While I almost always have a little baggie of almonds in my purse (and if I plan ahead maybe even some fruit), given the seemingly unlimited variety of bars available, I just love how exciting and convenient they make on the go snacking! In the mood for something hearty? Go for a protein packed bar. Cravings a candy bar but looking for a healthier alternative? They make those too… and they may even keep you full for a few hours.

For a while I had boxes full of every kind of bar you can think of. And then one day I decided that I should just make my own to save on cost while having fun in the kitchen (I like the whole cooking thing in case you haven’t noticed). I did it once. They were gone in days. And then it’s taken me months to make any again. Other more urgent things seem to occupy my time.

So when I was contacted about reviewing thinkThin bars, I decided to give ‘em ago. And once I got my little stash of 6, I quickly remembered what a TREAT having bars is. So many flavors. So much fun. And no work required. Sometimes the price of convenience is well worth it! The bar monster was reborn.

So let’s talk about thinThin bars. I’ve seen the high protein ones around for a few years now. These natural bars pack 20 grams of protein. They are coated in chocolate and the insides have a texture that reminds of the inside of the peanut butter cup. The cookies & creme (as per below) has chunks of cookies on the inside but the texture is always the same. They reminded me a lot of the Promax bars I used to eat like it was my job about 6 years ago. They have a slight protein powder taste which is impossible to describe – like something is slightly off when compared to a candy bar, but also incredibly addictive. I seriously love them and plan on buying them by the box to curb my sweet tooth in a healthier way. Also, going back to the “I should really make my own” argument, I wouldn’t even know where to start with these so they are definitely worth a purchase if you like them.

I loved all 3 varieties sent to me but if I were to rank them – it’d be caramel fudge, creamy peanut butter, then the favorite – cookies & crème. Big fan of that one in particular!

Now the crunchy bars are more standard granola bars – packed with nuts and dried fruit and sweetened with brown rice syrup (lower on the glycemic index). In general, these are soft and chewy with the “crunch” coming from soy crisps (think rice crispies!).

I liked that these bars were not cloyingly sweet like some of their competitors, and that they contained about 8 grams of protein (not as high as the creamy bars but again – higher than most of the other similar bars on the market).

This guy got a little smooshed in my purse but it was still delicious

Would you like a chance to win some thinkThin bars? 10 lucky Healthy and Sane readers (yes, TEN!) will win a Weight Wellness sampler consisting of 2 thinkThin® Protein Bars & 2 thinkThin® Crunch Bars. Pretty awesome if you ask me!

Here are the rules!

Mandatory for entry:

1) Like Think Products on Facebook and follow @thinkproducts on twitter

2) Leave a comment on this post telling me you’ve done the above. Feel free to also tell me what your favorite on the go-snack is, and if it’s a bar, what your favorite bar is (purchased or made).

Additional optional entries (to increase your chances of winning!):

3) Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (a link to this post must be included to qualify)

4) Pin this post on Pinterest

5) Subscribe to Healthy and Sane by email

6) Like Healthy and Sane on Facebook.

7) Link to this post on your Facebook page.

Add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll.

9 ) Link to this post on your blog, if you have one. If you don’t, let someone else know about this giveaway and tell me so in the comments section after they’ve entered the giveaway.

Please leave a separate comment on this post for each qualifying entry. This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry!) and ends at midnight on Wed, May 2. I will randomly choose 10 winners (woohoo!) using random.org and announce them in the following post. Good luck!

Anyways, the marathon was the highlight of my week so far but the rest of the week as always revolved around food.  Since I do a lot of recipe testing for my express lunch time lessons, I wanted to share one of my favorite quick and cheap recipes that’s perfect for lunch or a casual dinner – an egg salad BLT. This recipe was originally featured in Best of Cooking Light and it was love at first bite. I adore how light yet creamy the egg salad is, and the addition of lemon zest really brightens it up. Also, I’ve used nonfat Greek yogurt in place of sour cream on many occasions and it works wonderfully.

Side note: Martha Stewart’s method for hard-boiled eggs creates perfect eggs every time.

The best part? The contrast between creamy eggs, juicy tomatoes and crispy, salty, smoky bacon. Oh yes!

What are your favorite quick and cheap recipes? Please share with all of us in the comments!

If you live in the Boston area, you definitely know about Boston Brunchers – a group established by Renee of Eat.Live.Blog that has grown to over 300 local food bloggers. Pretty amazing! And if you don’t live in the area, well you know what it’s all about now… and don’t worry – there  is still some good info for you here (and some drool-worthy food photos and even cute animal pics!) I haven’t been out with Boston Brunchers since a fabulous brunch at The Cottage, but this Farm School brunch was extra special.

[Pastries from Iggy’s]

What’s a Farm School? Well, I’m glad you asked my friends   The Farm School is actually 2 farms located in Athol, MA (about 1.5hrs from Boston) – one providing 2.5-day programs to visiting schools, involving kids on whatever is need on the farm during those days. The kids get the real hands-on farm experience for just a few days and hopefully a new appreciation for fresh produce and humanely raised animals. Most of the food on this farm is grown to just to feed all the visitors (they get about 1,500 children every school year!). The second farm offers a one-year learn to farm program for adult students that want to live on a farm for a year and learn all the ins and outs of becoming a farmer. This farm grows organic produce, meat and eggs sold to CSA members and farmers market. Pretty amazing stuff!!

[Bloggers mingling before we sit down for brunch]

[Farm fresh eggs]

[Adorable animals from the farm. Omg I want to die - these are so cute!!]

[Maple tree planks used as serving plates]

Our hosts for the day:

Brunch time!

Peach Bellini from peaches from the farm (I couldn’t say no to that!)

Pork belly two ways

Pork schnitzel, adirondack red pototoes, soft boiled eggs with dill holondaise and sauteed spinach which was so sweet (naturally) that it seemed like a completely different species. And can you see how bright yellow this egg yolk is?

Boston Brunchers brunching

Last course: maple bread pudding made with Iggy’s brioche bread and Farm Schools eggs and maple syrup

The food was seriously outstanding! Obviously the recipes were fabulous but I would largely contribute this to the high quality of ingredients. Every bite was incredible but I was especially surprised by the spinach and the potatoes. They seemed so simple but I honestly have never had spinach and potatoes this delicious. Farm School grows 30 kinds of vegetables and 100 varieties. This is one of my favorite benefits of eating locally – you get to experience artisanal produce, varieties of fruits and vegetables that have been mostly lost to mass production.

I left the brunch with a high (it was also an unseasonably warm day out so everyone was extra happy soaking up the sunshine). I’ve been thinking for a long time about signing up for a produce CSA but was too nervous about getting a box of onions or other produce I had no use for. Actually speaking to the farmers and learning about the programs this particular farm supports, as well as literally tasting the difference, made me reconsider. Here are the pros and cons of a produce CSA as I see them.

Cons:

• Expensive compared to supermarket produce + you pay upfront for the season (this covers seed money and pay for the farmers)
• Quantities fluctuate depending on the weather and how bountiful the season is
• Most CSA boxes are pre-packed so someone else decides what you’ll be eating that week.
• You may get produce you do not enjoy or know what to do with, which may contribute to food waste.

• Your money goes directly to the farmers, cutting out the middle man.
• You are essentially a small shareholder of the farm for the season, so if the season is especially bountiful, you get to reap the benefits
• You get to support your local economy and a farm you believe in, in a way that may not be available otherwise (outside of the CSAs, Farm School for example only sells produce at the Belmont farmers market which is not convenient for me).
• Since the food is grown and distributed locally, it is picked at the peak of its freshness – which is extra delicious and nutritious (compared to imported produce that is picked when it’s still green and ripens in trucks and grocery stores. Green bananas and avocados are my biggest pet peeve ever.)
• If you buy most of your produce at farmers markets, it should actually be cheaper.
• You may try new types of produce or varieties of your favorites you’ve never even seen before!
• Pre-packed boxes add a challenge. This could be a great way to be “forced” to experiment in the kitchen. I’m up for it!

I’ve been thinking of taking the plunge for a while, but what really sold me on Farm School was that they actually have the option of picking your own box for the week. I love that! They basically set up a farmers market type stall (specifically for CSA members), and you get to choose your own 10 different veggies for the week. No onions for me! I also love that all the produce is organic. I checked other organic farms in the area offering CSAs, and Atlas Farms is cheaper but does not have a pick up location in or near Boston. They do have a stall at the Copley farmers market so I’ll still be able to support them if I need to supplement my loot from Farm School (Sienna Farms is amazing but is in contrast a lot more expensive).

Hope your week is off to a lovely start!! See you soon, I promise!

Last week I did something super cool; any food blogger’s dream really – I attended a real professional food photo shoot!! You guys know I’ve been volunteering with Cooking Matters for a little while now (just finished another 6-week class as chef instructor and getting ready for another, woop woop!). In the February newsletter I noticed a call out to volunteers to assist in a photo shoot of all of their recipes. You know I got on that right away! The position was actually to do the cooking of the recipes. It was going to be an aggressive schedule so I quickly realized I would be stuck in a kitchen without a real insight into how the magic happens. So I asked to do a half day of cooking and a half day of assisting the food photographer and stylist. This was met with some hesitance at first but then I got a call back from photographer Ellen Callaway (check out that link, she’s super talented!) who said she got a little more flexibility and I was welcome to come down for a few hours. Done and done! [Moral of the story – ask for what you want or you will likely be disappointed.]

When I got to Ellen’s house (where the photo shoot was taking place), I saw that the cooking was very much under way and that I was basically invited to observe. The atmosphere was super casual. Catrine Kelty did the food styling, her daughter did the cooking, and Ellen took the photos. They worked really well together and made the whole thing look effortless (we all know it’s not!)

I was surprised to see that Ellen works with almost 100% artificial lighting. Those giant black “curtains” purposely blocked any natural light coming in. And the set-up was relatively minimal – some crates, a table top, and then… thousands of dollars worth of lights, cameras, stands and a strobe that automatically sets off the lights when the flash goes off (fancy stuff!).

Of course equipment is not everything – you need to know what you’re doing! Ellen has been doing food photography since 1997 and Cartine has been styling for over 15 years. They were pros for sure.

Little pieces of white paper bouncing light in just the right spot:

Ellen first took several hand held shots until the right angle and general styling was agreed on. This “draft” was emailed to the client (he couldn’t be there). He then let us know if he wanted any changes (different spoon, plate, more visible veggies, etc.). In the meantime Catrine also perfected the dish – like a surgeon. She had these giant tweezers and tiny spatulas, placing bits of veggies, herbs and chicken in just the right spots; fluffing up layers of lasagna; adding chickpea chunks to hummus. I’m usually hungry when I take my food photos so it was interesting to see how much care goes into each shot when it’s done on a professional level (and there is no husband standing over your head asking if dinner is ready to eat yet ).

Once the general shot is approved, Ellen takes the final pictures with a tripod and makes sure that all the shadows are in the right places and the lighting is well balanced. The final shot gets sent to someone else to post-process.

Just a few super quick snap shots with my point and shoot… I didn’t want to be in the way. Sometimes the food looked better in pictures than in real life – impressive! [It was all delicious though, we ate it for lunch.]

Obviously I don’t have money or space for crazy equipment but this did teach me to at least try to take more time to get the right shot (especially with things that don’t have to be eaten immediately… like muffins and cookies). And I like the idea of practicing the layout with a hand held camera and then busting out the tripod. It’s still one of my 30 by 30 goals to master that beast (which has been collecting dust). One of these days for sure…

So yeah, that was awesome. Thank you Ellen and Catrine for letting me be a part of it!

I thought this would also be the right post to share with you my little DIY project from a while back – portable table tops for photo backgrounds. You may remember that I set up a little photo studio in my bedroom – this was my next project to tackle.

There seem to be a lot of wooden table tops made of planks, but when I went to Lowe’s to get the supplies, the guy at the store convinced me to try this easier route, reminding me that most tables are made of solid wood. So true!

I just bought some 2’x2’ wooden boards (1/2” thick) and stained them. All you need a stain of your choice (I picked out “walnut” stain), an old t-shirt and space, preferably outdoors (the stuff is stinky). And then you just rub a thin layer of the stain over the wood. It was surprisingly runny. I was afraid it would be thick and hard to apply but nope, it took seriously less than a minute.

Easy peasy!

It gets tiny bit darker after drying. This is when you can apply another coat if you want. I got lazy and did just 1 coat. It’s been working just fine.

Some photos on the new “table”

[The colors look different due to exposure in the photos – it’s the same board]

I don’t really miss those planks!

Next up, I wanted to do the distressed look and once again decided to go for a shortcut…

Crackle paint! Btw, this is just the other side of the stained top above. You get 2 table tops in 1!

So the idea is that you paint your surface like you would with any other regular paint, and when it dries out the paint starts to crackle. The reality of it? No cracks in sight!

I was cheap and forwent the primer but reading reviews online, it seems like many people found that it didn’t really crack even with the primer… so I guess I’m glad I saved myself an extra $7.

The board looks almost plain white in the photos. It kind of worked in this little photo shoot so I’ll leave it to it.

Have you ever been to a professional food photo shoot? What would you ask the stylist or photographer? I asked Catrine for styling tips and she referred me to Food Styling by Dolores Custer and Food Fanatics.

Between Boston and New York, New York was decisively the cooler of the two, and I made sure to show Adam the best the city had to offer. We spent our days eating and drinking all over New York, enjoying perfectly pressed sandwiches oozing with goat cheese and plump tomatoes; feasting on ice cream, cookies and pastries while exploring new neighborhoods (ok the pastries part was all me ); and finishing our nights with indulgent dinners and cocktails at fancy restaurants. It is then that dining out became the core of our relationship. Good food really does bring people together (oh yeah, and love).

Eventually I developed an interest in cooking, but our love for eating out never died – it remains to be our favorite past time. Unfortunately due to my lack of income at the moment, our eating out budget has been cut significantly (it has been the hardest part of our transition). To “ease the pain,” I’ve been trying to recreate memorable meals out at home.

This dish of fideos with ham, shrimp and clams (recipe here; I halved it and it still made about 8 servings!) was inspired by a dish I had in a (surprise, surprise!) New York restaurant, Casa Mono (<—Mario Batali’s Spanish tapas restaurant in Union Square). It was my first time trying fideos which are thin noodles, replacing rice in this paella-like dish (yes, I know paella actually refers to the pan – not the dish – but in my mind rice, seafood and meats all cooked together with safron and Spanish spices = paella, regardless of the vessel they are cooked in). We were so blown away by Casa Mono’s fideos with chorizo and clams – we ordered round 2!

When Kerstin, Shannon and I decided to make a Spanish inspired feast, instead of going out to eat, I was eager to try my hands at a fideos dish myself… and I have to say it came out absolutely perfect – as good, if not better, than the fideos dish at Casa Mono!! Side note: Kerstin made manchego stuffed meatballs and fantastic potatoes and Shannon made some crazy brown rice milk cupcakes with almond cream cheese frosting, and her boyfriends supplied some home brewed beer and hard cider – oh yeah, we ate well that night!).

This dish is a little time consuming but it’s mostly inactive time. You can also make the ham hock broth ahead of time, and then the whole thing will come together leisurely in about 45 minutes. Easy peasy. It was my first time cooking with ham shanks/hocks (I found them in the frozen section at Whole Foods) – they lend an incredible smokiness to the whole dish since the noodles and seafood are cooked in the broth they produce. Oh and I also couldn’t find “fideos” so I bought angel hair pasta and broke it up into smaller pieces – it worked like a charm! This dish was hearty, smoky, briny (from the olives and clams) and buttery (from the shrimp) – I thought it was an incredibly impressive dish that is just perfect for company. Pair it with a simple salad or make a few other tapas, and your guests will be happy. I promise

Have you ever had fideos? Do you like recreating meals out at home?

PS – If you haven’t yet, don’t forget to enter my giveaway!

When I meet new people and they learn about my blog (or at least my love for cooking), the first question is always “What’s your favorite thing to cook?” The answer is – I like cooking everything! Of course the focus is mostly on healthy meals, but I don’t limit myself to any particular ethnic angle. I feel like if I did that, I’d be missing out on so much deliciousness that’s out there. Variety is the spice of life, as they say!

So the second question is 9/10 is this (seriously, almost every time!): “Do you know how to cook Indian food?” And this is where I must confess my limitations. I love love love Indian food, especially the non-traditional dishes the likes of chicken tikka masala (I’m sorry, I know people in India don’t eat it but it still tastes like Indian food to me and that creamy/nutty tomato sauce it comes with just can’t be beat. It’s the best!!). But I haven’t been able to replicate the stuff to save my life. I follow recipes, often highly rated recipes claiming to have restaurant-quality taste, and they still fall flat every.single.time.

The other day, I was browsing through my blog archives and found this old post on pork vindaloo that got rave reviews from me and Adam. I thought, hey – maybe I can cook Indian food after all! This also happened to be a super quick dish so I was excited to give it a go again and hopefully also make it a little more appetizing to look at. The end result was this:

1. It was very easy to make.

2. This dish is hard to photograph but the pictures are definitely an improvement over my previous set.

3. It tasted just ok. I guess my standards have gotten higher. I will not be making this dish again. The search for a great Indian recipe continues!!

The bright spot of dinner were these DAHlicious Lassis sent to me by the company for review. Just in case you are unfamiliar with lassis – they are Indian yogurt based drinks. They are creamy and sweet – sort of like smoothies you enjoy with your dinner. Since a lot of Indian food is quite spicy, they add a nice cooling effect too. I enjoy them on occasion when out (although to be honest, they are typically quite indulgent and sweet and I usually don’t like to drink my calories).

DAHlicious Lassis are made with low fat Indian yogurt, made with milk from grass-fed cows (LOVE), are 100% natural and only lightly sweetened. When reading the labels, I also noticed that the banana flavor doesn’t even have any added sugar. Way to take advantage of banana’s natural sweetness. Very cool!

Here is what these pretties look like in a glass:

Again, love the color! The flavors offered are mango, vanilla, blueberry, strawberry and banana. Adam and I had a little taste test with dinner and honestly enjoyed every one. The creamy, slightly tangy taste of yogurt really comes through in every flavor. My favorites were vanilla (most yogurt-centric in flavor), banana – which had the perfect balance of yogurt and banana flavor (my favorite of the bunch, I think!! Also, this one gets bonus points for not having any added sugar), and blueberry – which has a much more berry forward flavor (most smoothie-like and Adam’s favorite too). The strawberry seemed to be just too mild at first but upon a second taste (since it was one of Adam’s favorites), I sort of enjoyed its subtlety. The mango seemed to the exact opposite – completely overpowering, ranking the least favorite of all.

So there you have it! I think these babies would make for a great on-the-go “snack” too, and they sure are tasty.

Would you like a chance to win some? One lucky Healthy and Sane reader will win 5 coupons for free DAHlicious lassis – so you can taste each flavor too and pick your own favorite (they are sold at Whole Foods and various independent retailers across the country)!

Here are the rules: there are plenty of ways to enter.

1) Leave a comment on this post – Tell me anything Indian related. And I will love you forever if you direct me to a great Indian recipe!

2) Follow me on Twitter and tweet about this giveaway (a link to this post must be included to qualify)

3) Pin this post on Pinterest

4) Subscribe to Healthy and Sane by email

5) Like Healthy and Sane on Facebook.

6) Link to this post on your Facebook page.

7) Add Healthy and Sane to your blogroll.

8 ) Link to this post on your blog, if you have one. If you don’t, let someone else know about this giveaway and tell me so in the comments section after they’ve entered the giveaway.

Please leave a separate comment on this post for each qualifying entry. This giveaway is open to US residents only (sorry!) and ends at midnight on Wed, February 8. I will randomly choose 1 winner using random.org and announce him/her the following day. Good luck!

No? Ok, then you should definitely make them. These babies were incredible!!

What, you’re still trying to keep cookies out of your house as part of your New Years resolution to lose a few pounds? I have 2 things to say about that.

1. Are there really people out there that still remember their New Year’s resolutions on January 30? I’m serious. Are there? I can’t seem to remember mine. Sad truth.

2. If you make these cookies, you can taste 1 or 2… and then gift them. Trust me – the recipient will very happy. Very very happy. And making your friends even better friends this year is a really good thing to add to your resolutions.

See? Win-win

A few weeks ago it was my friend Katy’s birthday and I was trying to figure out the perfect gift for her. She’s a doctor so the girl is pretty much living in the hospital. I wanted to give her something that would relax her on some especially exhausting day. Since my mind always goes to food, I thought that maybe baking cookies would be a nice activity for such a day (truth be told, on days like that I prefer to mindlessly shove cookies into my mouth until I pass out. Slowing down and actually baking some is a way better approach. I think Katy agreed!). Katy rarely has time to go grocery shopping so I thought a cookie mix would be a good compromise – homemade cookies, homemade taste – a lot less measuring and planning necessary. Again, win-win.

So I researched and researched. And I found this guide to oatmeal peanut butter jar cookies. They looked perfect!

Of course I wanted to bake a test batch and also to give some to Katy together with the mix so she wouldn’t need to work for her cookies right away.

[Side note: I tried baking them on an ungreased cookie sheet and on a silpat. The results were identical!]

They came out even better than expected!! They were soft and a little gooey on the inside, yet hearty with the addition of oat). And of course the mini peanut butter cups (from Trade Joe’s) made these guys extra special. Everything is better with chocolate!

I made another batch of the mix for Katy…

… and completed the gift with a peanut butter jar (since you have to add pb to the mix), a cookie scoop, and some pretty tags. Honestly, I couldn’t be more proud of myself. The gift turned out SO CUTE!!

Don’t wait for the holidays to shower your friends with homemade gifts. Or to eat cookies.

Are you into DIY gifts? I’d love to hear some new ideas… I’m really digging them these days

Have you heard of miracle berries before? Wikipedia tells me it’s also called synsepalum dulcificum (way harder to pronounce!) which is a plant with a berry that makes sour things taste sweet. The tablets are basically ground up miracle berries – all natural

Last night we had our friends Jim and Liz over for dinner to experiment with this “mysterious fruit tab.” We started the dinner by dissolving a tablet on our tongues and then dove into lemons, limes and grapefruit. Not gonna lie, it was a little scary to take the first bite! Would it really work?

Action shots!

Wow, guys. This was crazy. Seriously insane. Everything was SO SWEET – I honestly had no idea how sweet they’d be (and started getting a little nervous that our whole dinner will taste like pure sugar). Biting into a lime and being overwhelmed by its sweetness was surreal (the limes were the sweetest – almost inedible at first because of how sweet they were).

We calmed our palettes for a minute with these clover rolls, which had nothing to do with our experiment but delicious nonetheless. Definitely a must-make again recipe!

Aside from the rolls which were a last minute decision (a brilliant last minute decision!), the rest of the dinner all centered around citrus. I looked for recipes that utilized oranges (already sweet) but used lemons and grapefruit instead, knowing they would be made sweeter because of the tablets.

Grapefruit and avocado salad with a citrus dressing (here is the base recipes, I subbed grapefruit for oranges in everything)

Jalapeno citrus salmon (based on this recipe, I used half grapefruit, half lemon juice for the glaze)

My plate:

My beverage of choice for the night – it had citrus notes which turned sweet. The beer tasted kind of like a beer cocktail as a result. I liked it

The effect lasts between 30 minutes and 2 hours and over the course of dinner we definitely felt it fade. The citrus still tasted very sweet but we could start slowly also tasting mild sour notes. Luckily non-citrusy components made the meal a real dinner – salmon, avocado, jalapenos all stayed true to themselves

Of course we had to finish the meal with some lemon sherbet. This particular brand was super creamy – the perfect ending to a sweet citrus meal!

This was super fun!! Apparently hot sauce and radishes should have been part of our experiment too. I may just have to keep playing around with this stuff. It’s sort of trippy in a good way

Would you want to try this stuff? What would you make? I may use these for nights when my sweet tooth won’t stop nagging. A wedge of lemon would totally do the trick!

enjoyed in the past – but with better pictures

“Old” tomato goat cheese strata (yikes!). Visually improved tomato goat cheese strata:

Same delicious recipe from Cooking Light. Now hopefully you’d actually want to make it

How is your week going so far?? Mine is flying by and I’m not too happy about it. I have things to accomplish!! Although now that I think about it, this weekend I’m going to NY to go wedding dress shopping with my sister (and hopefully celebrating my best friend’s 30th birthday… if I can get a hold of her!) so it’s going to be a good one. So I guess it’s ok that it’s coming so soon.

As I mentioned in the my previous post, my sister’s wedding is definitely motivating me to get a little more serious about healthy eating. I’m not going on any crazy diets but I am being a little more mindful about what I’m eating. I put up a big calendar on the fridge reminding me of the “big day” (sort of funny saying that since it’s not my wedding) and a few pictures of myself at a lower weight for motivation. It’s only been 1 day, but I feel like I’m approaching this in the right way and feel good about weight loss results that are sure to follow!

The best part? I have a few old favorites to ensure I’m eating satisfying healthy meals. Like this strata. It comes together quite quickly, uses ingredients I always have on hand (well, I happened to have fresh sage on hand this time, but I’d just use dried if I didn’t) and it’s so warm and comforting. It has (whole wheat) sourdough bread and goat cheese. You can eat it for breakfast or dinner. And one quarter of the pan is a serving. Really, what’s not to love?!

Diets, shmiets. I’ll stick to this!

What are your favorite healthy and satisfying recipes? Please share with me in the comments!

I wonder how many people really wake up on January 1 and find themselves with a list of resolutions that require immediate action. Do they have a clear plan? Are they overwhelmed? Do they have a good support system to help them? I hope so!

I’m the kind of person that attacks goals with intensity. I research, I plan, I write out mile-long to-do lists and schedules and then I go at it. This is how I’m approaching my new business (I promise to share the details with you – very soon!) and it’s been exhilarating (so exhilarating in fact that I am having trouble falling asleep thinking of a million different things I could offer and cute little touches that would make me unique). The best part? I get to eat my “research.” [Ok some of it, unfortunately my extensive research in the logo design process has been inedible, and more expensive than originally anticipated. If only I could pay designers in cookies… or mussels. Ha!]

Coconut and basil steamed mussels is a Cooking Light recipe I’ve had bookmarked since June 2009. Mussels are such a fun protein to make and healthy to boot! It’s high in protein, low in fat and calories and when made right – so juicy, plump and delicious. I also love how these little guys absorb whatever broth you cook them in. They turn into little sponges of flavor. Yum!!

I doubled the amount of mussels the recipe called for (they normally come in 2lb bags – why not cook the whole thing?) and added a few good handfuls of fresh baby spinach (together with the basil) for good measure. Adding baby spinach to pretty much everything is one of my favorite ways to sneak extra veggies in! The spinach soaked up some of the yummy broth as well. Awesome!

This broth was creamy and slightly spicy and had a bit of Thai flare. We loved it with big hunks of bread to soak up more broth. A quick, restaurant-worthy, healthy meal right at home!

Those white dots, by the way, are salt. I guess I got really up close and personal with the mussels

Do you feel the effects of the new year? Are you overwhelmed, excited or just indifferent?