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How to Calculate Your Own Nutrition Facts on a Recipe (and why I don’t provide these)
A common comment here on Tasty Yummies “I don’t see the carb count” or “where are the calories” or the ever-popular and very profoundly simple in it’s aggressive request – “nutrition facts?”. First of all, my favorite thing about these comments is the ALWAYS demanding nature of them. No ‘please’. No ‘thank you for this amazing FREE recipe and the 1000’s of articles you have written and shared with us’ nope just “can you give me more, for FREE?”.
Yes, you are sensing a slight snarky undertone. Today this question finally got to me. No, I don’t provide nutrition facts here on Tasty Yummies – that is correct! Will I ever? I don’t know. But for right now, there are no nutrition facts listed with my recipes. One of the main reasons being that there are far too many variables involved, from various brands of ingredients offering wildly varying nutrition facts, to slight mis-measurements on your end, portion size discrepancies and so much more. At this point, this isn’t a focus with my clients in my nutrition practice and I am not interested in providing this information with my free recipes.
If you haven’t noticed, MANY of the recipes here on Tasty Yummies offer loads and loads of options for you to customize, that is by design. I do this because you are all very different people, one of the many things I love about you all. Some of you use noncaloric sweeteners, some of you prefer coconut sugar or maple syrup, I like to leave it open to you and your choices with most of my recipes. Even just these subtle differences alone can cause the nutrition facts to vary WILDY. There is no way I could ever account for the dozens of different combinations in one recipe, things being left out, things getting added, garnishes, a extra generous dollop of that cashew cream garnish. Finally, I do also want to say that I know many of my readers have previously struggled (and maybe some still struggle) with disordered eating, I know for many of them, letting go of counting calories and macros has been a HUGE part of their journey, I want to be respectful of ALL eaters and not have that information knocking everyone over the head. If you want it, you can easily get it. For many of us food is so much more than a set of numbers, it goes beyond calories and grams of carbohydrates and fat.
For some of you, I totally understand that tracking is something you do, you enjoy it and it’s important to your path. There is ZERO judgement from me. So, I figured I would share with you here the many VERY simple ways you can calculate this for yourself. Remember, when you plug recipe ingredients into ANY calculator online, this doesn’t AT ALL guarantee that their database is using the same foods you are, cuts of meat can varying WILDLY with the amount of fat (and therefore calories) they contain and I have even seen almond flours, and other such ingredients, vary extremely drastically from brand to brand, for the exact same amount of measurable almond flour. So, please remember to always take the data with a grain of salt. It will never be an exact science.
FREE Resources
First of all, I want you all to know that there are LOADS of free resources on the internet that will allow you to calculate the nutrition facts of any recipe you want EVER – on demand, all it takes is simply about 5 minutes of YOUR time. What is great is that you can plug in your EXACT ingredients. On a quick google search, this free recipe analyzer seems super straight forward. You plug in the ingredients and it will provide the facts. I cannot vouch for it’s accuracy, however.
Of course, Myfitnesspal is a trusty legend many people swear by. I use Cronometer with my clients for food journaling and accountability and you can easily add any recipe using your specific brand of ingredients and get the nutrition facts of any recipe. Very Well Fit also seems to have an easy to navigate FREE nutrition calculator where you can just copy and paste the ingredients in (remember you may want to specifically choose the brand you are using, where applicable). There are hundreds and hundreds more of these calculators, apps and resources. ALL FREE! Do a little searching, experimenting and playing to find one you like.
Empower Yourself with the Knowledge. But YOU Have Got Do the Work!!
What I love about having YOU do the work, is you are taking accountability for your own health – this is all I have ever wanted for ALL of you. You can plug in the exact brand of coconut flour you used. If you ended up with 10 muffins instead of 12, you can adjust for that. Skinless chicken thighs or chicken breasts instead of skin-on thighs? Maybe you swapped in reduced fat coconut milk for the full fat, great, with just 5 minutes of your time – you’ve got the answers that are specific for you.
I do a lot for you all and ya’ll, I absolutely love doing it – I am so passionate about my work, but I’m gonna need you to go ahead and step up with this one. I believe in you – YOU’VE GOT THIS!!!
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10 Homemade Holiday Gifts
10 Homemade Holiday Gifts
With the holiday closing in on us, I am sure many of you are doing the last minute gift scramble so prevalent in these final days before Christmas. Rather than throwing money at the wall and going with whatever it sticks to, instead of just grabbing another gift card from the big box stores, why not get creative and craft up some beautiful, thoughtful homemade gifts this year?
Drop the cottonball snowmen, leave the popsicle sticks in the popsicles and leave the salt dough for the kids. Finally put away, I repeat, put away the glitter. Spread the holiday cheer with some of my favorite sweet (but sometimes savory) and simple handmade holiday gifts.
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Grain-Free Strawberry Basil Goat Cheese Tart {w/ Vegan option}
You guys know that it’s quite rare you’ll find a recipe on my site with dairy these days, after I cut dairy out of my diet two years ago – due to some digestive yuckiness. However, over the last 6 months or so, I have been enjoying, in moderation, small amounts of sheep milk and goat milk cheeses – as they always do OK for me and my sensitive gut. Both seem much easier on my little emo tummy so I have just been going with it and seeing how I react. I am all about listening to your own body, realizing we are all very different and that there is no single diet for everyone! I personally don’t believe in forcing labels and titles onto my diet (outside of the necessary gluten-free, one) and I find that when I eat intuitively and pay attention to my body’s cues, it really is easy to know what works for me and what doesn’t and this can change from day-to-day. Realizing all of this has been quite freeing, actually.
This Grain-Free Strawberry Basil Goat Cheese Tart is very simple to make and it is obviously great as a dessert, but it would also be a wonderful addition to a fancy schmancy brunch menu. The tart crust is totally grain-free and so simple to make. After that, no more need for the oven and you can just throw this together and be ready to serve it up in no time. Oh, and I have to say – god bless the people of the internet that have the patience to arrange strawberry slices, one-by-one, in a perfectly symmetrical pattern across the top of a tart or cake. You know the ones. We all want to be them/secretly despise their incredible attention to detail. Well, if you couldn’t tell from the photos,that’s not me. I am a dump and serve kinda gal, it all tastes the same anyhow, right? Read the rest of this entry »
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Yoga Teacher Training – FREE Beginner’s Yoga Class in Santa Monica 1/27 & 1/29
Hello there my Los Angeles-area friends, as many of you know I am in the middle of a yoga teacher training program this month, to finally become a registered yoga teacher. This coming week is our final week in our 200-hour training and this upcoming Friday – we graduate! As part of the curriculum, this upcoming Monday 1/27 and Wednesday 1/29 mornings – myself and my fellow classmates that are in the program with American Yoga School, will be teaching a FREE yoga class at a Naam Yoga LA in Santa Monica.We are looking for beginner students that would like to come to either or both of our hour-long classes next week, designed for students with little-to-no prior yoga experience, where we, as soon-to-be yoga teachers, will be working on honing our skills. There are limited spots, so it is pre-registration only. Your attendance as a student will play a HUGE role in our learning process and our growth as teachers, so it would mean the world to us to have you attend our class.
If you are in the LA area and can attend either the Monday, January 27th: 9am – 10am class or the Wednesday, January 29th: 9am – 10am class, please email me at tastyyummies{at}me.com to reserve a spot. Reservations are required so that we can make sure we have enough room and plenty of props. Again, this class is free/donation optional and is meant for beginners or those with a newer yoga practice.
Naam Yoga Studio is at 1231 4th street Santa Monica, CA
Whether or not you are able to attend, if know someone who might enjoy this, please feel free to share! Thank you!
*Above image courtesy of James Brown
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Why I am Gluten-Free.
It came to my attention recently that I have never fully shared my story and my journey here on Tasty Yummies about why I eat gluten-free. I also have never shared some of the “before” photos of me prior to fully changing my diet 3 years ago when I adopted a lifestyle of clean-eating and a diet free of processed-foods and other junk. As much as I enjoy seeing the visual changes from other peoples’ journeys , I have put off sharing my own, for fear of embarrassment and I guess, shame. I have lost the weight, I am healthier than ever, but there is something about seeing photos of myself from before, that is still somewhat painful. I wasn’t obese, many people would hardly call me fat. However, I felt terrible and I was crazy unhappy both in how I felt and how I looked. It is still hard for me to look back at myself at that time. I guess I have needed a few years to pass, just so I could deal with it all and be OK enough with my journey to share it; weight-loss photos and all.
(The purpose of this post is NOT to say that I lost weight by going gluten-free! On the contrary, that was hardly the case and initially I was at my heaviest when I went gluten-free. PLEASE read the entire post!!)
At my heaviest – in 2009. I had already been gluten-free for over 4 years at this point, but I just still wasn’t taking care of myself.
This photo, from my surprise 30th birthday party, was what changed it all for me. I saw this photo and I couldn’t believe that was me. I wanted a change.
Read the rest of this entry »
