Rachel Chemerynski is a self-proclaimed “Healthy Chick.” Fresh out of college, she loves eating healthy while still enjoying the foods she’s grown to love and strongly believes that not only can others eat healthy, but they can do it without fearing food and still save a buck or two.

Let it be known that I am 100% gourmet. I taste wine for a living and spend my days making videos and writing articles about wine and which foods to pair with it. If you come to my house for a dinner party, it would be embarrassing for me to do anything less than impress you.

Of course, right now, we’re all in a recession, and at any given point – perhaps when you’re counting the days between your rent check being cashed – you might be in a personal depression. However, when I’m fiscally down, I still get a big pick-me-up from being around friends and sharing gourmet food with them.

Thanksgiving is right around the corner, and with all of the dinner invites and family gatherings, you’ve got to come up with a quick and easy dish to bring over because you can’t show up empty handed. So for those of you who are a bit domestically challenged, like us, we’ve got you covered with some simple and inexpensive Thanksgiving worthy side dishes. Keep on reading for our Top 5 sure-to-please recipes.

It’s that time of year when the weather turns crisp and the proud citizens of New York bundle up in their winter gear. But before we head off into the mother of all holiday seasons, let’s take a look retrospective look back at some stories from the past month. Here are some of our favorite posts from around the net, as well as our more popular stories from October in this month’s Mashup.

You know those weeks – you’re midway between paychecks and you’ve already spent the bulk of your income (hopefully on essentials instead of spontaneous spending) and now you have $20 to feed yourself for the week. But before you hop on over to your local grocer and start sorting out the many flavors of Maruchan, you may want to have a look at some other cheap meal options. We at LifeStyler bring you 5 healthy and cheap (although not .25 cheap) alternatives to that 10-pack box of Ramen.