This is why I thought Leanne Monaghan’s event “Cooking your way to a Healthy Lifestyle” was a massive success. Not because she showed how to cook healthy meals, because frankly anyone can do that but because she told the truth on how to make things taste good and how to get the most value out of your food!

“Hale to the Kale!” said Leanne with a smile. But more importantly was the part where she admitted to the crowd that she didn’t actually like kale. My attention perked up more as many people can quote eating vegetables but not everyone tells you the truth – sometimes it just tastes like gr…ass.

Thirty people gathered around as Leanne showed us tips and tricks that would keep us healthier for the holidays – but really all year round. The session was packed with info and recipes but here are the three tips that changed how I’m going to be eating!

Tip 1: Organic when you can.

If you can invest a bit of extra money on organics then her top picks are to buy organic lemons, organic greens and organic chicken or beef stock. Lemons and lettuce are heavily sprayed and you don’t need to ingest insecticides. And the reason for stocks being organic is that you are basically extracting everything from the animal – so make sure you aren’t extracting the “junk” too. I’m pretty sure that she just chose the word junk so that she didn’t have to go down the path of what happens on mass production farms (thank-you Leanne!).

Tip 2: Smoothie Tricks!

Leanne recommends Dino kale or baby kale as her favourite types of kale. And best of all she tells you how to bury the taste in your smoothie! The trick she says is to use frozen pineapple and mango. She also recommends Sun Warrior Protein Powder. The other excellent tip she gave us – put your extras into a mason jar. That way you can just shake it up when you want to have your next smoothie. She also promotes using Coconut water – and to my delight she admits to not liking that either!

Leanne’s smoothie recipe:

-handful of kale
-splash of coconut water
-a quarter inch of fresh ginger
-a dash of cinnamon
-1 scoop of protein powder
– ½ cup of frozen pineapple
-1/4 cup of frozen mango

* Your smoothie is a also good time to add in your healthy fat – Leanne recommends Udos 3-6-9

And use regular water to thin your smoothie to the consistency you prefer.

Tip 3: Take care of your greens!

You know that drawer of veggies you have that is starting to wilt? Don’t worry they don’t have to get dumped. Leanne recommends spritzing greens with lemon juice. I tried it – it works! Your greens come back to life in just a few minutes. She also suggests wrapping the stems with wet paper towel.

She offered a great suggestion about your salad dressing – keep it clean and make extra so that you have it easily available.

Here is her easy recipe:

Equal parts; honey (local is best), olive oil and vinegar. Then just a tiny dollop of high quality mustard

Admittedly, I will not be an advertisement of healthy living quite yet. But one thing I love about the advice and tips that Leanne offers is that she makes them very digestible. And there is nothing like having someone “Walk the Walk” and not just “Talk the Talk”. Leanne in action is an amazing role model for women. She is over fifty and looks like she is in her thirties. What I know for sure

– I’ll have whatever she is having please!