A soak in the tub with epsom salts and eucalyptus essential oil last night got me through it, but it was a rough one. I went to bed hungry and pissed off at the world that I've gained 10 lbs. over the Holidays because I lack willpower.

Here's something that I know to be essential to staying compliant on Whole 30 - quick and easy meals, meals I can make for just myself, in a hurry because I worked late or I need to get to the soap shop and I'm starving. So I will share two of those meals with you today, in case you're thinking Whole 30 is too restrictive. Truth is Whole 30 IS restrictive, but with some planning and a list in hand before hitting the grocery store you can do it. If I can, you can,...

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Carb withdrawal is real, friends. The Sugar Dragon doesn't give up easy.

I woke up with an even worse headache than I knew I was going to have because I've done Whole 30 twice before. In fact, it was actually the headache the woke me at 7:00am.  I have zero energy and an entire days worth of work in front of me. My Whole 30 Day To Day journal (which I strongly suggest you get)  "Welcome To Day 2" chapter says 94.3% of us will have a headache, feel foggy, lightheaded and lethargic today because "the amount of suck you are feeling today will be in direct proportion to the amount of junk you were eating before you started Whole 30". I have a doozy because well, Carba-Palooza.

I don't have much energy right now to type, so I will...

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I don't make New Years resolutions, they tend to be grandiose ideas with unattainble goals that just set me up for failure. Instead I set realistic goals for myself throughout the year and try to stay on track. Living my best healthy-self life is one of those goals and clean eating is an absolute essential piece of that goal. However, since September my food choices and eating habits have been terrible, I am officially off track. When Johnny moved to college, my whole life and household routine was turned upside down. Eating well was the first thing out the door.

So I made up my mind in late December to start Whole 30 - this will be my third round. I'm thinking of this as a Control/Alt/Delete on my body, a cleanse and an opportunity to start over from scratch. I...

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Served up at basement card parties and corner bars for the last 100+ years, the Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet is a Wisconsin classic with an intersting history. It's still the drink of choice of deer hunters and ice fishermen, before and after Packer games, and at supper clubs serving up another Wisconsin classic - the Friday night fish fry.

Growing up, my Polish/German parents and grandparents always had a 1.75L  bottle of Korbel brandy on hand. Family gatherings, holidays and celebrations like weddings, anniversary parties and multi-generational reunions always included the matriarchs mixing up big batches of the Brandy Old-Fashioned Sweet which they'd fondly refer to as "making soup" when us kids would ask what they were doing? No fancy muddling tool required, a tube of lipstick or a Bic lighter sufficed back in the day.

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This right here is the perfect Fall dessert! It's a delicious and simple cake that comes from my favorite cookbook author, The Barefoot Contessa, Ina Garten. Her recipes never flop or dissappoint. This cake erved warm with vanilla ice cream, it's to die for. But is's also pretty spectacular served at room temperature a dollup of real whip cream.

Cranberry & Apple Cake

12 oz. fresh cranberries, rinsed and picked over for stems
1 Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored, and diced
½ cup light brown sugar, lightly packed
1 Tbsp. grated orange zest (2 oranges)
¼ cup freshly squeezed orange juice
1 1/4 teaspoons ground cinnamon, divided
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup plus 1 Tbsp. granulated sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
¼ cup sour cream
1 cup...

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In nursing school, I was taught that the number one way to prevent the spread of disease is hand-washing. And much to my surprise, I also learned that I had not been washing my hands properly all of my life. Soap is important, but what's actually more important is the action, the vigorous rubbing of all surfaces to mechanically remove dirt and germs.

Here is how the World Health Organization recommends handwashing be carried out:

If you're a liquid hand soap user, below is an all-natural DIY recipe that's inexpensive, so easy and a great alternative to the commercial gunk that you buy at the store. 

This recipe is a wonderful project to do with your kids, especially at Holiday time, when they can give this soap as a gift. Amazon sells the foaming dispensers and Dr. Bronner's...

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This year has been the best year I can remember in a very long time for tomatoes, and I have a bumper crop! I did water-bath can some of them as sauce last month, but honestly, it's an ordeal. So here's a super easy method for freezing diced tomatoes so that you have them all winter long to be used in soups, chili, stews, and sauces, any recipe that calls for a can of diced tomatoes. Roasting them first adds so much flavor!

Let's Freeze 'Em!

Preheat oven to 390 degrees.

No need to blanch and peel the tomaotes, they taste fine with skins on. This cuts your work into a fraction of the time it would otherwise take. Chop the tomatoes into 16th (that's in half, then half the halves and half again - got that?) You can add fresh basil if...

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Dinnertime often sneaks up on me. Suddenly it's 6:00 pm and I'm starving. But when I'm tired from working all day, cooking feels like a big deal that I don't care to tackle.

Up until a few years ago, that mindset is how I'd end up eating junk-laden foods like frozen pizza, Kraft Mac & Cheese, Chinese carry-out and my dirty little secret addiction: a drive-thru Big Mac and fries wolfed down in the car on the ride back home. And now the empty nest dragon is trying to hurl me back into these old habits.

The key to breaking that bad habit has been to come up with meals that I can prep, cook, and have on my table in under 30 minutes. By "on the table" I mean, eat standing up at my kitchen island, another empty nest gut-punch because sitting alone at...

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I'm Day 18 Empty Nest and here to report that although I am better, I am not great.

First, let me tell you that my son has adjusted to college life even better than I had ever imagined, I've never seen him happier. And I am so very grateful. I raised him to be an independent thinker, not afraid to take risks, kind, brave, optimistic, and with an understanding that the whole wide world is his for the taking if he is willing to do the work. But shit, it's hard to watch that play out now.

Yes, I am proud of him, happy he is only an hour away, glad that he got into a good school, and blah, blah, blah. But I like him a lot and I miss him a lot. It's really that simple.

There have been so many things these past two-plus weeks that I've...

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For all the Mama's who dropped their baby off at a college campus this month, this poem by Gretchen Schmelzer (from her blog) is for you. May it comfort you.

God, Buddha and the Universe deposited this message in my in-box yesterday, the same day that I delivered my son to his college dorm and a roommate he's never met.

When I finally sat down last night after a very long and difficult day to catch up on email, in the deafening quiet of my house without Johnny, there it was, this poem, a lifeline.

Leaving my baby boy in Madison yesterday was the hardest thing I have ever done as a parent. I had been preparing us for this day for months, years really, but I now know that nothing was ever going to prepare me for that moment when I hugged and...

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