It’s Spring time!  With March still in full swing, I chatted with a fellow registered dietitian nutritionist/chef, a food blogger/photographer and a health coach for National Nutrition Month on how they ‘Go Further with Food’.   It’s a wide open topic as there are so many ways to be smart with food from making healthful choices for you and your family to getting creative with leftovers to buying local foods from grocers and community supported agriculture (CSA) services.

Eating should be fun, happy and healthy (most of the time!) 

Here’s some food for thought on ways you can take food to a different level in your life. . .

“Most people don’t believe me, but we eat most of our meals at home. This is for many reasons, one of them being that I’m picky about the quality of food we eat. Another reason is that I want to be the one preparing the food for my family because it makes me happy,” says Sara Haas, RDN, LDN, a registered dietitian and culinary specialist.  Sara enjoys sharing her love of cooking with her daughter.  “Sure, we like the occasional meal “out.”  But more often than not, you’ll find us eating at home….at the table,” shares Sara.  “We grocery shop once a week and I work hard to make sure we utilize everything we’ve purchased.  Sometimes even literally calling the meal “this is what I found in the fridge, so we’re eating it.”

“We belong to a CSA in the winter time and pick up our farm share every week. We pay in advance, but the benefit includes eating locally grown organic food, which reduces our carbon footprint, and we’re supporting a local farm, which helps both the local economy and preserves the natural beauty of Vermont,” says Katie Webster, a Vermont food blogger, photographer and cookbook author.   “I also buy our meat in bulk from a local farm, and keep it frozen for the same reasons. Sourcing our food in this way forces us to use random root veggies and less desirable cuts of meats sometimes,” says Katie.

On Katie’s food and recipe blog, Healthy Seasonal Recipes, she focuses on easy ways to use these types of ingredients, so her readers can feel empowered to use these sustainable food sourcing methods, as well.  “In the summer, I have a – sometimes successful, vegetable garden, and I do my best to put up some of the harvest for the winter by drying, canning or freezing it,” Katie explains.

Check out these 6 Simple Ways to Spring Clean Your Kitchen

“Think of getting healthy as a marathon, not a sprint,” says Monique Costello, a health strategist and founder of Happy Eats Healthy.  According to Monique, a sprint resembles a diet where you go-out in full force on day one with a lofty goal and usually run out of steam quickly. “Instead, make small, sustainable changes over the course of many weeks that will add up to larger strides in the end,” says Monique.

I love seeing how these nutrition aficionados are getting in the kitchen and utilizing food to its fullness potential for health, happiness and the LOVE of it!

Get a few of my favorite springish dishes below:

Ginger Lime Chicken With Grilled Peaches

Yogurt Kissed Strawberries 

Pan Seared Courgettes (Zucchini) and Chickpeas with Garlic and Scallions

Enjoy eating simply!

XOXO,

-Vicki