For the iPad and phone backgrounds you’re seeing my favorite kitchen tool: the standing mixer. For the computer based backgrounds, it’s everything you need for a good baking session…champagne included. That’s how I like to bake!

Feel free to download, enjoy and share! Just click to open the new window for your desired size and save/set as background. 

13 inch screen , 15 inch screen, i Mac

iPhone & iPad

The February challenge ingredient was chocolate. That’s right. The dietitians are working with chocolate and we LIKE it. So with chocolate in hand, I plotted to combine it with a healthier pumpkin-spice-latte like beverage.

A Healthier Pumpkin Spice Beverage

• Using unsweetened almond milk as a base, we’re starting off at 30-40 calories per cup.
• Now for what you’ve actually been waiting for…the benefits of chocolate. Dark chocolate contains antioxidants and has been shown in studies to lower blood pressure. I’m not saying go crazy here, but it does have some health benefits.
• By using spices and alternative flavors like pumpkin, cinnamon sticks, and nutmeg, you won’t be missing the major sugar jolt that is normally used for flavorings.

Pumpkin Spice Dark Hot Chocolate

Makes 4 one cup servings

Ingredients:

• 4 Cups unsweetened vanilla almond milk
• 6 oz dark chocolate chunks (chop up that left over Valentine’s Day candy!)
• 3 T canned pumpkin puree
• 1 t pumpkin pie spice
• cinnamon sticks & fresh nutmeg

Optional: sugar per taste preference, whipped topping, coffee

Directions:
In a large pot, heat milk until steaming (not boiling…no bueno). Add chunks or chips of dark chocolate to the same pot, stirring constantly. Add pumpkin puree and pumpkin pie spice to the milk mixture and stir to combine. Pour into four glasses and serve. If you need to be caffeinated, add coffee, or instant powdered coffee.

Special note: I’m starting a new perk-sharing custom food focused graphic design backgrounds. Click to read more and download for yourself!

See more Recipe Redux Chocolate entries below!

Let’s cut to the chase. Are you on Pinterest? 

Over the past week, Pinterest, has exceeded everyone’s expectations. Originally, a small invite only website that began late last year, Pinterest allowed users to create virtual inspiration boards. Recent articles from tech savvy sites, to mainstream media, have released study results that have found Pinterest is crushing the social media competition. Everyone’s noticed, and I’m getting lots of questions from my social media clients.

My Pinterest Story

 As someone who cluttered their desktop with saved images and links, it was an organizational miracle for me. And as someone who was getting married this past fall I needed somewhere to collect wedding inspiration. Badly. Before my Martha Stewart Wedding catalogs exploded onto EVERY household surface. Pinterest has become useful beyond my wedding though and for different reasons. It has become somewhere for me to collect ideas for dinner, decorating, gifts, research, and even blog posts (Note: My Pinterest obsession crept into Figments HERE).

What the research on Pinterest says

• Pinterest drives more traffic than Google +, You Tube, and LinkedIN combined. 
• Big companies (Including Chobani) are using Pinterest to personalize the face of their business.
• Sites are using Pinterest to learn how consumers view their brand & marketing.
• It hit 10 million monthly UNIQUE users faster than any site EVER.

How can you use it as a RD? Plus, a plea to each of you.

Over the past week I’ve seen lots of ways you shouldn’t use Pinterest from new users. Pinterest is not for self promotion. Pinterest is a place to share visually inspiring links. It’s a place to organize creativity. Shameless linking of every single thing from your own website, every article you’re quoted in, choosing to Tweet each pin is wrong. Pinterest is the place to gather gorgeous recipes from RD run sites like Healthy Aperture, or link to a great infographic run down on the latest diet fad. It’s a place to help connect to potential clients and other professionals on a more personal level. So please, use Pinterest with respect.

What are your thoughts on Pinterest? Need an invite? Let me know! I’m right here: http://pinterest.com/CarleneFutureRD/ 

-Carlene Future RD

With only about three months left in this internship, I can’t believe how fast time has gone by. I feel like it was yesterday (Reality= August) when I was starting out in the hospital. I just wrapped up my first site of the community rotation and am into my first week at site number two. Let’s recap my last few weeks at Head Start:

 I gave an introduction to the Head Start policy council on My Plate (I like to call it My Love. I was not a fan of the Food Pyramid.). While I did have a handout on pre-school portions (English and Spanish thanks to the office translator), the bottom line is make half your plate veggies and fruit. In the background you’ll see my wonderful, talented preceptor  who I am missing very much!

My favorite project was the ‘Healthy Food Experience’. Each month, classrooms are required to create a cooking or taste test session to promote healthy food exposure. My preceptor and I picked sweet potatoes which are a personal favorite of mine. The students helped us make sweet potato pancakes and nearly all of the kids enjoyed them! Even though we did this project in two different classrooms, both groups of kids made comments about :

• the pancake batter dribbles on the griddle being ‘pancake seeds’
• wanting to smell everything (cloves, cinnamon….flour?)
• feeling the need to attempt to reach out and touch the hot griddle

With extra batter, the office ladies helped us finish the leftovers from our classroom excursion. Head Start was an amazing experience thanks to the people who helped me in the office. Social workers, administrators, and my preceptor gave me lots of tips and words of wisdom. And on the last day, they gave me falafel, pie (raspberry peach!), and flowers.

Now I’m in community rotation number two, WIC (Women Infants and Children). Stay tuned for the full community experience,

-Carlene Future RD

Instead of intense restriction or calorie counting, I opted out. I never said no to mac and cheese and had a bite of dessert when I really wanted one. With a million other things to plan, doesn’t every bride deserve sanity in one area of life?

That’s when I met a kindred spirit. During a Twitter chat for Healthy Eats, the Food Network blog, Solutions Bridal mentioned their clients always ask them about the latest diets and we clicked. We decided what crash diets really boiled down to were unrealistic expectations. There are no fast fixes or magic pills to lose all the weight you want in a month. Shunning carbs will make you Bridezilla (and harm your body!).

“The average engagement is around 15 months and a dress ordering period can be between 6 to 9 months. For the sake of your dress alterations, you need to be at or very close to your weight at the time of your order. That also means you need to maintain that weight for several months before the final fitting. Kicking extreme diets OUT of your life and focusing on sustainable healthy choices is crucial! 

Here’s your wedding weight loss equation…”

Read part 1 and part 2 to find out realistic expectations & equations for your dream dress. 

-Carlene Future RD

“In this bite sized dessert, I use vanilla infused goat cheese as a base for hints of caramel and nutmeg over spicy gingersnap cookies (Note: Feel free to substitute for home made gingerbread).  The next layer is a sliced fig with orange segment, topped with drizzled honey. Figs are visually stunning and also help a dish by bridging savory and sweet while the orange adds clarity and freshness.”

Today I’m guest blogging on The Wicked Noodle, sharing this grown up spin on a healthy Fig Newton.

Be sure to click over to read more!

Yes and no. Consumers hate when it’s a grey area, but to be more specific, it’s what’s ON those sweet little kernels that counts. While popcorn is a whole grain and can lend a hand in the fiber department, it’s the toppings that kill it from a nutrition view. The quintessential  movie popcorn can run you between ” 400-1,200 calories, with one to three days’ worth of saturated fat and up to 1,500 milligrams of sodium” according to this study.

But what if we took off the globs of butter, the mounds of salt, and kept the portion realistic? Yes, popcorn IS healthy for you. One cup of air popped popcorn with without the butter is only about 20 calories. Instead of butter, I prefer to step my popcorn up a notch with spices, herbs and even a little dark chocolate. Whether you’re in a sweet, or savory mood here are some flavor suggestions for your naked popcorn.

Forgive me relish for I have doubted you. Over the past few months I’ve come to realize relish is more of a broad descriptor and have even yielded to a cran-orange relish on hot cereal. Per Google, a relish is a ‘pickled, chopped, or cooked fruit or vegetable’. Cucumber relish is a nod to that previously described green stuff, but it’s crisp, clear, and very light. Thyme is what seals the deal for me in this recipe my Dad whipped up (Stu doesn’t measure, so I had to ask a lot of questions to score a recipe for this post!). Each time the relish is mixed, spooned out onto a dish, or even just passed by you around the table, you get the rush of thyme. This cucumber mix is a great condiment that’s also a serving of vegetables!

• Friday night: paint nails
• Sunday night: take nail polish off
• Monday: mourn loss of nail polish, plot next weekend’s color.

Since I think about nutrition for most of the day, of course I’ve had a lingering question about nail polish. What food named nail polish colors are out there? While there has yet to be an entire food based collection of names, this LA times article can help you understand how nail polish gets crazy names.

So if you need a gift for a foodie friend or you need your nutrition nails done to complete the RD image, here are my favorite food named nail polishes. (Reading this on a phone? Click the title link to view the full images in their total glory.)

As a salad lover during all seasons, I figured I should be taking extra advantage of a nutrition boost to fight colds this winter. One of my favorite dietitians just shot a news segment  on a few of the foods and nutrients that keep colds at bay. I’ve taken the tips on water and vitamin C to heart and added mint for the powerful menthol that helps clear sinuses when wafted.