So apparently biting cheese strings is a heinous offense. My apologies to all the peelers 😉
But guess who got the last laugh? Winter, with 30 cm of snow yesterday…
Womp, womp. Hopefully this is the last of it, but I guess the extra snow will come in handy when I go snowboarding this weekend? Although driving conditions aren’t exactly the greatest right now… Over 300 people were injured yesterday after a huge pile-up on the highway. Pray for me? And while you’re at it, add Jo in there as well… Us two girls have it pretty rough up here in Alberta. Speaking of which, any other Albertan readers/bloggers out there? Please don’t hesitate to chime in every now and again! Sometimes I feel like I live in an isolated blogger no-man’s land with no one anywhere near me… It gets lonely 😥
Oh, and for those of you were were surprised: yes, I am indeed a snowboarder. I’ve been doing it for something like 15 or 16 years now, although I haven’t been able to get out as much as I would have liked for the past couple of years. The older I get, the less willing I become to deal with the cold and the more time I spend “exercising” at the mall instead…
I had some time to kill last night, and while I was planning on just going in to walk around without buying anything, my plans changed as soon as I walked by Sephora… and then again when I walked by MAC.
Sweater from F21 – Clarisonic brush heads, Urban Decay makeup setting spray, MAC 150 powder brush
What can I say? I’m a beauty junkie, and Sephora’s siren song is just too sweet to ignore. In my defense, my Clarisonic was in dire need of a brush head replacement, and… well… I have no excuse for my other purchases, but I think I deserve them after fighting my way through this…
You know the snow situation is getting a little extreme when you manage to get snow down your knee.high.boots on the walk home. Brr.
So this post has been all over the place and I apologize for that, but nasty weather means tiredness, tiredness means a few too many cups of coffee being consumed, and a few too many cups of coffee being consumed means that my mind is going a mile a minute and my fingers are doing their best to keep up. There is actually something concrete that I wanted to talk to you guys about, though…
Nutrition labels. I recently started using Recipage, and while I was in the process of transferring my recipes over I started wondering if I should include the nutritional information on them or not. Even though I don’t count calories or track macros, I know that a lot of people do; and I have to admit that even I’m more attracted to recipes that include nutritional info because I like to at least have a general idea of what I’m eating.
So what do you guys think? Yay or nay to adding nutritional info to my recipes? Are you more attracted to recipes that have them? Pros? Cons? As always, I’d love to hear what you guys think!
First of all – that sweater is amazing and I need it. Going to F21 immediately.
Because of my own struggles in the past, I have a weird relationship with food labels. I guess it depends on the situation. If I’m trying to create a health-conscious meal (but not in a restrictive way), I will definitely be all about the food labels. But there are times that I just don’t want to know, and seeing nutritional content gives me a lot of anxiety. Case in point – at Starbucks. Sometimes I just want a freaking frappuccino and I don’t want to know the caloric count. But seeing the number next to the menu item freaks me out and I’ll end up ordering an iced Americano and then spend the next two hours wishing I’d just gotten a frappuccino. Le sigh.
In terms of recipes – I think it’s a good idea! I think when I set out to cook something, I’m usually of a healthful mindset.
I’ve kinda backed off of the calorie counting/tracking thing lately, but I’d be lying if I said that I was comfortable being completely oblivious to what’s in my food. Plus, if I have an idea of how the recipe stands as is, I won’t feel so bad if I don’t have all the ingredients and need to make a few substitutions. Nothing like subbing in a few things and completely botching the recipe…or wait, is that just me? I TOLD you I’m not a baker! 😉 But yay for using Recipage! I swear it makes my life SO much easier! I love how organized everything is!
You’re a bad influence on me…I swear I’ve never set foot inside a Sephora, but every time I see all your goodies, I want to go in and buy them all up! Lucky for me the nearest store is in Nashville which is an hour away from here! 😉
Hope you’re having a great (and SAFE) time this weekend!
YOU BITE A CHEESE STICK?! Madness!! Haha totally joking, although I am a peeler, I accept that you choose to bite them 😉 I am going to go ahead and agree with many of the commenters here and say that the nutrition info would not really suede me to make the recipe either way. If I like the look of it, the ingredients appeal to me and it’s healthy (enough), then heck, I’m going for it. Plus, if someone does want to find out the nutritional info for a recipe, you can easily put all of the ingredients into a calculator thing that figure it out for you
Sephora rocks and I’m even more obsessed because every 1000 points you get 20 percent off so they have me by a chain now :-). I like to see the macros because I try and figure mine out as a baseline when I am training but if you decided not to, I would still use your recipes! Love + shine Courtstar
I hope you’re having a fantastic FUN tearing up the slopes this weekend, Amanda! It’s been years since I’ve been skiing, and even though I’ve never been much of a snow bunny, I kind of miss it.
The Forever 21 sweatshirt your snagged on your walk through the mall is pretty darn cute. I’m sure there are many people out there who have been waiting years to rent your love!
As far as nutrition information goes, I agree with many of the other commenters–its presence, or lack thereof, doesn’t impact my decision to make a recipe. If the ingredients and flavors sound good, the steps aren’t too complicated, and the photos are enticing, I’ll go for it! Which reminds me, I’ve been meaning to try your banana oats for soooo long. I think that may happen next week!
I hope they live up to your oatmeal expectations! That’s definitely my favorite way to eat them.
I’m not interesting in nutritional information. I’d rather busy my mind with other things than pesky numbers and macros.
I’m an Alberta based blogger and reader! But only half time; I’m currently hopping between Canada and England. As of right now I’m in the former, though, and I sympathize with your distaste of the recent weather. It’s far too chilly for March.
Yep “springtime” in Edmonton! We were on code orange stand down at grey nuns that day because of that accident. Thank goodness most people were minor injuries.
And Sephora…oh Sephora. I spent 173 bucks there today…and I have an online order coming. Also got three freebie lipsticks at MAC with 18 empties. Kindred spirits we are:)
Edmonton reader here! Although hoping to get outta here to BC in a year or two. Just have to get into my dietetic internship which is about a year in length. I love snowboarding! Only got to the mountains once though and I don’t think I can again since I’m veeeery sick of winter. Have fun!
I’ve been wanting to clean up my recipe page! It’s so disorganized so I’ve been thinking about using recipe page! Is it really hard to do the transfer? I’ve heard its very time consuming.
It’s not hard to use at all, but it definitely takes time. You basically have to enter in everything from scratch, but copy/paste and doing a few recipes at a time makes it a little more bearable.
I feel ya on the snow thing. Spring is just NOT coming fast enough here! For the record, shopping is a perfectly legitimate form of exercise. I always seem to work up a sweat. Also, I would vote no on the nutritional info thing. Just the fact that your recipes are made with good ingredients will tell people about what they are eating. Also, if people want to add up the calories themselves they can. I really love that your blog takes the focus off of macros and focuses on taste and quality, so I would be happy to see you avoiding calorie counts. People who count calories and watch what they eat are already going to know whether or not a recipe is for them without looking at a nutrition label.
Yay! I’m a snowboarder too! Though I live far away, you can definitely find a friend in me. We can talk about snowboard stuff anytime of the day. We don’t get fresh powder like what you guys have there. A lot of people think I’m crazy for liking snow but when you’re a snowboarder, you want snow! 🙂
I love Sephora and Mac hauls! 🙂
Haha — I never peeled cheese strings when I ate them as a kid — don’t think I had the patience! 😉
Nutritional info is nice on packaged foods because, like you said, it’s nice to know what’s in your food. But your recipes are always made with real, wholesome, everyday ingredients, so I don’t see the need. I’m off to bake your banana muffins (no blueberries though, but I did get some beautiful stalks of rhubarb. Do you like rhubarb??).
I’ve actually only had rhubarb on a handful of occasions, and I found it good but a little bit too tart. I also have no idea how to bake with it…
I think if people are that interested, they can calculate it themselves. It’s not THAT hard. Plus, to me it seems kind of backward to what your blog is about. I vote for no. If you do, it won’t bother me. Heck, even I calculate it out sometimes, just because I’m curious. But to publish the info and make it publicly and readily known seems to send mixed messages. Just my opinion 🙂
That’s basically what I was thinking too. I thought sbout doing it to be helpful until I realized that I don’t really believe nutritional info to be all that helpful anyways. If the ingredients are healthy, then what else matters?
Oh my gosh! I’ve never heard of a pile up that big before. I hope everyone involved is okay. 🙁
I’m indifferent towards nutrition information for recipes. If it’s included, that’s fine, but I don’t really pay too much attention to it. And unless someone needs to lose weight, I don’t really think it’s necessary to care that much about the specific nutrition information for a recipe.
Be careful on your drive up to the mountains… but once you get there, enjoy yourself & have a kick ass time 🙂 🙂
For what its worth, the snow looks amazing. But you know, I’ve never seen snow in my life… It’s always hot, humid, sticky, and sunny back home!
As for the nutritional info, it doesn’t matter to me because I’d make any recipe you post! 😉
Hey Amanda!
Funny to think that while you guys are covered in snow, I’ve never even seen snow here in South-Africa!
I think posting nutrition info would take way from the entire concept of your beliefs. I’ve really always love your intuitive approach to eating. I think nutrition facts lend itself to obsessiveness and some people may reconsider making the recipe because of the calories/fats/carbs/etc. instead of making it because it looks delicious. Thank you for your wonderful posts though. I’m subscribed to many blogs but I always scan my inbox and read Running with Spoons first!
Well, if you’d ever like to see some snow, you know where to look 😉 And your definitely right that it goes against what I really believe in. At first I thought I would do it to make it easier for anyone who was wondering, but after giving it some more thigh, I really doubt that I’ll end up doing it.
I’ll chime in and say that I’m a local Edmonton reader 🙂
Thursday’s weather was ridic. I was having flashbacks from a similar storm we had later in the fall (was it early November?) and it took 2 and half hours to get to the University and 2 hours to get home. Sigh, gotta love unpredictable Canadian winters.
I. cannot. window. shop. It’s impossible haha! Great finds 🙂
I like the idea of nutritional information, but I was starting to feel like when I included calorie counts in my recipes that it was possibly triggering, since the counts were often skewed really low just so I could feel ‘safe’ with the amount. Now that I’m trying to stay away from calorie numbers and focusing more on clean ingredients and macros, I don’t really care so much about the total calories but moreso about the healthiness of the recipe as a whole. I just look at the ingredients list first and if there’s something in there I don’t want to eat (or invest in…sometimes these recipes that look delicious call for a million superfoods I don’t want to buy!) then I’ll move on.
Oh, snow. I almost thought winter was over when we saw summer-like weather a week ago but snow’s in the forecast for this weekend and I’m not so thrilled. Hopefully spring’s just around the corner for real for both of us!
Don’t do it!!! I mean if you really don’t mind and decide to start I’m not going to get all snippy or anything but I have to admit I like your blog as a safe refuge from all the calorie/carb/protein/macro/off-putting-compulsive-kale-eating obsessiveness that tends to go on elsewhere. I find myself enjoying my life a whole lot more when nutritional info is excluded from it. That being said I am totally capable of scrolling past it if you end up posting it. If it were me I just wouldn’t want to have to sit and calculate it and write it out and measure the size of my cookies and stuff. It would totally corrupt my baked good making and eating process y’know? But I totally respect that you’re in a completely different place in your recovery and your life than me (in addition to being a different person altogether of course).
Moving onto another topic, I go to school in Montreal and definitely sympathize with you on the whole Canadian winter lasting forever thing. I’d say it’s getting a bit ridiculous this time around, even for Canada. Hope you have fun snowboarding over the weekend though! I’ll be thinking of you jealously as I sit at my desk cramming behavioural neuroscience into my brain
To be honest, I like my blog as a refuge from that kind of thing as well, so I’m really leaning towards not posting it. You’re definitely right that numbers completely take the enjoyment out of food. Thanks for weighing in 🙂 A good luck with your studies!
This weather is KILLING me. I need spring! And Im not even dealing with the snow a lot of you guys are.
Sephora slays me too. I’m due for a trip tomorrow and I’m already trying to coach myself not to buy everything in the srote.
I don’t care if you bite it or peel it, so long as its cheese. I’m a sucker for cheese.
For me personally, I don’t need to know nutritional stats, but I certainly wouldn’t object to them. My only real interest is the actual ingredients.
Have a great trip.
Edmontonian here! That snow yesterday was ridiculous, I avoided going outside at all costs. So much for the 5-10 cm of snow they were predicting. Glad you stayed safe though!
And you as well! Here’s hoping that that was the last of it… but watch it snow again in May 🙄
The main string cheese that I eat is Mozarella and I have to eat it in strings! Or small little pieces. Too much cheese at one time is just too overbearing for me! But I totally get what you mean with those colby jack ones. They never peel!
As far as the nutritional information goes, I’d be totally fine with a link being on the site. I’m curious about what I eat sometimes. Giving a link would totally be okay, too, because then you are giving everyone the choice! Thanks Amanda!
I sort of think nutritional info takes the fun out of eating! It is nice to see ingredients though. That’s what I care most about.
I lasted about 4 recipes before I quit on providing the nutritional info. I don’t measure everything out when I cook, so I’m winging it when I type up the recipe anyway… Nothing I really cook is crazy high calorie anyways and it is time consuming, but if you don’t mind doing it, then do it! I have also found that when I see a recipe with calorie count, I am drawn to it, but my calorie count when I make the actual recipe will never be the same because I always adapt the recipe to fit my own taste buds or I omit/change things up..so in the end, the calorie counts don’t really matter to me!
I am with those who are against the nutritional content. I like that your blog stays away from that sort of thing. If someone really wants to figure it out they can enter it in. That being said I am all about doing what is best for YOU. I appreciate you asking for reader input, but at the end of the day it is your blog and I say you do what you truly want to do. We have snow flurries today which is a big bummer. Definitely ready for spring.
To be honest, I kind of like staying away from that kind of thing too… and you’re right, if someone really wants to know they can enter it themselves. I’m really leaning towards not including it.