My mom would often mix up rice and lentils or rice and borta (Bangladeshi comfort food made by stone grinding) and shape them into little balls. Ultimate childhood comfort food! It was fun munching on ball shaped food as a kid (and as a grown up). This recipe is inspired by my mom’s rice balls and can easily be modified to use up whatever food you have on hand. Instead of rice you can use quinoa or ancient grains. If you want to make this recipe vegetarian, skip the bacon!
These were a great hit with my kids. They were not fans of butternut squash before, but they are now!! SCORE for mommy.
ingredients
1/2 roasted butternut squash
2 bacon slices cooked (reserve 1 tablespoon fat)
1 onion diced
3 garlic cloves chopped
1/2 – 1 bunch kale
salt ,pepper & paprika
1.5 cups cooked rice
1/4 cup Parmesan (optional) + 3 tablespoons
1/3 cup panko bread crumbs
2 tablespoons olive oil
method
Roast butter nut squash first by placing a whole butternut squash on a foil lined baking sheet, pierce it several times and bake in 400 degree oven. It will be done in 40-60 minutes. Cook until fork tender. Let the squash cool, peel off skin and remove seeds. Food process butternut squash until it is a smooth puree.
While butternut squash bakes in oven, cook 2 bacon slices on iron cast skillet. After the bacon has been cooked, remove it from heat and reserve 1 tablespoon of bacon fat in skillet. Saute diced onion in bacon fat (or olive oil) until soft and golden, then add garlic and stir for 1-2 minutes, then add food processed kale (remove the tough stem) and cook until kale is soft and tender. It may take some time to cook down the kale and you may need to add 1/4 cup of water if the kale starts sticking to the bottom of the skillet. You can substitute kale with any veggie. If like me, you have no kale or veggies on hand, just skip it. Add salt, pepper and parprika to taste.
Mix rice, pureed butternut squash, 2 bacon slices (crumbled), and veggies cooked with onion/garlic. Add 1/4 cup of Parmesan (optional). Make sure you taste for seasoning. The mixture should taste yummy and well seasoned.
Mix bread crumbs and 3 tablespoons of Parmesan. Scoop out 1 tablespoon of mix and form into balls (the balls will be wet and sticky). Roll balls in bread crumbs and Parm.
Place balls on foil lined sheet. Bake balls at 350 for 20 minutes. Broil them on high for 3 minutes (making sure to turn the baking sheet every 30 seconds to a 1 minute to keep them from burning).
Yesterday was National Spouse Day and I spent some time thinking about love. While I am definitely not an expert, I wanted to share my thoughts on maintaining intimacy in a long term committed partnership and tools I use to stop freaking out!
My goal is to wake up at 6 am and have a luxurious hour to myself to do my morning routine: oil pulling, drink turmeric lemon tea, make a fresh pressed juice and meditate! A 7 am wake up leaves me in a mad dash rush where I am quickly packing up 3 lunches, making a homemade breakfast, and getting the kids to 2 different schools without having a moment to eat or drink anything. As soon as the youngest gets dropped off at preschool for a few hours I go to my local community oriented (and quite fabulous) YMCA for a glorious 85 minutes of yoga, gravity Pilates or cycling. If I have only one sick kid at home (because truly schools are the cesspool of disease), depending on the child’s size, I either strap the child on my back in an ergo or push them up Runyon Canyon in a stroller because it is conveniently located in my backyard.
Seriously, one of the main reasons I transitioned from working full time at home for the government, to then working part time at home for the government and finally resigning completely, is because I wanted time to work out. It’s so important to me to be healthy. I mean kick ass healthy. STRONG! FIERCE! Lean muscles!! I lost my dad to diabetes in my 20s. It runs rampant in my family. I’m just not going out like that. I will be strong and fit. I will be wearing a crazy spandex outfit in my 80’s cycling or doing hand stands. I personally couldn’t be the kind of mother I wanted to be to my children, be engaged fully in the children’s various schools, be in service to my community, cook 3 unprocessed meals a day and work out 4-5 times a week while I worked in the traditional work force while also maintaining my sanity. Grateful for my journey.
When I first wake up I do oil pulling. Oil pulling is an Ayruvedic dental technique where 1 tablespoon of oil is swished around the mouth for 20 minutes first thing in the morning before eating or drinking. Oil pulling supposedly draws out toxins from the body. I don’t know if this is true, but the dental benefits are amazing. My teeth are whiter and I have significantly less tartar build up. My teeth feel smooth all day. I know that 20 minutes sounds like a long time and the idea of putting coconut oil, olive oil, sesame seed oil, etc. in your mouth seems disgusting. I almost gagged the first time I did oil pulling with coconut oil. It was such a strange mouth feel. But as I continued to swish the oil in my mouth, the texture of the oil changed from slick and thick to light and almost foamy. I use the 20 minutes of oil pulling to help center myself and actively practice mindfulness. If the kids happen to be awake I indulge in 20 luxurious minutes of silence!
After oil pulling, I drink a warm cup of turmeric lemon tea. The water is not so hot that I can’t drink my tea without burning my mouth. The water is warm enough that I can put one finger in my cup without burning my finger. These days I am skipping the turmeric because it stains my invisalign braces yellow. My belly always feels good after drinking this tea. Also, it helps move your bowels which is an added plus.
Finally, I pull out my Omega 8004 masticating juicer to make a fresh pressed juice. I fantasized about buying a juicer but I just couldn’t pull the trigger for the longest time. I spent $500 on my vitamix and wanted my juicer soon after but didn’t want to shell out $300 for a juicer. I manifested my juicer. I researched juicers. I day dreamed about juicers. I imagined myself making fresh cold pressed juice. I talked about juicers with my friends. My brain was hooked on juicers. One Saturday morning, I packed up the kids and headed out to the park. During the drive I just had a feeling, what I like to call a download from the universe/God, to check Craigslist for a juicer. And there it was — a brand new juicer perfect for juicing greens for $100. The Omega 8004 slowly presses the produce against an auger to cold press the juice with very little heat. The produce isn’t shredded the way it is in a centrifugal juicer which results in a higher nutrient juice because there is less exposure to air and oxidation. Also, the Omega squeezes every bit of juice out of greens like kale. This means I save money because I get more juice per ounce.
Juicing doesn’t have to be expensive if you buy seasonal produce with the greens on tops (like beets and carrots) from your local farmers market or CSA (community supported agriculture). Save the bits of produce you don’t plan on eating raw or cooking to juice. Use up any limp produce in your juicer. Also, pick vegetables that have a lot of liquid such as cucumbers so you get more bang for your buck. Juicing can be affordable.
Cheers to healthy living!
Oil Pulling
ingredients
1 tablespoon of organic oil (I prefer coconut, sesame or olive oil)
method
Swish oil in your mouth for 20 minutes first thing in the morning before eating or drinking anything. Practice mindfulness while oil pulling.
Turmeric Lemon Tea
ingredients
1 cup warm water
1/2 lemon juiced
1/2 to 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
pinch of black pepper
1/2 teaspoon of raw honey (optional; I usually don’t add honey to my tea)
method
Mix up the ingredients in a cup. The black pepper is key because it helps your body absorb turmeric. Do not skip out on the black pepper!!! Drink and enjoy in the morning on an empty stomach. Leave time for a morning bathroom run after you drink down the tea.
Beet Greens Cold Pressed Juice
ingredients
greens from 3 beets
1/2 bunch of kale
5 celery stalks
1 carrot with greens
1 jalapeno
2 apples (pick sweet apples)
2 lemons
handful of cilantro or 1 inch of ginger (optional)
method
Preferably use a masticating juicer like the Omega 8004. Alternate between soft and firm produce. Drink right away and make sure to chew so your body activates the right enzymes to help absorb the juice. Save leftover juice in fridge for 24 hours. I ended up with 1 liter of juice — WOW!!! Kids loved this juice.
Any day with a sick kid ends up being twice as long with little time to get anything done. Today was one of those days. I needed dinner ready in 30 minutes. I fantasized about a well stocked freezer with well thought out homemade leftovers. No such luck. I made keema curry because I had ground turkey in my fridge. The dish is also very warming because it contains cinnamon, cardamom and cloves — great when you are feeling run down. ingredients
method Place diced sweet potatoes on a baking sheet, mix with olive oil and sprinkle of turmeric, and bake for 20 minutes in a 400 degree oven while flipping potatoes once after 10 minutes. While sweet potato cooks, saute onion with olive oil in a large skillet until the onion is soft and light brown. Then add remainder spices and stir for one minute until the mixture is fragrant. Add ground turkey and stir often but do not mash up the ground meat so it no longer has any texture. After the ground turkey is more than half way cooked, add the peas and cook until peas are tender. Finally, add the roasted sweet potatoes and season with salt and pepper. Keema curry is great with rice or can be paleo friendly on top of a bed of greens! Please let the kids know that they should pick out the cloves/cardamon.
My sister-in-law, Sara, has ruined American hot chocolate for me. My chocolate craving can only be satiated with Spanish style thick, almost pudding-like, hot chocolate. You only need a small cup of this decadence because it is quite heavy and rich.
Sara first introduced this version of hot chocolate with a bar of chocolate a la taza from Spain. The chocolate bar comes in a red package. The chocolate is high quality cocoa. If you can’t find la taza chocolate bar, use a chocolate bar that is at least 60% cocoa.
I made chocolate caliente for my brother and sister-in-law this weekend. Sara gave the hot chocolate a Spanish approval. I think it’s important to always have love in your heart when you cook with chocolate — it will almost always guarantee delicious results.
This morning I made a sinful breakfast of hot chocolate and homemade churros for the children. Unfortunately, I didn’t have all-purpose flour or eggs on hand and had to make eggless churros with whole wheat flour. The kids devoured the churros and my husband couldn’t tell that the churros were made out of whole wheat. Score!!
If you have any reservations of making homemade churros — don’t! I promise you, it will take the same amount of effort to make pancakes. Plus, you get a glamorous weekend breakfast!
Eggless Whole Wheat Churros
ingredients
8 tablespoons butter (1 stick)
1 cup water
2/3 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
grape seed of safflower oil for frying
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
method
In a small pot bring water and butter to a boil. Then add sifted whole wheat flour and salt, turn down flame to low, and vigorously stir the mixture with a wooden spoon until the dough pulls away from the side and forms a ball (about 1 minute). Remove dough from the pan.
Mix sugar and cinnamon on a small plate and reserve for rolling churros.
In a small skillet heat oil to 375 degrees. Either use a pastry bag with star tip and squeeze dough into hot oil and use scissors to cut off pieces of dough (alternatively, use a large freezer plastic bag with corner snipped off; or roll little logs with your hands). Flip churros once. It only takes a couple of minutes to fry up the churros. Drain churros on paper towels. Roll warm churros on a plate containing sugar and cinnamon mixture.
Sara’s Spanish Style Hot Chocolate
ingredients
3 cups of milk
6 ounces chocolate (at least 60% cocoa)
2 tablespoons organic cornstarch (the regular stuff is probably filled with GMOs)
4 tablespoons brown sugar
1/2 to 1 teaspoon vanilla
method
Heat 1 cup of milk in small heavy bottomed pot. Add chocolate to the milk and melt over medium heat. Remember to keep mixing with a wooden spoon so your chocolate doesn’t burn. Whisk cornstarch, brown sugar, and vanilla in 2 cups of milk. Add the remaining milk to the pot containing melted chocolate with milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low/medium and stir until the hot chocolate is thick and pudding like. Again, it’s important to constantly mix with a wooden spoon so the chocolate doesn’t burn!!
This will make 6 small cups of hot chocolate (maybe even 8 if serving children). Serve with churros or crispy biscuits or cookies that are not too sweet.
I am not the biggest fan of chicken tikka masala because I prefer spicy curries rather than creamy ones. But folks love their chicken tikka masala — it’s always perfect for guests. My mom shared her tried and true chicken tikka masala recipe. This was my first time making the dish and it came out fabulous!! My brother, a very harsh food critic, gave the dish rave reviews but stated, “this is a fabulous creamy chicken curry, but it’s not what I consider chicken tikka masala.” Mom and little bro can duke it out.
This dish can be made in 2 parts: 1) prepare chicken tikka (make tandoori chicken) and 2) make curry portion which takes less than 30 minutes. This is definitely a good fast weeknight dinner recipe.
ingredients
Part 1: Chicken Tikka
3 pounds of skinless boneless organic chicken (I used thighs and legs)
1 cup whole yogurt (homemade preferred)
1 tablespoon lemon juice (1/2 lemon juiced)
1.5 teaspoons garam masala (available at Indian grocery store or you can make your own)
1 teaspoon ground cumin powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander powder
1/4-1/2 cup olive oil
2 teaspoon garlic & ginger paste (you can easily make this by food processing or blending ginger and garlic in ratio of 2/3:1/3; add a bit of turmeric to act as a preservative and save in your fridge for 2-4 weeks)
Part 2: Curry
2 tablespoons of grass fed butter or ghee
1 onion diced
4 cloves garlic minced
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic & ginger paste
28 ounce can of crushed tomatoes
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons ground cumin powder
sugar, salt & pepper to taste
method
Part 1: make chicken tikka
In a large zip lock bag combine all of the ingredients and marinate for 4-5 hours in the fridge. Then place the chicken and marinade on a foil lined baking sheet and broil on high for 8 minutes, then flip over the chicken and broil for an additional 5 minutes. Allow the chicken to rest.
Part 2: make curry
While the chicken broils in the over, saute 1 diced onion in a large skillet with butter. Once the onion has softened and is translucent, add the minced garlic. Brown onion and garlic and then add turmeric and ginger & garlic paste. Keep stirring ingredients and brown until fragrant. Then add the crushed tomatoes and tomato paste. Cook until the tomato sauce pulls away from the side of the pan (10-15 minutes). Once the tomatoes have cooked down and the raw taste is gone, add heavy cream. Reduce curry sauce until nice and thick. Use hand blender to puree the curry sauce until smooth. Cut the broiled chicken in large cubes and place the chicken with the leftover marinade into the skillet containing curry (get every last bit of that marinade because it has spices we need for our curry!!!) . Simmer chicken in curry sauce for 10 minutes. Add sugar (1-2 teaspoons) to cut the tartness of the tomatoes. Finally season with salt, pepper and cumin powder.
My friend Moncie came over to hang out yesterday. She is adhering to a vegan diet for a month. I didn’t have time to run to the grocery store so I made veggie burgers out of the food items I had on hand.
ingredients
1 medium eggplat
1 onion
2-3 garlic cloves
olive oil
1 cups chickpeas
1 tablespoon fresh cilantro/parsley
1 tablespoon tahini (optional)
1 cup bread crumbs (panko)
salt & pepper to taste
grape seed oil (or other oil suitable for high temperature)
method
Slice eggplant into 1/4″ rounds, place on baking sheet (I covered mine in foil for easy clean up), brush both sides with olive oil, sprinkle salt & pepper and bake in 450 degree oven for 10 minutes. Then flip over the eggplant rounds and bake for 5 additional minutes.
While the eggplant roasts in the oven, saute 1 diced onion and 2-3 cloves of garlic minced in a skillet with a bit of olive oil.
Food process or smash 1 cup of cooked chickpeas. Food process or mash up the roasted eggplant.
In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients above, except the two oils, and add bread crumbs last. Make sure you add enough salt to the mix by tasting it!
Heat a cast iron skillet and brush with a bit of grape seed oil. Scoop out 1/4 cup of veggie burger mix and form into burger patties. Cook burgers on cast iron skillet until browned.
Himalayan pink salt or sea salt to taste (really adds flavor!!)
method
First add water to high-speed blender (I use a Vitamix for all my green smoothies because it breaks down the cell walls and results in a creamy smoothie). Then add rest of the ingredients. Blend until smooth.
*Use an old spaghetti jar as a container for your smoothie!
Making yogurt is insanely easy! All you need is a heavy bottom pot and a candy thermometer if you want to get fancy. I prefer making yogurt because a 32 ounce container of yogurt costs me $4 and I can make 48 ounces of yogurt for about a $1. Also, I like to control the quality of my milk! You can track where your dairy is from by typing in the dairy code found on each package of milk at this website. For example, Trader Joe’s organic milk has dairy code 06-98 which is Rockview Farms. I then cross reference the farm against the Cornucopia Institute’s dairy survey. TJ’s gets a terrible rating. The cows are not treated well. I rarely buy this kind of milk. Unfortunately, my toddler had a meltdown while grocery shopping and I didn’t get a chance to stop at Whole Foods to buy milk from Clover, Organic Valley or Strauss (shame on me!). Lastly, there is no need for extra plastic waste by making your own yogurt.
ingredients
1/2 gallon of good quality organic milk
6 ounce container of good quality plain yogurt (I like Brown Cow)
thermometer (optional)
method
Heat milk until it is frothy (180 degrees Fahrenheit). Let the milk cool down so you can put one finger in the milk without burning yourself (110 degrees Fahrenheit). Then add your yogurt culture. Mix it up. Place yogurt/milk mixture in a warm place. I leave mine in my cold stove. 4-6 hours later you will have yogurt! Remember, I’m in Hollywood where there is no real winter, and it doesn’t get too cold. If you live in a cold place, you may need to wait 8 hours for yogurt.
I eat a lot of salads. I often get fed up with plain green salads because they do not keep me satiated. A bit of guacamole makes my salad very palatable. It takes 5 minutes to jazz up your salad!!!
ingredients
1 small avocado
1 tin of Trader Joe’s wild caught sardines in harissa
2 garlic cloves smashed
diced sweet yellow onion to taste
salt, pepper, chillies
lemon zest & juice to taste
method
Mix it all up!! Place sardine quac on a bed of greens.
how to make sunshine 