A few months back my friends threw a mac & cheese and wine pairing theme party where I brought a super delicious vegan and gluten free dish for the competition. Even though it went over really well with the crowd, I never made it again… until this week.

Now that it’s cooling off outside I find myself starting to crave heartier meals – like brown rice noodles in a thick and creamy sauce! For example. This time around, I had a better idea of what the sauce would look and taste like so I felt more comfortable making a few tweaks. I also threw in some veggies so that I wasn’t just eating a bowl of pasta. Not that there’s anything wrong with that every now and then, but I like to add something with color any chance I get. A colorful plate means a variety of health-promoting nutrients!

Here is my slightly modified recipe. It tasted just as good and I didn’t need the oil. It cost very little to make and fed my fiancé and I for the better part of the week. Even though he loves his dairy, he’s a big fan of this one. I have a feeling it won’t be another six months before this is in our bellies again!

Ingredients:

16 ounces brown rice pasta

1 head broccoli, chopped into bite size pieces

1 head Swiss chard, stems removed, leaves chopped

Cheese Sauce:

¾ cups unsweetened coconut milk

1 cup nutritional yeast

½ cup GF tamari/soy sauce

12 ounce extra-firm organic tofu

1 tablespoon garlic powder

1 tablespoon paprika

3 tablespoons mustard

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Cook pasta according to directions on package. When noodles have about 3 minutes left to cook, add broccoli to pot with brown rice noodles and boiling water. Stir in broccoli.

Just before you are ready to strain the pasta and broccoli, add the Swiss chard. As soon as it is wilted, strain pasta and vegetables. Rinse with cold water. Set aside.

Add cheese sauce ingredients to blender and process until smooth.

Mix the pasta and sauce in large pot and pour into casserole dish.

Bake until the top of the pasta looks slightly brown and crispy – approximately 15 minutes.

Whenever I go to the grocery store I always try to make sure it’s somewhat recently after I’ve eaten. For me, grocery shopping on an empty stomach often results in purchases that were never on my shopping list – typically items that can usually be eaten right out of the box. Ok, lets call a spade a spade here – they’re processed!

In moderation, a little processed food here and there isn’t the end of the world. And of course some processed foods are better than others. Reading the ingredient list is the best way to really know what it is what you’re really eating. The marketing ploys on the front like “made with whole grains” can often be a load of BS.

So this week I went to the grocery store right before lunchtime and came home with one of my favorite special treats – Puffins. Whoops. My favorite is the peanut butter variety. They’re my reward when I get through another chapter of reading. I worked hard. I deserve a special treat, right? Well, I went through that box really fast. But they were my pat on the back, my incentive to keep on truckin’. Even though they’re gluten free and most of the ingredients are reasonable, my stomach was a little less than thrilled with my impromptu purchase.

Anyway, the Puffins are gone. And I refuse to replenish my supply. Puffins have been banned from my home! There I said it!

Instead I came up with this sweet treat. Real ingredients. Less processed stuff.

Ingredients: (makes 2 dozen cookies)

3 cups almond flour

1 teaspoon baking soda

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 cup sucanat

1 teasoon salt

2 eggs

1/4 cup honey

1 cup dried cranberries (unsweetened)

3.5 ounces dark chocolate

optional: 1/4 cup chopped walnuts

Directions:

Preheat oven to 325 degrees

Combine almond flour, baking soda, salt, and sucanat in large mixing bowl.

Add vanilla, honey and eggs.

Use electric mixer to combine dough thoroughly

Stir in dried cranberries and dark chocolate

Grease baking sheets

Use your hands to roll dough into balls – about 1 inch diameter

Place balls of dough on baking sheet and lightly press to slightly flatten

Bake until cookies are brown on edges – about 25 minutes

Cool for a few minutes. Use spatula to transfer cookies to cooling rack.

Juicing and I have had an on-again-off-again relationship for about 5 years.

I bought my first juicer before juicing went mainstream – well may be it’s still not as mainstream as say, the gluten-free industry is today, but I think it’s safe to say that the juicing industry is definitely gaining traction. Now, I’m not saying this to brag at all. My health coach that I worked with after my diagnosis had mentioned the benefits to me one day (which I will get to shortly) during a session so I bought a relatively cheap juicer and gave it a try. I found the clean up exhausting and annoying so juicing didn’t exactly become a daily activity.

A few years later I moved to Asheville. Two local grocery stores had juice bars. Prices were reasonable and the options were endless. Stop in to pick up juice after the gym, on the way to work, or sip it while grocery shopping? Yes. Please. No clean up involved. Now that I could do. And I did. Happily. About three times a week. I felt good.

Since moving to Cincinnati, I admit that juicing and I called it quits again. The juice bar at Whole Foods is hardly impressive. I didn’t want to juice at home so I started drinking green smoothies every day to compensate. It felt good, but it’s been 7 months and there is something about fresh vegetable juice that I can’t find in a green smoothie.

It was time to make a change. I need to juice. I know I do.

Now I have a juicer that I enjoy. It doesn’t take up a lot of counter space, is super easy to clean and the price is reasonable. If you’re interested – I’m talking about the Breville Compact Juicer for about $100. In the interest of transparency – I’m not getting any rewards for mentioning this juicer to you all – I just like it. It works for me. That’s all.

So juicing and I are back on again. I hope for the long haul because it sure does make me feel pretty great.

Freshly made vegetable juice, not the prepackaged stuff, is the easiest way for your body to absorb the highest quality nutrients. It’s a straight shot of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, protein and oxygen. I drink it on an empty stomach and then follow it up with a meal about 30 minutes later. It gives my digestive system a little break, which it needs sometimes. Now it can focus on other things like cell repair and recovery.

I like to use cucumbers or celery as a base and go from there. I always add dark leafy greens and the rest depends on what I have and what is in season. I usually throw in a small apple or pear as well, but the majority of the juice comes from vegetables.

I find that clean-up is easiest if I do it immediately, before the leftover pulp dries. All I have to do is run each part under warm water to rinse everything off and put it aside to dry. The whole process from start to finish takes less than 10 minutes. Not too bad at all, I think. And my body feels so grateful!

Do you juice? What are your favorite juicing recipes?

I realize I am behind the times with the whole kale chip craze. Truth be told, I have tried to make kale chips several times, and every time they came out of the oven soggy and limp — hardly chip-like. I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong, why the kale wasn’t getting crisp and crunchy. It’s one of the easiest recipes in the world. What was I doing wrong?

I’ve been working a lot lately and my cravings for a snack have continued to escalate as everyone around me spends the afternoons munching on potato chips and cookies. With a refrigerator stocked with dark leafy greens, I decided it was time to sacrifice another head of kale.

This time I tore the leaves into much larger pieces. I also used curly kale instead of dinosaur kale. Minor changes, but it really made a difference!

Why kale hasn’t been recognized by the masses as a super food is beyond me.

Here is just a short list of why kale is so a-w-e-s-o-m-e.

* alkalizing

* blood purification

* cancer prevention

* improved circulation

* strengthen immune and respiratory system

* promote healthy intestinal flora

* improved liver, gallbladder and kidney function

* cleared congestion

Ingredients:

1 head of curly kale

1 tablespoon coconut oil

nutritional yeast

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Wash and dry curly kale thoroughly

Tear into large pieces and place on baking dish

Discard stems

Spread coconut oil over kale leaves

Use hands to evenly coat oil on kale

Sprinkle nutritional yeast as desired

Place in oven until leaves are crispy – about 10 to 15 minutes

Making changes – big and small – to diet and lifestyle is tough. I’ll be the first to admit it.

It can be difficult for many reasons, but I think one of the most common is the potential impact a healthier way of living can have on said individual’s social life. Concerns of isolation, relapse and judgment are very real.

It took quite a few months for me to be comfortable in public with my dietary restrictions. I remember how guilty I felt asking my waiter about ingredients in a dish I wanted to order, or placing an order but with a bunch of substitutes so that by the end of the order the dish barely resembled the original item on the menu. Picture the famous restaurant scene from “When Harry Met Sally”, but worse. Yea, that was me. And I hated it. I went on dates and was so worried my date would think I “high maintenance” and had “food issues” so I ordered food that I knew was going to make me sick. Because the real me was easy going and orders a dish as-is off the menu. The real me wasn’t obsessed with weight or body image. This “other girl” wasn’t the real me.

A close friend of mine also had medical issues that required her to have somewhat similar dietary restrictions. She helped me feel more comfortable with eating in restaurants, talking about my dietary restrictions and most importantly, accepting my new reality. Thanks, Jules.

For many of you, my experience is extreme. I get that.

What I hear a lot from my clients, friends and family members is that they want to make a change but are worried about two things more than anything else; (1) the social implications and (2) the time it takes to prepare a healthy meal for themselves and their family.

My suggestion – ask your friends if they would be interested in a weekly recipe swap and/or alternate hosting a weeknight dinner each week. This way you get at least one night off of menu planning, preparing and cooking OR you’re just making double the amount you’d be making anyway. Your friends come over for dinner on the designated night or you go there. Agree ahead of time that dinner is casual, with a focus on eating whole nutrient-dense foods and catching-up with friends. There’s no need to pull out the fine china or prepare a three-course meal.

I am lucky enough to have friends like this in Cincinnati. We alternate one dinner each week. I get to try new recipes I might not have come up with on my own an so do they. Last night was my turn to host.

I kept things really simple – sautéed kale and onions, a stir-fry of quinoa, onions, peppers, cauliflower, carrots, tomatoes and black beans with a ginger teriyaki sauce and baked patty pan squash.

I saw the patty pan squash at the farmer’s market earlier that week and wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. It was the first time I’d even heard of a “patty pan squash”. The woman who sold it to me said it’s great in the oven with some butter and parmesan cheese.  Well, that wasn’t going to work well for my dinner guests or me so this is what I did instead.

Ingredients:

1 summer squash – cut into half inch slices

cumin – to taste

pepper – to taste

nutritional yeast – to taste

extra virgin olive oil – enough to lightly coat each side of the squash slices

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Spray or lightly coat olive oil on each slice of squash (both sides) and place onto bottom of baking dish. Squash may overlap slightly.

Sprinkle cumin and pepper.

Lightly coat with nutritional yeast.

Bake until slices are tender – about 15 minutes.

I was a little skeptical at first, since nutritional yeast doesn’t melt like cheese, but the reviews were very positive so I will definitely be making it again this summer.

So last night not only was I able to socialize, but I also had a healthy home cooked stress-free meal! Win, win all around.

Sleep – something we’ve been doing since the day we were born and yet can be a struggle for so many of us. In theory, we should be pros by now, know exactly what to do to catch those 8 hours of zzzz’s. Clearly this isn’t the case or the “sleep aid” industry wouldn’t exist.

Getting enough sleep is important for our health. Research suggests that sleep is just as important for maintaining good health as diet and exercise.

Obviously sleep contributes to tiredness, mood disturbances and productivity but it can also affect our weight. Research indicates that two hormones play a big role in the connection between sleep and weight – leptin and ghrelin. Leptin sends signals to the brain to indicate when we are full. Ghrelin simulates our appetite. When we don’t get enough sleep, the production of leptin goes down, so we don’t feel satisfied after eating, AND our ghrelin levels increase so our appetite is stimulated. Not exactly ideal for our waistline.

What we eat and drink in addition to how we spend our time when we’re awake can have a big impact on how well we sleep.

I used to have a lot of difficulty falling asleep AND staying asleep. I admit that my sleep today isn’t perfect, but overall it’s significantly better than it used to be a few years ago. If you’re having difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep here is what helped me the most and hopefully will help you too.

Turn Out the Lights – This might seem obvious, but light confuses our body’s biochemical clock so even though it might be late into the evening, light causes our body to believe it’s earlier in the day than it actually is. Even the light from your digital alarm clock, DVD player and other bedroom gizmos can have an impact. Personally, I sleep with an eye mask to guarantee total black out and it has made a huge difference in the amount and quality of my sleep.

Wind Down Before Crawling Into Bed – Get off the phone, step away from the computer and turn off the TV. I spend so much time constantly on the move so my body needs to be still and my brain needs to wind down before it is capable of sleep. I like to read a book or do some light stretching before bedtime. When I have a really stressful day, breathing exercises help a lot too.

Ditch the Caffeine and Sugar – We are all different and unique so we react to these stimulants differently. For me, any caffeine or sugar during the day will have an impact, but my fiancé can have an espresso at dinner and fall asleep shortly after. If you’re having sleep challenges, try cutting the caffeine and sugar out completely for at least a week and see if you notice a difference.

Keep a Paper and a Pen Nearby – May be it’s just me but bedtime is the first time all day that I can relax. So what happens? My mind starts running and thinking about everything I have do the following day. Or I start mentally packing for an upcoming trip. Or making my grocery list. You get the idea. Now I keep a to-do list handy at all times. When something pops into my head I write it down and feel assured that I won’t forget. My mind is now quiet when I crawl under the covers.

Crank Up the AC – I know I sleep better when the room is cool. It’s that simple. I’m not talking freezing temperatures in the bedroom 24/7, but if my bedroom is even a few degrees too warm then I won’t sleep well. An hour before bedtime I turn up the AC and let the room cool down so that it’s a comfortable temperature when I’m ready for sleep.

Exercise – We know exercise is great for your health for many reasons. Improving sleep is absolutely one of them.

So there you have it. My not-so-secret strategies to getting a good night sleep!

I know. I know. This picture isn’t exactly salivating-worthy. Let me explain.

I originally saw a recipe for blueberry oat bars on this website and wanted to give it a try – with a few modifications based on what I already had and what I had access to. However, I accidentally forgot to add the applesauce and water to the crust, but by the time I realized my error the layers had already been made. Instead of throwing everything away and starting over I decided to peel off the layers and save what I could. I purchased the blackberries at the farmer’s market the day before for the sole reason of making this recipe (there weren’t any blueberries available) and didn’t have a back-up supply on hand. So I added the water and applesauce and put everything back into the baking dish according to the recipe’s directions.

So while this outcome you see pictured above is not as aesthetically pleasing as it could be and the layers are not distinct, you can’t tell at all by the taste.

These bars are sweet enough for dessert, but light enough to compliment the summer heat. Personally, I love chocolate desserts year-round, but some of my friends prefer fruity desserts and I think this will make the perfect go-to recipe next time I’m dining with these folks.

I thought about waiting to share the recipe with y’all until I could make the bars correctly the first time around, but decided against it. I’m not a professional chef and don’t pretend to be one. Sometimes I mess up and my meals don’t always look pretty. But I use real ingredients and that is more important to me than what it looks like.

There was a time when I would have, without a doubt, thrown everything out and started over so that everything would look perfect for my readers. Perspective is a powerful thing and can completely change the way we deal with stress and expectations. I had 2 options once I realized my mistake. (1) I could have gotten upset and frustrated that I screwed up these oat bars. My entire day could have been ruined. A little bit of a drama-queen-like example, but I’m sure we all know people like this on some level. Instead of a baking mishap, may be it’s getting stuck in traffic, arriving late to a meeting, bad weather on a special day, you get the idea. (2) Or – I could say “Oh well. They still taste good.”

We’re only human. And sometimes stuff happens.

What really matters is how we handle it.

Ingredients:

Filling:

1 pint blackberries

5 tablespoons agave nectar or honey

¼ cup water

½ teaspoon vanilla

3 tablespoons cornmeal

“Crust”

3 cups rolled oats (not the instant variety)

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1.5 teaspoons baking powder

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsweetened organic applesauce

6 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons agave nectar or honey

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease an 8×8 inch baking dish.

In small saucepan combine blackberries, agave nectar and ¼ cup water. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat.

When it is boiling, add vanilla and cornmeal. Stir as mixture boils and thickens. Remove from heat and set aside.

Put 1.5 cups of rolled oats into blender and grind to a fine powder. Pour into medium-sized mixing bowl.

Add 1.5 cups of rolled oats, cinnamon, baking powder and salt. Mix.

Add applesauce, agave and water. Mix well.

Spread half of the crust batter into the greased pan – smoothing to cover the bottom of the pan.

Spoon the blackberry filling over the batter and cover the filling with the remaining crust mixture.

Bake for 30 minutes or until the top is lightly browned. Allow to cool before cutting into bars.

*** Store somewhere cool – like your refrigerator – to extend “shelf life”.

I have grown quite fond of Sundays over the years. May be it started when I was living in the south because there wasn’t much open in the neighborhood before 1pm so I was forced to relax and have some down-time. May be it was before my move south of the Mason-Dixon line. I’m not sure.

For me, Sunday is the time to prepare for the week ahead – specifically in the kitchen.

The weeks are busy and sometimes at the end of the day the last thing I feel like doing is whipping up a meal from scratch. Ordering take-out is rarely an option – for several reasons, but a big one is that it’s just not in our “food budget”. So it’s up to us to have homemade goodies at home that can last a few days – to save time and energy on the nights that I need to study or just want to put my feet up. Hey, I’m human.

Preparation is key.

In my continuing effort to try new foods, I loaded up on mung beans in the bulk section of my grocery store a few days ago. They are a great source of protein, fiber, thiamin, iron, magnesium, phosphorus, potassium, copper and folate. Since they are smaller in size, they are easier to digest and cook more quickly then some larger beans.

This recipe came from my mung beans experiment. It makes a huge quantity. And it was super inexpensive to make. Now I will have plenty of good, healthy and homemade food to get me through the next couple of days.

Ingredients:

1 cup dry mung beans

1 cup quinoa or brown rice

1 large zucchini, chopped

1 medium onion, chopped

1 head Swiss Chard, chopped

1 cup shredded carrots

2 tablespoons low sodium soy sauce

1 teaspoon ginger

grapeseed oil

Directions:

Soak beans overnight. Drain and rinse. Cook well.

In medium pot, add quinoa and 2 cups of water. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer. Continue to cook until water is absorbed and quinoa is cooked.

In large skillet, add 1 tablespoon of grapesed oil. Add onions and sautee for 5 minutes. Continue to add oil or small quantities of water to prevent ingredients from burning in skillet.

Add zucchini and carrots.

Once zucchini and carrots are tender, add cooked quinoa and beans. Mix well. Add soy sauce and ginger and mix.

Add Swiss Chard and mix until greens have wilted.

Serve warm.

I hear from so many clients that they don’t have enough time to prepare healthy meals for themselves and their family. I know that if I don’t get a head start in the kitchen Sunday evenings that my week is going to be more difficult than it needs to be.

How do you make the time to make more meals at home? For me, it’s creating a routine – this is what I do every Sunday.

This past weekend I was in Maryland for a close friend’s wedding. It was a beautiful and memorable weekend – perfect weather, delicious food and the kind of music at the reception that keeps you moving on the dance floor. Despite the perfection of the entire weekend celebration, my favorite part was the time I got to spend with my camp friends. I’ve known these girls since the very beginning of my time at sleep-away camp – long before the days of SAT scores, job interviews, financial independence, proposals and weddings. Today we are scattered all over the country so it is very rare that the 6 of us are all under the same roof at the same time.

The wedding weekend in Maryland got me thinking a lot about relationships. They come in all different shapes and sizes – romantic, platonic, workplace, family, etc., but what they all have in common is that they all require work in order to exist. With a little (or probably a lot of) hard work, they feed and nourish us. Our relationships are the fuel we need to get us through the really shitty lows, help us celebrate the life changing highs, and keep us company through the mundane.

I am fortunate to have so many nourish relationships. Sure, sometimes they take more work than others, but at the end of the day, they are all totally worth it.

The weekend flew by and before we knew it Sunday afternoon had arrived and it was time to say good-bye. I’ve been home for about 40 hours and I still feel like I’m on a high. I’ve looked through my pictures countless times reliving the weekend through the images on the screen. I can’t wait to see them all again, although I’m not quite sure when that will be.

That’s the thing about my nourishing relationships – they do more than just make me smile, log minutes on my cell phone, and keep me boarding planes – they feed my soul and keep me feeling alive. They satisfy me in ways that paychecks, vacations, and jewelry can’t.

What are your most nourishing relationships? Do you have relationships in your life that are more draining than nourishing?

Today I successfully completed my last final of the semester! I am now officially done with all of my course requirements for my Master’s degree in Human Nutrition. Wahoo! Sure, I still have comprehensive exams in a few months so I’ll continue spending a lot of my spare time with my textbooks and I haven’t officially completed my MS, but so what?

I need to appreciate and celebrate this milestone.

The way I see it, there are too many uncertainties in life to not celebrate the small stuff. A few years ago I went to bed as a normal, healthy and happy 20-something only to wake up the next day with an incurable lifelong disease. I’ve learned a lot from my UC, but one of the most important lessons I’ve learned and like to remind myself of every day is that life is precious and I never know what tomorrow may bring. And neither do you. So enjoy the good days and find gratitude in all that you accomplish – big and small.

It goes without saying that we celebrate weddings, births, communions, graduations and b’nai mitzvahs. But what about the “everyday” stuff like nailing a presentation at work, finally getting around to cleaning out the garage or breaking out of your food rut and trying a new recipe? These are all accomplishments too and should be celebrated. Just like my little achievement of not quite completing my Master’s, but getting one step closer.

So how did I commemorate this notable day? I went to the local spa and treated myself to a manicure AND a pedicure – not something I do regularly so I savored every minute of it and left feeling relaxed and rewarded. Celebration achieved.

I’m not saying you have to throw a party whenever you take out the garbage, but a little pat on the back never hurts. So get that manicure, treat yourself to a new outfit or whatever that thing is that will give you a little more bounce in your step, because hey, you deserve it.

How do you like to celebrate?