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The Shape of Foods Help our Organs?? – SWEET POTATOES

This is part of a series on how our food can help certain organs that resemble their same shape. I already shared with you how carrots benefit the eyes, how tomatoes and grapes benefit the heart, how walnuts are essential for brain health, how celery and other stalky veggies are great for bone health and how beans are super beneficial for “kidneys”??? Yep…

Japanese Sweet Potatoes Photo Courtesy of AnniePickns's Blog

Sweet potatoes are a great source of beta carotene, due to its orange color. This means it’s great for keeping ourselves young. Because of its elongated shape its beneficial for our pancreas…

But what I really think it means is how some studies have shown that sweet potatoes can help stabilize blood sugar levels and lower insulin resistance. It actually helps the pancreas do its job… And steamed/cooked sweet potatoes seem to make more available these blood-sugar effect benefits.

Here are a few recipes with sweet potato you can try soon:

Sweet Potato Pastelón

Fried White Sweet Potato

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Onions

Sweet Potato Flan

Tags: food, recipes, sweet potato, vegetarian

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Categories MY EDITORIAL

Vegetarian Thanksgiving Ideas…

20 Nov

Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays… No, correction. It is MY FAVORITE HOLIDAY. Maybe because I was born on a Thanksgiving Day, but most of all because I love the fact it’s a holiday to be grateful for all the things we have…

There are sooo many things to feel thankful for… everything we have and even what we don’t have. Our family, our health, the fact we can walk, hear, speak, a roof over our heads, being able to work, that we have food on our tables and have every morning an opportunity to be a better person and forge for ourselves a better future… and for what we don’t have – sickness, that boyfriend that left before his time (in your opinion…), that former job that was making our stress so crazy…

And it’s a shame this holiday has become such a sad holiday for turkeys… I am sure each and every turkey would THANK YOU a lot if you can make Thanksgiving an even more positive holiday without the need to bring suffering to our turkey friends. There are so many more positive ways to demonstrate our gratitude…

Thanksgiving can be just a joyful experience and family-oriented holiday without a turkey at the center of the table. You can still make honor to the flavors of the season and make this holiday the most positive one ever!!

Here are a few of my favorite Thanksgiving recipes from years past:

Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Wild Mushroom Lasagna

Pumpkin Risotto

Arugula Red Onion and Orange Salad

Mashed Sweet Potatoes with Cranberry Sauce

Just boil or steam some sweet potatoes, mash them with butter and a little bit of milk and serve them alongside a delicious sweet and tangy Cranberry Preserves.

Vanilla Maple Carrots

Vanilla Cinnamon Sweet Plantains

This is the traditional Latin side dish to any pasta dish… perfect with the Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese, the Mushroom Lasagna or even the Pumpkin Risotto. I have also made them to accompany Giada Di Laurentiis’ Butternut Squash Lasagna here…

Sweet Potato Flan

Flans do not need to include any eggs if it has cream cheese… YUM!!!

Thank you for your continued support and may your Thanksgiving Holiday be filled with lots of joy, family and love.

Tags: food, recipes, thanksgiving, vegetarian

Comments 2 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL, Thanksgiving

Happy 4th Anniversary to KarmaFree Cooking!!!!!!

7 Nov

I can’t believe it… that 4 years ago I decided to share my vegetarian recipes with you, all over the world.

It’s soooo humbling to know that my recipes and information are useful and interesting to so many of you out there. Most of you are in the United States, but many of you visit from around the globe – United Kingdom, Canada, India, Australia, Italy (I hope that’s you Kate!!!, among others…), Malaysia, Argentina and of course, my beloved Puerto Rico.

I love to bring to you all the variety I can from a vegetarian perspective… however, I am honored to say that KarmaFree Cooking’s most popular recipes are my vegetarian adaptations of traditional Puerto Rican classics like:

Pasteles in Banana Leaves

Yucca with Cuban Mojo

Veggie Sancocho

Mami’s Tembleque

How to Peel and Eat a Mango

Fried White Sweet Potato

Cormeal Fritters/Sorullitos de Maiz

These were the past 12 month’s most popular recipes, believe it or not. As much as I love making those stuffed mushrooms and all those pasta dishes, you guys appreciate my take on the Puerto Rican/Hispanic foods some of you never thought would be able to enjoy again now that you want to follow a more natural, veggie-full lifestyle.

I promise I will make an even greater effort to continue to bring those Latin dishes to you… and to present them to all of you, whose background might not be Latin, so can get to know me and my culture through our delicious food.

Thanks a lot for everything and please SHARE KarmaFree Cooking with all your friends and family who will appreciate and benefit from our easy and relaxed cooking style. Non-vegetarians are also welcome…

GRACIAS

Tags: food, recipes, vegetarian

Comments 7 Comments
Categories MY EDITORIAL, Puerto Rican delicacies

The Shape of Foods Help our Organs?? – BEANS

1 Nov

This is part of a series on how our food can help certain organs that resemble their same shape. I already shared with you how carrots benefit the eyes, how tomatoes and grapes benefit the heart, how walnuts are essential for brain health and how celery and other stalky veggies are great for bone health.

And now… beans. You know I am not a fan of beans. And red kidney beans least of them all. I have been able to tackle chickpeas / garbanzo beans, white beans, and lentils so far. But to me, the worst are red kidney beans. And the worst thing… the red kidney bean is considered the national bean in Puerto Rico – arroz con habichuelas colorás is the norm in every traditional Puerto Rican home.

According to this theory, beans and particularly red kidney beans are supposed to be good for kidney health. I have not been able to find ANYTHING in this cyber world we live in where it says beans are good for kidneys. The closest I found was that kidney beans are an excellent source of the trace mineral, molybdenum, which is responsible for detoxifying sulfites. Sulfites are a type of preservative commonly added to prepared foods like meats, prepared products and dried goods, like sun-dried tomatoes, dried fruits and some vinegars.

Red Kidney Beans are good sources of fiber and protein. That we do know and combined with whole grain rice, it provides all the essential amino acids a person needs to support good health.

I do not have any recipes with red-kidney beans, but here are a few recipes using other types of beans/legumes you could try today:

Chickpea Cocido

Hummus

Babaga-hummus

Lentil Soup Mom’s Style

Toasted Chickpeas and Pistachios

Tags: beans, chickpeas, food, lentils, recipes, vegetarian

Comments 1 Comment
Categories MY EDITORIAL

The Shape of Foods Help our Organs?? – CELERY, BOK CHOY and RHUBARB

22 Oct

Celery, rhubarb and bok choy, among others, are stalky and long… just like our bones. These foods specifically target bone’s health because they’re both 23% sodium – bones are 23% sodium and so are these foods. When you lack sodium in your system, the body pulls it from the bones, thus making them weak. These foods replenish and maintain balance to the skeletal needs of the body.

Celery and rhubarb also contain calcium… but its better absorbed when eaten with other calcium rich foods, such as yogurt or cheese.

I don’t use celery all that much in my cooking and have never eaten rhubarb in my life, but here are some recipes where you can incorporate celery and bok choi into your diet:

Celery Lime Juice

Celery Pineapple Juice

Roasted Vegetable Stock

Tofu Cashew Stir Fry