Jo Whitton

Hi!

My name's Jo Whitton, and I'm the author of 'Quirky Cooking', a blog where I share my healthy recipes and tips, and hopefully encourage people to enjoy healthy food!

Like you, I want to give my children the best fuel for their growing bodies that I possibly can. I don't want to be polluting their systems with additives, preservatives, colours, and refined 'foods' - I want them to have a healthy head start in life! Thankfully, my mum taught me to cook from a very young age, using basic ingredients and fresh fruits and vegetables. We very rarely had packaged foods, like cereal from a box or things like that. Mum made our bread, cakes, biscuits (and pretty much everything else) herself. My school friends found my school lunches fascinating, often wanting to know what we'd had for breakfast, and they loved to come home with me for an after-school snack - which was usually something freshly baked, hot out of the oven as we walked in the door! I figured if I cooked 'from scratch' like mum did, my family would be healthy. Luckily, I LOVE cooking and baking!

Over the years, however, it became clear to me that even the basic ingredients were changing - more and more foods were being altered - genetically modified, irradiated, sprayed with pesticides, over-refined, over-processed, chemically flavoured and coloured... even meat isn't just meat anymore! By the time I had my fourth child, my allergies (which I'd struggled with all my life) had gotten worse, and my kids had allergies too. I began to have headaches, recurring colds, was always exhausted, couldn't gain weight, had blood sugar problems, and generally just felt yuck! I couldn't understand why. I didn't buy all the pre-packaged junk, I made my own wholewheat breads and baking, we ate fruit and veges - why didn't I feel better?

After my first visit to a naturopath, I began to see there's so much more to eating healthy than just making it yourself - although that's a good start! The problem is, the ingredients I used often contained hidden nasties, the fruits and veges had chemicals on them (and in them), the flour and sugar was over-refined, and I just wasn't getting the nutrients from my food that my body needed. I also found that some foods that were okay for other people just didn't agree with me (dairy, wheat and sugar) and were best avoided. I began to eat more of a wholefood diet, stopped having wheat and dairy, used only natural sweeteners, avoided colours, preservatives and additives, and bought organic or pesticide free as much as I could. (Buying in bulk made this affordable for us.) My Thermomix came in very handy with this change in diet - I began using it more and more: to grind grains and make bread, to make my rice and nut milks and creams, for juices and fresh fruit ice-creams and sorbets, and so much more. Within weeks my headaches and colds were gone, my blood sugar levels stabilised, I had heaps more energy, and I began to gain weight! (I know that most people want to lose weight, but I was very underweight because of a lack of nutrients.)

After eating this way for a couple of years, I decided I really wanted to help others with changing their diets, and learning to cook healthy food for their families. I talked to so many people who had allergies or food intolerances, or who wanted to eat healthier, but they often told me they would try for a while to change their diet, then give up. They found it too hard. Or they thought healthy food was bland and boring. They didn't know what to cook for dinner, or how to make a healthy cake, or how to substitute for the foods they were intolerant to. As a busy, homeschooling mum, I couldn't just go and study to become a naturopath or nutritionist (which I would have loved to do), so I decided to start a blog to share my recipes and tips with others. Healthy food doesn't have to be boring. And food intolerances and allergies don't have to make life difficult. My blog, Quirky Cooking, has been going for over two years now, and through it I've met so many lovely, like-minded people, and hopefully have encouraged some in their journey to good health!

Here are a couple of recipes I've developed for my family that I hope your family will enjoy also! If you have a Thermomix, it makes life so much easier, but if not, I've included the traditional method too.

May your journey to good health be as enjoyable as mine has!

Jo
 

My Blog: Quirky Cooking - Thermomix recipes and menu plans
My Quirky Cooking Fan Page - come join in the discussions!