I’m seriously thinking about buying stock in Blue Diamond Almonds. It makes logical sense considering that I love all their products and buy them on a regular basis. Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Breeze is truly an EBF household staple, I love the the Nut Thins and I always have a container of almonds on hand for snacking or making recipes – cinnamon raisin almond butter or creamy curried almond dressing anyone?

If you like snacking on almonds as much as I do, you’ll be happy to know that a variety of Blue Diamond Almonds have been certified by the American Heart Association (AHA) as a heart-healthy food. Not only are Blue Diamond Almonds a delicious snack, but they are good for your heart and good for your health! The following flavors meet the AHA guidelines and now feature the AHA Heart-Check mark:

• Whole Natural
• Roasted Salted
• Low Sodium
• Sea Salt
• No Salt
• Honey Dijon

The Whole Natural are my favorite because I can eat them raw or use them in recipes, plus I find that I’m better with portion control when snacking on raw almonds rather than salted or flavored varieties. Although I do want to try to find the Honey Dijon flavor because it sounds super tasty.

I’m sure most of you know about the American Heart Association, but their mission is to build healthier lives, free of cardiovascular disease and stroke. Heart disease is American’s number one killer and is completely preventable by following a number of health measures, one of which is eating healthy. <;-- It's hard to believe that number one killer in America is preventable. Stop and think about that for a second! Thinking about it definitely helps to keep me motivated to eat healthy, workout and share what I can to help others through this little blog and my health coaching practice!

Evidence of almonds’ benefits in helping to prevent heart disease has been growing over the past several years and beyond that, almonds are a great source of vitamin E, magnesium, and manganese and a good source fiber, copper, phosphorous and riboflavin. When compared ounce for ounce, almonds are the highest in protein (6g), fiber, calcium, vitamin E, riboflavin and niacin! Time to start eating more almonds, no?

Need a little almond inspiration? Here are a few tasty snack recipes to help you get a dose of heart-healthy almonds in!

Heart-Healthy Snacking with Almonds

• Pumpkin Spiced Nutty Granola
• Naked Raw Trail Mix
• Baked Banana Oatmeal Cups
• Vanishing Nuts
• No Bake Almond Cookies
• Cinnamon Raisin Almond Butter

Do you like almonds? If so, what’s your favorite way to eat them?

If you want to learn more about Blue Diamond Almonds and their new AHA Heart-Check certification, join me on Twitter for a chat next Monday, May 21, 2012 at 8PM CST / 9PM EST.

FitFluential LLC compensated me for this campaign. All opinions are my own.

Despite the fact that I love seafood, I don’t have many seafood recipes posted on here on EBF. I’ve decided it’s time for that to change! To kick things off I’m sharing a delicious and healthy salmon recipe today.

The best part about having fish for dinner is that it cooks super fast and you can have dinner ready in less than 30 minutes. <– Always a plus in my book!

Quick and Easy Balsamic Salmon

Serves 2. Adapted from Balsamic Glazed Cracked Pepper Salmon

If you don’t like spicy foods, simply omit the red pepper flakes.

Ingredients

• 2 wild caught salmon fillets (about 3-4 oz each)
• 1/2 Tablespoon coconut oil (or olive oil)
• 1/2 Tablespoon honey
• 3 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
• Sea salt and fresh ground black pepper, to taste

Preparation

1. Heat oil in a large skillet over medium to high heat. Season both sides of salmon with salt and pepper. Add salmon to skillet and cook 1 to 2 minutes per side, until golden brown.
2. While the salmon is cooking, whisk together honey, vinegar and red pepper flakes in a small bowl. Add vinegar mixture to skillet and simmer until fish is fork-tender and liquid reduces and thickens, about 5 minutes. For a thicker, reduced sauce, simmer for 5 to 10 additional minutes. Just make sure you don’t overcook the salmon.

I served it up on a bed of quinoa with a side of tomatoes and garlicky kale. Not only is this salmon easy to make and healthy, but it’s super flavorful, especially considering there’s only six ingredients involved, all of which you probably have in your kitchen right now. It doesn’t get much better than that!!

Isaac and I both really loved this meal and I will definitely be making it again soon. I hope you all like it as much as we do!

In other news, I want to give a little update on my April Challenge. I had pretty good results, despite the major indulgences that occurred when we were on vacay in Austin. I lost about 1.5 lbs and several inches – the most exciting being the 2 inches I lost around my belly button area! I owe it all to following the Tone It Up nutrition plan , having an accountability partner (thanks Brittany), and the two bootcamp programs I’ve been doing, both of which I bought off of Living Social. These workouts were just the kick in the tush I needed! Of course, knowing that I had engagement photos coming up definitely motivated me too. So now that we’re in May, I’ve decided to keep trucking along with following the TIU plan (with a few indulgences here and there). It’s been working really well for me over the last month and a half – I feel awesome and love the accountability of checking in with the other TIU team members.

Alright, have a lovely a Tuesday friends. I’m going to try, but the fact that there’s no New Girl on tonight makes my Tuesday much less exciting. Guess I’ll have to find something else fun to do tonight.

First thing first, thank you for all the sweet comments about our engagement photos! You could probably tell, but I’m super excited about them. I literally can’t stop smiling when I look at them.

It’s crazy to think that this past weekend marked one year until our wedding weekend! The weather was absolutey gorgeous so we can only hope it’s just as nice next year. Fingers crossed – all ten of them. Anyhow, we had a pretty full schedule this weekend so here’s a quick little recap of all the fun that went down.

Saturday morning I did a healthy snacking presentation for kids at the YoKid Richmond Challenge. It was hosted at Project Yoga Richmond, the community based studio I have mentioned before.

We talked about reading nutrition labels, why healthy snacks are important and then made one of my favorite snacks – trail mix!

A visit to the South of the James Farmers Market was in order after the YoKid event…

I’ll never turn down a chance to visit the farmers market (or a free Blanchard’s iced coffee).

Later in the day we had friends over for grilling out. The two highlights of the night included a strawberry salad with goat cheese feta and strawberries, roasted almonds and a maple balsamic dressing. The freshness of the goat cheese and the strawberries (which we had purchased that morning from the farmers market) definitely had a little something to do with how delicious this was.

The other show stealer was the dark chocolate Zico coconut water martinis that Isaac made. They were dangerously amazing!

Dark chocolate Zico, vodka and kahlua!

On Sunday morning I went to brunch with my mom and nanny at Light Well, a fairly new restaurant in my hometown (Orange, Virginia). I was excited to try this place because they serve locally sourced foods and have a good variety of healthy options. I choose the daily quiche with garlic, zucchini and squash and a side salad with blue cheese, cucumbers, grapes and pecans.

My meal was delicious and my mom and nanny enjoyed their dishes as well.

After brunch we went over my cousin’s house and I got to meet my new little cousin, miss Hannah.

Her shirt says it all – adorable.

I part ways with my mom and nanny and headed back to Richmond to meet up for dinner with Isaac’s mom and dad at Peter Chang’s China Cafe, a new restaurant with a famous chef (Peter Chang himself) that everyone has been raving about. We all enjoyed the appetizers and entrees with ordered – definitely some of the best “Chinese/Szechwan” food I’ve had before – and this is coming from a lady that doesn’t like Chinese food that much.

Bang bang shrimp

Dry fried eggplant – I had to order this after Stepanie’s raving review.

Shrimp with asparagus and snow peas

Bamboo fish

Overall, I think the bamboo fish and the shrimp with asparagus and snow peas were my favorite dishes. A couple things I did noticed – there were a lot of fried foods on the menu and everything was pretty spicy, although this make sense because Szechwan cuisine is known for it’s liberal use of garlic and chili peppers. I try to stay away from fried foods, but I tasted a little bit of everything pictured above and was impressed because even though the dishes were fried they weren’t heavily breaded or doused in oil.

To finish the weekend off we stopped by Whole Foods to get some groceries for the upcoming week. I found a little treat that was on sale in the ice cream isle – guilt free Arctic Zero Frozen Dessert.

I tried a little bowl last night it was pretty good – it has less than 40 calories and only 5 grams of sugar in a 1/2 cup serving! It reminds me a lot of homemade protein ice cream. I was a little disappointed there were no cookie pieces despite the name Mint Chocolate Cookie, but it did satisfy my craving for ice cream for less than 40 calories! Definite win in that department.

I hope you had a fabulous weekend as well! Happy belated Mother’s Day to all the moms out there!

Now it’s time for me to head to work…

We finally got to take our engagement photos last week. Luckily, the weather was beautiful on Thursday and everything fell into place quite nicely. Being used to the instant gratification of digital photography, waiting to see our engagement photos was like counting down the days until Christmas morning. Seriously.

Our photographer, the lovely Michelle Chu, posted a little preview on her blog and some others on her Facebook page today. The ones she posted are amazing and I couldn’t be happier to have her as our photographer. She and her assistant/boyfriend, Jon made Isaac and I feel totally comfortable during the photo shoot and her photos are gorgeous. I’m kind of in love with her!

I’ve included a few that I downloaded from facebook so the quality isn’t as great as those you’ll see on her blog, but I had to show you all some.

I was super nervous about the photos. I scoured wedding forums for engagement photo tips – what to wear, should I get my hair and makeup done?, where in Richmond is the best place to take photos, etc. It took me weeks to pick out where we would do them and what I was going to wear. I wanted the photos to be perfect so I got my nails and hair done and had my friend Laurel, who is one of our bridesmaids, do my makeup. Laurel is a stylist in L.A. and she worked her magic on us by helping pick out our outfits, doing my makeup and coming with us on the photo shoot to help out. She’s amazing and I’m so lucky that she was back home in Richmond this week.

The funniest part about the ivory dress I wore is that I ended up borrowing it from Liz at the last minute. I saw her wear it to the VA is for blogger brunch at Stella’s and loved it. I tried to find it at the store but couldn’t so she was super sweet and let me borrow it. Thank you so much Liz – it was perfect!

We did some of our photos at Maymont. It was the place Isaac proposed to me and it has a ton of beautiful places to take photos so it just made sense. The tree in the photo above is actually the exact spot I was sitting when he proposed. You can read the full story here.

We chose to do the other part of our session at Lamplighter because it’s our favorite coffee shop to walk to on Saturday mornings. Olive hangs with us outside and we sip on their delicious coffee.

Overall, the whole experience was so fun for us. I’m no pro, but here are a few tips I have for any couples out there that are taking engagement photos soon:

• Get inspired. I searched wedding blogs and photography websites to find engagement photos, hair styles and makeup looks that I liked. I pinned all my ideas on Pinterest and shared them with every one I was working with – Michelle, Laurel and my hairdresser. It worked out great because everything was in one place.
• Pick clothes you feel comfortable in. You don’t want to be tugging on a shirt or pulling down a dress for every photo. This is why I ended up taking back the original dress I bought from Urban Outfitters.
• Coordinate your outfits but don’t get too matchy-matchy.
• Feel free to do your own hair and makeup, but I found it was less stressful for me to have someone else do those things. I used my normal hair dresser at Red Organics Salon and styling only cost $35.00 – it was definitely worth it!
• Wear more makeup than you normally do because it looks like much less in the photos. I wanted a natural look because I don’t wear a ton of makeup normally. Looking in the mirror before the photos it looked like I had on a ton of makeup but in the photos it looks natural and lovely.
• Relax, be yourself and have fun – at first it’s a little awkward to act natural in front of the camera, but Isaac is great at making me laugh so that helped. By the end of the session we both felt like pros.
• Bring props – we used fun signs, flowers, scrabble pieces, a blanket, coffee and Olive as our props.
• Pick locations that mean something to you as a couple. It makes the photos really special.
• Get comfortable with your photographer. Have a few meetings beforehand and review the photos on their website to make sure you really like their style. We fell in love with Michelle as soon as we saw the photos on her website and once we met her in person, we knew she was the perfect fit for us.

I hope you are having a lovely Saturday. We’re definitely enjoying the beautiful weather here in VA.

All photos courtesy of Michelle Chu Photography.

I’ve been meaning to put a post together with my favorite places in Austin, Texas since our visit a few weeks ago… and finally I have it for you! Hopefully it will be helpful for folks planning to visit Austin in the near future.

Food wise there are so many amazing restaurants – we checked out as many as we could but I’m sure we missed some of the good ones. That said, here are the places I loved and would recommend:

Jo’s Coffee

Progress Coffee – This coffee shop was one of my favorites because they offer to put Mexican Vanilla in your iced coffee. It’s delicious!

Parkside – Our good friend works at this restaurant. It’s right on 6th street and has a lot of delicious entreés and tasty cocktails.

Second Bar + Kitchen – I am so sad I didn’t have a my camera when we went here, but the food was so good. Highly recommend this one.

FoodHeads

Sarah recommended this little sandwich shop and I’m so glad we tried it. They had amazing sandwiches, lots of different iced teas and the best pickles I’ve ever eaten.

Elizabeth Street Cafe – French Vietnamese cuisine served up in the cutest little restaurant ever. It might sound like an interesting combo, but I loved the decor and vibe of Elizabeth St. and the food was amazing – probably the best Vietnamese food I’ve ever eaten. (Thanks for the recommendation Monet!)

The most delicious shrimp spring rolls (Poached shrimp, avocado, cilantro, bean sprouts, jalapeño, and lime zest)… with not one, but three different dipping sauces.

I had the roasted mushrooms & grilled tofu rice vermicelli bowl with lettuces, herbs, cucumber, carrot and roasted peanuts and vegan nuoc cham.

Awesome Vietnamese dishes followed by a lovely Nutella éclair – doesn’t get much better than that!

Kerbey Lane Cafe

Queso covered guacamole! There are no words to describe this… right Britt?

Vespaio Enoteca – The spinach salad rocked my world!

Papi Tino’s – A quaint little restaurant with lots of outdoor seating, tables made of wooden spools and live music. They served the freshest and tastiest Mexican food we had while visiting Texas.

And fun drinks to boot.

Ceviche con mango

Vegan eggplant rolls stuffed with vegetables

Camarones a la diabla – grilled shrimp tossed in a spicy peanut salsa on a bed of diced avocado and magno with a splash of lime juice.

Lamar Whole Foods – At 80,000 square feet, it’s one of the largest Whole Foods in the world and they have kombucha on tap – enough said!

Texas Hill Country Olive Company – We randomly came across this place when we were driving around looking for wineries (most of which were closed during the week). We ended up sampling their olive oils, balsamic vinegars and doing a local beer and wine tasting. We got to walk through the olive tress while sipping a glass a wine – I loved it.

Barton Springs – an Austin institution. It was cool to see, but we didn’t pay to go into the pool area. Apparently the water is freezing.

Touring the country side – the wildflowers were in full bloom while we were there so the rural areas right outside of town were beautiful.

As you can probably tell, we had a blast (and ate very well)!

Have you ever been to Austin?