Donut in my hand

Girls Gone Vegan (Nola) a "worth it" donut if ever there was one

I keep a notebook, next to my computer, during nutrition sessions. Sometimes I’ll write down a product a client wants me to research or a restaurant they suggest. Most of the time, I write down pearls such as “I looked down and there was a donut in my hand.”  My client added “my friend said she's experienced this too, please tell me why this happens.”

I explained the following to her. It doesn’t just “happen” in that no spell comes over us and places junk food in our hands. But it’s a symptom of what hasn’t happened. Things end up in your hands when you stroll into the kitchen with no idea what you’ll walk out with. Or, when you’re tired at work and something is sitting out. Things end up in your hands because your food was unplanned or because you didn’t specifically have a plan for the bread basket, business meeting or the food calling you as you walk home from a date.

Try these two things:

•  Every morning mentally walk through what you will have for each meal. Or, take it one step further and write or type this out.
• As you’re doing your walkthrough, try troubleshooting. Analyze the obstacles. For example, I’m going to walk into the office and there will be bagels, I’m not going to even pause in front of the platter. I’ll have my breakfast instead. Chances are the challenging situations are reoccurring. You want to avoid deliberation when you are tired or stressed.

To whatever degree you can, ban the unplanned. If things end up in your hands, you should enjoy them.

Do your munchkins need munchkins?

Not my boys, boys- I promise

It's a little tricky when you're a mom and a nutritionist. Sadly, I tend to keep my mouth shut when out of the office (when it comes to food-related matters, mouth rarely shuts in general). I say "sadly" because so much of what kids eat at school and after school is pretty crappy. And if that "kids are kids" argument popped into your head, I will say that this "kids are kids" thinking has resulted in a crap overload. And ironically after parenting for 13 and a half years, I can say no where is this junk-a-thon more prevalent that in children's sports.
* 13 year old asked "what am I getting for my half birthday" I said "nothing" and he sulked.

I shouldn't single these out but I will

So, after years of appalling food and sports incidents: one coach felt a pile of candy bars at halftime was a good idea, cookies when games end at noon (how about lunch or a pizza perhaps) or the millions of munchkins my boys have been presented with, I received this from my son's new coach
"I'm thinking of doing away with the snack schedule, each family can bring a snack and water for their own child." I don't dance but mentally the happy dance was happening. I posted this on Facebook and one commenter (of I think 25) said "what did your son think?" The truth is he didn't mention it and we went to lunch following the game. My son was psyched that the team did well which tends to be his area of focus. I will take competitiveness over sugar and not to worry my kids have sugar and burgers and fries.

But you see I have two children. The following week the typical email from a parent showed up in my inbox,  "I'm setting up the team snack schedule, please let me know..." In years' past I would've obligingly picked a date and use it as an opportunity to bring something like this

Or

And before you label me as "that mom" I will tell you that these are generally devoured. My theory is that kids almost roll their eyes at the cookie (that isn't usually a great cookie) or above donuts.
This year, encouraged by the other coach, I said "just throwing it out there but on another team the coach felt snacks weren't necessary, any thoughts?" I received a civil reply that said "I think snacks are something the kids like BUT I will poll the group and get back to you." I wasn't optimistic but waited. In the interim I posted the incident on Facebook. Many parents were worried about being the "mean mom" or "getting dirty looks" if suggesting healthy snacks or snacklessness. But guess what? The snack scheduler emailed "I didn't hear back from any parents so I'm going to scratch the snack schedule, everyone can bring their own."

The moral of this snack story is, voice your opinion to a league or coach or fellow parent. You'd be surprised that many parents are either happy their children aren't having constant crap OR relieved not to have to run out on a Saturday to get snacks for an entire team, "one more thing to think about" one mom said. Wherever you stand on nutrition, getting to the right field at the right time with your child and water should be enough.
Do you recall sports snacks growing up? Do you think I'm being a "mean mom"? I mean I am a mean mom but let's focus on snacks...

Food Matters Breakfast Inspiration and Healthy Donuts

This summer I met with Tricia Williams the founder of Food Matters. We share a handful of clients and a similar sensibility when it comes to nutrition. Tricia came to the Foodtrainers’ office and covered my desk with the most amazing array of dishes for us to sample (my job is rough sometimes). She had already thought of each question I lobbed her way. More importantly, with Tricia’s cooking background she has incredibly creative ways of preparing food that’s so far from “diet food” she could convert anyone, yes anyone.

First, can you tell readers a little bit about Food Matters? Who seeks out your services? Is it on ongoing basis or pre or post events? Food Matters is a highly customized meal delivery service. First, I take a look at clients’ health history and health goals along with their food preferences and then design a menu specifically for them. We deliver to a lot of celebrities when they are getting ready for roles but also cater to individuals with very specific health conditions. We see clients with cancer, thyroid concerns, fertility issues, sleep problems etc. In this case we use the kitchen as pharmacy.

We have investigated many meal services but you seem to have dotted all your healthy i’s. I love that everything is gluten free but it’s also well sourced, can you elaborate? Everything we use is organic and local as much as possible. We don't use gluten, dairy, refined sugar or grain of any kind. All the seafood we use is wild and the animal proteins are pasture raised. All the food comes package in tiffins and pyrex so there is no heavy metal or plastic contamination of the food, and no garbage!We cook in alkaline water and even bottle it for clients.  We also focus on the glycemic index of all our meals and snacks. We try to keep our clients blood sugar balanced all day.

Wow that's impressive and something I aspire to with my own cooking (although I'm not there yet with alkaline water). I loved everything I've tasted from FM but was blown away by your take on breakfast. It tends to be a grain fest for many people, what are some of your ideas for mixing it up?

Ditch the grain flours. Explore some paleo based breakfast recipes. I love almond flour and chia seeds. They make great pancake ingredients. As far as gadgets. I love my vitablender and also my donut maker from Target.

Your food is so beautifully presented, even berries in the little bento box look so appealing. I think we blow off presentation when it’s for ourselves- what should we think about? People eat with their eyes first.  At FM we want people to fall in love with healthy eating . Try to use as much color as possible, this will encourage a variety of veggies on your plate.

Any breakfast foods you feel everyone should swear off?

Processed packaged cereals,  I love telling kids that there’s no fruit in Froot Loops!

I'm with you on cold cereal, they are a "break up food" in my book (LBT). What do you have for breakfast? During the week I’ll make a smoothies with seasonal fruit, almond milk, chia and brown rice protein.  On the weekends I cook a lot with my family. This weekend we made peach and almond meal pancakes with blueberries. Sometimes I prefer savory porridges like oatmeal with spinach, onion and shiitakes!

Savory oatmeal, love it. And finally, I’ve been dreaming of serving your donuts to ski guests in Vermont (and pretty much everyone I know), can you spill the breakfast beans?

Combine all ingredients (specific recipe coming later today) in donut maker.

How can our readers reach you?

Via email, the website or twitter
Readers, what do you have for breakfast? Have you experimented with almond or quinoa flour? Do you like the idea of a healthy donut? Have you ever done a meal delivery service?

Favorite Game Day Snacks for Kids

There is a lot of discussion about the quality of food children are served at school and at home but as the mother of two young, athletic boys I feel there’s an overlooked area of children’s eating and that’s sports-related snacks. It doesn’t matter if a game finishes at 9:30 or lunchtime you can bet donuts are lurking. Rather than call out the donut folks, I’ll focus on healthy, tasty, fun alternatives.

I was thrilled when Peeled, aware of my game-day frustration, provided their new Apple Clusters for one of my son’s soccer games. Yet, as we walked to the field with our Peeled bag filled with all three cluster flavors, I started to get nervous. My son was excited to share these treats with his teammates but I knew it was a risk. A food departure is a toss up. While I am fine with the title, I didn’t want my soccer player to be the healthy food pariah. I watched the game distracted by my "cluster" concerns.

With a few minutes left, I set the pretty Peeled boxes on the bottom row of the bleachers. Cinnamon was flanked by Berry and Apple. Soon the game was finished and the team stormed the bench. “What’s for snack?” I announced the flavor options; they made their selections and ripped open the packages. I have serious regrets that tape wasn’t rolling. It was like a 2012 Wheaties commercial. The kids loved them, the parents asked where they could buy them and said things like “it’s about time someone brings a healthy snack”. Kids grabbed extras yo take home. As a nutritionist, it doesn’t get any better than that.

The bite-size round clusters are organic, gluten free, dairy free, naturally vegan and non-GMO. The size we handed out is single serving and 75 calories each package has three grams of fiber. They are reminiscent of granola but grain free. We first fell in love with the apple flavor but were won over by berry (I hope Peeled isn’t offended by the comparison but healthy Crunchberry?).

I'm a fan of orange wedges, organic grapes and watermelon as "fun" fruit snacks and love the original Peeled dried fruit snack packs. There are a few other companies I feel do a great job:

• Go Go squeeze applesauces
• Seasnax Nori snacks
• Plentils Chips
• Pumpkin seeds (although consider nut/seed free restrictions)
• Natures All dehydrated bananas.
• Hint water

Just so you don't think I'm a snack grinch, my kids have a snack they love that's not Foodtrainers-friendly. Near the soccer field there's a man who sells empanadas. His wife makes them and my boys adore them. I was very happy to see "Mr Empanada" back after Sandy. 

Can you spot Mr Empanada? Not easy.

What do you think are great sports snacks for kids? Why do you think donuts dominate? Have you tried Peeled snacks or the clusters? 
I love hearing about people making healthy inroads. Tweet us @Foodtrainers with the hashtag #nondonutsnack with photos or descriptions of healthy sports snacks or even meeting fare.