Home & Lifestyle

So, you’ve just invested in one of the most popular streaming media players on the market – a Roku. You’ve followed the instructions and your shiny new black box is working like a charm. Great! But how about taking its capabilities up a notch? You’re in luck! Here are five handy tips and tricks to turbocharge your Roku entertainment experience. 

Even if your dining room table is currently covered in electronics and newspapers or your closet is chaos, there are still simple steps you can take to organize your house. It doesn’t have to be overwhelming either – just take it one baby step at a time. Here are a few proven organizational strategies I’ve used to get control of my clutter and organize my home like a pro.

  If you read the NY Times Bestseller Wild by Cheryl Strayed, then you will learn how not to pack as she did for her hike on the Pacific Coast Trail. If you haven’t read it, I would highly recommend this true story of her over 1,000 miles hike by herself to escape the loss of her mother and a broken marriage, all with no wilderness experience whatsoever. I don’t profess to be a wilderness expert although I have done a fair number of wilderness trips of at least one night, and usually more. The trick with overnight backcountry camping is not to take too much while making sure you have what you will need so you don’t get in trouble.

Good Chinese food or Chinese takeout can be hard to come by. So what to do when you get a craving for Chinese food but you don’t know where to order from? You can jump online and hit up Yelp or other review sites, looking for a recommendation. Or, you can do what I finally started to do – make it yourself. Creating Chinese food at home isn’t hard at all, and if you have the right tools it’s a fast, easy way to get your Chinese food fix. Here are a few of my favourite make-at-home Chinese food recipes:

How fast do you get out of the house when you have kids? We all know 45 minutes spent at the front door without ever crossing the threshold is not unheard of. I make a habit of getting everything ready hours before we actually have to be anywhere.  It is a feat of incredible magic and coordination to get out the door without screaming your head off, breaking a sweat or a nail or both. Here are a few suggestions that may help.

There’s a bumper crop of tomatoes out there right now, and they’re just begging to be chopped up into salsa. Check out my recipe, make your own homemade salsa, and add it to BBQ chicken or fish, plain rice, and anything that needs to be spiced up. A good rule of thumb is to take a look at what you’re about to eat and ask yourself, “Would salsa be good with this?” The answer is always yes, yes it would.

Tracking your fitness and calories is even easier now, because Garmin announced today they have partnered with MyFitnessPal. Anyone who has a compatible device like the Garmin vivofit can now quickly and easily compare calories burned vs calories consumed using your device and Garmin Connect. 

If you suffer from allergies, let me give you few tips on how to protect your family from allergens at this time of year.

Summer harvest is in full swing and we have been loving it at my house. Fresh fruits and veggies right from the garden and Farmer's Markets are one of the best things about summer. Read on for my top 10 tips on freezing your harvest to get you through the year.

 There are many different types of beards a man may choose to grow, but one thing they all have in common is the need for a certain amount of care and maintenance. Even if you just want to grow a wild mess of facial hair with no particular style, there are certain things you need to do to keep it (and your skin) as healthy as possible. Today we examine a few of these steps. Click through to take a look.