1. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day. Don’t skimp on breakfast! Breakfast fuels us for the day and gives our metabolism a jump start. If you’re short on time I love these delicious, yeast-free egg cups, which can be refrigerated and grabbed on the go.
2. Pre-pack healthy snacks to resist office temptations. Whether it’s a vending machine full of candy, or a co-worker who always brings doughnuts, packing your own, healthy snacks will keep you on track! I love packaging serving sizes of almonds or pre-packing vegetables with a serving of hummus or guacamole.
3. Drink plenty of water! Keeping properly hydrated makes you feel full longer, has been shown to improve skin tone, and keeps your body running like a well-oiled machine!
4. Be active! While nutrition month makes us think of fueling our bodies properly, being active is one of my top tips. Instead of eating popcorn in front of the TV, go take your dog for a walk, or go for a bike ride with your kids!
5. Avoid the inside aisles of the grocery store.  Have you ever noticed that in most grocery stores the meat and produce are located on the outer edges of the store, and all of the processed or canned foods are located on the inside aisles? When I grocery shop I stay away from the aisles! I get all of my meat, produce, and the few frozen vegetables I buy from the perimeter of the store and resist piling my basket with heavily processed temptations!

Please share with me your Nutrition tips! Also, Hotze Pharmacy will be offering free ground shipping this entire month! No code necessary, just place your order!

1. Roasted chickpeas: These can be made ahead and seasoned in a variety of ways! You rinse a can of chickpeas, coat in Coconut oil and sprinkle with salt and bake at 425 for 15-20 minutes. Then toss these in anything you’d like! Garlic salt, taco seasoning, or cinnamon and Sweet-n-Natural!
2. Eggplant slices with marinara sauce: When I have a craving for Italian this is my go to. Roast eggplant in the oven at 425 degrees for 10-12 minutes. Make sure to put a little coconut oil, salt and pepper on the egg plant. Then dip in homemade or store-bought marinara sauce! (If using store bought make sure to double check the ingredient list)
3. Buffalo style roasted cauliflower: Roast cauliflower at 450 degrees for 30 minutes, season with salt, pepper, paprika and a little hot-wing style barbeque sauce. These taste very similar to hot-wings and are a good spicy snack that packs well.
4. Hard boiled eggs stuffed with hummus: Hardboil as many eggs as you need. Cut the eggs in half and either remove the yolk, and fill it completley with hummus, or mix hummus with the yolk and and then stuff the eggs!

If you’ve noticed one similarity between most of these snack ideas it is that they are all roasted! What I typically do on a Sunday night is heat up the oven and get a few pans of vegetables roasted, that way I can make all of my snacks and have them pre-packed for the week to come!

Please, as always, share with me your yeast-free snack ideas!

1)      Vegetable and meat stir-fry: On Sundays I will heat up my wok, use a little bit of coconut oil and seasonings and stir fry a variety of seasonal vegetables along with chicken, beef or shrimp. I then package my stir-fry in easy to-go containers so I can grab it in the morning on my way out the door!

2)      Bagged salad: I usually keep a few bags of salad in the refrigerator at work. I especially like the Dole varieties that have an assortment of vegetables in them such as sugar snap peas, grape tomatoes and radish! In place of dressing try tossing your salad in hummus and lemon juice!

3)      Sandwiches: You may have thought sandwiches were off of the list since you are not allowed to have bread, but think outside the box! Large leaf lettuce such as Romaine makes a wonderful wrap that you can fill with meats and vegetables. Avocado also makes a wonderful spread to replace mayonnaise.

4)      You pick the lunch restaurant: Plenty of restaurants have Yeast-Free options. When the office decides to go to lunch pipe-up and you pick the place! Restaurants such as Chipotle, Freebirds or Mongolian Grills that allow you to pick your own ingredients and put them on top of a bed of lettuce make for a filling and excellent lunch.

5)      Make your lunch Eggcellent: Hardboiled eggs make great and portable salad toppers and even make delicious fillings for lettuce-wrapped sandwiches. I usually boil half a dozen eggs on Sunday night and pack them along for my lunch.

Please share with us in the comments section any Yeast-Free lunch ideas you love!

Hotze Pharmacy will be offering $15 off of Nystatin during Yeast-Free with Me, simply mention the coupon code “YF” in the comments field when placing an online order, or to the technician over the phone when placing a phone order.

I thought I would share one of my favorite and easy yeast-free recipes with you all!

Yeast-Free Turkey Taco Wraps:

Ingredients:

• 1 package of ground turkey
• 1 package of taco seasoning (Make sure it does not contain sugar, I like Penzey’s Bold Taco Seasoning)
• 1 onion, diced (reserve ¼ of onion)
• 1 red bell pepper diced
• 1 pablano or jalapeno pepper, dependent on your heat preference, diced
• 1 can of diced tomatoes
• ½ cup of chicken stock
• 1 small fresh tomato
• Large leaf lettuce, like iceberg or romaine
• Guacamole, either store-bought (but check the ingredient list) or homemade

Directions:

Brown your ground turkey in a pan until browned. Turn your Crockpot on low and place onions, peppers, tomatoes, chicken stock, browned ground turkey and taco seasoning into the Crockpot. Stir, and allow to cook on low for 6 hours. When the taco meat mixture is finished cooking place two large leafs of lettuce on your plate. Use a slotted spoon to scoop out a mixture of taco filling, draining the excess liquid, and place a scoop in each taco. Top with fresh onions, diced tomato and guacamole!

I hope you enjoy this delicious recipe! I look forward to doing the Yeast-Free eating plan with all of you this month!

1)    Prepare your own yeast-free dish and bring it along for your friends and family to try! At Thanksgiving I prepared a spaghetti squash casserole and my entire family loved it.

2)    Focus on what you can eat, not what you can’t! Many holiday functions are filled with meats and vegetables such as turkey and green beans. Focus on what you can fill your plate with!

3)    Pack a few sparkling waters. One of the main things I can miss about the holidays is sharing a champagne toast with my loved ones. Sparkling water garnished with lemon or a few berries still gives me that same festive feel of drinking an alcoholic beverage!

4)    Bring fruit for dessert. Instead of filling up on sugary carbohydrates such as pecan pie and Christmas cookies bring a fruit torte filled with fruits and nuts. Trust me; you’ll feel a lot less guilty the next day.

5)    Go for a walk after dinner. My mom and I always go for a brisk walk after Christmas dinner to help our food digest more quickly. Also, since we have made our after dinner walk a tradition that we look forward to, neither of us overeat so we will have a comfortable walk!

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas and if you are following the Yeast-Free Eating Program this holiday season I hope these tips help!

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Also, be sure to schedule a skin-care consultation with one of our compounding pharmacists during THE Extravaganza, November 26 through November 30, by e-mailing us at Appt@hotzepharmacy.com. Make sure to include your name and what time you would like to meet!

Make sure to stuff your stockings full of our wonderful all-natural paraben-free skin-care preparations! All specialty skin-care preparations are included in THE Extravaganza!

Ingredients:

• 1 ½  tablespoons of coconut oil
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 8 oz chopped mushrooms
• 1 tablespoon onion powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ½ teaspoon dried thyme
• ½ teaspoon pepper
• 1 cup low-fat milk (or almond milk)
• 4 cups of frozen French-cut green beans
• 1/3 cup reduced fat sour cream
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• ½ teaspoon garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and spray a 2 ½ quart baking dish with cooking spray. If using fresh green beans bring enough water to cover your green beans to a boil and boil for thirty minutes. For crispier fresh green beans boil them for less time and immediately transfer into a bowl of ice and water, then dry them. If using frozen green beans prepare them according to the package directions and then add to the dish. Heat coconut oil in a large saucepan, add onion, stirring often for about 4 minutes or until translucent. Stir in mushroom, onion powder, garlic powder,  salt, thyme and pepper, cook until mushroom juices evaporate. Add milk and bring to a simmer, then stir in sour cream transfer to baking dish and mix in with green beans.  Sprinkle with paprika and bake for 15 to 20 minutes.

1. Halloween stickers: Stickers are a classic that kids love! They are also inexpensive and can easily be found at your neighborhood dollar store.
2. Glow sticks: Glow sticks are bright, colorful and kids and adults both love them! They can also be found at the dollar store.
3. Rings: Anywhere that sells Halloween candy is also bound to have spider, bat and skull plastic rings. These are super festive and are a great inexpensive way to fill your treat bowl.
4. Bubbles: Bubbles can be purchased in bulk, are inexpensive, and a lot of fun for kids to play with.
5. Halloween-themed school supplies: Anything from Halloween themed pencils and pens to small holiday shaped note-pads.

Happy Halloween everyone!

With all of the different pumpkin varieties at my local grocery store I couldn’t help but purchase a few pumpkins for me and my husband to carve! We both have a very competitive nature, so needless to say it turned into a pumpkin carving contest!

My husband decided to carve his pumpkin to look like a haunted house, and I must say it looks pretty spooky!

I decided to carve this ghoulish goblin! I must say that both of our pumpkins came out looking very festive, and I can’t pick a favorite!

We used all of our seeds that we scooped out of the pumpkins to make delicious roasted pumpkin seeds!

Ingredients

• 1 cup of pumpkin seeds
• Garlic powder
• Salt
• Pepper
• Cajun Seasoning
• 2 teaspoons of melted butter or olive oil

Directions

Preheat your oven to 300 degrees. Clean your seeds removing any major string or pulp. Toss the pumpkin seeds in a bowl with the melted butter or oil and seasoning. Spread on a single layer lined baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes, stirring occasionally until golden brown and enjoy!

Please share with us your pumpkin carvings on our Facebook page! We will have our staff vote on their favorite pumpkin and have a not-so scary surprise for the winner! The contest will end on Halloween, October 31!

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• Urea: Enhances the effectiveness of the ingredients in the preparation  by softening the nail.
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