Healthy Cookbooks | Holiday Gift Guide

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Cookbook Gift Guide Healthy cookbooks can make great gifts for the healthy cook on your list, but there are a lot of them to choose from. Here are some of my favorite real food cookbooks, with options for the beginner and the intermediate/advanced real food cook.

 

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PRODUCTS MENTIONED (contains affiliate links)

100 Days of Real Food Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone Local Flavors Nourished Kitchen Home Grown Paleo Fermented Vegetables

 

 

Sarah Moran is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Healthy Kitchen Tools | Holiday Gift Guide

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Kitchen Tool Gift Guide Finding the perfect holiday gift can be tricky, so I'm here to help! If you're shopping for a healthy cook or you yourself would like some healthy kitchen gadgets, here are my favorite picks.

 

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Don't forget to watch the other videos in the playlist for more gift ideas!

 

PRODUCTS MENTIONED (contains affiliate links)

Veggetti spiralizer Popsicle mold Ice cream maker Ice cream containers OXO salad spinner Aluminum tortilla press Cast iron tortilla press

 

 

Sarah Moran is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.com.

Choosing a Dietetics Program + How JMU Ranks

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Picking Dietetics Program Deciding which college to go to can be tough. I've had a couple requests from future dietitians to talk about my experience at James Madison University. I know not everyone needs info about JMU specifically, but would like some tips on picking a dietetics program. Here are some things you might want to consider, plus how JMU performs in each category.

 

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Does Meat Cause Cancer?

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Meat Causes Cancer The World Health Organization recently put out a statement that processed meats and red meat are linked to cancer. So what does this mean for us? Do we need to change the way we're eating? Here are my thoughts on the topic.

 

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Recovering from a Halloween Candy Binge

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Halloween Binge For a lot of people, Halloween can come with a candy binge. So how do you get back on track after a Halloween candy binge while still staying healthy, physically and mentally. Here are a few things to think about.

 

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Caramel Apples without Corn Syrup

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Caramel apples without corn syrup Caramel apples are a fun fall dessert, but most recipes use corn syrup or other weird ingredients. Not this one! You can make caramel apples only using real, whole food ingredients and they taste amazing! Here's how.

 

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Caramel Apples

Ingredients

6 medium apples

1 cup heavy cream

1 cup Sucanat or other unrefined cane sugar

1/2 cup honey

4 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings such a crushed nuts or coconut (optional)

Special Equipment

Food/candy thermometer

Wooden sticks for handles

Directions
  1. In a medium sized sauce pan combine heavy cream, Sucanat, honey, and butter.
  2. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently until all ingredients are dissolved.
  3. Once ingredients are dissolved, cook caramel, stirring constantly, until the it reaches 245°F.
  4. Remove caramel from heat, add vanilla extract, and stir to incorporate.
  5. Line a baking sheet with parchment, a silicone baking mat, or aluminum foil. Prepare apples by inserting sticks into stem ends and placing on lined baking sheet.
  6. Dip and roll apple in caramel until evenly coated. Once apple is coated, remove it from caramel and allow excess to drip back  into the pot.
  7. Place coated apple on baking sheet to cool. Repeat with remaining apples.
  8. Roll caramel coated apples in toppings, if desired. Place tray of finished apples in refrigerator to finish cooling.

Trick-or-Treating and Raising Healthy Kids

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Trick-or-Treating With Halloween comes Trick-or-Treating, but what do you do if you're a health conscious parent trying to raise healthy kids? Should you let your kids trick-or-treat? Ban it all together? Pay them for their candy? Here's my advice.

 

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How to Make Pumpkin Puree

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How to Pumpkin Puree Fall means pumpkin everything! If you're a pumpkin fan, why not make your own pumpkin puree at home? It's simple, easy, and you can use it the same way as you would the stuff from the can.

 

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Pumpkin Puree

Ingredients

1 or more whole pumpkins

Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 400°F.
  2. Remove stem from pumpkin and cut pumpkin in half.
  3. Removes seeds and pulp from pumpkin with a spoon, ice cream scoop, your hands, etc. Set seeds aside to clean and roast later.
  4. Slice pumpkin into smaller sections for roasting. If using a small pumpkin, slice into quarters.
  5. Place pumpkin sections skin-side down on a baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40 minutes or until done. Depending on how thick your pumpkin is, it might take a little longer. You'll know the pumpkin is done when you can easily pierce the pumpkin flesh with a fork.
  6. Remove pumpkin from the oven and allow to cool.
  7. Once cooled, removed pumpkin flesh from the skin with a spoon (or your hands) and place in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth.

Save Money with a Local, Real Food Fat

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how to render lard Lard gets a bad rap, but it's a great cooking fat when you get it from pastured pigs. You just have to learn how to render it. The good news is, the rendering process isn't complicated or difficult to do. Here's some background on lard and a tutorial to render it yourself.

 

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A Dietitian Who Eats Lard?

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Healthy and Unhealthy Fat Fat is an important part of a healthy diet, but which fats are healthy and which ones aren't? In the past it's been said that unsaturated fats were the healthy ones, but it turns out that isn't exactly right. Here's the breakdown when it comes to healthy and unhealthy fats.

 

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Do You Believe This Fat Myth?

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fat myth There's a big myth about fat that just won't go away. Unfortunately, years of incorrect information has brought us to a place where a lot of people simply don't know the facts about fat. So what's the truth about fat and should it be incorporated into our diet?

 

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8 Tips to Prevent a Cold Naturally

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how to prevent a cold Cold and flu season is coming up and no one wants to get sick. While there's no sure fire way to keep illness at bay, there are several things you can do to give yourself the best chance at fighting these viruses and not getting sick. Here are my 8 tips to prevent a cold naturally.

 

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When Facing Your Fears is a BAD Idea

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facing your fears People always say that you should face your fears, but sometimes that's a bad idea. I accidentally faced one of my fears and it was not a good situation. Here's what I think you must do before you face one of your fears.

 

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Healthy Dinner Ideas for Late Summer | What I Ate #4

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Summer Dinner Ideas School might be in session, but summer food is still here! We all need some healthy dinner inspiration, so I'm sharing a few of the meals that I've cooked up recently. Also, all of these meals have tomatoes in them. Just trying to upgrade my #TomatoQueen status. :D

 

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Why Am I Always Hungry?

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Why am I always hungry No matter what, do you always feel like you're hungry? If you are dealing with an insatiable appetite, you aren't alone. There are a lot of things that can affect your hunger and the situation is a little different for each us. I'm going through a bunch of them so you can start to figure out what is going on in your case.

 

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Local Corn All Year Long!

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how to freeze corn Local corn on the cob is delicious, but it doesn't last forever. However, you can still enjoy it all year long if you freeze some for later. Here's how to freeze corn so you can have a little piece of summer even on winter's coldest days.

 

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Freezing Corn

Ingredients

Fresh corn on the cob

Directions
  1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
  2. Leaving husk on the corn, trim husk to remove any loose pieces and excess at the top of the ear.
  3. Place corn in oven directly on the rack and roast for 30 minutes.
  4. Remove corn from oven and set aside to cool.
  5. Once corn has cooled, remove husks and silks.
  6. To trim the corn from the cob, invert a small bowl inside a larger bowl. Place one end of an ear of corn on the bottom of the small bowl so you are holding the the ear vertically. Using a knife, cut the corn from the cob moving vertically from one end of the ear to the other. The corn kernels should fall into the larger bowl. Repeat with remaining ears of corn.
  7. Using a measuring cup, scoop the kernels into freezer safe bags. Label and seal the bags and place them in your freezer.