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New Year’s 2012

Posted by on Jan 1, 2012 in Family Nutrition, Fitness, Paleo, Recipes, Weight Loss | 4 comments

Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a wonderful time ringing in the New Year last night! My favorite part about New Year’s (other than making new resolutions), is reflecting on the previous year’s accomplishments. What I accomplished in 2011: Traveled to New Orleans to run the Mardi Gras Half Marathon Got engaged to my high school sweetheart Moved to a new apartment in Old Town Ran the Chicago Rock and Roll Half Marathon Ran the September 11th Chicago Half Marathon Completed the Warrior Dash in Wisconsin Ran the Monster Dash on...

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Vegetable Quinoa Winter Soup

Posted by on Dec 5, 2011 in Dinner, Family Nutrition, Gluten-Free, Low Sodium, Lunch, Recipes, Sugar-Free, Vegetarian & Vegan, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Vegetable Quinoa Winter Soup

After a long night at crossfit I enjoyed some  well deserved Vegetable Quinoa Winter Soup with Garlic Crostini for dinner! All I had to do was heat up the soup and bake the crostini for 5 minutes and dinner was served. My day of meal preparation is already paying off! First things first though. Today’s crossfit WOD (for time): 30 air squats 15 front squats (55 – Rx was 65) 30 kettle bell swings (30 – Rx) 15 sumo deadlift high-pulls (55 – Rx was 65) 30 box jumps 15 push press (55 – Rx was 65) 400 meter row I finished in...

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Meal Planning 101 – Preparation Day

Posted by on Dec 4, 2011 in Dinner, Family Nutrition, Recipes, Weight Loss | 0 comments

To continue my Meal Planning 101 series, today was preparation day! Today was my day off work meaning it was the perfect opportunity to prep my food for the week. Yesterday I shared my 12 easy steps to meal planning. One of the most important steps to successful healthy meal planning is to determine steps in your recipes that you can do ahead of time and plan a day to prep food on your day off. Some of the benefits of completing cooking prep work in advance include: Minimize the number of dirty dishes. As long as you are doing all the work at...

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Meal Planning 101

Posted by on Dec 3, 2011 in Dinner, Family Nutrition, Recipes, Weight Loss | 0 comments

I get a lot of questions about how to plan meals for the week successfully. How could I possibly know what I will want to eat come Friday? What if I don’t have time to cook the meals I had originally anticipated making? How can I ensure the food I buy doesn’t go bad before I get a chance to eat it? It can seem like a daunting task to take one single trip to the grocery store and expect to eat for an entire week. Like many things, there’s an art to meal planning. If you know the rules and stay organized, meal planning can make healthy...

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Homemade Mulling Spice

Posted by on Nov 19, 2011 in Family Nutrition, Gluten-Free, Low Sodium, Paleo, Recipes, Snacks, Sugar-Free, Vegetarian & Vegan, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Homemade Mulling Spice

Nothing is better to elicit the smells of the holidays than mulling spice! Add your favorite spices to warm cider, wine, or other fruit drinks and enjoy the taste of the seasons! In the spirit of the holidays, I did a “make your own mulling spice” event at work today and wanted to share with you guys how to make it! Choose from ingredients: Cinnamon sticks Whole cloves Anise stars Whole nutmeg Allspice berries Cardamom pods Peppercorns Crystallized ginger Dried orange or lemon peel Brown sugar Directions: Cut cheesecloth into...

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Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates

Posted by on Nov 7, 2011 in Gluten-Free, Paleo, Recipes, Side Dish, Sugar-Free | 1 comment

Goat Cheese Stuffed Dates

Goat cheese stuffed dates wrapped in basil and bacon. Drool. Probably one of the best things I have eaten in 2011. I made these babies as part of a fall appetizer class at work. I wouldn’t say they are “healthy” per se, but they are so easy to make and everyone at your next holiday party won’t be able to stop raving about them! Ingredients: 16-20 Medjool dates, pitted 1 small package of garlic and herb goat cheese 16-20 fresh Basil leaves 8-10 slices of bacon (or prosciutto) sliced in half lengthwise to make 16-20 pieces Preheat...

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Avocado and Grapefruit Salad

Posted by on Oct 25, 2011 in Gluten-Free, Low Sodium, Lunch, Paleo, Recipes, Sugar-Free, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Avocado and Grapefruit Salad

So remember when I said I was going to make Soba Noodles with Thai Coconut Shrimp this week? Well, it was a total flop – edible, but not worth posting. Oh well, sometimes the food wins. However, the Avocado Grapefruit Salad turned out fabulously! It was super easy and made a quick, delicious lunch! Ingredients: 1 head Butter (or Bibb) lettuce, chopped 2 grapefruits, peeled and segmented 2 avocados, peeled and chopped 1/2 cup grilled chicken (I used left over rotisserie chicken) Sunflower seeds (optional) Top lettuce with...

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Barbacoa Chili

Posted by on Oct 23, 2011 in Dinner, Family Nutrition, Gluten-Free, Low Sodium, Recipes, Sugar-Free, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Barbacoa Chili

Barbacoa is a form of cooking meat that traditionally refers to slow-cooking meat over an open fire in a hole dug in the ground. I once saw an episode of Bizarre Foods on the Travel Channel when Andrew Zimmern traveled to a small local village (I forget what part of the world he was in) where he dug a huge hole in the ground, started a fire in it, threw what I remember to be a deer on top of the flames, and buried it. After many hours he dug up the animal and chowed down. Barbacoa. Contemporary barbacoa simply refers to a pile of shredded...

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Maple Nut Granola

Posted by on Oct 22, 2011 in Breakfast, Family Nutrition, Gluten-Free, Low Sodium, Recipes, Vegetarian & Vegan, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Maple Nut Granola

If you haven’t yet noticed, one of my favorite things to make for breakfast is granola. There are really are no rules for making granola – simply throw together any nuts, cereals, and dried fruit you can find left over in your cupboard and have at it! It’s like making soup at the end of the week with all of your old leftovers and wilted veggies. My obsession with fall continues, with this addicting maple nut granola! Maple Nut Granola (recipe adapted from Clean Food) Ingredients 4 cups rolled oats 2 cups puffed kamut cereal (can...

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Homemade Fruit and Vegetable Juice

Posted by on Oct 19, 2011 in Gluten-Free, Juicing, Low Sodium, Paleo, Raw Food, Recipes, Snacks, Sugar-Free, Weight Loss | 0 comments

Homemade Fruit and Vegetable Juice

Another rainy day in Chicago – or at least that’s how it started. The sun came out just in time for the Bears game, if only we had a grill my Sunday would be complete. Since we’ve moved into our new garden apartment we have been meaning to clean up the backyard and put a small grill out on the patio for football season. Sadly, we haven’t gotten around to it yet. So instead of grilling, I juiced. Friday I went to Stanley’s for tons of fruits and vegetables. If you live in Chicago and have never been to Stanley’s, you’ve got to...

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