Question: My mother-in-law is elderly and doesn’t want to cook at all and only wants to microwave food for herself. What are some ways I can make sure she’s still eating healthy? 

Lately there’s a lot of noise about buying products with fewer ingredients or ingredients you can pronounce. This isn’t the first time over my 30 years as a dietitian I’ve seen this sort of rhetoric. 

1. Get an Ingles Advantage card. This helps you save every time you buy groceries. You’ll also have fuel points loaded to your card from your grocery trip and by filling prescriptions at your Ingles Pharmacy and this saves when fueling up at Ingles Fuel Centers. 

It was cold, but I was prepared. Leggings and Underarmour, sweatpants and sweatshirt, parka and hiking pants, an array of hats, gloves and scarves — it was safe to say I’d dressed for the forecasted high of 27 degrees.

I’d spent much of the past week indoors, wrapped in blankets against the single-digit chill that assaulted my apartment and dreaming of warmer days. But as the weekend drew near, a realization dawned — all this cold had surely created some beauty out of Western North Carolina’s abundant waterways. I made a decision: I would brave the cold, and I would go find a frozen waterfall.