1. Nine new pairings for your Peanut Butter (via divine caroline)
2. The Best Cookbooks of 2010 (via bon appettit)
3. Researcher to user Bee Venom as Contraceptive and HIV drug (via RF Times)
4. USDA asked to approve non-browning Genetically Modified Apple (via Huffpost)
5. Make This: Spice Rubbed Chicken with Pomegranate Salad Recipe

1. Make your very own personal pie with this! (via Williams Sonoma)
2. McDonalds to offer degree course in the UK (via BBC)
3. Europe votes to ban chemical BPA from baby bottles (via USA today)
4. How to make Easy Shortbread Cookies (via Amy Blogs Chow)
5. Make this: Roast Chicken on Potatoes Slices Recipe

1. Look out for these gifts for cooks on Black Friday (via Slashfood)
2. What to do with Thanksgiving Leftovers (via Serious Eats)
3. Texas Businessman to pay $15M penalty for mislabelling food for troops (via CNN)
4. Make This: Caramelized Pecan Squares Recipe
5. Food Network cancels Ace of Cakes (via Serious Eats)

1. Cookie Monster’s audition tape for Saturday Night Live (via Eater)
2. 5 Reason to enjoy a Heritage Turkey this Thanksgiving (via Eatocracy)
3. 6 Essential Shortcuts in the Kitchen (via Care2)
4. 10 tips for a Sustainable Thanksgiving (via Alternet)
5. Make This Delicious…. Braided Lemon Bread Recipe

Spending quality time with family and friends, creating true-to-tradition dishes, enjoying the wonderful flavors of the season and reflecting on all that I am thankful for…to me, it’s these simple joys in life that make Thanksgiving a day of celebration. Thanksgiving is a time for family and friends to gather around the table to share stories and express thankfulness. It’s also a time for turkey, mashed potatoes, pies…and a little loosening of the belt.

How To: Simplify…Thanksgiving Recipes:

For more deliciousness, make sure to visit Jen’s blog, How To: Simplify and her Kitchen Monki Blogger Profile. Follow her yummy tweets @HowToSimplify and connect with her on her Facebook page!

Kitchen Monki members and sisters, Beth and Melinda, contacted us recently with questions about Sharing recipes. Specifically, they wanted to know where they could find these recipes that they had set up as Shared with each other during the Recipe Creation process.

“I have my sister set up as a friend. She marked a recipe as private, but set it up so that I could see it. But where do I see it? Her profile shows that she has one private recipe and she said that she marked it so that I can see it, but I don’t know where to view it. Thanks!”

Before our recent redesign of the Recipe Explorer, shared recipes were simply congregated with all the other recipes that came up in the non-filtered search. You had to know what the specific title of the recipe was and look for it by typing it in the search box. But thanks to the Dev Monkis and the sisters’ question, we made a small but significant change to Recipe Explorer’s Recipe Filter.

You’ll know see that beside the ‘All’ and ‘Mine’ is a ‘Shared‘ Recipe Filter. One simple click on that and Voila!… Explorer generates a list of only recipes shared to you by your Kitchen Monki friends.

Do you have any suggestions on making Kitchen Monki a better user experience for you? Don’t be afraid to give us a shout and give us you thoughts! Email us at team@kitchenmonki.com or fill out a contact form.

1. 7 Ways to Burn Calories on Thanksgiving Day (via Care2)
2. Guy Fieri Thanksgiving Cooking Tips and Four Loko Creator on SNL (via Eater)
3. How to fix 15 common Thanksgiving Problems (via divine caroline)
4. Make These: Hazelnut Pumpkinseed Cookies Recipe
5. Overweight people more sensitive to the aroma of food, study shows (via New Scientist)

Kitchen Monki is so pleased to introduce to the blog, Nadia Mahmud! Nadia is an aspiring dietitian and social entrepreneur. She has just completed her Masters in Public Health in Nutritional Sciences at the University of Washington along with the year long dietetic internship. Her research focused on the obesity epidemic and policies to help address the problem. In her spare time, she volunteers with a non-profit she co-founded called Jolkona that connects people to micro-giving opportunities around the world that shows tangible feedback for each donation. For more information on her foundation, visit Jolkona.org and their Facebook page. She also reaches the masses as @NadiaMahmud on Twitter.

With the holiday season right around the corner, I’m sure most of us are worried about gaining a few extra pounds. With Thanksgiving, Hannukah, Christmas, Eid, Diwali, New Year’s, or whatever holidays your celebrate this time of year, all happening back to back, the typical American gains 3-5 pounds or more per year this season.

With obesity and associated chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and hypertension, a growing epidemic in this country, it’s important to maintain, or for many to lose weight and not gain any extra pounds this holiday season.

While no one wants to gain weight, many of us do. So how can we prevent it?

Well let’s understand why it’s SO easy to gain the weight during the holidays. For every 3500 extra calories your body consumes, you gain 1 extra pound. Now if you break this down by day, that’s only eating 500 extra calories per day to gain 1 whole pound a week. With lattes that range from 400-800 calories and hidden calories when eating out, to all the extra food available at this time, you can imagine how easy it is to eat only 500 extra calories than your body needs per day and put on the weight fast.

So keep that in mind this holiday season and also try to follow these few tips to help keep the extra pounds off:

1. Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day. Without an adequate breakfast, your whole day can get thrown off. You become ravenously hungry causing you to overeat at meals, you can experience a loss of lean body mass or muscle which ultimately lowers your metabolism, and you often experience more emotional eating where you constantly binge more throughout the day. So make sure you eat breakfast everyday this holiday season, and while you’re at it, make sure it’s rich in protein and fiber. Protein and fiber take longer to digest and thus helps to keep you full longer. Try Greek Yogurt with berries and granola, egg white omelet with whole wheat toast, whole grain cereal with milk, fruit, and pieces of low fat string cheese.
2. Drink lots of water. Studies show you need at least 8 cups of water a day, but the timing is also important. Make sure to drink a glass of water before and during meals during the holidays. This helps keep you fuller and can prevent overeating that often occurs given the abundance of food available this season.
3. Carry some healthy snacks with you to eat before you attend a holiday function. I know many people think that you should starve yourself before going to a holiday function because you know you will eat a lot at the party, but to prevent the extra weight gain, it’s wise to have a small snack before you arrive at the party. Again, this will help curb your appetite and prevent you from eating too much. I always like pairing a healthy carb with some protein for the best satiety. Try an apple with some peanut butter, baby carrots with hummus, Greek yogurt with some berries, or a protein bar for something you can grab on the go.
4. If you’re attending a potluck function, try to bring something healthy that you know will be a good option for you to eat. Maybe a veggie platter, a fruit salad, or a simple salad. If you’re the host for the night, try making a few healthy substitutions when cooking. Using cooking spray instead of oil or butter is a good strategy, or using more herbs and spices to flavor your foods rather than excess salt or fats. Also, try to incorporate some whole grains in the meal. Try making a quinoa side dish, a whole wheat pasta salad, or make or buy whole wheat rolls.
5. Save room for exercising! I know time is scarce during the holidays, but making sure you are burning calories through exercise will allow you to have some buffer room with your food intake to prevent the extra weight gain. Just 30 minutes a day of cardio will help prevent the extra weight gain, among other benefits to your health. Also be creative with your exercise. If you don’t have time to make it to the gym, try jogging, walking, biking, exercising at home, taking the stairs at work, or joining a sports team to keep you exercising regularly.

While you’re eating in abundance this holiday season, many around the world are not, please consider donating to a project I support that provides fresh produce to rural students in Ecuador. All donations are fully tax-deductible and you will receive feedback on how your donation made an impact.

Nadia Mahmud, MPH

1. American Airlines to start offering Happy Hour on some flights (via chicago breaking business)
2. Step by Step Instructions on How to make Skittles Vodka (via Top Cultured)
3. So your teabag doesn’t slip into the drink… the brilliant Tie Tea Cup (via the food section)
4. Four Loko to remove caffeine from drinks after people hospitalized after drinking it (via aolhealth)
5. Make This: Sweet Potato, Corn, and Jalapeno Bisque Recipe

1. 10 Healthiest Breakfast Cereals (via Care2)
2. Spaghetti is originally from…. China? (via WSJ)
3. Buy 7-11 coffee in a Will Ferrell designed cup to support cancer charity (via slashfood)
4. Make this: Cranberry Cinnamon Chip Bars Recipe
5. The Best Free Range Organic Turkeys you can find for Thanksgiving (via Hungry Beast)