Skinny De Mayo

By Tara Cushing (@TheBravoBlonde)

Can you believe that Cinco De Mayo is just a week away? Time is flying my friends, and my personal favorite time of the year (late spring and summer) is right around the corner!

Recently I took on two fitness and dietary challenges. The first was a 6 week ab challenge which started with 40 full daily sit-ups and increased by increments of 15 weekly until our final week of 115! The other was a clean eating challenge. I now eat as clean as possible during the work week…no sugar, and no fried or processed foods.

Naturally I’ve been inventing ways to eat some of my favorites in a healthier, cleaner form. One of these is the taco. I LOVE Mexican food. The cheese, the salsa, the sour cream, the salty crunchy chips! Not exactly lean eating. So I invented my own healthier taco…and for the (weekend) nights I want a little bit of extra Ole’ in my step, there’s Bethenny Frankel‘s Skinnygirl brand Spicy Lime Margarita. I know many of you have commented to me how much you like the original SKGM, so if you, like yours truly, enjoys a spicy kick, give it a try alongside this Skinnier taco recipe that I’ve been enjoying guilt free since my little lifestyle change.

Skinnier Taco

* one whole wheat tortilla

* 1/2 cup fresh organic baby spinach

* 1/2 cup of lean protein source (fish,chicken,beans…salmon is pic
tured)

*1/4 cup shredded organic cheddar cheese

*1/2 diced small avocado

*1 tablespoon organic salsa (make sure no sugar in it)

Take tortilla and invert it so it hangs over two bars in your oven rack and bake until crisp in a 350 degree oven (about 6 minutes).

Stand up tortilla like a taco shell. Layer ingredients in the following order:

Spinach, avocado, protein, cheese, salsa.

*Need that hint of sour cream?Use a tablespoon of plain nonfat Greek yogurt.

Did you try this recipe? Let us know how it worked for you below!

NIAW 2015 and Giuliana Rancic

Clockwise from Top:
The note I wrote to the Rancics;  Priceless Life Fund Inc.’s silver double sided hangtag pendant by Good Charma Inc. ;my photo op with Giuliana.

By Tara Cushing (@TheBravoBlonde)

Sunday kicked off National Infertility Awareness week, a cause that is extremely close to my heart. After struggling to conceive my sons I swore that I would do something to help others in the same situation and so I partnered with Good Charma to design an infertility awareness pendant. In October 2013 I launched Priceless Life Fund Inc. with Lindsey, Jack, and Lisa, all people I met during my IF journey. It’s been our mission to get people to Tag themselves with our hangtag silver pendant in the name of Infertility awareness. Recently one wearer, who just had twins, told me she felt her necklace brought her luck. It was a real feel good moment for me.

Priceless Life Fund Inc. is a 501(c)3 organization that takes the money collected from both our necklace sales and direct donations and puts it in a fund that will grow for us to help somebody pay for IVF  treatment that is not covered by their health insurance. Right now we are working on what we call a Million Penny Miracle, you can check it out here.Launching a charity is probably the toughest thing I’ve ever done, it’s not easy to get people on board, and so we’ve tried to get some celebrities to tag themselves. Our latest was somebody who has been very instrumental in spreading the word about infertility.

When I found out Giuliana Rancic was going to be signing copies of her new book Going Off Script at one of my favorite local bookstores, I knew my chance had finally come to thank her for being outspoken about her infertility experience, and to let her know that Priceless Life Fund Inc. is here and anxious to help others. I have to say she exceeded my expectations. I’ve been to many celeb meet and greets and some are so happy to see their fans and others, umm well, are there simply because their literary agent made them. The line for Giuliana didn’t move as fast as most, but that’s because she really took the time to talk to every person on it. She really is a lovely woman and my goodness is she tall! With such a small frame one expects her to be petite, but she has major height even on 5’7″ me as you can see from the photo. (For all you skinny shamers, she’s skinny, but she doesn’t look unhealthy in person. She really just has a very delicate bone structure.)

When it was my turn I gave Giuliana one of PLF’s very special sterling silver necklaces and thanked her for being outspoken about her struggle to conceive her son Duke. She thanked me not only for the necklace, but for fighting for those who desperately want to be parents but can’t afford the treatments. “It is SO expensive,” she said. This goes to show just how costly this can be. Not that I know what Giuliana Rancic has in her bank account, but my guess is it’s more than the average person. Now if she thinks it’s expensive, imagine how it seems to somebody with a more modest income. That’s why we started Priceless Life Fund Inc.

For more information about Priceless Life Fund Inc. you can follow us on twitter @pricelesslife1 and hook up with us on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/pricelesslifefund.

To order our exclusive sterling silver necklace (all proceeds to charity) or make a direct donation visit our website priceless life.org.

The RHONY Season 7 Premiere and TBB on Huff Post Live!

Sonja and Ramona on Huff Post Live. I chime in around 7:30 and then I’m back at the end.

By Tara Cushing (@TheBravoBlonde)

The Real Housewives of New York City are back, and they are back in a big way, a big Bethenny (Frankel) way. If you love Bethenny this is great, if you’re not her biggest fan, well it might not be. “The show was at least 40% about her,” my husband quipped at the end of the Season 7 premier episode which aired last Tuesday. So what happened in the other 60?

Ramonja– Ramona Singer, fresh from a very public divorce, and Sonja Morgan, who is acting like she’s fresh from her divorce, continue to be best frenemies. They fight for dominance of conversation, of the camera. Hey ladies, give up, Bethenny wins.

Heather Thomson– I love her, but was she even in this episode?

Kristen Taekman– Her daughter is finished with physical therapy, which will leave her plenty of time to go for the psychiatric variety she will be needing from having had a mother on Housewives.

Carole Radziwill– Carole has missed a deadline for a book deal. Perhaps Aviva Drescher‘s suggestion of a ghost writer wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

Countess LuAnn DeLesseps– She looks very, umm, refreshed. Hey I’m not knocking it, I just want to know what she’s done. Spill the beans please Lulu!

Dorinda Medley– Though Sonja and Ramona assured me on my Huff Post Live appearance (see clip below) that she “hit the ground running”, she seems more Real Housewives of New Jersey to me, than RHONY. Maybe it’s her boyfriend who seems the Jersey dry cleaning stereotype.

Bethenny Frankel– Aaaand back to the star, hey, she has no control over how much they edit her in or out. She’s back with the one liners and she’s as interesting as always. One thing that lit up Twitter was her scene with Million Dollar Listing New York‘s Fredrik Eklund, in which a displaced B states she is homeless, in the same breath that she talks about having bought a house in the Hamptons over the summer. In the words of Ramona on that evening’s Watch What Happens Live, she should rent something while she works on renovating her new apartment, and figuring out what to do about the one that her soon to be ex still inhabits. Between her and Kim Zolciak‘s similar statement on last season’s Don’t Be Tardy, I think it’s time for a new series…The Real Homeless Housewives, now that would be an interesting show. Skinnygirl dumpster dive recipes anybody?

http://embed.live.huffingtonpost.com/HPLEmbedPlayer/?segmentId=550879082b8c2a7ca6000764&autoPlay=false

PS: I was not at the premier party this year. I blame the harsh New York winter that made me a hermit on my absence of an invite. I turned too many invites down over the last few months. I love everybody and sincerely wanted to go to everything but, I don’t love you more than I hate the snow!

What did you think of season 7 opener? Share your thoughts with us!