Interview with Amanda from Amanda’s Wholesome Kitchen

Amanda, can you tell our readers about yourself and Amanda’s Wholesome Kitchen?

Thank-you for having me! Amanda’s Wholesome Kitchen started simply as a place for me to share my passion for health and creating with delicious wholefoods. It has grown from there and I now offer one on one kitchen coaching sessions where I help clients who want to move away from heavily processed foods towards cooking with and enjoying the benefits of incorporating more fresh foods into their diets. I also create nourishing wholefoods in catering and run cooking and health workshops. I’m on a mission to spread the love for delicious, real food!

I am a mother of 3 amazing girls aged 7, 5 and 2 and I strive every day to teach them about real food and how to cook. Two fun facts about me are that I played for the Queensland Firebirds in my early 20s and I studied law at university and practiced as a family lawyer prior to having children.

You started Amanda’s Wholesome Kitchen over 2 years ago, what gave you the inspiration for this adventure?

I love the quote “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” I feel over the last few decades cooking and nourishing our bodies with real food seems to have fallen down the ladder in terms of our priorities. The statistics in Australia in relation to diabetes and obesity are disturbing and more people are relying on quick fix diets, pills, potions and shakes. I encourage people to:

ditch the quick fixes and cook your own meals with wholefood ingredients as much as possible
read the ingredients and avoid products with added refined sugar, artificial preservatives, additives and cheap heavily refined oils such as vegetable and canola oils
educate yourself about where your food comes from and how it’s produced

What do you think is the best service you can provide to your readers?

Good health starts with a fridge and pantry stocked with nutritious wholefoods. Through my one on one kitchen coaching sessions I help my clients make healthy changes in their own homes. It’s always great receiving feedback from clients that are enjoying the many benefits to their health and wellbeing after making positive changes and cooking nutritious real food.

What advice would you give to people wanting to live a healthier lifestyle?

Sometimes it can be overwhelming with so much information (and misinformation) out there and people are unsure where to start. I am a big advocate of setting aside some time to do healthy meal preparation for the week ahead. For example:

chop and freeze fruit and veggies so you can easily make nutritious smoothies
roast vegetables as they’re great for lunches and dinners
cook rice or quinoa to use as a base for dishes
for healthy snacks chop veggie sticks and make a healthy dip (there’s an easy hummus recipe on my website)
make one or two healthy wholefood treats that you can keep stored in the freezer (there’s a recipe for choc peanut butter fudge on my website)

Setting aside an hour or two on a weekend is going to save time and stress during the week when you need to make healthy, tasty meals with minimal fuss.

Can you give us tips on how to overcome the difficulty of eating healthy when on the road?

If we are travelling I always prepare our own healthy snacks that we can take with us such as fruit, veggie sticks and rice crackers. My kids love chickpeas and spelt Mountain Bread wraps with natural peanut butter and homemade wholefood treats such as bliss balls or muffins.

You’re a mum of 3, a small business owner and a health advocate, just to name a few, what do you do in your spare time?

Life is pretty hectic these days but I wouldn’t have it any other way! Exercise is very important to me, nothing beats that release of endorphins and I feel more productive and focused when I exercise consistently – even if it’s just a short 15-20 minute workout in the backyard while the kids play. We love to get outdoors with the kids so on the weekends we go bike riding as a family or exploring down at our local creek. We also love to get to the coast when we can.

Amanda what’s your secret for boosting your immune system and that of your family so you’re well prepared for the winter months?

Increase your intake of greens! Each weekend I buy a variety of dark leafy veggies (baby spinach leaves, silverbeet, kale, swiss chard) and keep some in the fridge for adding to salads and stir-fry dishes and freeze some to add to smoothies during the week. Greens such as baby spinach leaves hide so well behind fruits such as banana and berries so you can’t taste them at all. I also love incorporating fresh ginger and turmeric into my diet as they both offer a range of medicinal benefits. I add them to stir-frys, fried rice and smoothies! Of course drink lots of water! I like to add lemon juice for flavour, to aid with digestion and for the boost of vitamin C.

Thank you for your time Amanda, Your team at Absolute Organic.