July 29, 2014
Publication title: bonappetit.com, vol. -, Iss. -, pg. –
Place: Unknown
Writer: Belle Cushing
What Does Sarah McLachlan Eat for Breakfast on Tour?
Welcome to My Morning Routine, where we take a look at how people (i.e., celebrities) kickstart their days. In this installment, we hear how singer (and healthy home cook) Sarah McLachlan‘s morning routine completely goes to pot when she’s on tour. Currently, she’s hitting 31 cities in North American for her new album, Shine On. She performs in Nashville today, heads to Atlanta tomorrow, and in between will likely be fueling up on lots of coffee and her delicious-sounding homemade granola.
“My morning routine on tour is a joke. When I have the girls with me, we wake up and I have probably three espressos. Everything has to be super compact on the tour bus, so I bring my little Nespresso machine. We eat breakfast on the bus, mostly things brought from home. I make my own granola, with almonds, pecans, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and shredded unsweetened coconut, and then I mix half coconut oil, half maple syrup, and a ton of cinnamon. Then I’ll put some flax seeds or hemp, and either dried fruit or fresh blueberries. That and some Greek yogurt and you’re set for a couple hours. My girls aren’t terribly adventurous, so my little one eats a bit of my granola, but usually the older one insists on Cheerios or Corn Flakes or a bagel with cream cheese. She’s into carbs. We’re all really onto this organic coconut almond butter spread, which is ridiculous. It’s like crack. We’re putting that on everything. We have a Magic Bullet on the bus, too, which is great. I was gonna bring my Vitamix, but then I was like, okay, that’s a little big.
On a really good day, when I’m not rushed, first thing I’ll take two tablespoons of coconut oil and swash it around in my mouth for 15–20 minutes while answering emails. I do it more at home than when I’m on the road, since my whole routine goes to pot when I’m on tour. But it’s amazing. This is probably TMI, but I’ve got deep excess pockets in my molars and sometimes there’s stuff that can’t quite come out. When I do the coconut pulling, it rinses away all the impurities. They say it pulls toxins out. Who knows? I’ll try anything. You have to like the taste of coconut oil, and I love it. I put it on my skin, my hair, anything. It does involve getting up early before anyone expects any answers from you.
In my dressing room all I have is berries, fresh fruit, and lemon and honey for tea. The show’s 2½ hours, and unfortunately I can’t eat a whole lot before, so come 10:30 or 11 at night, I feel ravenous. We’ll have healthy salads, but then there’s pizza. And of course I’m like, ‘Give me the pizza!’ Which is completely off, because I haven’t been eating wheat for the past couple of months. I used to get exhausted in the afternoon and have another double espresso. But I hate being addicted to anything. I’ve really been trying to cut down on the caffeine. That’s been going…okay.
[When I’m in New York] ABC Kitchen is my favorite restaurant. It’s so good. The crab toast is really amazing; the beet and yogurt salad is fantastic. That spicy carrot salad. I usually go for about 15 appetizers. In the fall they have kabocha toast, cooked down with a little bit of spice and probably some sugar or maple syrup, and they put it on some beautiful artisan bread with fresh ricotta. I could eat it that all day long.
This is embarrassing, but just the other day, I was at a really fancy restaurant, and they gave me this organic chicken breast, and it was disgusting. It was completely overcooked. I was late and I wasn’t going to have any other opportunity to eat, so I said, can you please make me some chicken paillard? The chef brings it out, and it’s really good! I’m eating, eating, eating, and I notice, this doesn’t really taste like chicken. My boyfriend takes a bite and he’s like, honey…that’s veal. Oh god, yuck! I’ve never eaten veal. It grosses me out.
When I get back home, I’ll cook more. In the summer I usually have a houseful of people and we do these big communal meals. I’ve been trying my hand at making chocolates. I make these fancy peanut butter cups with the coconut-almond butter and that’s been really fun. I love the really dark chocolate with some sea salt on top. I’ve got to branch out and put some bitter caramel on top. Anything with chocolate, caramel, and coconut for me, I’ll take it.”
