Everything’s better when there’s music involved, and that includes food. Just like music can set the mood in your everyday life, it can also set the mood in the kitchen. The mood-boosting benefits of listening to your favorite tunes as you chop, braise, roast, sauté, stir-fry, or grill can often be just as important as the ingredients you put into your meal. Music not only helps to make cooking more fun, but it also helps to inspire your creativity in the kitchen when it comes to healthy cooking.

ROCKTOBER is the perfect time to pump up the volume, pump up the energy and pump up the flavors when it comes to cooking healthy dishes. Whether it’s streaming your favorite Spotify or Pandora playlist, popping in your favorite old CDs, or simply turning on a kitchen radio, let the energy of the music fill your kitchen. Rock out, and dance as you cook! The power of your favorite songs can transport you to anywhere you want to go, boosting both your mood and creativity. Plus, dancing in the kitchen is a great way to clear your mind, soothe your soul and burn some calories.

Sultry summer nights are coming to an end, and there’s a whisper of fall in the air. Sounds of game days, cookouts and front yard football are just around the corner. And, when it comes to fantastic fare, grilling great Robyn Lindars has you covered.

Known as “Grill Girl,” Robyn has been serving up grilling adventures since 2008. “I’m happiest when I am testing out new recipes, particularly anything cooked over live fire—grilling, smoking, campfire cooking. As a girl who likes to eat, I try to keep my recipes healthy and full of flavor,” said Robyn. She’s the main ingredient behind www.grillgirl.com, her blog-turned-career, as she continues to light a fire under flavorful fare. A city girl turned rancher, Robyn and her family live on a ranch in Fort Meyers, FL. It’s the perfect place to house her 12 grills and smokers—yep, you read that right TWELVE!

Even if your summer fiesta is nowhere near the water, you can find cooling refreshment in these cocktails and more from Deep Eddy Vodka! Craving the lime and salt of a margarita, but fresh out of tequila? No problem! Watermelon Margarita to the rescue! Looking for an easy-drinking, not-too-sweet refresher: meet The Chilton. It is bright and refreshing, exactly what you need to cool down on a hot day. There’s no sugar in the Chilton recipe, so it drinks very dry. But the salted rim gives the effect of a salted lemonade with each thirsty sip. If you’re heading out to the beach, or camping, and don’t want to pack your shaker, Deep Eddy’s got you covered there, too. Just toss some cans of their new ready-to-drink sodas in the cooler, and you’re all set!

Summer is wrapping up and families are getting in the back-to-school mindset. In our already busy lives, the addition of sports’ practices, homework assignments and packing lunches can easily send a person off the deep end. But don’t worry, we’re here to catch you! This month we reached out to one of the biggest names in the food industry—Tyson—to bring you delicious, easy meals that will help preserve your sanity.

Tyson has been “keeping it real” since 1935. Their mantra: “In life, as in chicken, it’s always better when you just keep it real. No filler. No nonsense. Just stick to the good stuff. The 100% real stuff. The simple things that make life, and chicken, great.” It all began during the Great Depression in Arkansas when John W. Tyson loaded up his old truck and began delivering quality chicken to other hard-working people. From those humble beginnings, Tyson Foods has grown over the decades to find new ways to help feed the nation, with the belief that every family deserves to bring quality chicken to their table. As they’ve grown, their beliefs remain the same. Be good. Be humble. And always keep it real.

August may often be one of the hottest months of the year, but it can also be one of the healthiest. These mellow days of summer are the perfect time to savor all that Lowcountry living has to offer, with laid-back days and nights spent outdoors enjoying your favorite friends and activities. What’s more, this relaxed end-of-summer month is the perfect time for simple, quick, no-fuss meals that are as good for you as they are good to eat, all while enjoying every minute of the easy, breezy last days of summer.

America’s beloved little indigo-colored berry has been around for ages—13,000 years to be precise. Who can resist that burst of blueberry flavor, whether it’s picked fresh, or in a muffin or a protein shake? Taste alone makes these sweet poppers desirable; but now they’ve been anointed as one of the healthiest foods on the planet—full of antioxidants and part of a healthy brain diet. This month we invite you to include these delicious blueberry recipes as part of your summer freshness. Have fun and make July all about the red, white and blueberry!

July is filled not only with a wonderful mix of colors of the freshest, ripest summer fruits and vegetables, but also with foods bursting with the month’s most famous colors: red, white and blue. Independence Day the perfect time to set out a table full of fun patriotic-themed desserts to go along with the festive decor of July 4th. There are some wonderful and healthy ways to “cook with color” when it comes to incorporating the natural reds, whites and blues of one of the most celebration-filled days of the summer.

Whether you are packing a fun meal for a day spent with family and friends at the beach, or hosting a gathering in your own backyard, there are many ways to add a little sparkle, and a whole lot of color, through food, while still sticking to a sugar-free, gluten-free and/or keto diet. In fact, some of today’s healthiest foods are naturally red, white and blue—giving you a lot to work with when it comes to creating incredibly delicious and healthy dishes to add to your patriotic celebration.

It’s rare to find a food that has more of a zealous, widespread following than bacon. From hilarious memes to “show me the bacon” and “just add bacon” tag lines and T-shirts galore. There must be something behind the bacon enthusiasm. News flash...there is! And, it’s juicy, succulent, savory crisp BACON. Let’s face it, everything is better with bacon!

Want to wake everyone up in the morning? Cook bacon. Looking for the perfect pairing for your juicy summer staple heirloom tomato? Add bacon, lots of it. Cooking up some shrimp and grits for dinner? Start with bacon. Want to add a savory note to dessert? Bring on the maple glazed bacon donut. Yes, there’s definitely something about bacon.

Ahh, those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer are once again upon us. Not only is summertime the perfect time to relax and unwind, it’s also the perfect time to embrace healthier eating.

During the summer the abundance of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, the opportunities to spend time strolling through farmer’s markets and buying from local farms are just some of the benefits that encourage healthier eating. For example, the berries of summer that are so plentiful at this time of year—blackberries, blueberries and strawberries— are not only low in fat and calories, but also are a great source of antioxidants that can help protect you from certain health conditions … and are all healthy sources of fiber, potassium and vitamin C.

Each year when May blooms, a new energy seems to arise. A month chock-full of celebrations, May brings with it Mother’s Day, graduations, Cinco de Mayo, and Memorial Day. All of which call for food festivities. This month we have delicious recipes for every occasion. Whether you’re putting together a beautiful cheese board, or looking for that elusive perfect melted cheese pull, Real California Milk has you covered and smothered in yummy, cheesy ooey-gooeyness.

Are you already Dreaming of Cali—sand, sun, fun, Hollywood, wine country and… cows? Yep, that’s right. The Golden State has a dairy state of mind. In fact, it leads the nation in dairy production and is a world leader in sustainable dairy farming practices. Even more impressive, of the more than 1,200 California dairy farms, 99 percent are family-owned. California accounts for 18.5 percent of the United States’ milk supply (more than 39 billion pounds of fluid milk a year), and over 46 percent of California’s milk goes into cheese production.

In May, not only is spring in the air, with its bounty of colorful, seasonal ready-to-pick produce and fresh ingredients, it can also be on your plate. It’s the perfect time to pack the nutrient-rich, bright colors of the season into your spring cooking with menu ideas that are as pretty to look at as they are healthy to eat and enjoy.

There’s probably no better, or simpler, way to enjoy the healthy flavors of spring than in a delicious spring salad—made even healthier (and more colorful) with the addition of fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables. But eating healthy in May doesn’t have to just focus on the bright, delicious tastes of your favorite spring salad, you’ll find color and a whole lot of health benefits in other spring-focused menu items that are equally easy to make and just as good for you.

As spring blooms we often find ourselves reinvigorated—tackling spring cleaning, gardening and pulling out the grill in hopes of fun-filled nights and savory meals. In fact, we’ve dedicated this entire issue to entice you to #goplay. But here’s a little secret: Play can be found as close as your own kitchen. And don’t despair, we’re here to get you started with protein-packed, playful, popular pork recipes.

This month we teamed up with the National Pork Board to bring you recipes that dare to be different. Spicy, Southern, sweet or mild, the flavor of pork is unmatched. The variety of pork cuts and flavor profiles are unsurpassed—from bacon to tenderloin. Well-known as “the other white meat,” pork is a versatile, nutritious protein that now rivals chicken for the top spot as the most consumed protein in the US.

There’s no better way to welcome in spring than by incorporating some healthy habits—and healthier eating—into your life. With its promise of increased daylight hours, beautiful weather and more time spent outdoors, which triggers the production of energy-boosting Vitamin D, the start of spring is the perfect time to think about ways to lighten up and get healthy.

Now that some of our less-healthy habits of winter are behind us, including our tendency to indulge in many of the winter “comfort foods” we all love, it’s the perfect time to take advantage of the fresh foods of the season that are emerging from gardens and markets throughout the region. Spring beckons us to get creative and have fun when it comes to healthy spring recipes.

A little bit of spice that's oh so nice inspires any cook—novice or experienced—to get creative in the kitchen. There’s just something liberating about adding a dash of this, a pinch of that, and when it comes to tackling Thai, us cooks get to kick it up with extra pinches and dashes everywhere! Thai food has quickly become an American favorite because it is totally tantalizing on the taste buds. Warm and cozy with just the right level of spice, Thai cuisine offers a tasty trip around the world from the comfort of your own kitchen. And, no one knows Thai flavors like Thai Kitchen®, the brand that makes it easy to cook up fabulous dishes full of flavorful flair.

St. Patrick’s Day has long been one of the most fun and festive food holidays. Although the type of “green” foods traditionally associated with St. Patrick’s Day aren’t known for being particularly healthy, (who hasn’t enjoyed a pint, or three, of green beer, or a McDonald’s signature Shamrock Shake?) you don’t have to pass on enjoying delicious foods and beverages in order to stick to a healthy lifestyle diet. Thanks to the fact that many favorite vegetables are naturally green, and by making a few simple substitutions in some traditional food and beverage favorites, it can be easy to “go green” and eat healthy this St. Patrick’s Day without sacrificing any of the festivity.