The Shape of Foods Help our Organs?? – TOMATO

26 Sep

This is the second of a series on how there’s a belief the shape of foods help enhance the health of certain organs. We already discussed how CARROTS are beneficial for the EYES. Now is Tomatoes turn…

Tomatoes are red and their insides are divided into chambers, just like our hearts. The lycopene found in tomatoes is a serious inhibitor of heart disease. Tomatoes also contain Vitamin B6, niacin, folate and potassium, all of which help to reduce cholesterol levels and lower blood pressure.

Eating tomatoes on a regular basis can therefore help prevent heart attacks, strokes and other heart-related problems.

Tomatoes benefits can be enjoyed in both – raw or cooked preparations. Something I have learned in the last few years – DO NOT STORE YOUR TOMATOES IN THE FRIDGE!!! Not even in the heat of Puerto Rico, tomatoes need to be stored in the cold. Their flavor is greatly affected after the tomato is in contact with cold environment.

Here are a few tomato recipes to help support your heart’s health:

Easiest Baked Penne Ever!!

Tomato Bruschetta Mix

Caprese Salad

Goat Cheese Tapa

Chunky Tomato Sauce

Soy Picadillo

Sun-dried Tomato Jam

Stewed Potatoes

Tuno Antipasto

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BacalaFREEtos… from Puerto Rico to the world!!!

9 Sep

My friend Bren, from the site FlanboyantEats is celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month with a week-full of recipes from all over Latin America. She has shared with her readers the beauty and flavors of recipes from Brazil, Dominican Republic, Mexico and Peru. Today is Friday, and it’s Puerto Rico’s turn.

Bren asked me to write something about a Puerto Rican dish I love and what better way to express my devotion for my beloved Puerto Rican cuisine than with homage to the BacalaFREEto!!!

Check out my guest post on FlanboyantEats here…

I have known Bren for a few years now… we have never met in person, but we have lots in common.  She’s Cuban, loves to cook and travel, loves fashion (maybe a little bit more than me…) and we love to share our passions thru writing.  Bren is certainly an inspiration… she has cooked for an Emeril show and look at the quote from Joel Rebouchon at the top of her blog!!!   FlanboyantEats even has Saveur Magazine seal of approval of the sites they love the most.  Kudos!!

As the name implies, FlanboyantEats is filled with FLAN recipes… maybe one day I can get her to feature one of my eggless flan recipes, what do you think???

Thanks Bren for featuring a little piece of Puerto Rico and KarmaFree Cooking in your wonderful site…

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The Shape of Foods Helps Specific Organs?? O yes they do…

25 Aug

I received a few times a “chain email” telling me the importance of certain foods for certain organs based on how their shape resembles the organ they’re supposed to help.

My natural medicine doctor always tells us… “Let your food be your medicine. Health starts with what you eat.” And this Teleological Nutritional Targeting, or as it was once known as Law of Similarities, is right alongside the same path as what our doctor always says. Let’s eat more naturally to create a healthier, better future. We’re the creators of our own destiny and that includes what we eat…

I was intrigued by the visual impact of how much the food and the organ shape resembles. I am sure each fruit/vegetable has many more benefits than just the ones to the organs they resemble, but I found it so curious I wanted to share with all you…

CARROTS – EYES

When you cut a carrot crosswise, the insides resemble the iris and pupil of the eye. The Vitamin A in carrots help protect the cornea and promotes good blood flow inside the eyes. Carrots also protect your night vision and prevent macular degeneration and cataracts.

I guess the tale we used to hear that Bugs Bunny had great eyesight is actually true and not so tall after all.

Here are a few carrot recipes to try soon:

Orange’d Roasted Carrots

Vanilla Maple Carrots

Undercover Carrot Mac and Cheese

Carrot Cupcakes

Carrot Burfi

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My Vegetarian Inspiration…

22 Aug

The other day in Serious Eats there was a Talk thread started asking about who were your inspiration in the kitchen, besides any celebrity chef from TV.

My mind immediately went to the Yoga Center where I was introduced to vegetarianism and vegetarian cooking all-together. I still remember, way before I became vegetarian, eating for the first time a ver specific “pincho” and being afraid for other vegetarians there because these people were serving a pincho made from “fried pork”. Little did I know I was actually eating a fried gluten pincho…

That was the beginning for me… vegetarian cooking is indeed DELICIOUS, if you know how to make delicious food. I have learned through the years that vegetarian cooking is just as simple as any other type of cuisine. If you flavor your food well… food, vegeterian or not, will taste delicious too.

And five people have been instrumental in guiding me and inspiring me most in the vegetarian cooking world – Carmen, Angie, Mili, Rosani and Tania. These five YOGUIS have been my mentors in the kitchen. They have taught me recipes, techniques, ingredients and most of all being confident when you cook. Knowing your food will turn out as good as it will, guided by the sacred hand of the Supreme Being.

Carmen is second from the left, to her right is Angie, and at the far right is Tania.

Angie was my first cooking teacher. I entered a cooking workshop at the insistence of my mom. She was vegetarian already and wanted me to learn how to make vegetarian food as well. Angie taught me about tofu, veggie dogs, making BBQ sauce from scratch, about reading labels to avoid unwanted ingredients. She taught me that carmine comes from an insect and that animal rennet comes from baby calves. I love she allows people to cook as they feel more comfortable in the kitchen.

Carmen has taught me to make many of the very Puerto Rican dishes I know…  Arroz con Gandules, Arroz con Dulce, Pasteles, and the sancocho we eat every time after a spiritual retreat, etc. Her Bread Pudding is the same recipe I baked and sold to many, many people when I was baking and cooking my way around San Juan while building my own marketing consulting business.

sancocho

I cooked on Mili’s Saturday cooking team for many, many years. For some reason, I am no longer in that team… but she taught me you can make fritters out of any “vianda” possible. She loves making her Eggplant Sandwich Stacks… even thouvgh she just calls them sandwicitos.  We have made cabagge rolls filled with a “pasteles” filling countless, countless times. I wish I had paid more attention whenever she made “dulce de papaya” because I would love to share that with you guys. She taught me how to make gomasio… and I’ll put that on my TO BLOG list to make it soon for you. It’s delicious over salads…

Rosani is the resident BEST BAKER at the Yoga Center… I’m sorry for any other baker at the center who reads this, but its true!!! She rocks cakes… and her apprentice Manolo is on a great path too. I would not eat a cake at the Center if it’s not made by Rosani or her protégé Manolo. Rosani has taught me to make Sopa Paraguaya, about making pizzas, her carrot burfi recipe, making gluten-free onion rings, about using xanthan gum in salad dressings, about using carob… she’s my gluten-free girl and constantly recommends me the best gluten-free products at the market.

Onions Rings - Rosani

Rosani making Onion Rings...

And last but definitely never least Tania… Tania is a food lover just like me. She’s dominican and she makes THE BEST mangú you have ever tasted. Tania and I share recipes constantly. She’s the author of the Tostón Sandwich, she brought with her from Paraguay the Eggplant Milanese recipe, she told us about The Pulguero and how to purchase the best produce for less. She’s a fan of my risottos, my minestrone soup and my pasta dishes… and also loves our Stuffed Mushrooms – all of them.  And she can pick out the dish I made in any Vegetarian Cooking Festival… always!!!

sand-toston-copy.jpg

 

I just wanted to give them a round of appaluse and a great public GRACIAS from the bottom of my heart. May we continue to inspire, teach, educate and delight each other with our vegetarian creations in the kitchen!!!

Hari Om!!

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Almond Milk from Scratch

19 Aug

Yes… Madelyn, lover all things dairy and cheese, has been put on a dairy-free diet for at least 30 days. 😦

And maybe you’ve found yourself in the same predicament… where most of your go-to recipes have some sort of cheese or dairy component, right?? It’s a way for us vegetarians to get some protein, no???

Nuts, and particular, ALMONDS are a great way to get some protein in you… and you usually think of adding nuts to your diet in a salad or as a garnish for a main dish or a dessert. But what about making milk out of it??? You see alternative dairy products in all major supermarkets now. But have u ever attempted to make it on your own???

It’s easier than you think…

ALMOND MILK FROM SCRATCH

About 1 cup of almonds
Water

Yep… that’s all you need. And some tools you already have in your kitchen anyways.

Start by soaking the almonds in some filtered water. I like to soak the almonds for about 1 hour to take off the skin. This is certainly not necessary, but I like my almond milk to be WHITE, just like regular cow’s milk is. After I peel the skins, I re-soak again in more filtered water. This can be from 3-4 hours to overnight. But if you will not do it in 3-4 hours, I recommend placing the soaking almonds in the fridge to prevent fermentation.

 

 

 

Gather all your equipment, just as if you were making a sesame seed horchata – a large pot with a fine sieve, a bowl to collect the ground almonds after they’ve been blended once.

  1. Place some of the almonds in the large container of your Magic Bullet or blender. Fill almost to the top with filtered water. Here I show you how much water I use.
  3. Process for a few minutes in 30 second intervals to puree the seeds as much as possible.
  4. Drain the milky almond pureed water over the sieve. Use a large spoon to move the slush around, but you don’t need to press extremely hard to release all the liquid. If you do, you’ll only push a lot of sediment into the finished “milk”. So there’s no need to use extra muscle for this. Allow gravity and a slight firm hand to do its job.
  6. Save the leftover almond slush in a bowl for re-processing. Repeat with all the never-processed almonds in the same way as before. I usually divide the original almonds into 3.   After processing all the almonds once, reprocess in the exact same way, diving it into batches, but this time after passing it through the sieve, just discard the leftover almond meal.
  7. Transfer to a bottle where you can serve the almond milk from.
  8. Chill before serving.

The almond milk will separate when standing in the fridge… but just mix well before serving.

If you want to drink the almond milk by itself… I would add about ½ cup of honey and would strain it again thru the finest sieve you can find. Almond meal is way finer than sesame seeds and there’s much more sediment than when making an horchata. Use a clean fine cotton cloth or even a coffee filter we call “media” to strain as much sediment as possible.

This is an excellent source of calcium and is great to drink by itself, in oatmeals, other hot cereals and smoothies.

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