The holidays will soon be upon us, and we all know food is a big part of the fun. Whether it’s Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, New Year or any other festive occasion that you may celebrate, this time of year presents the temptation of delicious meals whose ingredients don’t always fit the dietary guidelines OMS recommends. So how do you draw the line between keeping your palate happy come holiday time versus sticking to a diet that will keep you healthy?

Well, that’s what we will discover by talking to Ashley Madden, a full-time food lover and health enthusiast. She’s a pharmacist, plant-based chef, certified holistic nutrition consultant and food photographer.  A diagnosis of MS in her early 20s triggered an overhaul of her personal and professional life and, ultimately, she traded prescriptions for plants! She shares her plant-based, gluten-free and oil-free recipes on her blog RiseShineCook.ca and creates recipes for health and wellness outlets like Forks Over Knives and Mind Body Green in addition to working on her first cookbook, to be released in the fall of 2020. Originally from Canada, Ashley has moved around the world over the last 10 years, from New York to the Netherlands, and currently she lives in Taiwan. You can learn more about Ashley and her taste bud-tempting work here and here. 

Find the recipes for all dishes mentioned in the episode here.

Questions in this episode include:

  • Can you tell us a little about your background and your passion for cooking?

  • How long have you been following OMS? 

  • Has it been challenging to change your dietary habits? 

  • What are you best tips for making the transition to an OMS diet easier? 

  • Holidays can be a stressful time for meal preparation. What is some overall solid advice for reducing that pressure?

  • Lots of holiday meals are heavy on ingredients that are not OMS-friendly, like meat and dairy. What are some tips for making holiday meals that are consistent with OMS guidelines yet still delicious?

  • Would your tips for making OMS-friendly holiday meals differ if you’re talking about cooking for large groups versus smaller more intimate gatherings?

  • Let’s talk about some specific holidays to see if you have any special tips or meal ideas for these:

  • If there is one nugget of advice from your experience with preparing meals that you’d like to impart to our audience in closing, what would that be?