January Challenge -- Is Nobody Getting Healthy?

So far the response to the January challenge has been zip. Maybe nobody's interested in this topic? There's still time to participate and be eligible to win this month's prize package. This post at this link will give you all the details in the January -- Thinking Healthy Cooking Club challenge.

January Cooking Club Challenge -- Thinking Healthy

So many people are trying to eat right, move more, and improve health – especially at this time of year and considering the holiday bacchanalia we all just survived. Losing weight has to be the most prolific New Years resolution.

So with that in mind, this month’s Cooking Club challenge -- and prize package -- is designed to help you achieve these most worthwhile goals.

When it comes to eating right and/or dieting, everyone has their favorite “staples” – the foods or recipes you depend upon and go back to again and again. It might be your favorite salad, your "go to" brown bag lunch, or a favorite brand of breakfast cereal, or a dessert that satisfies your sweet tooth without breaking your daily allotment of calories and/or fat and carb grams.

For this month’s challenge, we want to hear about your favorite healthy recipes and/or diet foods.

There are two ways to enter and be eligible for this month’s prize package giveaway:

1. Submit your own original healthy eating recipe to FabulousFoods.com. To do this you will need to become a site member if you’re not already (registration is fast and free). Click the “submit a recipe link” in the drop down menu for the "Toolbox" in the navigation bar at the top of any page at FabulousFoods.com and fill out the form. Be sure to mention that you are submitting the recipe as part of the Cooking Club Challenge in the “Author’s Notes” field. If you have your own blog and/or website, be sure to include this in the notes field too, so we can link to it and also let folks know about it in our event end wrap-up. Don't worry about details like the "tag fields," a live person edits each recipe before publication.

2. If you favorite healthy eating and/or diet staple foods are brand names convenience products (or more of an idea than an actual recipe), just let us know about them in the comments section below on the page at this link. Again, you will have to be a registered site member to enter comments (and so we can contact you if your name is chosen for the giveaway).

Deadline to participate in this month’s Cooking Club Challenge is midnight Pacific time January 31, 2009.


This Month’s Prize Package Giveaway

As always, one lucky Cooking Club participant will be chosen at random to receive the giveaway package. This month’s gift package is worth over $135.00 and includes a library of six popular health and diet books (so you can find a plan that works well for you), and some of Watkins favorite health products, including bottles of red and white liniments to help with sore muscles after workouts, as well as travel packs of Menthol-Camphor salve (perfect for cold season) and the all-purpose first aid Petro-Carbo salve. Books included in this giveaway package include:

• Cholesterol Down: 10 Simple Steps to Lower Your Cholesterol in 4 Weeks Without Prescription Drugs by Janet Brill Bond, Ph.D, R.D., LDN
• Dr. Gott’s No Flour, No Sugar Diet: The Simplest Way to Lose Weight by Peter H. Gott, MD
• Eat Right For Your Metabolism: How the Right Foods for Your Type Can Help You Lose Weight by Felicia Drury Kliment
• Sugarbusters! Cut Sugar to Trim Fat by H. Leighton Steward, Morrison C. Bethea, M.D., Sam S. Andrews, M. D., and Luis A. Balart, M.D.
• The Ultimate New York Diet: The Fastest Way to a Trimmer You by David Kirsch (foreword by Dr. Mehmet C. Oz)

December Challenge Winner and Wrap Up!

Thanks to everyone who entered our December Cooking Club Event – Your Favorite Cooking Tools!

Congratulations go to GoodCookWannabe AKA Marlene Rockwell who was chosen at random from everyone who participated to be the recipient of this month’s Prize Package Giveaway.

When posed with the question of what kitchen tools and gadgets she couldn’t live without, Marlene had lots of essentials:

“My Pyrex measuring cup that I use daily to cook oatmeal in the microwave. Also, my cutting board and knife to cut my fruit and my coffee grinder to grind flax seed. and that is just breakfast! My other favorites are my microwave oven, tongs, steamer, and teflon skillet.”

Many Cooking Club members said they just couldn’t live without good chef’s knives in the kitchen. In fact, some kept it very basic – good knives, a cutting board, and metal spatula.

Others enjoyed more luxuries in the kitchen, including immersion blenders, food processors, stand mixers, garlic presses, coffee grinders, digital meat thermometers, pepper grinders and microplaners.

For the full wrap-up of everyone’s comments on their favorite cooking tools and gadgets (you can still add your own to the list too, even though the “event” is over), click to
www.fabulousfoods.com/articles/cooking-club/article/894/28252.

Stay tuned to this space (or better yet subscribe), the January Event will be posted by tomorrow!