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Blueberry Muffin Crock Pot Oatmeal

Where do you get your blueberries? I am obsessed with Joe’s Blues from the Green City Market. They are grown with antioxidants and love. Frank is just such a doll and runs this booth every single Saturday morning. I’ve been experimenting with using his blueberries in my kombucha and decided to try a delicious blueberry…

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Reusable lunch ware? I’m your girl!

“You seriously keep that in your purse?” I’ve heard multiple times when I pull out a metal straw. I recently found out you cannot recycle plastic straws due to their size. I keep this cute little canvas bag filled with my fork, knife, spoon, metal straw and yes, chopsticks. I don’t think I’ve used the…

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White Bean, Kale Tuscan Soup

The farmer’s market it one of my favorite places in the world. I just discovered they had dried beans at the Green City Market that I usually go to in Lincoln Park. The woman at Three Sisters Garden told me the beans you usually buy at the store are about 3-5 years old. Their beans are…

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Beet Chips

I’ve had this mandolin slicer for so long and haven’t figured out a way to use it. All of a sudden I had all these beets and the mandolin slicer was begging for attention. So I whipped it out with the faintest idea how to even set it up. I chopped the ends of the…

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Chickpea Cookie Dough Energy Balls

My college friends used to call me “Mama Ridge.” I’d constantly have chocolate chip cookies on deck for the Brooksiders to scavenge after a night out in Columbia, Missouri. Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are packed with fiber and protein. According to Medical News Today, chickpeas contain a mineral called selenium. This mineral helps…

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Got Shrooms? Mushroom Medicinal Properties

When I was a kid, I begged my mom for shiitake mushrooms. I couldn’t get enough. I went through a phase where they weren’t my favorite things but now, I cannot get enough. Got shrooms? My mushroom guy, Ambrose wears a shirt with this written on the back every Saturday at the Green City Market. Mushrooms…

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Red Lentil Soup

“Would you like to come over for a bowl of soup?” What a lovely question! Yes, I would love to come over for soup. I had a meeting with another health coach who invited me over for a bowl of soup. It was such a nice way to get together and see how someone else does…

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A Sip of Mother Nature

A drink straight from Mother Nature herself. The green juices from Earth & Skye Farm is sure to get your body into that post juice glow. Patti McPhillips grows her greens in Orland Park in her own suburban yard. It wasn’t always this way. She learned a valuable lesson of simplicity as she developed this…

It’s about more than just the food on a plate

You listen to a pianist as he loses himself in the keys of his mother’s grand piano. You hear the painter rave about her newest oils, water colors, acrylics and other artistic mediums. Only then do you uncover that this is their form of creation. This is where the flow begins. For me, it is…

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Blue Mermaid Smoothie Bowl

A smoothie bowl the color of the ocean? What on earth? Well it took me about three weeks to get my hands on this crazy ingredient just to make a dang blue smoothie. You might say I have a passion for making food into art. The process began with a search on Amazon for “blue…