Meals Made Easy – Additive Free Lifestyle: Recent Episodes
It’s Jo here, hi!
So recently I posted on social media an image of my food receipts for the week. You can see that I spent $216.06 grocery shopping. Most of this is either organic or pesticide free and I only buy good quality meat. This shop also includes $12 of coconut water (impulse buy), 2 x bulk flours and fresh dog food.
Well, the post went a little crazy. Loads of people were asking how I make this work and there’s no way they could spend as little as (nearly) $200 for ten days worth of meals!
When starting to live additive-free we find that one of the biggest fears you have is money. “Is living additive-free more expensive?”, it’d be one of the most popular questions we get, and with good reason. This was a big fear I had when starting to live additive-free too. We had to be frugal with money at that stage of our life as we lived off one wage thanks to me being on maternity leave.
So how do spend so little for a family of four + one large dog that eats wholefoods too?…
I meal plan. I know exactly what I’m cooking during the week. I know exactly what’s going into everyone’s lunches (child & adult) and what we’re having for breakfast. I, most of the time, do this while laying in bed on a Saturday morning and it takes me about 10 minutes.
You see, we have this awesome program and it’s called Meals Made Easy. It’s designed to help busy people like you (and me), cook nutritious food that’s quick, simple, tasty and best of all … additive-free!
You can access eight-weeks worth of dinner and snack ideas so while laying in bed on a Saturday morning, I open up my phone and print out my shopping lists per recipe.
I then decide what I’ll cook for the week and only buy those ingredients, for those recipes.
I decided these would last us 10 days (I don’t normally double meals like this, but this week is crazy busy so I need to be smart with my time): –
- Meat pie (doubled)
- Tuna bake (doubled)
- Zucchini slice (doubled)
- Chicken and bean tacos (doubled)
- Fish’n’chips
- One night of leftovers (like fried rice or omelette)
I then decided what I wanted to make for lunches:
- Pizza scrolls
- Biscuits
Breakfast ideas we usually go with are:
- Smoothies
- Gluten-free Weetbix
- Eggs on toast
So, because I already have a well-stocked pantry, this was my shopping list:
How much did all that cost?
We already had milk in the fridge, we don’t really eat much bread (although we do have a loaf of sourdough in the freezer) so I doubt we’ll need to go back to the shops again this week! #winning
I’ve got enough food to feed us for 10 days including breakfasts, lunches, dinners and snacks.
So, I reckon it’s a very realistic shop for this family of four.
The Weekend
We had a crazy weekend just like most other families out there. We don’t have any special powers to create more time which is why staying organised is the key. But to give you guys an idea, this is what my weekend looked like (no, I don’t spend hours in the kitchen, it has to be as quick as possible for me too!):
Saturday
Normally Shane does swimming lessons and I do the dance + grocery run, but not this weekend as Shane was out wood chopping with Dad.
9:45am – leave home
10:30am – swimming lessons
12.00pm – dance lessons
While my daughter dances, Jacob and I went to the farmer’s market and bought all our fruit and vegetables.
After doing this, we had a little time left over so went to the park for 15 minutes so that Jacob could have a play and run out some of that ever-abundant energy he has.
1.45pm – we stopped at Kmart because we had to get two gifts for two birthday parties we have on tomorrow (did I say we’re busy too?). We then went to the butcher and Coles, gosh I love that they’re all in the same complex!
3:30pm – we’re finally home! Phew!
(notice how I still haven’t been in the kitchen?)
Let’s get cooking (at 4pm in the day!)
Into the slow cooker pot goes a double meat pie filling after doing 10 minutes of prep work. I then pop this in the fridge ready to cook in the slow cooker tomorrow.
On the stove top went some leftover apples and some frozen cherries. I popped these on slow to defrost and cook.
I then whipped up a double zucchini slice (kinda looked more like a quiche), in the oven it goes.
By now the fruit was done. I pitted the cherries and pureed them in the Thermomix. I then added in a big scoop of natural yoghurt and froze these in our ice-cream moulds. You can get your own moulds >>> here.
For dinner we had chicken and bean tacos. I doubled this and froze half of the meat mixture for later on in the week.
After dinner I had some energy (don’t ask me how!) so I made a double batch of biscuits. Took me all of 15 minutes and they were in the oven. We halved the dough mixture and turned some into jam drops, and the rest Eva popped some Hokey Pokey bits on the top.
Sunday
Sunday morning I got up around 8.00am. I popped on the slow cooker to cook the meat pie filling and then made two lots of dough.
One lot I turned into pizza scrolls and the other I made into bread. I don’t normally make my own bread but I thought ‘why not!’
Shane did the first party at 10:30am so I went shopping and got myself some nice new clothes (on my own! #bliss).
We then tag-teamed for the second party and I got home around 3.00pm.
I turned the meat pie filling off to cool down, did some work on the computer for an hour, then came back to make the pastry where I cooked two pies with the filling.
I’ll whip the tuna bake and fish’n’chips up on the day.
Lunches are easy! They are always additive-free due to always having something in the freezer I can pull out (thanks to being prepared because of Meals Made Easy).
Life can be hectic, believe us, we get it!
But with a small amount of preparation and taking our help to keep you organised, it’s not as hard, or expensive as you think.
Jo x
The post 10 Days Worth Of Meals For Nearly $200 – How To Shop On A Budget appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
Let’s start off with a full disclosure…..we completely understand that the thought of living additive-free can be completely overwhelming and just plain scary.
We have received all sorts of questions and comments from people, such as:
- Where do I even start?
- How am I going to remember all this?
- What are we going to be able to eat?
- Everything seems to be on the ‘bad’ list so there’ll be nothing left for us to eat.
- I don’t want to have to learn this information, I just want to be told what brands to buy.
- It’s all too overwhelming.
- My family won’t be supportive.
- I’ve got fussy kids, how can they live additive-free?
- It’s too expensive to live additive-free.
- How will I know what to cook?
Believe us…we get it! We thought all these things and more when we first started too, and back then there wasn’t anywhere we could find this information out via a one-stop-shop like what we have set up for you guys with our online course Additive-Free Made Easy (next round coming up in a matter of weeks).
So, let’s break it down into bite size chunks so that we can take that fear and overwhelm away from you.
Where do I even start?
The good news is you have the desire to learn and know what nasties are lurking in your food, which means you’ve already taken the first step. YAY!
Next, you need to figure out what your pain point is and your ‘why’ for wanting to know this information. Once you know, this will be your driving force to learn as much as you can to feed you and your family the right foods, free from rubbish ingredients.
Everybody’s why is different. Some examples are:
- You have health conditions that would be better supported living additive-free.
- You’ve noticed your kids are behaving differently after consuming certain foods or drinks.
- You know that your body could feel better by learning this information and eating additive-free.
- You want to provide yourself and your family with the best possible diet and lifestyle you can.
- You know there are lots of toxic ingredients in our foods and you want to learn what you should avoid.
Honestly, the reasons are endless.
When Jo first decided she wanted to learn more about additives and preservatives in food she went on a mission to find out as much as she could via good old Google. To say the process was exhausting was an understatement! But her why was clear, she needed to help her daughter Eva who was struggling with behavioural issues and life in general. If she had to go to the end of the earth to find the answer, then that’s where she would go.
Thanks to Jo and Tracey they have taken all that hard work and years of research and created Additive-Free Made Easy. A one-stop-shop of information and resources so you can learn the harshest of ingredients to avoid and what consumption of these nasties can do to our bodies.
How am I going to remember all this?
The best thing to do is subscribe to our fave motto #dontstressit
In our Additive-Free Made Easy course you get all the information you need and guess what? You can print it all out, stick it in a folder and revert back to it whenever you need to. We even give you the transcriptions of the videos so you can print them out too if you want.
The more you start to live additive-free, the more you will remember what to avoid. Not to mention you even get a handy wallet-sized card detailing some of the worst additives and preservatives to avoid when you’re shopping at the supermarket #gottalovethat
What are we even going to be able to eat?
Plenty! Believe us, we don’t deprive ourselves at all living additive-free. In fact, our bodies are nourished from the good food we now eat. We also still buy packaged food, we just know what to look out for when we check out the ingredient panels.
It’s about learning what swaps and better choices you can make which we teach you all about in the course.
Everything seems to be on the ‘bad’ list so there’ll be nothing left for us to eat.
Whilst we get that it seems that everything is taboo these days, once you learn what food full of chemicals does to your body (and the bodies of your loved ones), then you’ll know why it’s important to live additive-free.
We can promise you that there will be plenty of food choices left for you to eat, and you know what? We’re not perfect! For the most part, we subscribe to the 80/20 rule…..80% additive-free and 20% not perfect. But we know what is in the food we are eating so we can make a conscious choice, fully knowing how it will affect our bodies if we do consume it. This makes us empowered!
I don’t want to have to learn this information, I just want to be told what brands to buy.
Yep, it would be easier to just be told what brands are good and what brands to steer clear of, but the big problem with that is companies change their ingredients on a regular basis so it would be too incredibly hard for us to be constantly quality controlling a master list of all the good foods in case ingredients change.
The much better alternative, that empowers you in the process, is to teach you the information of what additives and preservatives to avoid so that you can be discerning when you shop.
We like to subscribe to that old metaphor….
‘Give a man a fish and he’ll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish and he’ll eat forever!’ The same principle applies here.
It’s all too overwhelming.
We don’t doubt that. We were overwhelmed too. In our Additive-Free Made Easy course, we break each topic down into bite-size chunks so that not only is it NOT time-consuming, but by breaking it down it’s easier information to absorb. Not only that, but you will get access to our private Facebook group with other students who are doing the course at the same time as you so you can all share and support each other along the way. We have found that when you have a tribe of like-minded people for support, the additive-free lifestyle becomes much easier.
We also absolutely advocate that it’s about making gradual changes. Whilst Jo pretty much emptied her entire pantry once she learnt what additives and preservatives do to us, we certainly don’t advocate for anyone else to do that. Unless they desperately want to of course ?.
It will be less daunting and overwhelming if you switch things out over time. For example, use up a jar of something in your pantry and when that’s empty then buy a better choice option next time you shop.
My family won’t be supportive.
This is a topic particularly close to our hearts. We still have some unsupportive family members, even after all this time.
We will teach you how you can manage this to make life easier for you. And you never know, by leading by example, those naysayer family members just may come around in time.
But above all else, you can rest assured in the knowledge that you are giving yourself and your family the best gift of good health.
I’ve got fussy kids; how can they live additive-free?
Fussy kids are hard, we know. We’re not going to lie and say it will be easy to re-train your kids’ brain and palette to a new way of eating but the rewards will fulfil you in bucket loads because you are setting them up for a lifetime of good health and wellbeing.
It is also worth considering, that maybe their fussiness comes from being dependent on the chemicals in the foods they are eating. We get that this is not always the case, but there are some food additives that block certain pathways in our brain so that we either overeat or become addicted to that food.
It’s too expensive to live additive-free.
Whilst we do like to eat organic as well as additive-free, wherever possible. Given how much our food is sprayed with pesticides and who knows what else, organic is always the better option.
And we get that you pay a premium for organic. However, living additive-free you actually end up feeling fuller for longer because it generally doesn’t have empty calories or addictive chemicals in them that make us want to keep eating.
This means that you will end up buying less food than you normally do because your bodies will be satisfied.
This is how it balances out.
The next big trick is to meal prep. This is key to ensuring you don’t resort to grabbing less than desirable snacks, foods and takeaways.
BTW we happen to have a meal planning program called Meals Made Easy which is designed to give you time back so that you are not spending as much time in the kitchen, all while feeding your family with good, nutritious meals that are additive-free. You get 8 weeks’ worth of dinner and snack recipes, shopping lists and preparation guides to help you stay on track.
How will I know what to cook?
We’re not going to tell you what to cook, well unless of course, you subscribe to Meals Made Easy lol (see above), but we’ll teach you how you can make better choices and what additives and preservatives to avoid so that you can cook your list of staple dishes additive-free #empowered
When you know better, you do better! Never forget that knowledge is power and once you learn this information then you become empowered!
Where can I learn this information?
We are just about to run our next round of Additive-Free Made Easy (YAY). We start Monday 3 August 2020. Head on over to Additive-Free Made Easy for all the details, a further rundown of the program and how you can register.
Links and Resources * To register for the next round of Additive-Free Made Easy head here * To subscribe to Meals Made Easy head here * Visit our Additive Free Lifestyle Facebook Page * Follow us on Instagram * Join our Additive-Free Lifestyle Private chat group
The post Busting Myths About Living Additive-Free appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In this week’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we talk to the lovely Nicole Bathurst from Naturally Nic.
Nicole Bathurst is a Dietician who was diagnosed with breast cancer 5 years ago. This came as a complete shock given she had lived a healthy lifestyle. Thankfully through a regiment of treatment, she was given the all-clear.
At this point, she drew on all her years of experience as a Dietician to help repair and rebuild her body.
Fast forward to now and she specialises in working with women who have finished their breast cancer treatment and want to find the most supportive lifestyle habits to reduce their risk of getting cancer again.
Becoming a Dietician
Becoming a Dietician was something that Nic was passionate about. She grew up with a mum who struggled with her weight and emotional eating. Nic then struggled with bulimia in her late teens to early twenties. She recalls buying a book called ‘Raw Energy’ by Leslie Kenton which was like a light bulb moment for her as she realised that what we eat affects everything!
This then started the journey for her becoming a Dietitian. After her studies, she met her former husband and got married. They had four kids in five years (wow!) all of whom she homeschooled.
Through all this, she never stopped reading about health and nutrition. She recalls reading this book called ‘Not On the Label: What Really Goes into the Food on Your Plate’. It opened her eyes up to all the extra things that are in our food that we have no idea about and how they affect our bodies.
Nic’s journey with breast cancer
When she was 40, she had a friend who died of breast cancer and it was like all her research started to be directed towards cancer and how to prevent cancer. That’s when she started becoming interested in alternative cleaning products, beauty products and food.
When she turned 48 and got breast cancer herself. She really did not think she would get cancer with all of the health changes that she had made. However, in hindsight, she can see how she got it as she was under a lot of stress that she was not aware of. She was drinking alcohol at the time and so when she got breast cancer she decided once and for all to put her glass down permanently.
This was completely hard for her, especially given the way Australian culture encourages and accepts drinking as the norm. She knew about the association between breast cancer and alcohol and women’s cancer and alcohol. It is as strong as the association between smoking and lung cancer. A little fact that is not commonly known. This is why she is so passionate about febfast because she had done many febfast’s before this, so she knew she could do it and be alcohol free.
How does drinking alcohol impact women’s bodies?
When women drink alcohol, our bodies have to process that alcohol. Your body knows that if you drink too much alcohol, you will die. Yep, we get that it sounds a bit dramatic, but your body is all about survival. So, then your oestrogen gets broken down in the liver. When you drink alcohol, your liver dumps that oestrogen back into the bloodstream to be dealt with later, whilst it deals with the alcohol. It’s that half processed oestrogen that is related to female cancers such as breast, ovarian, uterine etc.
Weight management and breast cancer
The other thing Nic is so passionate about is that if you are trying to avoid breast cancer or you’ve had breast cancer, you need to get on top of your weight. It doesn’t matter what chronic disease we are looking at; excess weight holds you back from achieving any health goal and it’s the biggest contributor of any of our health diseases. It really is important to address that. We understand weight is a touchy subject and it’s not discussed to make you feel judged, but at the end of the day, the facts are there. We get that there is a distinction between excess weight and people who are larger in size, but healthy. The reality is, you know yourself when you are carrying excess weight and how that makes you feel.
This is especially important if you have had breast cancer. The excess weight that we carry doesn’t just sit there dormant. It releases hormones, one of them being oestrogen which means it is working against you.
Jo and Tracey’s mum is battling cancer at the moment and they have all wondered, including their mum, whether she could have done things differently to avoid cancer.
Diet and lifestyle
Your risk of cancer all comes back to diet and lifestyle. We used to think that your genes were responsible for all manner of health conditions such as diabetes. But in actual fact diabetes is a preventable disease as is cardiovascular disease and many of our cancers. It is only around 5% to 10% of cancers that are genetically related. Even then, it’s like our genes load the gun but it’s your diet and lifestyle that pull the trigger.
We have so much more control over our health than we have been led to believe.
A perfect example is Jo’s story with her daughter Eva and the horrendous contributing factor additives and preservatives had on her whole body.
You can easily change your diet and lifestyle. Why not give up alcohol or additives and preservatives for a month and see how you feel. That will be a good indicator as well as a motivator to keep going. If you fall off the wagon, then you can simply jump back on again.
What is febfast?
Febfast is giving up alcohol or sugar for 28 days to raise money to transform the lives of young people experiencing serious disadvantage. They originally chose February because it is the shortest month. However, it has expanded to Dry July and Ocsober as well which are all raising money for worthy and differing causes.
It was pretty devastating when Nic stopped drinking because three months later she actually woke up to what was going on in her marriage. Alcohol had really kept her anaesthetised to what was going on. When she looks back as to why she probably got cancer, yes, the alcohol didn’t help, but she was also under a lot of stress. She sadly had to leave her marriage which she doesn’t regret, nor does she regret the journey that she has been on since.
What do you learn at Uni to become a Dietician?
Our perception is that Dietician’s know a lot about food, but do they learn about ingredients and how things are made and what goes into packaged food?
Whilst Nic studied over 20 years ago now, she recalls they learnt a little bit about allergies, foods and colours but not as in-depth as what Jo and Tracey’s course, Additive-Free Made Easy, does. To put it delicately, what is promoted is driven by industry. Even Universities are funded by the Meat and Livestock Corporation and that’s why Nic doesn’t work in an institution. She has a different message to share.
When people hear that she is a Dietician, they do have a preconceived idea that she will follow the food pyramid, but she doesn’t and in fact, from all the research that she has been doing currently, she is encouraging people to move away from consuming animal products.
There are so many things in dairy that not only cause allergies but from a female perspective, dairy is a hormonal product. Cows are full of hormones as is the milk which is just the tip of the iceberg. You then have all the protein and casein in milk which is not doing us any favours either. Her message is, if you have had breast cancer, it would be worth thinking about giving up dairy products and minimising, if not removing, all animal products from your diet.
The paleo movement has made us think about what we eat and what animals eat that you are in turn eating as well. It has given us a greater awareness as well as a greater conscience to treat animals better.
Because we are mass producing all our animals, they are full of antibiotics. As a nation, we are importing over 700 tonnes of antibiotics a year and 550 tonnes of that goes to animals. Some are used by vets, but most of it used by our mass-produced livestock!
Is eating a fully organic diet a better option?
Yes, it is, and whilst it is beneficial, Nic would still ask you what meat you are eating because even protein in meat is associated with cancer. A few years ago, the World Health Organisation classified processed meats as a group 1 carcinogen which is on the same level as smoking and asbestos. So even if it is organic and grass fed, there are still associations to cancer.
Nic would suggest limiting animal protein to once a day and start increasing your consumption of plant-based protein such as what you get from beans and legumes.
Our bodies don’t need to eat animals to get protein. Protein is actually produced by plants. It’s the plants that get the nitrogen from the air and the soil and add it to the amino acids and make proteins which then the animals eat and we then eat.
In actual fact, we eat too much protein and not enough fibre. Fibre is vital to get everything moving in our bodies and not just to be regular. But it is the fibre that is feeding our good gut bacteria.
It always comes back to the health of our gut! The health of our gut is dependent on what you feed it. Animal protein is not feeding it, it’s actually damaging it. All of the plant proteins you get from fruit, vegetables, wholegrains, beans and legumes are giving you fibre as well.
To give us a comparison, Nic did some research and found that if you wanted to replace 1 tablespoon of olive oil, you could eat half a cup of oats, brown rice or beans and all of them, especially the beans, are going to give you a massive amount of fibre.
What’s the deal with soy?
Soy is one of our biggest genetically modified products, and there has been a lot about soy lately. Soy is a phytoestrogen which prevents our bodies from the harmful oestrogens. As long as soy isn’t genetically modified and is organic, it is okay for us to consume. It’s still a good idea to limit the amount of it you eat to only a couple of times a week and a portion size of ¼ cup only.
Portion Control
This is so important. To keep weight under control, you need to be very mindful of your portion sizes.
If you are going to eat meat, then limit that portion to the size of a deck of cards.
Living a healthier plant-based lifestyle
It’s really difficult for those trying to live a healthier lifestyle to go to the supermarket and find the best organic plant-based foods possible.
Nic doesn’t like the word vegan because you can get vegan Tim Tams for goodness sake, and we all know they’re not good for us.
Plant-based wholefoods are what we need to come back to and not eat fake foods. If you want some dairy-free cheese then use nutritional yeast flakes (which you can get here) as they provide you with that cheesy flavour but with none of the nasties.
Even gluten-free bread is incredibly hard to source with clean ingredients. If you need to eat gluten-free then the best way to do it is to remove gluten altogether and not try and find a substitute for it such as gluten-free bread, because it’s not going to serve your health very well.
It’s also important to note that living a vegetarian lifestyle can be just as unhealthy as living a meat-eating lifestyle. It all comes back to the foods you are putting in your mouth and are they as wholefood and plant-based as you can possibly get.
It’s best to stop trying to mimic the foods you used to eat and just start living a new way of life.
We completely get that changing your whole lifestyle around food is hard, especially when you may have grown up with the typical diet of toast for breakfast, sandwich for lunch and maybe even a dinner roll with your tea, but it is possible with knowledge and preparation to turn that lifestyle around to one that nourishes your gut.
Falling off the wagon is ok, we can all go through that. Even if you are living an Additive-Free Lifestyle and you fall off the wagon, we understand because it can be so much easier to just go to the supermarket and grab whatever off the shelves. This is why we have some students who do our Additive-Free Made Easy course multiple times because they may have fallen off the wagon and need that inspiration the course provides to get back into it again.
Meal preparation is key to maintain this lifestyle. Making decision all the time on a daily basis is fatiguing especially if you have to decide what to cook each day. If you have your menu set and prepped in advance, then you are less likely to grab ‘convenience’ food from the supermarket or take-away that is not convenient to our health. This is why Nic loves our Meals Made Easy menu planning programme because all the work is done for you.
Where can you find Nic?
If you find yourself in this situation and could use Nic’s services, then head on over to Naturally Nic to check it all out and get in touch with her. She even does consultations over Skype and Zoom which means she can be accessed by anyone, anywhere.
How do you learn more about additives and preservatives?
You can learn all about additives and preservatives and what you need to avoid via our Additive-Free Made Easy programme. You can register here for our next round which is coming up soon!
How can I meal plan and get organised?
We have totally got you covered with our Meals Made Easy menu planning programme. You’ll get 8 weeks’ worth of recipes, shopping lists, preparation guides and e-books to take the stress out of mealtime.
Links and Resources
- We would love for you to leave a review of this podcast here
- To check out Nic’s website go to Naturally Nic
- To register for the next round of Additive-Free Made Easy head here
- To subscribe to Meals Made Easy head here
- Visit our Additive Free Lifestyle Facebook Page
- Follow us on Instagram
- Join our Additive-Free Lifestyle Private chat group
The post Podcast 152 – Nicole Bathurst from Naturally Nic appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In this week’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we are talking all things back to school.
We want to focus on helping you get organised for back to school so that you can head into term 1 feeling like you are on top of everything instead of in chaos. We all know that feeling and it sucks!
Having said that though, this episode is really great for anyone who is wanting to stock their freezer with food regardless of the reason why.
EASY LUNCHBOX OPTIONS
First, let’s first look at the super easy ideas that you can put into lunchboxes:
- Fruit
- Vegetables
- Preservative free cooked sausages
- Leftover meat
- Heated up leftovers taken to school in a thermal container.
All of those are really a no-brainer as they are quick, natural, healthy and additive-free.
INGREDIENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR WHEN BUYING PROCESSED/PACKAGED FOOD
Yeast Extract and Hydrolysed Vegetable Protein
These are a form of glutamate which have similar side-effects as MSG such as:
- Hyperactivity
- Inability to concentrate
- Brain fog
- Restlessness
You want to make sure that you avoid these so that your kids aren’t affected by this at school and can learn to the best of their abilities.
Sulphur Dioxide (preservative 202)
This is commonly found in dried fruit and wine (sorry, don’t shoot the messenger ?). It is heavily linked to respiratory issues. So, if you have anyone in your family who suffers from asthma or has respiratory issues then they will want to avoid sulphites.
Headaches and migraines are also linked to sulphites too so if you are a sufferer of that, then you may want to look into whether sulphites are a contributing factor.
Nitrate (preservative 250-251)
This is commonly found in smoked and processed meats such as ham, bacon, salami, chicken etc. Nitrates are not encouraged to be ingested and in fact, it’s banned in some areas to give to infants.
Anti-caking Agent
This is the powder that you find on packaged grated cheese. It’s an ingredient that our bodies don’t recognise as food. It’s a processed synthetic powder that they spread all over grated cheese to stop it from clumping together and going mouldy.
You can easily avoid this by buying block cheese and grating it yourself. Plus, it’s cheaper to buy block cheese too. Yay!
MEALS MADE EASY
Each month in our meal planning program, Meals Made Easy, which is also an additive-free meal planning program, week 4 is snack week and this month we have focused on the snacks being suitable for school lunchboxes.
In general, Meals Made Easy is a meal planning program whereby you get 4 weeks’ worth of recipes. Weeks 1 to 3 are main meal-based recipes whereby some you can double batch cook so that you can stock your freezer. The majority of recipes are made in 30 minutes or under and in the fourth week you will hopefully have a freezer full of options for dinner or that week can be your week to cook your ole’ faithful recipes that your family must have each month. Then you can also batch cook the snacks from week 4 as well.
So, for example, the recipes in this month’s snack week are:
Lemon Bliss Balls
These freeze really well. You can double or even triple batch make this recipe, so you have plenty on hand in the freezer.
Hot Tip
If you don’t want to stand there and roll them all into balls, then just press the mixture into a slice tin and then slice it up into little squares.
Nut Free Muesli Bar Slice
This is a great lunchbox slice that is simple to make and easy to double or triple and freeze.
Pizza Scrolls
Make sure are sourcing nitrate free bacon for this recipe. Supermarkets are now stocking nitrate free bacon and ham which is great. Once again you can double batch cook this recipe and freeze the leftovers for another time. You can boost the nutritional value and flavour of these by adding:
- Chia seeds
- Extra veggies
- Make your own pizza sauce with lots of veg in it
- Vital Veggie Powder
- Capsicum
- Baby spinach
- Feta cheese
Double Chocolate Fudge Slice
This is a brand-new recipe and with all new recipes, they get released to Meals Made Easy first. This is so drool worthy! Slightly dangerous because of how yummy it is … haha
It’s even better warmed up with a dollop of cream on top, just sayin’ ?
Look out for some organic chocolate at the supermarket. We love it with dark chocolate and if you wanted to increase the health factor then use 90% dark chocolate as this will make the chocolate almost sugar free.
Aunty Betty Plain Biscuits
Confession: we don’t even have an Aunty Betty! Haha
This was a recipe that Tracey got from a previous work friend of hers and her Aunty was Betty and she used to bring these biscuits into work. They are just divine, easy to make and the recipe makes a lot of biscuits, seriously heaps!
You know those classic old school recipes? Well this is one of those and we love it.
This recipe is also really versatile to change up. You could:
- Add some choc chips to make choc chip biscuits
- Put a dent in the middle of them and fill with jam to make jam drops
- Leave them plain, ice them on top and then dip them in additive-free Hoppers 100s & 1000s or Sprinkles
- Turn them into kiss biscuits by making two biscuits sandwiched between jam and then iced on top
There are so many ideas you can do with this biscuit recipe or simply leave them plain as they are just as yummy like that too.
Warning
Don’t try and double make this recipe in your thermomix as it will be too much for it to handle. You will need to essentially make the recipe twice if you want a double batch.
Chicken Sausage Rolls
This is another brand-new recipe being released to Meals Made Easy first, it is also our bonus recipe for the week (every week has a bonus recipe).
Our kids love taking cold sausages rolls in their lunchboxes to school. Yep, it’s a bit out of the ordinary but a good possibility.
If your kids won’t eat them cold, then they are a great recipe to make whilst the kids are still on school holidays as they are definitely a good tummy filler!
For those of you who aren’t in Meals Made Easy, we have a heap of testimonials about the benefits of the program right throughout our social media platforms.
SAVE MONEY WITH MEALS MADE EASY
We know ourselves, when we use Meals Made Easy, we save a heap of money at the supermarket. Our supermarket bill is roughly around $300 – $400 a fortnight. Bear in mind that this includes everything we need for the week, even personal care items.
We also save money by buying our meat in bulk and as some of you may know, we don’t go down the cleaning aisle at the supermarket anymore because we get all our cleaning items from doTERRA. We have done plenty of podcasts previously about this so go check them out via your podcast app.
We know that in this day and age, especially with rising costs of things, we would not be able to spend so little at the supermarket if we were not living by the Meals Made Easy meal plan.
We’ve had people write into us saying they easily spend $500 a week on their supermarket bills. We know that this program saves money and it gets you the ability to buy better food options such as organic without breaking the bank.
Buying convenience items in packets costs a lot more because you are paying for that ‘convenience’, although the detriment to our health because of dodgy ingredients in packet food, certainly isn’t convenient.
WANT TO KNOW MORE ABOUT MEALS MADE EASY?
It is a subscription service which costs $9.95 per month. There is no lock-in contracts, and you can opt out at any time.
Simply head on over to https://mealsmadeeasy.recipes/ for all the information and to subscribe.
At the very least, keeping yourself organised by bulk batch cooking and keeping your freezer stocked will help you manage the back to school chaos without having to resort to buying packaged items from the supermarket with not so good ingredients.
Links and Resources
- We would love for you to leave a review of this podcast here
- To subscribe to Meals Made Easy head here
- Visit our Additive Free Lifestyle Facebook Page
- Follow us on Instagram
- Join our Additive-Free Lifestyle Private chat group
The post Podcast 151 – Be Organised for Back to School appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In today’s episode of The Whole Circle Podcast we give you ideas of how you can have an additive-free Christmas.
Yep, we get it, it’s usually acceptable that Christmas Day is the one day of the year where you can eat whatever you want. However, it is totally possible to have an additive-free Christmas just like us.
To save yourself and your kids from feeling bloated, over-emotional or simply like you are going to be sick because of all the additives you may have eaten on Christmas Day, then follow our simple and easy tips and feel so much better for it.
- PRE-ORDER
Ring around your local butchers as soon as possible so that you can grab a nitrate-free ham. These sell out fast, so it always pays to order this as early as you can so that you don’t miss out.
Also, hunt around and pre-order a free-range organic turkey/chicken/pork if this is something you are going to be serving.
- BREAKFAST
Because we have a big lunch, we don’t eat too much for breakfast. We mainly stick to things like:
- Pancakes (home-made)
- Fresh fruit (get organic if your budget will allow – a nice Christmas treat)
Pancakes
If you are away camping this Christmas, you can still have your pancakes. Simply pre-mix all your dry ingredients to take away with you so that all you need to do on the day is add milk, whisk up and you have the batter ready to cook.
Maple Syrup
Make sure you get 100% pure maple syrup. There are a few types at the supermarket, you don’t want the one that is labelled as ‘flavoured syrup’ as this is the fake stuff filled with additives.
- SNACKS
Some of our favourite Christmas snacks are:
- Chocolate coated nuts
- Gems (kind of like smarties)
- Gingerbread house
- Dips
- Fresh fruit
Chocolate Covered Nuts
Hunt around for organic chocolate covered nuts. You will be able to find them at your local health food store or online. We love the Organic Times brand.
Gems
Gems are your additive-free version of smarties or M&M’s and are great to have in a little bowl for people to nibble on or to sprinkle on top of home-made ice-cream or cakes. You can get them from your local health food store. We love the Organic Times brand.
Gingerbread Houses
Gingerbread houses are not only fun to make with your kids, but the additive-free versions are yummy. We love the Gingerbread Folk brand which you can get direct online from here.
Dips and Crackers
These are great to have around on your table for morning tea or nibbles throughout the day. We’ve got some great home-made dip recipes on our website which are so easy to make, such as:
- Creamy Roast Capsicum Dip
- Roasted Pumpkin and Garlic Dip
- Roasted Carrot Dip
- Labneh
- Plain Cracker Biscuit
- Gluten-Free Cracker Biscuits
If making biscuits/crackers is not for you then you can go to your store and get the following additive-free crackers (disclaimer: these are additive-free, that we are aware of, as at today’s date 30/11/18), so always best to check the ingredients:
- Tuckers Natural
- Be Finest Crackers
Be aware that the ones with dried fruit are likely to have sulphur dioxide in them, which you want to avoid.
- DRINKS
You will need to hunt around the supermarket, but you will be able to find preservative-free drinks like plain lemonade, just check the ingredient panels for ones without preservatives.
You can also make up some sparkling water with some Roar Cordial or flavour water with essential oils. Head here to check out our preservative-free drink recipes.
For alcoholic beverages, have a look around and see what you can find that is additive and preservative-free, especially with drinks like wine.
- ENTRÉE
You’re totally going to think this is weird, but we love bananas wrapped in bacon! We promise it’s delicious!
Chop your firm bananas and bacon rashers up into slivers and then wrap the bananas in the bacon with a toothpick to hold them together and fry them in the BBQ.
We dare you to give it a try?
You can also do this with prawns wrapped in slivers of bacon too.
- LUNCH
Turkey | Chicken | Stuffing
Even though it’s hot in Australia, a traditional Christmas lunch works a treat. We usually always go for a turkey or chicken (organic and additive-free) regardless of whether it’s hot or not. Be careful when buying already stuffed turkeys, whether rolled or whole, as they are likely to contain lots of MSG. It’s really cheap and easy to make your own stuffing:
- Chopped onion
- Dried mixed herbs
- Breadcrumbs (preservative-free or fresh)
- 1 tbsp. of butter
- A splash of oil
Mix until it binds together and that’s it! So easy and no MSG in sight!
Utilising Your BBQ
If you have one, cook your lunch in the BBQ to keep the heat out of the house as well as the smell. You can cook the turkey or chicken in a frypan or wok on the BBQ, with the veggies also in the pan, using a pan such as a Solidteknics pan.
Gravy
Once your meat is cooked, you can transfer the pan to your stovetop and make gravy with the pan juices. We have a great gravy recipe here.
Cranberry Sauce
You can easily make your own as it’s just like making jam with cranberries, sugar and a bit of water. If making it is not for you then as of today’s date (30/11/18) we know that Woolworths stock their own branded cranberry sauce that is ok additive wise. However, ensure you check the ingredients.
Glazed Ham
A lot of pre-bought glazed hams have a lot of colours or additives on them. It is really easy to make your own using 100% pure maple syrup and pineapple juice. You’ll be able to find additive-free glaze recipes with a quick Google search.
Salads
They are great plate fillers and we have a heap of options on our website which you can find here.
- GET EVERYONE INVOLVED
If you are hosting Christmas at your house, then to help take the load off you, get everyone to bring a dish.
- DESSERTS
We love the following for Christmas desserts:
- Lemon Cheesecake
- Jelly Slice
- Christmas/Fruit Cake
- Custard
- Pavlova
If you need cream, use pure cream instead of thickened cream. As the thickened cream has an emulsifier in it whereas pure cream is just that, which you can whip up to your desired consistency.
- BE PREPARED
The key to an easy Christmas additive-free is being prepared. Make in advance what you can and either refrigerate or freeze it and defrost the day before.
Because Christmas day this year falls on a Tuesday, you can prepare most of your menu on the weekend prior.
See if you can get help from your family to prep for the day.
If you’re spending Christmas Day elsewhere, where you don’t know what’s going to be in the food, a simple solution is to take your own food, especially things like snacks.
We get it, you don’t want to offend anyone so there will be things you may just have to deal with, but control the things you can.
- DETOX
If you or the kids just couldn’t avoid the additives and preservatives this Christmas, then have an Epsom salt and essential oils bath to detox your body of the toxins.
We hope you have gotten some great ideas of how you can have a well-prepared and easy additive-free Christmas.
The most important thing is to enjoy it and #dontstressit
Share with us what you have planned for Christmas in our Facebook Groups and don’t forget to leave us a review as we love reading them.
Jo and Tracey x
Links and Resources
- If you would like to register for the next round of Additive Free Made Easy head here
- We would love for you to leave a review of this podcast here
- To shop for the ice-creams head to www.additivefreelifestyle.com
- Visit our Additive-Free Lifestyle Facebook Page
- Follow us on Instagram
- Additive-Free Lifestyle Private chat group
The post Podcast 144 – Your Ultimate Additive-Free Christmas Day Menu appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In this episode of The Whole Circle Podcast Show, we talk about all things meal prep and meal planning, how it can save you not just a ton of money but saves you the time and hassle as well. So sit back and enjoy some handy helpful tips.
Share Your Shopping List and Your Receipt
Before we talk meal planning, we asked members inside our Additive Free Lifestyle Facebook Chat Group to share photos of their grocery shopping lists and show proof of how much they spent by sharing their receipts.
One of our members Kylie shared her first meal plan and said she only spent $85 for the entire week! She used to go to the store 4 to 5 times per week and pays $50 each time (that’s about $200 per week). Kylie says she became more organised and saved money. More than half of what she usually spends shopping. That is amazing!
Meanwhile, another member Mandy shared a screenshot of what she planned to cook for the week using our Meals Made Easy program, and it turns out that she only spent $130, looks big but it is, in fact, her budget for two weeks — or $65 per week!
Carlyn also tried Meals Made Easy and happily posted in the group: “I love how Meals Made Easy made my shopping list so much lower.”
Our Meal Planning Tips:
1. Prepare budget-friendly meals
You may not realise it, but there’s plenty of easy-to-prepare meals that you can make — from pies and wraps, salads and even lasagnas — without putting a strain on your budget. Additive-Free recipes are not as complicated as you think. Just use regular ingredients and cheaper cuts of meat (like the chicken leg, chicken wings), and you have delicious and healthy meals, waiting to be munched down by your family.
What’s more, there’s no need for you to go to those fancy supermarkets. Your local supermarket will do. For sure, you can get your everyday ingredients there for your Additive-Free meals.
Make 2 or 3 more meals from one recipe.
For example, if you prepare the Slow Cooked Chicken meal for lunch — that big serving of a whole chicken can last for dinner and then lunch the following day.
Repurpose the leftovers of the Slow Cooked Chicken and turn them into a pie, salad, sandwich or pasta.
Kitchen Hack: Make chicken bone broth from the Slow Cooked Chicken you just made by leaving all the juice of the chicken in your slow cooker; add onions, carrots, celery and herbs; fill it up with water with all the bones; add a dash of apple cider vinegar; and then just turn on the slow cooker overnight. That’s it!
Who says that additive-free meals are expensive?
2. Make a shopping list
Preparing a shopping list before you head off to the grocery store makes you more organised and keeps you focused on the task at hand — get only what’s on your shopping list of budget-friendly meals. That way, you avoid impulse-buying — going up and down the aisles and putting stuff in your shopping cart that you don’t need.
With our Meals Made Easy program, we take away all the headache of preparing that list by sending you our weekly shopping list. You just print it or save it in your smartphone and then you’re good to go. Talk about convenience!
3. Be organised
The number one reason for our stress and anxiety is because we are not organised. Not having a meal plan to get your family through the day is indeed stressful, especially for homemakers like us. But if you’re organised, and you have a meal plan, you don’t have to worry about what to cook for dinner tonight and instead carve out some “me” time — like going to the gym or getting a message.
Meals Made Easy: Delicious Additive-Free Meals Each & Every Month
We do hope that we have convinced you to start meal planning today to help you live a healthier and stress-free life. You can do it yourself by following the free tips we just discussed, or you can take it a step further by trying our amazing Meals Made Easy program.
Our additive-free meal-planning program will give you access to:
- A brand new meal plan every single month
- Shopping lists
- Prep guides for every week
- Cooking tips and discounts on our range of products
- You get our E-Book every month
- Videos and bonuses
- Support from the community and much more, each week for four weeks (well eight weeks if we’re to be honest! )
For more details about Meals Made Easy, just head on over to www.mealsmadeeasy.recipes.
Resources and Links
- Additive Free Lifestyle Chat Group
- Checkout Our Meal Planning Program: www.mealsmadeeasy.recipes
- Additive-Free Lifestyle
- Email: info@additivefreelifestyle.com
- More Roast Chicken Ideas
The post Podcast 129 – How To Save Money Whilst Eating Additive-Free appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
When we first created Meals Made Easy, we had no idea how popular it would become! This program is all about having an organised approach to meals while being able to cook super healthy, additive and preservative-free. When you take out additives and preservatives from your diet, you’ll notice a profound effect on your overall health and well being and that of your families!
What is Meals Made Easy? In a nutshell, this is a meal plan where you have eight weeks worth of dinner, lunch and snack ideas. You’ll pay $9.95 per month on our monthly subscription! – plus, go into the draw to win a ThermoMix TM5 if you sign up on or before the 28th of February 2018!
Here’s exactly what you’ll get with Meals Made Easy:
- A brand new meal plan every single month
- Shopping lists
- Prep guides for every week
- You get our E-Book every month (You can save this to your Mac, PC or device)
Let’s face it, most of the time meal cooking usually comes down to one person, so why not plan ahead, prep ahead and make mealtime a breeze?
But I have special dietary requirements All of the meals within Meals Made Easy are really easily adaptable, and we get plenty of feedback on just how adaptable our meals are (see reviews below).
Even if you can have half of your meals pre-prepared after a long day at work, this saves mountains of stress! There’s nothing worse than stepping into that door, not knowing what to cook or simply not having the energy to cook for you or your family. These are certainly high-risk nights for junk food or takeouts!
A quick sneak peek meal plan from February * Week 1: Cajun Prawn Wraps, Quiche Lorraine, Couscous Salad with Shredded chicken (and how-to video), Cheats Pesto Chicken, Fish Burger and Crunchy Garlic Potatoes * Week 2: Spicy Chorizo Pasta, Chow Mein, Vegetarian Lasagna (much more delicious than it sounds!), Mini-Asian Chicken Burgers, Rice Paper Rolls (with how-to video), Strawberry Swirl Ice Cream * Week 3: Beef Ragu, Beef Meatballs with Lots of Veg, Gluten-free Crunchy Fish, Vege-filled Pasta (with how-to video), Omelette, Apple and Raspberry Crumble * Week 4: We intentionally give you a week full of lunch/snack ideas, as snacks are usually where you would consume additives through packet or sealed foods. If you’re still wanting to cover your dinners, double up on any of the meals from the past three weeks. You can make many of these meals in bulk and freeze! Week four includes Zucchini Slice for lunch-boxes or breakfast, Vegetable Pasties, Vegetable Scrolls, Choc Chip Cookies, Slow Cooked Baked Beans, Pine-Orange Slushie.
As you can see, each week has five recipes for each night, plus an extra bonus recipe! If you find that you have fussy kids, get them involved in the cooking process of all these great recipes. Installing all of the habits of Meals Made Easy into your kids is simply priceless.
Our amazing reviews We have been truly taken back by some of the reviews left from those that have completed the course. We hope that these reviews inspire you to start making your life that much easier with meal planning:
Jessica: “Meals Made Easy has taken the pressure off having to meal plan each week. We have a very busy schedule, so it’s wonderful to know we’re reaching for additive-free food, instead of fast food. I love that you get to keep the recipes in monthly books to use at any time.”
Julie: “I hate trying to think about what to cook for dinner, Meals Made Easy makes it easy, I’m making meals I’ve never made before and they’re easy and delicious, highly recommend!”
Jessica (2): “Meals Made Easy has taken away the stress of planning great, healthy meals for my family. I love that all of the meals are wholesome and do not have any nasties. My son has some specific dietary requirements and I’ve been able to adjust most meals to suit him. Thank you Jo and Tracey, I love the price it’s quite affordable also”
Lauren: “I’m now gluten-free and dairy-free, and I found Meals Made Easy, easily convertible to suit my needs. Quick, simple and delicious!”
There is just nothing like feeling more organised! We are consistently being asked the question of “How do you keep living additive-free?” And we say organisation is the key! Some days you just can’t face coming home to cooking dinner. Through this course, you’ll learn to have extra stocks in the freezer ready to pull out! It might even be worth buying a small second freezer, to stock up on two weeks of leftovers! Just think how easy this will make your life. We hope you have learnt some great tips about our course in this episode!
Resources
- https://mealsmadeeasy.recipes
The post Podcast 106 – Meals Made Easy and How It Can Help You appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In this HUGE 100th episode, we reflect back on how far we’ve truly come since the beginning of our journey, and the incredible people we have met and had on the show. We’ve had nearly 700,000 downloads since we launched the Sistermixin’ podcast show which has blown us away!
Our team expands
We are proud to have expanded our team with some equally passionate staff, including some junior staff to help us out over the summer period. Without them, we would have been completely inundated with orders (which of course is not a bad thing!).
Our girls in the warehouse have processed almost 6,000 orders, with over 19,000 products purchased. Speaking of warehouses, we had to expand to one in the past 12 months, as we kind of outgrew Jo’s spare rooms in her house! Just when we thought we covered all bases, we now realise we’re close to outgrowing the warehouse! We are over the moon that there have been over 19,000 switches to all-natural products. To us, that’s truly life-changing.
A switch of focus to ourselves
This was a big switch over the past 12 months, taking self-care and self-love on board. There’s so much room to grow in this area, but we’re definitely dedicating more time to looking after ourselves and the ones around us.
We had a great trip to the Philippines for a conference, which ended up being one of the most life-changing events we’ve ever attended, Jo took her self-care to a whole different level. One of the best things to come out of this was all the amazing people we met and their stories, but the friends we made along the way.
Our wins with our doTERRA business
We got super lucky and won a trip to Fiji with doTERRA, a competition we also took out again this year! We’re off to Uluru in South Western Northern Territory, within the next few weeks, where are also taking two of our team members along with us. We have proudly made it to the second highest ranking within doTERRA, which shows that our hard work is really starting to pay off.
Our future goal is to reach the highest possible level with doTERRA, something that’s in our close sights! It’s not just about success in our business, but we’re passionate about helping others to also grow their doTERRA business, no matter how big or small!
There is so much financial security and freedom that comes along with our love of essential oils! Our team is made up of around 2,000 oily lovers and we just love knowing that essential oils are being used in all of our member’s homes. Again, we want to grow our awesome team to new levels this year!
Jo’s big interstate move, Tracey leaves the Navy and an unlikely business partner comes on board
Jo made a brave decision to move her whole family to Tasmania from the Brisbane. She also fully renovated her house without even seeing it! This life-changing move is already paying off and Jo absolutely loves being close to her family in Tasmania again. Queensland hasn’t even crossed her mind, although it might do so come winter time! Tracey finished up her long career with the Navy in March, and Jo’s husband quit his job as a surveyor at the end of December to work for Sistermixin’! Yes, you heard right! Good Luck!
We published around 100 brand new recipes in 2017
We’ve loved bringing in these new recipes that we created from our hearts. While a lot of these have come about spontaneously, other recipes have been trial and error, where we might have to make the recipe over 10 times to get it just right!
Our Meals Made Easy Program expands
We currently have over 800 people as part of our Meals Made Easy program, where we provide cooking prep guides, shopping lists and some of our latest recipes. We travelled around, speaking with local schools to spread some valuable knowledge to many of the parents. Our goal is to be in front of more audiences in 2018 and share our passion and story as this is a huge passion of ours!
Social media wins
On our Facebook page, we grew to over 50,0000 likes! Instagram over 13,000 followers and a huge 1.6 million views on our Facebook videos! As you can imagine, when we checked up on the stats, we nearly fell off our chairs!
Our most popular videos include Jo’s entertaining, but very real 160B video, where she goes undercover in a local supermarket, to point out just how common this toxic additive is- watch the episode here.
On our YouTube channel, we have had over 81,000 views, even though we use it very little. Perhaps in our 2018 goals, it will include posting more on YouTube, as you seem to love these videos! We now have followers from all over the world and it’s been an incredible year!
The excitement ahead
It’s official, we’re working on our very own published book! Our first draft is in our hot little hands now, and we’re currently proofreading and editing that draft. This book is all about our story, and why we began this additive-free journey. We also jump right into the science behind additives and preservatives, and we’re so excited (and a little nervous!) to launch this book. We’re aiming for a mid-2018 release date-so watch this space!
We have a lot of travel plans with doTERRA in 2018, including Sydney and America for conferences! So stick with us, get in touch if you want us to cover any specific topics, and we’d be happy to run a podcast or answer your burning questions! We would love, love, love your podcast reviews as it helps us spread our message about additives!
Our listeners are truly our inspiration, and we feel it’s our mission to spread knowledge about additives far and wide. On a more comical side, we’re happy to announce that we managed to keep our kids alive and safe, stay married and stay alive ourselves! We absolutely love what we do and this is really just the beginning for Sistermixin’!
Resources
- Meals Made Easy: mealsmadeeasy.recipes
- Additive Free Made Easy E-Course still open for registration until 28 January 2018! www.additivefreemadeeasy.com
The post Podcast 100 – A Celebration of Our Achievements and What’s to Come appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
Stepping out of your comfort zone and embracing the change is what it’s all about when you start going additive-free. It’s truly one of the most empowering feelings you will ever get. Then there is the education factor – knowing what you are eating and educating yourself as to the foods you’re putting in your body, not to mention your family’s bodies! We all should understand what some additives are doing to our health.
Check Ingredients
We challenge you to check the ingredients on your packet and look for those numbers. Please note that not all numbers are bad. So, don’t just pick up a packet and think that since it has the numbers on it you can’t have it. Not all numbers are bad and we will teach you this in Additive-Free Made Easy. We go through the really harsh additives and preservatives, so you’ll be aware of what you are eating.
Don’t Be Fooled By Marketing
Don’t be fooled by the word ‘organic’ or ‘all-natural colours’ or ‘no added MSG’. All those slogans on packets can be very misleading, always be mindful and check your ingredients. We have found organic annatto – still wouldn’t eat it, gross (just saying!)
Cook Something New
We also challenge you to cook something new, it might be just a cake, biscuit or slice. You may like to try out some different brands or cook something you have traditionally bought in a jar, anything. We have tonnes of recipes available for you to follow, it’s so easy, promise.
Get Your Families Involved
We know this can be a challenge in itself, but it’s totally worth it. Make those simple steps and slowly introduce new products. The benefits of going additive and preservative-free are worth the effort. The sooner we can educate our own families, the better.
Get In Tune With Your Body
The last one is to get in tune with your body. Start listening and recognising how the foods you are eating reacts your body. Start getting that out of your diet. If you can do this you are going the right way, don’t look back and continue the journey of additive and preservative-free eating, allowing you to make better choices based on what you learn along the way.
Take It Further
We challenge you to take it further. Continue the learning and embrace the change. Additive-Free Made Easy is our signature program, one that is full of information, encouragement and inspiration.
When you join Additive-Free Made Easy, you not only get access to the life-changing four-week program, but you also get to join a private Facebook Group which is full of like-minded people, all ready to support you on your path to better health.
Testimonial From Past Member Of Additive-Free Made Easy
Hello lovely ladies, I just wanted to take the time to send you an email to properly thank you for doing what you do. I signed up and did the last round of AFME. It came up on my newsfeed and to be honest I signed up on a whim and then said to myself “well I’ve paid up now I have to do this”! A little background to our family. We have three kids and our eldest son is 15 and has Autism and our youngest who is also a boy and is 8 has ADHD. Our daughter is 12 and luckily has no health issues. As a family we have tried every type of therapy and tutoring there is- if you’ve heard of it we have probably given it a go. The only thing we hadn’t done was the diet overhaul as to be honest I wasn’t in the right headspace to put in the effort required… that was until I found AFME. From the moment I started the program, I felt empowered and knew I was doing the best I could for our family. I have been totally amazed by the difference in our son with ADHD. The change in his behaviour has been nothing short of remarkable. His teacher and I both had tears in our eyes at his parent-teacher interview 2 weeks ago. He is able to concentrate for longer, he has made big improvements academically and he is making better choices. He is currently on medication and I am hopeful we may be able to try and cut down his dosage. We have just come back from a family holiday to Phuket and we stayed as close to additive-free as possible. It was the best family holiday we have ever had from the point of the three kids getting along and interacting together. We also had a lot of positive comments from strangers about how well behaved they all are. I have also signed up to the meals made easy program and I absolutely love it. I have added so many more new things to our family menu and I love the fact that you include sauces, cleaning products and lunch box treats. My next goal is to get started with the essential oils. Many thanks for putting these fabulous programs together that really do transform lives. Jo Spurr
Links & Resources
- Know more about additive free eating head on to: www.additivefreemadeeasy.com
- Easy Butter Chicken Recipe
- Additive-Free Made Easy on Facebook here
The post Podcast 85 – Additive-Free Made Easy Challenge, Day 7 – Embracing the Change appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
In this episode, we go into depth about our amazing Meals Made Easy program. This program is designed to make everyone’s lives a whole lot easier!
When we created Meals Made Easy it needed to be simply that – easy! But we also wanted to ensure they were family-friendly and budget conscious as well.
What do you get? Ok, where to start.
You get 15 dinner ideas, 5 lunch/snack ideas, and a few bonus recipes as well. Then there are the exclusive cook-a-longs (which are new and will replace the pre-recorded videos as advertised in this podcast). But wait, there is more. You also get full shopping lists and preparation guides to, again, keep things easy for you.
Each month there are always brand new things to try, so you should never get bored of the same old thing every night (seriously, spag bol again!!!).
All the recipes in Meals Made Easy are designed to be 100% additive-free, with many different types of meals offered – there is something for everyone (including the fussiest of kids).
We run through:
- Frequently asked questions
- What’s included in the program – how-to videos, e-books, prep guides, shopping lists etc
- We discuss the different pricing options for the program
- You’ll pick up a lot from our tips on food preparation and how you can easily free up time during the week, by not having to worry about what to cook each night!
The aim of our programs is to save you both time and money along the way. We discuss practical tools to transform mealtime and include a huge variety of dishes. We even have freezable options and seasonal options for the upcoming Easter period.
You”ll also hear about our lovely feedback from happy customers who join this program!
Links & Resources
- Join Meals Made Easy here
- Email: Info@additivefreelifestyle.com
- Facebook page
The post Podcast 53 – Let’s Discuss Meals Made Easy appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.
We are asked all the time How did you come back after losing your entire website?” And “Why did you make the effort to come back?
It was a bit of a touchy subject for a while, but now that we have moved on past the anger and hate we felt towards the company that did that to us, we feel it’s time to answer and explain, and what better way than right here in this podcast.
Hopefully, we can inspire you, the next time you are in a similar situation. Struggling with something that seems too hard to handle, not sure how to get past the first hurdle and let go of the anger or hatred, not sure of the next step to take, or when things just seem too hard…
Let us share our story and explain the steps we took to make the comeback we deserved.
In Jo’s own words:
“Shit happens and as devastating as it is, there is always a step forward that you can go.” This lesson is applicable not just in losing a site as big as ours, but also in your journey towards a healthier and happier you. Never underestimate the power of community, determination, and stubbornness in propelling you through roadblocks along the way!
Show Highlights
In this episode, we discussed:
- How our problem all got started
- The gravity of what was lost by our former website host
- Our experience with pursuing legal action against the hosting company responsible
- Why we ultimately drop any legal action so we can focus on what really matters: helping you
- How we, our families and our audience benefited from this decision to let go
- How emails, messages, and comments from you inspired us to keep going
- The story of how we realized how big and great our community really is!
- Why you shouldn’t be afraid to ask for help when you’re in trouble
This episode is dedicated to every one of you who inspired and helped us pick ourselves up and get back to helping others (which makes us happy).
Without your help, we would never have come back as fast as we did and would never have been able to retrieve all the recipes lost from our database.
What happened did not diminish our desire to keep helping others, nor did it stop us from growing our business. In fact, since coming back last March, we’ve done some amazing things here at Sistermixin’:
- We’ve launched a podcast
- We’ve released a cookbook
- We’ve conducted a couple of free 7-Day Challenges
- Jo has quit her part-time job to work full time on Sistermixin’ (this was epic and so exciting)
- We realised what makes us happy (all of you!)
- We have released a stack of new recipes
- We have conducted another round of Additive Free Made Easy
Things are going gang-busters and we couldn’t be happier. You guys are our rock, and we love you all to bits. Seriously, without the community support we received, nothing would have been possible. Through all the tears of anger and hate, came tears of joy and love, and for that, we will be forever grateful.
Love and appreciation
Tracey and Jo
xxx
The post Podcast 14 – How We Came Back After Losing It All (Our Website) appeared first on Additive Free Lifestyle.