eating healthy

This fall, Brenda Langton, owner of Cafe Brenda and Spoonriver, will be leading a must-attend workshop series in partnership through the University of Minnesota's Center for Spirituality & Healing. The Healthy Eating, Healthy Living course, now in it's third year, offers a full view on the simplicity in learning how to nourish your body with tasty food. This is done in a three-part series covering breakfast through dinner including those much needed mid-day snacks. All classes take place in a real kitchen as a hands-on engagement. This week, I had the opportunity to speak with Brenda about the course, in advance of attending.

A new year full of possibilities and quandaries lies before us. If you’re trying to figure out how to feed yourself and your family more home-cooked, tasty, local meals without breaking the bank, purchasing a myriad of strange ingredients, or spending hours in the kitchen, keep reading.

As Mother Nature has decreed it, the start of the New Year in Minnesota is always a cold one. For me, a salad just doesn’t hold the same appeal this time of year as a hot, hearty meal, so I'm getting reaquainted with my slow cooker. Also known as a Crock Pot®, the slow cooker is not a sexy kitchen appliance. But what it may lack in pizzazz it more than makes up for in its ability to do all sorts of heavy lifting, transforming simple ingredients into something far greater than the sum of its parts, all while you’re off doing something else.

Star Tribune Photo by Kyndell HariknessMy family and I (pictured above) are happy and amused to have been featured in a Star Tribune article by Julie Pfitzinger this weekend entitled "Eat Well, Be Well." Most people who know us don't think of us as the world's healthiest family, although this quote from the article is certainly true: