Making Love in the Kitchen

We’ve all read stories in glossy magazines that feature people who drop 50 pounds, or quit smoking, or banish sugary treats, or give up coffee and won’t stop gushing about how amazingly fantastic they feel. What they don’t talk about is the dreary space in between being sick and being healthy, when you feel completely lousy. It’s as if those people are like mothers who go through 57 hours of excruciating labour and instantly forget the pain when they see the cutesy shmoopy baby. Sometimes, when we make the commitment to cut the crap out of our lives and get healthy, we don’t feel the way we anticipated.

Read Full Post »

You know we are aaaaall about the yoga lovin’ here at the Love in the Kitchen headquarters. Seemed only fitting we, along with our pals at Energy Expressions, that we’d be giving away these SWEET yoga tunic pants, which I have been loving a long time. I’ll be honest though- I cut mine off to crops as that made them much more bicycle friendly for me. The best bit about these skants (get it- skirt/pants), is that it’s like the very best of both worlds – pants and skirts, together in this beautiful marriage known as the tunic yoga pant. They keep our booty covered (think yoga wedgie), offer a little extra warmth for the kidneys and you never have to worry about splitting the seams in a downward dog.

Read Full Post »

Since moving out of my kitchen, I am often feeling incredibly proud of myself when I practice what I preach and pack a lunch to bring to work. I often have the thought- Hey, I work in a kitchen. There will for sure be something there I can eat. And usually there is. A smoothie. I have more smoothies for lunch than anything else. Buuuut- sometimes I want more. The stakes have been raised too since Sondi and Maeve are forever coming to work as the professionals that they are, with these beautiful fresh veg filled lunches. As I am on my computer much of the day, like you, I see the tweets and facebook posts from all those nutritionists and nutrition lovers out there.Often I find myself thinking- Really? Is that really what you made today? As they share with the world that they were up at dawn harvesting their own buckwheat to soak it, sprout it, dehydrate it, and grind it to make their own raw sprouted flour to be mixed with sunlight and a dollop of bliss and then formed into a tortilla to put their garden grown gold inside and bla bla bla. I read that as I sip on my smoothie feeling a little inadequate and kinda lazy. Where I come from, lunch has to be realistic and realistic means quick, easy, energy giving and little to no clean up.

Read Full Post »

Should sugar be regulated like other ‘drugs’ we can so easily get our hands on if we want? This was all over the news last week and I thought I should offer my view. It may surprise many but hear me out on this. The argument in favour goes like this: “Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco, contend a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)”. Read the full Times article here. I opted out of going on to the mainstream news to discuss this because what I really wanted to say isn’t what the peeps over in mainstream generally smile upon. Understandably- as it tends to offend a lot of advertisers. Since I don’t allow advertisers that I think are part of the problem to advertise, I have no one to please but you, my mom and my dad. So- here are my thoughts.

Read Full Post »

What fun I had when Wilder Weir from Oh So Cosmo! (airing on Cosmo TV) came back to the kitchen for a visit. Remember the last time he was here? I flirted my heart out with him and it seemed he wanted to come back for more. On the menu were our kitchen fave veggie rice wraps with almond dipping sauce and our conversation quickly went off course. One moment we’re talking flaccid cucumber and the next we chatted ‘poo juice’ and how pooping makes us pretty. Watch my love sweet lovers. Watch, laugh and learn. I often have a tough time watching myself on TV- but this clip even had me giggling. The peeps at Cosmo did a superfantab job of this segment and now I will just wait by the phone to see if I get called for a magical third date with Wilder.

This time, we were talking detoxing.

Read Full Post »

I feel like perhaps I am supposed to be embarrassed to tell you that I LOVE Gordon Ramsay’s Kitchen Nightmares. I am not sure why. After a day of sunshine and rainbows in the kitchen, where 99.5% of the people who call, or write, or come play in the kitchen are delightful, there is something super fun about kicking back to a flood of F-bombs from old chef GR. What’s even more ridiculous about this affection I have for this show is that I don’t even have a TV. That means the man has to go hunting for an online version and we huddle together on the sofa to watch it on the micro computer screen. Yep. I’ve hit it big time for sure. Just wait ’till my episode of Cribs (yes, I used to watch that too). A wild Thursday night watching a crappy British TV show full of cloudy weather and F-bombs on a computer.

Read Full Post »

She turned her can’ts into cans, and her dreams into plans.

Read Full Post »

I wrote the creed in about 10 minutes. For real. I had been thinking about it and when it came to put pen to paper (or index fingers to keyboard- yes, two finger typer over here), it just flowed out. Why? Because I live it of course. Every mindful moment of my day, I do my best to lighten up, smile and always remember that Today, most certainly, is the day. We have been getting emails and letters (and even photos!) from around the globe, with people sharing how they are doing their best to live this creed as their own manifesto. It’s become art on their walls, backgrounds on their phones, wallpaper on their desktop, and of course- their go to tote bag. For this reason, I have something I would like share… in a moment. First- we made a few creed inspired changes around the kitchen (that went with a few changes on my biz site). We took down my old signature decal that greets guests in my kitchen.

Read Full Post »

We are all about sharing the love here at Making Love in the Kitchen. When we came across The Giving Keys, we absolutely fell in love with the concept and beautiful necklaces. The awesome powers at be with The Giving Keys are kindly sharing their message with us and giving away one of these beautiful keys! Crystie Bowes in marketing explains…

“You will find as you look back upon your life that the moments when you have truly lived are the moments when you have done things in the spirit of love.” – Henry Drummond.
The good we do today comes back to serve us tomorrow. The understanding of paying it forward has been the driving force behind the charity I work for: The Giving Keys. Our organization employs the homeless off the street to make engraved necklaces out of keys. But that’s not all. Once you receive the key with your unique message, you must eventually give it away to a person who is equally in need of the same message and come back to tell your story to the community.

Read Full Post »

Written by Odelia Benabou, CNE graduate, writer and lemon lover extraordinaire. Odelia here, reporting for duty on Meghan’s rad web kingdom to share some simple, back-to-basics tips about lemons! True, lemons aren’t terribly sexy or exotic. We squeeze their tart juice into a glass of water each morning for a revitalizing, alkalinizing and detoxifying effect. Yawn. But this new year, I thought it would be a nice change to chat up my folks for something decidedly less complicated than some of the strange extracts, peculiar foods and just plain bizarre beverages that we nutrition groupies often concoct for fun! So when life hands you lemons, do any of the following:

Read Full Post »

Only two spots left in our fantabulous 10 week total goodness cooking program and only 4 spots left in our Sweet Tooth Healthy Treats class on February 13th.  Did somebody say Valentine’s Day treats!? Some sad, sad news for you my sweet peeps. It looks like my sweet pink kitchen can only accommodate my classes a [...]

Read Full Post »

Social situations can be awkward when you’re trying to be healthy. How do you navigate sticky circumstances without offending your loved ones? Find out how to say no to food without appearing like a self-righteous jerk. Plenty of people don’t see food as nourishment – they view it as a vehicle for socializing, spreading the love and bonding with others. But what is the best way to respond to well-meaning friends, family and coworkers when we’re presented with an item that doesn’t jive with our food philosophy or health style? Do you accept the offering and feed it to the family dog, or do you snort with haughty derision? Unless you have Meghan’s wit and charm, the latter will likely land you alone with only your kale chips and goji berries to keep you warm at night.

Read Full Post »

Once upon a time I went to the bar. I lived at the other end of downtown Toronto, by my university and there were martini bars a plenty. Here there and everywhere. There was one in particular that was my go-to. The name escapes me and has since closed down- or so it seemed from my last drive by. But that is where I went on dates. I am sure the old man who ran the place, who took a sweet liking to me (and showed it by adding an extra chocolate kiss into my chocolatini) wondered what kinda lady I was. The place was perfect for first dates- close enough that I could walk there and equally close enough that I could ditch out and get home on my own. I feel like last time I had a real martini may have been on my 21st birthday. And I am pretty sure were I to have one, it would not end well. Yes. Even after just one. To be honest- I can’t even really imagine drinking that- like pure fire to burn down my liver or something. Now, that’s not to say I don’t enjoy a great cocktail once in a while. But who says a cocktail has to be fire on the liver? Not me. Not me! Since Maeve was on the full on Fab Detox last week, I wanted to help her jazz things up. So we made cocktails. Our style of cocktails.

Read Full Post »

Yep- so here I am in St. Lucia, leading my 4th annual Nourish Your Soul Retreat (which, by the way, you might want to get on the wait list for next year), and I still have a tail to share from Hawaii. The story includes tofu pot stickers, of all things. Is there anyone out there that doesn’t love a good dumpling? Nope. I didn’t think so. Why is it that things seem to taste better when wrapped in bundles of dough/rice paper/pasta? I am afraid I don’t have an answer for you. When we were in Hawaii- after a long day of adventuring, we split the drive back to our abode up by stopping for dinner at a raved out veg place. On the menu- tofu potstickers and for some reason, I was all over them. I NEVER eat fried food. I never crave it, never like it and definitely don’t usually want it mixed with tofu. The mere idea s totally barftown. For some reason though- maybe a day in the sun, maybe by mass consumption of odd fruits, maybe the holiday spirit, but I ordered them and they were amazing. And then I kept talking about them to the man… until I had no choice, once home, but to make them.

Read Full Post »

I came across this on a blog I love, SweetOnVeg, run by Jennifer- a woman I adore over in Vancouver. I had to share. Everyone you meet comes with baggage. Find someone who loves you enough to help you unpack. Image courtesy of Nightwolf Graphics  

Read Full Post »