Tag: clean eating

The Ultimate “Noocho” Cheese Sauce!

It'll be worth the read to get to this dairy-free noocho cheese recipe at the end!

It’ll be worth the read to get to this dairy-free noocho cheese recipe at the end!

One of the reasons a lot of us don’t take the time to cook or try out new recipes is because we are afraid of failing, fearful that we will “mess it up” and that it will have been a waste of money on food.

We’ve all been there, right?

I often experiment with recipes I’ve never made before and ingredients I’ve never used. I learn what I like through trial and error and take the “will this really taste good?” guesswork out of it for you 🙂

As I continue to focus on a dairy-free lifestyle because of how much better I feel eating this way, I’m sometimes challenged to find comparable alternatives to dairy-based favorites.

In my last post, I shared one of the key ingredients I now use in my cooking to impart some “cheesy” flavor. I promised that one of the recipes I would share with you would be a dairy-free nacho cheese sauce (AKA “noocho” cheese, since nutritional yeast or “nooch” is what gives it its “cheesy” taste).

Most of the time when I prepare new recipes, they turn out great and taste delicious, and I can’t wait to share them with friends and family.

Other times…they don’t. That’s what happened with noocho cheese attempt #1.

Not-so-nacho cheese...first recipe attempted - won't be making this one again!

Not-so-nacho cheese…first recipe attempted – won’t be making this one again!

It lacked flavor, and no matter what I added or even if I heated it up on the stove, I couldn’t get it to taste right…and it definitely didn’t resemble nacho cheese.

Fortunately, using a recipe from this cookbooknoocho cheese attempt #2 was a HIT!

Bill and I made it on Friday night and brought it to a friend’s house as an appetizer, and they liked it, too. Check out the recipe below. You will not regret making this stuff! 🙂

The Ultimate “Noocho” Cheese Sauce

Yum Yum Cheesy Goodness!

Yum Yum Cheesy Goodness!

Ingredients*

  • 1/2 cup raw cashews, soaked in water for at least 30 minutes and then rinsed (Trader Joe’s has the cheapest)
  • 1 tablespoon tahini
  • 1 roasted red pepper (rinsed from a jar or prepared from fresh)
  • 1/4 cup nutritional yeast flakes
  • 1 tablespoon tamari (tamari is gluten-free soy sauce and is in the Asian food aisle…or low-sodium soy sauce)
  • zest and juice of 1 lemon
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 cup water

Click here for the full recipe!

We served it with our favorite healthier chips, which I will share more about in my next post! I enjoyed some leftover sauce the next day with baby carrots.  You have to try this!

*There’s a good chance that a couple of things in this recipe aren’t already in your pantry…don’t let that stop you! Ordering online at Amazon or Vitacost is super easy, or you can pick them up the next time you’re at the store.

If you don’t know where to find something, ask. I’ve found that people are happy to help!

  • Tahini (find in the international section of most grocery stores, in any natural food store, or online.)
  • Roasted red peppers (sold in glass jars in the non-refrigerated section of the grocery store)
  • Nutritional yeast (you can buy this online at Amazon, Vitacost or other retailers, or at any natural food store, Wegmans, Whole Foods, MOMs, or Roots)

Go From Nacho Cheese to “Nooch”o Cheese!

Despite the fact that I was a lifelong lover of dairy products like yogurt (ate it every day!), ice cream, string cheese, and Parmesan cheese, I cut out dairy products a couple of years ago.

It turns out that dairy products were triggering a number of health issues I had for most of my life – from allergies, congestion, sore throats, ear infections, indigestion and acid reflux to skin issues, gas and bloating. I used to get congested frequently, had chronic ear infections (which meant lots of antibiotics), and took Claritin and Zyrtec for seasonal allergies, along with reflux reducing meds like Prilosec (for 10 years!).

For me, cutting out dairy has been one of the keys to begin healing my body, not being sick so often (almost never!)…and getting off of those medications naturally. It’s been pretty amazing!

Check out my *NEW* Pinterest board – Deliciously Dairy Free – for additional articles on the topic as well as dozens of recipes for non-dairy alternatives to foods like cheese, cheesecake, ice cream, milkshakes, dips and dressings. I will be featuring many of them in upcoming blog posts, so stay tuned!

One of the questions people often ask me is, How do you live without cheese? I could never give up cheese.”  The short answer is there isn’t an “exact” match, BUT I’ve found some great options to use as replacements!

One of those foods is nutritional yeast (AKA “nooch”).

Nutritional yeast! I bought this kind at Wegmans, but you can also get it at Whole Foods, MOMs, or online

Nutritional yeast! I bought this kind at Wegmans, but you can also get it at Whole Foods, MOMs, Roots, or online at Amazon, Vitacost or other health food retailers.

A few years ago, I had never even heard of nutritional yeast and certainly wouldn’t have guessed it was something edible. This is kind of like the eggplant naming question…couldn’t they have picked a more appealing name??

Despite its odd name, this stuff has been a staple in our pantry for the past 3 years. You can find it online, or at Wegmans, MOMs, Whole Foods, Roots, or other natural food stores.

Here’s the 411 on why you might want to get yourself some “nooch”!

  • If you don’t eat dairy (or are trying to reduce it!), it’s a great substitute for cheese-based preparations. It has a “cheesy” smell and taste to it.
  • It’s a great source of protein and contains essential amino acids (protein building blocks!).
  • It’s loaded with vitamins, especially B vitamins, which are important in hundreds of your body’s processes, including staying energized and fighting stress.
  • It’s low in sodium.

If you can get past the weird name, it’s worth giving this stuff a shot. 

I will be posting my favorite “nooch” recipes in the coming weeks – check out the list below for a sneak peek of what I will be making and sharing!

This is what "nooch" looks like out of the container

This is what “nooch” looks like out of the container

  • Herby homemade popcorn
  • Salad dressings
  • Kale chips
  • “Cheezy” curly kale salad
  • Dairy-free “cheese” sauce for mac & cheese or nachos
  • Nutty rawmesan cheese (a substitute for my beloved Parm cheese!)

Want to learn more about nooch? Click here or here!

If you’re interested in going dairy-free and what it could look like for you, check out this 28-Day Dairy Free Challenge with Dr. Oz or this information on elimination diets from my favorite blog, Nourishing Meals!

Stay tuned for future recipe posts featuring this quirky but healthy ingredient!

Simply Amazing Chocolate Walnut Brownies

When I was in college, I was known by some of my friends as “Betty Crocker.” In addition to making chocolate chip cookies the size of your face, I was known for baking cookies and cream brownies on a fairly regular basis for my husband’s fraternity brothers. They were always a huge hit!

Even though I cook and bake differently today, it’s important to me that healthier baking doesn’t mean “boring” or “bland” baking. There’s no sense in eating healthy food if it tastes like cardboard, right? The goal to is to make (and then eat!) nourishing food that tastes delicious!

Last night, while Bill and I were watching The Voice, I brought him one of these chocolatey treats to sample, and he quickly gave it the hubby seal of approval. About a half hour later, he asked me if I needed him to sample another one. That was the sign I needed to know that these brownies were winners!

They are full of flavor, have a nice cakey texture, and smell amazing when they’re baking in the oven. We’ll be sharing them with our small group tonight 🙂

Chocolate Walnut Brownies (Gluten-Free!)

Prepping all of the ingredients for these yummy chocolatey brownies!

Prepping all of the ingredients for these yummy chocolatey brownies!

Dry Ingredients

  • 2 cups raw walnuts (don’t have walnuts? you can use pecans instead)
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder (I used cacao powder)
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1/4 tsp fine sea salt

Wet Ingredients

  • 2 large organic eggs (if you can’t have eggs, you can try using a flaxseed egg, but I can’t promise you’ll get the same outcome!)
  • 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1 tablespoon vanilla extract

Click here for the full brownie recipe from one of my favorite blogs, Nourishing Meals!

Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree. That makes it a plant. Therefore, chocolate is salad. The end :)

Chocolate comes from cocoa, which is a tree. That makes it a plant. Therefore, chocolate is salad. The end 🙂

 

How to Make Quinoa Taste Delicious: My Favorite Recipes!

In my post the other day, I shared the secret to cooking perfect quinoa every time. No more overcooked mush!

Knowing how to cook quinoa by itself is great, but for many of us, eating it plain has been our only experience with this little super seed. When we think of quinoa we think “bland, boring, and tasteless.”

It doesn’t have to be this way! Today I’m going to share how we make quinoa dishes taste delicious.

Quinoa with roasted red onions, carrots, white sweet potatoes and garlic with Swiss chard

Quinoa with roasted red onions, carrots, white sweet potatoes and garlic with Swiss chard

Here is my favorite way to prepare quinoa. It’s not super technical (i.e., no measurements – AHH!), but that’s okay. Part of the FUN of cooking is experimenting and giving yourself permission to not follow so many stinkin’ rules 🙂

  1. Cook one cup of it. It expands to 3-4 times its size so 1 cup dry = 3-4 cups cooked.
  2. Chop & roast some veggies (I love using red and vidalia onions, garlic, carrots and sweet potatoes or butternut squash, broccoli and cauliflower are great, too!). A few pinches of thyme, rosemary, and/or sage give roasted veggies great flavor. Use whatever veggies, herbs and spices YOU like!
  3. Chop up some greens (kale, Swiss chard, spinach, etc.).
  4. Put the quinoa and roasted veggies in a large skillet or saute pan on the stove and turn heat to medium-low.
  5. Add the greens. Toss everything together for a few minutes with tongs until the greens cook down but are still bright. Add a few splashes of water or veggie broth to prevent sticking/drying out.
  6. Remove from heat and squeeze the juice of 1/2 – 1 whole lemon or splash raw apple cider vinegar over the mixture and stir (acid = bite/flavor!).
  7. Top with toasted nuts/seeds (I like pecans, pumpkin seeds, walnuts and pine nuts), and for something sweet, dried cranberries or raisins.
  8. Add 1-2 tablespoons of olive oil (you may need more) as well as sea salt and pepper to your liking.
Quinoa with roasted butternut squash, yellow onion, and garlic with toasted pecans and kale

Quinoa with roasted butternut squash, yellow onion, and garlic with toasted pecans and kale

For anyone who likes to follow recipes with numbers in them, check out the yummy ideas below for some seasonal quinoa dishes! We made the first one this week for dinner 🙂

Roasted Sweet Potato, Kale & Quinoa Skillet – This is a perfect, warming winter dish. We cooked it in our cast iron skillet and made a few changes to the recipe. Roasting whole sweet potatoes in the oven took a long time, so next time, we’ll chop them up, toss them in some coconut oil, salt and pepper and roast them in the oven for 30-40 minutes at 400F. Also, we added a few squeezes of lemon juice and some toasted pumpkin seeds to the dish just before serving, and it was delicious!

Quinoa with Caramelized Butternut Squash & Roasted Brussels Sprouts – These are a few of my absolute favorite things 🙂

Quinoa Fried Rice – Bill and I prepare variations of this all the time. We throw in whatever veggies we have on hand, so don’t feel like you’re stuck with this recipe as is – modify it to include your favorites!

Super Simple Quinoa & Sweet Potato Chili – Is it time to change up your chili recipe? Give this one a try!

I have lots of other quinoa recipes on my Pinterest boards, so check them out!

Roasted sweet potato, quinoa and kale skillet

Roasted sweet potato, quinoa and kale skillet. Yum!

How I Lost 20+ Pounds, Got Back to My High School Weight & Kept It Off

Four years ago, I was almost 25 pounds heavier than I am now.

IMG_2767I had gained weight post-college, as I was juggling two jobs, in the midst of my first dating relationship, and trying to figure out “who I was” outside of school.

Ask anyone, and they would have said I was “healthy.” To the outside observer, based on everything most of us have been brought up to believe about eating right, I was.

Each morning, I had a big bowl of oatmeal with a generous handful of raisins and a hefty spoonful of peanut butter. A few hours later, I had a snack of some sort, like a meal replacement or granola bar, a handful of almonds or Triscuits and cheese.

For lunch, I ended up eating pretty much the same thing every day – a turkey breast sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin with a small piece of provolone cheese, a smear of pesto, and a piece of lettuce. If I was feeling adventurous, I would throw on some sundried tomatoes. I usually finished off lunch with a creamy Greek yogurt and some fruit.

Dinner had the most variety but soon became routine – whole wheat pasta with veggies topped off with more than just a dusting of parmesan cheese, baked chicken with steamed veggies and brown rice, and occasionally breakfast for dinner, or a bowl of cereal if I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated.

Based on everything I had ever learned, I was doing the right things – eating whole wheat products, getting in enough dairy so I’d meet my body’s calcium needs, and avoiding fast food and fried food.

I thought I was eating healthy.

But why was I overweight?

I had been the same weight for about eight years and didn’t think it was possible for my body to weigh less. I had just decided that I was “that size,” that it was because of “my bones,” and that I couldn’t change. That’s until I started doing some research and came across sites similar to https://www.hardballwarriors.com/. Actually doing research told me I need to do more than just move my body. Exercise is all good and well, but you need the diet to match.

Though I was intentionally moving my body on a daily basis, the key to losing weight wasn’t about spending hours upon hours at the gym. I liked Zumba, running, walking and some group exercise classes like BodyPump, so it was easier for me to stick with them instead of doing exercises I “should” do but didn’t like (i.e., spinning).

Although important and necessary, exercise was only about 20% of the answer. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t out-exercise my diet.

In May 2010, I began to do things differently and noticed changes for the first time in a long time.

I used an online database to track everything I was eating and drinking for about 8 weeks. Using this system, I found out that my diet was deficient in a lot of nutrients and that I was eating more food than my body needed to reach my goal weight. I never thought of myself as overeating before, but I was.

What and how much I was eating were the key factors driving my weight.

IMG_2794

Little by little, I made a series of changes, and I’ve never looked back. I have kept the weight off for almost 4 years, even in the midst of planning our wedding, finishing graduate school, and buying our first house.

This truly has been a “marathon” and not a sprint; I didn’t make these changes overnight. I continue to learn more each day and tweak things as I go. I have learned to listen to my body.

Here are some of the things I learned along the way as well as some dietary changes I have made to get back to (and maintain) my high school weight:

1. I upgraded my diet by eating A LOT more vegetables. This was the single most important thing I did. Vegetables have more nutrients per calorie than any other food and are high in fiber and low in calories. They fill us up and nourish us. I started making vegetables the base of my lunch, choosing a salad over my traditional sandwich, and treating veggies more as an entrée than a side dish at dinner (roasted, sautéed, and in salads and soups). I ate more vegetables at every meal.

IMG_2676

2. I ate less food. For most of us, our body tells us it wants more food because the processed foods we are eating are lacking in nutrients…so we keep eating because our body thinks it will eventually get the nutrients it needs. As crazy as it sounds, we are overfed yet undernourished! Once I started eating more unprocessed, unpackaged, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and even beans (for the first time in my life!), I ended up eating less because I was finally giving my body the nutrients it craved.

3. I started “crowding out” processed food. Prior to losing weight, I was eating a lot of “healthy” processed food, like whole wheat bread, string cheese, Vitatops, granola bars, and Wheat Thins. Once I started to realize how few nutrients (and how many non-food ingredients and sugar) were in those foods, I started eating less of them and replacing them with whole foods (see #2 above).

4. I cut out dairy. I know, I know. Milk, cheese and ice cream are the holy trinity of deliciousness, and I am evil for even insinuating we can/should go without them. I grew up loving dairy products. I had mint chocolate chip ice cream cake every year for my birthday, yogurt every day for lunch, and some form of cheese at dinner. In the winter of 2012, I cut out dairy for a couple of weeks and noticed something incredible.

Dairy products (cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.) trigger inflammation, and when we are inflamed, our body holds on to weight. Reduce inflammation, and your body will release excess weight. It’s amazing. As a bonus, I felt less bloated and gassy, my sinus congestion stopped, and I didn’t come down with my typical seasonal bout of bronchitis. Over time, my skin started to clear up and I rarely got pimples! Curious how you might feel without dairy? Cut it out for a few weeks and see what happens!

IMG_08415. I nixed whole wheat products and am gluten-free most of the time. Gluten sensitivity and intolerance are linked to everything from frequent bloating and gas, acid reflux, and irritable bowel syndrome to joint pain, brain fog, fatigue, depression, anxiety, eczema, acne, and constipation. It was the latter that I struggled with most frequently, although I had pretty much all of the symptoms fairy commonly. Today, I know about a lot more constipation treatments, such as foods that can help aid digestion and that you could feel better with butt stuff, but back then I knew nothing and resorted to medication for it which was probably doing me no good. Gluten (the sticky protein found in wheat, barley and rye) can also trigger inflammation, and inflammation makes us hold on to weight. I don’t have celiac disease, but my body is sensitive to gluten. I started eating more brown rice, quinoa, millet and buckwheat – all non-glutinous grains. To learn more about how gluten might be affecting you and your weight, check out this brief quiz or video and article. Talk to your doctor to get tested for a gluten allergy or sensitivity if you suspect you might have one.

Amidst all of those changes over the past four years, the conclusion I’ve reached is this – the way I am eating is sustainable.

I’m not on a “diet.” I’m not counting calories. I don’t feel deprived.

I am eating real food, not too much, mostly plants, and my body is responding by maintaining a healthy weight.

What has worked for you to lose or maintain weight? What is your greatest challenge? Feel free to share!

How I Lost 20+ Pounds, Got Back to My High School Weight & Kept It Off

Four years ago, I was almost 25 pounds heavier than I am now.

IMG_2767I had gained weight post-college, as I was juggling two jobs, in the midst of my first dating relationship, and trying to figure out “who I was” outside of school.

Ask anyone, and they would have said I was “healthy.” To the outside observer, based on everything most of us have been brought up to believe about eating right, I was.

Each morning, I had a big bowl of oatmeal with a generous handful of raisins and a hefty spoonful of peanut butter. A few hours later, I had a snack of some sort, like a meal replacement or granola bar, a handful of almonds or Triscuits and cheese.

For lunch, I ended up eating pretty much the same thing every day – a turkey breast sandwich on a whole wheat sandwich thin with a small piece of provolone cheese, a smear of pesto, and a piece of lettuce. If I was feeling adventurous, I would throw on some sundried tomatoes. I usually finished off lunch with a creamy Greek yogurt and some fruit.

Dinner had the most variety but soon became routine – whole wheat pasta with veggies topped off with more than just a dusting of parmesan cheese, baked chicken with steamed veggies and brown rice, and occasionally breakfast for dinner, or a bowl of cereal if I wasn’t feeling particularly motivated.

Based on everything I had ever learned, I was doing the right things – eating whole wheat products, getting in enough dairy so I’d meet my body’s calcium needs, and avoiding fast food and fried food.

I thought I was eating healthy.

But why was I overweight?

I had been the same weight for about eight years and didn’t think it was possible for my body to weigh less. I had just decided that I was “that size,” that it was because of “my bones,” and that I couldn’t change.

Though I was intentionally moving my body on a daily basis, the key to losing weight wasn’t about spending hours upon hours at the gym. I liked Zumba, running, walking and some group exercise classes like BodyPump, so it was easier for me to stick with them instead of doing exercises I “should” do but didn’t like (i.e., spinning).

Although important and necessary, exercise was only about 20% of the answer. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t out-exercise my diet.

In May 2010, I began to do things differently and noticed changes for the first time in a long time.

I had heard a few success stories from people using Houston weight loss services and decided I would try something similar. I liked the idea of having to be accountable for what I ate and keeping track of my calorie intake. I used an online database to track everything I was eating and drinking for about 8 weeks. Using this system, I found out that my diet was deficient in a lot of nutrients and that I was eating more food than my body needed to reach my goal weight. I never thought of myself as overeating before, but I was. A friend told me that since I was so interested in eating more nutrient-rich foods, I should read articles at Fitness Gains because they provide insights into which foods could help to get the right nutrient balance back into my diet. This way I could eat less and still get the nutrients my body needs.

What and how much I was eating were the key factors driving my weight.

IMG_2794

Little by little, I made a series of changes, and I’ve never looked back. I have kept the weight off for almost 4 years, even in the midst of planning our wedding, finishing graduate school, and buying our first house.

This truly has been a “marathon” and not a sprint; I didn’t make these changes overnight. I continue to learn more each day and tweak things as I go. I have learned to listen to my body.

Here are the dietary changes I have made to get back to (and maintain) my high school weight:

1. I upgraded my diet by eating A LOT more vegetables. This was the single most important thing I did. Vegetables have more nutrients per calorie than any other food and are high in fiber and low in calories. They fill us up and nourish us. I started making vegetables the base of my lunch, choosing a salad over my traditional sandwich, and treating veggies more as an entrée than a side dish at dinner (roasted, sautéed, and in salads and soups). I ate more vegetables at every meal.

IMG_2676

2. I ate less food. For most of us, our body tells us it wants more food because the processed foods we are eating are lacking in nutrients…so we keep eating because our body thinks it will eventually get the nutrients it needs. As crazy as it sounds, we are overfed yet undernourished! Once I started eating more unprocessed, unpackaged, whole foods like fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, whole grains and even beans (for the first time in my life!), I ended up eating less because I was finally giving my body the nutrients it craved.

3. I started “crowding out” processed food. Prior to losing weight, I was eating a lot of “healthy” processed food, like whole wheat bread, string cheese, Vitatops, granola bars, and Wheat Thins. Once I started to realize how few nutrients (and how many non-food ingredients and sugar) were in those foods, I started eating less of them and replacing them with whole foods (see #2 above).

4. I cut out dairy. I know, I know. Milk, cheese and ice cream are the holy trinity of deliciousness, and I am evil for even insinuating we can/should go without them. I grew up loving dairy products. I had mint chocolate chip ice cream cake every year for my birthday, yogurt every day for lunch, and some form of cheese at dinner. In the winter of 2012, I cut out dairy for a couple of weeks and noticed something incredible.

Dairy products (cheese, milk, ice cream, etc.) trigger inflammation, and when we are inflamed, our body holds on to weight. Reduce inflammation, and your body will release excess weight. If you’re interested in learning more about inflammation you can learn more here. It’s amazing. As a bonus, I felt less bloated and gassy, my sinus congestion stopped, and I didn’t come down with my typical seasonal bout of bronchitis. Over time, my skin started to clear up and I rarely got pimples! Curious how you might feel without dairy? Cut it out for a few weeks and see what happens!

IMG_08415. I nixed whole wheat products and am gluten-free most of the time. Gluten sensitivity and intolerance are linked to everything from frequent bloating and gas, acid reflux, and irritable bowel syndrome to joint pain, brain fog, fatigue, depression, anxiety, eczema, and acne. Gluten (the sticky protein found in wheat, barley and rye) can also trigger inflammation, and inflammation makes us hold on to weight. I don’t have celiac disease, but my body is sensitive to gluten. I started eating more brown rice, quinoa, millet and buckwheat – all non-glutinous grains. To learn more about how gluten might be affecting you and your weight, check out this brief quiz or video and article. Talk to your doctor to get tested for a gluten allergy or sensitivity if you suspect you might have one.

Amidst all of those changes over the past four years, the conclusion I’ve reached is this – the way I am eating is sustainable.

I’m not on a “diet.” I’m not counting calories. I don’t feel deprived.

I am eating real food, not too much, mostly plants, and my body is responding by maintaining a healthy weight.

What has worked for you to lose or maintain weight? What is your greatest challenge? Feel free to share!

This Is Community

Growing up, I preferred being alone more than being with other people.

It’s not because I didn’t like people; I was just super shy and introverted and felt safer and more comfortable in my own company than I did with others.

As I’ve mentioned before, studying abroad in Spain my junior year of college left an indelible mark on me, expanding my palate beyond what I ever thought possible. It also transformed my social tendency to prefer being alone.

IMG_0705

The Hispanic culture is a very social one. I was surrounded by people all of the time and rarely had the opportunity to be by myself. When I returned from my semester abroad, instead of spending all of my weekday evenings hunkered down in the library reading, studying or writing, I began to value and enjoy staying up until 2:00 a.m. playing cards, baking, listening to music, and hanging out with my friends.

For the first time in my life, I wanted to be around people more than I wanted to be alone.

Graduating from college and leaving the academic world for the first time two years later was frightening for me. All of my identity was wrapped up in how well I performed as a student and whether I got good grades.

I had just started my first dating relationship, moved out of my parents’ house and into an apartment with someone I didn’t know, and was working two jobs. In the midst of all of those transitions, I felt alone, lonely, and sad. I lacked community.

My then-boyfriend (now husband!) and I went through some challenging times as individuals and as a couple as we sought to establish new connections and find community.

Over the past seven years, we have been blessed by the generous, loving, supportive community of family, friends, church members, and co-workers that surrounds us.

We have experienced the significance of what it means to be in community.

When a couple in our church has a baby or is going through a challenging time, and dozens of people sign up to bring them dinners for two months…

This is community.

IMG_1279

When we sign up for a missions trip to Nicaragua as we are buying our first house and don’t know where the almost $3,000 we need for the trip will come from but end up being fully funded

This is community.

When a kitchen sink pipe starts leaking the day we move into our new house (which we had to get some loans to get in the first place), and our next door neighbor (who happens to be a plumber) offers us his industrial air blower to dry out the floor and replaces the pipe for half of what it would have cost elsewhere…

This is community.

When our bus gets stuck in the mud in an impoverished village in Nicaragua as we are on our way to a feeding center, and the villagers stop what they are doing to find rope to pull us out, dig their heels into the mud to push from behind, and bring whatever precious water they can find to help us clean ourselves up afterwards…

This is community.

When my husband has hand surgery and can’t drive his manual transmission car for a month, and four friends eagerly offer to lend us theirs…

IMG_2997

This is community.

And days later, when a snowstorm comes through, and our next-door neighbors take it upon themselves to shovel out our walkway, sidewalk and driveway, as they tell us, “We know your husband can’t use his hand. We take care of you.”

This is community.

This is what happens when we are in community. We were meant to be in community.

So, what does this have to do with food?

As I’ve written before, we believe good health begins in the kitchen. It’s a place of connection, community, and comfort.

Unique communities around the world identified as “Blue Zones” are home to the world’s longest lived people, people living active, fulfilling lives well into their 90s and even 100s. Belonging to some kind of faith-based community, being in a social circle that supports healthy behaviors, and eating a plant-centric diet are three of the nine lessons learned from people who live to be 100+.

The next time you have an opportunity to spend time with friends, family or even a coworker, create community in the kitchen. Make a healthy, nourishing meal together. You don’t have to have a fancy kitchen or be an experienced chef to do this – maybe a pot, a pan and a knife, or some of these inexpensive kitchen staples.

Pick out the menu, go grocery shopping, prepare the meal, and savor the food together. It will be more enjoyable than doing it by yourself. Do that enough times and maybe cooking will become something you get to do instead of something you have to do.

Looking for some healthy recipe inspirations? Check out my Pinterest board or some of the links below for ideas!

  • Kath Eats Real Food: Real food. Nothing processed here. Delicious and simple ingredients and recipes…check them out!
  • Girl Makes Food: Discover how delicious and easy healthy food can be!
  • Clean Food: Terry Walters cooks seasonally and prepares delicious, nourishing recipes. I have her cookbook, Clean Food, and we have made nearly a dozen delicious recipes from it!
  • Healthy Girl’s Kitchen: After struggling with diet obsessions for years, Wendy has lost and kept off over 40 pounds through a plant-based diet. Check out her awesome recipes!
  • The Gracious Pantry: Clean eating recipes for everyday living.
  • oh she glows: In addition to being meat and dairy-free, many of Angela’s recipes are free of gluten, soy, and processed foods…did I mention they are also delicious?

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