Trying To Do Better. Whatever Better Is.

I love to eat hot pot with my family and friends. We gather a couple times throughout the year to enjoy conversation and delicious food. Typically meat is the main focus of hot pots but I have learned that are many other enjoyable and satiating hot pot add-ins.  Soup Base: Mushroom base, Water, Kumbu broth, miso broth, vegan dashi broth I'm going to be honest, I usually just use water since I love eating my hot pot add-ins with as much sauce as possible.  Vegetarian Add-ins: Enoki mushrooms  Small king oyster mushrooms  Soft Tofu Fried Tofu Lotus Root Taro slices Glass noodles / mung bean noodles (GF) Small Bok Choy Tong Ho  Shanghai Bok Choy Shitake Mushroom Tops Dried Tofu skin Glutenous Fried Balls Rice Cakes Oden Mochi Pockets (Mochi Kinchaku) Daikon Radish  Sweet Potatoes Vegan/Vegetarian Dumplings Napa Cabbage Kongac noodles/dumplings Corn on the cob Sauces: Vegetarian bullhead bbq sauce (green top), soy sauce, peanut or almond butter, scallion, sesam...

 Late nights, I crave sweets. After reading books by Dr. Lustig and Dr. Esselstyn I started to avoid sugar within my range of self control. One snack I have found extremely enjoyable is frozen whole blueberries. They are pretty easy to prepare. I wash, dry, and freeze them on a flat plate/tray over night. It's important to dry the blueberries as much as possible because you don't want them to stick to the plate or tray. They have a blueberry flavor but the texture is similar to biting into a sherbet dibs. You have to eat them fast or else they melt into some weird mush. It's a fun alternative to popcorn when watching a movie.

  I've been trying to develop some easy meals that are more "healthy". I wanted to keep continuing my low consumption of animal protein like beef, chicken, fish, and pork. I know some vegetarians still consume eggs and diary. The meals in mind should be easy while being high in fiber and protein while being budget friendly.  I think this recipe is relatively cheap per meal. Using some internet price sleuthing I calculated this meal to be approximately $2.50. However, you should take that with a bit of inflation-salt. For example, Rao's Rigatoni pasta was listed around $3.50 per bag online, but yesterday I saw it listed over $5 at the store. Feel free to substitute ingredients with cheaper quality alternates. For example, I think I can use De Cecco for Rao's. Recipe: Note I usually make 2 servings at a time.   Ingredients for 1 serving: 3/4 cups of Rigatoni 1/2 can of Chickpeas 2 Teaspoons of Pesto Salt for water Optional: 1 boiled egg or cheese snack pack  Direc...

Temperature might be 109 outside but sometimes you just need a comfort meal. In college I was introduced to Korean food by my Korean international friends. Whenever I eat Korean food it brings back the happy memories of late nights out and good times. So I've recently started making some juvenile versions of real Korean food. I'm sharing this because it's as simple I could make it while still satiating my cravings. Of course nothing beats the real thing.  Ingredients: 1 tablespoon Doenjang  1 tablespoon Gochujang (this will have a kick but if you like more spicy add in peppers) 1 Cup water Oil for cooking 3 garlic cloves  1 medium onion  1 - 1.5 Cups of Kimchi roughly chopped into bite sized pieces 1 packet of Soon Tofu (this is like silken tofu. This will crumble a bit in the soup but that's okay) Optional veggies like oyster mushrooms, nappa, daikon radish, etc. things that can stand up to being boiled.    Steps: You must cooking in order because dumping ...

The muesli portion of this blog is from my first plant based diet attempt. Muesli is loosely defined, by me, as a mixture of dried add-ins with uncooked rolled oats. This dried mixture is not cooked, but soaked in a liquid such as oat milk and eaten cold.   There was a point in my first experiment when I was eating muesli 3 meals a day since it was filling, plant based, and easy. Hence the phrase "Body by Muesli." I started with a prepared mixture from Bob's Red Mill and then mixed my own. To this day my go to combination is oats, raisins, coconut shreds, sunflower seeds/ pecans, and sometimes puffed millet or rice. All of which are the versions without any added sugar. The raisins themselves lend enough sweetness to satiate my palate. I'll be honest, I am not much of a sweet tooth. I have found that if I soak a bowl of muesli in coconut milk or oat milk over night, it is also very delicious. The oats soak of the liquid and start having a soft cooked oatmeal texture. ...

 Ingredient: 1 can of artichoke hearts (quartered, not marinated in oil) 1 can of green olives (or your favorite olives - also not marinated in oil)  1 red bell pepper  1 small or medium onion (yellow or white) 1 medium zucchini  1 can of diced tomatoes or 2 medium sized tomatoes  1-2 teaspoon of paprika  1 pinch of saffron  1 cup of rice (sub with any short grained rice you have on hand - definitely no long grain!) 1 pinch of salt & pepper Water or vegetable broth olive oil for sauteing   Dice the onion and saute in large shallow pan (if you don't have a paella pan) until onions are translucent. Use as little olive oil as possible since you are just wanted to make them sweat out and not fry them. Add in paprika, saffron, salt, and pepper into onions and coat onions pieces with spices.  Add in diced tomatoes and diced red bell pepper. Cook down tomatoes and pepper.  Drain and add in artichoke hearts and olives. Add into cooking ...