Welcome

Welcome to Simple Nourished Living. I'm Martha McKinnon and this is my blog - where I share my passion for delicious simple easy healthy food, cooking, baking and yoga.

This is also where I try to get all the recipes, cooking & baking tips, healthy eating tips and weight loss tips I've collected through the years and found online organized.

I have a small home-based cooking school in Phoenix Arizona where I offer cooking and baking classes. Most of my classes focus on recipes that are simple, easy, healthy and delicious. I also provide private yoga instruction.

For years I've been working on balancing my love of delicious food and desire to be slim and healthy and I love to share what I've discovered and support other women who share this challenge. I hope you find the information here helpful.

Balancing the love of delicious food and desire to be slim and healthy!

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Easy Healthy Recipes

Healthy home cooking doesn't have to be complicated or boring. Cooking can be easy and delicious when you have the right information, tools, techniques and quick and easy recipes.

I love sharing my passion for simple cooking and showing you how easy it can be in fun informative cooking classes and interactive cooking demonstrations.

Healthy meals cooked at home are always better for you (and your wallet) than take out or fast food and they can be a lot more satisfying too. I believe in the nourishing power of gathering around the table together and connecting over a simple home cooked meal.

What you need to make this a reality are easy recipes with simple common ingredients. The key to simple cooking is finding recipes with just a few easy-to- find ingredients and preparation steps.

And sometimes, if you're like me, you don't even need a recipe, but just some help with quick easy meal ideas.

On this site you’ll find lots of easy healthy recipes for quick dishes that taste delicious, including lots of easy soup recipes (one of my favorite things to make), along with a healthy dose of sweet treats, like easy cookie and brownie recipes (another favorite).

You'll also find quick easy dinner recipes that are easy to make and taste great, easy slow cooker recipes that practically cook themselves, along with lots of cooking tips, hints and how-to's to help making cooking easier.

And if you are located in Phoenix or Scottsdale, here's more information about my cooking classes.

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Balanced Healthy Eating

A balanced healthy diet changes everything. Good health begins in the kitchen with the food you eat. In addition to nourishing you, food is one of life's great pleasures.

It doesn't matter how healthy, a food is, if it doesn't taste good, you're not going to eat it!  (At least not for very long.) Life is too short not to nourish yourself with delicious healthy food!

Healthy eating can be easy and delicious!

All it takes is the desire along with the right information, techniques, tips and tools.

That's where this website comes in.

After years of wading through conflicting nutritional information and struggling to determine the "correct way to eat healthfully" I decided that the best approach to healthy eating is one of simplicity and common sense.

It's about adopting a healthy lifestyle you can live with - not going on another diet.

Although, we are all unique and may have different dietary needs, there are some things from which we can all benefit  - such as reducing highly processed foods, refined and manufactured food, cutting back on excess sugar and unhealthy fats, increasing fruits and vegetables, and enjoying simple home-cooked meals as much as possible.

It's about creating a simple healthy balanced lifestyle that is realistic, practical and not subject to the latest nutritional fads, whims and popular diets of the moment. It's about finding a happy healthy balance - eating healthy most of the time and not worrying about the occasional indulgences. (I believe that sometimes a food's love content totally outweighs its fat and sugar content!)

As a lifetime yo-you dieter and Weight Watcher's Lifetime Member, I've learned that the an instinctive/intuitive approach to eating along with moderation and common sense and works best for me.

You don't need to be perfect. You can eat out, order takeout and indulge in cookies and chocolate - just not all the time.

I believe that it's healthy to have some indulgent things in life that please you and for me that includes reading cookbooks, baking and making desserts so you'll find lot's of wonderful easy dessert recipes here. I even have a website dedicated to easy cookie recipes where I indulge my sweet tooth.

Day-to-day and week to week it's about finding the balance between health and pleasure and letting yourself really ENJOY your food.

There's lots of information here to help, including articles to help you make healthier food choices and healthy easy weight loss tips as well as lots of information about yoga and fitness.

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The Benefits of a Simple Yoga Practice

I love sharing the benefits of easy simple yoga…

Yoga is a total mind-body-spirit workout and the only form of exercise that I have ever been able to stick with. It helped cure my back pain and better deal with life.

People often ask, "What makes yoga so special?" Yoga helps me feel invigorated and calm, energized and serene, all at the same time. It's amazing. I'm stronger and more flexible than I was as a teenager! I feel like it nourishes me inside and out.

And I can take my yoga practice anywhere. It is totally portable -- just a mat (or towel/blanket in a pinch) and some comfy clothes are all the gear required.

How I discovered yoga...

I really didn't know anything about yoga when I decided to give it a try in 1997 to help with severe back pain and sciatica after more traditional treatments like physical therapy failed to help.

I had read about the ability of yoga to help with back pain so figured I would give it a chance. At the time I was out of shape and living a very stressful life.

How yoga helped me…

After my first yoga class I felt a little better and within several months was virtually pain free.

I experienced first-hand many benefits of yoga and felt that continuing its practice would change my life. I've been an avid yoga fan ever since.

With a simple easy basic yoga practice, my life was transformed on many levels:

In addition to helping cure my back pain, my yoga practice has helped me in other areas of my life. I began to focus more on healthier eating and lost more than thirty pounds with the help of Weight Watchers, my blood pressure normalized, and the tension headaches disappeared.

I felt calm and balanced most of the time, more patient and centered in my life. I was so inspired that I decided to change careers.

I studied to become a yoga teacher…

I began teaching gentle simple yoga from the boathouse at Sugarbush Farm, my husband’s family home in Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin, during the summer of 2004.

In the spring of 2005, I received yoga teacher certification through Jordan and Martin Kirk of Kirk Yoga in Scottsdale, Arizona and I continue to be an avid student attending workshops and retreats throughout the country and beyond.

One of the highlights so far has been a weeklong yoga vacation in Italy with Marybeth Markus from A Desert Song Yoga, where I practiced yoga twice a day in the beautiful Umbrian countryside.

In addition to being a certified yoga teacher, I am also certified as a massage therapist, have a BS from Northeastern University and a health coach certificate through the Institute for Integrative Nutrition.

Private Yoga Instruction

In the fall of 2007, after three years in Northern Wisconsin, we decided to move back to Phoenix where I began offering personal private and small group yoga sessions in Phoenix and Scottsdale.

I especially love helping beginners and mature adults discover the powerful benefits of  simple yoga through private one-on-one instruction and small group sessions.

I teach a non-dogmatic eclectic style of basic hatha yoga. The focus is on using the breath to increase body awareness and finding proper alignment while having fun.

Yoga is not one size fits all – we adjust the postures and focus on function, rather than form, so you get the benefits you want without force or strain. It is yoga for anybody and everybody, regardless of age, or current fitness level.

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Table of Contents

Recipe Index

Here you will find an index of all of the easy recipes on this site sorted both by recipe category and by ingredient. So you can browse easy chicken recipes or easy dinner recipes or recipes using bananas or beans or lemons. You'll also find links to cooking tips and how-to information, cookbook reviews and healthy diet and lifestyle information.

 

Easy Weight Loss Tips

Weight Loss can be easy and effortless and even enjoyable when you have the right information along with the right attitude. I've found that the key to easy weight loss is taking a mind - body - heart approach. Focus on taking care of yourself, getting happy and healthy and losing weight becomes easy. You'll find lots of great articles full of information and tips to make weight loss easy.

 

Yoga & Fitness Tips

Enjoyable movement is an important part of living a happy healthy life and for me that means lots of walking and yoga. As a certified yoga instructor - specializing in gentle, accessible yoga - I love sharing the joys and benefits of yoga with women of all ages and abilities.