I have to say… simmering a pot of chili for hours on a cold winter Sunday while we curl up on the couch and watch football is on my list of favorite things to do. I am sure many of you have heard of this new kitchen toy that seems to be all the rage- The Instant Pot. What is the Instant Pot? Essentially it is an electric, programmable, pressure cooker with a lot of extra functions like sauté, steam, pressure cook and it can even make yogurt. Basically you can cook anything you can imagine in this one pot. I have to admit that at first I was totally skeptical. Would the fast cooking time rob my dishes of their deep flavors that my family and I love?? The Answer: Nope! We were first attracted to the Instant Pot because it could replace our slow cooker, and it has even proven to provide better results in far less time. Its multifunctional use is also super convenient in our cozy kitchen where storage space for all sort of kitchen toys is limited. The Instant Pot is also a huge time saver. I can cook a slow cooker recipe that would usually take 6-8 hours, and in under an hour I can have the same meal ready and on the table. This is tremendously helpful on long, busy workdays and I can see it becoming even more critical once the baby arrives! I was also really impressed with how easy the Instant Pot was to clean. Not only did I make this chili all in the pot without needing any additional dishes, but when it was time to clean the pot, the stainless-steel pot was very easy to clean by hand. However, it can also be placed in the dishwasher if you wish. I would say my only reservation so far is that it can be a little bit intimidating. I didn’t have any prior experience to cooking with a pressure cooker, and while the Instant Pot seems to be much easier to use than many pressure-cookers, it is a new style of cooking that definitely has a learning curve. Okay, so let me share with you my Turkey Chili Recipe that I made using the Instant Pot in under an hour. You can also try this recipe in your slow cooker or crockpot, just cook on low for 6-8 hours. Ingredients
Toppings for serving: shredded cheddar cheese, sliced scallions, diced avocado, sour cream
I decided to top mine with a dollop of greek yogurt and shredded cheese. Obviously, we don't do chili night in this house without some home made corn bread too.... Do you have an Instant Pot? Share your favortie reciepe below. If you give my Turkey Chili a try please be sure to let me know what you think too! xo
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Happy New Year my friends! There is something so refreshing about the New Year. It’s a new beginning for many, a chance for us to let go and forget those habits that do not serve us any longer and create new habits to help make our lives more positive and healthier. Many of us will start this New Year with a list of inspiring goals we want to achieve as we move into the New Year. There is a good chance that you are thinking of ways to live healthier. Whether you want to lose 10 pounds, improve your sleep, improve your cholesterol or have more energy, I have five smart and healthy ways you can improve your health this year without restriction or guilt. 1. Increase your H20 It is important for all of us to make sure that we are getting the amount of water that our bodies need and for the most part… the majority of us don’t. The old rule of thumb states that we need to drink eight glasses of water per a day, and while that definitely has some validity to it, that is really on the low end of our needs. I always tell my clients to take their body weight and divide it in half. That is how many ounces of water your body really needs a day. For some… that seems like a daunting number, but it’s a good rule of thumb to go by. Having trouble getting your water in?? Remember that not all the water we consume daily has to be in a glass. Fruits and vegetables make up roughly about 20% of our daily water consumption. So… increasing our fruits and veggies also helps increase our daily water consumption. It’s a win, win! This leads me to tip number two… 2. Increase your consumption of Fruits and Vegetables Before you start to roll your eyes because you feel like this is such an obvious recommendation that just isn’t realistic… just give me a chance to explain! Increasing your consumption of fruits and vegetables does not have to be a difficult task or require hours of food prep in the kitchen. It can be as easy as adding a banana with your oatmeal or your yogurt at breakfast, eating a salad at lunch instead of that wrap you usually enjoy and adding an apple instead of chips, or choosing berries with shredded coconut for dessert instead of that bowl of ice cream you have been enjoying. Some great ways to get more vegetables in at dinner include sautéing mushrooms, onions, broccoli, carrots, etc. and cooking them into your traditional spaghetti sauce. It’s an easy way to get more veggies in to your traditional pasta night. I also have found that when clients have some grab and go veggies on hand ready for them they are more likely to grab them when snack time hits. Things like organic tri colored carrot sticks, celery, grape tomatoes and cucumbers are great grab and snack options and can make yummy snacks! 3.Practice Mindful Eating Being mindful when you are eating can help you shed pounds and keep them off if you tend to grab a bag of chips or a carton of ice cream and nibble in front of the TV. Often times clients of mine will express that they don’t even realize they have walked in the door from a busy, stressful day at work, grab the bag of chips, sit down on the couch and before the nightly news is over the bag is gone. Being fully present around the food choices we make particularly helps if you tend to eat in response to your emotions. Practicing mindful eating has helped many of my clients pinpoint why it is that they are overeating, so they uncovered their source of non-physical hunger. Maybe it is that they are hungry for more time with a spouse, maybe they need more time for themselves, a hug, they feel lonely, they are stressed and unsettled about their career, etc. There is often a deep rooted cause to the emotional overeating habits that many find themselves in. By sitting down and figuring out the root cause of the mindless eating, they can achieve a more balanced life. So all this mindfulness talk sounds great right, but you are now probably wondering how you can put it into action. A great place to start would be to take a moment before every meal and snack and just pause. Pause before your first bites and take 1-3 deep breathes. This can help you become more in tune with your hunger cues. Another helpful tool is to ask yourself before every meal or snack, “On a scale from 1-10, how hungry am I?” And then when you are finished, how full are you? Even if you don’t know the answer that question the first couple times you try this, it is an excellent practice to get into to create that awareness with your self before and after every meal. 4. Cook at Home More Often When cooking at home, you have full control over what is going into the food that you are preparing. You can be sure that you are using the best possible ingredients available to you and that no added sugar and vegetable oils are making their way into your dish. Cooking at home allows for you to use fresh ingredients that you can source from your local farmers markets or favorite grocery store. You can create meals around what foods are seasonal. To get started with cooking more at home, I think its smart to create some sort of cooking plan. Gather recipes that sound like something you may want to try, any necessary kitchen tools you may need and then determine the number of times per week you might plan on cooking. A great rule of thumb I tell clients is, cook once, and eat twice. This means that when you are preparing a meal, plan ahead of time to have enough to make another meal or two out of it. That way you don’t need to be in the kitchen on Wednesday night when you work late for example. Also, if cooking is going to be a new experience for you be realistic. Maybe start this month with committing to cook one meal per a week and see how that goes. Then next month you may want to consider getting in the kitchen and cooking twice a week. Cooking doesn’t mean you need a bunch of fancy tools either. A large cutting board, a sharp chef’s knife, a large saucepan with a lid, a spatula and a cooking spoon will take you a long way for most recipes. 5. Get Quality Zzz’s Don’t underestimate the power of sleep. Getting consistent quality sleep every night can really help our bodies to achieve optimal health. Some helpful things you may try to improve your sleep is to find a routine if you don’t already have one. Have a time that you start getting ready for bed and try to keep it the same most nights. Maybe you start your routine by turning on your diffuser with your favorite essential oil, or maybe you start to dim the lights. Leave the electronics charging in the kitchen or anywhere other than your bedroom. Leave your bedroom for sleep and quiet time, keeping work and social stuff out. If you use your phone as your alarm clock in the morning, go buy an alarm clock. They are inexpensive and a very easy fix to help improving your sleep. Keep your bedroom cool, ideally you want the temperature to be anywhere from 60-67 degrees when you are sleeping. Lastly, try to move for at least 30 minutes a day. Exercise is an excellent way to improve your nightly Zzz’s. Categories All Wow… it’s been a little over two months sense any of my readers have heard from me. This summer was so bizarre. The weather really never got very nice here on Cape Cod, so the opportunity to just keep working and taking very little down time presented itself often as I pushed through the 3 months of summer. Now here we are. When so much time passes sense my last post it becomes difficult to figure out what I should discuss with you guys! Part of me wants to fill you in on every exciting (and not so exciting) detail of my life the last three months. But, rather than take all the time to do that, I am just going to thank you for still clicking on my blog and taking a read. I promise to work harder at consistency here. Because after all.... consistency is the key to success!
Ok, so I think I am just going to take the “dive right in!” approach. So… here we go! “Gluten Free” “Gluten Free” “GLUTEN FREE” You can’t walk through your local supermarket without seeing gluten free labels all over the shelves. The truth is, not all gluten free foods are healthy gluten free foods. Some of you may have already known this… but I am here to explain what all this gluten free is about. While the demand for gluten free products continues to sore, companies are keeping up by creating these gluten free snacks, breads, pastas, and cereals in order to keep up with the demand. While this variety of options for gluten free eaters is important, its even more important to know how to look at the products and make sure they have healthy ingredients. Why are People Choosing to Eat Gluten Free? An estimated 4,000,000 people are living with Celiac disease. Celiac disease is an autoimmune disorder that leads to damage in the small intestine as a result of eating foods that contain gluten such as wheat, barley, and rye. It is also estimated that 7 million people are choosing to eat gluten free to help with headaches and fogginess while 9 million people eat gluten free because of gastrointestinal symptoms (like me!). Some of the common symptoms people often experience that may lead them to try a gluten free diet are abdominal pain, bloating, diarrhea, weight loss and constipation, weight gain, skin rashes and/or eczema, fatigue, depression and anxiety. As with any sort of intolerance or disorder symptoms affect each person differently, but may people do find relief from their symptoms when they switch to a gluten-free diet. How to Make Healthy Decisions When Shopping for Gluten Free Foods: When making healthy choices for you and your family at the grocery store it is so important to take some time and read labels. I can’t stress this enough! Far too often I have clients who are excited about a gluten free product they just tried and when we look closer at that particular product we see that the main ingredient is Corn and/or Soy. But I am going to provide you with a few simple tips to help you shop for healthy options for you and your family.
Eating and shopping for healthy gluten free options can be really easy and doesn’t have to be overwhelming. Just take some time at first to read the labels and look for real ingredients that can help heal and fuel your body. After awhile you will have some go to products that you shop for and you will not have to read as many labels. Remember, what you decide to put into your body either works for you or against you. Fuel your body with confidence and know you are giving yourself what you need to feel energized and healthy! What is your favorite healthy gluten free snack?? Share below! Xoxo |
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