I'm really enjoying teaching cooking classes at Google! My series is called "How I Ate 70 Pounds." It's an interesting concept where I talk through my weight loss story with the audience, then demo two recipes that showcase that healthy cooking can be delicious eats. That was very evident to the class when they tried these turkey sloppy joes with crispy onion straws.
Pro Tip: If you're not a fan of the "sloppy", you can break up the bun and make into a sloppy joe bowl!
This hearty comfort meal between two toasted buns packs a whopping 30g of protein and is an unconventional way to get in a solid dose of vitamin C (from the tomato sauce!).
Happy November! Fall is my favorite time of the year. The colors, the spices, and the pumpkin! Oh, and my wedding anniversary! Shannon and I just celebrated our second wedding anniversary. She's an inspiration in my life and in this recipe.
Shannon is one of those girls that Buzzfeed makes fun of that buys pumpkin everything. But, I have to admit, I'm a "basic bro." I could eat pumpkin pie every. single. day.
But, I also preach mindfulness and balance, so I came up with a more nutritious way to enjoy pumpkin pie creaminess and spices
My pumpkin pie filling uses a mixture of pumpkin puree and blended chickpeas for a nice dose of protein, fiber, and vitamin A.
These parfaits are great to make ahead in small mason jars and eat on the go. When I'm running late in the morning and rushing to catch my bus, I grab one of these to make my 1 hour commute a bit more enjoyable.
I recently did a talk about my weight loss story at Google's cooking school called "How I Ate to Lose 70 pounds" followed by demos of two of my most popular recipes.
Afterwards, I did a Q&A where someone asked if I had any tips on how to cook something that was high protein, easy to prep in advance, and most importantly, wasn't dry chicken breast.
I didn't have a great answer for her. I'm a big advocate of meal prepping because it helps you remove stress about what you're going to eat for dinner after a long day at work. It really helps with staying on track with fitness goals!
I make a dinner menu a week in advance, go to the grocery store once, and try to cook as many of my dinners in advance as long as it doesn't sacrifice quality. The problem with meal prepping chicken is that it dries out and doesn't taste all that great when its re-heated.
Enter, my no-mayo tuna salad sandwich. At 31g of protein, 6g of fat, and only 327 calories (including the bun), I think I have the perfect option for people like this audience member, and probably even you!
I work for Google, one of the greatest companies in the world. But with great perks comes great responsibility.
I'm very busy these days, but I refuse to let my health/wellness take a backseat to my work. I still hit the gym 5 days a week and make sure I track all of my food with MyFitnessPal so I can achieve my life goal of homeostasis, a geeky word for balance.
My wife and I are both hard working people. My wife is a Speech Language Pathologist (SLP) and saving lives so the last thing either one of us can afford is to get hungry during that peak productivity window 7AM-11AM and get distracted. That's why I created this recipe for overnight oats that has the right mix of slow digesting nutrients to keep us feeling alert and satiated, longer.
I did an A/B test to see if this recipe really does keep you feeling full longer than say a pancake breakfast. Sure enough, my overnight oats recipe kept us feeling satiated 1.5 hours longer than when we eat pancakes!
More importantly, this recipe is delicious. I mean, who doesn't love cookie butter?
We're heading into Spring, but the weather is still pretty cold, which means it's still practical to share a recipe for hot comfort food, right? Believe me, this recipe will make you turn up the A/C and make you want to relive the cozy Winter months again. Even you Boston!
This recipe is a perfect way to start off a change I'm making to the blog. I've talked about how my wife and I lost a combined 130 pounds in previous posts, but I haven't really shared exactly how we did it. This is a food blog of course, so I'm only going to focus on the food portion of our wellness journey.
We believe in a sustainable approach to nutrition called "flexible dieting." In a nutshell, you track your food intake against a ratio of fat, carbohydrates, and proteins based on your goals and activity levels with an app called MyFitnessPal. It sounds neurotic I'm sure, but it's easy and allowed us to lose weight, lift heavier weights, and still eat all of our favorite foods. Hello doughnuts and In-N-Out burger!
So why is that relevant to this blog? Well, starting with this recipe, I'm going to include serving sizes and macro nutritional information to benefit the growing bandwagon of the flexible dieting revolution and also to help others make mindful choices about the food they eat. There's no such thing as bad food, just good choices!
I'm really enjoying teaching cooking classes at Google! My series is called "How I Ate 70 Pounds." It's an interesting concept where I talk through my weight loss story with the audience, then demo two recipes that showcase that healthy cooking can be delicious eats. That was very evident to the class when they tried these turkey sloppy joes with crispy onion straws. 
