Count your points and don’t cheat.  You get 35 extra points to use weekly however I suggest that you not use these points.  In the beginning you are given enough points that you can eat just about whatever you want to anyway.  But just be aware that the more fast food you eat, the quicker those points will melt away.  And unlike pounds, you do not want that to happen.

1 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp minced garlic
1/2 cup canned tomato sauce
1/2 cup frozen chopped bell pepper
1 cup cooked regular or whole wheat rotini/rotelli pasta
1/4 cup fat-free ricotta cheese

Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Add garlic and saute until lightly browned. Add tomato sauce and peppers. Simmer for 5 minutes. Add the pasta and mix well. Serve topped with ricotta cheese.

This is a one person serving which is 7 points. Double the ingredients for each additional serving.

1 burrito size whole wheat tortilla (or large burritos)

1/4 cup salsa

1/4 cup shredded fat-free Cheddar cheese

2 tbsp fat-free sour cream

Spread one-half of the tortilla with salsa and sprinkle with the mushrooms and cheese.  Fold the unfilled tortilla half over the filling half.  Heat a medium skillet over medium heat and spray with nonstick spray.  Put the tortilla in the center of the skillet.  (I used an electric skillet that was large, so three of these fit into it at one time)  Cook for 3-4 minutes or until crisp (believe me you do want these to be crispy)  Carefully turn the quesadilla over and cook 3-4 more minutes on the other side.  Remove from heat and carefully cut these into four wedges (I only cut them into 3 wedges).  Serve with sour cream.

Each quesadilla equals to three WW points.

*This recipe came from Cooking Afficionado (a free cooking program)

*Ingredients:
Dough:
1 pk. yeast
1 c. warm water
1 tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. oil
1 tsp. salt
2-3/4 c. flour

Filling:
cheese, mushrooms, green pepper, onion, sausage, pepperoni, ham, bacon, chicken, olives, tomatoes, spinach, jalepeños, garlic, anchovies, hot dogs or anything else that is tasty in a calzone!
1 jar spaghetti or pizza sauce
1 tsp. italian seasoning
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. garlic salt
1 tsp. butter or margarine

*Preparation:
Dough:
1) dissolve 1 pk. yeast in 1 cup warm water.
2) mix 1 tbsp. sugar, 2 tbsp. oil, 1 tsp. salt, 2-3/4 c. flour to yeast and water.
3) mix together till smooth. knead and cover for 30 min.

Roll out dough in about a 10″ circle. Place 1 cup of sauce in the center of the dough and then place the cheese on top of that. Layer on the ingredients you have chosen (it is okay to pack it full).

Place on a greased cookie sheet. About 5 minutes before it is done, brush with butter (this makes a delicious difference). Cook for a total of 20 - 25 minutes @ 375° or until golden brown.

HINT: Half the recipe for 2 small-medium calzones. This makes an awesome pizza crust too!

*Preparation Time: 20 min.
*Yield: 2 - 4 servings

In the same vein, it is difficult to have friends who do not have money and who always have money problems.  It’s easy to feel guilty for being able to buy something when you know that a friend could never afford such a thing.  But although this does not keep me from being friends with them, it is uncomfortable mentioning purchases.  There are so many people these days that have little money, often not enough to live on, and this does make one tend to feel guilty for not being in the same boat.  I have been in that boat several times in my lifetime and have never expected that someone else should be responsible for helping me out.  Yet when help was offered, at one point I was unable to refuse simply due to the situation that I was in.  If children had not been involved, I would have refused the help.

But when you find yourself with some extra money, putting it aside for a rainy day is a very good idea.  We never know when the situation will change for the worse, so having this savings can save us.  At this stage in my life, I don’t need much and don’t want much, other than being able to pay our bills.  While it is true that we have debts we cannot pay, at least we can pay our current bills and afford food.  And thanks to PayPerPost and PayU2Blog, I even have a little nest egg so that my family can actually have a decent Christmas this year.  Last year I only had $300 to spend on four children, and that doesn’t allow for much of a Christmas for anyone.  I am saving all of the money I make from these advertising posts to use for Christmas and I can safely breathe a sigh of relief that this is possible.

Destiny

This is my oldest Granddaughter, Destiny.  Although people who do not know her think she is about 16, she is only 12.  She will be 13 on the 29th of this month though.  She recently went and had some bangs added in and her ends trimmed.  The bangs are cute on her aren’t they?  She is a typical teenager, an age that I thought I would never have to go through again, but am.  Because she has lived with myself and my husband for the last 4-5 years, she has become a part of our family unit, even though her Mother is also living with us at this time.  We assume care for her needs and wants and I help her with her schoolwork, often having to resort to looking things up on the Internet, since the Math she is doing at school is not Math that I ever did in High School.  I expect in the next year or so that I will no longer be able to help her with this, if it continues on to the type of Math that my nephew once showed me that he had in High School.  She is an outgoing girl and well behaved when she visits the home of her friends.  All of their Mother’s have always reported back to me that she is a very nice girl who minds them.  In our past home she had plenty of friends.  In fact, they were at our home almost every day of the week!  This often made me feel like I had many other Granddaughters and we did not mind them being over at our home.  She visited theirs equally as much, some living in houses and some living in trailers, we were not picky about the type of home they  had.  But where we are living now, although she has friends at school, she has yet to find friends to do things with after school.  This can be very upsetting to anyone but especially to a teenager.  She loves to go skating and to the local water park and she is active on MySpace and this is how she keeps in contact with her old friends.  But like most other teenagers, she also constantly wants things; clothes, games, shoes, nails, etc  She minds me most of the time but she also tries to slide by, just like other kids, when she doesn’t want to do something that I want her to do.  All in all, she is a great kid and anyone would be lucky to have her as a friend.