10 "Me Time" Activities Masquerading as Healthy Habits

+ Recipe for The Absolute Best Tomato Pie (AKA Crostata)

Hey friend,

I thought this email went out to you almost two weeks ago. Oddly enough, I teased it in the “Notes” area of Substack¹, but the scheduled email didn’t make it to your inbox on August 12th like it should have.

There are so many great ideas from some of my favorite Substackers in the Health & Wellness Space PLUS my favorite tomato pie recipe ever (Hint: It’s not actually a pie and so much easier) so I decided to send it a couple of weeks late because you know“better late than never!” Since I somehow messed this up, I’m making this post free to everyone (normally only the first Monday post is free.)

My hope is through the information below you will be inspired to try something new, form habits around this new thing and live a very long and healthy life.

Oh and if by chance you did somehow get this two weeks ago, I’m sorry for the duplicate. Now…onto the great tips and recipe.

---

This is the first year I haven’t had Back to School looming over my head. After choosing to end his college baseball career due to continued injuries, my youngest came home and chose to move on with life rather than attending more school.

I say “looming” because I don’t miss the angst I have always felt at this time of year. Suddenly we were having to shop, get back in a routine and attend meeting after meeting after enjoying lazy summer days. My love language is quality time so having everyone around most of every day filled my “cup” and it was sad the first few quiet days when they would go back to school, but then…

Lightbulb! (In Gru’s voice from Despicable Me)

Within the first week back as we settled back into the routines, me time was suddenly available in spades. Having coffee with friends, going for a pedicure, reupping my health and wellness goals, all were on the table again. Angst was gone.

---

Real Food Sanity is a reader-supported publication and with a paid subscription, in exchange for your much appreciated support, you’ll get four healthy, budget friendly meal plans. Inexpensive, real food, gluten free (with subs for those with other dietary restrictions or you eat gluten) including shopping list, recipes and meal prep guide. Join now to access all current Weekly Meal Plans immediately.

---

Self-Care in Healthy Habit Clothing

Part of my goal with this newsletter is to write about the connections between people and food. Little did I know that Substack would be a catalyst for that very thing. Because of my background in food and nutrition, I’ve connected to many other Substack writers who share the same “space” in health & wellness and food.

These are some of their self-care, AKA Me Time, tips (most masquerading as healthy habits). While implementing them all at once will lead to fallout, try one or two at a time and see where you are by Fall break!

• Walk 10,000 steps - Meet these 82 year olds who look like they’re in their 60s…this was one of their main pieces of advice when their daughter

  Beth Bollinger
  of Nest Wellness asked them to share.

• Eat good fats (and they’re not all from plants) - There’s so much noise about eating plant-based, but there’s a whole world of plant-based oils making us sicker than ever.

  Danni Macfarland
  of Back to Basics of Nutrition shares the backstory of how our country ended up creating a cooking oil from the chemical by-product of soap-making.

• Empower Yourself to Eat Well (and avoid foods that harm you) - You may have put this off in the vein of “enjoying your summer.” But part of self-care is avoiding those things that harm your body. While her area of expertise is specifically Celiac disease and therefore avoiding gluten,

  Christina Heiser
  shares many posts how to enjoy life with dietary restrictions. These posts, such as Navigating Dietary Restrictions at Work, contain tips easily translatable to other dietary restrictions.

• Make the Most of Weekends (and days off) - Since vacation season is over, it may feel like you have to fill up the weekends with projects and keep busy. But giving yourself permission to have mini-staycations each week can really benefit you. These ideas from

  Melissa Scala
  of Grow Healthier & Happier will prime the pump for you to create your own.

• Take Baking Lessons - If you don’t eat gluten and you want to learn to bake for yourself instead of paying a premium for gluten free baked goods,

  Rachel Ciordas
  at Next Level Gluten Free can be your Gluten Free Baking Sherpa like she is mine.

• Make Your Hormones Happy - With 5 Takeaways to make your hormones happy you get a downloadable PDF and a great graphic from

  Anja Lee Hall
  to get your hormones back into a good groove.

• Take Some Shots - No, not THOSE kind of shots…wellness shots with all the good things.

  Abby Cooper
  with At the Table went with the trend and created an easy recipe for a week’s worth at a time.

• Calm Down - The two worst words for most busy moms and completely undoable except for when you put some of

  Mary Ann Rollano
  ’s suggestions into effect. From tea to dogs…it’s not the “same old, same old” destressing advice.

• Try Something New -

  Andrew Kooman
  is a screenwriter, not a health and wellness guru, but as an unashamed Rom-Com lover, his post “I Wrote a Rom Com & I Liked It” caught my attention and then I realized as I was reading, his admonishment to try something new, with several prompts and ideas for how to do so, totally fits this theme. Which leads me to the recipe:

---

Heirloom Tomato Crostata

Think of this open-face tomato pie as a Southern Tomato Pie with an Italian accent.

You can use any storebought flat pie crust for this recipe. If you decide to make one, Paleo Running Momma has my favorite gluten free pie crust recipe and it also happens to be grain free. It is almond flour based and easy to "mend" by pressing pieces together if they fall apart or crack. Making your own also makes room for improv. I added black pepper to mine, but you could add fresh herbs as well.

Step One:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll out the dough into a 12" circle on a piece of parchment paper. Transfer the paper and all to a baking sheet.

Step Two:

Mix the ricotta with the chopped herbs and veggies (not tomatoes).

Step Three:

Spread the ricotta mixture in a 6" circle (eyeball this) in the middle

Step Four:

Arrange the sliced tomatoes in a circular pattern over the ricotta mixture. Pat dry with paper towel. Sprinkle with sea salt and pepper.

Step Five:

Fold up the edges of the crust using the parchment. You want it to completely enclose the filling and about half of the tomatoes. Repair any cracks by pressing the pieces together.

Step Six:

Mix one egg with a dash of water. Whisk well. Brush over all the edges of the crust.

Step Seven:

Bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and crispy.

Step Eight:

Garnish with a hefty drizzle of olive oil and extra fresh herbs if you have them.

Step Nine:

Cut into wedges and serve. Can be served warm or room temperature.

NOTES

• Vegan/Vegetarian - Use Kite Hill Ricotta Cheese, skip the egg wash and look for a vegan pie crust for vegan.

• Make Ahead - The crust can be made in advance and chilled up to 2 days ahead. The whole crostata can be made a day or two ahead as it’s equally great warm, cold or reheated

• Serving Suggestions

  • Great as a brunch or light lunch entree with a side salad and fried or scrambled eggs

  • Serve alongside your favorite grilled meat with a little arugula on top for an interesting side

  • Cut into small wedges, it's a great appetizer for a dinner party.

Heirloom Tomato Crostata

Jump to Printable PDF

• 1 pie crust

• Freshly Ground Black Pepper

• 1 8-oz container ricotta cheese

• 1/4 cup fresh herbs, finely chopped or 2 tsp dried Italian herb blend

• 2 green onions, thinly sliced

• 1 clove garlic, finely minced (about 1 tsp if pre-chopped)

• 4 medium tomatoes (baseball sized or a bit smaller), sliced 1/4" thick

• 1 egg

• Fresh herbs for garnish, optional

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

2. Roll pie crust to about 11-12" diameter on a piece of parchment paper. Sprinkle liberally with black pepper and transfer to a baking sheet.

3. Combine ricotta with herbs, green onions, garlic and 1/2 tsp sea salt.

4. Spread into a 6" circle in the middle of the pastry circle.

5. Overlap tomato slices to form concentric circles to cover most of the filling.

6. Carefully fold up the edges to completely enclose the filling.

7. Whisk the egg very well so no strands remain. Add 1 tsp of water and whisk again.

8. Brush the top of the pastry with the egg wash avoiding the tomatoes.

9. Place in oven and bake for 15-20 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and crispy.

10. Let cool for a few minutes (or as long as you need to) and cut into wedges.

11. Keep for up to 5 days. Warm up in air fryer or hot oven.

©2024 Christi Flaherty, Flaherty Culinary Concepts and realfoodsanity.com. All Rights Reserved. No part may be reproduced, used to create a derivative work, or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written consent of the author.

Printable PDF

Heirloom Tomato Crostata

52.9KB ∙ PDF file

Download

Think of this open-face tomato pie as a Southern Tomato Pie with an Italian accent.

Download

1. “NOTES” is like the “X” of Substack. You can reach out to me there by starting a note and tagging me in it by hitting the “@” followed by Real Food Sanity or my name or by searching my name or Real Food Sanity and reading/replying to already established notes.

If you want to have a private conversation with me, paid subscribers have access to my Chat which is a closed community and you can direct message me there. Just click the subscribe button below to upgrade to paid. Oh and bonus, “NOTES” is an interesting and fun way to find other creators from every possible field.