Spring is for sprouting!

Sprouting is super easy and super nutritious!!

You can sprout any seed and most beans and grains.   Sprouts are bursting with protein, vitamins and nutrients.  A powerhouse food that can be eaten on it's own or added to any meal.   

You can sprout a variety of seeds in one jar.  Be sure to sprout beans or legumes in a separate jar as they are larger and take longer to sprout.  I use a 1 L wide mouth mason jar.  You can purchase plastic lids of three sizes (for different size sprouts) at a health food store.  If not available a cheese cloth fitted with an elastic band over the mouth of the jar or a food grade screen will do just as well.

Select the seeds or beans to sprout and enough to cover the bottom of the jar.  Sprouts grow and take up lots of space so less is more!!  Rinse the seeds well and soak for 24 hours on the counter away from sunlight (you can cover them with a towel).  Rinse and drain the sprouts twice a day - this process only takes 20 seconds a day!  Once they have sprouted, they can be left uncovered and exposed to light, keep rinsing at least 2 times a day.  They are usually ready after a couple of days uncovered, when you see a tail 2-3 times the length of the seed, anywhere from 1 to 4 days.  

Now they are ready to eat.

Store covered in the refrigerator.

Add your sprouts to salads, sandwiches or eat them on their own.

I like to make a wrap with mine ...

I usually have leftovers in the fridge like rice, quinoa, chicken almost anything will do.

Heat it up and dice if necessary.

Take a large lettuce leaf (you can use a traditional tortilla if you want something more filling)

and place some rice (in my case)  and add some sprouts.

I usually add some garlic chili flax oil as a condiment along with some Grains plus.

Now roll, wrap and eat!

Kids like to build their own wraps and even nibble on the sprouts!!

Eat Well

Be Well

VIDA GRAINS

What has no calories; prevents constipation; may lower the risk of heart disease, obesity and diabetes?

Dietary fibre! It is one of the key ingredients of Vida Grains. A delicious fibre alternative that provides essential vitamins minerals and fatty acids. This distinctive blend of bran, psyllium and a variety of seeds, is mostly organic. Vida Grains is healthy, delicious and easy to use. Simply sprinkle a couple of tablespoons on any meal.

Vida Grains is available for sale on Salt Spring Island.

Passion for food fosters two healthy businesses

BY ELIZABETH NOLAN
D R I F T W O O D S T A F F
Canadians are set on becoming a whole lot healthier, and will even enjoydoing so, thanks to two island businesses inspired by one woman’s passion for food.

Food that is good for you and also tastes good is central to the upcoming launch of Annette Magled’s Grains Plus product and responsible for the growing client base at her food coaching business, Salt Spring Food for Life.

Over lattes and biscotti, Magled explained that in her life, food has always had significance. She was brought up in a Jewish family in Israel and Toronto, in a culture that celebrates every important event with a special dish.

"Food is an essential part of that life. It’s a part of all celebration, religious or otherwise," Magled said, recalling the hours spent watching her grandmother in her tiny kitchen preparing pita breads, chicken and stews for up to 20 family members.

As a busy wife and mother, Magled’s adult life has seen a continuation of her passion combined
with the everyday stress of the time constraints everyone feels. As a result, she’s become an expert at preparing meals "on the fly" and improvising with what’s on hand. Her three daughters have anywhere from four to six activities between them each week, while her husband works full time and also has a singing career. With her own business and volunteer activities thrown in, Magled knows how to feed a family with limited time and still make food that nourishes and tastes good.

"I like to feed people, and I like to feed people good food, because when I eat good food I feel a definite difference between that and what weighs me down," Magled explained.

Her love of cooking for friends and family has led directly to Grains Plus, a product that Magled
hopes to launch at Natureworks in June and then outwards into Canada. The mix of whole grains
and fresh seeds is a "fibre food topping" that can be added to savoury or sweeter foods, from salads and stews to rice and quinoa, or yoghurt and muesli. Involving a mix of "superfood" fibres like hemp and flax, Magled has maximized the recipe’s ratio so that nutritionally it’s almost a complete food for its essential fatty acids, vitamins and minerals.

Besides being tasty — Magled said it’s the only way her youngest daughter will eat rice — the topping has proven health benefits within Magled’s own family. She first learned the recipe from her mother, who used it to reverse a painful condition called diverticulitis, a blocking of the intestines by undigested food. Dismayed by her doctor’s suggestion of cutting out the blocked portion, and even more by his assertion that there were no preventative measures and that a second operation would likely be necessary in a few years, Magled’s mother took a nutritionist’s advice instead. Using a Grains Plus-like recipe, she completely solved the problem.

Around four years ago, Magled served her version of the recipe to a friend, who told her, "Annette, you’ve got to share this." "I got all excited inside," Magled recalled, "because there’s nothing like it. It’s unique, it tastes good, it has health benefits. I knew my kids would be in school, I was looking for something to do, and sales is such a strong component. So it all came together.

"In addition to Grains Plus, Magled has added her own stamp to the field of personal coaching.
Through Salt Spring Food for Life she combines her skills in the kitchen with her nutritional
knowledge to help people change their habits to healthier ones. Magled entered the field around
two years ago when Deb Leblanc of DEBFIT Lifestyle Fitness Company told her she wanted to concentrate on exercise training with clients and needed someone else "to wear the food hat."
"It was a perfect fit for me, and it was like someone had given me a gift. It involved all the skills I had and she gave me some place to put them."

In her coaching work, Magled said she works on a person-to-person basis, and starts by learning about an individual’s relationship with food. After a lot of talking, small changes rather than huge
ones are introduced. "It’s not necessarily about how to change, because that can be overwhelming and sets people up for failure. Instead, we just add good things: it could be just drinking one glass of water in the morning, or putting your fork down between bites, or chewing your food more times."

Magled also helps people learn how to shop, how to plan meals and how to make meals when
there isn’t much in the fridge. Getting creative is her strong suit; where others see unconnected
grocery items, she sees ingredients for a meal. At the same time, she provides the tools to make
sure the ingredients that are hanging around are likely to be healthy ones acquired through "conscious" shopping. But perhaps Magled’s greatest gift is educating people that food that is good for you actually tastes better — the best reason to eat it.

To learn more about Grains Plus, call Magled at 250-537-6523.
Annette Magled.