Level Up Your Cooking Skills with Marinating

Marinating adds flavor and moisture to food and is an easy technique to incorporate into your cooking skill set. It is the process of soaking meats or vegetables in a seasoned liquid before cooking. Marinades often use an acid (like vinegar or citrus) to enhance flavors. You can buy store-bought marinades, but making your own […]

Benefits of Casual Social Ties

Loneliness has become a significant public health issue, prompting the Surgeon General to issue a warning about its impact on individual well-being and society as a whole. The increasing prevalence of social isolation and loneliness can lead to various adverse health effects, including increased risk of mental health disorders, cardiovascular disease, and premature mortality to […]

Get Inspired for Grilling Season!

Whether it’s a casual backyard gathering or a festive barbecue, the pleasures of grilling when the weather heats up evoke a sense of joy, celebration, and the simple pleasures of good food enjoyed in your backyard or the great outdoors. From marinated meats to vibrant vegetables and juicy fruits, the grill transforms ordinary ingredients into […]

Can We Rebrand Salads?

Salads are often labeled as “diet foods” and that is quite frankly a bummer. Rather than simply being a boring and healthy side dish, salad should be reimagined as a delicious and satisfying main course. One way to do this is by adding flavorful and filling ingredients, such as protein-rich grilled chicken, hearty grains like […]

Aspirational versus Inspirational

In my recent blog post, Avoid the Trap of Comparison, I referred to “health and wellness” social media content as aspirational. I did this because most of social media’s “health and wellness” content is aspirational.  Aspiration refers to ambition whereas inspiration refers to the urge to do something. Aspiration motivates an individual to achieve a […]

Avoid the Trap of Comparison

Even just a casual scroll through your social media feeds can trigger feelings of not being enough. With the prevalence of social media, it is so easy to become consumed with comparing oneself to others who appear to be living their best life. You may not even realize you are internalizing the messages on your […]

2023 NC Year of the Trail

Did you know that North Carolina is the Great Trails State and that 2023 is the NC Year of the Trail? The “NC Year of the Trail” is the largest statewide celebration of the vast network of trails, greenways, and blueways that showcase the state’s diverse landscapes. Goals for NC Year of the Trail: I’ve […]

Chicken Stock in an Instant Pot

Store-bought rotisserie chicken is a meal prep wonder in my house. One of my favorite meal prep “tasks” on a weekend afternoon is processing a rotisserie chicken and then making chicken stock in my Instant Pot. I pull out my vegetable scraps from the freezer and a few fresh ingredients to make a flavorful stock. […]

Adopt Flexible Thinking in 2023

It is the beginning of the calendar year and many people participate in the tradition of making New Year’s resolutions which typically involves changing habits or setting personal goals. Whether you choose to embark on new goals at the beginning or middle of the calendar year, we want to remind you that when setting goals […]