It’s all the rage in Key West right now. Go to www.30daystohelpyourself.com for daily video updates to see how 3 experts…Charlie Wilson, Donna Shields and Amy Spielberg…an organic restaurant owner, a nutritionist and a personal trainer….will turn someone’s life around. The six finalists are pictured with Leigh Smith, our winner (dressed in green), who will start her lifestyle makeover on Nov 1. Stay tuned to learn more each week as you follow Leigh’s progress in the Solares Hill section of the Key West Citizen and on our 30 Days to Help Yourself Facebook page.

Check out the Key West Citizen every 3rd Sunday (Solares Hill section) for my new “food as medicine” nutrition column. As I expand my nutrition consulting practice, I’m also educating the public about the benefits of integrative or functional nutrition. Learn how nutrients and food can be used in a therapeutic way to fight disease and maintain optimal health. Click here to read the first article on metabolic syndrome published on May 17, 2009.Metabolic Syndrome: Are You a Candidate?

I’ve recently launched a private practice providing customized nutrition consultations. And what better way to personalize the service than to be in your kitchen while we talk. Whether you’re dealing with diabetes, food allergies or perhaps an overweight child, an individualized approach to diet, cooking and shopping is often what people need to be successful. Follow up appointments can be done via phone or email, but to get started, email me donna@donnashields.com for more details and pricing. Options include cooking coaching, recipe advise, shopping trips, etc. We can plot and plan a course of action that will be successful for you.

Gluten free goodies never tasted so good!

For anyone who requires a gluten or dairy free diet, the choices, in Key West, for freshly made baked goods is non existent. So with my dietitian apron on, I decided to offer some real choice…locally made gluten free (and some dairy free) bakery items.

Going for quality rather than quantity, I’ll be introducing 2 items..Cinnamon-Lavender TeaCake and these Double Chocolate Chip Cookies at the farmer’s market (Help Yourself restaurant, corner of Fleming and Margaret) this Sunday, Jan 11 from 9am-Noon. I’m also accepting personal orders that can be picked up at your convenience.

For those who want to learn more about this topic, I’m also conducting a nutrition workshop and tasting on Sunday, Jan 25, Noon, at StayFit Studio, 804 White St. It’s $20/person and space is limited. Register, via email, at donna@donnashields.com

Donna Getting Ready for the Shoot

Check out this Nov 09 issue of Coastal Living magazine!

Two Thanksgivings ago, we threw a major party, I’m talking 70 + plus people, to celebrate our move back to Key West. And as many of our guests pulled up on bicycles with beautiful food stapped in their bicycle baskets, I thought, “Hmm, this would be a cool story idea for Coastal Living.”

Well, luckily the magazine thought so too and last Nov, a crew arrived at our home to do the story. We had to cull down the guest list to 10 or so friends, but luckily I got to keep that fun chandelier they shipped in.

Enjoy the story and photosb.y.o.b. Bring Your Own Bicycle. I especially like the shot of my lab, Chris, licking his chops as he gazes at a basket full of goodies. The recipes, courtesy of Coastal Living magazine are hereCoastalLivingRecipes

All of us at StayFit Studio are pretty serious about staying healthy, but exercise is only half of it. Now, there’s a way to fill in the gap on the food side. Starting Oct 30, I’ll be teaching a 4-week series of cooking classes, at my home, on healthy cooking techniques. This is not about learning a specific recipe, but rather the tips and techniques to use in the kitchen regardless of what type of food you like to cook. We’ll taste several dishes each week, drink a little wine and have a lot of fun. To register, contact StayFit Studio at 305.294.0690 or contact me for more details on topics and price. The class price includes a copy of my Caribbean Light cookbook. So say yes to wine and goodies for the holidays and keep the pounds off.

Lucky me, this was my 2nd trip to Napa Valley within the year, but this time, it was a high-end experience all the way around. This business trip included lodging at the oh-so-chic Solage Resort in Calistoga. Private cottages, minimalist d’cor, a wonderful spa and, yes, even bocce ball courts, made for a very healthful yet indulgent stay.

There were several days of meetings at the Culinary Institute of America which included a lovely terrace lunch overlooking the vineyards and a great dinner at their Spectator Restaurant. All of this accompanied by fabulous wine. And while we did squeeze in work (honest, we did), on the last day, we each had an option for a free afternoon to play. I choose the bicycle wine tour, or as I like to think of it, Ride n’ Wine. What a great way to see the backroads of the area while sipping and sampling.

The piece d’resistance was dinner at the privately owned Hall Rutherford winery located in Rutherford. Knock your socks off is an understatement for the wine and the location. Dedicated to producing rare and single vineyard small-lot red wines, the winery and accompanying art-filled reception building is a blend of high-tech with high touch. Used only for private groups, the cave dining room, which you reach through a cask-lined corridor, houses a drop-dead marble table..that seats 40 or so?with an exquisite hand-crafted crystal chandelier hanging, the base resembling an inverted grapevine. The food was as fabulous as the wine creating very memorable entertaining experience.

Now for those times when we must drink something other than wine and you?re not sure just what?s the best choice, check out my latest article at Myrecipes.com to learn more about proper hydration and what to drink.

It turns out that even Mickey and Minnie want to know how to cook!

The grand-daddy of theme parks, Disneyland in Anaheim, hosted their 3rd annual California Food Wine Festival, and I got the chance to do some cooking demonstrations for the event. Throughout the month of April, Disney offers a wonderful array of culinary events and activities 7 days a week in their California AdventurePark. With outside stages set up, guests can wander (and there is no additional cost once you’re in the park) to food and wine demonstrations and tasting. What a great deal!

I was there for 2 days doing a total of 6 demonstrations on behalf of The Coca-Cola Company. Now, you might be thinking this was about basting a ham in Coke, but oh no it was a similar concept but much more contemporary for today’s tastes and using a wide range of Coca Cola products as cooking ingredients.

I was asked to work with the Coke ZeroTM and Simply LimeadeTM since both are sold in the park. And the recipes needed to be on the lighter side. I created a chicken satay using Coke ZeroTM in the sauce which also included honey, peanut butter, tamari sauce, ginger and all served over rice. Perfect for an entree or party appetizers. The Simply LimeadeTM was used to make feathery light mousse-like cheesecake; great make ahead dessert for summer entertaining. Here, check out the recipes!

Disney efficiency and commitment to excellence is amazing. The chef assigned to work with me actually called me, in advance, to make sure they had all my ingredients correct and to review the recipes. All too often, when you show up for a guest appearance like this, most times they don’t know who you are, where your ingredients are, and what you’re doing. Not in this place . . . the food was all prepped and we sampled about 500 people over the course of the 2 days.

And for anyone who has lost a cell phone, I lost mine in Disneyland. But not to worry because their Lost & Found department actually had and it’s being mailed back to me. Now that’s service.

My 9-year-old son thinks he’s cursed. Why did his mother have to be a dietitian? This means there’s never been a loaf of white bread in the house and I occasionally show up at his elementary school to spread the word of good nutrition.

Schools, in general, just dont’s have the time in the curriculum or the staff to do much with nutrition education so I feel like it’s the least I can do. So, last month, at Poinciana Elementary, here in Key West, I held several nutrition sessions for about 400 kids, grades 2-5, so that maybe they would understand some of the gobbledy-gook on a food label.

Each kid was asked to bring in a favorite packaged food that had a nutrition label so everyone could follow along. I did some sessions last year, as well, and I’m always so pleased to see just how into it the kids can be. They are astounded to see the difference, in fat and sugar, between their cafeteria container of strawberry milk and nonfat milk. Ditto on the boxes of breakfast cereals they all brought in. Clearly, there weren’t enough high fiber cereals to suit me, but they got the sugar message when comparing the nutrition panel of Cheerios vs. Fruit Loops. I tell them to go home and tell Mom and Dad what they learned so maybe some of it will translate to the supermarket. After all, the kids are not pulling out their wallets for weekly groceries, and I am a firm believer that kids get their food cues from their parents. Of course, I can say that because I have a kid who adores sauteed brussels sprouts.

Rather than have several hundred kids take their boxes of macaroni and cheese home at the end of the day, we collected everything and made a nice contribution to Samuel’s House, a Key West shelter for homeless women and children. So, not only did the kids do something good for their own health, they did something nice for others. And that’s exactly what we want our kids to grow up doing. Do well by doing good.

For culinary inspiration and a lesson in logistical planning, this event wins hands down.

For the past 10 years or so, the CIA at Greystone, in Napa, stages a global event that examines a cuisine that is influencing (big time) the American food scene. This year, Nov 1-3, it was all about Asia.

I had never been to one of these World of Flavors wing dings, but had heard plenty about them. And since they always sell out with a limited number of attendees that can be accommodated, all the more to covet the opportunity to attend. This year, I did go because one of my clients, The Coca-Cola Company, is a sponsor and invited me along.

I was amazed at the scope and scale of the activities with no less than some 75 culinary personnel who were flown in from all over the Asian map…from Singapore, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand, Japan, and many other locations. And not only is it enough to bring these folks in, but many did not speak English and, thus, translators were on hand during cooking demonstrations making sure the finer points of culinary detail were well represented.

The only problem with these food lollapaloozas are that it is sensory overload; too much to taste and absorb in so little time. This is not a criticism but just the reality of trying to give value to those who journey all the way to Napa for a total 2 and a half day immersion. There were simultaneous kitchen workshops and seminars going on (sometimes 15 at once!) not to mention the World Marketplace each evening. Each evening the Historic Barrel Room ( a great space in its own right) was transformed into an Asian street marketplace, complete with tin roofs, hanging dragons, live musical performers and scads of food booths from which to taste and test. Check out the photo of the Golden Gate Bridge done in raw fish and vegetables. Though not clearly visible, it was garnished with flecks of edible gold leaf. Food stalls were created by country cuisine as well as by sponsor products; the idea here was to showcase how American commodity foods and packaged foods can be used to create Asian-inspired dishes that are a fit for the American restaurant marketplace.

After all this nibbling at the CIA, the bad part is that there was no room left to go sample the fabulous restaurants Napa has to offer. But let’s get real. Who goes to Napa without doing some winery visits? I’ve had the pleasure of getting out to Napa almost annually over the past few years, but this time, I visited my favorite Champagne house, Schramsberg. And I learned it truly can be labeled “method champenoise” because it’s the only vineyard in the States producing sparkling in the same method as those across the pond. Nothing like sipping some good bubbly at 10am, in a candel-lit cave, to start off the day.