Kids are settling back into their school routines and resuming their extra-curricular activities. They’ll need lots of nourishing foods to provide them with the energy for staying active and alert all day long. We’re also into the peak of the harvest season, the best time of year to serve fresh vegetables and fruits from local farms to your meals.
When preparing meals for your family each day, use food to maximize your energy!
Starting with breakfast the most crucial meal of the day, apply foods that will energize your cells, muscles and brain to function at its best. Those are proteins, healthy fats, fresh green vegetables and fruits. • Try a smoothie bowl loaded with greens, fruit, nuts and seeds or granola. High in vitamin C, Vitamin B’s and healthy fats.
Foods like sweet potato, kale, swiss chard and mixed green lettuce, zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower, coloured peppers, corn, peaches, apples and plums.
- Have an egg on a bowl of grains or multigrain toast with avocado, greens and sliced peaches.
- Have a bowl of soup with pieces of chicken or fish with a spoonful of rice or grain and fresh chopped greens on top.
- If you’re stuck on oatmeal or cereals eat it in smaller amounts with a protein food and a healthy fat such as an egg, dollop of yogurt, chia seeds or hemp.
- 3 tablespoons of Hemp equal one protein. Quinoa is also an excellent protein.
- Breakfast is a great time to add your fibre for the day.
For lunch, it doesn’t have to be a major meal.
Add fresh cut vegetables or salad type foods with protein for maintaining energy. Include smaller portions of complex carbohydrate foods so you don’t feel sleepy after eating.
- Enjoy hearty soups for lunch, vegetarian or chicken burgers, cauliflower crust pizza with assorted toppings and lots of fresh vegetables. Add in cut vegetables of carrots, celery, coloured peppers and cucumber.
- Use this meal to eat raw vegetables as much as possible. Raw vegetables and fruit contain the highest density of phytonutrients, antioxidants and live enzymes.
When you mix colourful foods together you are getting that perfect mix of vitamins and minerals!
• Include quality proteins such as tofu, tempeh, feta (goat or sheep) cheese, tuna fish (use Rainforest brand, no chemicals or heavy metals), chicken (non-antibiotic and hormone free) and other meats that are grass fed or from free range sources.
Snacks are ideal for maintaining activity throughout the day boost your energy and not feel sluggish. Select fresh whole foods of fruit, vegetables and protein dips to get you through those lulls.
Dinner is the relaxing meal of the day where complex carbohydrate of grains or starchier vegetables (sweet potatoes or corn) are the reward for calming down from the day’s events. Proteins maybe in smaller portions and buy quality proteins with your whole foods.
Enjoy these recipes for breakfast, lunch or dinner and two delicious snacks:
Breakfast: Blueberry Smoothie Bowl with Granola
Lunch or Dinner:
Everything Soup
Sweet Potato and Black Bean Burgers Best Cauliflower Pizza Crust and Toppings
Snacks:
Hummus 3 ways
Apricot Squares
Eat the best food of the fall season loaded with colourful variety of fresh vegetables and fruits.
Questions, comments or ideas, please contact Rani at wellness@raniglick.com. www.raniglick.com
Rani Glick is a Certified Holistic Nutritionist, (CNP) and Registered
Orthomolecular Health Practitioner (ROHP). She has followed her love of food to nutrition and applies its healing properties with better health.
Her mission is to inspire 5,000 people to choose real food and enjoy a healthier happier life every day. Food, physical activity, and relaxation unite the mind and body to create long-term health.
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