All You Can Feed On

Too Hot To Cook

Heat dome, heat wave, heat attack — we don't care what you call it — it is just way too hot! Yes, the heat has wrapped its sticky fingers around us, but food can be a relief as well as a chore in the heat. It's hard to get up the willpower to walk into the kitchen on a hot summer day. Just preheating an oven can feel like you're upping the temperature in the house by 10 degrees.

The key to surviving cooking in the summer is simple: Just Don’t!

It sounds obvious, but it's easy to forget in the midst of a hot, sticky day. You probably can't go out to eat at an air conditioned restaurant seven nights a week, but you can still fill yourself with tasty grub.

Let Personal Chef to Go do your cooking for you! We prepare healthy, delicious gourmet meals for everyone. Whether you’re single, a couple or you have a family we have a meal service perfect for you! Here are a few suggestions:

Busy Singles

When it’s hot and your schedule is full, there just isn't enough time to eat well at home. That's why we created this plan with you in mind. Your busy singles plan keeps you well fed with minimal effort and time. You demand the best and we deliver it without wasting a minute of your precious time.

Couples On The Go

You can make time for relaxed, gourmet dining at home during your busy summer. There’s no extensive shopping for groceries that are often tossed out or composted after they spoil, or piles of dirty dishes to clean up. Relax after a full day and refuel your body with the finest and freshest meals available.

Family Favorites

Kid-Tested and Mom-Approved for summers packed with play dates, day camp, swimming lessons and day trips out with the kids. Each weekly menu is delivered right to your door and because it’s always fresh and never frozen, its ready in minutes. Each week our chefs create a delicious four entree menu complete with one to two side dishes to compliment the main course, including fresh whole grain rolls. Who says there is no time to sit down to a great family dinner at home during the summer?

So there’s no need to panic, when there’s so much to do and so little time to do it and you start to see the phrase "back-to-school" get bandied about (seriously guys, already?). Personal Chef to Go is here help with no mess, no stress and almost zero time in the kitchen. Even better there’s no standing around the grill in the heat. It's still summer, let's celebrate!

We’d love to hear how you celebrate summer with Personal Chef to Go? Tell us!

Living Smart & Healthy: Lazy Days of Summer

In the warmer, longer, lazier days of summer, the living may not be easy, but maybe your life probably feels less chaotic. Even adults tend to adopt a "school's out!" attitude in summer. That's why this is a perfect time to improve your health. You'll barely notice the effort with these 5 tips:

1.       Relax and breathe. You've been working hard. This is the season to slow the pace a bit and absorb the light that stimulates your hormonal message center. Leave your cell phone at home or take a week off from TV. In many European countries, most of the population has a month off during the summer.
 
2.       Sun teas are wonderful. Use flowers and leaves (or tea bags) in a clear half- or one-gallon glass jar filled with spring water. Hibiscus or red clover flowers, peppermint, chamomile, or lemon grass are all good choices, or use your local herbs and flowers that you learn are safe, flavorful, and even medicinal. Leave in the sun for two hours or up to a whole day. Moon teas can also be made to enhance your lunar, dreamy side by letting your herbs steep in the cooling, mystical moonlight. Add a little orange or lemon peel, or a sprig of rosemary and a few jasmine flowers.
 
3.       Nutritional supplements can support you with a greater amount of physical energy, enhancing your summer activities. The B-complex vitamins are calming to the nervous system and helpful for cellular energy production, while vitamin C and the other antioxidants protect your body from stress, chemical pollutants, and the biochemical by-products of exercise. Helpful summer herbs are Siberian ginseng as an energy tonic and stress protector, dong quai is a tonic for women, hawthorn berry is good for the heart, and licorice root will help energy balance and digestion.
 
4.       Use the summer months to deepen the spiritual awakening begun in the spring. Begin by checking your local bookstore or the web for ideas that interest you. Plan a vacation that incorporates these new interests and provides you time to read, relax, contemplate, and breathe.
 
5.       Above all, give yourself the time to truly experience Nature. This can happen, even in a city park, if you relax and let in your surroundings. When traveling, take activities for the family and your first aid kit for bites, bee stings, and injuries. Check for ticks after your hikes. Watch for overexposure, take time in the shade, and drink your water.

Be Smarter Than the Heat

You’ve been exercising and getting outdoors regularly, but now it’s summer — and hot. It’s sometimes even dangerously hot and seemingly too hot to go work out or pursue any activity beyond a dark movie theatre or staying cool indooors.

Don’t decide this is the time for a little summer break from fitness or other outdoor activities, experts say, because you may be hurting yourself in the longer term.

It’s important to continue moving over the summer because the effects of exercise  are rapidly lost once training stops. In fact, most studies suggest many of the key benefits are lost in four to six weeks of inactivity.

Still, you can’t just ignore the heat because you could wind up with heat stress, heat stroke or other problems. So to keep the heat from melting your workouts, we suggest you:

1. Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate. Maintain salt-water balance by drinking plenty of fluids (preferably water) before, during and after physical activity.  Avoid alcoholic and caffeinated beverages.
    
2. Exercise smarter, not harder. Work out during the cooler parts of the day, preferably when the sun's radiation is minimal — early in the morning or early in the evening. Decrease exercise intensity and duration at high temperatures or relative humidity.  And don’t hesitate to take your exercise inside, to the gym, the mall or anyplace else where you can get in regular physical activity.
    
3. Ease in to summer. Allow your body to adapt partially to heat through repeated gradual daily exposures. An increase in the body's circulatory and cooling efficiency, called acclimatization, generally occurs in only four to 14 days.
    
4. Dress the part. Wear minimal amounts of clothing to facilitate cooling by evaporation. Remember, it’s not sweating that cools the body; rather, the evaporation of sweat into the atmosphere. Wear lightweight, light-colored clothing in breathable fabrics such as cotton.
    
5. Watch The Clock & Team up.  If you can, exercise with a friend or family member. It’s safer, and could be more fun. It’s best to avoid the outdoors in the early afternoon (about noon to 3 p.m.) because the sun is usually at its strongest, putting you at higher risk for heat-related illnesses, like heat exhaustion or heat stroke. 

Keep these five tips in mind and you'll sail through your summer activities without risking your health!

How do you manage your exercise and activites in summer months?

Living Smart & Healthy Tips: Summer is Here

 

Summer has finally arrived! It’s time to dig out the barbeque grills and deck furniture or even whip out the bikinis and take off for some well-deserved relaxation on the beach, lake or river.

For many of us, summer also brings the temptations of ice cream, overdoing the tan and forgetting the summer diet and exercise. We suggest you consider these 5 tips:

1.  Stay cool and hydrated. Drink water, at least two to four cups (16-32 ounces) upon rising, and similar amounts if you are going out for activities and exercise. Carry water with you in a hard plastic container (more stable polycarbonate rather than polyethylene that leaches plastic into the water). You may also use a traveling water filter. Check your local water stores or www.realgoods.com. Most people need two to three quarts of liquid per day, and more in hot weather or with sweating and exercise.
 
2. While enjoying the sun and outdoors, protect yourself from overexposure to sunlight by wearing a hat and using natural sunscreens without excessive chemicals. Carry Aloe Vera gel for overexposure and have an aloe plant growing in your home for any kind of burn. The cooling and healing gel inside the leaves will soothe any sunburn. It works great!.
 
3.  Keep up or begin an exercise program. Aerobic activity is important for keeping the heart strong and healthy. If you only work out in a health club, take some time to do outdoor refreshing activities -- hiking, biking, swimming, or tennis. Reconnecting with these activities will help keep your body and mind aligned.
 
4. Enjoy Nature's bounty – fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables at their organic best. Consuming foods that are cooling and light -- fresh fruits, vegetable juices, raw vital salads, and lots of water -- will nourish your body for summertime activities. Include some protein with one or two meals. There are a number of light, nourishing proteins that don't require cooking. Most of these complement fruits and vegetables nicely-- nuts, seeds, sprouted beans, soy products, yogurt, kefir, and cottage cheese. Fish and poultry can also be eaten.

 5. Take some special summer time with your family, kids, and friends who share the enjoyment of outdoors. Plan a fun trip for a day or longer if you're able and motivated -- hiking in the wild, camping, playing at the river, or a few days resting at the ocean. Rekindling our Earth connection has benefits that last beyond this season, continuing to enrich the whole of your life.

Balance your fun with these 5 tips and you’ll be living smart and healthy!

What are your tips for healthy summer fun?