“Quinoa for breakfast might sound a little strange at first. But this flavorful and nourishing breakfast bowl is going to win you over. It’s easy to digest and will give you lots of energy for the day ahead. Want to save time in the morning? Make a big pot of quinoa on a Sunday for the week. This recipe will only take 5 minutes to make when the quinoa is already cooked.”
INGREDIENTS (1 Serving):
QUINOA
1 cup cooked quinoa
3/4 cup almond milk or your milk of choice
1 teaspoon extra-virgin coconut oil
Pinch of salt
TOPPINGS
1 banana, sliced
2 tablespoons goji berries
Handful dried mulberries
Handful pistachios
Pure maple syrup (optional)
DIRECTIONS:
1. Put the quinoa and almond milk in a small pan and stir in the coconut oil and salt.
2. Cook over medium-high heat for 3 to 4 minutes, or until heated through.
3. Transfer to a bowl and add the toppings. Drizzle with a little maple syrup, if desired.
This recipe is by Jill De Jong from her book “Models Do Eat: More Than 100 Recipes for Eating Your Way to a Beautiful, Healthy You”. The book is available for pre-order now, and it will ship officially on February 4th, 2019.
Jill de Jong switched from being a full-time model to a health coach, personal trainer, and chef, and has never looked back. We are fascinated with Jill’s expertise in health and wanted to know a little more. So, we asked her a couple of questions about her healthy eating habits.
What, in your own personal experiences or struggles, has led you to your current healthy eating habits?
When I started modeling at the age of seventeen, I was introduced to calorie counting. I thought that it was part of my job to keep track of calories, and I made a game of it; I tried to eat as much as I could with the least amount of calories. It took up so much head space. I was snacking all day, consuming diet products, and skipping meals. I felt hungry all the time. No fun! After several years, I was fed up with feeling deprived. I wanted to eat without feeling guilty or scared and enjoy food like I used to. It was time to educate myself about food and nutrition to help me understand what I should eat and what I should avoid. I started listening to my body again, asking what it needed instead of basing every choice on calorie counts. Learning how to cook has helped me tremendously in this process.
Why do you think women are dealing with disordered eating now more than ever before?
A lot of women have a hard time losing weight and staying in shape, and there’s a lot of confusion about what is healthy and what is not. The media constantly promotes new diets, and these diets often contradict one another. Going from one diet to the next and not getting the desired results makes women feel very frustrated. My disordered eating stemmed from not understanding food, the nutritional value, and how my body processed it.
I think there’s not one diet that suits everybody; it’s all about going back to our intuitive self and eating more of the things that make us feel good (energized, clear minded, happy, balanced) not what other people do or swear by.