quinoa and lentils

I love Indian Dal. I don’t have patience to make it. I want to share a recipe I made up last night which is my variation on Dal complete with greens to even out the meal:

1 cup (1/3 cup red, 1/3 cup green and 1/3 cup french) lentils (soaked 12 hours will reduce gas factor)

3/4 cup of Quinoa (not neccesary to soak)

2-3 handfuls mesculun salad greens or dark leafy greens of choice (braising greens best) in bite size pieces

1/3 cup of chicken or vegetable broth

2 cap fulls of yellow curry powder (roughly two tablespoons)

a few shakes of garam masala

1/2 inch slice of butter (omit if  not consuming dairy)

1/4 teaspoon of sesame oil

Boil 2.5 cups of water. when boiling add lentils and cook 15 min on medium. Add quinoa and cook 10 minutes more until quinoa puffs up. In last 2 minutes of quinoa cooking add curry powder, greens and chicken broth. Stir a few times to incorporate flavors. Cover pot and let steam cook greens. After 2 minutes, stir again, add butter and/or sesame oil, remaining spices, salt and pepper to your taste and melt in butter. Simmer on low until all liquid absorbed or moist. Add more broth if starting to dry out.  Serve immediately with lemon and chopped parsley or cilantro.

makes 2-3 servings

Emotional Junk Food

I just returned from a glorious few days at a conference in Miami.  While I was there I encountered many deep spiritual people at the conference and had some really wonderful conversations. One of them was on the topic of love and relationships…one of my favorite topics. In the conversation I had with one of my wonderful platonic male friends we discussed the concept of casual sex and what we both collectively termed “emotional” junk food.

So often with my female clients (and myself who am I kidding) I find that we make choices based on our emotions. What to eat, what to wear, where to go, what to drink, who to see, who to sleep with. Yes, its not this black and white, but there is this concept of I feel like eating this or I do this because I feel blue. Often times I know when I am stressed out a bowl of popcorn in coconut oil is great, but three yummy chocolate chip cookies are better. I love my kale and quinoa, I really do, but faced with a break up or a bad date – red wine and chocolate are going to win out and when I am about to get my period – forget it…the chocolate is definitely going to factor into the equation.

At the end of the day however, I love and respect myself.  I always remember that with every action I perform at the core of my being is self respect. I eat, but I know that I am going to have to face myself in the morning. I am going to have to face myself every step of the way and answer – do I love myself when I make this choice to eat chocolate cake because it tastes good?  Don’t I deserve first to be healthy? Don’t I deserve a lifetime without back pain and suffering from asthma because of my weight? Don’t I want to be able to climb the six flights of stairs to visit my friend on the East Side without huffing and puffing?  Don’t I want to be able to row for two hours tomorrow morning? Yes, I want to do all of these things…but sometimes I want chocolate cake too, but I need to really think about it consciously and consider whether I want the junk food for an emotional reason or not.

But what really is this concept of emotional junk food? People are often our emotional junk food. As often as we make choices out of a lack of self respect and self esteem, we choose to be in inappropriate relationships for the same reason. Sometimes they can be draining friendships. Sometimes this can take form in romantic relationships. I have a major crush about every few weeks. I don’t even know the man, but I crush anyway. I think I just love the idea of being in love.  Something about the way he smells or smiles or a quality I think represents goodness in him. I, like most women, love to try to fix a man or save him. We love the dark brooding types. The types who never really let us get to know them. Just last night I was chatting with one of my crushes and it turns out that he doesn’t want to be in a relationship. Ladies (and men!) – how many times do we hear these words and yet we continue to pursue these amorphous friendships where we have unrequited feelings. Emily Dickinson became a very famous poet due to emotional junk food – but where did it lead her? Nowhere good.

I implore you all to examine your emotional junk food. How does it reflect on your self respect? In my line of work, I’m very cognizant of what people say. I listen with my ears, but also my eyes and my heart. Sometimes, we so want to hear things that simply aren’t there. When a man says, he does not want a relationship, listen to him, don’t just hear him. If its possible to be his friend, do so. If not, trust your heart and let him know. I know in my communication I have power. I am not afraid to be direct. Often this reduces the amount of emotional junk food I allow in my life.  It also reduces the amount of emotional junk food that will enter my life.

Health is a state of being. Emotional and physical health are inextricably intertwined. I wonder how many Doctors are affected by bad marriages. In a recent seminar I completed in early March, I knew a doctor who was estranged from his wife and son, who suffered from Autism. I grew very close to this man and always wondered what it must have been like for him, what it is like for any parent who has a child that does not meet their definition of perfect. Nothing in life is perfect and we cannot beat ourselves up or feel that we are failures if our children are less than perfect. We need to look deep within ourselves and love our children as well as ourselves. We need to bring love into every choice we make.

I once said at a BNI meeting – who doesn’t want a better love life. People laughed at me and thought me to be silly. How could I mention love at a business meeting. But love is an essential component of my business and of life. Without it, love and passion who are we. Nothing really.  Aristotle once said, “All human actions have one or more of these seven causes: chance, nature, compulsions, habit, reason, passion and desire.” Regardless what our actions are, business or otherwise, we will be driven by some cause. We are human after all. Leave logic for Dr. Spock. I’m a huge fan of passion.  We feel. However, in feeling, we need to make sure what we feel comes from a place of respecting ourselves. We want to radiate self respect and self love. In doing so, we attract love and respect from others in our business dealings and in our friendships, familial and romantic relationships.

why I became a chef…

this is a transcript of an interview on why I became a chef. I thought I would share it with you…

Describe your background/history:
New York born and bred. I love the flavors, history and variety of food and the melting pot that is New York City. My grandparents are from Brooklyn and Manhattan’s lower east side and I hail from the Upper West.

What inspired you to become a chef?:
I’ve been cooking for as long as I can remember. I probably first learned from my great Aunt who owned a luncheonette in Brooklyn in the 1950s. I always wish I was alive back then and could have experienced what life was like during that tumultuous time. I spent years learning the finer points of seasonal cooking using local ingredients and lately health and taste equally rule my food offerings

What do you consider the best aspect about cooking/being a chef?:
Bold flavors, variety, using what grows in my local area. Changing items to provide the most local/seasonal food and the freshest available. As a health conscious chef, I don’t think about calories but where did the food come from – but is it made of? I want to know that the energy in my food is good and that the food is the highest quality. My body is a ferrari and I am only going to put the highest quality fuel in it. That doesn’t mean the most expensive…but it certainly means the freshest and what is grown or produced within 100 miles

Describe your specialty dish or style of cooking:
Being a New Yorker, I can’t help being inspired by a multitude of ethnic flavors and spices. I love Asian and Mexican/South American flavors especially those of Thailand and Argentina/Brazil. But I am at home in a community garden or a local farmers market and excited by the vegetables, fruits and meats in season. I tend to want to cook a quick pan roasted or quickly grilled, oven finished duck, venison and pork in the winter with earthy roots and greens and more summery salads, seafoods, crab etc, in the summer ceviche style.

Describe your work style, your colleagues working with you?
I am a natural leader. But I love to inspire others and learn from others. I can take leadership or team roles. I’m a rower and there’s nothing more team oriented than that sport.

Describe your greatest accomplishment:
Every day is an accomplishment. I left the golden shackles of corporate consulting and financial risk management to found a wellness business and start a personal chef business. It was pretty gutsy and the best move I ever made. I’ve never been happier though the income potential is a bit of a longer horizon.

What is something that we wouldn’t know about you?:
my age. Everyone thinks I’m about 10 years younger than I actually am.

Describe Why you’d be good for this show:
I’m the unique blend of highly intelligent, accomplished in the corporate world and also my own cooking business, creative and beautiful. Its a great package and testament to how passion, love and dedication pay off.

interesting new restaurant – fat hippo and my green meal service

So, one of my favorite health newsletters did a piece on a new restaurant in the home of one of my former favorite New York Restaurants. The restaurant is called Fat Hippo and it is situated in the east village at 71 Clinton Street, where 71 Clinton Fresh Food used to live. That restaurant has long gone out of business. Wylie Dufresne opened another place down the street WD-50 where I dragged my family for my 30th birthday – but they all hated it (I liked it – but some of the food was too out there even for me). I’ve not spent much time in the east village as of late, so I can’t say much about the new WD place, nor do I know if its still open, but when I saw the review for Fat Hippo I needed to make some comments.

Here is their website: http://nymag.com/daily/food/2009/02/a_first_look_at_the_fat_hippo.html

I just took a brief look at their website and although the burger fondue and pan fried cheese balls made me revolt, I was surprised to see a few healthy options as well like free range turkey meatloaf and a grapefruit salad. Hooray for restaurants even as decadent as Fat Hippo taking a step in the right direction.

I’ll miss 71 clinton as it reminds me of a different time when the east village had so much more unchartered exotic territory. Now it is any other yuppified cappuchino bar on every block losing some of its heyday character. There’s still a bit of anarchy left in the east village – but not enough to keep vox populis, my favorite anacharist cafe on the bowery, open. Vox had to close its doors in February and move to Brooklyn. This happened around the same time as I closed my cafe.

But rest assured – Luscious Green Home delivery and personal chef services are very much alive here in Manhattan. I operate out of the Upper West Side and can prepare health oriented, local, seasonal and sustainable cuisine and deliver to your door or cut down on delivery charges and carbon footprint by preparing the meals in your kitchen.

For more information, visit the website: www.sobelwellness.com/meal-delivery.html

100 mile diet

So I have been inspired by Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal Vegetable Miracle to only eat foods in my local environment. I have some frozen raspberries in my freezer – which I bought myself when they were in season and I cave every so often because my clients crave green. I try to stick to only what grows in the Northeast at this time of year – which these days is a lot of kale.

I’ve been shopping every Friday or Saturday at the union square greenmarket. I’ve been considering joining either urban organics or from farm to table to get things delivered so I don’t have to schlep – but so far – I’m a bit picky and I’m not sure if its a better value yet. Perhaps soon I will join.

I’ve been doing so much with root vegetables lately. Inspired by a meal I had last week at the Union Square Cafe: Earth and Turf – braised short ribs, roots and greens. It was a great plate. I’ve been eating things like it ever since. Everyone always wonders and asks me – are you a vegetarian? Well, I answer – I am in a normal restaurant, but if I know where the meat comes from – I definitely eat meat. I usually buy my meat from a local supplier through my CSA, Weston A. Price Foundation or at the market. There’s a new meat guy at Morningside Park on Saturdays – I keep meaning to try him out. I’m addicted to union square – I’m sure Morningside is cheaper – I should really check it out. I’ve heard great things about the Inwood market – but somehow I haven’t quite been able to haul ass up there. I’m waiting for spring and getting back on my bike.

But mostly I’ve been eating a lot of meat: lamb, venison, goat, pastured chicken (I never knew I could love chicken so much), turkey (same, until you’ve had a pastured turkey you haven’t lived…no dryness here!). There are some other interesting looking cuts – but I’ve stayed away. I tried Buffalo and did not like it. Too tough. Tried marinating it, even for two days and could not tenderize it. Oh well, I guess I still have a lot to learn about marinating or there are some cuts that just can’t be tenderized to the texture I like, but I don’t like sirloin either, so I’m just me with my own unique tastes and preferences. No disrespect to the Buffalo ranchers!

I’m waiting for that asparagus, god am I waiting. And the raspberries! But until then, I’ve been doing a lot with salsify, purple, yellow and orange carrots, and fresh eggs with all different colors – I’m amazed to learn that the only reason that white eggs are cheaper is that people think they are less healthy than brown ones.  In fact the truth is, different breeds of chickens lay different colored eggs.  Sometimes, I do wonder why grocery store eggs look so white and they don’t have any specs of any color in them, and if perhaps something happens to those eggs like bleaching – but I won’t turn down white eggs from the market. Some of the farmers actually bring chickens with them. That was  a bit unnerving, especially since they were also in a cage – so much for free range chicken!  I just keep trying different ones. I had eggs that were $7 a dozen. They were delicious and worth every penny – came from an Araucana chicken. Splendid.

Today, I broke down and got some chocolate from Ecuador. I don’t know quite where chocolate can grow in New York State…or coffee for that matter and I’m not sure if I am going to give up either of those any time soon. Its odd, I was off coffee for about 3 years and I just started drinking it again. I’m not sure why – I’ve become more of a morning person lately – till it snowed in New York today…but I was still up at 6:30 and I’ll be up tomorrow at that time too. There’s just something wonderful about getting up that early – but the smell of coffee and the taste – I just have one cup is just something I associate with those early mornings. Also, the caffiene tends to help focus me with my ADD. I’m taking some B12 in Ola Loa as well. We’ll see if I can wean off coffee and go back to just vitamins in a few weeks. I’m sure Ola Loa’s ingredients aren’t quite local either…but I am trying. 90% local, how’s that? Life is all about the 90:10 rule, isn’t it?