Finds

In case you're wondering, I did not fall off the face of the earth (not entirely, anyway). For the past several weeks my brain has been full of preparations for our biggest conference of the year, which took place last weekend. The good news is that all of our meetings and events went well. The better news is that my brain has [nearly] recovered and I should be back to forming coherent thoughts shortly.

Most of my creative juices were directed toward preparing for this conference, so while I wait for them to refill and be channeled into some blog posts, in the meantime I thought I'd share a few favorite finds (say that three times fast).

Food Finds

• Quinoa. (Oh quinoa, why have I only recently tried you? I heard of you long ago but did not venture to try you until just a couple of months ago, and I regret missing out on years of enjoying you.) Quinoa (pronounced "keen-wah") is a whole grain that has a bit of a nutty taste and is the approximate consistency of couscous. It's a good rice substitute; I usually cook it on the stove and add in steamed and/or roasted veggies such as mushrooms, spinach, carrots and tomatoes, plus a little garlic, then top it with a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. (In fact, it's what I'm making for dinner tonight!) Easy dish to make and quite healthy.

• Stevia & Agave. For years I've used artificial sweeteners, particularly in my coffee. I'm trying to get away from artificial food and use more "real" food, including real sugar on occasion. I'm also trying to cut back on the amount of sugar and sweeteners I use. I recently tried both stevia and agave nectar as potential substitutes to sweeten my coffee. Of the two, I prefer the stevia a bit more--it's zero calorie, whereas agave does have calories. However, with the agave a little goes a long way, so if you prefer it you can use just a little at a time.

Web Finds

I've also come across a couple of healthy eating/fitness websites that I've bookmarked and peruse just about every day:

• Skinnytaste.com: Great healthy, low calorie recipes with all the nutritional info (including Weight Watchers points for those on WW) included. Of course, I'm a sucker for beautiful photography so this site's a winner in my book.

• Your Nutritionista: Lots of healthy recipes, fitness tips and articles

Have you tried any new foods or come across any new websites (not necessarily health/fitness related) that you want to share?