Weekend Skillets

I wanted to devote a post to my latest love…  weekend skillets.

What is this? you might ask.  Well, quite frankly it’s a food smorgasbord that a little extra a.m. time on the weekends allows for.  Basically, you chop up, season, and saute a host of different vegetables to pair with eggs and/or other protein rich source (fish, other meats, or something plant based such as edamame or mushrooms), optional healthy grain or seed sources, such as quinoa, and condiments like hot sauce or salsa.  Top this off with a healthy fat, such as a sliced avocado, and there you have it, a skillet breakfast at it’s best.  Sometimes, depending on flavor combination, I even drizzle a little cold olive oil on top of the finished dish for added savor.  Another skillet option is to combine a cooked base with a topping of fresh, raw ingredients.

As part of my personal protocol, I have been focusing on a concept PFFC balance (protein, fat, fiber, carbohydrates).  Conceptually, this acronym serves as a guiding principle for planning meals, at a macro-nutrient level.  The goal is to apply the principle to each meal and snack through out the day.  When food options are appropriately selected, such as dark leafy greens for the complex carbohydrate category, micronutrient and fiber intake goals can also be achieved.

The science suggests that following an appropriate PFFC balance across meals and snacks throughout the day can contribute to better hormonal balance and blood sugar stabilization.  Therefore, it is further supportive of optimal health though nutrition.  The skillet presents an easy way to make this happen.  I have also learned that if I eat this in the morning, I can go most all day and only need to rely on snacks.  For my fitness and social activity routines on weekends, this is really helpful.

I found the break down PFC Balanced Eating Part 1:  What is PFC? from Dietitian Cassie clear and easy to apply (2016).

The skillet makes planning PFFC easy.  Not only is it fun to prepare and eat, it also allows me to partake in a fantastic life hack!  It might come as no surprise to you that I am fanatic about brown bag lunches.  Not only does this help me stay on track with my nutritional goals, it is a cost-effective measure.  As a customer of a regional CSA (community supported agriculture) share, I am even more committed to coming up with my own food preparation tactics as well as recipes.  What I have learned when making the skillet, I can easily perform extra chopping to be used in other recipes.  Previously I had been committing a pretty significant block of time on Sundays to do all my weekly food preparation.  However, the addition of a skillet breakfast on Saturdays allows me to split of my prep time and has ultimately saved time over all.

Dietitian Cassie also addresses ways to budget this approach to eating on the Healthy Simple Life website, PFC on the CHEAP part 1 (2014).

REFERENCES

Healthy Simple Life. (2014). Retrieved from PFC on the CHEAP part 1: http://healthysimplelife.com/pfc-on-the-cheap-part-1/

PFC Balanced Eating Part 1: What is PFC? (2016). Retrieved from Dietician Cassie. Real Talk. Real Food. Real Life.: http://www.dietitiancassie.com/pfc-balanced-eating-part-1-what-is-pfc/

New Endeavors in the Health Journey

I have a confession to make…

when it comes to my blog, I have been a slacker lately!  In fact, I even started a post back in March only to leave it half written and sitting idle as a draft.  However, I would love to provide some background information as to why.

Last Fall, I had the privilege to meet an amazing woman, Valerie Early, and her colleague Lauren Chaves.  Valerie is the owner of an integrative health practice just outside of Chicago, IL treating a variety of comprehensive conditions with focus on nutrition, individual testing, and lifestyle approaches.  Using innovative methods such as consultations through telephonic and digital platforms, and professional speaking engagements, the practice has been able to reach people on a global level.

In fact, we connected so well that we started talking about ways I could play a role in her clinical practice.  As a life long learner of nutritional science and lifestyle protocols, the opportunity to work with this practice has been exciting, rewarding, and, best of all, healing in some ways.  Over the last several months, I have already learned so much from Valerie and expect this to continue over time.  Through the professional resources and connections I have begun to gain through the scope of the practice, I am able to further support myself and positively contribute more to the lives of my friends, family, and colleagues.

Although I’m not a clinician, my training in public health, behavior change, and health research paired with my individual journey with nutrition and, more recently, autoimmune disease has allowed for me to help others through health education and advocacy.  As we shaped out the role I would play, streamlining and drafting content for the company blog emerged as one of the faucets.  Over the last six months, I have been adjusting to the addition of this ancillary role and the time management aspect.  Therefore, my personal blog took a hit.

Going forward, I have some new great ideas to share with you.  I plan to get back on my 1-2 posts per month schedule while continuing to share other great resources, recipes, and posts by other bloggers.

REBLOG: Top benefits of buying directly from farmers

Couldn’t have said it better. Thank you for the succinct, relevant post!

You and I typically have two main options when it comes to getting groceries. We can go to the supermarket, or we can go directly to the farmers through a farmers market or CSA share. Each one has its relative pluses and minuses, but I think buying directly from farmers is the ideal choice when feasible. Why? Well, in my book, these are the top benefits of getting your food directly from a farmer or rancher:

1) You get the freshest possible food
Most of the food in a typical supermarket was probably picked from the ground weeks ago, and you can taste it. In contrast, any good farmer worth his or her salt will only sell you the very freshest product. Likely they will have just picked the produce or processed the animal hours before you get your hand on it. Fresh food simply tastes better. Your taste buds…

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