A Few of My Favorite Things... January Product Picks

I have come across a few more items in the fitness and nutrition space that I just can't keep quiet about. Take a look and if you have favorites you would like to share please feel free to do so!

Clean Slate 
Now that finding a recipe is as easy as Googling one, buying a cookbook has become a thing of the past for many of us, myself included. Well, at least until I came across Clean Slate. What got me interested were the beautiful recipes with quality ingredients. Each recipe was so colorful and healthy - think Poached Salmon with Roasted Sweet Peppers and Carrots with Oranges and Hazelnuts -  that I thought surely when I ate them I must look better...or at least I'd feel that way :) . I could also find the ingredients at my local grocery store, and maybe just in one trip. In the limited time I have to grocery shop there just wasn't time to hunt down obscure ingredients. The last one I  searched for was  huitlacoche,  which I learned in the process is a fungus that grows on the ears of corn. It was then that I realized I should stick with the more familiar ingredients. Clean Slate also provides the nutritional content for each recipe which makes my life easier. And upon making many of the recipes I realized they also did a great job of offering streamlined preparations and parchment paper options to minimize clean up. Recipes could also be executed in a reasonable amount of time. No small feat with hungry teenagers. Enough said, take a look and try one out.

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Carbon 38
Nowadays, there are getting to be a lot of options when it comes to good looking fitness apparel. I have been on the hunt for a new cool place to get workout clothes that work for barre and ride classes as well as the weight room.  And I found it. Carbon 38 had exactly what I wanted. They have great tops with interesting cuts and both modern and retro workout gear. I could do some damage here... check out these 70's flare pants and cross back top I bought, then go check out the site. carbon38.com

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Green Mountain Farms Greek Cream Cheese 
​For the cream cheese lovers in my life, I found a healthier alternative to traditional cream cheese. Green Mountain, blends cream cheese and Greek yogurt to create a lower calorie, lower fat, lower sodium, lower cholesterol and gluten free spread with 4 x more protein. I wasn't expecting much. I thought it would be a bit watery and bland. But I was pleasantly surprised. When I opened it the consistency was creamy and spreadable and it tasted great!

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Bolani Roasted Butternut Squash
I love sweet potatoes at any time of day, even mashed with walnuts and cinnamon on top for breakfast. But some days I am in a hurry and forget to plan ahead and bake them. So I was looking for a quick alternative.  I came across another vegetable that is just as delicious and nutritious and ready to go: Bolani Roasted Butternut Squash. I already enjoy their flatbreads so I had a feeling I would like this, and I did. I typically purchase a 3-pack at Costco. I can heat them up in the microwave in 2 min and eat them up in 1 min. There are 3 servings in one container, but at 100 cal a serving, I have been known to eat the whole container in one sitting. I posted the nutrition information below. One caveat, since they are not filled with preservatives they really do expire exactly when they say, so eat them soon after purchase.

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