Hello? Is anybody listening?

Welcome to The Trim Tart - the place where food, fitness and fashion collide.  

I am a passionate cook, baker, food aficionada (because I'm a girl), endurance athlete, health junkie, trained scientist and lover of fashion.

Stay tuned for healthy meal ideas and recipes (most will be vegan-izable/gluten-free-izable) aimed to optimally sustain the endurance athlete, or anyone looking to stay fit and healthy.  I adhere to a few rules in cooking: short ingredient lists, the freshest ingredients, it's gotta be delicious, and most recipes shouldn't take more than 20 minutes.  Oh, and it's good for you.

Believe it or not, you can be a busy mom, executive, or young urban professional....and still find ways to create fabulous healthy meals.  I'll show you how.

Onto my sweet self... When you work and train hard, there's no reason you can't add sweetness to your life.  I love dessert!  But I don't do brownie-fudge-lava-explosions-with-yuckyfake whipped cream-to-the-ceiling-desserts-with-so-many-calories-you-should-have-skipped-the-restaurant-meal-and-ordered-straight-off-the-dessert-menu.  I grew up in a very Italian household where sweets weren't usually sweet, and were perfectly acceptable for both breakfast and post-dinner assaggio (tasting/sample).  I won't go all Italian on you - promise.  But I will focus on healthier, home-made desserts, and will include a few worthwhile splurges.

And now the fashion part.  I'm really high maintenance in this regard.  Not because I spend crazily on myself (I don't); not because I only wear designer brands (I don't); not because I own a closet-full of Jimmy Choos or Christian Louboutins (I don't, but wish I did).  But I'm afflicted with being an athlete AND a fashion-lover.  I'm always looking to push the envelope, always anticipating the next season's style, always rockin the latest trends.  But then I'm an athlete - a competitive age-group athlete - who runs (and sometimes wins) 5k's, marathons, triathlons, and everything in between.  And I like to look cute doing it!  Along with cute, I also need function - 6 hour bike rides while training for Ironman requires some seriously good bike shorts.  It's really a challenge to pull off.

Lastly...the scientist part.  I'm a hopeless geek, and will try and work out the science behind anything from bike aerodynamics to the chemical reactions going on in my kitchen.  I'll present the scientific literature behind the latest superfoods, trends, allergies, etc.  It's all science, yo!!