Making Love in the Kitchen

Written by fantabulous mama extraordinaire and superbo sister in law, Carly Telpner. We are so pleased to have Carly share her tips for developing healthy eating habits in kiddies!

This morning my darling two-year old daughter, sweet little Mia, ate a breakfast that consisted of almonds, strawberries, homemade pumpkin muffin and a green-berry smoothie that had strawberries, blueberries, kale, and hemp seeds in it. Sounds wonderful, right? I’d love to be able to say that Mia’s eating habits just happened, but as any parent would know – it took a lot of work, perseverance and little person tears. Along the way I have learned some important lessons that not only apply to instilling healthy and nourishing eating habits in my kid, but to overall parenting.

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Crunch on Carrots (Make it your mantra of the day.) First of all- that’s not a real tat. You knew that right? That was drawn on me by an unhealthy eating friend who is sure all I eat are carrots. The point here is that we should all be crunching on carrots. What if at the movies, people crunched on carrots like they did chemical corn? What if people crunched on carrots instead of potato chips. What if carrots were crunched on over smoking ciggies and swigging pitchers. What if we popped carrots instead of pills. What a world it would be!

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The title of this piece is tongue and cheek as much as it is serious. The truth is if you want to read about the facts of why and how yoga can help you, you can go to a health magazine or bookstore and find out. Don’t get me wrong they are very necessary, of extreme importance actually, but those articles/books become un-interesting quickly because it feels like you are reading something that is in a foreign language. Reading that a posture will massage your internal organs or rather someone speaking about your cervical spine and the importance of creating space while being properly supported is most likely going to go in one ear, and out the other. What I can and am going to do, is tell you about a type of yoga that I believe to be the most transcendent, transformative, and empowering type of practice I have personally experienced and witnessed. It is called Restorative Yoga.

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Each week (or two) I am breaking down my creed, line, by line. Phrase by phrase. This is my manifesto- that I learned to live by to heal from an incurable disease and that I turned into this here sweet health loving inspiration I offer you. I will tell you what the creed means to me, I hope you will share what it means to you! Flirt With Farmers. That’s John. He’s a farmer. I might love him. He definitely loves me. Told me so. He runs the farm that feeds us on our retreats in St. Lucia and declared his love for me, and desire to come back to Toronto with me and marry me- which prompted my mom, who was on that retreat, to chime in with “Meghan’s been a rasta magnet since she was 12″. Thanks mom. In all seriousness (cause flirting with farmers is a serious matter), I first developed a thing for the green thumbed, bio-dynamically inspired man in the summer of 2007. I was on a break from nutrition school and was up at my cottage when my mom and I ventured to the local farmer’s market where, in the span of 25 seconds, I fell in love with an 19 year old farmer. What won me over? He told me supermarket carrots were like sticks of wood and there is nothing better than a fresh from the earth, biodynamic carrot. Any man who even eats carrots already has me won over, but this one- I was ready to pack it in and move my life to this young chap’s family off the grid farm.

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Earlier in the week, at our baking workshop, one of our guests asked the question- “If I’m not gluten-intolerant, is there any point to going gluten-free?” A great and very important question and, with our Gluten-Free Renewal Cleanse coming up, we decided to make that our Quizzle of the Dizzle (translation: question of the day) this week. Gluten in food is a lot like mortar (the kind you use to bind bricks together). It’s thick and clumpy and makes things bind, holds them down, clumps stuff up- and that’s about it.

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Your first healing thoughts should lean towards nutrition. I will be celebrating my 70th birthday this August with family and friends. So what is so unusual about this? Well I have been given an incredible body by the powers that be but an immune system that basically sucks. It seems
to have a seven year cycle that looks for a new organ or system to attack, but I also seem to have the cat’s nine lives syndrome and win out each time. I have also been blessed with an incredible loving family, friends, doctors and specialists that have gone out of their way to bring me back to health each time. I have done everything in my power to aid in keeping myself healthy – by eating clean, exercising, yoga, meditation, gardening, and enjoying life with my children, grandchildren, and friends. So this last immune attack really sent me for a loop.

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How many of you would take your paycheque and throw 40% of it in the garbage?

Anyone? Bueller? Well, that’s what Canadians are doing with the food they buy and don’t eat – and it’s estimated that $27 billion dollars worth ends up in landfills each year. In Toronto alone, we blithely toss out a staggering 210 million kilograms of food annually, while people in our city and around the world are starving. Food waste is an enormous problem that costs us money, drives up food prices, depletes environmental resources like water and land, and is just downright unnecessary. But there is hope, my friends. There are tons of ways that you can reduce food waste in the kitchen that will save you time, money and your appetite.

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Most of you have heard the news. Maybe from Facebook or maybe when my friend, raw/vegan chef Doug McNish spilled the beans on Twitter. The sweet letters, tweets and comments have been pouring in so how could I not share the sweet love news right here. It’s true what you’ve heard, or what you may now be guessing. As of last week- my main man and I are engaged. Exciting? Yes. Very! Shocking? Yes. Very! I am not one of those ladies who have dreamed about my wedding since I was five. I haven’t a clue what my dress will look like. I don’t know if it will be a wedding for two or a wedding for 100. I don’t know where it will be, but I do hope the sun will be shining. I also know that even though this whole getting engaged/getting married thing was never something I strived for- but I must admit, it is sweet as can be to be doing both with most amazing man ever.

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FUNderwear in the kitchen – you know that is what we are all about! Join us on Monday for Gluten + Dairy-Free Treats and learn to love your sweet tooth! Want the beauty care, minus the toxins? Edible Beauty Care is February 20th! The weekend is all about breakfast and brunch right? Here are three of our absolute favourite fantabulous breakfast recipes! (Go ahead, make them for dinner too!)

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Eat Real Food. What does Real Food mean to you? My dedication to Real Food came when my intestines caught a fever and got all hot and bothered (read: bloody, inflamed, and constricted). Despite my GI telling me that I should eat what I wanted and nothing I ate would affect a disease of the digestive system, I chose to differ. I decided to commit to Real Food. It may have been an obsession for a while, was a bit of a tough transition at first, but ultimately became an effortless lifestyle. The basic premise is this: we have a right to know exactly what we are eating. You can’t do this with potato chips, cantoned orange juice, tinned spaghetti or boxed dinners. Food manufacturers don’t have to put ingredients of ingredients. That means that things that sound harmless like ‘natural flavours’ could actually be a collection of synthetic chemicals derived from plant/animal sources. You heard the one about food manufacturers using a substance that comes from beaver ass- specifically the ‘anal sac’- to make vanilla flavour, right? That falls into the ‘natural flavour’ category reference.

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Should sugar be regulated like other ‘drugs’ we can so easily get our hands on if we want? This was all over the news last week and I thought I should offer my view. It may surprise many but hear me out on this. The argument in favour goes like this: “Sugar poses enough health risks that it should be considered a controlled substance just like alcohol and tobacco, contend a team of researchers from the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)”. Read the full Times article here. I opted out of going on to the mainstream news to discuss this because what I really wanted to say isn’t what the peeps over in mainstream generally smile upon. Understandably- as it tends to offend a lot of advertisers. Since I don’t allow advertisers that I think are part of the problem to advertise, I have no one to please but you, my mom and my dad. So- here are my thoughts.

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Another retreat has come and gone. So it goes. I wait all year for this sweet, sweet week of great food, amazing people, sunshine, adventure, learning and most of all- loving. The demand for these weeks of rejuvenation just keep growing and we already have nearly 20 on our wait list for next year! Crazy town. I will keep my words short today and just allow the pics to transport you to the warm tropical breezes. Enjoy! Brunch is always a huge highlight of the day!

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I am back from St. Lucia with no time to rest. The fun of the photoshoot has come and gone and now it is time to make nice with my computer, highlighters and team over here that will be sailing this biz ship while I hide away. My entire edited manuscript was sitting on my desk when I returned to work yesterday. In case you were wondering what a 73,000 word manuscript looks like.. well here you go.

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Written by Lisa Borden, a sweet, sweet member of Meghan Telpner’s Superhero Posse.
How much heavier are you when you leave a restaurant? Dining out is one of life’s absolute pleasures and privileges, especially now that more and more local, organic cuisine is peppering the culinary scene. Restaurants are a key part of our culture – think celebrations, business meetings and first dates and it’s crucial for us and our world to eat off of greener menus (and we are not simply referring to a leafy salad). I find my own palate has changed as I stick to my own set of eating-values. I now want slow food (but sometimes when I’m out with all 3 kids, not too slow) and organic menus supporting local food providers. In fact, I’ll drive across the city for it (because there are but a few gems). I try to counteract the un-eco-ness of the travel in as many ways possible and hope that as we all demand more, there won’t be a “green restaurant” category, and it’ll be the standard because it just makes sense for all of us.

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I wrote the creed in about 10 minutes. For real. I had been thinking about it and when it came to put pen to paper (or index fingers to keyboard- yes, two finger typer over here), it just flowed out. Why? Because I live it of course. Every mindful moment of my day, I do my best to lighten up, smile and always remember that Today, most certainly, is the day. We have been getting emails and letters (and even photos!) from around the globe, with people sharing how they are doing their best to live this creed as their own manifesto. It’s become art on their walls, backgrounds on their phones, wallpaper on their desktop, and of course- their go to tote bag. For this reason, I have something I would like share… in a moment. First- we made a few creed inspired changes around the kitchen (that went with a few changes on my biz site). We took down my old signature decal that greets guests in my kitchen.

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