finding inspiration to cook with your kids & party on for #FRD2014

the food revolution has tons of inspirational videos on their lovely youtube channel and i'm having a ball adding our mullies food love to it all.  i hope you enjoy browsing around as much as i do!

here's a little sneak peak at the crazy #FRD2014 rainbow wrap cooking party we had on monday night... OMG was it FUN... boys LOVE beet juice!!!!  

...i need to lock myself in a closet and put it all together already:)  

helllllerrrrs, that pic says it all!  megan, your picture prowess kills me!

and lastly but not leastly... 

THIS IS TODAY LOVELY AMBASSADOR PEOPLE!!!!!!  see you at 1pm CST with your egg salad sam-iches. 

don't forget to get.your.tweet.on and join me, jennifer and jeff afterwards for a #FoodPatsChat around 2:10ish CST (the film is 74 minutes long).  

RSVP and call in for a looooooong lunch break:)

come join us at IIT - a food patriots screening event with net impact!

spread the word birds!

come join us this coming thursday at IIT for a free screening and film discussion of food patriots! i'm so honored and excited to have been invited as a food ambassador & food patriot to help inspire others towards a healthier real food life!

here's the story of how this all came together...

this past december, i reached out to jennifer and jeff spitz, the fabulous filmmakers of the food patriots with a #FRD2014 initiative to get as many people as i could to "become food patriots and join the food revolution".  soon afterwards, she invited me to a lovely women in green event downtown to meet in person for the first time!  before jennifer and i connected up, i met xiaoqian (flora) ruan of IIT's net impact.  flora was intrigued by my food ambassadorship with jamie oliver's food foundation and we networked with a small group of women for about 20 minutes about real food, the food industry, cooking from scratch and getting our global message out.

flora & net impact invited me out to speak as a food rev ambassador and after discussing my connection to the food patriots and the incredible impact of the film, they decided to host a screening!  what fun!!

so that's the story of how this exciting event came to be and i'm just super juiced about it all!!  big thanks to jenna giandoni, the president of net impact tech chapter who has been wonderful in helping to coordinate the event with the food patriots - i'm in countdown mode to meet you all!!

so, check those busy calendars and come to an event that could inspire some BIG growth in your newly sprouting real.food.love.life.

see you there baby!!

xoxo

tonight is movie night - grab your popcorn peeps!

what are YOU doing tonight at 7pm CST?

i hope you can tune in and get inspired!  grab your family and friends and get together over some shake and bake popcorn for a fabulous food documentary!

nobody home but you tonight?  i promise it'll be the best solo movie date you'll ever have!!!

check out this food patriots link for more information.

let's light twitter up with food revolutionaries:

join the #FoodPatsChat after from 8:15pm - 9:15pmCST!

tweet tweet!!

make me - shake and bake homemade popcorn
1/3 c popcorn
2-3 T extra virgin coconut oil
sea salt

heat up your pan with the coconut oil and place three kernels with a lid on it.  when the kernels pop, dump the rest in and shake and bake over med high heat!

i loved making this impromtu video with my kids:)

xoxo

the food patriots world premiere event

from left: ambassador and stevenson high school teacher christina erickson, SHS teacher sara lohrman, D76 board of ed vice president laura vogt, moi, chicago ambassadors sarvin haghighi and colleen foster.

me and the lisle food ambassador katy vodicka.

2014 is gonna be a good year.

meet my food revolution teammates!  gathering with these lovely lady food ambassadors has been a highlight of the year so far for me.  i am so excited to watch our collective relationships and food revolution power grow! 

here was the best and craziest part of the night: i walked into the theater with laura, sarvin, christina, sara, and two SHS colleagues.  as we picked our seats out, two audience members stood up to let us in and heeeeeyyyyoooooooooooo one of the strangers turned out to be colleen foster, the chicago ambassador we had never met!!  then, just two rows up, i see another super cute girl turn around and wink at me... she turned out to be katy, whom i knew was coming, but had never met before either!!  can you believe it!?  in a sold out theater of 250 people, we all sat together... 

now that is some magnetic.food.rev.power.

become a food patriot and join the food revolution!

i'll never forget emailing jennifer & jeff spitz last november with my dream food revolution day 2014 initiative.

food documentaries can be so informative.  however, some can leave you feeling judged, hopeless and down right upset (not to mention hopeless) at the plethora of food challenges our nation and globe are facing together.

food patriots informs and leaves the audience inspired, hopeful and ready to connect with the other local real food forces all around us. 

...it sparks a conversation about our food that erases our cultural, demographic and economic lines like nothing i have ever experienced before.  

...it gathers our collective voices and empowers all of us to harness our consumer power.  

...it makes you feel like small changes can actually mean something and that the mountain isn't.so.high if we climb it together.  

i'll be sharing what we are all planning, doing and celebrating so that you can follow our real food journeys as they evolve this year...  as food ambassadors, as food patriots, as wives & husbands, as moms & dads, as teachers and coaches...   let's go balls out for real food and light it UP together shall we?!

meet food patriots holly kim & bruce dir!  holly is the local mundelein trustee who invited me over a year ago to watch a rough cut of food patriots in november of 2012.  i had just became a food ambassador a few weeks before with no clue of what to do or how to start reaching out to my community.

bruce is the owner and head brewmaster at our local mundelein craft brewery, tighthead brewing company.  he donated his time and two kegs of craft beer for this wonderful event.  i love you and your beer so much!  thank you bruce!

and i love you too holly for buying a dvd for our local fremont library and for connecting to me so long ago... jiggity jig!

looking good jeff!

i can't wait to wear my t-shirt tomorrow at temple shalom's public screening!
join me at 12:45pm for a free chipotle burrito lunch!

we helped out bruce and brought back his brewing equipment in our swagger van.  this above shot was taken just before laura and i walked to the parking garage only to realize we forgot what level the swagger van was parked on.  hope you're staying warm on the sidewalk honey!   ooooooops.

a lucky, 3-guess finish to a wonderful night.

see you tomorrow!

xoxo


ps

wanna see more great pics from the premiere?  check out their facebook photos here.

a food patriots world premiere gathering

tonight is the night!

food patriots is premiering downtown at the chicago cultural center at 5:30pm!

and it's sold out babycakes:)

wanna see the film too?  i have two great options for you:

come join me this sunday at 12:45pm at chicago's temple shalom for a public screening!  rsvp today for a free chipotle lunch:)  yum.

can't do that either?  well then join us on feb 26th for the online premiere and twitter chat hosted by consumer union!

oh this is just so exciting!!!

now back to TONIGHT - look who's joining me!!!!

the lovely lake county food rev ambassador teammate christina erickson (and she's bringing two Stevenson HS co-workers)

the lovely chicago food rev ambassador sarvin haghighi

the lovely lisle food rev ambassador katy vodicka

chris is meeting me later on and i'll be headed downtown with my friend and school board member laura vogt!

our local craft brewery tighthead brewing company will be there sponsoring the event.  i.love.their.sweet.nectar.so.much.  thank you thank you bruce for supporting this event and donating your amazing product to help spread the message of the food patriots & food revolution.

"When it comes to healthcare, the environment, jobs and national security; changing the way America eats is the most patriotic thing we can do.  So we call people who are doing the Food Patriots."

now that's what i'm talking bout baby.

the food revolution is going to make a ton of real food education connections tonight and what a kick off to get us geared up for food revolution day 2014 on friday may 16th!

i'll see you you on the red carpet!

xoxo


ps

save the date! the lake county food rev team is hosting a screening of food patriots on wednesday, may 14 at stevenson high school!

it's 2014 - let's get real

gotta send 2013 out with a bang, right!?

the first pic was taken in 1997ish and the second two pics were taken in 2010.  (i had my mom show the kids my blond pics the other day at dinner and they all asked, "who is that, grandma!?"  HA!)  let's get one thing straight - i have always been comfortable with myself.  i've been an athlete my whole life (go NUSB!), gained and lost 150lbs through three pregnancies and was quite content at 148lbs (it was my college weight!).  i was and still am a human garbage disposal.  i will always love food.  i just didn't really care what i was putting into the kitchen sink.

until my neighbor went to a nutritionist one day because he needed to eat healthier and gain.some.weight.  i asked for the information he brought home because i had never been to a nutritionist.  that was over three years ago... tommy was about to turn two.  i started to clean up my eating because my friend and neighbor shared his "water-drop".  mark, thank you for that epic conversation on our beach.

the picture of me lounging in "eddie" the airstream was taken by my lucky bunny.  she and i will never forget that moment:  "click" - she looked at me and said, "we are changing.your.hair".  then she pulled up this weird website called "pinterest" and showed me a picture of this gorgeous victoria's secret model with dark "ombre" (what!?) hair.  i remember reacting incredulously to the idea of changing my locks.  slowly then, over the next two years, i began to evolve, inside and out.  hellerrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.  yes please.  thank you.  really!?  will do.  love you.  (i smack her around sometimes too:)

so now you know a little prelude before i found my rope and swung into the mullies.  how my personal success with real food + golden friendships (oh chimmie you're a HUGE part of this too!) gave me some gumption when i had to drastically change abbie's food and eventually my entire family's food in sept/oct 2012.  it's a good story.  it led me to become an ambassador for the food revolution.  it's a story full of messes and successes (you wouldn't believe how real food has helped my parents!), of blunders and bloopers and it certainly has been worth it.  we're still evolving, back pedaling and lunging forward.   i hope you enjoy my new guest post for the food revolution blog entitled, "the evolution of a food revolution". 

water-drops make waterfalls.

sliding doors happen so many times in a life, every blink one takes.

do i jump or not?

should i or shouldn't i?

regret reigns when you stand still and let the world spin you on a collar.

bring it on babies - 2014 is ours to embrace.  find someone lovely who wants to ride on a bright yellow tandem with you.

7+7=14

2014 is my double lucky number and i hope it's yours too.

become a food patriot and join the food revolution.

unplug yourself from the matrix - your butt and brain won't regret it.

i love this article via foodday.org on making good food resolutions that you can actually accomplish.

and here are my top 7 real food "rezzo's" to chew on for 2014:

1.  pitch out the artificial colors & artificial preservatives.
overwhelmed with the amount in your fridge and pantry of these little bombs?  start with a category: condiments, sauces, jarred items, dressings etc and then to a perishable category.  when you run out of something, replace it with a brand that's clean.  take it slow or fast, whatever you can handle.  need a structured plan of attack?  this 6-week plan is awesome and you don't have to be battling with ADHD to try it!

2.  limit processed foods (aka the middle isles of the grocery store) & eat unlimited vegetables and fruits (organic when you can).
easier said than done with the vege - i've been at it for over a damn year.  not giving up...  the taste buds and preferences take time to evolve.  strive to eat 90% real, whole foods that come from the ground, the water or the trees.  it's not about perfection.

3.  know how & where your meat/poultry/fish is farmed so you can buy the best quality available (no antibiotics please).
yup, it's more expensive.  so we eat less animal products.  it has been eye opening and an adventure learning to cook more vegetarian and vegan meals.  who knew that plants=protein too?  jeeesh.

4.  be a nerd and educate yourself.  (read robyn o'brien's "do-onething" & the food babe's investigation page.)

5.  cook & play like there's no tomorrow. (make sure it's to loud.bad.ass.music whenever possible.)

6.  feeling pretty good with your real food?  look at your household chemicals and beauty products next.  meet saferchemicals.org to help you get your other cabinets in shape!

7.  love love love this article by kris karr... take in 2014 with "ease" and let go of monstrous resolutions!

there's no if.and.buts.about.it

happy.best.new.year.of.your.life.

to the mullies we go...

xoxo



ps

i just thought of peter pan and wendy flying when i typed that...  so silly i know...