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Let’s say someone invites you (yes, you!) to their house for a dinner party. What are the main things you’d usually do in order to make sure you’re a good guest when you’re there? Typically, you’d offer to help with the prep in the kitchen. And clear the plates. Maybe even wash a few things, too, right?

Well, a new survey says those things aren’t all that important. According to the research, the gesture that hosts appreciate the most actually has nothing to do with manual labor.

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Creating an Instagram-ready cake doesn’t mean you have to be a pro with the pastry bag. In fact, you don’t even need to have a pastry bag! Arm yourself with some cereal or chocolate chips and you’ll be good to go.

Here are seven ways to make your cake look over-the-top dramatic — yet don’t require decorating genius to achieve.

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I have a budding baker at home, and while she aspires to make the Nerdy Nummies level cakes, her creations are often more like an episode of Nailed It: uneven layers, wonky frosting, and sprinkles everywhere. While my daughter is a little too young to bake cakes on her own, I have a handful of cake recipes that I think will be perfect for getting her started in a few years.

These 10 cakes are easy enough for first-time bakers, but they’re also a good reminder for all home bakers that sometimes a simple cake can be just as satisfying as a multi-layered creation.

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Ever since IKEA introduced the DUKTIG play kitchen, customers have been obsessed with brainstorming ways to hack and customize this Plain Jane item into something with more personality and charm.

The tweaks these parents have made are doable for even DIY beginners and, I think you’ll agree, make these little plays kitchens even more special for their kids.

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When it comes to kitchen clutter, there is no end to organizing solutions. One of the easiest to implement (and most effective)? A lazy Susan. And one of the most popular models on Amazon happens to also be very affordable — it’s currently on sale for $8.

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Once spring rolls around, I’m happy to trade slow-cooking, ultra-hearty stews, chilis, and braises for lightened-up meals with fresher flavors and ingredients. However, I will not be trading in my slow cooker. I’ll be using it just as much now as I did during winter to bring these 10 spring classics to the dinner table.

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Is it just us, or does it sometimes feel like everyone at the grocery store has it all figured out? It’s like every other shopper got some secret memo that never got passed along. There is no secret memo, though. To prove it to you, we talked to four busy people to find out what they shop for. Take a look in their carts …

One look at Tia Blanco’s Instagram will make you want to immediately book a tropical vacation, or at least whip up a big grain bowl with purple rice and lots of dark, leafy greens. Blanco is a professional surfer with her eye on the 2020 Olympics — which is the first time surfing will be an Olympic sport — and she’s also a dedicated vegan with a passion for whole foods and plant-based recipes. Her Insta scroll features a menu of smoothies, vegan cheesecakes, homemade pho, and grain bowls that would make even omnivores drool.

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My mother recently gave me a fancy cake server, a shiny utensil that will probably remain in its protective packaging until I find it at the back of the drawer in 10 years. I’m the kind of person who cares more about getting the cake into my open mouth than I do about neatly putting it on a plate. Joseph Herscher, however, clearly doesn’t share that attitude — especially because he was willing to spend three months devising an ridiculously complicated way to serve dessert.

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Pamela- you probably should just start by eliminating wheat. You might not have to worry about all carbohydrate foods. But if you need to eliminate grains: fruit, veg, beans, nuts, seeds, nutritional yeast have plenty of protein. If you are not vegan, you can also eat dairy and eggs (I don’t, am allergic to both). You can even get vegan protein powders now. I like Lifetime’s Plant Protein unsweetened vanilla (a blend of pea protein, rice protein, hemp seed, and chia seed with the amino acid profile of egg, although I only use it occasionally). There are vegan bottled protein drinks also, some based on soymilk (like Svelte) and some non-soy.

I track all my food (there are plenty of free food trackers today, I use LoseIt on my phone although I don’t care about calories, just protein and fiber). No problem at all getting plenty of protein on a simple vegan diet, even without wheat. My minimum daily target for my size is 40 grams protein but it’s easy to go way beyond that.

You might find you can eat other grains, you might try millet and rice. Barley has gluten in it but you might not be sensitive to it. Wild rice and quinoa and buckwheat also can be used like grains. You can try corn and sorghum (milo) also as well as oats. Amaranth and teff are also good. You can make easy flatbreads out of anything that you can make into a batter, including beans or quinoa or anything. Check on YouTube for videos showing exactly how to do it. You can also make crackers out of any flour: mix with enough water (oil and salt optional) to make a golf ball-sized ball when rolled between your palms, flatten the ball, and either bake or use a tortilla iron. Non-gluten grains won’t stretch like wheat, so rolling them out can be a pain, but you can just flatten enough between your hands. Rolled oats can be whizzed up in a blender to make a flour.

You could eliminate all grains for a couple of weeks and if that solves your problem, just slowly add small amounts of the other grains and grain-like foods into your diet to see if any of them are a problem. You can rotate foods (different grains each day), that can sometimes help.

I can eat small amounts of wheat as long as I don’t eat it every day or at every meal. The best approach for me is the equivalent of one slice of bread or at most two. Otherwise I get persistent painful heartburn that goes on for many hours. Wheat-free products don’t affect me. But every person is different so you need to experiment.

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With the busy lives we all lead, energy slumps are real. While all food will give us energy, some do so a whole lot better than others. These are whole foods that are rich in things like protein, fiber, healthy fat, and other nutrients — all of which not only promote energy, but also sustain it.

If you don’t eat meat, you may wonder where to get all of these things, especially protein, but the good news is there are lots of great sources! Here are seven.

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