Theresa Albert is a nutritionist, best-selling cookbook author, and Food Network personality, and we're thrilled to have her with us for the next few weeks to provide her unique brand of cooking and nutritional knowledge. I shared with some of my colleagues the fact that I am working with the Chicken Farmers of Canada to help Canadians get wholesome, simple meals on their tables.  Luckily, my colleagues are some of the smartest, busiest women and mothers around. Even more luckily, they agreed to let me mine their lives and share their tips for doing just that.  What you will find over the next 6 blogs are those interviews.  The names have not been changed to protect the innocent; in fact, they are proudly displayed so we can all see that every family has its way of doing things and learn from each other! This edition’s interviewee - Maureen Dennis For this post, I talked to Maureen Dennis, who is the founder of www.weewelcome.ca, an online community that provides new and expectant parents the tools to 'Have a Baby and a Life'.  Maureen lives in Toronto with her husband and their three children and their two dogs, and shared with me some great tips on leading a great life with balanced nutrition. Theresa: You run a busy website providing other mothers with the tools to cope plus parent a young family of three kids. What are your tips on how to juggle schedules? Maureen: “Juggle” is exactly the right way to describe life as a working mom of three kids! Most people try to achieve a balance, but I don't think “balance” is the right word or even the right goal.  I just try to be as prepared as I can but flexible, too.  Often we have to be several places in a day, so we pack snacks and drinks and small activities for each child.  If we don't have time to pack everything, we pick something up along the way.  Then everyone is even happier because it feels like a treat, even if it’s healthy. You can't stress over what you can't control but you can make sure you keep these three things in mind: sleep, eat and play.  By making sure your kids are well rested, fed and occupied with something to do, you will save yourself (and those around you) from the "hangries" that come with a tired, hungry, and bored kid. Theresa: Do you give your kids snacks? Why or why not? Maureen: My kids are huge snackers. In fact, they would probably prefer to snack than actually eat meals, and because of the healthy foods like apples, pears, cereal, crackers, rice cakes that we always have on hand, I'm okay with it. We do limit the snack intake before dinner; there is a ‘no snack after 4pm’ rule on a normal night.  Junk food is not a snack, it’s a ‘treat’, which may be allowed but only after their meal.  Even my 13-month-old knows where the snack cupboard and the fruit drawer are and will help herself to it.  Independent food choices are nice to see, I love to see them get their own apple, wash it and head off to do whatever it is they were doing without a "mom I'm hungry" or a constant "can I have cookie?" Theresa: What kinds of snacks do you feel good about providing your kids? What about yourself? Maureen: My kids LOVE fruits and veggies; if that's all they ever had to eat, I'm pretty sure they would be good with that.  We always have a huge bowl of fruit in the kitchen and a drawer full in the fridge. We also have a collection of rice cakes, crackers, cereal, and granola bars in the cupboard and cheese and baby carrots in the fridge.  We do often have cookies in the house but my kids know they can have one after their meals, not before.  Cookies and ice cream are dessert treats, not snacks. My hubby and I are the worst offenders and have a tendency to grab cookies or junk more often than we should. We have better luck when I make sure the fruit is out on the counter in the middle of our kitchen, along with a bowl of almonds. Theresa’s Wrap Up Maureen is quite right - setting the tone is so important. Kids look more than they listen which makes parental behaviour that much more important than words.  The key to our snacking culture is to be prepared, so healthy snacks are available when hunger hits.  A cut-off time is a great idea to be sure that dinner is a worthwhile endeavor. The snack cupboard helps kids feel in control which really does create less tension around the topic.  Always having an area of the fridge designated to parent-approved snacks helps even older kids make better choices.