Growing up I always really enjoyed helping my mom cook nice meals for our family at dinner time. I constantly had the urge to be the one in charge however, not the one doing the tedious cleaning and prepping of ingredients while she added them together to do the actual cooking.
I was stoked to my sophomore year of college when I was out of the dorms in my own apartment with my own kitchen to cook in. Soon enough though I would realize that cooking good meals takes a lot of time and thinking ahead, in which that I did not always have a lot of being a college student. Now as senior and more time passed by, I am learning more and more that the time put aside to cook meals is well needed and afterwords very appreciated. It is necessary to at least cook nice big meals for yourself or family a few times a week to eat healthily. When you cook food yourself you automatically are improving the quality of your meal. Cutting out super processed foods such as sugars, and white flour will is the next step. Lastly one would work on adding in all organic foods including only dairy products and free-range meat with no added hormones, or a vegan or vegetarian diet.
So naturally, with this knowledge that I have gained mostly growing up in a household being educated on good health by my mother, I have found my place in the kitchen a lot of my time. As I keep experimenting with different healthy ways of cooking and recipes, I thought it would be fun to add them to my blog to share!
Here is one I recently tried cooking for my family. It is from Heidi Swanson's book "Super Natural Cooking"... which is a great cook book, in which she discusses 'five ways to incorporate whole and natural ingredients into your cooking'.
Spring Minestrone with Brown Rice: (serves 4)
~ Credit: Heidi Swanson
- 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
- 2 shallots, thinly sliced
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 3/4 cup medium-grain brown basmati rice, rinsed
- 6 cups vegetable stock
- 1 cup sugar snap or snow peas, trimmed and cut in half diagonally
- 8 spears asparagus, trimmed and diagonally sliced into 1 inch pieces
- 1/2 cup green peas, fresh or frozen
- Fined grain sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat the olive oil in large sauce pan over medium-high heat, then add the shallots and garlic and saute for a couple of minutes until soft. Add the rice and cook, stirring for 1 minute, then add the stock and bring to a boil. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer until the rice is just tender, 35 to 45 minutes.
Add the sugar snap peas, asparagus, and green peas, and season with a few healthy pinches of salt and a few grinds of black pepper. Simmer for another 2 or 3 minutes and serve immediately; this way the vegetables stay crisp and bright.
Alterations were mainly done due to the using of what I had in the kitchen and cupboards.
My alterations to the recipe:
- 1/4 of a large onion instead of 2 shallots
- 3/4 cup white instead of brown basmati rice
- 1 cup green beans cut up instead of snap or snow peas
- 13 spears of asparagus instead of 8
I hope you enjoy it! It is truly a light soup, but the rice is substantial enough to fill you up! Yet it is suggested to add shrimp on another protein as a side dish with it that you might like to try, but I personally didn't. I thought blocks of tofu would have gone nicely with it and I also would add some lemon juice and zest to it next time I made it just to spice it up!
I recently fell back in love with taking baths when I went back home to Maui over the holidays to visit family and the beautiful island I grew up on. My mother and her husband had just remodeled their bathroom, so it was a perfect time to take advantage of my free time and surroundings, and completely relax. I actually spent New Years eve night with a glass of wine and a bubble bath instead of partying this year, and it felt great!
