125 Couscous recipes
Couscous is a delicious, nutritious version of semolina wheat that's associated with Morocco. It's easy to cook, and there's no end to what you can do with it. Here's a list of recipes to get you started:
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How to make your own soap
You might want to make your own soap because you're allergic to some of the common ingredients in store-bought soap, or because it saves money, or just for the fun of mixing your own scents and decorative shapes. Making soap from scratch isn't a simple process, and you will...
Easy homemade lip balm recipe
A couple of months ago, at the height of the driest part of winter, my lips were staying dry and chapped despite everything I did. I tried several different lip balms, all of which helped for a few minutes to a few hours, but then my lips would go right back to where they'd...
21 tips for what to do if you get laid off
It feels like companies are laying off employees right and left in this horrific economy where there aren't nearly enough jobs to go around. Some of the layoffs are due to the economy, but even companies that are making money are laying people off, and it doesn't seem to...
Turn loose eyeshadow powder into pressed
You can turn loose or broken eyeshadows into solid pressed powder with ordinary household stuff and a little free time. I hunted down and tested several online tutorials for doing this and found this simple method actually works. It's also great for mixing your own colors out...

When I say I love Red Velvet Cake, I feel like I need to be more specific because there are so many different recipes that what I’m thinking of may not be too much like what comes to your mind. This is one of those recipes people have really corrupted over the years, calling almost any baked good with some red food coloring “red velvet.” Done right, this cake is a completely different experience than when it’s done wrong.
Red velvet ...
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Posted in Easy Food
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Am I the only one noticing a sudden upsurge in how often a grocery store charges more when you get to the register than it said on the shelf? Or you bring up ordinary produce and they try to charge you for a fancier version of your veg? Mistakes happen, sure, but the Department of Agriculture has caught more than a few stores overcharging at the register over the years. And everyone claims it’s just a mistake, even though they ...
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Posted in Scam Notices
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We’ve all had brilliant ideas while driving, showering, or in the middle of the night, had no way of writing them down, and ended up forgetting them. With a little preparation, you can keep this from happening.
For the shower: Crayola Bathtub Crayons. These let you write something that won’t wash off while you shower, but can be easily washed off once you’ve had time to write it down somewhere else.
For driving: you need a voice recorder. Unless you get a ...
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Posted in Organization
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I recently spent five hours, spread over several phone calls, on the phone with AT&T trying to figure out why my DSL router needs to be recycled several times a day. At about the end of the fourth hour, I discovered that I’d been wasting the last two talking to a Philippine call center. I say “wasted” because they don’t know all the same tricks as the U.S. call centers. I was pretty sure we needed to go into the ...
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Posted in Technology
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Eye strain is prevalent thanks to the widespread use of computers and fluorescent lighting. There are several things you can do to prevent it.
Remember to blink
Blinking is very important for keeping eyes moist and clean, and we tend not to do it as often as we should when we’re concentrating. This leads to dry eyes and the feeling your eyes are so tired you need to close them even if the rest of you isn’t tired. You can change ...
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Posted in Health and Beauty
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Food is pricey, but it’s also a part of your budget where you have a lot of choices. There are a lot of older tips for saving money on your food budget still floating around out there, and I’m finding some of them just aren’t true – at least not where I live, and not at this time.
I’m going to take a look at some of them and explain just how true and not-so-true they are, ...
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Posted in Easy Food, Frugal
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More and more grocery stores are providing those U-scan (and similar) stations where you can check yourself out instead of waiting in line (at least the scanners usually don’t have lines as long as the regular lanes). But a lot of people don’t make use of them. Why?
There were a lot of bugs when they first came out, and people have the impression they aren’t reliable. Some of these “bugs” were the store employees not being trained enough to keep ...
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Posted in Do It Yourself
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