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Browsing Tag
vegetables
Gardening

How Much to Plant in Your Vegetable Garden

 

Each year, my goal is to grow enough produce for my family to eat all year. Each year, I get closer to this goal. It is a bit of a trial-and-error process each year to answer the age-old question: how much should I plant in my vegetable garden? In this vlog I’ll walk you through my process of assessing what’s left from our preserved home-canned and frozen foods to decide how much I should plant in this year’s garden.

Some plants have a more direct correlation of seed-to-food ratio, like beets, carrots, and cauliflower where each seed produces a single unit of produce. Others produce many units of produce per plant, such as squash, zucchini, cucumbers, or green beans. Healthier plants, of course, produce more while less healthy plans produce less. Because of these varying factors you will find there is no magic answer to knowing how much of each plant to put in your garden, it takes this sort of year-by-year assessment and adjustment to get as close as possible.

If you don’t succeed on your first try – welcome to the club! I’ve been gardening for years and have yet to hit that nail perfectly on its head, but each year it gets a little easier and I get a little closer and I’m happy with that! We’ve greatly reduced our reliance on the grocery store and a few years in (with some seed-saving knowledge) we have also decreased our grocery budget by quite a bit. Here are a few tips to help you succeed:

 

Plant What You’ll Eat

Every gardener does it – inevitably you will end up planting too much of something your family won’t eat. I’ve got a freezer full of turnips from 3 years ago that we are still working on for this exact reason. I just couldn’t resist how picturesque and farm-y they looked growing!

By all means, plant things you enjoy and try new things – but save the majority of your space for well-loved staples that your family traditionally eats plenty of.

 

 

Plant Extra if You Can

Decide how much you think your household might eat, and then plant a few extra if you have space and resources. Seeds are cheap and it’s pretty common to lose some plants to disease, pests, or just the garden gremlins that inexplicably leave your plants sad and wilty. Having a few extra means you’ll be much more likely to hit your mark

 

Start With Growing for Summer

If you’re a beginner gardener, and especially if you haven’t preserved food in the past, a great goal is to aim to grow the food your family will eat fresh during the summer months. You will have plenty to learn and do as you plant, tend, and grow your first garden. Preserving and canning are amazing and incredibly useful skills, but you don’t have to overwhelm yourself by planning to do all of it in your first season. Eating produce all summer from your garden is incredibly rewarding – give it a try!

Have a Preservation Plan

If you’re looking to preserve the produce from your garden, have a rough plan in advance of how you’ll preserve it. Will you can, freeze, or dehydrate? Do you have space for storage? Do you need to learn these skills before your produce is ready? Make sure you are prepared when the time comes…your produce rarely waits for you and it is a heck of a disappointment to put in all the work to grow a winter’s worth of produce and watch it go bad before you get to it!

 

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Recipes

Fridge Cleanout Green Smoothie

 

Clean out your fridge and blend smoothies in an endless variety of flavors! Smoothies are such a great way to fit in so much good nutrition – get your calcium, protein, healthy carbs, vitamins and minerals, fiber, and anti-inflammatory omega-3s in one delicious glass that goes with you throughout your morning (or day)! Enjoy!

 

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Anti-inflammatory Diet Carb Counting Heart Healthy MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Salmon and Red Potato Hash with Dijon Aioli

Salmon and red potato hash with dijon aioli

 

This delicious dish is a copycat of a breakfast from a favorite restaurant of ours – the Ironwork Grill at McMenamin’s Grand Lodge in Forest Grove, Oregon. The original is made with a dill sauce but I always swap it for this dijon aioli, and I’ve never been disappointed!

The salmon, veggies, and potatoes make this a complete, protein- and potassium-laden anti-inflammatory power meal. Plus, it is so, so tasty and very easy to make!

 





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MyPlate Guidelines Recipes

Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups

The common cold has fogged my brain (or sapped my motivation) enough that I haven’t done much research in the last few days. I have a couple of MyPlate recipes stocked up that I had not yet posted, so I thought I’d grace you with one today. I present to you a fiance favorite: The Spinach Lasagna Roll-Up.

done

Ingredients:

10-12 lasagna noodles (you’ll only use 8 but you want to have extra in case some tear)

1/2 pound lean ground beef

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/2 medium onion, chopped

8-10 mushrooms, sliced

1 cup spinach

3/4 cup fat free sour cream

1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella

1 (15-oz) can no salt added tomato sauce

1/2 teaspoon dried or 1 teaspoon minced fresh basil

1/2 teaspoon dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon garlic powder

  1. Cook and drain the lasagna noodles according to the package directions, minus about 2 minutes (you want the noodles to hang together well for the roll-ups).cooked noodles
  2. While the noodles are cooking, brown the ground beef over medium heat and drain the fat (if you prefer a vegetarian option, these are deliciously mushroom-y without the beef too). Add in the olive oil, onions, and mushrooms and saute until soft.mushrooms and meat
  3. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add in spinach, fat free sour cream, and 1/2 cup of the shredded mozzarella. Cook until cheese is melted and spinach is slightly wilted.spinach and meat and sauce
  4. Lay the lasagna noodles out on a plate. Spread a thin layer of the beef and mushroom mixture on each noodle. Roll the noodles up and place in a 9×13 baking dish.rolling
  5. In a bowl, stir together tomato sauce, basil, oregano, and garlic powder. Pour on top of lasagna roll-ups. Top with remaining mozzarella cheese.sauce and cheese
  6. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Serve two roll-ups with a side of veggies and some fruit for a complete MyPlate meal. Oh, and try not to splash sauce all over the edge of the plate like I did. =)plate

Two roll-ups count for 1/2 cup vegetables, 2 ounces grains, 2 ounces meat, and 1/2 cup dairy. They contain 457 calories, 58 g carbohydrates, 31 g protein, 13 g fat, and 280 g sodium.

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MyPlate Guidelines

Seahawks Super Bowl: My diet game plan

First of all, I would love to shout a huge CONGRATULATIONS to the Seattle Seahawks for an epically awesome Super Bowl win! I had a heck of a great time watching them all season.

This particular game, in typical Super Bowl fashion, was watched by me at a party at my brother and sister-in-law’s house. With food. And drink. Lots of it. So I wanted to have a game plan. Here’s the play-by-play:

  1. Ask my bro what’s on the menu. I found out it was pretty much going to be meat, meat, and more meat.
  2. Ask my bro if I can bring something, and choose strategically. Since I knew what would be there I also knew what would not: fruit, veggies, dairy, and whole grains. I opted to bring a fruit salad so I would have an option for that food group. I also got sneaky and asked my mom to bring a veggie tray so I could get those in too.
  3. Think ahead. I knew where my weak points would be during the game (lunch and dinner times), so I targeted those at breakfast to get me started. One of Charlie and my favorite places to eat in Seattle is the Crumpet Shop, and he always gets a crumpet with ricotta cheese and orange marmalade. I replicated that with whole wheat English muffins, ricotta cheese, and some homemade peach jam. I topped that off with a fruit smoothie with 1 cup berries, 1/2 cup Greek yogurt, 1/2 cup milk, and 1 cup spinach. Superbowl BreakfastThis yummy breakfast started me off with 2 oz of whole grains, 1 1/2 cups dairy, 1 cup fruit, and 1/2 cup vegetables – all of the groups I knew would be tough to get at the party. Though I used some Greek yogurt and dairy to get protein in this breakfast, I avoided meat and eggs because I knew there would be loads of protein at the party later.
  4. Scope out the goods and make a plan. The smorgasboard consisted of meatballs, chicken wings, chili, veggie tray, fruit salad, (whole grain!) chips with dip, pizza, chocolate chip banana bread, and a variety of beverage. I was actually able to follow MyPlate pretty well for the lunch half of the party (had to do it in two plates because they were small).superbowl plates
  5. Relax and enjoy it. Don’t go crazy, but for Heaven’s sake, don’t deny yourself everything you want to eat. I’m a firm believer in the 80/20 rule: eat nutritiously 80% of the time, and the other 20% will help you balance it out. Later in the day, I had two pieces of pizza, some whole-grain chips, and a couple of ciders. I ended up with all of my food groups, 300 extra calories for the day, a Seahawks win and a huge smile on my face. And I don’t regret a thing. =)superbowl collage
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Down Home Dietitian

Diet culture is determined to tell you that you have to be miserable to be healthy.

That couldn’t be more wrong.

Subscribe to learn how to go from a frustrated, restricted dieter to a happy, relaxed relationship with food and fitness. Healthy doesn’t have to be hard!

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beckiparsons.rd.ep

I am OVER confusing advice, disgusting diets, and boring exercise.
Healthy doesn't have to be hard!
➢ Registered Dietitian
➢ Exercise Physiologist

Functional Dietitian | Exercise Physiologist | Speaker
Trauma is a common root that needs special support Trauma is a common root that needs special support.

In the documentary, both Tracey and Joelle mentioned how abuse related to their journeys with obesity. Trauma can lead to weight struggles in several ways:

- dysregulated cortisol
- food cravings
- emotional/stress eating
- undeveloped coping behaviors
- psychological desire to gain weight or remain heavy for a feeling of safety from sexual abusers

When this is a piece of someone’s puzzle, it needs to be addressed to help them understand the neurochemistry that patterns their habits, and provide them with tools to address and change those patterns.

It’s a rare person who can dig their way out of food and weight struggles without addressing these root causes - it’s not common knowledge!

#weightloss #fitness #registereddietitian #dietitian #fatloss #biggestloser #fitfortv #netflix #netflixdocumentary #nutrition #nutritionists
Focusing primarily on speed of weight lost is almo Focusing primarily on speed of weight lost is almost never healthy.

Instead, find other indicators of progress:
👚 clothes fit
💪 visible muscle
🏃‍♀️ workout performance and recovery
💡 energy and mental clarity
💤 sleep quality
😊 skin clarity
☺️ mental health

All together, they will be able to give you a far more accurate picture of whether or not you are making strides with your health or not.

Being married to numbers on the scale is a direct path to discouragement when it inevitably fluctuates.

#weightloss #fitness #registereddietitian #fatloss #dietitian #loseweight #fitfortv #netflixdocumentary #bariatrics #biggestloser
Different people need different approaches. Some Different people need different approaches.

Some people LOVE to sweat hard and feel the burn.
Some people NEED to have fun working out or they won’t stick with it.
Some people THRIVE on repetition and routine that minimizes decision making.
Some people MUST have flexibility or they will feel hemmed in.

As a practitioner, you have to get to know your client well enough to make recommendations that are a good fit for them. I often joke with my clients that they are eating healthy changes and I am their matchmaker. It’s my job to get to know them well enough to introduce them to really good potential partners. We may not always get it right the first time (and hey, bad dates are always a bummer), but I learn how to tailor things to them even more through the process.

#registereddietitian #dietitian #weightloss #fitness #fitfortv #biggestloser #netflix #netflixdocumentary
Skinny does not equal healthy. Healthy does not eq Skinny does not equal healthy. Healthy does not equal skinny.

Your habits are FAR more closely-tied indicators to actual health outcomes (likelihood of getting sick or dying) than your weight.

Here’s one study on that: https://www.jabfm.org/content/jabfp/25/1/9.full.pdf
Here’s another: https://www.bmj.com/content/bmj/370/bmj.m2031.full.pdf 

Now, typically if someone has a healthy lifestyle are they likely to lose weight? That depends on a lot of factors, but in many cases yes. That’s why we do find some connection between weight and health outcomes, but that’s confounded by a lot of factors.

Also, the method and rate of weight loss can impact just how healthy that weight loss is.

Here’s the article on how the contestants’ metabolisms were affected: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4989512/

#fitfortv #weightloss #biggestloser #jillianmichaels #bobharper #dietitian #fitness #healthynotskinny #netflixdocumentary
Thank you SO much to every single person who submi Thank you SO much to every single person who submitted a vote for me - I am so grateful for your support. ❤️

This means so much to me, and I am honored!

P.S. @evergreen_familychiro won Best Chiropractor too, so you can now see the best Chiro and best RD in one place! 😉
It’s not as simple as “eat less, move more.” It’s not as simple as “eat less, move more.” 

Heck, it’s not even as simple as weight loss = fat loss.

Anyone who has ever tried to lose more than 5 lbs knows that.

1. Your weight doesn’t tell you if you’ve gained or lost fat, it tells you the sum total mass of your skin, bones, organs, digestive goodies, muscle, fat, and water.

2. Hormones, stress, and fluid can fluctuate your weight much more prominently than fat loss or gain.

3. Your metabolism (the number of calories you burn) is not a fixed target. Your thyroid, adrenal system, eating patterns, movement patterns and more are constantly compensating, adjusting, and adapting. Just “eat less and move more” oversimplifies what can be a very complex concept. About half of my weight loss clients lose weight when we add calories, because of these adaptations.

4. Functional disruptions can freak your body out and make it resistant to fat loss. Gut dysbiosis/malabsorption, PCOS, and stressed-out adrenal systems are issues I see often. If you don’t address the functional root, you can deficit all you want and you may or may not see significant change.

So don’t bet everything on “eat less and move more.” It’s a good place to start for many, but if it isn’t working, dive deeper and find out why not. Want some support for your fat loss journey? DM me to get scheduled - it’s covered by most major health insurances!

#weightloss #dietitian #fitness #loseweight #bariatric #functionalnutrition
Lots of exciting things available in this partners Lots of exciting things available in this partnership! DM with questions or to get booked!

#chiropracticcare #nutritionandfitness #holisticwellness #weightlosssupport
Nutrition counseling is covered by most major insu Nutrition counseling is covered by most major insurances! DM me for an insurance verification or if you're ready to get scheduled!
Thank you so much for the nomination! You can vote Thank you so much for the nomination! You can vote daily through 5/9 by visiting votesouthsound.com and selecting Health & Beauty > Nutritionist/Dietitian > Becki Parsons Nutrition & Fitness. I am so grateful for your support!
So why wouldn't you start? Insurance coverage for So why wouldn't you start?

Insurance coverage for nutrition therapy is way better than you may even know. As a preventive health benefit, there are rarely even co-pays, and only occasionally limits on how many visits.

Get all the support you need, on the health insurance you already pay for! DM me to get started. ❤️

#nutritioncoaching #fatloss #weightloss #bariatrichealthcare #loseweight
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