About Me

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Pittsburgh, PA, United States
I'm an insurance professional with a desk job that has not helped me maintain a healthy lifestyle. I'm on a mission to put myself first and be the person I want to be.

Monday, November 2, 2009

I've Seen The Light or is it Lite?


Well for me there was nothing better than 2 big bags of Halloween candy and very few trick or treaters to scare me back on the wagon. I knew when I woke up Sunday morning there would be way too much undistributed candy to take my weight loss plan lightly. It seemed rather unfair to punish my candy loving husband and donate it, but I had to insist they put it out of my sight. Hiding the candy combined with digging into my latest food book “The Healthy Urban Kitchen” did the trick.


I haven’t gone all crazy and started believing that I could eat only whole foods, my life is too chaotic to fool myself into believing I could live by such a strict food code, but I did take away quite a few good things from the book and would suggest it to anyone trying to eat better and by better I mean healthier.

Did you know that:
- America is a nation of children who are expected to die before their parents
- 90% of the money Americans spend on food goes to fast food chains
- The average American eats 150lbs of sugar per year
- The U.S. sprays over 1 billion pounds of pesticides each year on our food
- As Americans we eat less saturated fat and cholesterol than we did 100 years ago, yet we have more heart disease and cancer than ever before

The premise of the book and cookbook is to eat only real food, food that was grown in the ground or had a mother. Additionally the food should be organic, unprocessed and animal products should be grass fed and chemical free. I know this lifestyle is possible, but just not for me. Not now anyway. I need convenience foods sometimes and I’m making a better effort to make sure whatever convenience foods I buy are as chemical free as possible. In defense of the author, he does suggest that you ease into this lifestyle and work with a nutritionist to develop a plan that works best for you and your possible allergens. Most importantly, he stresses the need to examine what we put into our bodies and the benefits or consequences of that food.

The book is broken into 23 chapters with the first 11 chapters providing instructions on how to make your kitchen healthier, how to shop healthier, food allergens and healthy cooking and eating guidelines. The remaining chapters provide recipes for everyday eating. My goal over the next few weeks is to prepare several of these recipes and share my results with you as I attempt to incorporate a greater whole foods mentality into my every day life.

Tonight I have tilapia in the ice box, so I’m going to start with a twist on one of his recipes and make Tilapia drizzled with Balsamic Butter Sauce. Photos, recipe and my thoughts to follow.

- Recipe Update: Tilapia with Balsamic Butter Drizzle

Well I completely forgot to take pictures, but the fish was excellent. Here is the recipe:

Preheat oven to 350.

4 tilapia fillets
salt/pepper
olive oil

Brush the fish on both sides with olive oil. Salt & pepper to your tastes. Cook fish for
12-15 minutes until done. Prepare drizzle while fish is cooking.

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
3/4 cup butter (unsalted)

Bring vinegar to boil and reduce until you have about 2 tablespoons left. Reduce heat to
low and add butter 1 Tbs at a time. Keep warm until fish is ready to serve and drizzle over
fillets right before serving.

My whole family loved this recipe and I hope you do as well.

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