Hi Reader, I got my first real harvest from my little countertop garden this week, a small bowl of cherry tomatoes that were so sweet and so good. I also put together a new home office space, mostly just rearranging furniture we already had in other areas of the house. A photographer came by to get some photos in there for my website, plus the kitchen and outside with the whole family. I made my go-to green pasta recipe for the photo shoot, alongside sautéed zucchini, yellow squash, and...
18 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, Maybe it started with cutting back on sugar or adding more vegetables. At first, you felt responsible and like you were taking good care of yourself. And then somewhere along the way, without a clear line you could point to, "healthy eating" started to feel like something else. The rules piled up, you couldn't stop thinking about food, and you stopped feeling like you could trust yourself around it, too. This is often how disordered eating begins, and it's a lot more common than...
25 days ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, If you've heard the news about the cyclospora outbreak moving through the U.S., you might be searching for recipes built around cooked fruits and vegetables, even though we're right in the middle of peak summer produce season. (Terrible timing.) Health officials have since traced part of the outbreak to shredded iceberg lettuce, but the investigation is ongoing and other sources may still turn up. I appreciated Kara Lydon's quick, no-fear-mongering breakdown of the food safety...
about 1 month ago • 2 min read
Hey Reader, I keep noticing something in non-diet spaces. A coach will use all the right phrases. Food freedom. Ditch the diets. Listen to your body. And then, further down, the actual offer: lose weight, but slowly and "sustainably" this time. And look, I'm not trying to drag anyone. But you've probably worked hard to get skeptical of diet culture, and this is exactly the kind of messaging that could still get past you. It's using the non-diet language you trust to sell the thing you're...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the tension between wanting to eat intuitively and still needing to plan ahead. I was working with a client who’d bought ingredients for the meals she planned at the start of the week, and by mid-week, she wasn’t really feeling any of them. She wanted to eat what sounded good, but the produce was sitting in the fridge and she felt like she had to use it. She wasn’t sure if honoring that felt more like being practical, or like following a rule....
about 2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, We got back from a long weekend away earlier this week. The unpacking is mostly done, the laundry is mostly not, and I'm finding my way back into the kitchen. For me, the reset that matters most after a trip like this is getting back to consistent, nourishing meals as the foundation. This week that looks like mixing freezer and pantry staples with whatever fresh ingredients are easy to grab: coconut ramen with sweet potato and tofu, fish tacos with a quick cilantro lime slaw, and a...
2 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, By the time this lands in your inbox I'll be in Vail for the Mountain Games: some yoga, a couple of child-free nights with my husband, and then the kids join for playgrounds, swimming, and lots of village strolls along the river. One thing I'm looking forward to is the food. I love cooking, and I'm also very happy to let someone else take care of the prep and cleanup for a few days. We have a favorite Thai restaurant in the next town over. It's a little more low-key than the places...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hi Reader, The rain finally showed up in Colorado this week, which is good timing because the garden is coming together. We have potatoes, spinach, and kale on the deck, tomatoes and basil and lettuce inside, and the boys each planted their own section of the yard. I also had friends over, finished a chunk of eating disorder coursework for my practice, and did what I always do when life gets full: leaned hard on the pantry. This week that looked like bean and rice tacos. Eden Organics sent me...
3 months ago • 1 min read
Hey Reader, This week I turned 40. It's still a little bit hard to believe, because life really is happening in all of these little moments that somehow add up to months and years and decades before we know it. At the last minute, I decided I wanted my whole family around me and my favorite meal, tofu palak at the local Indian restaurant, over anything fancier. It was intentionally simple in the best possible way. Just good food and the people I love most. There's something about a whole new...
3 months ago • 3 min read