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Jen Wright

Parent Info Night- Children’s Lunches and Easy Ideas!

November 27, 2015 by Rachel

Our nutritionist Jen Wright recently spoke at a parent info night. Her tips are perfect for busy families!
See below!

photo 1 (3)

Last night I had the pleasure of spending the evening with some parents from Our Lady of Mount Carmel School. It was so much fun to be able to help parents learn some easy lunch ideas for their children’s lunches.
We also touched on the effects that high sugar and processed snacks can have on their ability to learn and function at school.
I am always asked how to provide better food for our children without spending a lot of money. Or how do I fit making healthy food into our already crazy, busy schedules? My answer to this is PLANNING! Sit down one day a week, go through your flyers and see what is on sale, check your schedule for the week ahead and plan accordingly. Make your menu up for the entire week, and include lunches and snacks. Go to the grocery store, by yourself (if possible) sometimes children add to our food budget because they see something they HAVE to have. If not possible, stick to your list as much as possible. The other thing I tell people, is make meals that can be more than one meal.

For example:

Sunday night: Make a roast turkey/chicken, roasted potatoes and roasted vegetables. But make double the amount of veggies you need. Save the extras for an easy lunch side at work.
Save the bones from your turkey or chicken, and put them in the slow cooker overnight to make chicken/turkey broth for Monday night’s dinner, or lunches throughout the week.

Leftover chicken can then be used for wraps in your children’s or your own lunch.
In the same amount of time you have 2 nights dinner in one day! Here is my recipe for quick and easy chicken soup. Perfect for these colder nights. Serve with a salad or a veggie plate. Enjoy!

Chicken/Turkey Soup in the Slow Cooker
Using the bones from your roasted chicken or turkey. Put the bones in slow cooker with enough water to half fill the slow cooker. Allow to cook on low over night. Remove bones and strain liquid, putting the broth back into the slow cooker. Take any small pieces of chicken and put in the slow cooker. This recipe is great for cleaning out your fridge, you can use most vegetables.

Add the following:
• Diced onion
• Celery
• Carrots, turnip, parsnips
• Corn
• Potatoes
• Small pieces of kale or spinach if you have it.
• 2-3 cloves garlic, diced.

Allow to cook until vegetables are soft. Season to taste with:
• Salt and pepper
• Poultry seasoning
• Thyme
• Celery salt

You can add a box or organic chicken broth if more liquid is needed. You may also add a can of diced tomatoes.
Cook rice or pasta separately and add when serving. If you add it to the soup it will go mushy.

Filed Under: Children, Did you know?, Recipes Tagged With: chicken soup, easy recipe, Jen Wright, meal planning, meal prep, nutritionist in ottawa, ottawa, school info night, turkey soup, veggies

Nutritionist Story: Jen Wright

October 13, 2015 by Rachel

Jen Wright joined our team this year and has an amazing story as to why and how she became a nutritionist. She specializes in families and children and has a bunch of great recipes, some of which can be found here!

Jen’s Story

How did I get here?

I didn’t graduate from college at 20 with the dreams of becoming a nutritionist. In fact I didn’t even know that existed. I graduated from college with a diploma in Early Childhood Education with the intent of going on to become a teacher, but life happened. I got a summer job at a municipal child care centre, working with children and I loved it! So instead of going back to school I stayed….for 13 years actually. I had a full-time job, with benefits, vacation and suddenly a husband, 3 children in four years and a dog. For a very short period of time I even drove a minivan!! What more could you ask for? Things were going well, I was managing, juggling everyone’s schedules and life. Some days were better than others.
When my oldest was 3 or 4, I noticed she didn’t handle sugar very well. She would get a little hyper (more than most kids) and often quite angry after consuming it. So we didn’t do sugary snacks or candy all that often. I had fixed things and the world was good again. But later that year she started school, and sports and birthday parties. So even though we didn’t eat much at home, the world seems to think children require a treat for EVERYTHING!! All of a sudden the behaviour got worse. So I started documenting when the flare-ups happened. Oct, Dec, April, and July. Can you see a pattern? This is when we bombard children with treats and parties. Halloween, Christmas, Easter and summer vacation. Co-incidentally it is also when children loose the normal routine of life and are on holidays and up late.
Fast forward a year…She also suffered from constant ear infections and her ear drum would often burst, and she had 90 percent hearing loss in one ear. Needless to say they like to prescribe antibiotics for this, on top of that they are usually a bright pink liquid! That July, she had 4 ear infections back-to-back with antibiotics. This was the where the world came crashing down, she would fly off the handle in anger, crave the medicine, stopped sleeping (at all) would scream and cry. We were exhausted and the doctor’s answer was “it’s a phase, she’ll outgrow it”. Well I had heard this for almost 2 years now, and we were at our breaking point! My sweet, little 6 year old was breaking. She was in so much pain inside her body and no one knew why! So being a type A personality and a Mom, I went on a search to FIX IT! So I googled it…Many different searches, many hours, why not, I was up anyways. The one thing that kept popping up in my searches was the effects of food colouring in children. It was all there!
• Anger
• Depression
• Mood swings
• Crying
• Unexplained anxiety
• Bedwetting
• Inability to sleep
Perfect! Now how do I fix this? I found this diet called Feingold, it is based out of the United States. But at this point who cares. The overall concept of this diet was to remove all foods and drink with food colouring and preservatives from your diet. At the same time I found this diet, I also found a doctor to listen. She, at 6 years old and 35 pounds was diagnosed with depression! Of course the solution I was given was to put her on a low dose of Prozac!! WHAT?!! Clearly she wasn’t listening when I explained the reactions I got with antibiotics or any type of over the counter medications. I was not under any circumstances putting this little child on medication for life! The list of side effects was crazy. This is when the light came back into our world. That afternoon I ordered the package from Feingold against doctor’s advice. My thought was removing chemicals from her food could not possibly hurt her. Prozac??? I think not!
Online it gave you the basics, so that night I attacked my cupboards with a garbage bag and threw out anything that had colour in it! I might have looked a bit crazy, it was a lot of money being throw out, but remember I hadn’t slept in weeks. I could have given it away, but in my mind that day it was poison! I wasn’t letting anyone consume it. So for 3 days we ate plain pasta, and meat and veggies and water. Waiting for the package to arrive in the mail. This was the day our lives changed, after 48 hours of no chemicals, my little girl fell asleep, and the next morning woke up smiling!

Here is picture of Lynsey before and after: IMG_1286

This was not an easy road at the beginning because we live in a world of convenience. Juice boxes, granola bars everything is pre-packaged. So now I am making everything from scratch. Sounds easy, but I still work full-time, have three kids who have extra-curricular activities. I was now spending my weekends baking, and organizing. I was often saying to my kids, “No I can’t play with you, I have stuff to do”. So my daughter is getting better, but I am starting to burn out! We stayed this way for two and a half years. I went a little crazy, as all mom’s do, trying to be perfect! In the end I had to quit my job, I wasn’t helping anyone. I was too stressed out to enjoy my family. This was the second major ah-ha moment in my life. Money and a Job isn’t everything if you can’t enjoy it. So we re-balanced our lifestyle and I was home. Everything became wonderful again. My children were happier, and healthy again. Never again have we had an ear infection, she has recovered all her hearing back now and very rarely are we sick. During the early years, my kids were so sick, they caught everything, pneumonia, chest infections, strep throat you name it we had it and usually more than once. I joke that I paid for hospital repairs in the parking fees I paid over those first 5 years.
So after 2 years of being at home, I started to go crazy again. Did I mention I am a type A personality? I wanted to help others while being mom too. I knew there were other moms out there that could help rebalance their lives. I also knew I needed a change from my previous career. In September of 2013, at 35 I had enrolled in school at the Canadian School of Natural Nutrition! Nutrition had become my passion and I was excited to learn more, and possibly help others.

Filed Under: Children, Recipes Tagged With: caven nutrition, Jen Wright, ottawa, RHN

Pumpkin EVERYTHING… Pumpkin Fudge!

October 8, 2015 by Rachel

Vegan Pumpkin Fudge

This fudge is the ultimate taste of fall, and a perfect treat to bring to thanksgiving dinner this week end. It is quick and easy, high in fibre and low in sugar.

Ingredients:

1 cup of coconut flour (sifted)
¼ cup of coconut palm sugar
1 can of pumpkin puree 15 oz (not the pumpkin pie filling)
Cinnamon to taste.

How to make it:

In a large bowl mix the flour, cinnamon and sugar.
Add the full can of pumpkin and mix together.
Transfer the mix to a lined dish. You can sprinkle a light dusting of cinnamon on top if you wish.
Place in the fridge to firm up, slice and enjoy.

photo 3-9

Filed Under: Healthy Eating, Recipes Tagged With: caven nutrition group, fudge, Jen Wright, Nutrition, ottawa, pumpkin, yummy

Zucchini Lasagna it such a delight!

September 26, 2015 by Rachel

Zucchini Lasagna

Ok, so lasagna at my house has always been noodles and cheese, lots of cheese. But this year we are working on healthier choices and trying new things. We also had a zucchini plant gone wild….so many zucchini! So we’ve put it in everything, muffins, brownies, smoothies, cookies, roasted veggies, sauces and now, LASGANA. And let me tell you it was AMAZING! Everyone loved it. My husband even preferred it to the pasta version. And the best part was no stuffed, full feeling after eating a piece, or two!!

This is how you do it:

Needed

-1 large zucchini, or 2 medium ones

Meat Sauce: (Here is the meat sauce I use)
1 pound of ground beef, browned.
½ onion sauté with ground beef
½ cup celery
1 carrot grated
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can organic tomato sauce.
1 clove of fresh garlic
1 tsp. chili powder
½ tsp. oregano, and basil.
Simmer all ingredients in a pot until celery is soft.

Spices
Nutritional yeast * can be found at bulk barn or a health food store)
Garlic Powder
Salt and Pepper
Mozzarella Cheese (yes, we still used some cheese on the top layer. Baby Steps)

Grease a 9×13 Lasagna Pan. Using a mandolin or a sharp knife cut your zucchini lengthwise into approx. ¼” thickness.
Start with a layer of meat sauce then layer zucchini on top. Sprinkle zucchini with nutritional yeast, garlic salt and salt and pepper. Repeat this process until you run out of zucchini. Cover with mozzarella cheese and bake in oven for 35-40 mins at 350. (Or until fork goes through easily). Enjoy!

Lasagna

Filed Under: Children, Healthy Eating, Recipes, Seasonal Food Tagged With: family nutrition, Jen Wright, lasagna, nutritonist, ottawa, yummy, zucchini

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