TheFind Blog

What WON'T You Eat on Super Bowl Sunday?

Super Bowl Sunday is fast approaching...are you ready? Whether you're hosting a party or attending one, chances are great that you're going to have to prepare food for the big event, not to mention you'll be eating a lot of food as well. So, what's it going to be?

- pizza
- nachos
- buffalo wings
- fried chicken
- 7 layer dip
- chips and salsa/guacamole
- potato chips and onion dip
- popcorn
- veggies & dip
- fruit salad
- spinach dip
- hot dogs/polish sausage
- pigs in a blanket
- spicy meatballs
- chicken & ribs
- steak (steak sandwiches)
- hamburgers
- mini cheeseburgers
- french fries
- onion rings
- pizza rolls
- Bagel Bites
- soft pretzels
- taquitos
- quesadillas
- burritos
- tacos
- Chinese food
- sushi

Ugh! Just looking at all the food on that list is giving me a stomach ache. What about dessert? Who's in charge of dessert this year?!? Some faves...

- brownies
- cupcakes
- cookies/cookie bars
- ice cream sundaes
- popsicles

Do we really need more than that? Probably, but that's my contribution for now. And finally, drinks:

- BEER
- soda (variety)
- margaritas
- water

Did I cover it all? Is there anything else that anyone in the world needs in order to enjoy Super Bowl? If so, please let us know! I'm dying to know if there are any other Super Bowl faves out there.

I don't know about you, but I'm ALL about the ads during Super Bowl. I was very happy to hear that there won't be any political ads this year. Thank goodness! This is the time for advertisers to shine and show their best and sometimes craziest stuff. It's the Super Bowl of advertising and I can't wait.

BTW, who's playing?!?

Happy Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Combatting Winter Time Blues

Winter is a time when people tend to feel blue (aka depressed). While it's often not a clinical depression, the happiness that many of us know when the weather is great tends to slip away when the skies are gray and cloudy. It's cold outside, sometimes rainy or snowy and exercise may subside during the colder months. With all those agitators, who wouldn't feel a little blue?!?

Combat the blues by dressing to impress! You don't need somewhere special to go in order to dress impressively...dress for yourself! When you're feeling blue, skip dark and drab colors. Go for bright yellows, pinks and reds to liven up your day. Put on clothes that fit you well and make you look your best. Somehow wearing bright yellow sweats won't make you feel better. Pair a brightly colored top with your best fitting jeans or skirt, a cute pair of shoes, some flashy accessories and you're good to go. If you need a little attention once you're dressed to impress, take a trip to your local mall and watch heads turn as you go by. That will definitely put a smile on your face and warm your heart. While you're there, buy yourself something cute! A little retail therapy goes a long way.

For dinner, cook up your favorite meal or go to your favorite restaurant. They say that a way to a man's heart is through his stomach, right? Well, if that's true then you should be able to brighten up your day (or someone else's day, for that matter) with a great meal! Just avoid turning to a pint of ice cream. It really won't make you feel better. On the converse, it will probably make you feel sick! But I've digressed.

Finally, call a close friend or family member who you haven't touched base with for a while. Bridging the gap in time since you last spoke is sure to warm your heart and make you feel good. Good friends and close family members are great for making you forget your problems. And to me, feeling blue is a big problem! Even if it is only temporary.

Happy Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Is Your Family Naughty or Nice?!?

I find family holiday stories to be both enlightening and entertaining at times (depending on the story, of course). There are some families who get together for the holidays, have a proper meal or meals together, exchange gifts and leave happy. There are other families who get together for the holidays, have a proper meal or meals together, exchange gifts and a whole lot of drama! So, which family do you belong to?!? Are you brave enough to admit it? :o)

My family typically falls under the second category, but we usually have *interesting* drama. The holidays tend to go one of two ways...a few people drink too much and all the old stories come out. Once the stories hit the table, the room gets loud as people debate and argue over what really happened Christmas of '86 (or whatever the topic may be) when the Christmas tree caught fire. What happens more often is that a few people drink enough to be silly and that's when the fun starts: Grandma sings in Spanish (note: we're not a Spanish speaking family); we have contests to see who can hang a spoon on the end of their nose the longest; we have dessert eating contests: who can eat the most or the fastest. It's all very silly, but it's fun and makes for some good memories.

Thankfully, we don't have a rogue <insert relationship title here> relative who shows up drunk with a six pack in hand who's slinging put-downs the moment he/she walks through the door. We used to have someone like that around, but she's since been disowned. I know, that sounds bad, but there's something to the old adage that "family is what you make it." It's true, you can't choose the family you're born into, but you can certainly make alterations to the cast of characters. Unfortunately, that means that sometimes you may lose a few that you wanted to keep, but there isn't a whole lot you can do to control that. Sometimes you do what you gotta do to live a sane life and be happy, right?

Or, what about the relative who shows up to every holiday function with a different date?!? Do you have one of those in your family? I suppose there's nothing really wrong with it, but it's a family function and these occasions should be reserved for family and really close friends, etc., not the "flavor of the week." I don't know, what do you think?

Overall, I would say that my family is nice during the holidays. The real drama quotient is typically low and we have fun together. Chime in and tell us about your family!

Happy Holidays,
Payton

Enjoy the Holidays Without Gaining Weight

How do you get through the holidays without gorging and gaining weight? It's not easy, but it is doable. Here are some tips and tricks that can help you enjoy the temptations without going wild!

1. Before going to dinner or attending a party, indulge in a salad or eat an apple. Give your body some good nourishment and some fiber to fill you up some.

2. Control your portions!
    a. Don't grab food off every tray that passes by as you're chatting with people. Pay attention to what and how much you're putting in your mouth. It's easiest to monitor if you put a few snacks on a small plate and then leave it alone.

    b. If you're sitting down to dinner: fill half your plate with vegetables (salad, side dishes, etc);  reserve one quarter of the plate for protein (meat, fish,  beans); and reserve the other quarter of the plate for carbohydrates (rice, potatoes, pasta). This allows you try lots of dishes without getting up for seconds and thirds and over doing it.

3. Wear tight fitting pants or belt. I know, it sounds funny but you'll be very aware when your stomach expands. And guess what, it's definitely time to stop when that happens.

4. Share food with a friend or loved one. Rather than indulging in whole portions, cut them in half and share. This way, you can sample more foods without taking in all the calories.

5. If you can't say no to sweets, fried food, butter, cream sauces, salad dressing, and gravies, then do your best to control your portions (once again).  Eat one fried shrimp instead of five.  Skip the butter and dip your bread in the gravy that you're already enjoying on your potatoes. Ask for salad dressing on the side and dip your fork in it before spearing your salad. You get the idea, right?

6. Get moving! If you're not currently exercising, start a walking program for yourself (take your dog, if you have one). If you are currently exercising, add more cardio fitness to your workouts during the holiday season.

Hopefully, one or all of these tips will help you get through the holidays without gaining weight. If you have any other tips or tricks, please let us know. We'd love to hear more ideas!

Happy Holidays/Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Thanksgiving Cooking, The Bon Appetit Way

It's here! I just got the latest edition of Bon Appetit magazine. The Thanksgiving dinner issue is my absolute favorite! I love all the Thanksgiving ideas that they publish. My Dad was always a huge fan of their Thanksgiving recipes as well. He was an amazing gourmet cook and would often use Bon Appetit's recipes/meal plans for Thanksgiving and they were always wonderful. Since Bon Appetit has always been such a big part of this holiday for most of my life, it's come to be something that I really look forward to.

A few years ago, I hosted a Thanksgiving dinner for a group of friends and it was a lot of fun. We followed recipes from Bon Appetit and had an Indian feast! I haven't looked through the recipes for this year, but I can't wait to check them out and decide what to cook! It's the little things in life that make me happy and for that, I am thankful.

Happy Cooking/Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Finally, Lotion that Men Will Use Too!

The search for the perfect lotion is officially over folks! Skin MD Natural is the ultimate lotion. In fact, it's a formulated shielding lotion that actually protects your skin from irritants that dry it out in the first place. This allows your skin to repair itself naturally and to replenish it's own moisture. Other lotions add an unnatural moisturizers to your skin that causes two unwanted issues: 1) they're greasy and slimy upon application and 2) they trick your skin into thinking it's moisturized which actually dries it out more after all the greasiness dissappears. This lotion soaks in so fast, you forget you put it on.

I shared my bottle of Skin MD Natural with several friends and we all agree that this lotion is awesome! I know many men who will not use lotions and moisturizers because they don't like the way they feel and smell. I had a few men that I know who strongly object to putting products on their skin and they truly liked the product and the results! I am highly sensitive to smells and this lotion has a very faint aloe scent. A couple of my friends couldn't even detect a scent at all. That's a huge bonus by my standards!

Happy Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Best Friends Week -- More Things to Do

Okay, so yesterday I introduced the concept of this week being "Best Friends Week," right? I gave a few ideas of things to do with your best friend. Well, now it's time to get down and dirty and create a list of things to do with your best friend! You're welcome to comment to add to the list (and I will), so please feel free to contribute!

1. Shop online (at TheFind.com, of course!)
2. Shop at the mall
3. Try a new restaurant/cuisine
4. Go to the movies (try a premier or opening night of a really hot movie)
5. Check out a "B" movie
6. Get a makeover
7. Go to the salon together for new hairstyles
8. Clean out your closets and swap clothes (donate the rest to charity)
9. Buy new furniture and assemble it together
10. Have a garage sale
11. Host a tea party
12. Go out and support your favorite local band
13. Attend a concert
14. Try a new sport
15. Join a yoga class
16. Join a gym (and actually go workout regularly)
17. Go ice skating or roller skating
18. Learn how to play ice/roller hockey
19. Go rock climbing
20. Train together for a running, walking or cycling race
21. Train for a triathlon
22. Join Weight Watchers or a diet center of choice
23. Attend a monster truck show
24. Go check out Nascar
25. Get in the driver's seat and race go-carts
26. Hang out at the beach
27. Host a bon-fire party at the beach
28. Adopt a puppy and enroll in puppy training
29. Take your dogs to the dog park (after they're trained)
30. Buy a right hand ring
31. Go wine tasting
32. Go beer tasting
33. Hang out in a biker bar
34. Take tennis lessons
35. Take cooking classes -- sushi anyone?
36. Take a jewelry making class
37. Take a pottery class
38. Volunteer at a soup kitchen
39. Tackle house work (or spring cleaning) as a team
40. Write a story or book together
41. Go golf or learn to golf
42. Make fondue
43. Go out and sing karaoke at a bar
44. Play laser tag or paint ball
45. Have a TV or movie marathon at home
46. On a rainy day, go out and stomp through puddles
47. Learn how to knit or crochet
48. Join an online community and get involved
49. Join a dating service (if you're single)
50. Go on a blind double date (again, if you're single)
51. Have a spa day
52. Go for a manicure & pedicure
53. Be an animal/mammal trainer for a day at a participating zoo
54. Go on a ride-a-long with a cop
55. Tour a fire station
56. Have a sleep over and stay up all night
57. Host a game night (play all night, if you can)
58. Go to San Francisco and play chess or checkers against someone on the street
59. Play pool with pool sharks
60. Go to Coyote Ugly and dance on the bar (among other things)
61. Go out for a nice dinner and a play/musical
62. Go out for a nice dinner and the opera or ballet
63. Go to the flea market and haggle 'til you get what you want
64. Sell things at the flea market
65. Host a "Cook for the Cure" dinner (Susan G Komen foundation)
66. Take a trip to the wine country
67. Go camping in the Sierras (or destination of choice)
68. Go horseback riding
69. Make crafts and sell them at a craft fair
70. Host a cookie exchange
71. Paint ceramics and give them to one another
72. Sneak "drinks" into a movie theater (21 and over only, pls)
73. Create match.com profiles for one another
74. Brush each other's hair
75. Shop for engagement rings
76. Ghost or Guest blog on one another's blogs
77. Redecorate a room in one another's house
78. Host a poker party
79. Create a time capsule
80. Scrapbook together and/or host a scrapbooking party
81. Go to farmers market
82. Create a secret sorority or fraternity
83. Give each other nicknames
84. Make a comic book of your adventures
85. Host a pleasure party
86. Host a fake bachelor/bachelorette party
87. Learn how to fly a plane/helicoptor
88. Go skydiving
89. Take a beer or wine making class
90. Visit a convalescent home (take your dog)
91. Have a belching contest
92. Make Christmas ornaments
93. Take a Santa picture together
94. Make chocolate truffles
95. Scrap each others cast off clothes and make a quilt
96. Shop for books for one another in a used book store
97. Find a festival (music, art, wine) to attend
98. Go hot tubbing and/or skinny dipping
99. Take pole dancing classes
100. Take a spontaneous trip without luggage
Reader Contributions start here...
101. Hang out drinking a great bottle of wine
102. Go surfing
103. Watch sports on TV all day long

So, what do you think? I'm sure there are plenty of things on the list that you have done, but are there any you haven't done? Do you have more ideas to contribute? Comment now and let us know!

Happy Adventuring/Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Best Friends Week -- Things to Do

I've received many inquiries about things to do with your best friend (and not the four-legged kind), gifts for your best friend and travel with your best friend. Given all the requests, I've decided to dedicate this week to best friends, hence the name of the post "Best Friends Week" (pretty original, huh?). Summer's on it's way and it's an ideal time to travel and hang out with friends, so here we go off to a best friends journey...

Best friends can take many forms...they can be sisters, brothers, cousins, in-laws, acquaintances that become your best friend, boyfriends, girlfriends, spouses and more. You never know who you're going to click with, but having a best friend is much like finding your true love. It may not happen to everyone, but if you're lucky, you'll find a best friend who you can hang out with, confide in and fulfill any emptiness that isn't being filled.

If you're like me, you consider your best friend to be family and often times his/her family become your family as well. Growing up, my best friend's Mom was more of a Mom to me than my own. Unfortunately, she passed away a few years ago, but she lives on in my heart and soul. My best friend and I have been through a lot in the past 26 years and yet we're still going strong!

One of our favorite things to do together is shopping. When we were teeny boppers, we would shop endlessly! We had a lot more time than money back then, so a lot things went on lay-away (remember that?!?). These days we have more money than time, but we still LOVE to shop! It always makes me laugh when we pull out the same item of clothing to show to one another at the same time. Some things never change. Now that we live in different states, we do a lot of shopping online and over email. Thank goodness we have MyFinds so we can easily email items to one another.

When we were young, we used to spend a lot of time at amusement parks. Personally, I still love roller coasters, but we don't get out to amusement parks together like we used to. These days, we find ourselves at spas for the weekend. We're big girls now and big girls like mineral and mud baths, saunas, and massages. We can't forget manicures and pedicures! Who better to primp with than your best friend?!?

Wrapping up the day by cooking or going out to dinner makes for the perfect closer. My best friend and I both love to cook, but if we indulge in a day of pampering then we prefer to order food in and relax with a good movie.

What are you favorite ways to spend time with your best friend? Do you have any routine outings that you do together? Leave a comment and share your experiences! Stay tuned, there's more to come.

Happy Time Spending/Searching/Shopping,

Payton

Cook for Your Mom and More!

Some Moms have it all, so they're not easy to buy gifts for. If you have a Mom like this, you may want to try cooking for her instead! I stumbled upon Cook for the Cure®, another brilliant Susan G Komen endeavor to raise money to cure breast cancer. Please note that Cook for the Cure is not your average family dinner. Instead, it's a dinner party where the dinner party attendees bring donations for the foundation. It's pretty brilliant, really. Why not donate money for Mother's Day instead of buying gifts?!? You could host a Mother/Daughter Cook for the Cure dinner if you'd like. Of course it could be a Mother/Son or Mother/Child dinner, whatever strikes your fancy! Heck, you could host a table for everyone's dogs too if you want to get them in on the fun. Isn't half of America hosting dog birthday parties these days anyways. Gone are the "kids tables" of yesteryear...make way for the "dog tables!" Okay, I'm being silly, but I wouldn't be surprised if somebody did host a "dog table" at a formal dinner gathering. And you know what, I say, more power to them! As a side note, I did attend a horse's 2nd birthday party last summer. It was a Barbie theme because we all refer to this prissy little horse as "Barbie." She's a Palamino with long blonde hair and she's not a fan of getting dirty. How else would you describe a horse like that?

Sorry, I've digressed. If you perform any searches on thefind.com, then you know that we've been raising money for Susan G Komen for the Cure by donating $1 for each pink search performed everyday (one per person, per day). TheFind is a very community-centric company and we're really vested in doing good things and raising money for great causes. As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, I stumbled upon this dinner party idea and thought it would be fun for Mother's Day. I was thrilled to find out that this also benefits the Susan G Komen Breast Cancer Foundation!

The Cook for the Cure site is great! They give you all the tools you need to plan and organize your party: invitations, recipes, menus, coordinating donations and more. I'm thinking about planning a dinner party for both Mothers and Fathers along with their children to celebrate a Mother's Day and Father's Day   together. What do you think?

Get into the spirit with some pink and white decorations. There are quite a few pink ribbon decorations that you can use the set the tone for the party.

Happy Partying/Searching/Shopping,
Payton

Smart Kitchen Towels

If you like to cook, then you probably have a number of gadgets in your kitchen. I have quite a few in my kitchen: a bread machine, juicer, blender, wok, Kitchen Aide mixer, espresso machine, toaster oven, microwave, etc. I also have more cookbooks than I know what to do with! I have a hard time remembering where to find some of my favorite recipes. Many of the cookbooks have helpful guides and conversion charts, but I can never remember where to find those either (especially when I really need them).

Enter these smart kitchen towels from Simple Memory Art. You always know where your kitchen towels are, right? 

   

Find easy kitchen tips right on the towel! Don't dig through countless cookbooks for measurement conversions anymore. Just pick up a towel! How easy is that? You can also quickly reference how long certain foods can stay in the refridgerator and more!

Do you want to learn more about the spices in your spice rack? Check out the helpful hints on this towel set. Do you know how long spices can be stored? Find out helpful "spicy" info along with some fun facts.

Or, maybe you could use some wine facts. Do you know how to properly chill wine? Are you familiar with all the various types of wine glasses and which wines go in them? Then you may want to check these towels out!

Really, I could use all three sets of towels. They would be really useful in the kitchen and easy to find. Besides that, when was the last time you dried your hands on a cookbook? I love multi-functional finds!

Happy Cooking/Searching/Shopping,
Payton

New StyleGuide: Mother's Day Gifts to Nourish Mom's Soul

It's never too early to figure out what to buy for Mom. She works hard year round, so she deserves the very best! Check out the amazing gift ideas on the Mother's Day Gifts to Nourish Mom's Soul StyleGuide brought to you by Eating Out Loud.

If your Mom enjoys eating, drinking and/or cooking, then I'm sure you'll find something in this StyleGuide that will bring her joy this Mother's Day. So, what are you buying for your Mom?

Happy Searching/Shopping,
Payton