Blog Brulee 2015 Recap

Hi friends! I was up in Vermont over the weekend at Blog Brulee, a cool weekend workshop/mini-conference for Registered Dietitians and nutrition-minded folks who blog. I spoke at Blog Brulee last year and was honored to be invited back to speak again this year! A big thank you to Blog Brulee and its sponsors (Siggi’s, Smuggler’s Notch, Davidson’s Safest Choice Eggs, California Almonds, and California Ripe Olives) for covering my travel and lodging and providing me with an honorarium in exchange for speaking.

If you’re interested in attending Blog Brulee next year, check out their website, BlogBrulee.com, for more information. This was the second year of the conference (here’s last year’s recap: Blog Brulee 2014), and once again we had a great group of smart, interesting, and engaging women (and one man – representing sponsor California Olives!) at the conference this year, and even though I was there to speak I feel I learned so much myself!

I love that photo of this years’ attendees and speakers, pilfered from the California Almond Instagram account. Too cute! It was a pleasure to get to know everyone.

In addition to the speakers (more on them in a minute) and the founders of Blog Brulee (Registered Dietitians Regan Jones, Deanna Seagrave-Daly, and Robin Plotkin – and Gretchen Brown, who has a newborn and wasn’t able to attend this year – we missed you Gretchen!), here’s who was in attendance this year:

• Alanna Waldron, RD – Eat Real Food
• Emily Hein, RDN, LD – Zen & Spice
• Lisa Lin – Healthy Nibbles & Bits
• Katie Oberwager – 24 Carrot Life
• Sally Twellman, RD – Twellman Nutrition
• Whitney Reist, RD, LMNT – Sweet Cayenne
• Selena Sharpless – The Nutritious Kitchen
• Amee Livingston – Amee’s Savory Dish
• Alexandra Caspero, RD – Delicious Knowledge
• Vicki Shanta Retelny, RDN – Simple Cravings. Real Food.
• Jennifer Pullman, MA, RDN, LDN – Nourished Simply
• Lauren Harris-Pincus, MS, RDN – Nutrition Starring YOU
• Sara Haas, RDN, LDN – Sara Haas, RDN
• Katie Sullivan Morford, MS, RD – Mom’s Kitchen Handbook
• Emily Cooper, RD, LD – Sinful Nutrition
• Anne Danahy, MS, RD, LDN – Craving Something Healthy
• Deborah Davis, MS, RDN – Dietitian Debbie Dishes
• Dana Artinyan, RD, LDN – Art of Nutrition
• Marisa Westbrook – Uproot From Oregon

If you’re looking for some new health/nutrition/food blogs to read, those are all pretty awesome ones to start with. :)

On the speaker front, we had an amazing line up as well. Here’s what went down:

• Blog Brulee co-founders and dietitians Regan Jones and Deanna-Seagrave Daly taught us the basics of photography for both DSLRs and smartphones.
• Katie Webster showed us her tips for food styling and post-processing of photos. Her photos (and recipes) are gorgeous – and she also just came out with a beautiful Maple Cookbook (affiliate link) that she shot entirely herself. Mad props!

• Lisa D’Agrosa from Eating Well Magazine shared her tips for pitching and developing stories.
• Katy Widrick deciphered the logistics and jargon related to SEO (search engine optimization) and how to improve search traffic to our blogs. 
• Lindsay Livingston, Kylie Held, and Sally Kuzmechak discussed how they built their followings and communities on different social media channels. (See also: Lindsay on Twitter, Kylie on Instagram, and Sally on Facebook – all definitely worth a like/follow!)
• And finally, I closed out the conference by speaking about how to work with brands as a blogger (<—blog post I wrote awhile ago on the topic, if you’re interested).

Like last year, the weekend took place at beautiful Smuggler’s Notch near Burlington, Vermont. During our breaks, many of us enjoyed walking around on the trails on the property – I bet these are even more gorgeous when the fall colors pop.

We were also treated to a yoga class on Saturday before dinner, held outside with a nice view of the skiing areas at Smuggs (what those of us in the know call Smuggler’s Notch ;) ) and led by conference attendee and yoga teacher Alex of Delicious Knowledge. Loved meeting her, by the way – she has a fabulous recipe blog and I loved her yoga teaching vibe. She’s into teaching mindful eating, too, which you know I give a big thumbs up.

It was a wonderful class, and over half of us showed up for it! (I’m pictured below with my buddy Kylie, whose blog, ImmaEatThat, I love – gorgeous healthy recipes. I also love that she’s all about intuitive eating and working to combat disordered eating when working with her nutrition clients. Keep fighting the good fight, Kylie – you rock!)

The big other highlight of the weekend, besides the educational sessions, was of course the food! From Siggi’s breakfast bowls…

… to learning how to make our own Skyr (thick Icelandic yogurt) at home from Siggi himself…

To gluten free Quinoa Energy Bars at snack time (I don’t have the recipe, but they reminded me of my Cranberry Quinoa Peanut Butter Power Bars)…

To delicious BBQ (my favorite meal of the trip, so good)…

And finally to breakfast in our room! Like last year, Blog Brulee randomly paired people up with roommates (well, we had our own rooms, but we shared cute little lodge apartments with kitchens), and this year I was rooming with two great women: Dana and Lauren!

On Sunday morning, it was up to us to make ourselves breakfast before heading to the final morning of the conference, and the Blog Brulee sponsors stocked our kitchens to inspire us.

Lauren is basically the breakfast queen (she’s working on a breakfast cookbook, actually), so she spearheaded our breakfast. I basically slept in and rolled out of bed to find all this waiting – color me impressed! Orange creamsicle overnight oats (vanilla siggi’s + milk + oats and topped with sliced oranges and zest), protein pancakes (like my Flour Free Breakfast Pancake but with oats instead of ground flaxseed), and french toast.

I went for the protein pancakes, topped with banana and almond butter, and the overnight oats. So good – thank you again for making and feeding us such deliciousness, Lauren!!

And there you have it! Another successful Blog Brulee. I’m so honored to be a part of such a great event. Thank you again to their team for having me back, and I’m looking forward to continuing the conversation online with the ladies I met this weekend!