Mushroom Nutrition + Beefy Mushroom Barley Soup

Lately, there's been a large emphasis on functional foods in the media.  Dietitians are preaching "Eat the Rainbow," meaning one should incorporate fruits and vegetables of all colors into the diet in order to diverse antioxidant consumption.  This article goes out to the white produce who is too often overlooked.  Don't discount onions, garlic, cauliflower, parsnips, and mushrooms- they might not be colorful but are great sources of nutrients!

For more on white produce, check out this informative video by Jill Weisenberger, RD.
 

Let's focus on mushrooms for a bit.  Technically a fungus, mushrooms provide many of the nutritional benefits of produce and also have attributes in common with meat.  This makes them extremely versatile in recipes.  Mushrooms can be eaten raw or cooked into a favorite dish.  They make a great beef substitute because of their "meaty" texture.  Mushrooms are low in calories and sodium, fat-free, and are rich in selenium, potassium, riboflavin, niacin, and vitamin D.

Chocolate Curry Chicken + Brown Rice Pilaf - Recipe Redux

I have been a fan of Pinterest for a couple months now.  It's a great place to pin all the great recipes I stumble upon to make at a later date.  However, once February hit, my Pinterest homepage was flooded with indulgent chocolate recipes in honor of Valentine's Day.  Decadent heart shaped cookies and cakes, chocolate pancakes and waffles, and a rainbow fruit smothered in caramel and chocolate.  I get it- chocolate is a must during February (and year round in my opinion) but isn't there room for cocoa without all the added sugar?  This is why this month's Recipe Redux theme, "Chocolate love is in the Air" is quite appropo.  I decided to incorporate chocolate into an already healthy recipe in order to bump up the nutrition even more.  

Eat.Think.Smile Giveaway winners

Thanks to everyone who entered the giveaway and to Eat.Think.Smile for providing the prize package!  My readers mean a lot to me which is the reason I love hosting giveaways.  And the winners are...
Dawn H
Tim L
Jill S
Chani W

I will be contacting each of you with more details.  Congrats!

Eat.Think.Smile Review + GIVEAWAY

 ~~~~~~~~THIS GIVEAWAY HAS ENDED~~~~~~~~

I am thrilled to introduce my new favorite snack.  Eat.Think.Smile, a subsidiary of Hershey, is an absolutely delicious line of cocoa-based snacks.  Some of their great products include Chewy Granola Bars, Baked Nutrition Bars, Granola Clusters, and Crispy Thins- each in a variety of flavors.  All the snacks use non-alkalized cocoa leaving the antioxidants intact.  For more info on cocoa, check out this post.  Fun fact: each serving of Eat.Think.Smile's snacks delivers more antioxidant power than a cup of green tea!   

Peanut Butter and Jelly Macarons

Before I begin the story of my culinary journey, I have to disclose that this is not a healthy recipe.  Yes, this is a nutrition blog, but it's also a place for me to explore the beauty of food and recipe development.  It's ok to indulge once in a while but everything in moderation!

I had never made macarons (pronounced Macaroni, without the I sound) before this experiment.  I had never even tasted a macaron.  The closest I had come to one was on the other side of a bakery window.  Macarons are known for two things: coming in pretty pastel colors and being made out of almonds.  I love the way they look but don't care for baked goods with almond flavor so that's why I've never tried one.

When I found about First on the First, a blog hop started by Kate @ Food Babbles and Carrie @ Poet in the Pantry, I was excited to get on board.  First on the First attempts a cooking or baking feat that is new to you and shares the results with the world.  February's theme is macarons and I really wanted to be a part of it but I knew I'd have to make some adjustments to these traditionally almond flavored cookies to make them my own.