Category — General

Once again, it’s been a really long time…where have the past few weeks gone?

This week I was inspired to write again because I have been dusting off some favorite old recipes. And by dusting off, I mean looking them up here on my own blog, which has become sort of my online favorite recipe box!

The motivation for reaching back for old favorites has been multi-faceted. First, although the weather has not consistently acted like it here, it’s technically spring now, and on our few warm and sunny days I have found myself craving and making things I first discovered last spring and summer, like Broccoli & Avocado Salad and Cucumber Tomato Avocado Salad.

Next, those really uncooperative cold, rainy weather days like today have rekindled my desire for thick, creamy, warming soups like Potato Leek Soup and Winter Squash Stew.

I’ve also been fairly exhausted by pregnancy and a lingering coming-and-going cold over the past few weeks, so making old standbys rather than shopping for and trying out new ones has simply been more appealing. Hopefully these “oldies” for me will be new for some of you, and I’ll aim to discover at least a couple of new recipes and/or ingredients in the next few weeks and share!

My computer time lately seems to be all filled up with freelance work, and other than “Baby Bargains” and other expectant mom resources, my “just-for-fun” book time hasn’t exactly been abundant either, so instead of reading online blogs or real novels, cooking magazines have become my go-to for a little break from reality (on the evenings I don’t fall asleep immediately upon sitting on the bed!).

I’ve been enjoying reading two in particular, Eating Well and Whole Living, and last week I somehow managed to find time to try three recipes from the latest issues!

The first two were dinners from the “Healthy Comfort Foods” article in the March issue of Whole Living. First I made Chicken Pot Pie, which got its “stealth health factor” from the inclusion of barley, a grain full of fiber and minerals. Buying that was an adventure because I had never done that before and the recipe said “hulled barley” and all I could find was “pearled barley” so there I was in Whole Foods, frantically searching on my phone for an indication about whether they were the same or not. (Apparently they are similar but hulled would have been a more healthy whole grain). I went with pearled anyway because I really wanted to try this recipe. I was similarly unable to find whole wheat phyllo dough, but I decided that would just have to be ok too! The recipe made 4 cute little individual pot pies that were yummy and, as the article’s title promised, reminiscent of classic comfort food without including the traditional heavy, less-healthy ingredients.

The second Whole Living recipe I made was Ricotta and Spinach Stuffed Shells. It took a while to do this one, since there were quite a few steps, but it was well worth it. The pan of stuffed shells fed my husband and I for dinner and we had at least four more servings for leftovers. The “stealth health factor” on this recipe was using part-skim ricotta and including both spinach and bulgur (another new ingredient for me) in the filling, providing antioxidants and fiber.

Unfortunately I didn’t find these recipes online, but I recommend checking out the March issue, pages 92 and 93, and giving both of these recipes a try!

The third recipe I tried, Chocolate Decadence, was truly an indulgence, but since it came out of Eating Well and contained very little flour and all dark chocolate, I felt it was a worthwhile indulgence to make for dinner guests. It was amazing! Delicious and satisfying even in fairly small portions, unlike some dessert recipes that have me wanting more or leave me feeling unsatisfied the minute I finish.

P.S. This post was written back at the end of February, but somehow didn’t get published…apparently pregnancy brain + technology are not a good combo!

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Where has January gone? I can’t believe it’s already the last day of the month, which means it’s already time for me to write about another book as part of The Kitchen Reader group! This month Sarah of Simply Cooked chose Will Write for Food: The Complete Guide to Writing Cookbooks, Restaurant Reviews, Articles, Memoir, Fiction, and More… by Dianne Jacob.

I have two confessions to make: first, I haven’t completely finished reading the book yet, but I am still going to share my impressions and thoughts with you.

Second, I only paid attention to the first part of the title when I requested and then picked up the book from the library, and when I picked it up to start reading it I still thought it was going to be the memoirs of a food writer, not an instruction manual for aspiring food writers.

Despite my disappointment at discovering it was, in fact, a guidebook, I have found the book interesting and very accessible—it truly would be a helpful read for anyone at any phase of becoming a food writer. Although I am not finding it extremely useful to me right now because I’ve been so sporadic with my own writing and am not willing to put the time into trying out the writing exercises or checking out all of the other resources and examples the author points to, I could see how owning this book and having it on my shelf as a resource would be a good idea. I think it would make a great gift for anyone you know who aspires to write for food magazines, is or wants to become a food blogger, or is working on putting together a cookbook.

It would probably be even more helpful if you got them the newest edition (2010), rather than the 2005 edition I unknowingly got from the library! I actually didn’t realize until I read Jill’s post about the book that I was reading an old version, although I had noticed (as she did) that the content felt a little bit outdated and I was surprised not to see a specific section about food blogging (one does exist in the latest edition). Oops!

Despite reading the old edition, and finding out that it does not contain a story as I had hoped, I’m still enjoying this book enough to recommend it. I hope that as I get further along (and maybe even splurge and pick up the newest edition for my very own) that I will pick up some valuable pointers that I can implement to improve my own writing here on this blog!

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As I posted on Facebook and Twitter this evening, tonight I cooked a wholesome dinner for the second night in a row, and I feel as if I have woken up from a long winter’s nap!

I didn’t exactly resort to fast food or frozen TV dinners in December, but I definitely haven’t been cooking wholesome meals and trying out new recipes the way I enjoy. I wouldn’t trade my time spent making traditional holiday treats or visiting friends and family for anything, but I am glad to settle back in to a more healthy routine now that the new year is here.

Last night I made winter squash stew, a.k.a. butternut squash soup, and man, was it delicious! It had been a long time since I made that recipe and I already can’t wait to make it again.

Tonight I tried a recipe from Quinoa 365 by Patricia Green and Carolyn Hemming. I’ve mentioned this book before, when I made my chocolate birthday cake, but that was before I actually owned the book.

I got it for Christmas (thanks, Mom!) and so now I not only own it, but I have at least 10 pages flagged already with recipes I intend to try in the next 2-3 weeks. Tonight’s dinner was Thai Cashew Chicken and Broccoli on Quinoa. As far as a quinoa recipe goes, it wasn’t too innovative—basically it was an Asian dish served on quinoa instead of rice—but it was delicious, easy to make, and got me excited about quinoa (and cooking in general) again!

Since I don’t have the publisher’s permission, I won’t share the recipe here, but I encourage you to get this book, whether from a bookstore or from the library, and try it out. My only note was that I’d like to try the recipe with cashew butter instead of peanut butter—it doesn’t use much, only 3 Tbsp, but since the cashews were just sprinkled on top, the chicken had more of a peanut-y flavor than a cashew one, although it was certainly yummy so I can’t complain!

One other note about this recipe: it calls for oyster sauce, which I have never used before. According to Wikipedia, oyster sauce describes a number of different sauces, all made by cooking oysters. Sadly on my first attempt to find it in a regular grocery store, all I found was oyster-flavored sauce, which was really just fish sauce, and was loaded with high-fructose corn syrup, so I decided to pass on that. Luckily I found real oyster sauce (sans the corn syrup!) at Whole Foods, and since the recipe only called for 2 Tbsp, I have plenty left for trying this recipe or some variation again.

I think next time I might swap in shrimp for chicken, and I definitely plan to try it with long slices of zucchini instead of broccoli for a friend who is not a broccoli fan. Luckily my husband, who is also not a broccoli fan, happily ate it up in this dish!

I have a feeling this is the first of many blog posts I will be writing about my experiences with this cookbook. I’m sorry not to be able to share the exact recipes, but check out the authors’ Quinoa 365 website for a few freebies they have posted there, and if you get the book, be sure to let me know which recipes you try and enjoy! I’m all revved up and ready to try a lot of new healthy recipes to get our year off to a great start!

What has you jazzed about the new year? Are you feeling inspired and motivated? Leave me a comment and share!

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Wow, it’s been a while already since I wrote my last post, and I know my frequency has been down a bit over the past couple of months. I’m finally ready to share why: my husband and I are expecting our first baby in early June!

At first I was so excited, I couldn’t figure out how to write a blog post without spilling the beans…then, and for most of my first trimester, I felt pretty icky and, well, didn’t have a lot to share beyond that, since my time in the kitchen and the gym were both drastically reduced by all-day nausea. Even if we had been ready to announce the news, I didn’t figure my readers really needed to hear about me eating yet another bowl of Trader Joe’s tomato soup or taking another mid-afternoon nap to escape the queasiness.

Now I am feeling much better and hope to get back into the swing of things with more regular blog posts. I’m still seeing (and accepting new) health coaching clients, and although some of my healthy favorites are strangely unappealing these days (fish, beans, and spinach, to name a few) I do hope to get back to doing more home cooking and trying out new recipes again, so thanks for staying tuned!

It’s time for this month’s Kitchen Reader book review! This month the selection was made by Stacy of Little Blue Hen. She chose Heat (An Amateur’s Adventure as Kitchen Slave, Line Cook, Pasta-Maker, and Apprentice to a Dante-Quoting Butcher in Tuscany), so I got it from the library and spent the past week reading it.

For anyone who knows me well, that will seem like a really long time to spend on one book, especially when it was a holiday week when air travel was involved. Unfortunately, though, that is how long it took me to make it through.

Overall I can say I enjoyed the book, but it wasn’t as much fun as I expected. The premise is very cool: Bill Buford, a writer and former editor of The New Yorker, basically put his real life on hold to spend many months literally slaving away in the kitchen of Babbo, one of Mario Batali’s famous restaurants in New York, as well as traipsing through Italy on multiple trips, spending months at a time learning from various restaurant owners and a butcher. This is his memoir about the experience, and I thought it would be enthralling to learn about the goings-on behind-the-scenes in a New York restaurant and to find out what he learned in Italy, but the pace was a little slow, and I have to admit, the sections that take place in Italy were my least favorite!

I did enjoy getting a glimpse into the (crazy) personality of the famous chef Mario Batali, and finding out more about how a restaurant works. It had never really occurred to me before that my slice of lasagna was not assembled and cooked right when I ordered it (although logically, of course, I understand it’s not…I’ve made lasagna and it takes a while!) so to read about the author’s experience working his way up from prep work during the day to plating pasta during the evening service was interesting and entertaining. I think I had hoped to glean a little bit of cooking wisdom or practical information I might use, since I adore Italian food, but mostly what stuck with me was the intense nature of working in the kitchen at a restaurant, and the quirky and eccentric personalities that seem necessary to survive in it!

I would recommend this book, but it might be one you put down and pick back up here and there, reading a section at a time, or even skip around and try to just hit the parts that take place in New York, if you are like me and find that to be the most enjoyable.

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It was no accident that I scheduled last night’s Sugar Blues teleclass for the week following Halloween. Sharing tips and tools for diving deeper into and overcoming sugar cravings right on the heels of a candy-themed holiday was beneficial not only to the participants, but to me as well! It was just what I needed, and hearing the wonderful participants share their thoughts and “sugar stories” was a fabulous experience.

If you’re curious about ways you can reexamine your relationship with sugar and you missed out on the class, it’s not too late! Listen to the recording now on my website, and don’t hesitate to contact me with any questions or to set up a free individual health consultation.

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Today I had some crafty fun preparing for the neighborhood kids who will be trick-or-treating next weekend. Originally I had intended just to give away mini Larabars because, well, they are awesome and wholesome and I like the idea of introducing more people to their deliciousness.

However, during discussion of this plan with my husband, he pointed out that it might be nice to provide a little bit of traditional sugar with the Larabars, and spread my oft-repeated message of enjoying all things in moderation. I thought this made sense, so although we are not departing entirely from the candy-distribution tradition, instead of 2 or 3 mini candy bars like we usually give each little ghost or goblin, this year each will receive one Larabar and one traditional treat, along with one of my health coaching business cards!

That’s where the craftiness comes in. I wrote a little message on the back of each card, and punched a hole in the corner. Then I took some ribbon through the hole and stapled one piece of candy and one mini Larabar to the ribbon. The final step was to tie it up and curl the ends—voila! A cute little treat that will spread my message and provide my contact information, just in case anyone in the neighborhood wants to enlist my health coaching services after the sugar-induced Halloween comas wear off.

Speaking of which, there is still room in my upcoming “Sugar Blues” teleclass! This free 1-hour teleclass is on Wednesday, November 3rd at 8 p.m. EST. Visit my website to sign up today!

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When Ashley from Nourishing the Soul contacted me to tell me about the “Self-Discovery, Word by Word” series and asked me to be a part of it, I was thrilled. The monthly series will provide an opportunity for bloggers and blog readers to “reflect on ideas that we may not often consider in the hustle and bustle of our daily lives” and to share our reflections with each other. Each month there will be one word that serves as the theme for reflection, and the first word of the series is one of my favorites these days: gratitude.

Gratitude is something I have felt fairly often throughout my life, but I don’t think I have ever been as expressive about it as I am now (and it’s still a place where I want to continue to grow). I’ve always been a generally happy person, aware of the blessings in my life and grateful for them, but it’s always so much easier to focus on what we don’t have, or what’s not going right.

Now, I start and end each day with thoughts of gratitude. I don’t (yet) keep a gratitude journal as many people do; I tend to express my gratitude in prayer. This has been a deliberate shift for me. Growing up, I said bedtime prayers every night, but they tended to be the same each night, with only a little thanks and a lot of “please.” Don’t get me wrong, I still say “please” fairly often, but now I also say thank you for at least three things that made me grateful that day. Sometimes they are big, life-changing things, and sometimes they are very small things, like warm fuzzy slippers or an email from a friend.

Throughout each day, I also try to feel and express gratitude even when it doesn’t come naturally at all. Even in many frustrating, discouraging situations, there is something to feel grateful for. For instance, a traffic jam may mean you hear your favorite song on the radio on the way to work when otherwise you would have missed it. A rainy day is a chance to wear a raincoat you never get to show off, and means the grass will be pretty and green the next day. Morning sickness is a chance to be grateful for something amazing happening to your body. Missing the bus could lead to a fantastic conversation with your mom who you call while you wait for the next one.

I’m not suggesting that we bottle up or ignore our negative emotions, or that it’s not ok to be bummed out or even downright angry or sad sometimes—it definitely is! But once you’ve acknowledged and felt those feelings, try using gratitude to see your situation from a new perspective and see how your mood improves.

And if you’re really feeling it, try taking this exercise one step further. If you find yourself reaching for your cell phone or computer keyboard to share with the world what a crummy day you are having, so everyone can sympathize with your bad luck, stop yourself. Think about what you feel grateful for instead, and just consider sharing THAT with your network. Sure, people might call you Pollyanna or Miss Mary Sunshine, but hey…wouldn’t you rather be seen that way than as a constant Oscar the Grouch? You just might inspire others to feel a little more gratitude and positivity in their lives, too—and that’s a good thing I just don’t believe we can possibly have too much of.

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While October definitely ushers in a season of fall harvest foods like apples, pumpkins, and winter squash, and increases cravings within many of us for warm soups and ciders, it also signals the start of a very indulgent season for many. First we have Halloween, with its plethora of sugary treats. Then comes Thanksgiving, which has evolved from a one-day family celebration to a week or more of pre-holiday gatherings, the actual event, and then of course, the leftovers…heaven forbid we throw out even a morsel of leftover pie! December brings more indulgence-inviting events like cookie exchanges and cocktail parties. It’s no wonder many of us wake up on January 1 with, well, a (sugar/food/alcohol) hangover!

As I shared in my October newsletter, sugar qualifies as an addictive substance, and its effects are not only physical but emotional as well. I don’t mean to suggest you have to get through the next 3 months abstaining from all sweets, or even all sugar…but the next time you mindlessly dip your hand into the bowl of Halloween candy that a helpful coworker brought to the office, stop to think about the pattern you are establishing and the effect it will have on your day, your week, and, well, your season! Some sweets are worth it, and some just aren’t, but once you start feeding your body and brain refined sugar more and more frequently, your cravings cease to distinguish between worthwhile and not, and next thing you know, things can easily get out of control.

If you’re interested in hearing more about sugar’s effects and tips for conquering your “Sugar Blues,” please join me on Wednesday, November 3rd at 8 p.m. EST for my free teleclass! You can sign up online on my website, and you’ll receive the dial-in information via email. I look forward to your participation!

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