snack

How to Make Baked Beet Chips

Baked beet chips are a healthy snack, but how do you achieve a crisp chip when it isn’t fried? These are my tips to getting a crisp beet chip from the oven that I’m betting you too will be squealing over.

Hearing good news about good people makes me squeal. I mean literally squeal. EEEEEK! There she goes again. My daughter makes fun of me for all my squealing (“MOM! You do it ALL the time!) because I think in her mind squealing is just so.not.mom-ish. I mean, I’m not 13 you know.

So when I hear about the engagement of a friend who’s patiently been waiting for the question to be popped, or the news that someone FINALLY got that new job promotion, or that a friend or family member just adopted a new to them puppy aka old-dog-in-need-of-a-new-home, squealing and smiling and clasping my hands in happiness go, well, hand in hand.

So when I heard that a blogging couple I admire so much, and who had been through years of wishing and wanting and waiting, were finally blessed with the adoption of their new baby boy, you can bet I let out a squeal. And for that , I think my Smudge would approve.

So what does this have to do with beets? Well, I squeal for beets too. And this is the recipe where beets and babies meet.continue to the recipe… about How to Make Baked Beet Chips

Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

This post is sponsored by California Strawberries, whose sweetness will surely inspire you to start the new year right with this Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait and the opportunity to win a Vitamix blender.

If you’re like me, moving into the new year means coming down from my holiday foodie high of sweets, treats and not-especially-healthy-eats and confronting myself with reality.

That boils down to clearing out the stash of Christmas cookies and the last sips of eggnog and making room for more healthful fruit and veggies for this girl. STAT!

With this as my first recipe post of 2014, it seems only fitting to have it start with the most important meal of the day: breakfast. And since I’m six days in and feeling all gung-ho with my annual analysis of what I feed this body of mine, I’m leaving the eggs, french toast and waffles for later.

Today we’re starting off simple. And fresh. And easy. With strawberries.

continue to the recipe… about Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

Currant Cookies and a Cookie Cravings eCookbook Flash Sale

Friendship is a funny thing.

You can be the best of friends. Totally inseparable for weeks, months, even years. Then life changes. New friends come into your life, old friends drift away. Often it’s not even a conscious decision, thought or action. It just happens.

I was first introduced to these Currant Cookies thanks to a friendship I’ve known all of my life, a friendship of my mother’s that has been passed down to the next generation. Life comes full circle and somehow these cookies have become a part of it.

Back a few more years than I’d care to have on my calendar, my mom was set to deliver my little sister when she met her best friend Pam. My mom and Pam were both in the same hospital about to give birth to daughters. For years they had run in similar circles, in the same city, but hadn’t met one another. Yet people would always mistake them for one another. Similar mannerisms, style, beauty and height. It was a wonder they hadn’t met before. I guess bringing their daughters into the world at the same time made it their time.

They both named their daughters Holly. Well, my mom didn’t initially. I did that. My mom and dad named her Heather, but I refused to call her anything but Holly. My mom said she never did look like a Heather. She said Heather’s are wispy. Holly was a tub. So at 4 months old, Holly had a name change.

I’ve always been a bossy older sister. I blame it on this first act of self righteousness.

continue to the recipe… about Currant Cookies and a Cookie Cravings eCookbook Flash Sale

Sweet and Spicy Popcorn Recipe

Before making the change to a low-sodium diet, Jess Goldman Foung, the author of the popular blog Sodium Girl, was like a lot of Americans who ate fried chicken and macaroni and cheese, not nearly enough servings of vegetables and rarely strayed from her comfort zone of basic food groups.

With a degree from Stanford and a budding career as a Development Manager, Jess was becoming an expert at fundraising and grant writing, and loved it. Her body, however, did not.

“The autoimmune disease, Lupus, was aggresively attacking my brain and my kidneys and after three months of chemo, dialysis, and amazing medical care, I survived. My kidneys didn’t, ” she says.

After researching and educating herself, Jess realized she needed to take her health into her own hands, and she started with nutrition. “I swore I would do what I could with my own two hands to help stay strong and live a full life and that meant going on a strict low-sodium diet. But I also happened to be an extremely stubborn person, who refused to eat dull food or miss out on anything life had to offer. So that meant rewriting the low-sodium rules.”

“After a tough-love session with my mother, who asked, ‘Do you want to live five years or fifty years?” I realized I needed to quit my job and find a career that let me take care of myself,” Jess acknowledges. “It wasn’t until a fateful day when I watched two movies back-to-back —Julie and Julia and then Food, Inc.—that I realized what I should do: 1) blog and 2) write about the power of food.”

And that she does with the release of her new book Sodium Girl’s Limitless Low-Sodium Cookbook.continue to the recipe… about Sweet and Spicy Popcorn Recipe

snack

How to Make Baked Beet Chips

Strawberry and Quinoa Parfait Plus a Giveaway

Currant Cookies and a Cookie Cravings eCookbook Flash Sale

Sweet and Spicy Popcorn Recipe

How to Make the Best Potato Salad

How to Make Classic Macaroni Salad

The Best Greek Chicken Marinade

Fresh and Easy Vietnamese Noodle Salad

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5 Quick and Healthy No-Sweat Simple Meals