Have you ever been told you would die shortly if you lived the way you did?

I have.

In February of 2008 I went to the doctor for a checkup. I hated going to the doctor. It was never good news for me. I was not feeling very good at the time. I did not tell my wife this, but I was coughing up blood for no reason. That made me very nervous.

I walked in and the nurse called me from the waiting room. She walked me to the scale where I told her it was not necessary for me to go on it. It went up to 350 pounds. I did not know my exact weight, but I knew I was over 400 pounds at the time. As always, she wrote down “350+” as my weight.

The nurse took my blood pressure which was 160/100. She freaked out a little.

That was normal for me. It is crazy to think that was normal for me as I consider it now. It was high because I was not taking the blood pressure medication they prescribed to me. Nor was I taking the medicine for my cholesterol which was over 300.

The doctor came in and asked me what was wrong. I told him I was coughing up blood and feeling dizzy a lot. He was writing some things down and then asked a couple of questions….

“Are you eating any better than before?”

“No.”

“Are you taking your medication?”

“No.”

That is all he had to ask. After that he told me what I knew, but did not want to hear.

“If you do not change the way you live, you will die shortly. Your blood pressure is high, you are coughing up blood and it just seems like you do not care. You have to make some drastic changes. You need to not only lose weight, but change your life.”

I have heard of people who have heart attacks and still live life like they did before. Only to have another heart attack or die. I did not want to be that person.

I was scared. I asked what the best bet was and he told me to change how I ate. I had to do it fast.

I joined Weight Watchers and started to lose weight. During that time I decided to not only lose weight but change the way I ate. I really limited my processed foods and started to focus more on real ingredients. You know…..fruits, vegetables, lean meats and whole grains.

That is how I am living my life now. I am not perfect, but I do not have to take the medications I once ignored. I live an active life now and I can go on any scale and know my exact weight.

I also still focus on real foods now. That is why I love Attune and Uncle Sam cereal, which is made of a few simple ingredients. I think that is the key for me. That is how I am going to stay under 400 pounds for the rest of my life.

Be well!

Tony

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Around here we love the diversity, simplicity and great flavor of meatloaf. This comfort food is not the most glamourous, but most folks embrace the joy of coming home to one after a long day at work. It is equally wonderful to open your homemade lunch box to find this kind of nourishing meal at your fingertips.

For little kids, trim a slice into small cubes. Babies can eat this protein packed meal with their fingers and bigger kids can improve their fork handling skills.

Try you meatloaf with a side of extra sauce. Also top with some delicious micro greens. Like this….

Don’t forget those vegetables to make this a well rounded meal. You can go with steamed veggies and some rice. We love these Balsamic Grilled Veggies with the loaf too!

My Green Beans with Toasted Walnuts and Quinoa would be the perfect pairing too!

You could also make a delicious salad. How about this fresh take: Salad with Goat Cheese Pecan Balls and Raspberry Vinaigrette

The other nice thing about my healthy meatloaf recipe is it is entirely gluten free. Instead of traditional bread crumbs I use Attune Food’s Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal as the binder. You will never know the difference!

This is comfort food as good as it gets…dig in!

Chicken Meatloaf

RECIPE:

YIELD: makes about 8 servings of meatloaf

¾ cup Erewhon Crispy Brown Rice Cereal

½ teaspoon Onion Powder

½ teaspoon Garlic Powder

a few pinches coarse ground Black Pepper

2 tablespoons chopped fresh Herbs, such as Thyme or Oregano

2 pounds ground Chicken (I like to mix dark and light meat)

1 large Egg, whisked

2 tablespoons Soy Sauce or Tamari (use this for gluten free diets)

½  cup diced canned Tomatoes

OPTIONAL:

Hot Sauce

TOPPING:

Marinara Sauce

Serve over:

Quinoa, Pasta, Rice or Veggies

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F with the rack in the middle. Pulse the brown rice cereal in a food processor or crush in a bag until you have a fine crumb.

Combine the chicken with the cereal crumbs, onion powder,  garlic powder, pepper and herbs. Make a well in the center and slowly add in the egg, tamari sauce and tomatoes. Mix with hands until well combined. Make a mound in the center of a casserole dish and cover loosely with aluminum foil. Bake for 40 minutes. Remove foil and top the meatloaf with some marinara sauce. Bake uncovered for about another 10 minutes until meat is cooked through.

Recipe and photography copyright 2012 Marla Meridith.

Be well!

Marla

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After years of “functional food” being popular – people are rightly becoming increasingly skeptical of food being designed by scientists to be healthy.  More and more evidence is coming out supporting the idea that the body is incredibly sophisticated at picking out nutrients and vitamins.  No longer is a vitamin pill equal to an apple – in fact, the human body is specifically designed to absorb the vitamins from whole food, rather than from the isolates that are stuck together with additives and flavors.  Evolution has ensured that the thousands of years of people eating whole food grown in nature has trained the body appropriately.  It’s becoming clear that not all vitamins, fiber, and protein is the same.  All those years scientists wasted extracting and isolating the very best parts of fiber from the grain and the protein from soy, and spraying food with vitamins.

Here comes the real food revolution.  Well, sort of.

In response to the trend of consumers demanding real food – food scientists and marketers have responded by making food real again!  Are you skeptical?  You should be.

Expect more food with long shelf lives that is marketed as simple, wholesome, and real.  We’re already seeing aseptic looking white packaging with Helvetica font featuring once big branded food that is now “simple”.  Foods are being reformulated to remove High Fructose Corn Syrup, substituted with something called evaporated cane juice – which sounds a lot more real than sugar, which is what it is.  Products are being fairy dusted with whole wheat flour, or something called wheat flour, which is actually just white flour.  Natural flavors which are scientific concoctions barely understandable by the people that make them, are flavoring our foods – instead of the ingredients themselves.  Pictures of farmers are shown in commercials growing things like potatoes and vegetables – clearly leaving out pictures of the corporate offices and lobbyists doing most of the work.  More and more growth is coming from organic – yet, quite a bit of those products are being imported from places with different organic standards than the United States.  People are fighting for GMO labeling, yet the government insists that there is no difference between genetically modified and “real”.  Meat is being reformulated to remove pink slime, yet the antibiotics and corn pellet diets remain.  Farmed salmon is injected with dye to give it its “real” pink color.

Call it the real food revolution.

Or just realwashing.

Be well!

Daniel

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Julia is the creator of the Roasted Root, a food blog with an emphasis on savory recipes where nutrition is cooked into every bite without sacrificing flavor. We love that she  is a self-taught cooking enthusiast who prioritizes using whole foods and high quality grains in her cooking and baking.

Make Mother’s Day festivities into a Whole Grain Brunch! Check out Julia’s creative Cornbread Quiche recipe below as an idea for Mother’s Day. Looking for something sweet? Don’t forget about the Strawberry Frangipane Tart with Brown Butter Brown Rice Crust.
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Let’s talk quiche.  Let’s talk quiche for a whole grain brunch! I was very excited when Bob’s Red Mill and Attune Foods asked me to be a part of the Whole Grain Brunch that they are hosting the merry month of May.  For the brunch recipe, I combined Bob’s Red Mill Cornmeal (medium grind) with Attune Foods Gluten-Free Corn Flakes cereal; out of this happy marriage came a cornmeal pie crust with a wonderful corn flake layer between the buttery flavorful crust and the sausage & veggie packed quiche filling.  Between the whole grains, protein and veggie vitamins, this quiche not only makes for a well-balanced meal, it is also a definite palate pleaser!

If you like quiche, you’ll love this. If you like cornbread, you’ll love this.  If you like food…..you’ll LOVE this!  The cornmeal crust with the cornflake layer definitely gives a sort of cornbread feel while maintaining the flaky composure that any great crust should have.  As far as I’m concerned, the word quiche translates to “brunch”…you just can’t have a brunch without quiche the way I see it. This one is packed with sausage, mushrooms, asparagus and sweet potato. Sound strange? I promise, it’s great! While I tend to make cheese-less quiches, Gruyere would work wonderfully in this recipe should you choose to add cheese.

With Mother’s Day around the corner, you can plan in advance for your mom’s brunch with this quiche.  It is still a classic recipe, but with a whole grain kick and a unique flavor punch. A lot of this recipe can be prepared ahead of time – for me this is a plus. It still takes me a hot minute to compile a pie crust, as I’m no pie crust baking whizz, so I prepared the crust the night before I made the quiche. You can even prepare the meat and veggie filling ahead of time for extra planning brownie points.

Cornbread Quiche

Ingredients:

For the Cornmeal & Cornflake Pie Crust

1 cup Bob’s Red Mill Whole Wheat Pastry Flour

¾ cup Bob’s Red Mill Cornmeal (medium grind)

¼ cup Bob’s Red Mill Tapioca Starch

1 teaspoon salt

6 tablespoons unsalted butter, chilled and chopped

7 tablespoons ice water

1 cup Attune Foods Erewhon Gluten Free Corn Flakes

For the Quiche Filling

2 teaspoons olive oil

½ sweet potato, chopped into ¼” pieces

¼ cup liquid, such as water, chicken or vegetable broth

6 stalks asparagus, bottom 1” inch removed and discarded, remaining stalks chopped into ½” pieces

2 stalks green onion, coarsely chopped

5 portabella mushrooms, chopped into 1/8ths

4 small breakfast sausage links, chopped into ½” pieces (optional)

¼ teaspoon salt

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

¼ teaspoon curry powder (optional)

7 eggs

¼ cup cream (optional)

½ cup shredded gruyere cheese (optional)

To make:

For the pie crust

In a mixing bowl, food processor or mixer (I used my KitchenAid with the rounded whisk attachment), combine the cornmeal, whole wheat pastry flour, tapioca starch, salt. Pulse/mix until these ingredients are combined.

Slowly cut in the chilled chunks of butter, about a tablespoon at a time all the while mixing. Mix until little beads the size of peas (or smaller) form.

Add the ice water one tablespoon at a time, mixing between tablespoons.  The dough will begin to come together.  Once all of the water has been added, take the dough in your hands and form a ball. Place dough on a floured surface, kneed a few times and then press it into a disc about 1.5” thick.  Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for an hour (or overnight. If you refrigerate overnight just be aware it will take a little longer to roll the dough out because the butter will re-solidify and the dough will be hard).

After the dough has chilled, uncover it and place it on a floured surface. Use a rolling pin to roll it about 1/8” thick. If the dough splits around the edges while you’re rolling it, simply press it back together.  It’s okay if you don’t end up with a perfect circle because there is enough dough to cover a 9.5” x 2” pie dish with a little extra.

Lightly oil your pie dish with olive oil. Carefully transfer the rolled out pie crust to the pie dish and gently pressing it into the dish, ensure the whole surface area is covered.

PRICK PIE CRUST WITH A FORK multiple times. This is an important step because it allows air to ventilate through the quiche – without this step you run the risk of your eggs spilling over and creating a big ol mess in your oven.

Spread the corn flakes over the pie crust evenly and now your quiche is ready to be filled.

For the quiche

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium-sized skillet, add the olive oil and heat to medium.  Add the sweet potato first and sauté covered, about 4 minutes. Add liquid about a tablespoon at a time, waiting for it to steam off before adding more, keeping the skillet covered, cooking the potatoes another 4 to 5 minutes. Remove the cover from the skillet and check the potatoes for level of “done-ness” – they should be softening up but still be al dente.  Add the sausage and brown 1 minute before adding the mushrooms and asparagus. Continue adding liquid whenever necessary to help cook the vegetables.  Sauté about 5 to 8 minutes until the sweet potato is soft. Add the green onion, remove from heat and set aside.

In a mixing bowl, add the eggs and whisk.  Add the salt, pepper and curry powder.  Whisk until well combined. If you are adding cream and shredded cheese, do so now and stir until the shredded cheese is saturated with egg.

Pour the vegetable and sausage contents into the pie dish. You can fill it to the brim, but if there’s too much filling, simply save some of the sausage and veggies for later.  Carefully pour the egg mixture over the filling evenly. Gently tap the pie dish on a level hard surface a few times.

Cover the dish with aluminum foil and bake in the oven for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5 to 10 minutes, until crust and top are golden brown and the egg is firm but has just the slightest jiggle.  Allow to cool 10 minutes before serving.

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When Julia of the Roasted Root is not working or cooking, she spends her time playing outdoors in the mountains. Cycling, mountain biking, snowboarding, hiking, and travel are her main hobbies; balancing health, fitness and fun with work is her approach to life.  Julia aspires to work with various companies as a recipe developer promoting nutrient-dense foods.

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As I began my trek down this healthy living path I somehow became an eliminator.

I decided if I didn’t eat certain foods (thankfully I’ve repressed what they were as I quite clearly recall the repetitive nature of the foods which remained) my excess weight would miraculously  melt away.  Swiftly, easily and permanently.

Not only did I possess zero healthy eating habits as I began to shed pounds, the healthy foods I did consume I ate over and over (and over).

Apples. Apples. Apples.

Big salads. Big salads. Big salads.

You get the idea.

And you know the prevailing wisdom about not eating the same foods daily because if you miss a nutrient once you miss it *repeatedly*?  That was me. BigGapsInMyDiet McGee.

I’d arbitrarily pick a few healthy food options, eat them till I lost my appetite completely (take my word for how shocking this is), return to old junk-food habits, and eventually start the cycle again.

I firmly believe I’d still be in the ‘grasping at random healthy foods in a panic’ loop were it not for a comment a friend made:

“You need to eat like our grandparents did. Half a sandwich, some fruit, veggies, a few nuts and a glass of milk.”

Eat like our grandparents did.

Those words made sense to me.  It was that basic: real food, real ingredients, wide variety.

For the next few weeks I thought about my grandmothers each time I reached for food or prepared a meal.

“Is this something they’d have eaten?  Is what I’m about to place in my mouth something they’d have recognized as “food”?”

I’d be lying if I claimed I succeeded in answering YES to both questions back then.

Heck, I’d be lying if I claim I succeed in answering YES to both questions right now.

There are still times when I grab a snack pack (something neither grandmother would have recognized), but the victory is it’s a conscious choice and not done mindlessly or emotionally.

I strive, some days more successfully than others, to consume only real ingredients and a wide array of healthy foods.

I make an effort to eat as my grandmothers did.

And, on the days when eating healthy involves much preparation and work, I like to imagine them investing the same care and time in the foods they ate, too.

I like to imagine they’re smiling at my efforts.

Take a moment and reflect on what you’ve eaten over the past few days.

Did you consume foods our grandparents would have recognized or eaten?

Do you struggle, as I still do, with the ease of the processed?

Be well!

Carla

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Here is the truth. When I struggled with morbid obesity, I never gave the first thought to what was in the foods I bought at the grocery store. If it appealed to my taste buds, I bought it. If I liked the packaging, I bought it. If it seemed like I would like the taste of it, I bought it.

I rarely turned the box over to scan the ingredient list. Instead I ate the food happily without regard to what I was putting into my body.

Things like orange cheese puffs, chocolate peanut butter cereal, oddly colored candy, and crackers with no nutritional value appealed to me and I ate them.

Those foods contributed to me looking like this picture.

Although I had joined Weight Watchers dozens of times and heard knowledgeable people talk about how important it was to eat healthy, whole foods, I never truly believed it would matter in my weight loss attempts.

How wrong I was.

In 1997, when I took charge of my health and responsibility for my own obesity, I took a long hard look at the foods I had been purchasing and eating. Honestly, I felt a little guilty when I read the food labels of orange cheese puffs. The label looked like something from a science experiment in my chemistry class.

Words like partially hydrogenated soybean oil, maltodextrin, protein concentrate, monosodium glutamate, lactic acid and more leapt from the label, causing me to realize, perhaps for the first time, that there was more to foods than just the picture on front of the package.

As I began trying to lose weight by really changing my relationship to food I confronted not only the emotions surrounding my problems with food, but also worked on developing a new attitude towards food. If I had to use a dictionary to decipher words on the label, I tended to avoid the food. Foods that had recognizable ingredients or whole, natural foods were those I worked hard on enjoying and choosing.

Sometimes when I am at the grocery store I think back to the old days when my food was so full of processed ingredients that they no longer resembled their food of origin. Whenever I speak to groups I always remind them that if they look at a food and say “What in the world is in that food” then they may be wise to avoid that food altogether.

How are you at foregoing foods full of chemical additives in favor of more natural, wholesome foods? 

Be well!

Diane

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Strawberry Frangipane Tart with Brown Butter Brown Rice Crust

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I was given the challenge to create a recipe where each serving was packed with one full serving of whole grain cereal, had zero additives, and wasn’t fortified, yet contained a plethora of vitamins and minerals from healthy whole foods.

Initially, it was supposed to be a muffin … but have you ever tried to pack 3/4 cup of whole grain cereal in a muffin tin, even without other ingredients added? I’ll need to invest in some Texas-sized muffin tins before I can make that one happen.

BUT, I think these easy, crunchy clusters are just as tasty as a muffin, far easier to make, and incredibly portable!

To pump up the nutrient volume on this healthy food option, I sweetened and clustered the whole grain cereal with mineral-rich blackstrap molasses and maple syrup, and amped up the vitamins, protein, and healthy fats (for satiety and lasting energy) with a combination of almonds and almond butter. Add a dash of cinnamon, a splash of vanilla, and a pinch of salt, and you’ve got yourself one healthy whole food breakfast-to-go.

As a full breakfast-on-the-go, the batch below makes 2 hearty servings, each with the following nutrient profile:

398 calories; 17 grams of fat; 15 grams of fiber (yes, 58% of the RDI!); 15 grams of sugar; 12 grams of protein; 175mg calcium (17.5% of RDI); 208mg magnesium (52% of RDI); 808mg potassium (22% of RDI); 14.5mg iron (26.5% of RDI)

As an added bonus, this wholesome crunch is a good source of manganese, vitamin E, vitamin B6, tryptophan, copper, vitamin B2, selenium, phosphorus AND it contains just 150mg of sodium per serving. Take that fortified imposters!

For wholesome 100-calorie snacks, scoop the clusters into eight muffin cups – the cuter the better.

Be well!

Alisa

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I have the sincere pleasure of getting to chat with our customers and some days quite a few of them. After a while, you can sometimes find patterns in the types of questions asked and I can tell you, I’ve heard some great stories of our customers introduction to our foods as well as recipe ideas. One thing I appreciate and have learned from our customers who have food allergies or are calling / emailing on behalf of a family member with food allergies is to read the ingredient label, to ask questions about production and ultimately to be your own advocate.

Most of America could learn from this approach to eating mindfully- in a different way. And yet, I recognize that for those with food allergies, they are thrust into it one day without a manual of where to start, only a goal of what to eliminate and thus they begin the question-asking process. I’ve talked to customers recently diagnosed with gluten intolerance as well to mothers with kids that have a litany of allergies who are feeling a bit beaten down. I like to give them something to smile about, something that’s nourishing to their spirits.

Nourished Food Bloggers Conference took place in the suburbs of Chicago in mid-April and we happily sponsored this convergence of niche food bloggers. Many of them I’d read their blogs and seen such innovative, fun recipe ideas but there were a bunch of new faces too. I met Nom Yum Free as she toted around her baby girl during the one day conference and learned of her daughter’s food allergies and her new list of foods to avoid. After hearing the list I promised her a box of Rice Twice which I read from a blog post she tweeted this last week she ate “by the handful.”

I canoodled with old friends and got to see what the ladies of Easy Eats good to be gluten free magazine and then celebrated finding camaraderie and kinship with the lovely folks from Living Without magazine. Our friends from Pacific Foods joined us to pour non-dairy milks and offer a sweet giveaway during the Gluten Free / Allergen Free Expo.

Throughout the entire weekend, I would have been sunk had it not been for sidekick extraordinaire, Charissa of local Bay Area gluten free Zest Bakery. She helped me serve our No-Bake Gluten Free Date Bars at the closing cocktail party and provide recipe tips at the corresponding next two days of the Gluten Free / Allergen Free Expo. We even got to see fireworks light up the evening sky one night as a wedding party perched on the balcony of our conference hotel.

Community- it’s something I believe in, noted by my company title of Online Community Manager. Bringing people together, playing off of each other’s strengths for the purpose of building each other up are things that get me up every morning and keep me going late into the night.

During the month of May, we are partnering with our friends at Bob’s Red Mill to bring you a Whole Grain Brunch. We challenged eight bloggers to bake or cook up a healthy brunch recipe using one Bob’s Red Mill product and one Attune Foods product. Tune in here each Monday and Friday to see that week’s featured bloggers and what they’ve cooked up. There’s nothing more communal than the table. Won’t you join us during May for a Whole Grain Brunch? Stay tuned later today for our first featured blogger.

With thanks and attribution of all photos by the fabulous Charissa of Zest Gluten Free Bakery.

Be well!

Annelies

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As America’s first Raisin Bran in 1926, Skinner’s has had a loyal following.  Carla writes to us sharing her story of enjoying Skinner’s for 40 years and looking for a recipe on the back of the package for the Raisin Bran Muffins.

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