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Showing posts from 2021

Healthier Thanksgiving Recipes to Try This Year

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  It’s almost time to get together with your family and friends to celebrate Thanksgiving and all that you have been grateful for this year. Looking for some last minute holiday dishes to try to change things up a bit? Maybe eat a little healthier for Thanksgiving and feel a little better about having some seconds? What if I told you there are some tasty healthier versions of some of our favorite traditional dishes? Family members might be hesitant to have one of their traditional dishes replaced by one of these recipes, but if you explain that you wanted to introduce something new this year. I’d imagine they won’t mind having a little extra food when it looks so tasty! …And if they give it a try, they won’t be disappointed by the recipes below. Lisa Bryan’s Healthy Green Bean Casserole featured on DownShiftOlogy.com is sure to satisfy anyone’s tastebuds. It’s so similar to the traditional green bean casserole, only it is completely made from scratch. You won’t be using anythi

Comfort food for Cold Weather

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It's getting cold outside which means it's time for comfort foods. Remember hamburger helper as a kid?? To me, it was one of the best meals and I always looked forward to eating it. But a s a dietetic intern, I know my body needs a variety of nutrients so I find creative ways to add vegetables to my meals without them overwhelming the dish. I have revitalized a classic and it tastes SO much better! Give it a try! Ingredients: 2 Tablespoons avocado oil 1 pound lean ground beef or turkey 1 red bell pepper 1 medium white onion, diced 1 teaspoon chili powder 1 teaspoon paprika 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 pound whole grain macaroni noodles 1 zucchini, shredded 2 cups low sodium beef broth 1 ½ cups milk 2 cups shredded cheddar cheese 1 Tablespoon ketchup 1 Tablespoon mustard Salt and pepper to taste Directions:          1. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat, added diced pepper, onion and meat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook until meat is cooked through. Stir in seasonin

3 Holiday Eating Myths and What To Do Instead

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The Holidays are approaching my friends!  Instead of falling for holiday eating myths, choose a realistic, maintainable way of eating during your holiday buffet style feasts. Here are 3 holiday eating myths and what you can do instead to feel happier, comfortable, and joyful during this holiday season! "Making Room" I t is common practice to skimp out on eating the day before, not eat at all the day of a holiday party, or skimp out on food the day after. When you are "making room", the body goes into what is called survival mode. When the body is in survival mode, you are actually more likely to over eat.  Which means during your buffet style party, you will eat much more than what your body physically need. This may also influence how fast you are eating too which also prevents you from feeling full when you are truly full. Instead of participating in this "make room" myth... just continue eating  regularly  throughout the holidays!  You Did Not Do The Ho

Thanksgiving Recipes for Celiac Disease

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Recently, my sister had some tests done to determine if she had celiac disease. She’s had some bouts of significant discomfort after eating many different types of food that primarily contain wheat. While it was determined she does not have celiac disease, my mother and I had already started to research how and what to cook and bake for someone with celiac disease (and when you start us on something about cooking or baking the rabbit hole will never end). Thus, this post idea was born.  Here are a few Thanksgiving recipes we found. I have included the links above each listing. **I do not own any of these recipes or their included photos** https://www.beyondceliac.org/gluten-free-recipes/leftover-thanksgiving-turkey-soup/ “Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey Soup” from BeyondCeliac.com From BeyondCeliac.com   My mother is arguably the queen of giving new life to leftovers. One of her favorite leftover meals is- can you guess? – leftover soup. My mother’s soup usually includes a barley or wheat

Kicking Caffiene

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  Not Enough Light in the Day We all appreciated the extra hour of sleep we got thanks to the time change on Sunday, but now the days feel shorter for many of us. The sun setting at 5 makes many of us (including myself) feel the need to reach for another cup of caffeine so our body knows its not quite time for bed. But there is such a thing as too much caffeine. Caffeine Cons 400 milligrams a day or the equivalent of 4 to 5 cups of coffee as safe. What happens when we regularly exceed that amount? Here are some side effects of over-caffeination: ·          Anxiety ·          Insomnia ·          Digestive issues like diarrhea, acid reflux ·          Muscle breakdown ·          Addiction ·          High blood pressure ·          Increased heart rate ·          Fatigue ·          frequent urination   How can I stay Energized? 1.        Control stress - easier said than done right? Talk with someone about your stress, whether that’s a friend, a colleague, or a

Everything Was Red (Taylor’s Version)

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Everything Was Red (Taylor’s Version) If you’re anything like me, you’ve been counting down the days to the Red re-release. Lucky for us, the big day is almost here. In less than 48 hours we’ll have Taylor’s Version of all the original songs as well as some new ones -- make some noise for “All Too Well (10 Minute Version).” So, in preparation for the heartbreak album of 2012 and 2021, I’ve compiled a list of punny comfort foods for when you’re “happy, free, confused, and lonely at the same time.” Comfort food often gets a stigma (especially in diet culture spaces) for being unhealthy. While consistently relying on food to process emotions might not be the healthiest, this is entirely different from enjoying comfort food for what it is when you need it - comfort. So, just like the number of minutes in the new version of “All Too Well,” here are 10 tips and recipes for when you need to show yourself a little extra love. State of Grace Soup This can literally be any type of soup! If you

Dessert With Dinner

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  Dessert with Dinner Our relationship with food is ever-changing and  the  manner in which you offer and present desserts can affect the way you feel about them.  When we were younger, we were often told that to get dessert we had to finish our dinner or eat a certain vegetable. Unconsciously, this was sending the message that some foods are “good” or “bad” or that you must “earn” the dessert as a reward for eating something you didn’t want.  This can cause kids to formulate rules about food without even knowing it which may dictate how they eat or feel about food for years to come. And like many things, we tend to recycle what we learn growing up with our own kids down the line.  A simple way to prevent this is to be intentional with how you present dessert. Serving dessert alongside dinner (or any meal) is an effective way to show that all foods are equal.  Nutritionally, we can still teach our kids that an apple has different nutrients than a cookie, but it doesn’t need to sit in i

The Hungry Student

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Thanksgiving Dish with a Nutritional Twist!

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Refresh Your Refrigerator

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    With holiday season fast approaching you may be preparing your shopping lists to start buying all the ingredients for your favorite dishes or, if you’re like me, preparing your leftover containers to take home all your favorites your friends and family bring to the party. But before you start to fill up your refrigerator, I would recommend a refrigerator reset to keep those ingredients and leftovers fresh and safe!   Making sure your refrigerator is clean and safe can mean more than just throwing out expired food and giving the front a good Clorox wipe down. It’s important to monitor temperature, cleaning the inside of any sticky spots, and having a logical organizing system can be key in ensuring you are protecting yourself from foodborne illnesses or wasting your precious dollars by throwing out those strawberries you forgot you bought two weeks ago because they were shoved to the back behind your hummus and yogurt! Here are some tips and tricks to making sure your fridge is in t

Food for Your Mood

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                                                    Food For Your Mood

Say Goodbye to the ‘Clean Plate Club’

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How the Clean Plate Club started: The Clean Plate Club was established in 1917 in response to the world food shortage due to World War I. The goal of this club was to reduce food waste in a time when food supply was low because people did not know if they would have enough food to survive.  How the Clean Plate Club has evolved: Fortunately, we no longer live in that time period and have an abundance of food or can find sources that provide us with food such as food banks. So why is the Clean Plate Club still around? Parents use this idea of joining the Clean Plate Club as a tactic to get children to eat more. Or they’ve said things like “eat all your food so you can have dessert.” Parents think they are helping their children grow big and strong by making them eat more food. But this does more harm than good. Think about it. Did your parents use the Clean Plate Club when you were a child? Has this influenced the way you eat as an adult? Do you feel guilty for wasting food so you finish