Looking for some nutritional advice? Check out the following websites for nutritional information.
Naturopathic Doctors are a great resource for helping you with your nutritional needs. MultiTRAINERfiness has partnered up with Bolton Naturopathic to offer clients help with natural nutritional strategies that work.
The Health Canada, Food & Nutrition section of their website provides details on the Canada Food Guide, how to read nutritional labels and understand them and lots of other interesting information.
Self Magazine's Nutrition Data website offers a free nutrition management tool that gives you nutritional information for your favourite recipes based on the US FDA standards.
Recipes
Brown Rice/Spelt and Whole Wheat Pizza Dough
Here's a high fibre alternative to pizza that your whole family will love. The dough comes out like a thin delicious cracker and you can add any toppings to it that you'd like. If you're looking for a full gluten free alternative, then just use brown rice flour instead of mixing in the spelt and whole wheat flour--although the dough will be a little more crumbly and less elastic.
Ingredients:
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/2 cup spelt flour
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1 envelope of active dry yeast
3/4 cup of water (warm to the touch--not too hot)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
2 tbsps ground flax seeds (optional)
First mix the yeast, sugar and warm water in a small mixing bowl and let the yeast proof (it should look like a cappuccino, foamy and light brown in colour). Then mix your flours, salt and ground flax seed. Mix the yeast mixture into the flour mixture and knead until the dough comes together. Let rise for 1/2 hour in a warm place (make sure to cover it with some plastic wrap and a tea towel) and then roll it out on a floured surface and place in your pizza pan. Note that since there is less gluten, the dough will be a little softer and will be more crumbly when you're rolling it out and when you transfer it to the pizza pan. Make sure to oil your pan, and add a sprinkling of cornmeal to the bottom of your pan to make the crust more crunchy and it'll also help it from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Top with the ingredients of your choice, I like to make it tomato sauce and cheese free, replacing it with lots of garlic, onions, and fresh vegetables and herbs, brushing it first with about 1 tbsp of olive oil, and layering all the veggies on top. If you prefer regular pizza dough (especially if your kids are picky like mine), then replace the flour with regular white flour and follow the same steps. This recipe makes a large size thin crust pizza, and makes about 12 slices depending on how big you cut them.
Oatmeal Bars
Here's a favourite recipe of ours that we like to share with our clients. Although it has some fat content, its way more filling, has more protein and more vitamins and no preservatives then other bars out in the market. Plus, you can add or subtract ingredients to the main recipe based on what you like to eat (keep in mind that high calorie/fat substitutes will change the overall nutritional rating).
Ingredients:
3 cups of oatmeal
1/2 cup of margarine (melted)
1 can condensed milk
1 handful of raisins
1 handful of almonds (chopped)
1 handful of pumpkin seeds
You can add other seeds/dried fruit if you'd like, chocolate chips taste great too, but they increase your fat content, so be weary of the added calories!
Mix the oats with the margarine and condensed milk, then add the dried fruit and nuts. Prepare a 9 x 12 pan, line with parchment paper (this is the only way that it won't stick to the pan) and heat oven to 350 degrees Celsius. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until the edges of the bars get brown. Take out of the oven and cut (with a pizza cutter) into 24 squares and let cool. Once cool, break the squares by the pre-cut areas. Use crumbs as granola in your yogurt!