Tag Archives: spanish

Joined forces with Hispanic blog Madres Conectadas supporting a more natural and vegetarian diet across Latin America

9 May

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.

Foto Gianny

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.

logo de imagen nueva 14

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.

logo madres conectadas

The Best Spanish Olive Oil

5 Feb

This past Summer I spent a little over 2 weeks in Spain.  I visited Madrid, Pamplona, Zaragoza, San Sebastian, Barcelona, among others.  Near Barcelona, we visited this little town called Villafranca del Penedés.  It was a must we visited this town, as my friend Walter’s family is originally from there.  The proof – there was a street named after him… it was amazing.

 vacaciones-espana-julio-2007-361.jpg

But what I never thought I would find in Villafranca was one of the best extra virgin olive oils I have ever tasted.  As part of a tour to Villafranca and Montserrat, we visited the Bodegas Torres.  I was afraid this was going to be one of those tourist traps… but the local winery, well known for their Sangre de Toro wine and one of my dad’s favorite red wines, as a real surprising treat.   Besides the winery, Bodegas Torres has a gastronomy division named Torre Real which, among other things, makes olive oil made from Arbequina olives.  According to information I have read since then… Arbequina olives are the “crème de la crème” as Spanish olives is concerned.

 vacaciones-espana-julio-2007-200.jpg             vacaciones-espana-julio-2007-223.jpg

I brought back a bottle of this wonderful olive oil… and now, no other olive oil stands next to it.  I ration it so that I can enjoy it as long as I can…

 aceite-y-vinagre.jpg

To me, it’s the perfect olive oil to dress a salad, to dip great crusty bread or to drizzle over a soup or pasta as a finishing touch.  And the most amazing thing – this olive oil only cost me 5 Euros.  Not bad for such high quality.  They also make white and red wine vinegars.  I have not tried the vinegar yet – I have like 7 open vinegar bottles, so I would like to decrease that inventory before I open a new now.

I good friend from high school lives in Barcelona now and I have asked her to please bring me 3-4 bottles of the Arbequina olive oil when she comes to Puerto Rico in the next few weeks.  If you have access to this wonderful product, I urge you to try it.

Do you have any favorite olive oil?? Tell me all about it.

%d bloggers like this: