Tag Archives: food

  1. Six Functional Wellness Tips to Boost Your Energy

    Here are my top six tips to boost your energy. These are simple, inexpensive functional wellness focused approaches that are KEY for supporting healthy, balanced energy levels. Read on to learn how you can easily manage the energy crisis going on in your body!

    One of the most common responses I get with my health coaching and nutrition clients when we discuss their top 5 health concerns, at the start of our time together – ENERGY!! I have heard every version of – “I have no energy”, “Why am I so tired all the time”, “How can I have more energy later in the day?”, “I NEED my coffee to get through the afternoon”, “My energy levels are the worst they’ve ever been?”, “how can I boost my energy?”

    This common issue is not unique to my parents, to just women or the folks working long hours – this is probably one of THE MOST universal health issues I see across the board, with all of my clients.

    We are dealing with an energy crisis in our own bodies. Crashing after breakfast around 10am, using coffee and energy bars to push through, then there is that dreaded 2pm slump. More coffee. More snacks. And finally, despite a desperate desire to want to hit the gym or that yoga class after work, you simply just can’t even. It’s not a lack of willpower or motivation, you are simply lacking the energy and there are probably some VERY simple reasons why. Lucky for you, it can be a fairly simple and inexpensive path to remedy this, if you are committed to doing the work and putting in some time to making a few changes.

    These are my SIX functional wellness tips to boost your energy and manage the issue on a foundational level rather than simply dealing with the symptoms of fatigue and at times even depression that can result from a lack of energy!! Put down the coffee, energy drinks, bars, bites and balls and let’s get to the root of it….

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  2. Between Meals Podcast // Bites 03: Finding a Balance of Work and Life

    Chapter 03: Finding a Balance of Work and Life

    Part 3 of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series from the Nutritional Therapy Association Conference

    Listen Now on iTunes

    Show Notes:

    Recorded Live at the Nutritional Therapy Association’s 2018 Annual Conference: Live Nourished, in Vancouver Washington, this is part three of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series focused on Content Creation and Building a Presence Online created and hosted by Beth Manos Brickey, RYT, NTP of Tasty Yummies.

    In Chapter 03 the topic is: Finding a Balance of Work and Life

    Having a presence online can often require us to be constantly “on”, it can be hard not to get stuck in being chronically overworked, mindlessly swiping and scrolling, needing to always be available to our followers and clients and even worse, falling into the glorification of busy. On the final day, in this 3-day series, we share our own personal experiences in finding a work life balance and offer tips for stepping away, outsourcing and hiring help and just finding grace in the space, where you can. 

    Session three features my special guest Emily Schromm of  www.emilyschromm.com

     

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  3. Between Meals Podcast // Bites 02: Retaining Your Voice, Passion and Authenticity Online

    Chapter 02: Retaining Your Voice, Passion and Authenticity (Especially in Partnerships and Collaborations)

    Part 2 of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series from the Nutritional Therapy Association Conference

    Listen Now on iTunes

    Show Notes:

    Recorded Live at the Nutritional Therapy Association’s 2018 Annual Conference: Live Nourished, in Vancouver Washington, this is part two of a 3-Day Business Mastermind Workshop Series focused on Content Creation and Building a Presence Online created and hosted by Beth Manos Brickey, RYT, NTP of Tasty Yummies.

    In Chapter 02 the topic is: Retaining Your Voice, Passion and Authenticity (Especially in Partnerships and Collaborations)

    From blogging and sharing content of any kind online to establishing a social media presence, we cover tips and share our personal experiences in developing a voice and positioning yourself as an authority in the virtual space. We cover moving beyond comparison and how to stop “shoulding all over yourself”. We share our personal thoughts and experiences on brand partnerships, collaborations, knowing when it’s a good fit and when it’s not and making sure not to lose yourself in the process.

    Session two features my special guest Alison Marras of Food By Mars 

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  4. Ideas for Camping Meals and Hiking Snacks

    Ideas for Camping Meals + Hiking Snacks

    Ideas for Camping Meals + Hiking Snacks

    I am super excited to share this post with Ideas for Camping Meals and Hiking Snacks from my recent camping trip. Being in Yosemite for 7 days and being responsible for prepping and cooking dinner each night, for 8 – what an absolute honor and a task. Calling upon my knowledge as a Nutritional Therapy Practitioner and bringing my food blogger vibes, all while keeping it easy, accessible and making everyone happy – that may have been one of my favorite food challenges, to date.

    Ideas for Camping Meals + Hiking Snacks

    Obviously (and selfishly) all the food I cooked for the week had to be gluten-free with options for being paleo-friendly, as there were three of us that ate this way. The rest of the group could eat everything, which made it quite easy. Given that the days were filled with epic, day-long hikes, some as long as 14 hours and 22 miles or boot camp style workouts and yoga, I also wanted to be sure I was nourishing everyone adequately and providing high-quality, nutrient-dense food while keeping it affordable and doable given the restricted nature of camp cooking. Also full disclosure, I still wanted to keep it all fun and campy, because after all, camping is a time to relax, let loose and have a good time.

    Below you will find all of the meals I cooked for the week, along with links to recipes where appropriate and info on how I made it happen. At the bottom you will also find some suggestions for hiking and trail snacks, supplements, etc.

    These may not be the best photos, I left my DSLR camera at home and chose to just enjoy the trip and relish in the moments rather than focusing on food styling and perfection. So, instead we have lots of iPhone shots from myself and my girl Natasha of The Feisty Kitchen, who also coincidentally makes a really rad prep and sous chef / partner in crime.

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  5. The 9 Best Foods for Eye Health

    I received compensation from Alcon for the below post, but all opinions expressed here are mine.

    The 9 Best Foods for Eye Health

    Glasses and contact lenses have been a part of much of my life. When we moved to California over three years ago, I actually had to give up wearing contact lenses as I began to suffer from dryness, allergies and itchy eyes – nearly daily. This certainly complicated things as wearing glasses in the kitchen, dealing with the steam of the oven or the dishwasher fogging up the lenses, can complicate things while cooking. Plus, glasses while at the gym or yoga practice, sliding off your sweaty face is also annoying and cumbersome. After some changes to my lifestyle, managing ongoing allergies and getting back to tip top eye health, I am back to wearing contacts again and I am loving my new DAILIES TOTAL1® contact lenses. Daily disposable contact lenses are totally new for me, but I am loving the freedom to enjoy my on-the-go lifestyle without the hassle of glasses and I love that each day, my contact lenses feel fresh and new. If you would like to try them, visit DAILIESChoice.com to learn about the Alcon DAILIES® Choice Mail-In or Online Rebate Offer and how to save up to $200 on a year’s supply of DAILIES TOTAL1® contact lenses!*

    The 9 Best Foods for Eye Health

    Research shows that much like the rest of our bodies, what you eat can also help support eye health as you age. Of course, as always, it is recommended that you eat plenty of fruits and vegetables rich in color, like orange, yellow, red and dark green as these are particularly likely to include the vitamins great for eye health. Foods rich in antioxidants are also known to help protect the eyes from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), which is the leading cause of blindness among older Americans; as well as cataracts and other eye-related conditions. It is documented that people who supplement their diet with Vitamin C, antioxidants, zinc, beta-carotene, and vitamin E experienced about a 25% reduction in risk of developing serious AMD1https://www.macular.org/antioxidant-vitamins-and-zinc-areds.

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    References   [ + ]

  6. Grain-free Baja Fish Taco Bowl {Paleo-friendly}

    Grain-free Baja Fish Taco Bowl {Paleo}

    Grain-free Baja Fish Taco Bowl {Paleo}

    For most of my life, I have always had a (totally rational) fear of fried foods, something I can say I happily accepted and followed. It wasn’t until this past year or so that I finally experimented with for-real frying at home, beyond a simple pan-fry. Besides the occasional french fry indulgence, I never really found myself drawn to deep-fried anything. It just was never my thing. But to be totally honest, beyond the fact that I intuitively never liked how fried foods made me feel, it was mostly because of the scary calories and fat. And while calories and fat should absolutely be a valid concern, in excess, after spending time truly learning about fats and oils in nutritional therapy school program, I have learned what we should really fear more than these numbers, instead are the oils themselves and the havoc that they can wreak on our bodies and our health. That old saying ‘quality not quantity’, has really never been more appropriate.

    At most restaurants, even the nicest of places and honestly in most people’s homes, fried foods are generally cooked in denatured vegetable and seed oils. These are usually highly refined polyunsaturated fats that are highly unstable, especially in high heats. Often they are hydrogenated and when exposed to heat they oxidize and go rancid very quickly and form free radicals. “These chaotic, skewed fatty acid molecules, now in the form of free radicals, wreak havoc on the body attacking and damaging DNA and RNA, cell membranes, vascular walls, and red blood cells, all of which cascade into deeper physiological damage such as tumor formation, accelerated aging, arterial plaque accumulation, autoimmune imbalances, and more!”[1] WOAH – just woah, right? My life-long intuition-led opinion on fried foods was definitely not for nothing.

    Now, before we get into this recipe, I am certainly not advocating that fried foods, even in healthful oils, are something we should consume often. Like sweets and treats, even of the more healthy variety, this type of cooking falls into the category of once-in-a-while eating. But, being totally afraid of something and never being able to enjoy it, that doesn’t really feel good either and it certainly isn’t a lifestyle I ever want to live or promote. However, these curiosities for a better option, this is usually how I manage to come up with an alternative, a new way to enjoy something one-in-a-while that I never get to, but in a much more health-minded approach.

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  7. Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream

    Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream

    Is there anyone out there that doesn’t like Mexican food? I mean really! I feel like there’s a reason that every Taco Tuesday is celebrated with such enthusiasm and why Cinco de Mayo has turned into a way bigger deal here in the US than it is even in Mexico.

    Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream

    But, I digress, I think it’s just a given that everyone loves the food. Though oftentimes most Mexican food is naturally gluten-free, if you prefer to avoid grains, if you like to limit your corn and dairy, if you tend to avoid beans, or if you are mindful of where your meat comes from and how it is raised – it can leave very few options when dining out at traditional Mexican joints. A lettuce wrapped taco is good, but it’s just not the same. I pack my own plantain chips if we are going out for Mexican, but ya know – they are no tortilla chips.  So, of course, I am always looking for other ways to enjoy delicious, healthy Mexican food, grain-free and dairy-free, at home.

    Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream

    Grain-free Veggie Enchiladas with Roasted Hatch Chile Cashew Cream

    I was craving enchiladas recently and I thought it was time I created some, with my spin on it. You may remember I created and shared a tutorial on How-to Make Plantain Tortillas a while back and while I absolutely love them, I just wasn’t sure they would hold up in this recipe. So instead I turned to the Urban Poser’s amazing Cassava Flour Tortillas. These tortillas (made with cassava flour), they are serious business, chewy and flexy, they hold up incredible well and they aren’t too much work to make – once you get into the rhythm. They held up fantastically well in this recipe. No breaks and no splits. Clearly you can opt for any tortillas you’d like here, I just love that these allow for grain-free enchiladas. Read the rest of this entry »

  8. Lightened-Up Moussaka {Grain-free w/ Vegetarian Options}

    Lightened-Up Moussaka {Grain-free w/ Vegetarian Option}

    After sharing the recipe for my dad’s famous Roasted Red Pepper and Feta Cheese Dip earlier this summer, I realized that I haven’t shared enough Greek recipes here on the site.

    Growing up Greek is to grow up loving delicious, traditional, homemade food. I can still remember the smells of my Great Yia Yia’s house, the fragrant stews and sauces, like Fasolakia, simmering that you could smell as you walked up the driveway, fresh herbs drying in the kitchen, the smells of homemade chocolates wafting up the stairs from the basement, where she did her candy-making. It is amazing how I can still tell you exactly what that kitchen smelled like and that was over 20 years ago. When my great grandmother passed away, it was my dad’s parents that moved into the home, carrying on many of the same traditions, Avgolemeno soup, lamb meatballs, pastitsio, spanikopita, dolmades, plus of course, the Greek pastries and all of that good sweet stuff.

    Lightened-Up Moussaka {Grain-free w/ Vegetarian Option}

    Now that my parents have moved into this home, that was built for my Great Grandparents many years after they moved here from Greece and has been in family since long before I was born, they continue to make many of these amazing traditional foods in the very kitchen that my Yia Yia Faklaris and my Yia Yia Manos once did. My dad makes the best Greek salad dressing around (I will have to share my version of it soon) for the best souvlaki you will ever eat, he can grill up a leg of marinated lamb like it’s no one’s business and he makes a killer rice pudding that will literally have you on the verge of tears, it’s that good. My mom, though she doesn’t have a bit of Greek blood in her veins, she makes incredible pastitsio, amazing Avgolemeno soup and together she and my dad make the best baklava I have ever eaten.

    Sadly, going gluten-free nearly 10 years ago now, has meant that I have had to say goodbye to a lot of the traditional foods I grew up on. I have yet to come up with a gluten-free equivalent to phyllo dough, something so integral to so many of my favorite Greek dishes. With that said,  it has taken me nearly 10 years and moving across the country away from my family to come to this – but lately I have been thinking that while I may never have many of those classic Greek dishes as I once knew them, there is no reason I can’t reimagine them. Keeping the classic flavors, but making them gluten-free and trying to generally just lighten them up a bit.

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