Links to Healthy Weekend

Happy Weekend! I’m not sure about everyone else, but this week went by so fast for me. I didn’t get to do all the blog reading I wanted to, but I did find some interesting things this week.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Have a great weekend and I’ll see you on Monday!

Healthy Discoveries had an interesting post on Nia (Neuromuscular Integrative Action). I had a coworker back in the States who taught this, but unfortunately I was never able to try a workshop. It looks sounds so interesting hopefully someday I’ll get the opportunity.

Zesty Cook had an awesome recipe for easy beer bread. I love beer bread! I think I’ll make mine with Guinness.

Will the recession make you fat? My husband sent me this article from MSN this week about how having less money to spend on meals may cause people to choose less expensive, unhealthy foods. Certainly something to think about.

Back in Skinny Jeans had a post about eating out less and hosting dinner parties to save money. First of all, I love hosting dinner parties. I don’t save much money that way, but I guess if you rotated hosting with friends you could.

I do want to say that one of the best ways to save money is stop eating out. This is the main way my husband and I save our money to travel. In Brazil, it is much less expensive so we tend to do it more often, but when we lived in the US we probably ate out about twice a month.

I would always come across people giving me the “must be nice” attitude when we would head out for a trip. Meanwhile they were spending buku bucks on lunches out every day. Eating from home can really save the dollars!

The links are a little late this weekend, but I liked them so much I had to get around to posting them. I kind of dropped off the face of the earth with posts in the middle of the week. I spent all day Thursday and Friday traveling back to Brazil. I’m here now and posting will get back to a true normal next week. I’ve got lots of good health and food info lined up, and cooking will start back up for me.

My links are coming just a bit early this week. I came across some great info and wanted to be sure and pass the word along.

On Sunday I leave for a much anticipated vacation. Every year since our honeymoon my husband and I have managed to make it to the Caribbean. A few years ago we moved the annual vacation to the week before Christmas.

At first I thought I’d miss all the holiday prep, but it has turned out to be the best time of the year to go for us. We get a break from the hustle and bustle and when the vacation is done we aren’t so sad to leave the resort because we are ready for Christmas celebrations.

So I’ll be taking a break next week. I’ll be back the week of Christmas and can’t wait to catch up on all the great health info and recipes that are sure to post on my favorite blogs while I’m gone.
The food is always amazing in Jamaica and I hear that a cooking class is a new addition to resort activities. I should be full of great food photos and recipes to recreate .

See you in about a week!

Now on to the links!

Off Her Cork took a break from her fun food blogging this week to share some information on keeping pets safe for the holidays. There is some great info there if you have a furry member of your family.

I just found Gastroanthropology this week. I was immediately drawn to Adrienne’s beautiful pictures of food at the German Christmas Markets. She is a trained pastry chef studying food policy. The fact that she is an ex-pat living in London also caught my eye.

Passports with a Purpose is a project developed by some great travel bloggers. It is a fundraiser to benefit the Heifer International. You can browse the available gifts until December 29th. You simply buy raffle tickets for the prizes you would like. Money goes to the charity and you might end up with a cool prize!

Recipe Girl never fails to share unique and tasty recipes. I loved the Magic in the Middles Cookies that combine chocolate and peanut butter. Yum!

A Life Less Sweet reported on new HFCS research. Cathy has some great points. As I mentioned in her comments, eliminating HFCS has never been about obesity or weight gain. It is about getting back to real food and away from processed junk.

Also, I wanted to mention that I did try Good Things Catered’s Cranberry Orange Cookies this week. They were out of this world! Definitely add them to your baking list if you enjoy that combination of flavors. I added chopped pecans to mine.

I hope this first weekend in December finds you well. I am doing the Arthritis Foundation’s Jingle Bell walk this morning with my mom and sister-in-law. I am looking forward to it, but definitely think warm thoughts for me!! I will be bundled up for sure.

Here are some of my favorites from this past week!

I just found Mindy’s Mouthful last week and I love it already. She is focused on the Christmas Markets in Strasbourg, France and all the wonderful foods. I have a travel goal to make it to a European Christmas market at some point in my life. Her pictures and highlights are beautiful!

Good Things Catered posted some amazing looking cookies this week. I love the combination of cranberry and orange and I can’t wait to give these a try.

Live Well 360 is doing a 30 days of oatmeal challenge. I thought the Key Lime Pie oatmeal was really original. I’d skip the stevia, but everything else sounds like a tasty combination.

Back in Skinny Jeans had a great post this week about magazine articles and covers. She made some fun and much better suggestions for titles. Some magazines need to get with the times regarding health, wellness and inner beauty.

Happy Saturday! I hope you are all having a lovely weekend. I hear it is snowy in many parts of the US so I thought a picture of warm sunshine might cheer you up if you aren’t too fond of it. I would love to see some snow about now and I am hoping for a white Christmas during my time home in December.

Here are a few things I really enjoyed reading this week. I hope you will too.

The Tangled Noodle had a really great post about cultural identity, ethnicity and food. It was a reminder to me how food can be a comfort and in some ways defines us. Sometimes I think this is forgotten when it comes to health. Food is such an important part of our lives we can’t remove it we should embrace it and work on developing a healthy relationship with it.

Back to the Fridge brought up an interesting question about the cost of food, wondering if it is still cheaper to eat-in with current times. My take is that for unhealthy foods, those dollar menus may make eating out less expensive, but for wholesome, healthy foods it is still less expensive to eat at home. Eating at home is one of the main ways my husband and I save money for travel.

That’s Fit had a what I consider a rather saddening post about the rise in prescription medications among children for obesity related conditions. I wish so much this was a problem that as a society we could get under control. Changes are moving in the right direction, but I fear we have a long way to go.

The ACSM released their predictions for the Top 20 Fitness Trends for 2009. Looking at the list not a whole lot has changed from last year, but this is a positive thing in my opinion. It is nice to see that we’ve come across tools and exercises that have staying power like the stability ball and group cycling. I’m definitely glad that number 1 and 2 will continue to be a priority.

Happy November! I hope everyone is having a great weekend and recovering well from a night of Halloween fun.

There was some excellent reading this week around the web regarding food, health and wellness. These are a few of the things that I really enjoyed.

Fit Bottomed Girls reported on a new study released about the safety of Splenda. As you know, I gave it up a while back and I think as the results of these kinds of studies keep coming I’m going to grow more content with my decision.

The Discomfort Zone had an informative and entertaining guest post about the raw food diet. I learned quite a bit by reading it. While I eat a lot of raw foods I couldn’t go 100%, but I really enjoy learning about what works for other people.

The Art of Non-conformity offered a thought provoking and motivating post reflecting on the phrase “Today is the first day of the rest of your life.” Need some inspiration this weekend? Definitely take a few minutes to read it.

This non-American Life is one of my favorite ex-pat blogs. This week she reported on her recent trip to Italy and has some photos of the amazing food she ate there. Don’t click the link if you are hungry! You can check out the rest of the blog for more beautiful photos of her travels.

From French Fries to Flaxseed had one of my favorite fall recipes of the week – Turkey Mushroom Shepard’s Pie. I liked the healthier spin with turkey and the use of white cheddar.

Photo of Cape Meares, Oregon coast

I had trouble keeping up with my blog reading this week, but these are a few things that I did get around to checking out and really enjoyed.

If you didn’t catch it, Mark had a great post about worry this week. I love the idea of designating and ‘worry period’. It seems that everyone is under some added stress lately, this technique can help.

I love gorgonzola and pear slices on my salads. Straight from the Farm posted an amazing recipe to turn this salad into an appetizer with Sweet Gorgonzola and Pear Bruschetta. Sounds good to me!