My Just Do It Summer welcomes an exciting collaborator

You've almost definitely heard the name Nicole Helget. She's a North Mankato author of a memoir, "The Summer of Ordinary Ways," published by Borealis Books, and her debut novel, "The Turtle Catcher," published by Houghton Mifflin. She and her husband, Nate LeBoutillier, just recently published a young-adult novel, "Horse Camp," via Egmont USA.

Nicole is also a teacher, a mother of six -- yes, count them, SIX -- children. She manages to find time to run marathons and also feed her kids healthy food.

Ages ago, she worked for a little while at The Free Press. And we have been chummy ever since. She was a total peach during my "Fight to be Fit," and she's been so supportive since I began running, too. When she read my first post of "My Just Do It Summer," the real food campaign resonated with her. She, too, has been working hard at providing her family with healthy, "real" food.

So, she thought -- and then, of course, I thought immediately after she thought -- why not make "My Just Do It Summer" a collaborative space where we both post amazing recipes and pictures, along with my running stuff. Why not, indeed.

So that's the plan, folks. This summer, both she and I will provide you with delicious recipes, photos of delicious foods, and commentary on living life more healthfully, or at least making our best attempt at it.

I hope you enjoy, and I hope you will email me with any recipe suggestions you have, too, at adyslin@mankatofreepress.com. In addition, Nicole has a wonderful blog where she posts quite frequently at nicolehelget.blogspot.com.

Nicole's first post, a delicious recipe for fish tacos, is up on My Just Do It Summer.