As a working, single mom, I am always asked where all my energy comes from and how I manage to accomplish everything that I get done. A friend of mine has recently been diagnosed with a cancer and her interest in super foods has prompted me to look at how I feed myself and my family. Most people fixate on my weight and want to know how I have stayed basically the same weight since my teen years. They always seem to be asking for a secret that I can pass on, a magic pill of some sort that will allow them to maintain their current life style and be a size 4. I don't have a secret, of course. A lot of it is just plain genetics but I also eat very little processed foods. I make most of mine and my kids food from scratch. Every day, every meal. I like to cook, I like to bake and on top of that, I'm extremely frugal. I don't understand things like pancake mix. From scratch it's: flour, baking powder salt, sugar, egg, oil, milk. From a mix it's: mix, egg, oil, milk. You are paying for some one to mix 3 ingredients for you. And add a ton of chemicals. I just don't get it. Making it yourself, you get to control the salt and sugar levels and I keep a cooked container of quinoa in my fridge and add a couple of table spoons to the batter, sometimes extra wheat bran and on special occasions I add cocoa powder. It's so much healthier and tastier than the store bought mixes and can be used for waffles as well. My 9 year old just found out I have been putting quinoa in his waffles his whole life and was deeply disturbed to find out I have been making them healthy and that he never even noticed. When I feel especially creative I experiment with gluten free flours, just for the challenge. My ever present quinoa, I've discovered, can be run through the food processor once it is cold until it resembles the texture of cornmeal and be substituted into pretty much any baking for up to about half of the called for flour. The results are a little heavier, meatier, but always delicious. I remember being absolutely heartbroken when my boy came home from a friend's house and informed me he had eaten the best food ever and asked if I knew you could get macaroni and cheese in a blue box. I've gotten a little less fanatical as the boys have gotten older as I've realized I can't control everything they consume and concentrate on keeping our home as healthy as possible while still allowing them to experience the joys of a Happy Meal occasionally. I keep our fridge stocked with Greek yogurt and accept that they will just go ask the neighbour's mom for the highly sugared,artificially coloured, individually packaged yoghurt facsimiles once in a while. As a general rule we don't eat candy, fast food, potato chips, fried foods and to be honest we rarely even drink juice. We drink iced tea made from no caffeine fruit teas with little to no added sugar. We don't buy boxed cereal except as a treat. Most mornings, I make oatmeal for us and stir in some of the pre cooked quinoa and mix it with unsweetened apple sauce and Greek yoghurt. Some times we add nuts and seeds. We make our own jams and preserves and we even make our own nut and seed butters from scratch. It's a super fun and easy project with limitless flavour possibilities and nut combinations and a much cheaper option than store bought. As for my seemingly boundless energy, it comes from a couple of sources, one, I love coffee, and secondly, I start every single day with my favorite smoothie. It's packed full of great foods and is like eating ice cream for breakfast. I blend ice, one banana, half an avocado, pure cocoa powder, peanut butter, Greek yoghurt, (I prefer vanilla) and milk. Some times I throw in quinoa, strawberries, blueberries, or, next week, local blackberries we will be picking ourselves, pretty much anything else you could think of but most days I stick with the basics and race out the door with one in my hand as I rush of to school, pre school, work, daycare, church,volunteering .....It's my favorite way to start my day, right after my coffee. So I guess what I'm saying is, I don't need to count calories, I know exactly what's in my food, because I put it there and whenever possible, I grow it too. I don't mean to imply that I'm perfect, I've been known to eat an entire cheesecake for dinner. I just don't do it more than once a year and I make sure it's at least a pumpkin one so it counts as a balanced meal. Pumpkin=veggies, cheese=dairy and protein, crust=fiber and bonus points if you can sneak some quinoa into it. My son and I just finished a batch of granola/quinoa/rice bars made with a touch of local honey. Such a delicious treat, gluten free and for this batch anyways, nut free. The next time we make them I think we'll add some dried local fruit, just don't forget to cook and cool the quinoa first, before you start substituting it into your favourite recipes, especially if you're putting it into your food processor or blender! Trust me, once it glues itself into a ball, it's pretty much useless for food purposes. It makes a decent, albeit pricey, play-dough substitute.
