Tag: A New View of Healthy Eating

  • Experience Nutrition: Welcome to the NEW Experience Nutrition with Melanie Albert

    Experience Nutrition: Welcome to the NEW Experience Nutrition with Melanie Albert

    By Melanie Albert, Intuitive Cooking Expert, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition, Award-Winning Cookbook Author, Speaker

    Today, I’m excited to share with you the update of my website, www.ExperienceNutrition.com, With the website launch, I thought I’d take a moment to briefly share my initial motivation for healthy eating and living, along with my philosophies about plant-based eating.

    The Power of Food: Mom’s Breast Cancer 23 Years Ago

    23 years ago my Mom was diagnosed with breast cancer, and the conventional doctors gave her six months to live. At that point, I left my corporate marketing career in Kansas City to be with Mom and my Dad in Cocoa Beach, Florida. At night I read the few nutrition books that were available. I had already stopped eating meat and was eating organic food.

    This was when I first learned that food and positive mindset were key to health.

    I’m happy to say, as I write this today, that my Mom celebrated her 89th birthday this month. And, my Dad is now 92 years old. And, they are both enjoying life every day with their positivity and beautiful Cocoa Beach backyard.

    Melanie Albert with Mom & Dad in Cocoa Beach, Florida

    I’ll continue to share more of my journey with food and cooking in my blog posts so you can get to know me and my motivation for being here with you.

    Top 6 Philosophies of Plant-Based Eating from Melanie’s cookbook, “A New View of Healthy Eating”

    A new view of healthy eating begins with the food we choose to eat and extends to our shopping, cooking, and eating experiences.

    The key philosophies are:

    1. Eat real whole foods.
    2. Shop local and in season.
    3. Enjoy intuitive shopping.
    4. Cook with intuition.
    5. Eat mindfully.
    6. Enjoy food and life.
     Eat Real Whole Foods.

    Eat foods that are in their natural form, as nature created them. Focus on plants and local, in-season foods. Focus on organic. When we eat real whole foods, we get more nutrition and fiber from the foods and receive the energy from the Earth. When we focus on eating organic, we eat food that is “clean,” without pesticides or herbicides, and not genetically modified (i.e., not GMO).

    Real whole foods include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds. It’s quite simple. The recommended foods in “A New View of Healthy Eating” are primarily in alignment with an anti-inflammatory way of eating as advocated by Andrew Weil, M.D., the Mediterranean way of eating, and the Blue Zones as researched by National Geographic, Dan Buettner, and his team. The foods and recipes are all gluten-free and dairy-free.

    A New View of Healthy Eating Book, by Melanie Albert

    Farm-to-Table Cooking Classes at The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona

    Farm-to-Table Intuitive Cooking Classes at The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona

    I’m honored to teach hands-on interactive cooking classes at the beautiful The Farm at South Mountain for the three years. Hope our local Arizona friends can join us this Fall.

    November 18, 2018, 11am-1pm: Farm-to-Table Plant-Based Thanksgiving CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKET

    December 9. 2018, 11am-1pm: Plant-Based Holiday Desserts CLICK HERE TO PURCHASE TICKET

    Join our Plant-Based Community Come on over to our Simple Daily Plant-Based Facebook Group, where I share daily tips around shopping, cooking, and eating beautiful, delicious food. CLICK HERE TO JOIN THE GROUP

    Join our e-newsletter for cooking ideas, recipes, and events. And, please let me know if you are interested in any nutrition cooking programs for your organization.

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Time for Raw Culinary

    A New View of Healthy Eating: Time for Raw Culinary

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    As I write this, it’s 2:00 am and I’m excited to share with you that tomorrow starts a new culinary adventure for me. I’m studying Fundamentals of Raw Cuisine with Matthew Kenney Culinary. I first learned about Matthew Kenney’s beautiful, delicious food when I was traveling to New York to go to school at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2006-2007. Nearly every weekend, my friends and I ate dinner at his former restaurant Pure Food & Wine. While I am not a raw foodist, I absolutely loved the food. I still remember the beauty of the raw lasagna dish, the layering of the intense flavors in it, and I look forward to learning how to prepare it.

    I’m having so much fun with farmers’ market shopping, cooking and teaching simple culinary techniques and intuitive cooking with whole foods. I always love learning, so I decided to learn more and will be sharing my learning in blog posts, and future cooking classes, events, and retreats.

    Key Insights

    A few of the key insights that I’ve learned which are very consistent with my current philosophies include Matthew Kenney’s  views:

    • This raw cuisine is plant-based and emphasizes using high quality fresh, local, seasonal ingredients to prepare excellent food.
    • We need a few key basic kitchen equipment to prepare raw food. Primarily a good knife, high-speed blender, and dehydrator.
    • Emphasizes being very organized in the kitchen, with mise en place (everything in place) extended to being organized in general, with a neat, clean workspace.

    Prep Day

    Today was Prep Day for the course. I started to get my food photography set up.

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    And, nuts are soaking and bananas are freezing.

    I look forward to sharing with you some of my learning from this raw cuisine course and hope it will inspire you to experiment with this way of eating.

    In addition to blogging about my raw culinary experiences, I’ll be posting on social media. Come on over to my Facebook page (www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating), follow on Instagram @nutritionauthor and #NewViewRawCulinary

     

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: We Eat with our Eyes First

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    To celebrate the launch of my new book, A New View of Healthy Eating, last night I enjoyed an incredible, beautiful meal at the Quiessence Restaurant at The Farm at South Mountain, in Phoenix, with my yoga friend, Jody Loren. Since The Farm is only a mile from my home, over the last decade I have enjoyed the natural, quiet beauty of the farm; the just-harvested organic veggies, flowers, and fresh herbs at Maya’s Farm; and am honored to teach “farm to table” cooking classes in the Spring and Fall of 2016.

    Even though I spend a lot of time at the farm,  last night’s dinner at Quiessence totally exceeded my expectations with the mindfulness and beauty of the environment at The Farm, and the outstanding, unique beauty and simple, yet complex taste and textures of the delicious meal .

    The meal at Quiessence reminded me of one of my favorite quotes:

    “We eat with our eyes first.”

    I invite you to enjoy this photo essay of my celebratory evening at The Farm, commit to go out and enjoy the beauty of your food.

    The Simple Beauty of The Farm

     The Food Art

      Beautiful time with friends.

     Good night at The Farm

    I look forward to seeing photos of you enjoying your “food art” on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating

     

  • A New View of Healthy Eating: Chia Seeds in a Quick Smoothie

    By Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, and speaker. Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC

    Yesterday, I posted a quick smoothie with homemade sunflower seed milk as the base. Today, I created a similar smoothie with chia seeds and coconut water as the base. 

    Both smoothies were made with coconut water, raspberries, and a banana. The only difference being the sunflower seeds yesterday and the chia seeds today, as a thickener and source of protein and healthy fats.

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    CULINARY TIP: Be sure to soak chia seeds before you use them in a recipe, as they will expand about 12 times their size with soaking.

    SIMPLE SMOOTHIE: Blend coconut water chia seed liquid, with frozen raspberries and a banana for a quick, delicious smoothie.

    Have fun creating your own smoothies with different bases, and share your creations with us on our Facebook: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating