I’ve been majorly fangirling since Catherine McCord agreed to this email interview. She is the founder of the resourceful website Weelicious and the organic meal prep service One Potato; writer and cookbook author; and mom to three sunny kids who her readers have watched grow up via Weelicious.
Catherine’s exuberance for feeding families has influenced me since my now six-year-old daughter took her first bites of homemade baby food. The Weelicious Lunches cookbook was my companion as I tearfully shopped for her first school lunches. My big girl’s younger sis is a budding foodie at age four so I especially rely on Catherine’s smart—but not sneaky—recipes to show my daughters that healthy food can be both fun and tasty.
Vibrant, variant, fibro-smart smoothie recipes are Catherine’s go-to family breakfast…
JBC: Your smoothie recipes like “Vanilla Avocado Greens” and “Cotton Candy” (strawberries and cauliflower: it’s so delicious!), as well as your Smoothie Project, expand to include all diets. Many of the #fibrowarriors I know avoid dairy and gluten, and we seek ways to fulfill a high protein diet. Can we feed our needs via a breakfast smoothie or snack?
CM: 100%! Part of the reason I started the Smoothie Project was that I realized I was giving my kids bread, cheese and other sugars in the morning instead of the brain food their bodies really need. By drinking fruits, vegetables and proteins at the beginning of the day you’re feeding your body exactly what it needs!
JBC: One of my biggest struggles with fibro is that I love to cook but am often in pain and/or don’t have the energy. You seem to know just the thing to snack on or cook. What grocery shopping and/or kitchen shortcut tip would you give for tough fibro days?
CM: I keep a whiteboard in my cupboard with a list of the 10 foods we enjoy most often. It’s important to keep the foods you love most on hand to mix and match in recipes.
JBC: My first shrimp cocktail was promptly followed by a second order during a fancy vacation meal in NYC with my parents when I was in elementary school. That meal turned me into a foodie for life. I love reading about what other people eat. Could you give an example of what you eat on a typical day?
CM: So funny! I have a very similar experience. Shrimp cocktails must be the gateway dish for future foodies! I have a smoothie for breakfast everyday. It’s generally the pregnancy smoothie (I’m not pregnant, I just love it) or a different flavor my kids request. Lunch is typically a salad with chicken, avocado and any farmers market vegetables I have on hand, or leftovers from the night before. Dinner is One Potato three nights a week, I menu plan the other three nights, and we go out somewhere fun with a different type of cuisine to inspire the kids to try new foods once a week.
JBC & CM: Could you suggest some of your favorite low-intensity, high-protein, low to no dairy/gluten Weelicious go-tos for #fibrowarriors to cook on our better days?
–https://weelicious.com/2018/04/10/vanilla-avocado-greens-smoothie/ (you can use plant-based milk)
–https://weelicious.com/2018/10/26/air-fryer-veggies/
–https://weelicious.com/2018/09/25/quinoa-crusted-chicken/
–https://weelicious.com/2016/06/23/salmon-sheet-pan-dinner-recipe/
–https://weelicious.com/2016/05/23/turkey-zucchini-burgers-recipe/ (make these with lettuce wraps)
YUM! Thank you, Catherine.
40 & Over: Living With Fibromyalgia 