For the next year, The Healthy Toast is helping you get better acquainted with the building blocks of healthy eating. From flours and grains to spices and herbs, we’ll be discussing the role of various ingredients in cooking and baking. There will also be tips and tricks for using these ingredients, and of course more healthy recipes along the way!

Happy New Year! Hope you are all nice and recovered from your New Year’s celebrations. After two weeks off of work, my alarm going off at 5:20 this morning was a bit of a shock to the system. However, once I got my butt to the gym, I slowly found myself getting back into the usual routine.

While I’m a huge fan of routines, it’s looking like 2019 may be shaking life up a bit. Starting with a new direction for the blog this year.

Over the past four years, I’ve been focusing on healthy recipes that are family-friendly and don’t’ require going to multiple grocery stores to find all the ingredients. However, as I’ve been growing as a dietitian and cook, I’ve found myself becoming more interested in the basics of cooking: ingredients. What happens if you sub one ingredient for another? Or how do I use some of the spices I have in my cabinet?

And as I’ve been researching and experimenting in the kitchen, it’s occurred to me that many of you may also be interested in learning more about ingredients as well. So, in 2019, the Healthy Toast will be all about meeting your ingredients.

Each month will have a theme, such as whole grains or natural sugars. From there, each week will focus in on a specific ingredient within that theme (for example, quinoa). Wednesday posts will be informational with tips on where to buy, how to store, when to use when cooking or baking, and nutritional highlights. Then on Fridays, you’ll get a healthy recipe using that featured ingredient.

I’m super excited about this new direction and hope you all love it as well! While I have a rough outline for each month, if there’s a specific topic or ingredient that you’ve been curious about let me know in the comments below!

While the first ingredient category will be announced on Friday, below are three Healthy Toast recipes featuring our upcoming star ingredient:

Whole Wheat Bourbon Banana Bread

Fluffy Greek Yogurt Birthday Pancakes

Healthier Empanada Dough