A new food blog!

I have teamed up with Krista, my partner in yoga, food, and all things fun and life-affirming to create a new food blog entitled, LOVE TWO EAT. We have been enthusiastic cooks all our lives and are excited about our first blog project together!

We plan to share recipes and tips for quick, tasty, home-cooked meals!

Check our blog out at lovetwoeat.com

Upma -- the divine Indian hot cereal

The secret to the good life is a good breakfast. Here is, in my opinion, the best comfort food and hot breakfast ever invented: The Indian Upma (pronounce oop-ma).

I just made it paying careful attention to all measurements which I do not usually do, being by nature an improviser. But this turned out fantastic so here goes:

Warm 2 tbs of olive oil with 1/4 tsp. brown (they look black) mustard seeds.

When the mustard seeds start popping like popcorn, add 1/4 inch ring of jalapeno (chopped) and 1/4 onion (cubed). Sautee for a minute or two.

Add 1/4 tsp turmeric and 1/4 tsp cumin powder. Stir. Add a handful of cilantro (chopped).

Add 1/4 cup green peas.Stir and cook 2 minutes.

Add 3/4 cup cream of rice. You can find cream of rice amongst the hot cereals.

Mix and add 2 cups of boiling water very carefully! Now the whole thing will look like a watery soup. Don't worry, keep stirring for about 2 minutes until it thickens to the consistency of steamed rice.

It is done! Top with a 1/4 tsp of ghee and enjoy! Let me know how it goes, OK?

A sandwich

I woke up this morning with about 10 minutes available to make a lunch to carry with me on my 7 mile bike ride to work. No time to cook so I made a sandwich.

I don't like eating wheat. And I don't like yeast. So in my family we eat Kamut bread that is yeast-free, made by hand, and tasty. Made by Pacific Bakery in Oceanside. I set four slices on the cutting board. Lemon mayonnaise on two slices and spicy hummus on the other two. Then I cut up an entire avocado and put it on the two hummus slices.

I added an heirloom tomato all chopped up to the avocado and then closed the two mayonnaise covered slices onto the juicy contents. A small piece of wax paper (instead of plastic wrap) to wrap the two sandwiches and I was ready to go in about 9 minutes leaving me a minute to smile broadly at my creations.

Eating Well when time is short

I had 30 minutes this morning to fix myself some lunch and carry it in 2 Nissan soup thermoses to work. I do not like to buy food at work, preferring to cook myself a quick lunch. I hope this will inspire some of my readers to cook more and eat out less.

Back to the 30 minutes I had this morning.

00: I warmed a tablespoon of olive oil with a teaspoon of black mustard seeds in it. As this warms on low heat I chop 2 garlic cloves finely. Put on water to boil.

01: Put on rice to cook.

03: The mustard starts to pop very gently like popcorn. I add the garlic and stir.

03-07: I chop 1/4 of a globe eggplant from Full Belly Farm into cubes and saute it in the oil. In the meantime I break off the florets of 1/2 a cauliflower by hand.

07-10: I chop a farm potato into cubes and add potatoes followed by cauliflower to the sauteed eggplants. Stir.

10-12: Pour boiling water into the pot with the vegetables so that the water stands 2-3 inches high.

13: I add a teaspoon on ladoo besan (gram flour) from the Indian store and a tablespoon of Pataks Mild Curry Paste. Stir and cover.

20: Rice is done.

25: Curry is done. Scoop rice and curry into two insulated Soup Jars (Nissan as pointed out above).

25-30: Tidy up in the kitchen and pack up my lovely vegetarian meal. This will keep me going until 9:30 tonight!