Last week, Scott and I were invited to take a tour of the McConnell Heart Health Center (MHHC) that is located right off of Olentangy River Road.  At first I was a little confused by the invitation because it mentioned something about a weekend getaway and I wasn’t quite sure how that would work.  I looked at the website and decided that I would like to go on the tour since I didn’t know anything about the place.  What better way to learn than taking a tour, right?

Scott and I arrived at the center just before 4pm and we met with Michael Marcus who is the director of sales, Heather, also part of that team, and Brian who is a trainer at MHHC.  We waited around for a few other local healthy living bloggers to arrive and then we were off on the tour.  I have…

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My new friend Kim and I have been discussing some interactions we recently had with others with regards to food that we had made.  Kim, I hope it’s okay to bring this up!

Both of us, unfortunately, found ourselves in a situation where people didn’t want to eat the food that we had made.  Or if they did, it was sort of begrudgingly.

A recent encounter I had, I made some PB cookies for some company.  They ate the cookies and said they were yummy.  When I explained that they were vegan and I used whole wheat flour, they didn’t touch the cookies for the rest of the visit.

What happened?  One minute the cookies were yummy and the next minute my cookies were carrying some sort of disease.

Kim is a vegan and her recent encounter she was wondering if perhaps her visitors…

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Warning: This post contains high levels of geek talk and gaming dialogue.  Levels of geekation might be affected and raised after reading. Common side effects are trigger finger syndrome and the occasional need to talk in military terms. Example, “Can you pass me the sugar that’s at your 3 o’clock? Over.”  Read post at your own risk.  Resistance is futile.

Wednesday Scott and I had a meeting to attend and then afterwards we hit up Target really quick for a few things.  Why I can only find Tide Free HE at Target is beyond me, but it is what it is.

When we go to Target we split up because I want to scan the workout aisle and also the sales racks.  Oh and shoes.  Scott doesn’t want to look at that stuff and quite honestly I don’t want him up my butt as I’m checking out the 50% off deals.  Once I was done looking at stuff, I headed into…

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The weekends mean that I get some face time with the Food Network.  I usually watch it early Saturday mornings and then Sunday mornings after my long run.  I have to say that within the last several months I’ve actually been kind of appalled and turned off by what I’m seeing.

The commercials are either touting some sort of diet pill or system.  Things which are not healthy nor are they good for anyone.  Those commercials are alternated with either things we don’t need (a dryer sheet you stick in your dryer and leave for a month! Handy!) to fake and processed foods (Why hello American cheese slices. Nice to see you costumed up trying to pretend you’re real cheese. How’s that working out for you?).

For a network that is supposed to get people inspired to want to cook and to try new foods, the fact that they aren’t promoting or supporting that in any of their commercials is a little…

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My love for oatmeal started not long after I started this blog.  Now I’ve always enjoyed oatmeal but I had a limit of what I could take in.  I could handle the texture and taste only for so long and then I had to call it quits.

Oatmeal was in my diet for the first half of my life.  I was a lucky person because my mom actually made me breakfast before I left for school.  I didn’t eat cereal or toast or something frozen that I heated up in the microwave.  My mom made me pancakes, eggs, and oatmeal.  Rotated of course, not all of that everyday!

It was your typical oatmeal though, quick oats with milk and then I added a touch of brown sugar to it.  Good but nothing fancy.  Then I moved on in life and sort of left oatmeal in the dust like that mix tape…

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Last week saw two great posts in the blogworld focusing on being a women and eating.  Gena, from Choosing Raw, brought up the topic of women and food.  That as women we are allowed to enjoy food and want food but not to much or else that might not seem feminine.

I think there’s this stereotype that exists for women where if you LOVE food and LOVE to eat then your body must reflect that.  It is impossible to love food and love to eat AND still be in healthy shape.  What sent this message home to me was an encounter I had with guy at a party not so long ago.

I was chatting with some people explaining how I had friends in Dublin who own shops selling food and other things (Ava and Inggrie!).  The guy looked at me and asked how it was that I know so many people who own food establishments. …

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Remember my sushi love post where I talked about my new found adoration for sushi?

Well my bubble has since burst and I’m sort of bumming out about it now.

Scott and I have successfully eliminated HFCS from our diets.  It’s been about two years now since we’ve made the cut.

Last Friday Scott wanted to get sushi and then spend Friday evening gaming.  We are currently playing Army of Two The 40th Day and both of us were itching to get back to it.  We didn’t discuss getting sushi out-loud because every time we do, the weather turns to crap and we end up not being able to get any.

Friday, the weather was crap but we were still able to get out and pick some up.  We did not go to a sushi restaurant, we just picked up some sushi from Kroger. We had to go anyway for a few staples so picking up dinner was…

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Bistro Style!

I decided to changes things up a bit with pizza this week.  I wanted something “fancy” and something end-of-the-week worthy.  Many times I load a lot of veggies on my pizza because I love veggies.  But also because I think I need to in order to get my veggie quota in for the day.

I am teaching myself that this is not needed.  I eat plenty of veggies.  PLENTY.  Having just a few at dinner is A-OK.  This pizza is helping me get there.

At a recent trip to Whole Foods I purchased some in-house-made chicken sausage with feta and spinach.  I know! Doesn’t that sound amazing?  Well it smelled amazing as I was cooking it up.  I let this be my inspiration for this week’s pizza.

Bistro Pizza OHC Style:

• Spelt Crust
• Pizza sauce (just a touch, not too much)
• Shredded moz
• Feta
• Spinach
• Red onion
• Sundried tomatoes
• Spinach and feta chicken sausage

For Scott’s birthday week last week, he took Friday off and we headed out to breakfast.  Going out to breakfast is one of our very favorite things to do.  I like dinner but if I had to only do one, I think it would be breakfast.

I love walking into a restaurant and smelling the coffee, eggs, English Muffins, and pastries.  I love that it’s a little bit quieter and subdued.  I like seeing people read their papers or fiddle with files over a steaming cup of coffee and a plate full of goodness.

When Scott and I first moved to Ohio, we came across a place called First Watch.  We knew it was a restaurant but we weren’t sure what type so we looked it up online.  It said that it was a breakfast and brunch place only and closed at 2pm.  Interesting!  Because before our only encounter with breakfast places…

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It’s Scott’s birthday week, so this means we get to eat some super special meals.  One of the things Scott wanted for sure was some steak.  We don’t eat red meat often, not because we think it’s The Devil Meat but just because we don’t eat all that much meat in general.  Everything in moderation, ya know.

When my husband asks for something he gets it or at least I try my best to provide it for him.  We were at the butcher and none of their steaks looked very appealing.  I felt really awful having to tell Scott that none of the steak was worth purchasing.  He explained that he understood as the meat didn’t look too nice and it was no big deal.

I, however, was totally bummed.

We moved on to another butcher, one who provides bison (buffalo) meats and they just happened to have some bison steaks on…

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