Cigna Run Together Blogger Meet Up

This week has been a whirlwind for me. ?Coming home after a racecation always takes a few days to find my bearings and right the “mother” ship so to speak.

But this Friday is NOTHING like last Friday. ?I ran the Disneyland 5K on a smidge of sleep and followed that experience up with the Cigna blogger meet up at the beautiful Napa Rose restaurant at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel & Spa.

Guys. ?After the travel and the crazy of Thursday night into Friday morning, I was tired!

And rungry. ?It’s a darn good thing our friends at Cigna decided to feed?us!

We broke into four groups and made our way through stations around the restaurant. ?My group was the Pluto group, and Chef Mickey let me know we were his favorite.

Okay, so he didn’t really. ?I’m sure he loves us all equally.

We started in the kitchen with Chef Chris. ?Here we learned about preparing a healthy chicken dish with kale pesto and fresh vegetables.

It was fascinating watching him butcher the chicken. ?The secret must be in using a high-quality knife because my chicken slicing skills do NOT equate! (ps- putting knives on my Christmas list.)

I was almost drooling by the time Chef Chris plated the meal.

Thankfully we were promised a taste once the sessions were complete! ?And it was, indeed, delicious.

The second station was all about fruit and dessert. ?I love fruit. ?I love dessert.

These were my people.

I’d never had the cotton candy grapes before (oh my word- delightful!). ?The peaches were also a huge favorite for me.

But I fell in love with the cape gooseberry dipped in white chocolate.

After desserts, we headed over to smoothie-ville.

Now, I can’t cook. ?At all.

But I can blend like no one’s business.

I took notes on this one because I’m putting these bad boys into my smoothie rotation.

Pre-Workout Crunchy Coffee Cocoa Smoothie

• 1 cup ice
• half cup coffee (chilled)
• 2 tsp agave
• half cup almond milk
• 3 tbs unsalted Almonds
• 2 tsp unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 and a half bananas (freeze the night before.)

Post-Workout Blueberry Cactus Pear Smoothie

• 2 tsp agave nectar
• quarter cup rolled oats
• 1 tbs ground flax seed
• half cup blueberries
• quarter cup cactus pear
• half cup plain unsweetened Greek yogurt
• half cup soy milk

Our final station was the salad station. ?Volunteers made a salad and fresh vinaigrette dressings. ?One had honey in it (my fave!), and the other had sugar in it (also delish). ?Both of these were fresh and surprisingly easy to make.

My take away from this meet up is that healthy cooking isn’t hard. ?It just takes a little more effort to prepare.

Let’s be honest: that’s the hard part of cooking for yourself or your family. ?But coming up with a plan and following some simple recipes will pay dividends to your health.

The chefs demonstrated that creating simple yet healthy recipes wasn’t outside of my wheelhouse. ?Start with the freshest, seasonal ingredients and you won’t fail.

And man, was the food good!

Thank you, Cigna and Chef Mickey, for hosting this fantastic experience!

Disclosure: Cigna invited me to this event. ?I received a swag bag and a lovely meal. ?All opinions about the event are my own.?

Patty

Patty Holliday is a Marvel loving, Disney obsessed wife, and mother of four. She’s a travel agent specializing in Disney & Universal vacations- and loves a candid confession. Find her in Virginia (or anywhere frequent flyer miles or her trusty minivan takes her.)

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