When I started KarmaFree Cooking, my mission was always to communicate the benefits of the vegetarian diet to anyone who was willing to listen. Knowing full well that my Latin peers were not very open to the idea, I’ve always known it’s important to teach by example rather than by preaching.
Kids nowadays come with a different set of hardwiring… very frequently I hear moms say their kids have made the decision to stop eating meat and to become vegetarians – for whichever reason, because they love pets and they can fathom eating a pet of theirs, because they dislike the flavor or texture or because they simply bring a higher level of consciousness – they pose a real conundrum to their mothers, who sometimes are not equipped to answer or integrate their kids wishes into the family food dynamic.
Here is where my new friend Gianny Liranzo and Madres Conectadas come into play… I met Gianny recently at a blogger conference in Miami. Her energy and passion to connect and to be an educative agent for mothers across Latin America was truly contagious. Gianny created the blog and web portal Madres Conectadas to provide practical, useful and realistic answers and support to all Spanish-speaking moms. She wants to promote positive upbringing, strengthening of values and integral growth for all member of the family. Madres Conectadas is based out of the Dominican Republic and provides support online for Spanish-speaking moms across Latin America and in-person for moms located there.
We are so proud and happy to announce that Madres Conectadas will be sharing weekly KarmaFree Cooking recipes in their website and via their social networks. Together we want to share with all
how easy and delicious it is to follow a more healthful and vegetarian diet. It’ll be an excellent collaborative project.
You can connect with Madres Conectadas in all social networks: They’re on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and even on YouTube, where they share videos of those pow-wows they organize in the Dominican Republic. And who knows… if all this goes well and maybe you guys ask for it, maybe I can join one of those pow-wows and make it all about the vegetarian cooking. Sounds cool, huh??
We’ll also share some of Madres Conectadas content thru our social media platforms, so make sure you all follow us on FaceBook, Twitter, Instagram y en Pinterest.
I really want to thank Gianny for trusting me and KarmaFree Cooking and appreciating how our message and recipes can be of value to all moms in the Madres Conectadas universe.
It’s incredible when you have the opportunity to live outside your native country, how you turn more patriotic than the flag.
I developed this recipe as part of a special post for my friend Marixsa’s blog, Mamá Boricua en Brooklyn. She’s sharing a series of articles celebrating the Puerto Rican Parade in NYC under the moniker Abrazos Boricuas. She was gracious to invite me to share a bit of my experience living and experiencing the Puerto Rican Day Parade for the first time, 20 years ago!!! Can you believe it?!?!
If you want to read more about my story and the pride I feel about flaunting my “mancha de plátano”, please visit Mamá Boricua en Brooklyn. And to her readers who are visiting KarmaFree Cooking for the first time, we welcome you with open arms. Here I share many vegetarian recipes recipes that express my love for my beautiful Island, Puerto Rico. This is one of them… enjoy!
SWEET PLANTAIN CANOES FILLED WITH CREAMED SPINACH
4 sweet ripe plantains 1 bag of fresh baby spinach 1 medium onion, chopped 1 garlic clove, smashed 4 oz of cream cheese A splash of half & half or milk A pinch of nutmeg 2 tbs of pine nuts 1 cup of grated mozzarella cheese Olive oil Salt and Pepper to taste
Enjoy these plantain canoes with a nice salad and rice with corn on the side.
This was one of the main dishes we created for our 3rd KarmaFree Cooking class recently. We were super excited because we got picked up by the local newspaper El Nuevo Día and we received tons of calls from people interested. We hosted 7 students who are not vegetarian, but are very interested in following a more natural and meat-free diet. I was thrilled!!
Angie is the expert among us making tofu scramble… but I made sure the ingredients were colorful, vibrant and easy to find in any supermarket.
TOFU SCRAMBLE
1 package of extra-firm tofu 1 vegetable bouillon cube with seas salt and herbs ½ red onion, chopped 1 orange bell pepper, chopped 1 package of fresh baby spinach 2 cups of cherry or grape tomatoes, halved Olive oil Butter or Dairy-free alternative like Earth Balance Freshly Cracked Black Pepper ½ tsp turmeric
Serve alongside these Double Mustard Roasted Potatoes and your favorite toast.
Last month we celebrated our 3rd KarmaFree Cooking Class. The theme was Breakfast in Bed for Mom…
We were honored to be featured in El Nuevo Día, Puerto Rico’s largest newspaper. The turnout was great – many people who do not consider themselves vegetarian yet wanting to learn about a more natural and meat-free lifestyle. To me that reads SUCCESS because that’s exactly the goal of KarmaFree Cooking… teaching people that a vegetarian lifestyle is doable and delicious.
I want to share a recap of the recipes shared at the class. Some are new, some are KarmaFree classics and some are updates on favorites of all of us.
Tofu Scramble with Tomatoes, Peppers and Baby Spinach
Double Mustard Roasted Potatoes
Carrot Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Yogurt Frosting
Fruit Smoothie featuring Fresh Baby Spinach
We also talked about how to best combine fruits for your fruit salads and juices
If you live in Puerto Rico, hope you can join us for our next KarmaFree Cooking class. If you are not so lucky to live in Puerto Rico, rest assured we’ll be sharing the recipes here on the blog. But doing it in person, as part of our group and then tasting the results of your labor is a whole different experience.
Thanks a lot to Angie and my mom who always help and thanks a bunch to the class attendants who always make giving these courses a whole lotta fun.
KarmaFree Cooking 
