I joined Tina, Kath, Meghann, Sabrina, Shannon, and Emily for a nice run along the San Francisco Bay.

The sun was just coming up and the weather was perfect for a morning workout.

After heading back to the hotel room I made my way over to the Ferry Marketplace and Farmer’s Market.

The market was so extensive – I walked around with these lovely ladies:

We spent over and hour just browsing and sampling.

I snacked on some fresh grapes…

And took shots of all the cool produce. I was impressed with the variety of mushrooms they had.

A HUGE procini mushroom. (TWSS)

Cauliflower mushrooms and sea beans… who knew these existed?

I could smell this lavender from a great distance away. It smelled a-mah-zing!

Pretty flowers..

I made a couple purchases- something for Isaac (it’s a surprise!) and some dry grapes for myself.

I’d never seen dried grapes before and was wondering, “What’s the difference between a dried grape and a raisin!” Apparently the variety of grapes used to make raisins are much sweeter than the variety used to make dry grapes. Although, these jumbo golden thompsons were still sweet and delicious.

I bought some St. Benoit Lemon myers yogurt for breakfast.

How cute is this porcelain container. The coolest part is that you put a $1.25 deposit down for the container and if you bring it back to their stand after eating, the next week, or take it to a local Whole Food’s you get the deposit back!

I topped mine with a few dried nectaries and dry raisins. Perfect market breakfast!

I was so impressed with this market- I would love to have the variety of fresh, local produce and food products as my disposal. San Francisco knows how to do a Farmer’s Market. That fo sure!

Post morning actives took place, including a huge tasting pavilion, tons of wine, beer, and food, AND my recipe demo for the Nature’s Pride Bread Company!! I’m off to get ready for tonight’s festivities (gotta go primp), but I will definitely be posting all about my experience as an bread ambassador asap,

I hope everyone is having a lovely weekend.

- Brittany

After arriving to the hotel, settling in and unpacking a few essentials I headed down to do some exploring. I ended up running into Sabrina, Meghann and Kath and decided to tag along with them for some sight seeing.

We ended up finding our way to a little fro yo shop that had pumpkin yogurt- yoCup.

Meghann, Sabrina, and I weren’t super hungry but couldn’t resist after having a sample. We got one cup of the pumpkin with graham crackers and spilt it 3 ways.

I’m pretty sure that yoCup needs to open up a shop in VA asap. It was some of the most delicious frozen yogurt I’ve had! After the little snack we headed back to the hotel to get ready for the welcome reception/ cocktail party on the 8th floor terrace of the hotel.

The view was awesome.

I couldn’t decide what to order to drink but ended up having the Untouchable Pale Ale.

It was a winner.

I

After chatting it up with a bunch of food bloggers I headed to the Taste of SF Street Food Fare.

Here’s what was on the menu for the evening.

By this point I was STARVING. I headed straight past the alcohol, cupcakes, and ice cream to a booth with REAL food from Tacolicious.

I had the black-eyed pea taco:

The black eyed peas, onion, cilantro and jalopeno mix was so tasty. I don’t know thought to put black eyed peas into a taco, but they are a genius.

After the amazing taco the food just kept coming. I had a Zucchini & Mushroom Pie from The Pie Truck

ALIVE organic, raw, vegan cuisine.

Two different flatbreads with cashew cream, tomato and basil- the one with avocado blew me away.

So very tasty.

A beet and blue cheese salad from Spencer on The Go.

A slice of a thin and crispy pizza from Pizza Politana

To top everything off I finished with a mini almond cupcake from Mission Minis.

After all that delicious street fare I was stuffed! I hung around and chatted it up with some familiar (and not so familiar bloggers).

Brandi and I decided to call it a night and head back to the hotel together.

Tonight was a blast. I can’t wait to see what Foodbuzz has in store for tomorrow!

I’m off to rest up for tomorrow. Much thanks to the folks at Nature’s Pride for hooking me up with my sweet room at Hotel Vitale.

Here’s my living room for the next couple of days

My view

And the snack bar! I love the options they have (hello pop chips and luna bars) but not the prices. $4 bucks for a Luna bar is a bit steep. I think I’ll just eat the snacks I brought and leave those be.

I’ll be back with more buzz tomorrow!!

- Brittany

Hello from the clouds! I’m currently snuggled in between two other passengers on the plane to San Francisco!! I can’t believe that the Foodbuzz Blogger Festival will be kicking off tonight. I’m so pumped to meet all the other bloggers, prepare my Healthy Veggie Stuffed Hummus Sandwich, and attend the sessions! It’s definitely going to be a weekend full of foodie fun – lots of eating and drinking involved. I know I’m going to be indulging so let’s just hope I don’t board my flight home on Sunday with tight pants! I don’t think that will be the case as I’ll be joining a group of healthy living bloggers for an AM run tomorrow and the hotel has a workout facility as well. Perfection!

So, my first flight departed at 7:00AM this morning. Isaac was “da man” and woke up early (5:00AM people) to drop me at the airport. I didn’t have time to eat breakfast at home- the last 20 minutes of sleep were more important, but it was cool because I had already prepared a snack bag with an apple, a banana, carrots, orange bell pepper, Larabars, and a pb&j for the weekend.

The pre-made pb&j was actually for lunch but I ended up having it for breakfast instead.

I enjoyed this little sandwich made with a new variety of Nature’s Pride bread (more on that soon!), Crofter’s Superfruit spread and better n pb while on my first flight.

After sleeping the majority of the one hour flight, I landed in Charlotte (love this airport, btw), grabbed a non-fat latte with 1 pump of pumpkin spice, used the free wi-fi for a few minutes and boarded.

This latte definitely wasn’t as sweet as the real pumpkin spice latte, but it was still tasty and filling.

Now I’m thinking of how to entertain myself for next 3 hours- I think I’ll listen to some tunes and try to take a nap…

Oh, but first I have to share that Isaac unknowingly wrote an Operation Beautiful note.

Can you believe it? He’s in tune with the blogosphere and doesn’t even know it.

No but really, I think this is so very sweet – I leave it on my bedside table so that I see it every morning when I wake up (sap alrert, I know.) Speaking of which I have yet to write an OB note of my own, but I think the idea is so cool. I will be participating soon- I just have to think of a good place to put it. Maybe somewhere in San Fran….

The next time I post I’ll be on the West Coast!! See you all then!

- Brittany

This one was intensely green in color. I guess I added more kale than last time!

Green Smoothie

• 1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup kale
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 4 cubes of ice

Place everything in the blender and blend on high until all flakes of kale have disappeared, giving your smoothie a lovely green color and tons of NUTRIENTS! So simple, yet delicious.

This morning I was all out of kale, had a big container of pumpkin that needed to be used and was craving something warm (our house is an ice box). Pumpkin oats it was. I didn’t get around to carving a pumpkin this year so here’s my attempt to make up for it:

(Can you see where I tired to do a tongue with the better n pb? Yea, it didn’t look right so I added a unibrow instead.)

Pumpkin Oats

• 1/4 oat bran
• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1 tsp. ground flax
• 1/4 cup canned pumpkin
• cinnamon to taste

Cook the oat bran, oatmeal in the water and milk (plus cinnamon) on medium heat by stove top. After about 5 minutes, or when the oats get thick enough for your tastes, turn off the stove and mix in the pumpkin and flax. Let the oats sit for a couple minutes, transfer into a bowl and add the toppings of your choice. I love to use nut butters, pumpkin seeds, nuts, raisins or coconut. Enjoy.

So, I’ve been bad food blogger and forgot to get pictures of dinner last night and today’s lunch. To be honest, I’m always less excited about taking dinner pictures because the lighting in our house stinks, the flash makes food photos look awful and nothing ends up looking very appealing. Which leads to my little secret- sometimes if we have leftovers of dinner, I’ll plate the meal again the next morning and take the photo. What a girl will do for a good picture!

Tonight it just so happened that my dinner ended up being rather photogenic. I had a romaine salad with avocado, tomato, cucumber, orange bell pepper, and my new favorite salad ingredient (roasted b-nut).

Topped with a little sea salt and some ground pepper. I had an Amy’s California Burger on the side (as a tribute to where I am headed in less than 48 hours!!!) Amy’s burgers are definitely my favorite frozen vegetarian burgers, besides my homemade bean burgers of course.

Also, I do have something cool to share. I received the Tosca Reno’s Eat Clean Cookbook to review! I was excited to get my eyes on the latest Eat Clean cookbook as I enjoy it’s sister publications: Clean Eating Magazine and Oxygen (although it’s a little too muscle mania for my taste, it does have some good workouts).

Last night I snuggled into bed and did some quality Tosca cookbook reading. What I loved the most is that each recipe has a beautiful photo to go along with it. I’m a picture person and I kind of hate cookbooks that don’t have photos so this feature was #1 for me. I also liked that each recipe has the serving size and nutritional information (always helpful!). This isn’t a vegetarian cookbook by any means, but there are a few vegetarian recipes dispersed throughout and many of the meat dishes could easily be turned into veggie-friendly fare with a few substitutions. The best part is that all recipes are all made with wholesome ingredients and aren’t very hard to prepare, both of which are things I aim for when deciding what recipes to prepare. Since I just received the book just yesterday I haven’t had a chance to make any of the recipes (slacking I know), but after looking through it I’ve marked a few that I can’t wait to try!

If you’re interested in checking out Tosca’s latest cookbook, it’s available for pre-order on her website and should be at all major book outlets now.

I’m off to pack (!!!) and then do some yoga!

- Brittany

• Eat more fruits and veggies, home cooked meals,
• Less processed foods
• Drink plenty of water!
• Stick to one afternoon snack between lunch and dinner (instead of say, 3)
• Drink alcohol in moderation (I’m not limiting it completely, because I know I’ll want to enjoy the cocktails at the Foodbuzz blogger festival this weekend)
• Incorporate more strength training and yoga into my workout routine

In light of this new plan, I woke up early for a pre-work gym visit. I thought it would be easier to rise a the crack of dawn with the time change and all. Nope, it was still hard but I managed to get my bum out of bed and make it to the gym for a 10 minute warm up on the treadmill and some arms and back strength training. Upon arriving home I took my meds- 2 digestive enzyme capulses (for my belly), lysine (for my mouth), and glucosamine/chondroitin (for my knee) and whipped up a green smoothie (also for my belly).

I bought these digestive enzymes when I was having tummy troubles a while back and I still take them every so often to aid my digestion. I figured since today was the start of my getting back on track I should help my digestive system out a little bit.

Green Smoothie

• 1/2 tablespoon ground flax seed
• 1 frozen banana
• 1 cup kale
• 1 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 4 cubes of ice

Place everything in the blender and blend on high until all flakes of kale have disappeared, giving your smoothie a lovely green color and tons of NUTRIENTS! So simple, yet delicious.

I have to admit that I was freezing while drinking this. It’s pretty chilly in our house since we haven’t turned on the heat. I drank it with two jackets on. haha

I also portioned out a bit of my favorite trail mix- berry trail mix from Good Foods Grocery.

I had forgotten, but today was Marketing team lunch day, which means we all go out to eat. I was super excited because we ended up going to an office favorite, Ginger Thai Taste! I ordered the vegetarian spring rolls for an appetizer.

and the vegetable Tom Yum Soup, which is a Thai hot and sour soup with onion, cilantro, tomatoes, lemongrass and lime.

So warming and delicious. I simply love Thai cuisine.

I came home from work, put a sweet po in the oven, and took a brisk walk with my main squeeze (Isaac, not Olive).

I put a little Artisana Coconut Butter on the sweet potato a la the lovely Katharina.

and then proceeded to top it with Isaac’s veggie chili. It was such a good combo. I know it kind of looks disgusting, but I promise you that it tasted much, much better than it looks.

So there you have it, DAY 1 of getting back my groove! I’m currently sipping on a little Katalyst Kombucha and starting to my pack for San Fran- only 4 days left!

Oh, but I also wanted to share this with you:

The Bolder Mat Company sent me one of their mats to review and it couldn’t have come at a better time because as I mentioned, an aspect of getting back in my groove will be to incorporate more yoga into my workout routine. I love the way yoga makes me feel calm and I love the strength training and stretching aspect of it. I hope to do more core flow and power yoga sessions in the near future. Yogadownload here I come!

As for my Go With The Flow Turtle Yoga Mat (pictured above), I LOVE it! It’s much thicker and stickier than my old mat. Plus, it much cooler- just check out the design! It makes me feel like I’m back in the Cayman Islands, plus I’ve always been a water girl so I love the wave design.

Please feel free to join in on the getting back your groove and your healthy glow! It’s going to be fun and many bloggers have already joined in. Read Ange’s post here and be sure to check out Caitlin’s Back On Track month as well.

- Brittany

At first she was highly unamused and ran around like a crazy women trying to get it off. Then she settled down and started to embrace the vest. I think she likes it now.

I also hit up the gym and did what I could (30 minutes on the elliptical) even though my legs were aching – thanks to the Gina! I’ll explain- after work on Friday I ended up doing The Fitnessista’s leg workout and my legs are still sore. If you’re in need some some leg pain- check it out. Here’s what I ended up doing (I made a couple small changes.)

I was starving when I returned home so I made something quick- a leftover slice of Isaac’s Archer Farms Spinach and Goat Cheese pizza and a fall salad.

Delicious and filling!

In spirit of the holiday I baked some Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies to take the Halloween party we were attending.

Vegan Pumpkin Oatmeal Cookies (from PPK)

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1 1/3 cups rolled oats
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

• 1 2/3 cups sugar
• 2/3 cup canola oil
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 1 cup canned pumpkin, or cooked pureed pumpkin
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/2 cup raisins

Directions
Preheat oven to 350. Have ready 2 greased baking sheets.

Mix together flour, oats, baking soda, salt and spices.

In a separate bowl, mix together sugar, oil, molasses, pumpkin and vanilla until very well combined. Add dry ingredients to wet in 3 batches, folding to combine. Fold in raisins.

Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheets. They don’t spread very much so they can be placed only an inch apart. Flatten the tops of the cookies with a fork or with your fingers, to press into cookie shape. Bake for 16 minutes at 350. If you are using two sheets of cookies on 2 levels of your oven, rotate the sheets halfway through for even baking. You’ll have enough batter for 4 trays.

Remove from oven and get cookies onto a wire rack to cool. These taste best when they’ve had some time to cool and set.

The cookies turned out so well. Everyone loved them!

I dehydrated some persimmons in an attempt to make my own Just Persimmons. Not to toot my own horn, but they turned out fabulously.

Per a friends recommendation I also dehydrated some unpeeled orange slices.

After spending the day in the kitchen we got dressed up and headed to the Halloween party. Upon arriving we were greeted with pumpkin pudding cups. I’m not sure the exact ingredients. I know they had pumpkin, cool whip, pudding, and a walnut topping. The important part is that they were tasty and festive.

We were also greeted with White Russians made with mocha Kahlua.

Great way to get the party started. I ended up drinking the white russian, two glasses of wine and then a vodka red bull. It was halloween, drinks were bring made for me, and Isaac was DD… I decided just to roll with it.

Oh, and just in case you are curious- I dressed up as a cheerleader. The costume came together at the last minute, per the usual. I was chatting with a co-worker about what to be for halloween and she mentioned that she had an old cheer leading uniform that I could borrow. I was all over the idea because free halloween costumes are where it’s at. (Have you been to the halloween costume store lately? Those things are NOT CHEAP!)

I had pompoms to complete the look, but I ended up putting those down somewhere before this photo.

My friend was a unicorn. You can’t see it in the picture but she had colorful peace signs on both cheeks. She was super cute!

I’ve been recuperating this morning/afternoon and enjoying the extra hour! I hope everyone had a fabulous Halloween weekend. I honestly can’t believe it’s already November 1. This year has flew by!

- Brittany

This post WAS much more detailed but when I hit publish earlier it deleted over half the post and it wasn’t saved. I had to go back in to rewrite it and add the photos again.UGH, I’m so annoyed right now!!!

How do you like them apples?

I’m not sure what type of apples they are, but I know there ended up being more than one variety. He did a good job and got some the hardest and most crisp apples they grew (per my request). I tried one with breakfast and soon realized it wasn’t a crispy one so I ended up peeling a section and cutting it up into small pieces. It may have not be been crispy, but it was perfect for cinnamon apple oatmeal.

Cinnamon Apple Oatmeal

• 1/4 cup oatmeal
• 1/4 cup oat bran
• 1/4 of an apple, peeled and chopped into small pieces
  
• 1/2 cup unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp. chia seeds
• cinnamon, to taste

Cook the oat bran, oatmeal, and apple in the water and milk on medium heat by stove top. After about 5 minutes, or when the oats get thick enough for your tastes turn off the stove and mix in the chia seeds. Let the oats sit for about 5 minutes, transfer into a bowl and add the toppings of your choice.

Since I was dying to try one of the crispy apples I cut into another one and was pleasantly surprised. It was indeed the most crisp and delicious apple I’ve had all season. I’ll be daring and say it was right up there with the honey crisp variety. Too bad I don’t know the name of it.

This morning I took advantage of another Carter Mountain product- the no sugar added Apple Butter. I topped my usual chia seed oats with some better n’ pb and the apple butter.

So delicious!

In other news, 12:00AM last night was the end of the Eggcellent giveaway and I randomly choose the winner.

Congrats Jenny, please send me your contact info. I’ll pass it along to the folks at www.cookware.com and the Rachael Ray 3-Piece “Egg Buddy” Set in Orange will be on it’s way!!

Happy Saturday everyone. It’s a wet and rainy here, but I have big plans to go workout, do a little shopping, and then hit up a halloween party. You’ll have to wait to see what I’m going as this year.. muahhaha

Last but not least,

Are you dressing up, giving out candy, taking a little one trick-or-treating, going to a party, baking lots of halloween goodies or just lounging at home? Let me know!

- Brittany

Since I’m what I would consider a newbie to Richmond this was my first year participating and Isaac and I knew we wanted to try out somewhere we haven’t been before. We had a tough time deciding because there were many great restaurants to choose from, but we ended up making reservations at Six Burner. The place touts having a scratch kitchen and using fresh, seasonal ingredients, many of which come from local farms.

We’d already scoped at the menu before arriving at the restaurant because Richmond.com so kindly posts the restaurant week menus in advance. When we received our menu at the table there were several additional options for both the appetizers and entrees. This made choosing a bit harder, however it was nice to have a little surprise and an assortment of dishes to choose from.

To start our server brought out a manger with a nice loaf of bread swaddled inside.

Please tell me it reminds you of a manger as well and that I am not crazy.

I had a piece dipped in olive oil while waiting for our appetizers. It was good, but nothing too special- your average bread and olive oil.

So for my first course, I ordered the plum & goat cheese arugula salad with spicy cashews.

I typically like salads with fruit and this one was no exception. I throughly enjoyed the flavors of the salad and was wishing it was larger with each bite.

Isaac got the crabcake, served with mustard and slaw.

He said it was one of the best crabcakes he had ever had and quickly polished it off. He did share a tiny bite and I agree, it was GOOD.

For my entree I passed up the mushroom linguini vegetarian option (I’m not a huge pasta fan) and went with seafood- rockfish, served with sweet potatoes and mushrooms.

The piece of fish looks larger in the picture than it was, however I was content with the portion size. The fish was cooked perfectly and flavored well. Each sweet potato on the plate was a completely different size. I ended up having some crunchy sweet potato chips and then some smooth and soft baked sweet potatoes- it was interesting, but fun. I wasn’t a huge fan of the mushrooms for whatever reason. I typically like mushrooms, however the texture of this variety wasn’t my favorite. A little too on the squishy side for my tastes.

Isaac ordered the red wine braised short ribs served with a crispy polenta cake and broccolini.

He said the ribs were cooked to perfection, however the dish wasn’t consistently warm throughout. Although, he didn’t complain and cleaned his plate well so I don’t think it was too much a problem.

Last but not least, we ordered each dessert that was offered.

I got the honey panna cotta with an apple compote

and he got the cheesecake with butterscotch crust and caramel.

I’ve never had panna cotta before and at first bite I wasn’t sure that I was going to love it. However two bites in I found the texture was similar to that of a soft tofu and the flavor was amazing- especially combined with the apple compote. I also had fun jiggling it around on the table. (I’m so proper). Isaac’s cheesecake ended up being more of a bread with cheesecake icing. We’re not quite sure who deemed the dessert a cheesecake, however it most certainly wasn’t a cheesecake by normal standards and was actually quite dry.

We both enjoyed the meal and it was fun to participate in Restaurant week. My favorites were my appetizer and dessert and I know Isaac’s favorite was his crabcake. I think the chef did an excellent job plating the dishes as they all looked absolutely gorgeous. However, overall I don’t think our experience was spectacular enough to bring us back for a second visit. Especially when there are a ton of other restaurants in Richmond we have yet to try…

Sorry if you are a non-Richmond reader and this post bored you to death. I’ll be back soon with more of the usual.

Have a lovely night and get excited- tomorrow’s Friday AND it’s almost Halloween!

- Brittany

After the squash had cooked a good 40-50 minutes at 400° and the stir-fry was complete we sat down to our lovely meal and an episode of 2.5 Men. As we were eating Isaac asked if it was okay to eat the peel. I said it probably was okay, but that I wasn’t going to eat it as it was too tough. He tried it, liked it, and then made me try it. I tried and I liked it as well. So there you have it, butternut squash peel, once roasted is tender, quite delicious, and very much edible.

If you haven’t tried roasting a butternut and eating the skin I highly recommend it. It makes preparing butternut squash a tiny bit more appealing than they are already because there’s not a ton of peeling and chopping involved. Anyone who’s made butternut squash fries knows what I’m talking about… those babies are a piece of work to chop.

Moving right along to today- I’m feeling a little disconnected. I spent the entire day at a conference for work and missed over 40 emails on my gmail account and 20 emails for work. It’s crazy what happens when you are away from the computer for a day.

I didn’t know what was going to be scheduled for lunch at the trade show so I packed my own.

Peanut butter and jelly sandwich, banana, green grapes and a Raisin Spice Heart Thrive( for a snack). The show was really slow and it seemed like the day revolved around when the next food break was going to be. Typically the trade shows have a lot of food but most of the time it’s not very healthy fare. However, today’s options weren’t too bad because they offered fruit at breakfast and for a mid-afternoon snack, plus they had a veggie tray with curry dip at the evening reception. I ate quite a bit and mostly because I was bored. But at least, they had plenty of fruit and veggies. For lunch I went and checked out the options but decided I would rather have my packed lunch over the pasta they were serving.

After standing all day I decided the last thing I wanted to do was go to the gym. So now I am home and getting ready to watch a movie with Isaac….

Hope everyone had a marvelous hump day!

- Brittany

P.S. It’s been brought to my attention that gargling salt water doesn’t protect against the flu- sorry for that misinformation. You can never trust a chain email.

It turned out to be very easy to make and only took a total of 20 minutes- perfect for an quick weeknight meal. However, just because it was easy didn’t mean it was lacking in the flavor department. Both Isaac and I throughly enjoyed it. This one definitely has a star next to in my recipe binder! I’ve become a huge fan of Fitness Magazine recipes as I’ve tried two recently (this soup and a quinoa dish) that are now my favorites.

Cannellini and Cabbage Soup

Makes: 6 servings
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 cups thinly sliced cabbage
2 carrots, sliced
6 garlic cloves, minced
1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
2 cans (14 ounces each) low-sodium chicken broth
1 can (14 1/2 ounces) no-salt-added diced tomatoes
1 cup water
1/4 cup tomato paste
2 cans (15 ounces each) cannellini beans, rinsed and drained

Directions
1. In a large pot, heat olive oil over high heat. Add cabbage, carrots, garlic, thyme, and pepper; cook 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Stir in broth, undrained tomatoes, water, and tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat. Simmer, covered, for 8 minutes, or until vegetables are tender, stirring occasionally.
3. Mash half the beans with a fork. Add all the beans to the pot. Heat through and serve.

Nutrition facts per serving: 164 calories, 11g protein, 30g carbohydrate, 4g fat (1g saturated), 9g fiber

In light of this healthy and quick meal I think I’ll do a series with quick, easy and delicious weeknight meals. This soup being the first of that installment. More details to come soon. If you have a recipe that would fall under this category and would like to share it, please let me know!

So I’ve been eating the cabbage and bean soup for many of my lunches and dinners, but today I switched things up and had some roasted butternut squash soup that Isaac’s (30 year vegetarian) friend made.

It was yummy- with butternut squash, red skinned potatoes, corn, onion, red peppers, and mushrooms.

Isaac is having a bunch of guys over for the football game tonight so I helped him make guacamole. I ate plenty of chips and then decided to have arugula salad with guacamole, hearts of palm, yellow peppers, bean sprouts, and red onions while I waited for my Amy’s Texas veggie burger to cook.

In other news, I recently found out that my co-worker’s daughter was diagnosed with H1N1. Thankfully, her daughter is older (in high school) and is doing okay, but my co-worker has not been coming in to work just in case. Since I heard the news, I’ve been trying to be proactive. Like I said, I’ve been eating lots of soup, but I’ve also been drinking tea, hot water, and chugging Emergen-C like it’s my J-O-B. My boss actually forwarded an email I thought was handy for ways to prevent catching H1N1 so I thought I would share that you information with you all:

The precautions for H1N1 were credited to Dr. Vinay Goyal in the email. He suggests that the only portals of entry for the virus are the nostrils and mouth/throat. In a global epidemic of this nature, it’s almost impossible not coming into contact with H1N1 in spite of all precautions. Contact with H1N1 is not so much of a problem as proliferation is.

While you are still healthy and not showing any symptoms of H1N1 infection, in order to prevent proliferation, aggravation of symptoms and development of secondary infections, some very simple steps, not fully highlighted in most official communications, can be practiced:

My two cents is italicized

1. Frequent hand-washing. This one’s a given.

2. “Hands-off-the-face” approach. Resist all temptations to touch any part of face (unless you’re eating or bathing).

3. Gargle twice a day with warm salt water (use Listerine if you don’t want to use salt). *H1N1 takes 2-3 days after initial infection in the throat/nasal cavity to proliferate and show characteristic symptoms. Simple gargling prevents proliferation. In a way, gargling with salt water has the same effect on a healthy individual that Tamiflu has on an infected one. Don’t underestimate this simple, inexpensive and powerful preventative method.

4. Similar to 3 above, clean your nostrils at least once every day with warm salt water. Not everybody may be good at using a Neti pot, but blowing the nose hard once a day and swabbing both nostrils with cotton swabs dipped in warm salt water is very effective in bringing down viral population. I love using my Neti pot when I’m sick, but never thought to use it as a preventative method.

5. Boost your natural immunity with foods that are rich in Vitamin C. Good sources of Vitamin C include broccoli, tomato, papaya, mango, peppers (red, yellow, and orange have more than green), kiwi, kohlrabi, jicama, potatoes, kiwi, and of course citrus fruits. Also, if you’re taking a Vitamin C tablets, make sure that it also has Zinc to boost absorption.

6. Drink as much of warm liquids (tea, coffee, hot water, soup etc) as you can. Drinking warm liquids has the same effect as gargling, but in the reverse direction. They wash off proliferating viruses from the throat into the stomach where they cannot survive, proliferate or do any harm.

Does anyone you know have H1N1? Are you doing anything special to try to prevent getting it?

Alright enough flu chat. I’m off to be supportive of man night- football game watching and more importantly, guacamole eating.

- Brittany

PS. Don’t forget about my Rachael Ray Giveaway!