How to Be Healthy Over the Holiday Weekend

Hi! How is your week going so far? Are you getting excited for the 4th of July? With our 3-day weekend coming up, there are going to be plenty of parties, barbecues and get-togethers. Are you wanting to avoid the fattening party foods without feeling deprived? Here are some suggestions for eating well and having fun during this weekend’s celebrations.

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How to Be Healthy this 4th of July Weekend

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1. Set a game plan. The number one way to stick to healthy habits is to write down your game plan ahead of time. This Thursday or Friday take out your note pad and write down your workouts for the weekend and when you are going to do them. I’m planning on going on a long run Saturday morning, the gym Sunday morning and meeting up with my friend for a run Monday morning.

Now that our workouts are planned, let’s plan out our meals and pack some healthy snacks. Write down healthy meals and snack ideas. If you feel overwhelmed and tempted to stray off track at a party, whip out your list of healthy meal plans and stick to it.

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2.  Pack as much as you can. (No, not clothes, healthy foods!) If you are going to be traveling or staying away from home, pack a few easy to prepare breakfasts and snacks. You most likely will be at parties for lunch and/or dinners so breakfast items and snacks are the foods that you should focus on packing. Packets of instant oatmeal, fresh fruit, and greek yogurt are all healthy options for breakfast. Some healthy snack ideas include: baby carrots, sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes, raw almonds, Larabars, ThinkThin bars, Purebars, apples, and grapes.

3. Bring Your Own “____” No, not “beer,” salad! This is the easiest way to make sure that the party you are going to will have a healthy vegetable option. Check with the host or hostess first to make sure that it’s okay with them for you to bring a salad. Then, make a large, salad full of fresh greens and lots of raw vegetables. Even if there are no other healthy food options at the party, at least you can eat a lot of your salad.

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4. Keep it lean and green. When selecting foods to eat at your gatherings, remember the mantra “lean and green.” Load up most of your plate with green vegetables: lettuce, fresh greens, zucchini, broccoli, etc. Then choose a little lean protein: chicken, fish, quinoa, beans, etc. By sticking with light foods, it will give you a little more wiggle room to enjoy a drink or slice of pie.

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5. If you indulge yourself, NBD (no big deal!) Being too strict and rigid with your diet and exercise over a holiday weekend can make you a party-pooper. Celebrations are about relaxing, coming together with your family and friends and having fun. Go ahead and enjoy a a cocktail or a slice of your mom’s famous chocolate cake. What you don’t want to do is feel guilty and end up overindulging. Fill up on your healthy meals and snacks and leave that last 10% of your eats for fun foods that you want enjoy.

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6. Focus on what’s important. Barbecues, bonfires and block-parties feature great tasting food. But instead of staying focused on the food, think about the other reasons why these get-togethers are so much fun: the company! Keep yourself busy catching up with friends and loved ones. Learn about what’s new and exciting in their lives and give them your full attention. By working the crowd, you will be less likely to dish up a second hamburger or veggie burger. Be thankful that everyone can get together and celebrate this patriotic holiday.

I hope that these help you stay healthy and feeling great this holiday weekend. What are your favorite tips for staying active and eating healthy during holiday celebrations?

Summer Quinoa Salad

Hi! How is your week going so far? I have been happy knowing that at the end of this week, we get to celebrate the 4th of July with a 3-day weekend. Layla will be staying at a doggie hotel for two whole nights while I get a little break back at the coast.

(source: Portland Ground: Pictures of Portland Oregon)

I started getting back into running recently and have been having a blast running with my friend, Tonya. We started tonight’s trail run at Sellwood park. It got a little dangerous when we took a closed-off hazardous trail that included a dirt cliff and us hopping a fence and crossing some train tracks. We survived – haha!

I wanted to share a new salad recipe with you today. I will forever credit Jennie Brouse for introducing me to her quinoa salads. There were a a few quinoa salads that I had tried in the past, but nothing like hers. Today’s recipe is an adaptation of her classic quinoa salad.

Summer Quinoa Salad

I cup uncooked quinoa

2 cups water

1 cooked beet, chopped

1 cup raw zucchini, chopped

1 cup crumbled goat cheese

1 cup celery, chopped

1 cup cooked corn kernals

1 cup fresh asparagus, cut into 1/2″ peices

1 (15 oz) can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

3 green onions, sliced

1/2 cup fresh basil, sliced

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar

1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil

1. Soak the quinoa is hot water for 10 minutes. Drain in fine mesh sieve. Add the quinoa to two cups of boiling water in a medium size sauce pan. Cover and cook at a medium simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and let rest with the cover for 5 minutes. Fluff with a fork and let cool to room temperature.

2. Place all of the ingredients in a large bowl. Toss with the vinegar and olive oil. Season with sea salt and pepper to taste. Refrigerate for up to 5 days.

I love to pack this as a quick lunch or snack on a smaller portion of it. You can also substitute any of the ingredients with other types of vegetables. For example, I don’t really care for beets, but I try to make myself eat them because they are so healthy. If I’m really not feeling like beets, I would just use more zuchini in place of the beets. Or, if you prefer feta to goat cheese, go for it. The mixing and matching of ingredients is a fun way to make their salad your own!

My salads all packed up for the week.

I then pre-pack my salads for the week and I am ready to easily grab one from the fridge and take with to work each day. See how time-efficient you can be by doing your grocery shopping and meal prep on the weekends? I’m off to go play with Layla. She has been begging to play and chew on her bones.

Carrot Poppy Seed Salad

Hi! How is everything going today? We are just breezing through the week already. I had such a good time after work today. I met up with an old friend (who happens to be dating my cousin) and went for trail run over in SW Portland. If any of you are runners out there, you know how good an early summer run around 6pm feels. There were lots of hills and the scenery was straight out of the movie Twilight. For all you Twilight fans out there, Blake’s sister got married at The View Point Inn last summer. This was where Bella & Edward’s prom was filmed. Her wedding was absolutely beautiful!

Anyway, back to the kitchen! This past Sunday I prepped all of my salads and snacks for the week. It was so much fun to take all my fresh produce and create enough salads to last me through the work week. I even packaged them in individual container so that they would easy to grab on my way out the door in the morning.

Here’s the first one based off of a salad from the New Season’s deli case.

Carrot Poppy Seed Salad

2 cups shredded carrots (you can buy the bags of pre-shredded one or shred the carrots yourself)

1 (15 oz) can garbanzo beans, drained and rinsed

1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped

1/2 Tablespoon poppy seeds

Dressing:

3 Tablespoons fresh lime juice (or substitute lemon juice)

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1/2 teaspoon turmeric

1/2 teaspoon Penzey’s Sate seasoning (or 1/4 teaspoon brown sugar and 1/4 teaspoon sea salt with a pinch of garlic powder)

1/2 teaspoon Mountain Rose Herb’s West Indes Rub (or 1/4 teaspoon powdered garlic, teaspoon black pepper, with a pinch of powdered ginger)

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

In a small bowl or magic bullet, combine the lime juice, olive oil, spices and salt. Place the carrots, garbanzo beans and cilantro in a large bowl. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. Sprinkle with the poppy seeds. You can store this is the refrigerator for up to 5 days.

I’m off to read the newest issue of “Whole Living” magazine. Does anyone else get that one? Have a great day!

How to Achieve Your Goals

Hi! How are you doing today? I’m feeling fabulous right now! I woke up early, took Layla for her morning walk, worked at the health center, got all my appointments made, worked out, made one of my Gluten-Free Lean Cuisine dinners, and now I’m sipping my Blue Sky Cherry Vanilla Creme soda as I type this. And, The Bachelorette is on right now, so I guess you could say I’m multitasking.

Today I was driving home thinking about how I had crossed almost all of my to-do’s off of my daily list. This lead to me start thinking about how I am a “go-getter” and am constantly working towards my goals. This trait can be seen as a good or a bad thing. For this post, we’ll focus on the positive aspect of it.

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What makes someone an achiever? Why do some people have the ambition and drive to go after their dreams and not give up? Why do others choose not to set goals and work towards them? Does everyone desire to achieve great things, but only some act on it? What differentiates the achievers from the slackers?

I am no expert at achieving goals, but have achieved some goals throughout my life. I strongly believe that regular goal-setting is detrimental to being successful in life. If you don’t decide where you want to go in life, how are you going to get there? Set goals to help you create your life map.

Here are my top 5 personal tips for achieving your goals:

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1. Write them down. I know that this doesn’t seem like a big deal, but the simple act of taking out a pen and writing your goals down on paper makes you 99 times more likely to achieve them.

2. Post them up. Remember that inspiration board post that I did a while back? The point of creating an inspiration board is to look at it and be inspired each day. By writing down your goals and pasting them to your inspiration board, you are constantly reminded of your goals.

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3. Just Do It. The Nike tag line is not just for athletes; it’s for all of us. Procrastination can get the best of all of us, but only you can push past it. Instead of making up excuses of why you “can’t” do something, make an action plan and “just do it.”

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4. Be kind to yourself. It’s easy to let self-doubt and negative emotions get the best of you. Instead of thinking about your weaknesses and what you haven’t yet achieved, focus on your strengths and how you’ve already started working towards your goals. Remember that positive thinking creates positive results. Being kind to yourself will enable you to achieve your goals and feel great while you are doing it.

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5. Reach out for support. This is such an important step. We as human are becoming more and more isolated as time goes by and technology changes. You need to reach out to others and share your goals with them. By interacting and socializing with your peers and mentors, you will have more support for working towards your goals.

Some great websites with goal setting tools include:

Lululemon Goaltender - This application lets you set goals for a year, 5 years and 10 years from now. It even emails you to check on your status with each goal.

Tim Ferris’ Dreamline Worksheet – This excel worksheet allows you to set personal and business goals and create the steps to make them attainable. I highly recommend both of his books for getting you motivated to set some goals.

Acompl.sh.com – This site used to be named 101 in 365, but they recently changed their name. They offer a place to store 101 goals that you would like to accomplish over the next year. The goals can be big or small, but you want to cross them off your list within the next 365 days.

What are your top tips for achieving your goals? One of my goals is writing my blog posts on a daily schedule. I haven’t achieved it yet, but I’m working on it ;)

Raw French Macarons

Hi! How did eveyone’s weekend go? Mine has been wonderful. I got to see most of my family Saturday afternoon for my cousin’s college graduation party. Congrats Alee!!! The party was hosted at Bluehour in the pearl district. Appetizers and drinks were served. I wasn’t very hungry, but my cousin said that the food was good.

I made Alee some raw french macarons as a present. I had some Living Intentions Raw Superflour blend to use up and I’ve had french macarons on my mind ever since my friend, Laura’s bridal shower. (More on that to come later this week.)

The "Real McCoy" French Macarons

So, I played around in the kitchen Friday afternoon. Here’s what I came up with:

Raw French Macarons

Makes about 18 macarons

2 1/2 cups unsweetened, dried coconut  (or) 1 cup jarred coconut butter

1 cup unsweetened, dried coconut

1 1/4 cups Living Intentions Sprouted Super Flour

1/4 cup + 2 Tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon coconut extract

1 teaspoon almond extract

1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Filling:

1/2 cup extra virgin coconut oil

3 Tablespoons agave nectar

1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

pinch of sea salt

To make the cookies:

In a high powered blender, blend the 2 1/2 cups shredded coconut on low to medium speed until the consistency is that of coconut butter. Or, place your cup of jarred coconut butter in the blender. Add all of the remaining ingredients besides the filling to the blender. Blend on low to medium speed until all of the ingredients are well combined.

Roll the dough with a rolling pin until it is 3/8″ thick. Use a circular cookie cutter the size of a quarter to cut out the cookies. I used the cap to a vitamin jar and it worked perfectly. Transfer the cookies to your mesh-lined dehydrator tray. Dehydrate for about 18 hours; until the edges of the cookies are crisp.

To make the filling:

Using an electric blender and a chilled bowl, blend all of the filling ingredients at medium to high speed. Once the filling is fluffy, put it in a pastry bag or zip-lock bag. Chill in the refrigerator overnight.

To assemble the macarons:

Remove the filling from the refrigerator about two hours before you want to use it and allow it to come to room temperature. If you are somewhere very warm, you might want check the filling every half hour to make sure that it isn’t melting. If using a zip-lock bag, cut the tip off a bottom corner of the bag. Pipe about a teaspoon worth of filling onto a cookie. Top it with another cookie and gently press them together. Once you have filled the macarons, place them back in the refrigerator to set. Serve at room temperature. These should last for about a week in the fridge, but I honestly doubt that someone could just let them sit in there that long ;)

I tried one of these and it was delish! My sister and her friend both agreed, so I thought that I’d share them with you. I recommend using a Vita-mix blender and an Excalibur dehydrator for this recipe.

Favorite Maui Restaurants

Hi! I hope that you are having a great week. Today I wanted to focus on something a little different. Some of you may know that I lived on Maui for a few years. I had plenty of time to dine at many of the amazing restaurants that the island has to offer. Since we’re entering Summer and I know that Maui is a popular vacation destination, I thought that it would be fun to share with you some of my favorite restaurants around Maui.

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Milagros – Paia

Milagros will always have a special place in my heart. Blake and his business partner were friends with the bar tender, Dave, and we always were treated to extra good service. This was our go-to restaurant. They have a Mexican inspired menu featuring fresh, island ingredients. Everything on the Menu is good. No, I’m serious! For drinks I recommend the mojito or the mango margerita. Gluten-free option: Fish tacos are my favorite item on the menu.

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Sansei’s – Kihei

This is the best asian restaurant on the island. They have a huge selection of sushi, but their cooked dishes steal the spotlight. Before I ate gluten-free, Blake and I shared the tasting menu and it was one of the best meals I have ever eaten! Get here early or call and make a reservation because this place is usually packed. Gluten-free option: Mango crab hand rolls.

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Jennifer’s – Wailuku

I didn’t even know that I like Vietnamese food until I ate here. This restaurant is a bit off of the usual tourist’s path, but the food is worth it. It’s fun to come with a big group and order 10 different items and pass them around the table. My only warning is not to try whatever the server recommends. The gentleman who used to wait on us would always recommend obscure entrees that didn’t impress us. Stick to what sounds good to you. Gluten-free option: Rare lemongrass beef salad without the shrimp chips.

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Cafe O’Lei – Kihei

This is one of our favorite restaurants. We discovered it our last year on the island and I wish that we had tried it out sooner because it was that good! The atmosphere is a little more sophisticated than most of the island. The fish selections is outstanding and the drinks are pretty good too. I usually got a little dressed up to go here, but casual clothes are fine too. Gluten-free option: seared Ahi with rice and vegetables. (Make sure that they know you are gluten-free)

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Mama’s Fish House – Kuau

No dining list on Maui would be complete without Mama’s on the list. This is the place for special occasion dining. Their prices are a bit steep for everyday dinners, but if a birthday or anniversary is being celebrated, this is the best place to go. The service is impeccable, the view is beautiful and the food is magical. The fish is caught fresh daily by local fisherman. Their drinks are pricy, but worth it. Try the one with coconut milk, lime juice and rum. Gluten-free options:
Seared Beef Polynesian appetizer and Polynesian Ono.

These are my top 5 from memory, but there are many more amazing restaurants on the island. I’ll probably do another post with them. Although, writing this makes me really hungry for island cuisine and miss Maui too much! Have you been to Maui? What is your favorite restaurant there?

Happy Place

Hi! I hope that you are enjoying some fun activities this weekend. I am typing this post at my kitchen table while my mini-quiches are baking in the oven. I call this my “happy place” because I’m in the kitchen baking and on my computer at the same time. Two of my favorites in one!

I’m making mini asperagus mushroom quiches based off of this recipe by Martha Stewart. The quiches are not gluten-free. They are for one of my best friend’s bridal shower tomorrow and I have never made gluten-free quiches before and know that this is not the time to “experiment” with a gluten-free recipe.

My friend’s twin sister got an adorable mini-quiche pan at Williams-Sonoma for me to use and it worked perfectly for the recipe. You can find it here. I used puff-pastry dough from the freezer section, and substituted sautéed mushrooms for the ham that the recipe called for. Too bad I won’t be able to test them before the shower. I’ll just have to trust that they taste amazing. Martha Stewart, is usually a reliable source for recipes.

I wanted to share a recent find with you. While reading The Oregonian FoodDay this week, I saw something featured that I have been waiting for: oven-safe, glass food storage containers with snap-on lids. Perfect! They are by Ziplock and you can find them here. The reasons why I have been wanting glass, oven-safe storage containers are because we do not have a microwave at our house, it’s easier to store my left-overs in the same container that I use to reheat them and because I avoid plastics with BPA.

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Be sure to avoid plastics marked with the numbers #3 & #7, most canned foods (the plastic lining contains BPA), all microwavable frozen entrees packaged in plastic. When selecting water bottles, choose stainless steel, glass or BPA-free plastics. If you are a parent, make sure that your baby bottles are labeled “BPA-free.”

I just wanted to touch on some of the dangers of BPA. At the health clinic where I work, we have a test that actually shows the levels of BPA in your body along with other environmental toxins. It’s scary to see how high a lot of people’s toxic levels are. With that to think about, I’m going to go get a run in and finish up the quiches for tomorrow’s party. Have a great day!

Gluten-Free Pizza Guide

Hi! Are you all feeling inspired after my inspiration board post? Today I wanted to share some of my favorite ways to satisfy a pizza craving while still avoiding gluten. As you might already know, pizza crust is made with wheat flour, which contains gluten. Sometimes I miss eating regular pizza, but like every other type of glutinous food craving that I get, I find a way to fulfill it.

Frozen Pizza

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Luckily, we have many gluten-free pizza options. If I need a frozen pizza, Amy’s gluten-free pizzas have a rice flour crust and come in both dairy cheese and dairy-free cheese varieties. I especially like the spinach & tomato one.

I’m kind of ashamed to say that it’s the only brand of frozen pizza that I have tried, but most gluten-free pizzas are expensive and if I already know that I like Amy’s, why should I risk it?

Homemade Pizza

(source: glutenfreemommy.com)

Now, if you are feeling a little more gourmet and in the mood to make your own gluten-free pizza dough from scratch, Gluten-Free Mommy has a good recipe posted here.

(source: glutenhatesme.com)

Or, if you want to make a super-quick pizza, take a brown rice tortilla, spread some pizza sauce, sprinkle your favorite cheese (low-moisture mozzarella or mozzarella Daiya non-dairy cheese work well,) and load up on lots of vegetables (mushrooms, spinach, onion, olives, sweet potato slices, broccoli, etc.) Bake at 400º for 10-12 minutes or until the edges start to brown. Simple and satisfying!

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Or, if you want to go completely vegetable crazy, remove the stems from whole portobello mushrooms. Coat the mushroom caps with a little olive oil and season with salt, pepper, garlic powder, thyme and balsamic vinegar. Pre-heat the oven to 350º. Place the mushroom caps with the gills-side down on a lightly oiled pan and bake for 15 minutes.Remove from the oven and turn the caps over and top with pizza sauce, veggies and cheese and bake for an additional 10 minutes.

Eating Out

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Sometimes you just want to go out for a slice of (or whole) pizza! If that’s the case, and you don’t know where to go, then google it. I usually just type in, “gluten-free pizza” plus whatever town I’m in. Up pops a list of pizzerias serving gluten-free pizza. If you happen to live in the Portland area, Bellagio’s has my favorite personal size gluten-free pizzas. Or, check out glutenfreeportland.org’s list of pizza spots around Portland.

More and more national pizza chains are starting to offer gluten-free crust. I know that Garlic Jim’s gluten-free pizzas are really popular.

If you are trying to watch your waistline while enjoying some pizza, here are three tips to slash some calories:

1. Avoid fattening meat toppings. Pepperoni, sausage and meatballs are loaded with extra fat and sodium.

2. Ask for half the cheese. Trust me, you will not even miss it. Then next time you order pizza, try it without any cheese and see how you like it. Well, this may be taking a little too much of the fun out of pizza, but it’s a great option for vegans and people with a dairy-intollerance.

3. Have 1 slice of pizza along with a large green salad. This way, you get to enjoy some pizza and fill up your stomach with lots of fresh vegetables. Just be sure not to drown your salad in creamy dressing. Try to add a little vinaigrette instead.

If none of there pizza options are available to you, here is another pizza-flavored meal that I love, pizza salad. I made this the other night when I went to grab a brown rice tortilla and it was moldy – eww!

Pizza Salad

2 cups mixed greens

1/2 cup chopped fresh tomato

5 Kalamata olives, sliced

1/4 cup sliced mushrooms (baby bellas work great)

2 tablespoons grated cheese (parmesan, pecorino romano, mozzarella, etc.)

1/4 cup pizza sauce

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

2 fresh basil leaves, sliced

sea salt and pepper to taste

Combine all of the ingredients in a large salad bowl. Toss and serve. This seriously satisfied my pizza craving the other night!

I hope that these gluten-free pizza tips with help you find a new way to indulge your pizza cravings. Does anyone have any amazing gluten-free pizza suggestions? I’m all ears :)

Inspiration Board

Hi! I hope that everyone enjoyed the maple syrup information yesterday. Tonight’s post is going to feature one of my favorite things: Inspiration Boards.

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Inspirations boards are a collage of images, quotes and written goals that inspire you to achieve your dreams. You can clip photos from magazines that inspire you to be a better version of yourself. You can write down quotes that are meaningful to you. It’s helpful to write out individual goals that you want to achieve.

I started making inspiration boards back in middle school and hanging them up in my closet so that I would see them each morning when I got dressed. Then in high school, I made collages out of magazine clippings and put them inside the covers of my binders. Fast forward to now … and I have a little inspiration board in my room. It serves as my daily reminder to work towards my goals, stay positive and create the life that I want to live.

You may have seen Gina’s Inspiration Boards a while back. She kinda reminded me about my love of inspiration boards. Another great post on making inspiration boards is on the Lululemon blog. A few months ago I gathered up the magazine clippings that I had set aside and tacked them up on my bulletin board along with some of my handwritten goals. This summer I’m making working out, taking Layla for lots of walks and getting enough rest a priority, so I wrote myself a little reminder about these too.

So, what’s going on your inspiration board? You can make one to hang up on your wall or if you want to make one on your computer, check out Oprah’s Dream Board Maker online.

I’m going to be sending mine to Karena and Katrina at ToneItUp for their post that they’re doing on inspiration boards. We’re all here to support each other and encourage one another to create our own dream life! Feel free to send me a picture of yours if you make one. Take care, Kilee

Ingredient Spotlight: Maple Syrup

Hey! How has your weekend been? Mine has been fabulous! The weather has been beautiful in the pacific northwest. I started off the weekend with a little “Mexican Night” at our place with some family and friends.

Then, I stayed with my parents at the coast Friday night and got to spend lots of time walking on the beach with Layla. It has been such a nice, fun weekend!

Today I wanted to do a little feature on one of my favorite sweeteners: maple syrup. I use 100% all-natural maple syrup in some of my baked goods and on my gluten-free protein pancakes. Other sweeteners that I use include raw honey, stevia, sucanat, evaporated cane juice and occasionally agave nectar. I have taken HFCS (high fructose corn syrup) and refined sugar completely out of my diet because of the health dangers of each of these common sweeteners. Some of the reasons why I choose not to consume HFCS include:

• It contains no enzymes, vitamins or minerals. It actually does the opposite, it robs micro-nutrients from your body. The fructose in HFCS is different from the natural fructose you get when you eat a small piece of whole fruit, which contains the nutrients needed for your body to assimilate sugar.
• It is almost always made from genetically modified corn, which may increase your risk of developing corn food allergies. The problem with corn allergies are that once you have a corn allergy from GMO corn you will have an allergy to even healthy organic corn products.
• It does not stimulate insulin production or enhance, leptin, a hormone involved in appetite regulation. Because insulin and leptin act as key signals in regulating how much food you eat, this suggests that dietary fructose may contribute to increased food consumption and weight gain. (source)

The reason why I choose not to consume regular, white sugar is because I have noticed a strong relationship between my increased sugar intake and my anxiety/bad moods. I LOVE sweets, but over the years have realized that anytime I eat an abundance of white sugar, I get anxious and depressed feeling. Other reasons why you might not want to eat refined sugar include:

• Sugar can suppress the immune system. There is scientific data showing an increase in sugar intake to a decrease in the bodies ability to ward off illness. Think about the cold/flu season – Halloween to Easter. Do you eat more sugar during these holiday months?
• Sugar feeds cancer cells. This is very scary for our growing cancer epidemic. We are all born with some cancerous cells, but the more sugar that we feed our bodies, the more rapidly the cancer cells can grow.
• Sugar increases your chance of having candida. Candida is a naturally occurring yeast in our bodies. If it has the opportunity to overgrow, it can create a leu of health problems and takes a lot of work to get it back down to a normal amount. (source)

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Now that we have talked about some of the reasons why HFCS and refined sugar are bad for our health, let’s focus on a replacement sweetener for the two of them: 100% pure maple syrup. Maple syrup is one of nature’s sweeteners. It is harvested from maple trees primarily in North America. It’s calorie content is similar to refined sugar, but it boasts some nutrition stats that refined sugar lacks:

• The zinc found in maple syrup can help to protect your heart by acting as an antioxidant and decreasing the progression of atherosclerosis – the thickening of artery walls.
• Two teaspoons of maple syrup contain 20% of your recommended daily supply of manganese. This trace mineral is an essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defenses.
• Maple syrup is much less refined than regular, white sugar.  Our body can easily identify and metabolize it for energy. (source)

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Food-grade maple syrup is broken down into different grades. In general, the lighter the color of maple syrup, the more delicate the flavor. The United States has some basic grading standards based on color and flavor.

We have looked at some of the health benefits of using maple syrup instead of HFCS or refined sugar and the different grades of maple syrup. Let’s talk about how to use it in our kitchens. 

To replace sugar in a baked good recipe: start out using ¾ cup for every cup of white sugar and decrease the amount of liquid by 3 tablespoons to compensate for its liquid state. Taste how the recipe turns out and alter the amount if needed the next time that you make it.

Use on top of pancakes, waffles, french toast or any other breakfast that you would reach for a bottle of Mrs. Butterworth’s.

I would tell you to use it in place of sugar in your coffee or tea, but I like to use stevia as a non-sugar sweetener for these beverages. I’ll do an “ingredient spotlight” on stevia in the near future.

Some recipes that call for maple syrup that I want to try out:

HEAB’s Maple Nut Oaties

Taste of Home’s Maple Glazed Salmon

Mobile Magazine’s Maple Cinnabon Cookies

I want to remind you that just because maple syrup in an all-natural sweetener, that does not give you the freedom to over-indulge and use gobs of it day in and day out. Try to limit your daily consumption of sugar and sweeteners to less than 100 calories or approximately 2 tablespoons worth of maple syrup. As with everything else in our healthy diet, eat it in moderation.

I hope this helps you better understand maple syrup in contrast to HFCS and refined sugar and inspires you to try it out in a recipe. Let me know if you have any other uses or recipes that call for maple syrup. I’m going to lay low and relax tonight. Have a nice evening!

Wednesday Meals

Hi! How is your day going so far? Mine has been wonderful; partly because I realized we were already half way through the week. Gotta love Monday holidays! I thought that it might be fun to show you my meals today because I just happen to have my camera sitting on the kitchen table all day. These are all one-dish meals that I threw together in 15 minutes or less.

Breakfast: Breakfast Burrito Scramble

I cooked organic scrambled eggs, cut-up brown rice tortilla, veggies with Mexican blend Mrs. Dash and topped it with some pico de gallo. A very healthy and filling way to start my day!

Lunch: Salad

Arugula and mixed greens with chickpeas and my new tahini-lemon dressing recipe.

Dinner: Orange Chicken Stir-Fry

Organic chicken breast with veggies and a little oriental orange sauce that I mixed up.

I spent a total of less than an hour in the kitchen today and enjoyed three homemade meals. As you can see, eating healthy, gluten-free meals can be easy, quick and oh so good!

Tonight I want to feature some of my favorite websites that inspire me to be my best each day. I think that I’ve mentioned some of these in the past, but they are each so fabulous, that I want to remind everyone to check them out!

The Daily Love

I subscribe to their daily newsletter and it truly is one of the best parts of my day. Mastin Kipp writes amazing and inspirational advice and I love the quotes section of the newsletter. This is one to check out a.s.a.p. and sign up for the daily newseltter. I promise that it will add joy and happiness to your day!

Tone It Up

These are my favorite celebrity trainers! I wish that I could work out with them everyday. Karena and Katrina are so positive and fun to listen to. They have awesome workout videos that are set on the California beach. One day, I’m going to go visit their studio and work out with the ToneItUp team!

I Heart Wellness

Kris Britton has a lovely blog dedicated to allergy-free recipes and inspiration to follow your passion. She is always coming up with new yummy, allergy-free recipes. She also offers a lot of advice for following your passion and living your dream. And, she sells her gluten-free cookies on Etsy. She is one busy girl!

What are some of your favorite websites? I’d love to hear what ones you check out regularly. I’m off to clean up the house for a little get-together that we’re hosting tomorrow night. Have a great evening!