Rhubarb is good for more than just pie! This homemade barbecue sauce, a.k.a. Victoria Sauce, is a delicious accompaniment to any kind of meat that you want to grill, bake, or broil. It's extremely easy to make and you'll be surprised at its depth and complexity. This is no ordinary bbq sauce.

If you like it hot, feel free to add a couple habanero peppers. These will complement the sweetness of the brown sugar particularly well.

Foraging for local berries is a fun and rewarding activity. The best part is that you get to make some yummy desserts afterward. Unfortunately, I can only take so much pie and cobbler before I never want to see it again. Now that summer is here, I'd rather opt for something a little more light and refreshing and less heavy on the stomach.

• only 4 ingredients
• lots of flavor
• its not overly sweet (unless you add extra honey)
• its full of healthy monounsaturated fats, vitamins and minerals
• you can use any kind of milk- cow's, almond, soy, coconut, etc.
• it tastes great!! It would also taste good poured over a bowl of vanilla ice cream.

I have been promoting mindful eating a lot lately and it's been a popular topic especially with the holiday season underway. Although a fairly simple concept, it does take

Last week I shared some of the not-so-healthy ingredients that are commonly found in popular energy drinks and shots that could have negative side effects and drug interactions. Since these are marketed as "herbal supplements" they are not regulated by the FDA which means they may not contain what the label says they contain or in the quantities stated on the label.

Read more about this here– The Low-Down on High-Energy Drinks.

35% of households in America (42 million) are growing food at home or in a community garden, up 17% since 2008. -National Gardening Association

Sleepiness on the other hand is associated with lifestyle behaviors and therefore remedied with simple modifications to diet, sleep schedule, fluid intake, and activity level.

I'm lovin' it! On March 4^th of this year, McDonald's USA announced their new menu sourcing initiatives which will now only include chickens that have been raised without the use of antibiotics "important to human medicine". This is a step in the right direction as it is important to minimize the use of these in food animals for reasons such as antibiotic resistance and consequences of overuse. Their use as growth promoters needs to be phased out.

Industry Practice

Every week there's a new "miracle" diet and every year you can't help but wonder: Is THIS the weight loss diet that will finally work, once and for all? There are weight loss programs that work, but there are many more "fads" out there that will temporarily drop your weight (or perhaps make you sick), only to have the pounds return in a few short weeks. Fad diets are tempting, but like eating a rich dessert when you already have a full stomach: resist, resist, resist! In the long run, you will be healthier, thinner and less frustrated.

To better understand the concept of mindful eating it will be helpful to first consider mindfulness in more general terms. To be mindful is to use our minds to look inside, outside and all around; to consider our actions and how they affect ourselves, others and the world around us. Mindfulness is usually associated with meditation and stress relief but it can also be a powerful tool when choosing what we eat, how we're eating and how our choices affect our health and that of our environment.

Last weekend I was in Chicago and came across a restaurant called Umami Burger. This jogged my memory back to my college days when I was learning about food and nutrition. I always liked the word umami because it conjured feelings of something savory and extra yummy.

A Little on Umami

It was a long winter and many of us may be experiencing some lingering weight gain from the holidays or others may have made some resolutions that didn't pan out but there's no reason to despair! Spring is a time of renewal and the perfect time to revive yourself and your overall well-being. Here are 5 easy ways to live light and travel light as you get back into the swing of spring.

One reason I love July is the abundance of herbs growing in my garden. They are beautiful additions to the landscape and they smell wonderful when you brush past them. My favorite thing to do is incorporate them into new and old recipes alike. I like to enhance my meals with a fresh and earthy quality only herbs can provide.