wholefood step-by-step: # 20 buckwheat pancakes

Who doesn't love a pancake for breakfast?

For me, this buckwheat pancake mix is about as close as I get to 'convenience' food.

I love the nuttiness of the buckwheat flour. And I love that they contain no wheat despite buckwheat having the word wheat in it, in fact buckwheat is a seed related to the rhubarb family. So, if you'd like to reduce the amount of wheat in your family's diet for whatever reason these are a good alternative to wheat flour pancakes.

If you are in the habit of buying pancake mixes in plastic shaker bottles do read the ingredients. Most of these style of pancake mixes contain additives like these whitewings original pancake mix:

Wheat flour, sugar, wheat starch, skim milk powder, raising agents (sodium bicarbonate, 341,541), vegetable shortening (Vegetable oil, glucose syrup solids,milk protein, emulsifiers (soybean lecithin, 471,481), mineral salt (339), vegetable gum (466), antioxidant (306)), emulsifier (471 derived from soy), egg white, flavour, salt, vegetable gum (xanthan). Contains wheat, soy, milk and egg as indicated in bold type. Made on production line that also produces products containing tree nuts.

And while the additives aren't great for your health, the plastic shaker bottle won't do the health of the environment any favours either!

The Orgran mix pictured is very easy to turn into batter, I'm not too fussy with the measurements and just put in a couple of eggs and enough rice milk until I have a consistency I like.  The packet directions suggest 2-3 eggs and you use either milk or water, sometimes I also add ground cinnamon and a few tablespoons of natural yoghurt to the batter.

I like to slice apple or banana thinly, cook one side of the pancake and then while the pancake is in the pan, press the fruit slices into the uncooked side, the flip and cook. Banana with toasted walnuts and a splash of maple syrup or apple and cinnamon are my favorite toppings.

If you'd like to try wholefood mama Michelle's sprouted buckwheat pancakes go here.

Have you tried buckwheat pancakes? What are you favorite toppings?

wholefood step-by-step: #18 make your own marinades and salad dressings

When I was growing up, my mum made salad dressing by squeezing the juice of one lemon into a teacup, adding a glug of olive oil, a teaspoon of dried Italian herbs and one chopped garlic clove. She would make that first and then leave it to sit while she prepared the rest of the meal. The last step before announcing that dinner was ready would be to dress the salad. I still love that basic dressing and equally the memory of my mum that it conjures for me. I also remember the many regular barbecues we had and that my mum made her own marinades for the meat. Again there was always garlic involved, olive oil and herbs and sometimes soy sauce, honey or mustard. Always simple. And delicious.

Commercially prepared salad dressings and marinades are perfect products for food manufacturers to fill with sugar, salt, GM oils, and additives that may pack a punch on flavour but can also be not so pleasant to digest and for those sensitive to additives can leave them with nausea, asthma, eczema, migraine, mood and behavioural problems to name a few.

Let's take Kraft Zesty Italian dressing as an example. Ingredients: vinegar, water, soybean oil, canola oil, sugar, salt, garlic* red bell peppers*, onions*, xanthan gum, spice, oleoresin paprika, potassium sorbate and calcium disodium edta (to perserve freshness). *dried

If you're wondering what potassium sorbate (202) and calcium disodium edta are, like I was, in a nutshell they are synthetic preservatives/additives.

As with many food additives approved by Food Standards Australia New Zealand and other food governing bodies these are deemed safe 'in moderation'. I have written before that one person's moderation is another person's overload and of course 'safe in moderation' does not take into account individual sensitivities to additives, or the cumulative effect when consuming a high processed diet. Potassium sorbate for instance can also be found in cheese, ice-cream, bread, pasta, processed meat, dips sauces and wine and skincare products.

Alternatives to commercial marinades and salad dressings

Once you have a few home made marinade and salad dressing ideas you'll never buy commercially prepared additive filled ones again.

Basically you need in your pantry:
acidity (lemon, orange, lime juice or vinegar - apple cider, balsamic, red wine vinegar)
fat (olive oil, sesame oil, yoghurt, macadamia oil, coconut milk)
and then whatever herbs, spices or flavours (mustard, honey, tamari) you like.

And then the ratio is roughly 3 parts oil to 1 part acid and then flavour as desired.

To get you started check out:
Jamie Oliver's quick jam jar dressings
Honey, mustard and sesame marinade (I'd substitute the low salt soy for tamari)
Teriakyi

If you want to keep a ready made dressing or marinade on hand read the fine print and avoid ones with additives and GM ingredients. I have used and like Bragg Healthy Vinaigrette and Ozganics Teriyaki.

Do you have a favorite homemade marinade or salad dressing recipe? Or additive free brand that you like? Please share it in the comments and it might become someone else's favorite too!

wholefood step-by-step: # 17 phase out processed snacks

Walking on to River's schoolground one afternoon I picked up the wrappers pictured above that were blowing around the oval. I picked them up not to put them in the bin but because I wanted to read the list of ingredients.

To the majority of  parents at River's school me doing this would seem weird and a bit over the top, after all, it isn't really a big deal that kids eat snack food is it? Well, of course I do think it is a big a deal. A really big deal that so many people, children and adults are eating mainly foods from packets and that they think that there will be no impact on their health and well-being and that they don't give a moments thought to the environmental impacts of the earth's resources that go into creating the products and the packaging that they come in.

The way I see it, the problem isn't eating these foods once, or if there was one snack food in the lunchbox and the rest of the time it is fruit, vegetables and protein, no there are two problems as I see it:

1. The Myth of Moderation - this is really a post in itself but I will touch on it here. The old 'everything in moderation' is full of problems because one person's moderation is another person's overload and vice versa. The most accurate way to work out if your family is consuming something moderately or occasionally is to keep a food journal, I think you would be surprised to see how many snacks and 'treats' are sneaking in that are full of processed ingredients such as wheat, refined sugar and damaged fats that are not nourishing in any way.

2. The second problem that goes with this is the cumulative effect of eating non-foods or factory made foods. Sure everyone might be able to get away with eating a packet of chips or some other processed snack from time to time but the problem is that ingredients such as wheat, sugar and damaged fats are in just about every processed food on the supermarket shelf, even in ones you don't expect them to be - who expects chocolate to have wheat in it? or muesli to have sugar and vegetable oil in it? So, without even trying people who include processed foods daily in their diets are overloading their bodies with ingredients that impact their digestion and immunity and ultimately their overall health.

Using these two snack foods as examples let's take a look at the ingredients:

Dominion Naturals - Ropes. Strawberry, raspberry and blueberry flavoured. No artificial colours or flavours. No preservatives, gluten free and 99% fat free. That is the list of selling points on the packaging. Many people would read this and think its good, it is 'natural' and free of artificial nasties, it contains fruit and it is fat free (inference is that you won't get fat by eating it). A the very bottom of the nutrition table in fine print are the words: Fruit juice based confectionery. So, really these are lollies dressed up by marketers as something healthy. (Makes me cross!!) The ingredients: glucose syrup, sugar, fruit juice concentrate (18%), Gelatine, Gelling Agent (406), Thickener (1401), Acidity Regulators (330,296), Natural colours (140, 163, 120), Natural Flavours, Glazing Agent (903).

Sun rice mini bites creepy cheese. Delicious mini brown rice cakes, seasoned with tasty natural flavours that are the perfect bite-size to munch and crunch. Made with wholegrain brown rice. No artificial colours or flavours. Gluten free. Wholegrain brown rice, consumers think that's good isn't it? Ingredients: wholegrain brown rice (84%), seasoning (milk solids, salt, natural flavour, hydrolysed corn protein, yeast extracts, cheese powder, sunflower oil, acidity regulators (270, 327), sunflower oil. This product also has a logo on it that reads 'National Healthy School Canteen - Amber Compliant' which would give some parents an added reassurance that they are buying healthy food.

Processed snacks may be quick to throw in the lunchbox but with some planning ahead so are homemade snacks. By making some time each week to bake some muffins, make muesli bars, bliss balls, or even to bake cake and then freezing them you are providing your family with wholesome wholefood snacks that are vastly better for their bodies and minds and for the planet.

I can hear some of you sighing and thinking oh no another thing to do but I think it is so worth the time and effort. Good health is such a precious gift that deserves to be protected every chance we have. The problem with having a processed diet is that the effects take time to show up. With the dominance of commercially produced food that is presented to us daily in various settings, there has never been a more important time to be proactive and stay ahead with good health. Many people wait until they get sick to make changes to their diet and lifestyle. Don't wait to get sick for that to be your reason to make changes, prevention is much better than cure.

Take a moment to ask yourself why do you buy processed snacks, for convenience? because kids like them or ask for them? as treats?

If you buy them because your children like them or have asked you to buy them explain to them that you have learnt more about the ingredients in them and that they are not nourishing for their bodies and they do not help them to think and concentrate at school and that instead you will be making your own snacks to put in lunchboxes. If you like, you can then get your children involved in choosing some recipes and preparing the lunchbox snacks. If you would prefer to phase out the snacks rather than going cold turkey perhaps you could include a processed snack twice a week, Tuesday and Friday and then reduce it to one day and eventually none.

Here are some links to recipes to get you started with alternatives to processed snacks, once you get into the mindset that this is totally doable and that it is so worth it you won't even notice that you are doing it and you won't miss the so called convenience of processed snacks.

Six Healthy Biscuits for Lunchboxes
Ten Healthy Muffin Recipes
Carrot Cake Slice
Spiced apricot, orange and quinoa muesli bars
Muesli bars with dried cranberries and seeds
Raw chocolate bliss balls

Oh and by the way never feel guilty or embarrassed about where you are at on your food journey. The most important thing is that we are all doing the best we can with the time, money and knowledge we have. Make small adjustments as you go along. Modern living can be stressful enough as it is, don't add guilt to your plate, do what you can making small adjustments as your knowledge grows.

I wish you well with making this change. I think you will find it so satisfying to stop buying processed snacks I know I have. Xx

sustain expo: pete evans + sam gowing

I had the 'day off' from my beautiful family on sunday and headed to Melbourne solo for the Sustain natural and organic lifestyle expo. I went to see my friend Sam Gowing launch her book The Healing Feeling and see her cooking demo, and it was a bonus to see another old friend Pete Evans who was there also doing a couple of cooking demos.

As much as I loved my day out and seeing Sam and Pete, - expos aren't my thing. Information overload and overwhelmingly they are about shopping and selling stuff, stuff that most of us do not really need to live a natural and organic life. When I was working as a journalist going to an expo or festival was a great way to find stories of new products because that's what the media is obsessed with new new new, but now I'm really wanting to keep life simple and non consumerist.

The highlights of the day weren't Sam and Pete's recipes (as nourishing as they were!), it was what they had to say. Their words inspired me to delve deeper into this wholefood way of life and to keep talking to others about following it too.

Pete kicked off the cooking demos with some breakky ideas - miso soup with veggies and protein, and a delicious berry chia seed pudding. Pete and I worked together 20 (!) years ago at the first restaurant he co-owned and while he has always had an interest in health and nutrition, over the past few years it has become a focus that he has committed to by studying holistic nutrition and opening BU organics in Bondi.

At the expo Pete spoke in a way that would have either been inspiring or challenging depending where listeners were on their wellness path. "We are what we absorb," he began, talking about the importance of proper digestion and gut health, making the point that digestion begins in the mouth reminding us to chew, chew, chew! It's also a good reminder of why taking the time to sit down and eat is so much better for us than eating on the run. A personal trainer once said to me, if you don't have time to sit down and eat, you don't have time to eat.

I've written before about the growing confusion over how to know what to eat - paleo, gluten free, grain free, dairy free ??!! - the refreshing thing about Pete's message is that it is not preachy or holier than thou, he suggests that we be our own experiments, what is right for one person may not be right for another person. He suggests that if you have a feeling a food you are eating is not agreeing with you, stop eating it for a while see how you feel, reintroduce it and see how you feel.

Pete also acknowledged the emotional reasons behind why we eat certain foods, such as grain or sugar. He posed the idea that the more emotional resistance we had to giving up a certain food the more addicted we were to eating it. He suggested that we keep asking ourselves 'Why?' Why are we drawn to eating certain foods if they have no nutritional value and if they can have a negative affect on our health.

Sam whipped up a delicious cauliflower 'cous cous' salad with nuts and berries and shared her story of going from being a publican to becoming a nutritionist and spa food chef. Like all of us, Sam is so much more than the titles on her work profile she is wise and grounded and when it comes to food, guided by common sense and a good dose of Chinese Medicine too. One point in particular that Sam made that stood out to me was if you have weak digestion, having a cold raw green smoothie may not be that helpful, with a tough green veg like kale for instance Sam recommended lightly steaming it and letting it cool before adding it to your smoothie.

Sam talked about food miles and how she favours locally grown over imported organic, "There are fabulous growers at farmers markets that may not be certified organic but who grow food without toxins and I'd rather buy from them than buy organic food that's been on an aeroplane". Sam's favorite superfoods aren't the ones that cost a lot of money, sure they're nice but in her book kale, cauliflower, broccoli and tumeric have just as much merit.

The audience in all the sessions wanted to know about which oils were best to use, coconut oil was on both Sam and Pete's list as were extra virgin olive oil for use cold (ie. in salads or food after cooking but not to be used when cooking because heat changes its structure), Sam is a fan of macadamia oil over popular oils such as rice bran oil, one tip she gave was to buy oils in dark coloured glass over clear glass or in plastic. Clarified butter (ghee) and animal fats (beef or duck) were other options for cooking, and sesame oil was favoured for dressings or adding in at the end of cooking such as in Pete's breakfast miso dish.

For more inspiration and recipes from Pete and Sam check out their facebook pages here and here, and Sam's blog bittersweetsour or buy her book The Healing Feeling. Pete's health inspired cookbook will be out in April 2014.

Where are you finding your real food/wholefood inspiration at the moment? Share your favorite blogs, websites and cookbooks in the comments.