Next Vacation

Is there a road trip in your future? Maybe you have a cruise planned, or a vacation booked to an exotic location. Travelers buy souvenirs to remind them of their trip, but the best souvenir of all is your own memories written by you in your own travel journal.

Radio Theatre: A Christmas Carol

Are you are looking for the perfect small gift, a little extra something for anyone on your list? This radio drama will fit the bill. Is there anyone who doesn't know the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly old man who thought Christmas was a colossal waste of time, and how his outlook was radically changed after ghostly visitations showed him the truth about himself and his attitudes?

Stevia

Christmas Nativity Sets for Children

A nativity scene always has an honored spot in our home at Christmas. This holiday tradition reminds us that Christmas has an ancient and sacred meaning that we don't want to lose in the hustle and bustle of the season. When our first grandchildren came along, I was delighted to present them with the gift of a manger scene for their family. This one was unusual, though, because it was designed to be played with, not just displayed. My grandkids love it. It was the best family Christmas present I'd ever found - until this year.

My Best Vegetables for a Small Space Garden

I’m planning my seed order for our organic vegetable garden. My challenge is to grow as much food as possible in our small space garden, which consists of two 4’ x 20’ beds. So I have four things to consider as I choose each vegetable.

- Is it well suited to my zone 6 temperate rain forest climate?

- Does it give good value for the space it takes up?

- Will it yield well in my garden conditions?

- Does it have high nutritional value?

Kale Chips

Eat your vegetables! But the craving for a crunchy, salty snack can make us forget our good intentions.

Kale chips satisfy both the quest for healthy eating and the hunger for a delicious snack. These chips are quick and easy to make at home, low in carbohydrates and packed with vitamins. If you grow your own kale, they are also inexpensive. Follow the step-by-step instructions in this leaf and soon you too will be a kale chip fan. 

You won’t have to try this hard to convince your family to eat their vegetables when kale chips are on hand! 

Radio Theatre: Les Miserables

Les Misérables, Victor Hugo’s beloved masterpiece, comes to life through Radio Theatre. As you listen to the audio dramatization by a cast of some of Britain's best voice actors, you become completely absorbed in the story of Jean Valjean, a man who survives the law and experiences the full extent of grace. 

When we first encounter Jean Valjean, he is a criminal being released after nineteen years of penal servitude. 

Exploring Your Family History

What shaped your heritage? Do you know the stories that give color and interest to your family tree? You may think of your oldest relatives as they are now, but I guarantee that they have stories from their past that would amaze you. Grandparents, great grandparents, great-aunts and uncles - you could be the person to interview them and capture some of their history before the stories get muddled in the next generation's memory or forgotten completely.

Too Much Zucchini!

My growing space is small, so when people see that I have two hills of summer squash, both zucchini, they're sure I must be a beginner gardener who doesn't have a clue about how much those hills are going to produce. Actually, being able to pick two or three eight-inch-long fruit every few days is the very reason that I grow them. You can use them in so many ways. In fact, I find it almost impossible to have too much zuchinni.

Tiny Apartments

You want to live in the city, but you can't afford to pay those prices. What do you do? Some city dwellers have chosen to embrace small space and use it as a canvas for their creativity. With clever design, their tiny homes seem so much bigger. 

Here is a collection of videos that showcase micro urban apartments and their inspired inhabitants. Much thanks goes to Kirsten Dirksen for her exceptional work on many of these videos.  

^{The apartment window photo by Vincent Dejardin is used under a Creative Commons license.} 

Toys and Costumes for Children to Celebrate Thanksgiving

Children love traditions. They love special holidays. Just say the words, "Thanksgiving Day" and up come the warm associations of crisp autumn weather, colorful leaves, pumpkins, roast turkey, stuffing and pies. One of the reasons we have these annual celebrations is to tell the important stories of our heritage and our faith. We remind ourselves and our families of significant times in our history. This keeps the knowledge alive, and teaches it to new generations. 

Cruise Journals

When you go on a cruise, there are so many things happening that it can be a real challenge to remember it all clearly. A few days at sea and it starts to become a blur. A cruise journal is a wonderful way to keep track of everything you’d like to recall when you're back on land, or when you're starting to plan for your next cruise. A photo album or a scrapbook is a great keepsake, and fun to show other people, but if you keep a cruise diary, you'll have a way to remember details that may be important you for your own pleasure or for reference later on.

Seven Reasons Radio Theatre CDs Make Great Gifts for Children and Families

Radio Theatre by Focus on the Family is a library of dramatic audio productions based on classic stories and classic values. Beautiful orchestral scores, casts of excellent voice actors, and close adherence to the books they’re based on make these CDs treasures you’ll be glad to buy for presents or your own audio collection.

The Treadmill Desk - Daily Exercise While You Work

Most people know that sitting at a computer all day is not good for your health or your fitness, but what can you do? You have to earn a living, and your work is done on a computer. Dr. James Levine of the Mayo Clinic recognized the seriousness of this problem and came up with the brilliant idea of combining a standing desk with a treadmill. 

Easy Economical Slow Cooker Pot Roast

Pot roast. Comfort food. It`s showing up on restaurant menus all over the country. Fork tender. Fall apart delicious. Well, if you have a slow cooker, you can make a wonderful pot roast easily. There are plenty of recipes. My purpose in this leaf is to show you how easy it is to make a simple pot roast successfully. Once you've learned the basics, you can get as creative as you like, adding other ingredients and substituting flavors to your heart's delight. You will always end up with a great roast because you know how it`s done.

Ten Easy Tweaks to Polish Your Online Pages

Here are some simple tips to make your online articles even better. Use this checklist to improve your new Zujava leaf before you give it the final stamp of approval and send it out into the world.

Your wonderful new page is finished and you're feeling great about it. It's time to hit publish. So click that button, then sit back and relax. Well, no. Not quite.

Radio Theatre: The Chronicles of Narnia

“Radio Theatre isn't just storytelling or a book on tape. It's an audio movie that plays on the biggest screen of all ... your imagination!”

This is how Focus on the Family introduces their classic book radio performances. There are many titles in the Radio Theatre series, but few are better loved than C. S. Lewis’ The Chronicles of Narnia.

Diaries and Journals for Boys

A secret book is a delicious part of boyhood. It's a fertile ground for imagination, and a home base for dreams. Keeping a journal is a deeply satisfying activity that gets even better when you have a wonderful blank book to write in. I've found some terrific diaries and journals for boys.

How many treasure hunts are set in motion because of an old diary's enigmatic clue? How many adventures intensify or mysteries unravel because of what's written in an ancient journal? And what if those people had never kept a journal? Did you ever stop and think about that?

Best Board Games: Takenoko

“Takenoko is the best new board game of 2012!” This was the opinion of our local game store owner, so of course Takenoko showed up among the gifts given in our family this year because we love board games. Now that we've played and enjoyed it for ourselves, we agree that this is a great game, easy to learn and with plenty of replay value – a wonderful present for lots of people and occasions, or just to buy because you enjoy games.

Diana Rigg as Emma Peel in The Avengers TV Show

When Steed rang her doorbell for the first time, we met Diana Rigg as Mrs. Emma Peel and fell irrevocably in love with her. Steed was always as cool as cucumber and oh so charming, but it was Mrs. Peel we adored. How could anyone be so elegant, so very sophisticated? Exceptionally intelligent, she was well educated, stunningly gorgeous, incredibly sexy and completely loyal to her husband, who might, or might never, come back from being lost somewhere over the Amazon jungle.

Best Board Games: Puerto Rico

Puerto Rico by Rio Grande Games is a strategy board game that invites you to build plantations on the island, store, trade and ship your production, and use the proceeds to build your city. Some call it the "most critically acclaimed board game of the last twenty years." The first time I played it, I was hooked.

The game of Puerto Rico fascinated me so much that I asked for the anniversary edition for Mother's Day. Now everyone in the family wants to play my game. That's okay with me. 

Best Board Games: Stone Age

I love the concept of Stone Age, another award-winning family-friendly board game by Rio Grande. With only wits, brawn and the raw resources of the land, the primitive stone age people work to build their future. Sometimes they go without food or lose precious resources if they misjudge a situation. They compete with other tribes, but never to the point of war, because the land belongs to everyone. It's up to each tribe to make sure they get their share of what's available. The people hunt for food, collect wood, make bricks, quarry stone and wash gold from the river.

Radio Theatre: The Secret Garden

The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgeson Burnett is a beloved classic. A whole new generation of children are experiencing this story, thanks to Radio Theatre by Focus on the Family.

Radio dramas are not new. Before there was television, there was radio. Folks tuned in faithfully to hear their favorite programs. "Don't touch that dial!" They couldn't bear to miss a single episode. A lot of those programs seem pretty hokey nowadays, but the principle remains – tell a good story, add some great sound effects and you'll have them on the edge of their seats.

Radio Theatre: Oliver Twist

Brand new! Radio Theatre's latest release is the audio dramatization of Oliver Twist, the beloved classic by Charles Dickens. It became available at the beginning of November, just in time for Christmas giving. Oliver Twist was recorded with cinema quality sound in London, England, with a full cast of top British actors and an original musical score. 

Keeping a Five-Year Diary

A five-year diary, or journal, has a dated page for each day of the year, just like any annual diary. What makes it unique is that every page has a space for five years. You don't have room to write a lot about any given day, which is usually a good thing in my case, but you write enough to get a snapshot of your life. As you write down the days events, you glance back over the previous years. It's often quite fascinating.

Diaries and Journals for Girls

When I was just eight years old, I received a locking diary and key for my birthday. It thrilled and fascinated me.  I only wish I’d had a little coaching about the entire concept of journals and diaries. I think I was intimidated by the emptiness of the book, every page depending on me, and the whole year of dates that stretched on and on before me. Surely I would wreck it before I was done.

What Is an Art Journal?

An art journal is a diary, but a diary that's more than writing. It's often quite visual, and it's as completely unique as you are. It might be a record of your daily life, a collection of your personal highlights, a gathering together of your thoughts and ideas, or a place to plan your future. It might be a place to practice your skills as an artist, but it's just as possible that you're not an artist at all.

Logitech Ultrathin Keyboard Cover Review

TaDa!!! It's the iPad - great for entertainment, surfing the net, watching videos, following blogs and social media, facetime, or keeping up with the news. But for productivity when you're a writer? Not with that aggravating keyboard. It takes up half the screen. And you can only use two fingers. There are no arrow keys! And where is UNDO? I NEED UNDO!!!

Gluten-Free Roast Turkey Dinner

The holidays are coming up, and you're planning a traditional turkey dinner. But this year, it's going to be tricky because one of the guests is gluten intolerant. When you think of all the food in your typical menu that contains wheat flour, and who knows what other hazards, you feel a little overwhelmed.

How to Be Happy: Keep a Gratitude Diary

What if I told you I know a simple secret that could make you happier? Does it sound like a gimmick? It's not. If you invest five to ten minutes a day or even a few times a week in keeping a gratitude journal, and if you do it over a long period of time, you will be happier. I promise.

How do I know? It's the nature of self-talk. If your thoughts are negative, your mood will be too. But if you can change your thinking so that an attitude of gratitude and appreciation becomes your natural frame of mind, you will find your happiness quotient has gone way up.

Choosing Website Hosting for a Wordpress Blog

If you’re a blogger, you’re probably already looking forward to the day when your blog will be self-hosted. You also know self-hosting is a big step with a financial commitment - you want to choose your hosting company carefully.  This is exactly the choice I had to make a couple of years ago. This leaf is to tell you about my decision. I hope what I share will help you to move a little closer to your dream.