This post is an account of a very strange craving I had, how it was influenced, and a recipe to follow. On Saturday, I had a craving for something sweet, creamy, crunchy, and smooth.  In the past, a craving like this one would take me to the nearest DQ for a Blizzard, grocery store for a tub of ice cream, convenience store for an ice cream bar of some kind, or to a cafe for a slice of cake.  A craving like this one can lead one to eat way too much refined sugars, fat, carbohydrates, and processed food.  Even [...]

Brazilian Feijoada is a recipe for black bean stew originally developed by slaves to use lesser cuts of meat. Another take on the feijoada dish is a vegetarian feijoada – the dish has been transformed into a rich and aromatic black bean stew with seitan and vegetables. The dish requires a bit of work, but the result is well worth it. You can freeze any leftover stew for another time.

Pap is a staple food of southern Africa. What exactly is this staple food you ask? Well, pap is a porridge made from maize (corn) meal. It is made with very little water, which gives it a dry crumbly like consistency. Typically, pap is combined with tomato and onion sauces or served as a side dish with barbecued meats. In this case, I decided to serve the pap with cape malay lamb curry – it was delicious!

This basic Korean dish is just about 40 years old and was first introduced in Incheon. This simple thick noodled stir fry includes seasonally fresh vegetables with a sweet, salty and spicy sauce that is both light and hearty. This dish typucally isn’t served with meat, but I decided to pan fry some tofu and add it to the mix.

Like most Korean dishes, this dish concentrates on simplicity, allowing simple and robust flavors to shine through. Read on for my directions and homemade sauce.

Lately, I’ve been baking a lot of desserts with white sugar, and sampling these desserts. While each of these desserts are incredibly tasty, I couldn’t stop thinking about the processed food that I was consuming. My body was screaming for some sort of baked good, but something less processed. A baked good that would make my vegan side smile, a baked good that would be simple to create, and a baked good that would fill the air would mouth watering aromas. And, I found one!

I hope the tips we posted in Empower Weightless with-Food and Lifestyle Changes inspired you to create your healthy lifestyle. As mentionned, my bad habit is night time snacking. Just when it seems like I have conquered, a curve ball gets thrown at me. Lately, I have been very hungry and craving strawberry ice cream.

Indian Food. Where spices hide all sins. I mean that in the best possible way. Any culture that can make goat taste good, can certainly make vegetarian taste good. Chana Masala may possibly be the easiest Indian dish I’ve ever made, certainly amongst the quickest. In my opinion this is the penultimate chick pea dish, second only to the mighty hummus. Before making, there is a tip to making Indian food that an Indian friend once gave me. Close all closet and bedroom doors before starting. This frankly, should be the first lesson in any Indian cooking class. Failure to comply will have laundry implications…

Granola bars are a quick and easy snack for your lunch, right? They seem pretty nutritious and full of goodness, especially the bars that contain flax seed or dried fruit. I wonder if any of you have really thought about the ingredients that companies use to hold the nuts, dried fruit and oatmeal together. I know I have. I did some digging and discovered shortening was the main ingredient to hold the bar together, along with some preservatives. I wanted something a little healthier for my quick and easy lunch snack, so I decided to start making my own homemade granola bars.