Food and ideas to nourish body and mind.
Recipes Worth Making
I’ve made these a few times and here’s what I’ve decided. They’re best made with corn tortillas. They add texture and flavor to the dish that I felt was lacking with flour tortillas. I used wheat flour tortillas and they seemed a bit gummy after baking. I even tried baking the enchiladas for 10 minutes without the sauce to crisp up the tortillas and they still seemed too soft for my liking. It’s possible you’d get a better texture with regular flour tortillas.
I’ve added chicken to the filling a few times to up the protein. I cut back on the beans when I add chicken. Sautéed peppers and zucchini would also be a good addition for a little bit of crunch and would be a good swap if you’re not into artichokes. Though, I think the artichokes is partly what makes the enchiladas so good. The homemade sauce is the other reason they are so good. It’s definitely worth the extra effort.
If you love Mediterranean flavors, you’ll love this dish. It’s super easy to make with very little cleanup! Just turn your oven on, make the marinade, toss the chicken in the marinade, chop your veggies, drizzle with reserved marinade, throw everything onto a sheet pan and bake for 30 minutes. Add some olives, feta, and fresh parsley to the pan and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Serve with rice, roasted sweet potatoes, or pita bread and hummus. So simple and flavorful!
This soup gets its creamy texture from eggs. I had no idea you could use eggs for this purpose. It sounds a little weird but you don’t even notice they’re in the soup. The end result is a wholesome, fresh, deliciously creamy soup that is perfect for a cold winter day.
This chicken pot pie always gets rave reviews and is so simple to make. I’ve only made it with store-bought pie crust but I’m sure it would taste even better with a homemade crust. Everything tastes better from scratch. I usually make this when I have leftover chicken from another recipe. You can use store-bought rotisserie chicken to make it even easier. It can be made ahead of time and freezes well. I like to slice the pie into single servings before freezing but it can also be frozen whole. Definitely worth a try!
I haven’t tried every chili recipe in this world to know if this one is truly the best. This is just the name given to the recipe. I will go so far to say it’s one of the best chili recipes I’ve tried. The recipe calls for two pounds of ground beef. I like a little less meat in my chili so I use around a pound and a half. I use fire roasted diced tomatoes. I don’t like big chunks of tomato so I’ll give them a squish once I add them to the pot. I also add a can of black beans since I use less meat. The chili is fairly soupy the first day but thickens after being refrigerated. Serve with sour cream or plain Greek yogurt, cilantro, shredded cheese, avocado, and tortilla chips or cornbread croutons. So good!
These are the perfect mix between soft cornbread and crunchy tortilla chips. They are just the right amount of crispy that they hold up when dunked in soup or chili but still absorb some delicious flavor. Definitely a must try!
I typically follow a quiche recipe from Sally’s Baking Recipes but decided to give this one a try since the ingredients I had on hand were similar to those called for in this recipe. I used fontina cheese, asparagus, spinach, and shallots. I always make quiche with whole or almond milk as that’s what we buy, but this time I tried it with heavy cream. It was good but the texture was more custard-like. It seemed a little too thick and rich in my opinion. The recipe I usually follow calls for a mix of heavy cream and whole milk. I’ll try this next time I make a quiche and see if the difference is worth adding the cream.
Other recipes I’ve made recently:
I liked the flavors of this pizza but didn’t love the pizza as a whole. The crust was a bit tough and chewy for my liking. I skimped on the pesto in fear of the pizza being too oily and wet. It came out on the dry side so I think I could have used more sauce. Or maybe I needed to add more cheese? Who knows. I really liked the basil pesto and roasted tomatoes used in this recipe. I’ve made the pesto twice using slightly different ingredients and it turned out great both times. Highly recommend subbing spinach or arugula for some of the basil and trying it with different nuts. I used pistachios the first time and walnuts the second time. Both made for delicious pesto!
Balsamic Mushroom and Goat Cheese Pizza
I’ve been searching for good pizza ever since my favorite pizza joint shut down during the pandemic. I have yet to find any so I’ve started making my own. I used a store-bought crust out of convenience for this pizza but have been making my own ever since (this is my go-to recipe). I loved the balsamic mushrooms! They paired perfectly with the goat and fontina cheese. I used thinly sliced potatoes in place of the delicata squash. The crust was a bit doughy underneath the fillings. I’m not sure I could have cooked the pizza any longer without burning the cheese and the bottom of the crust. I might try par-baking the crust for a few minutes before adding the toppings next time or maybe I’ll skip the potatoes.
Ideas Worth Considering
Rich Roll: Kamal Ravikant
Pain is the ultimate motivator.
Make a commitment to yourself and do your best to live it everyday. You might fail, and fail again, but it’s the effort that matters.
Source: The Rich Roll podcast (episode 515)
Reflections
Disjointed thoughts on my experience with pain and the recent commitment I’ve made to myself…
Freshman year of college: difficult relationships, rigorous studies, weight gain. Took control over the one thing I felt I could control, my weight. Began exercising excessively and developed restrictive eating habits. Behaviors led to isolation. Found myself surviving but definitely not thriving. Came across the idea of disordered eating, which opened my eyes to my unhealthy habits and the damage they were causing. Began my journey of applying intuitive eating practices.
Became a wellness coach. Found myself more drawn to conversations about food and nutrition. Could empathize with those who had similar struggles to me. Eating healthy was the bigger pain point, for myself and others. Wanted to figure out how to adopt healthier eating habits as I thought that would get rid of my pain. Wanted to find an approach to eating that didn’t restrict me from the foods I loved and helped me achieve my health and fitness goals. Came to believe food was the solution to many of my problems. Thought it was a means to ending my suffering.
Took a job as a nutrition director. Lacked experience and adequate knowledge for the job. Was eventually let go. Took a huge hit to my confidence. Always felt somewhat inadequate for not having all the answers and being let go validated these feelings. Decided to go back to school for nutrition to become an expert in the field. Thought if I attained a Master’s degree and became a dietitian, then I would have the answers and no longer feel inadequate. Or so I thought.
Graduate studies increased my knowledge but in a way left me with even more uncertainty. Walked away from the experience with more clarity surrounding what to eat for health and fitness but was almost more scared to voice my opinion. Felt saying the wrong thing as a so-called expert would lead to even greater scrutiny.
Think this fear stems from feeling like I’m unable to articulate my thoughts well in conversation. For me, articulation requires a lot of thought, a lot of time, and a lot effort. This is probably why I take to writing more than conversation. Writing gives me space to think through my ideas before expressing them.
Left corporate job in 2018 to start a nutrition consulting business. Five years later, I still have yet to officially start a business or do any consulting. Outwardly, it doesn’t appear I’ve put much work into this endeavor, but I’ve spent more energy on it than any other pursuit in my life.
Spent endless number of hours thinking and writing over the last five years. At the beginning of this endeavor, I set out to write a book detailing how I had improved my quality of life over the last handful of years. Believed much of my success came from gaining nutrition knowledge and adopting healthier eating habits. As I worked to articulate how my healthier eating habits led to greater physical and mental wellbeing, the complexity of the mental wellbeing component was revealed.
This is when the writing of my book came to a halt and my research project began. Dove deep into the realm of physics, chemistry, cognitive science, and philosophy to better understand a specific component of mental wellbeing–happiness. Five years later, I have more questions than answers. Beginning to think some of these questions may not be answered in my lifetime.
What I’ve learned so far is this: It seems our pursuit of happiness is rooted in our innate desire for growth. It’s the feeling we label happiness that keeps us striving for continuous improvement and its fleeting nature keeps us on this path; the path of evolution.
My musings on this topic helped me uncover the approach I believe is responsible for much my growth and happiness over the years. The approach is this:
- Explore the world with an open mind
- Apply an informed approach to life
- Transform your approach to meet your evolving needs
It’s fitting the approach’s acronym spells eat as it was my journey to adopting healthier eating habits that prompted its discovery. I still have much to learn about happiness, but for now, I commit to applying the EAT approach everyday as I work towards a fulfilled and happy life.
