• "What on earth is Quinoa?!"
• "Man, you guys eat weird stuff!"
• "I feel sorry for  your husband. You always cook weird food."
• "Sushi? Gross! I hate fish!"
• "Blech! Couscous?! Tofu?!? What is that?!"
• "I can't believe your 3 year old eats that stuff!"

These are all things I've grown accustomed to hearing from friends over the past few years.  Constantly in awe of why I don't feed my family "normal" food like chicken fingers and fries or Mac 'n Cheese, I get a lot of disgusted looks when I feed my family things like Quinoa salad, Pad Thai,  sushi, or Pho. To me, these are "normal" foods. These are things I'm accustomed to eating.

It's not like I never feed my family chicken fingers or Mac 'n Cheese. I do on occasion.  Mostly, I don't deprive my child of foods common to her peers, because I don't want her to be ostracized in school as being "the kid who eats weird food" and I don't want her to feel she needs to hide in a corner and eat these "treats" in the closet. I want her to have a healthy relationship with food.  Everything in moderation.

Though we try not to give her too much sugar, she does get treats every now and then.  I've even bribed her with chocolate when she was potty training! Hey, stickers didn't work on her because they weren't a treat. She gets to play with stickers all the time. She rarely gets candy or junk food, so potty incentives that include things that she rarely gets were very effective!

This said, I'm not so secretly elated that my 3 year old isn't a junk food fan.  She absolutely loves food of all kinds, but doesn't like fried, greasy, overly sweet/sugary foods. I know! What 3 year old doesn't love French Fries?!? Mine!!! Yes, the kid will not eat fries.  "They're yucky and greasy!"  I totally plead innocence on that one.  She came up with that on her own! She does love chicken strips though.

Anyway, I wanted to share a fabulous recipe that my little one and I both love, love, love!  Hubby says "It's pretty good for something that doesn't have any meat in it."

Hubby is still getting used to Quinoa. He is a veritable meat and potatoes farm boy.  When I received that package of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics items, I noticed a box of golden and black Quinoa.  I normally buy the regular Quinoa, but this one looked really interesting with the variety of colour.

Yet another reason I love President's Choice products! They offer a huge variety of healthy items from their Blue Menu and PC Organics lines! I love that President's Choice has launched their Live Life Well campaign too.
C's Quinoa Salad with Tofu, Mushrooms & Carrots
Ingredients:
1 box of PC Organics golden and black Quinoa
mushrooms, sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves or garlic, chopped
1 large carrot, grated
1 pkg of firm tofu, diced
a little bit of oil
freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook Quinoa as per package directions (bring water to boil, add Quinoa, cover, simmer for 25 minutes).
2. In a pan, heat oil and sautee onion and garlic. Add tofu and mushrooms. Season as desired.
3. Once Quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork (as you would with couscous). Put cooked Quinoa into a large serving bowl. 
4. Add browned tofu and cooked mushroom, onion, and garlic to the bowl of Quinoa. Add grated carrot. Gently mix so that ingredients so that each serving has an even distribution of ingredients. 
5. *Optional* I love President's Choice Memories of Thailand Fiery Thai Chili Pepper Sauce. I sometimes add some to the dish to give it a little bit of kick. LOVE IT!

 Little One loves her Quinoa salad.  She shocked us when she had three helpings!



Serve as a side dish or as your main. We often have seasonal veggies with this. Sometimes I include a meat dish as well.

Disclosure - To help spread the word about President's Choice's healthy food items and the Live Life Well program, we received a variety of President's Choice Blue Menu and PC Organics products to try. The opinions on this blog are honest and my own.

Eating healthy is on everyone's minds these days.  Whether it's trying to maintain a healthy weight or just wanting to make sure we eat foods that are healthy for us, we are all striving to eat well so we can live well.
In our home, we love our raw veggies and our fruits.  We also love our steel cut oats and Quinoa.  Because Hubby's a beef farmer, he cannot live without meat.  Lean meats, that is!  We get a good balance of all food groups here.

We make a conscious effort to choose wisely when it comes to what we put into our bodies.  This is why I was excited when I was asked to review some of President's Choice Blue Menu items!
We received: Blue Menu vegetarian chili, Tangerine-Guava-Pink Peppercorn salad dressing, Omega-3 granola, Fibre Plus bran flakes, Pad Thai sauce, Berry Blend fruit snacks, PC Organics Quinoa and Almond Beverage, as well as PC Green dishwasher detergent. We were also given a reusable PC Green shopping bag and the Insider's Report.

Loblaws Companies Ltd./President's Choice brand have items that are part of the in-store Live Life Well platform.  It encourages Canadians to eat and shop healthy with a number of different avenues (ex: pharmacy offerings, etc).

 I was pleasantly surprised to read that Loblaws Companies Ltd. and the Canadian Diabetes Association are offering a year-long national in-store program.  Were you aware of this?

“Diabetes has reached epidemic proportions among the Canadian population.  Many people with prediabetes or undiagnosed type 2 diabetes may actually display no symptoms.  It is critical that we all act now as diabetes is not only costing our healthcare system, but is costing Canadians their life,” said Michael Cloutier, president and CEO, Canadian Diabetes Association.  “Our campaign sponsors and distinctive collaboration with Loblaw will help Canadians get checked for type 2 diabetes and provide educational resources to help them manage the disease.” (Source: Canadian Diabetes Association)

I loved President's Choice brand before, but love it even more now! I love that they offer healthier options and that they are made available to the public at very reasonable prices.

I don't know about you, but I find myself checking (and double checking!) the ingredients and nutritional facts on everything!

For breakfast today, we had this:
Blue Menu Omega-3 almond vanilla granola mixed with Blue Menu Fibre Plus Bran Flakes and some PC Organics original unsweetened fortified almond beverage.  I had an apple to finish off the meal. Absolutely delicious start to our day!

A friend got me drinking almond milk about a year ago. Before that, we rarely had anything with nuts in the house because of our nieces' nut allergies.  They're not over often anymore, and Hubby loves nuts of all kinds.  Little One isn't allergic to nuts, so we re-introduced them into the house. Prior to that, I drank soy and rice milk.  Hubby and Little One drink 2% milk.  They keep the dairy farmers in business with the amount of milk they drink!

I really enjoyed the PC Organics Almond Beverage.  It had a sweet, slightly nutty flavour, and was light (leaving me without that heavy feeling I get when I drink milk).  I also like that the boxes for the Blue Menu cereal have the "Source of Omega-3", "High Fibre", "Very High Fibre", and "Low Sodium" written on them.

Hubby and Little One LOVE their cereal, so I'm glad that if they're going to eat cereal, it's this kind.  Little One has never been introduced to sugary cereal or any of the ones with artificial colouring.

Stay tuned for more of our #PresidentsChoice #BlueMenu posts!  They've got healthy, nutritious, delicious items for everyone in the family!
Disclosure - I received PC Brand Blue Menu and PC Organics items to help spread the word about the Loblaws Companies Ltd. in-store Live Life Well program. All the opinions expressed on this blog are honest and my own.