Finding a Manual for Life

Dear Friends,

     This week I celebrated my birthday. (Of course, being a woman of a certain age, I am not going to tell you how old I am.) I used to panic around my birthday. Another year had passed by and I still had so much I wanted to accomplish! But today, I no longer panic thanks to a revelation about life I had about five years ago. I experienced a complete shift in my perspective. Since then, I’ve embraced my birthday as a day to celebrate my life and my accomplishments with family and friends.

Where is My Manual for Life?

     When I was younger, I always wished I had a life manual book that would give me answers to my life dilemmas. While I was raising my kids I counted on the parenting books at the public library to give me the answers. I was always questioning my parenting skills and wondering if I really was providing my children with what they needed. I was far away from my mother, my home and culture. How was I supposed to know what normal was? Putting it plainly, I didn’t have faith in my own abilities.

     Still I forged ahead, separating from my husband and raising my three kids on my own. To support us, I started a small café in downtown Ross, CA. One day, after I’d been in business for a few years, another woman asked me if I might provide her with some help starting her own business. I was surprised and thought to myself, “What do I have to offer? I am barely holding on with my own business?” We met several times and I talked through my experiences and ups and downs at the café. My friend thanked me over and over again each time we met. I kept thinking, “Why is she thanking me? I haven’t done anything, really. I just told her what I learned.”

My "Aha!" Moment

     And then suddenly it all came clear. I had been in this woman’s shoes and I was sharing with her how I got from there to owning a thriving small business. While I was building my business, I was just trying to survive and never took the time review and enjoy my accomplishments. But looking back at that moment I could see how much I had accomplished. I also saw how much I loved serving my customers their morning coffee and talking with them.

     Soon after that ‘aha moment,’ I decided to throw a big celebration at the café. It was my seventh year in business and my guests kept asking why I wanted to celebrate my seventh anniversary. It didn’t make much sense to them, though they were happy to join in. To me, the party and its timing made all these sense in the world. I wanted to celebrate my new understanding that my life experience had real value and meaning to me and to others. That party was an acknowledgement of my own growth, the growth of my business and joy I got from sharing daily life with my customers.

Loving Everyday

     I had five more years at the café before I sold it. I loved every day I worked there, making the tall, non-fat lattes and sharing life’s ups and downs with my customers. For those last years, the business thrived and I got energized. Despite my long hours at the cafe, I was happy to do more cooking when I got home, which is how I came up with the granola that became the basis for One Planet Granola.

     Today, I’m running a consumer, packaged food company and still I have no manual for success. The only manual I have is my own experience and faith that despite detours things always work out for the best. It’s a long way from a little café to a company that makes, packages and sells granola, but I’m still making food that I hope will make my customers feel nurtured and loved. That’s a mission that wakes me up and gets me going every morning.

Love, Rana

Give Yourself a Break with Meal Planning: It works!

Mom is a super hero. Everyone in the family depends on her. She keeps the house clean, gets the laundry done, monitors home work, plans activities and family time, keeps up with the relatives, plans holidays. The list goes on and on and she keeps going and going, until one day: crash!

If you’re a mom, you know what I mean. When I was a single, working mom with three young kids I had to be creative about how to get a break so that I didn’t crash. One of my secret weapons was meal planning. I actually hired a consultant to teach me how to make meal time easier at home.

Today, I’m sharing what I learned about planning and shopping for family meals in hopes that it will help make life for all you super moms a little easier. You may say you don’t have time to sit down and do the work of meal planning, but trust me you’ll be so glad that you did. I’ve used this tool for years and it works!

Here are a few ways that meal planning will make your life easier and your family happier:

• ·      It will save you at least 3 to 4 hours a week.
• ·      It will save you money especially—not more last minute take out or restaurant meals
• ·      Everyone will know what’s for dinner, most importantly you!  
• ·      Home cooked meals are healthy for the body and the soul: they bring families together to share and relate.

How Meal Planning Works

Make the Commitment

First, set aside a time to get organized and do some preliminary work. Then decide on a day and time to write up your weekly plan. You will thank me, I promise!

Get Organized

Take an inventory of the contents of your fridge, pantry and cabinets so you know what you have when you start your planning. Who knows, you may not even need to go shopping for a few days depending on what’s there!

Put all your recipes on one place.

Make a list of family favorites and/or quick and easy meals.

Create Your Plan

Make your list of meals and then build your grocery list.

Plan three or four dinners from scratch, and one or two dinners using leftovers from previous evenings.

Give yourself a break and go out to eat or order in one night a week. When my kids were growing up, Sunday was my night. I still refuse to cook on Sundays unless I have company!

Make a weekly schedule for shopping, food preparation and cooking and stick with it. We are creatures of habit and all these tasks get easier over time.

Tips for Success

Bring your family into the process. Ask them what they’d like to eat and bring your kids with you when you shop. You can even get them involved in meal preparation a few days a week.

Plan meals that use lots of the same ingredients to make shopping easier and take advantage of seasonal vegetables.

Stick with vegetables and other foods that your family likes and introduce something new once a week. 

Simplify weekday mornings by offering only two choices for breakfast. Save the big family breakfast for the weekends and then you can get everyone helping with the cooking and cleaning.

I hope you have as much success with planning your meals as I do. Send us your recipes and experiences. We are always happy to hear from you!

Breakfast with One Planet Granola: It Really is the Most Important Meal of the Day

Dear Friends,

      The return of fall always reminds me of my family's back-to-school routine. Every year during the last two weeks of summer my three children and I organized their rooms and shopped for clothes, shoes, backpacks and school supplies. Everyone was so excited and full of anticipation!

      Now my two boys are in college and they do their own shopping. But I still worry about whether or not they are eating a good breakfast and getting enough nutrition to keep them going through the day! Breakfast really is the most important meal of the day, especially for students. Studies show that kids who eat good, healthy breakfasts perform better on tests and have better grades.

       One Planet Granola is perfect for breakfast. We even have a flavor made for kids called One Planet Morning Magic with pumpkin seeds, banana chips, dried apples, honey, maple syrup, Madagascar vanilla and naturally chocolate covered sunflower seed. Serve up half a cup with milk and a glass of orange juice and your kids will be full of fuel until lunch time.

     One Planet Granola is also the perfect main ingredient in breakfast muffins. Make up a big batch using our First Love mix and the recipe below and then freeze them! First Love includes a mix of organic cranberries, almonds, pecans, coconut, sunflower seeds, with whole-grain oats, raisins, pumpkin seeds and more and is packed with protein. Take your frozen muffins out in the evening and they’ll be ready the next morning for a quick, healthy and filling start to the day.

      One Planet Granola wishes you and your family a happy, healthy and smart start to the school year.

Love,

Rana

One Planet First Love Granola Muffins

Makes 12 muffins.

Ingredients

1 cup First Love One Planet Granola

1 cup whole wheat flour

2 teaspoons baking powder

2 large eggs

¼ cup honey

1 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

¼ cup canola oil

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract

Preheat the oven 375 F with a rack in the middle. Spray a 12-cup muffin pan with cooking oil.

Combine the granola with half of the buttermilk and let it set for 15 minutes.

Beat together eggs, honey, remaining ½ cup buttermilk, canola oil and vanilla.

Whisk the flour and baking powder into the wet batter and fold in the granola mixture.

Fill muffin cups about ¾ full and bake about 25 minutes.

Let cool and enjoy.