Blue Zones Project Bloomington

It’s Menu Monday. Here’s an incredible vegetarian recipe for you to try.

“Find purpose and fitness by building an Ecosystem in your yard, restoring the ecosystem in your neighborhood parks."

City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation - W**d Wrangles - Bloomington Rail Trail Meet Friends of Bloominton Rail Trail. We're restoring native habitat for pollinators, birds, and other wildlife! Learn how to identify and control invasive species. Meet at Country Club Road parking lot. Duties: Volunteers will be bending, hiking, and climbing as needed. Gloves, and tools...

Our focus this month is the Blue Zone location Ikaria, Greece. Here are their top longevity foods. How many of these ingredients do you have in your pantry?

This Thursday, join your neighbors and bring a friend to the small shelter at RCA Park, Thursday, August 8, 2024 at 6pm to find out how we can help protect the woodlands of RCA park. Blooming Zone Initiative and the City of Bloomington, Adopt-A-Greenspace W**d Wrangles program have teamed up with the support of HAND to bring together the neighbors of RCA park in a community effort to rid the park of invasive plant species. We will have bottles of water. (Children 12 and up are welcome in the company of an adult.)

BZl Plant Based Cooking Class Sunday, August 18 2-4pm - Featuring Chef👨‍🍳 Levi McGranahan (local home cook and Blue Zones enthusiast)

“I've been an avid home cook for almost 20 years and recently read a book about Blue Zones which sparked my interest in learning to cook Blue Zones dishes. I love cooking for other people and learning about new healthy and delicious food to feed my family and friends.”

👉Class is $25/person. Limited capacity. Click link below to register:

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/964981123517?aff=oddtdtcreator

(*Photography credit to Samantha McGranahan)

Need an idea on what to cook for dinner? Let us help you with some healthy options. We will be featuring Menu Monday’s to help you reduce that daily stress of “What’s for dinner?”

Ikaria, Greece is our focus this month for our cooking class and book club discussion. Ikarian’s enjoy a Mediterranean-style diet, nap, fast occasionally and drink herbal teas. Check out more details about their lifestyle at:

https://www.bluezones.com/explorations/ikaria-greece/

Blue zones are locations in the world where people live near or over 100 years old. They call them centarians. Here are a few facts about these locations. Check out bluezones.com for more information about blue zones.

Are you looking for fun ways to get exercise? Moving more is key to our health and wellbeing. Here’s an opportunity to try something new.

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JourneyDance® is a dynamic, structured process that combines guided and freestyle components to facilitate getting into your body, clearing your mind, and releasing what no longer serves you.

Join Tessa on Sunday, August 4th for this transformative dance experience.

JourneyDance® is not about learning steps. It’s about revealing, recovering, and re-discovering your natural intuitive movement. Through the flow of experiential movement and the power of sound, the practice helps to reconnect you with your innate states of joy, well-being, and vitality.

JourneyDance® provides a supportive space for participants to experience embodiment, explore emotions, and bring forth inner power.

No prior dance experience is necessary.

This Sunday at Banneker Center at 2:00pm is another Cooking Workshop! We’ll be cooking up some recipes inspired by the Costa Rican Blue Zone including Hearts of Palm Ceviche, Fried Green Plantains and Gallo Pinto. Cost is only $25 a person and includes demos, brain health bonus content and a hands-on portion. This is all put on by our very own Bridgett DiVohl alongside Jen Shriver and Blooming Zones team members.

Check out the link below to register!

BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop Join us at the BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop to learn delicious recipes that will boost your brain power and overall well-being!

Bridgett and Jen are presenting another Brain Health Cooking Workshop on 7/21 at the Banneker Crnter- this month’s foods are inspired by the Costa Rican Blue Zone. We would love to see you there!

Side note- unfortunately we are needing to cancel the 7/31 workshop. Thanks for the continued support local Blooming Zoners!

BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop Join us at the BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop to learn delicious recipes that will boost your brain power and overall well-being!

We’re practicing some of the Costa Rican recipes this weekend from The Blue Zones Kitchen Cookbook. Bridgett has been experimenting with yuca cakes, fried green plantains and galo pinto in preparation for our July cooking workshops. She found most of these ingredients at 🌿 go check them out!

Check out the link here to learn more about the Costa Rican Blue Zone:

https://www.bluezones.com/explorations/nicoya-costa-rica/

Links to Bridgett’s SonderGlow Cooking Workshops in comments below.

Nicoya, Costa Rica - Blue Zones This Central American nation isn’t that far from the U.S. geographically, but it is way ahead of us in longevity.

Every week Chef Oma makes Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies, a recipe from the Loma Linda, CA Blue Zone.™ “These quick-and-filling breakfast cookies are easy to make in advance and take on the road; they’re also the perfect healthy snack or dessert,” according to the Blue Zones Founder, Dan Buettner in his book, Blue Zones™ Kitchen. The book is available locally at .books . “Everyone in my family loves these nutritious and delicious gems and it’s fun to have the kids help make them,” says Chef Oma.

Check out the recipe here:

Oatmeal Breakfast Cookies Oatmeal is a dietary essential for Adventists, as both a breakfast meal and a popular ingredient in many other recipes. It provides fiber, healthy protein, complex carbohydrates, and good doses of iron and B vitamins. Because it holds up well to frying and baking, it forms the basis of many vegetari...

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‼️Important Update:

Due to the severe storms that recently passed through our area, we have made the decision to cancel the Crossroads Summit scheduled for this weekend. We understand that many of you are currently focused on cleaning up and recovering from the impact of these storms, and we want to prioritize everyone's safety and well-being during this time.

We will be rescheduling the Crossroads Summit for sometime in the fall, and we will keep you updated on the new dates as soon as they are confirmed. This decision allows us all to focus on our community's recovery efforts and ensures that we can come together at a more suitable time.

Thank you for your understanding. Please stay tuned for further updates, and feel free to reach out to us if you have any questions or concerns.

Wishing everyone a safe and smooth recovery process.

Crossroads Summit is this Saturday at Sherwood Oaks Chrch from 10:00-3:30. Whether you are planning for retirement or just want to learn ways to feel your best as you age, there will be a lot of great content from community professionals, and its free! Register at

Crossroads Summit | Thriving in retirement Welcome to the Crossroads Summit, a free one-day event that serves as a hub for senior citizens to connect, learn, and thrive. Join our community and explore our enriching programs and resources.

Tonight💙 come to Morgenstern Books for our Health and Wellness Book Club featuring the book The Blue Zones 9 Lessons for Living Longer. Plus we’ll be sharing some treats from Bridgett and Cynthia’s kitchen! Come for great conversation and try some treats from the featured Blue Zone: Loma Linda.

Morgenstern Books 7-8 pm. We hope to see you there!

Next Monday is our 6th session Morgenstern Books

Show up to hear about Chapter 4: An American Blue Zone. All things Loma Linda and something special that we are adding at this month’s meet-up is some prepared foods from The Blue Zones Kitchen Cookbook. Come ready to connect with community while trying out some BZ cookies and more!

This Wednesday’s cooking workshop has been sold out for over a week! We’ll be making a few different dishes inspired by the Okinawan recipes in The Blue Zones Kitchen Cookbook. The hands-on portion we will be making this simple and delicious banana ice cream with roasted pineapple🍍🍌💙

In June we’ll be taking a break to catch our breath and to focus on family but July Cooking Workshops are already scheduled. Mark your calendars and watch for our June Newsletter to sign up- July 21st and 31st at the Banneker with a focus on foods from Costa Rica!

We’re preparing for another series of cooking workshops, this month’s focus aligns with our book clup topic: Okinawa. Our first workshop this month is at the Banneker Center on 5/19 at 2pm inspired by Blue Zones recipes with bonus content on brain health. Learn about Okinawa longevity ingredients, how they promote overall health, and key foods for brain health.

Bridgett will be sharing her protocol for a brain fog reset and how to incorporate this in your monthly routine. We will be making an Okinawa inspired longevity bowl including prepared foods as well as a demo on cooking mushrooms by Jen and a hands-on portion cooking the purple sweet potato. We’ll feast and connect at the end. All of this for the cost of materials- $20. We would love to see you there!

Link in comments💙

Can't make it to the 5/19 cooking workshop? We have a second one in May on 5/29. Check out the link below!

Bloomington Blue Zone Initiative Cooking Workshop Learn to cook healthy Blue Zone-inspired dishes at our Bloomington Cooking Workshop - it's gonna be delicious and fun!

Our next cooking workshop is on 5/19 at 2:00 at The Banneker Center. Click on link below to purchase tickets. These were so much fun last month, we look forward to seeing you at the next one!

BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop Come join us at the BBZ Brain Health Cooking Workshop where we'll learn how to cook delicious meals that boost our brain power!

We are so excited for tonights Blue Zones inspired Sardinian gnocchi workshop at The Banneker Center. And we are sold out! We are keeping these small at first as we are getting to know this kitchen and the flow of the groups and to really connect💙 We look forward to seeing everyone that has signed up! We are recommending that you show up to that area a few minutes early because of the street parking.

This Wednesday 4/17 is our first cooking workshop at the Banneker Center from 6-8 PM! What's included when you purchase a ticket?

•Learn about the longevity foods from the Sardinian Blue Zone.
•Hands-on portion including Sardinia’s version of gnocchi (potato dumplings).
•Try foods that Cynthia and Bridgett have prepared including homemade pesto, Sardinian greens using local ingredients, and a few different sourdough breads.
•Learn about the benefits of sourdough from a local gut-health and fertility experts. Sourdough is one of the Sardinian longevity staples!
•Take home recipe cards.
•Great conversation and connection!

Sign up below, we are looking forward to this fun night of food and community!

Bloomington Blue Zone Cooking Workshop

Check out the April/May Bloom Magazine! We are featured on p. 54 and in the cooking workshops section on p. 68. Thank you Bloom Magazine and what a great experience working with Heather Ray on the article.

Just in time for our launch of the cooking workshops!

We have another Blue Zones Book Club Meeting on Monday 4/15 at 7 PM at Morgenstern Books. At this meet-up we will be discussing Chapter 2 The Sardinian Blue Zone from the book The Blue Zones 9 Lessons for Living Longer. We look forward to another great night of connection and inspiration.

Our first cooking workshop at the Banneker Center is now up. Check it out and sign up! We had an amazing time cooking for folks at recent events and now we are ready to cook with some of you while learning about the Blue Zones. This first month will be all about Sardinia Italy and we’ll be making gnocchi together!

Can't make this first one on 4/17? We’ll be sharing our second April workshop in a few days-it will be on 4/21 with a focus on foods of Sardinia with bonus brain health content!

Bloomington Blue Zone Cooking Workshop Join us for a fun and interactive cooking workshop where you'll learn recipes from the original Blue Zones. First stop Ikaria Greece!

We had an amazing time last Thursday at The Endwright Center for our Blue Zones Lunch and Learn! We made foods from all five original Blue Zones, shared information and connected with community members on the topic of longevity.

We are so excited to offer more experiences like this as we move towards our goal of becoming a Blue Zones certified community.

We hope to see you tonight Morgenstern Books at 7pm plus check out our event this Thursday at Endwright East!

Delicious lunch and planning for a fun book club session. Next Monday March 18 at 7 pm at Morgenstern Books 💙📘 we hope to see you there!

Happy hump day fellow Blue Zones enthusiasts of Bloomington! Here we share a recent local dining experience from Cynthia!

Chef Oma (Cynthia Schultz) and Papa’s 45th anniversary lunch at a favorite, locally-owned restaurant, Osteria Rago was the Panzanella Salad with seasoned focaccia croutons, spinach, arugula, tomato, cucumber, fresh homemade mozzarella and salmon broiled medium-rare accompanied by a Cabernet Sauvignon from Lodi, California - 2020 Predator. They also highly recommend the Polenta with truffle oil marinated mushrooms, fontina, organic tomato sauce. If you are looking for a great meal in Bloomington (Indiana) - consider Osteria Rago just off Kirkwood by Nick’s.

Some Power 9 lessons shared here are Loved Ones First and Wine at 5🌿