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The term ‘clean eating’ has grown in popularity in the weight loss world as people are beginning to take more of an active interest in the quality of food they are eating instead of just the quantity, and how where their food comes from can effect not only their waistlines, but more importantly, their health. […]

I feel like these cookies don’t need any introduction. This recipe is the one that I have been making in my kitchen for years. It took a little bit of trial and error to develop, but once I got it I knew the search was over. These are big, buttery, and loaded with brown sugar and vanilla. From The Cookies and Cups Cookbook.

I love to use mini chips in my cookies because I feel like you get more chocolate for every bite. You can easily use regular chips or even chunks if that’s your thing, though. But, the little detail in these cookies that sets them apart is the addition of coarse sea salt. It was an error my mom made in her chocolate chip cookies once, about 12 years ago. She meant to add regular salt and grabbed the coarse sea salt instead. Well it was a revelation! The salty nuggets sprinkled throughout the cookie really make it special.

*Makes 24 cookies

1 cup (2 sticks) salted butter, at room temperature
¾ cup packed light brown sugar
¼ cup packed dark brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar 2 large eggs
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon coarse sea salt
2¾ cups all-purpose flour
1 (12-ounce) bag mini chocolate chips

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter and all the sugars together on medium speed for 2 minutes until the butter is light and fluffy. Add the eggs and vanilla and continue mixing until smooth, scraping the sides of the bowl as necessary.

Add the baking soda, baking powder, and coarse sea salt. Mix until combined.

Turn the mixer speed to low and add the flour, mixing until incorporated.

Stir in the mini chocolate chips until evenly distributed. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate it overnight or up to 48 hours.

When you’re ready to bake, preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Using a large (3-tablespoon) cookie scoop, drop the dough 2 inches apart on the baking sheet.

Bake the cookies for 9 to 10 minutes, until the edges are golden brown and the centers are almost set. Underbaking the centers of the cookie slightly will help the cookie stay soft.

Allow the cookies to cool on the baking sheet for 3 to 4 minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

Store airtight at room temperature for up to 3 days.

The post The Cookies and Cups Cookbook Recipe: My Favorite Chocolate Chip Cookies appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

When I think of sweet potatoes, so many sweet, wonderful memories come to mind. Sweet potatoes are very comforting. Whether they’re baked, candied, in the sweet potato pancakes, or in these waffles, they always remind me of my grandmother’s hugs. I guess that’s why I just love sweet potatoes.From Melba’s American Comfort.

Makes 3 to 4 Waffles

2 medium sweet potatoes
1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
¼ cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
½ teaspoon kosher salt
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
Pinch of ground nutmeg
1 cup half-and-half*
4 tablespoons (½ stick) unsalted butter, melted
3 large eggs, separated, at room temperature
Nonstick cooking spray or vegetable oil or butter, for the waffle iron
*My son likes his sweet potato waffles made with vanilla coconut milk. Try it and see if you like it.

Drop the sweet potatoes, in their skins, into a pot of boiling water and cook until fork-tender, about 25 minutes. When cool enough to handle, peel off the skin (it will come off easily) and mash the potatoes. Measure and set aside ½ cup. (If there’s any left over, enjoy it while you finish cooking.)

Preheat the waffle iron.

In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg until well combined.

In another bowl, whisk together the half-and-half, mashed potatoes, melted butter, and the egg yolks.

In a small bowl, with an electric hand mixer, whisk the egg whites on high speed until they form stiff peaks, about 2 minutes. Set aside.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and pour in the wet ingredients. Whisk together, starting slowly, until well combined but not overmixed.

Gently fold in the beaten egg whites, making sure not to deflate them.

Spray the waffle iron with nonstick cooking spray or brush it with a bit of vegetable oil or butter and pour in enough of the batter to fill it halfway. The waffles will rise as they cook, and the amount of batter will vary from one waffle iron to another. Close the lid and cook for 3 to 4 minutes, until cooked through and golden brown. Repeat with the remaining batter, respraying the waffle iron before each addition.

Serve with butter, maple syrup, whipped cream, fresh fruit, ice cream, or with chicken instead of the Eggnog Waffles. Any way you eat them, they’re sweet potato good!

Cleaning Your Waffle Iron
There are many different kinds of waffle irons and many different suggestions for how to clean them. Some say to never touch it until it’s completely cooled, but one of my favorite suggestions (because it seems the easiest) is to UNPLUG IT (very important) and, while it’s still hot, place a wet (but not dripping) paper towel on the surface, close the lid, and let it steam itself clean for a few minutes. Then, while it’s still warm, wipe away any lingering crumbs. If you still have the manufacturer’s instruction booklet that came with the iron, I’d recommend that you follow the directions in that!

The post Melba’s American Comfort Recipe: Sweet Potato Waffles appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Fasting Weight Loss – Fasting Weight Loss:

For something so sweet, sugar really can be quite awful. That’s because if you’re consuming more than 21 percent of your daily calories from added sugars, you double your risk of death from heart disease compared to people who consume just 10 percent of their calories from added sugars. That’s according to a 2014 study […]

Host: Brian P. McDonough, MD, FAAFP

According to a recent study, the percentage of elderly people in American nursing homes who are moderately to severely overweight has climbed to 25%, a dramatic increase from 14% back in 2000. How does this alarming trend affect both health outcomes and care delivery in caregiving settings? Joining Dr. Brian McDonough to discuss this underrecognized issue of obesity in senior populations is Dr. Caroline Cederquist, bariatrics expert and founder of Cederquist Medical Wellness Center in Naples FL. Dr. Cederquist is also co-founder of bistroMD, a company premised on delivering physician-designed gourmet meals to patients for purposes of weight loss and health maintenance.

Our modern work life is stressful, and to make things worse, we tend to prioritize our jobs over self-care. But my career was so intense that I gained a serious amount of weight and endured health problems. Here’s how I put down the cupcakes and laced up my hiking boots in The Episodic Career.

I gained forty pounds in the four years I worked at NPR, which I am still working off. That certainly wasn’t the company’s fault. I haven’t heard of a job yet that doesn’t have potential for stress. In my case, I had to help lead coworkers through editorial and emotional changes, as we lost staff positions and worked for more than a year under rumors that the show might be canceled. In 2009 it ultimately became part of a Great Recession wave of cancellations that took out three NPR shows and dozens of staffers. After the cancellation, I knew I needed to spend some time getting healthier. Yet I didn’t understand until I began researching this book how harmful on-the-job stress is to your physical and mental health. Stress even explained the biological basis of my food cravings.

Once I moved back to New York in 2009, I found a new physician, Dr. Roberta Lee, who’d authored The SuperStress Solution. In it, she wrote of the recent emergence in many developing countries of the same stress- and diet-related illnesses that Westerners have long experienced, such as obesity, diabetes, insomnia, and heart disease.

“Chronic job stress is as bad for you as smoking a pack of cigarettes a day,” Dr. Lee told me. “Your cortisol level rises, and your body goes into fight-or-flight mode.” Cortisol is a steroid hormone that our bodies produce in reaction to stress. It’s a normal part of our physiology, and when we need it as a “spot treatment,” it can be beneficial, giving us energy. But prolonged stress and cortisol production can weaken our immune system, making it harder to recover from illness and injury. Excess, prolonged cortisol also increases our chances of developing osteoporosis, or bone loss, and it can even impair memory.

Sometimes job stress is inevitable, but we can always change how we deal with it. According to Dr. Lee, just taking a five-minute break in the middle of your day—“a walk, or quiet time with no devices” (no smartphone, television, or computer)—can reset your entire system and allow you to be more productive. Stress can cause the body to crave sugars, which exacerbates inflammation and generates layers of belly fat. That’s exactly what happened to me, and because both my mother and grandmother had double knee replacements due to hereditary arthritis (not from their weight), I knew I was headed for joint complications that could greatly diminish my quality of life. This alarming realization pushed me to lose weight and follow Dr. Lee’s advice. I’m certainly no triathlete, but I use my bicycle now for both exercise and transportation, and take time to do high-intensity workouts with a local boot camp. At the height of my job stress, I could have used the calm that follows an intense workout, but I’d convinced myself, quite wrongly, that a cupcake was better for me than a hike. Exercise also produces endorphins, natural pain and stress relievers; and other research shows even a slow, meditative walk in nature without high calorie-burning value is good for our mental health and mood.

The post How To Keep Stress at Bay, No Matter How Crazy Life Gets appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

There is an obvious economic divide between single women and married women—two incomes are always better than one. But it goes deeper than that; being single simply costs more than being married. From tax breaks to housing costs, our economic system is set up to benefit couples. Find out more about the financial implications for the growing single female population in All The Single Ladies.

According to Atlantic writers Christina Campbell and Lisa Arnold, “Marital privilege pervades nearly every facet of our lives.” They found that health, life, home, and car insurance all cost more for single people, and report that “It is not a federal crime for landlords to discriminate against potential renters based on their marital status.” Looking at income tax policy, Social Security, healthcare, and housing costs, Campbell and Arnold found that “in each category, the singles paid or lost more than the marrieds.” At some point in their calculations, the authors confess, “We each wanted to run out and get a husband, stat.”

While single women purchase their own homes at a higher rate than single men, when compared to married adults, the unmarried lag far behind married couples. According to U.S. News & World Report, single people have “the lowest income levels…asset levels…[and] home ownership rates compared to other family structures.”

Anita Hill, who, as a law professor, specializes in issues of housing inequality, argued that housing costs are among the biggest issues facing unmarried women. “We can decide that we’re going to be single,” Hill said, “but we have to figure out how we’re going to be able to put a roof over our heads. We’re making eighty cents for every dollar a man makes. So there is a real issue with more and more women spending over 50 percent of their income on housing.” Economic forces, Hill said, push women “into less independent relationships.”

The post Is Being Single Costing You More? appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.

Wedding season is right around the corner. Are you ready? With today’s ever-increasing expectations of Instagram-ready nuptials, newly engaged couples typically go from zero to panic attack just after the question is popped.

These wedding planning guides are here to help. Written by pros with a sense of style, these books will show you how to achieve the chic ceremony of your dreams within your budget.

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Loverly Wedding Planner: The Modern Couple’s Guide to Simplified Wedding Planning

by Kellee Khalil

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Planning a wedding can be a bit overwhelming, but with the helpful how-tos and insider advice in this handy guide, you can forget the stress and focus on creating a day that truly reflects you as a couple. The Loverly Wedding Planner has everything you need to navigate the planning process in a way that is simple, meaningful, and really enjoyable.

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The Lesbian Couple’s Guide to Wedding Planning: Everything You Need to Know About Planning Your Dream Wedding

by Bernadette Coveney Smith

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With same-sex marriage becoming legal in more states, many lesbian couples are making the biggest decision of their lives to get married! In order to ensure the ceremony and reception go off without a hitch, who should they turn to? As the nation’s leading same-sex wedding expert, Bernadette Coveney Smith provides all the essential information that lesbians need in order to have the wedding of their dreams. Coveney Smith gives lesbian couples advice on everything from setting priorities and organizing their budget to involving parents and family (or not!) in the planning process. In this comprehensive 12-month wedding-countdown format, Coveney Smith shows how to plan for a wide range of weddings for all budgets and styles from casual to formal. With more than 125 beautiful color photographs to provide added inspiration, The Lesbian Couple’s Guide to Wedding Planning is the go-to resource for engaged lesbian couples everywhere!

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Viva el amor: The Latino Wedding Planner, A Practical Guide for Arranging a Traditional Ceremony and a Fabulous Fiesta

by Edna Bautista

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From incorporating family rituals and cultural traditions into your wedding to booking a “heritage honeymoon,” Viva el Amor is the only book that the Latina bride-to-be will need to plan a fabulous fiesta while celebrating the sacred bond of marriage. With the inspiring ideas, realistic timetables, and practical advice of Viva el Amor, brides and their families will discover — and rediscover — the wealth of Latino traditions that add depth and meaning to a wedding ceremony, and find ways to add modern touches.

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The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer: Worksheets, Checklists, Etiquette, Calendars, and Answers to Frequently Asked Questions

by Carley Roney

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For the first time, the go-to wedding website, The Knot, has compiled all their essential planning tools—and dozens of new ideas—into this beautiful wedding organizer. The Knot Ultimate Wedding Planner & Organizer is an indispensable resource—and a lovely keepsake after the meaningful, joyful, and customized celebration you’re sure to have.

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A Practical Wedding: Creative Ideas for Planning a Beautiful, Affordable, and Meaningful Celebration

by Meg Keene

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Getting engaged is exhilarating…until it sets in that a wedding costs three times what you thought, and takes five to ten times the effort it reasonably should. And then there are the expectations: from calligraphy invitations to satin chair-covers, all those things that Must Be Done or everyone will be Horribly Offended. Or will they?

A Practical Wedding helps you create the wedding you want—without going broke or crazy in the process. After all, what really matters on your wedding day, what you’ll remember ‘til you’re old and gray, is not so much how it looked as how it felt.

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Getting Groomed: The Ultimate Wedding Planner for Gay Grooms

by Jason Mitchell

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Finally, a fun wedding organizer for gay grooms! Packaged in a sleek two-ring binder that will slip easily into a messenger bag or briefcase, this planner covers every aspect of the event so the big day goes off without a hitch. Focusing on the details of the celebration and steering away from the politics of gay marriage, Getting Groomed offers a refreshing approach to readers planning a wedding or commitment ceremony. Couples will learn how to set a budget, organize the guest list, design invitations, dress and style for the big day, and much more. With fill-in worksheets, pockets for stashing important forms and contracts, a master timeline, and plenty of wit and charm, this elegant planner is the resource—and perfect gift—for stylish grooms-to-be.

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Williams-Sonoma Bride & Groom Entertaining

by Brigit Binns

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Designed to help newlyweds entertain happily ever after, this inspiring book makes an ideal wedding or bridal shower gift. It’s organized in three parts – parties, outdoor entertaining and special occasions – and lavishly photographed. The 60 recipes are geared toward young newlyweds, and each of the 12 menus features a detailed work plan accompanied by wine-pairing suggestions and advice on party organization and table decorations. Informative introductory sections cover all the basics, from event planning and invitations to the fundamentals of table setting. A Williams-Sonoma exclusive.

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The Groom’s Instruction Manual: How to Survive and Possibly Even Enjoy the Most Bewildering Ceremony Known to Man

by Shandon Fowler, Paul Kepple

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Gone are the days when you could sit back and let your fiancée plan the entire wedding. Today’s grooms have countless tasks to perform, from hiring the entertainment and planning the rehearsal dinner to buying the wedding bands and comforting hysterical family members.

Fortunately, The Groom’s Instruction Manual is here to answer all of your most challenging questions: How do I handle feuding relatives? What should I look for in a good wedding photographer? Why does my fiancee seem stressed out all the time? Whatever your concerns, you’ll find the answers here—courtesy of author and veteran groom Shandon Fowler.

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New Jewish Wedding, Revised

by Anita Diamant

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The definitive, completely up-to-date guide to planning a Jewish wedding. Since its original publication in 1986, The New Jewish Wedding has become required reading, assigned to engaged couples by Conservative, Reform, and Reconstructionist rabbis alike. In this new revision, Anita Diamant, one of the most respected writers of guides to Jewish life, continues to offer step-by-step guidance to planning the ceremony and the party that follows — from hiring a rabbi and wording the invitation to organizing a processional and hiring a caterer. Complete, authoritative, and indispensable, The New Jewish Wedding is a must-have resource for anyone who wants a wedding that combines spiritual meaning and joyous celebration.

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The Bride’s Essential Wedding Planner: Deluxe Edition

by Amy Nebens, Greg Stadler

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Filled with everything a modern bride needs to organize her perfect big day, The Bride’s Essential Wedding Planner is like having your own personal wedding consultant. It contains a wealth of completely up-to-date information about the entire planning process: checklists for every step, interview questions for potential service providers, worksheets to record vendor services and costs, DIY and money-saving hints, at-a-glance advice, a 16-month fill-in calendar, sleeves to hold business cards, guest list and seating chart organizers, pockets on all tab dividers, and more!

The post Wedding Planning 101: Best Bridal Books appeared first on Tips on Life and Love.