Fresh orange juice is a popular, year-round favorite. In the winter, oranges are in season, so you can find an abundance of oranges.
That’s also when most people load up on Vitamin C that they associate with orange juice, and why orange juice grocery shelves can be full or running empty.
And summer is a popular time too as it’s served in vacation towns and resorts.
I share below how you can optimize an entire orange in homemade fresh orange juice squeezed by hand.
If you’re inspired by fresh juices, this is a smart idea to save money, be healthy, and enjoy conveniently at home.
And speaking of enjoyment, last week I had a nice surprise.
I won a gift card to a local smoothie place I’m inspired by. They are my inspiration for tropical smoothies.
One day I saw someone coming out of a yoga studio in my town who was carrying this mermaid blue color bowl that’s the size of a large yogurt container.
I had to find out what this healthy ingredient is!
I learned it comes from an ingredient called blue majik (that’s the magic in the blue bowl). 🥣
The South Block smoothie chain also uses ingredients like camu camu and maca root.
You feel like you’ve been invited to a new array of rainforest superfoods shipped from an exotic locale in the world and infused in your made-to-order bowl or smoothie.
It’s dreamy, no?
OK, I could go on and on excited!…
But, today I also wanted to share how you can optimize oranges in a house-made fresh orange juice.
I’ve become super sensitive to how much sugar I consume and that’s healthy motivation.
And that hopefully inspires you to think healthy food and drinks at least most of the time (as it does for me).
Next time you think about getting orange juice from the store, consider making your own fresh orange juice from whole oranges where there’s no added sugar.
Fresh Orange Juice
Look for heirloom, organic, or local farmers market produce as in season (free of pesticides, good for us and the environment)
And oranges are one of my favorite fruits as I love the smell of oranges. Here’s why…
They are good for calming anxiety, aromatherapy, and if you’re leaning into the Vata mind-body ways or wanting to restore any Vata imbalance.
If you can’t get the work life balance or life is stressful, keeping an orange near you to sniff and that’ll help calm you.
And making fresh orange juice will also in its healthy-balancing effects.
And if you feel it in your nervous digestive tract, you can try an orange elixir like this recipe:
5 Spice blend (Five spice is star anise, cloves, cinnamon, fennel, and black pepper) - (amount adjustable to liking)
water (dilute as needed)
Instructions
Zest and peel an orange. Keep all the parts. Tip: use navel, Cara Cara, blood, or heirloom oranges. They are good for the calming (and good for parasympathetic nervous system also affecting good digestion).
Squeeze the pulp into your orange juice container (or enjoy).
Add your zest and peels to the container.
Add five-spice blend.
Add apple cider vinegar
Fill up with water. Shake and refrigerate. Enjoy when you have an upset stomach.
There are so many orange varieties to choose from. I love the Cara Cara sweetheart orange variety (common around Christmas) that can be juicier and sweeter than a California navel orange that’s in season a little earlier.
Plus fresh orange juice makes me think of my second home, staying in nice hotels! Once upon a time I worked in hotel catering management where I got my first taste.
And you may have seen out and about those gigantic commercial machines that crank out fresh orange juice from whole oranges. That would be a fun job for a day!
You may have seen one of these at selective grocery stores if you live in a larger metro area.
Fresh orange juice definitely ruined me for any added sugar orange juice that comes from a carton (like I grew up drinking).
Concentrated is high sugar and harsh on the stomach, and especially along with a morning coffee routine that Americans commonly do. That’s double acidity.
👉 You can opt for making your own organic cold brew coffee and diluting orange juice with water.
So let’s begin and get your fresh orange juice-on!
For equipment, you can use a citrus squeezing tool, which is one of my favorite kitchen tools because it’s bright yellow so I have no choice but to be sunny with the brightening citrus when I use it 😉.
And a zester microplane tool that looks like a zester.
These are the parts of the orange.
Orange Zest (essence). Before I cut into the orange for orange juice, I go around the orange peel, grating, and capturing all the outside orange zest as essence for zhughing up other sweet morning smoothies, dishes, and garnishes (that’s where my former-catering mind goes and yours can go wild too!).
Orange Pith. Most people throw the spongy, slightly bitter part out, but consider keeping.
This would good in the orange digestif recipe mentioned already.
The orange pith is high in Vit C (as is the juicy pulp) and anti-inflammatory flavonoids. For those reasons alone, it’s worth considering mixing in foods and drinks/smoothies.
Plus leaving no traces of fruit is good for not attracting critters. 😉
Orange Juice and Pulp. Then cut the orange in half (perpendicular to the top or the stem or from left to right).
I know it’s tempting to cut the orange any which way since it’s perfectly round, but cutting the right way lets you cut through each orange segment to maximize juice.
Otherwise you could get stuck on a pillowy-feeling orange segment.
Now you’re ready to squeeze each orange half or use a citrus squeezer tool, and squeeze away the juice into a tall glass.
Let go of all your stress squeezing oranges. Activating calming oranges around you is a relaxing sensory exercise.
Keep repeating until you have the amount of juice you want. Add back pulp as desired if you like high pulp juice.
You can also add some water to dilute some or stretch the juice out for more.
And enjoy!
No-Waste Eco-Friendly Ideas: Save the orange pulp if you prefer high-pulp OJ and add small orange pieces to your drink.
Save the seed to grow a plant. Save the pulp and zest for cooking and baking recipes. Save the pith that has the most nutrients for digestifs and foods. Save the orange sticker as a reminder for getting the Produce LookUp (PLU) item again. 😉
If you like fresh juices, you may want to give Fresh Peach Juice and Mango Juice other sunny yellow inspiring fruity juices a GO.
Let’s see… does this describe you? You wake up and you want to eat something, but you crave something different than what you had for breakfast yesterday. (That’s a sign you could be a natural Vata). Why not try quinoa recipes for a morning cereal bowl that healthy eaters are raving about?
Btw, it’s OK to feel like you’re in a food rut, seeking food variety and abandoning old ways. That’s actually a healthy natural selection way for your body to get different nutrients and as nutrition information evolves.
Cereal used to be the most popular way to start your day, with a nutrition label full of vitamins and minerals. But then the healthy truth came out and went south when you learned that the source was fortified, (nutrients were added), or enriched (nutrients removed and added back). You see preservatives like BHT on the list of ingredients when they could (and you can) do without.
Our childhood favorites that end in “O” (maybe for “oh-no!) have been called out for having Roundup weedkiller ingredients. Even if it’s small traces, you don’t want your food near pesticides that aren’t natural foods you pick off the land, ya know what I mean? So what’s a girl to do? Like most, we grow up and tweak our diets to match a healthier lifestyle?
Other-once childhood favorites like a tart popped from the toaster are no longer appealing to a healthy adult. The nutrition label can make your eyes pop out of your head with high sugar, low fiber, etc… (you might as well go for a bakery creme-filled donut or chocolate croissant).
For our daily breakfasts, we love our fast favorite cereals and breakfast sweets, but we can love our health more.
Well… when you put it that way…
That’s not a pick-me-up way (and not my usual Enneagram 7 enthusiasm). It actually sounds a bit like wah-wah-wah, but wait… there’s a new wah in Keen-wah (quinoa)… a much better alternative to get excited about. Now, that’s what I’m talking about! And, my favorite easy, quinoa recipes are below.
Another favorite is old-fashioned or slow-cooked oatmeal (whole grain rolled oats) that’s a particularly great morning warm meal for natural Vatas who love to multitask while getting food in the morning body. It’s a good morning bowl because it doesn’t get soggy (it’s already mushy!). And it’s fast to make so it’s no bother if your brain hasn’t caught up with your stomach needs before you’ve had any caffeine. You just need a little hot water.
For slow-rising Kapha energy, warm oatmeal could also be the simple meal that works. While healthy Pittas love to eat and go! and love foods that cool their bodies down. A meal with milk or a dairy alternative is perfect like cereal or a morning healthy goodness smoothie.
Because I mentioned how finding healthy store-bought cereals that you like can be tricky, making your own homemade granola cereal (crunchy) or oatmeal (soft and warm) from whole-grained rolled oats is an easy alternative. It’s tasty and takes very little time.
And you can pre-make healthy granola cereal as an extra time-saver. The only sweet ingredient is a small amount of high quality or local honey (to act as the glue) and optionally add in your favorite dried fruit and nuts, such as almonds and raisins as the healthier choices.
If you want a crunchier granola cereal, then use less honey, and bake in higher oven temperatures for a shorter amount of time, making sure to watch your batch so they don’t burn.
Quick funny story… or at least it was entertaining to me. Long before I worked in hotel catering, I worked in the kitchen of an upscale Italian restaurant where I did food prep. One salad task I had was to prepare and bake pine nuts. I remember they were extremely temperature and time-baking-sensitive. If you didn’t stand there and watch the oven, the pine nuts would go from unbaked to burnt in the blink-of-an-eye. That happened more than once, but I got smart and learned to stay mindful on my task.
[OK…anyway, where was I? 😊]…
Granola is a little more forgiving, but every oven is a little different and depending on where in your oven you set your sheet pan. I take my Silpat off so that I can get crunchier granola (but that’s just preference). In baking, slight altitude and temperature changes outside, affect indoor baking conditions.
Another alternative and my favorite and maybe yours too (or could be yours), is the breakfast quinoa bowl. I promised some quinoa recipes (they’re further below).
When I was growing up, we didn’t know quinoa existed. Before then as far as I can remember, cous cous was the exotic and chic healthy norm alternative to pasta or rice before superfood quinoa came along.
Quinoa is actually mistaken as a grain, and even set in the grain aisle in the grocery store. It’s acually the fruit part of a dried herb (but it looks and cooks like a grain so it’s treated like one).
You know that saying, if it looks and acts like a duck, then it’s a duck.
Anyway, now we’re all fully quinoa aware.
We add healthy grains to our lunch and dinner salads like dry dressing. For breakfast ideas, have you tried or thought about adding breakfast quinoa recipes as the new cereal or oatmeal?
Here are some common signs you have a high acidic stomach (or higher than your usual), and where you can restore to a normal PH alkaline with your diet:
-Stomach discomfort especially where your GI tract meets the upper stomach intestinal wall.
-If you drink coffee and after you’ve eaten something light, food adds discomfort to your stomach. Btw, coffee on an empty stomach can “tear up the stomach.”
-If you burp more often, and especially if that’s not common for your body.
-You know you’ve been freely eating more of whatever you want, whenever you want, and maybe a usual food offender to your stomach. Our stomachs are naturally acidic and most of the foods we eat that we enjoy are acidic so maintaining a balance between joy and health will make the difference.
-And, if you have the taste of acid washing back up your throat (referred to as acid reflux), then that’s a sure sign. Many people pop antacids like candy after meals. But that’s masking an opportunity for a better and healthy solution of changing your eating lifestyle and habits.
Healthiest cookie vibes are almost unheard of, as they often have too much high fructose corn syrup, other sugar, fat content, artificial flavoring… and did I mention sugar? 😊
This spiced cookie is one powerful bite, loaded with anti-inflammatory spices. Recipe below. ⬇️
But, I share a piece of good sweet news… today, you could look for the healthiest cookie that tastes good (and not like the box it came in), and then feel better for your reduced sugar choice.
Included below is a helpful sugar content list next time you’re out cookie grocery shopping.
If you were born with a sweet tooth (ahem…Vatas!), eliminating sugar from your diet, may be one of the worst food elimination news you could hear.
But wait!… before you give up on all sugar, know that your natural makeup and desires are there for a reason, so you don’t have to give up all your sweets if your body and health allow.
Instead, you could look for better, daily choices so you don’t have to give up entirely one day.
Cookies are one sweet type and if that’s not your go-to sweet, what are some of the other daily sweet delights? Ice cream, cakes, pies, candy, and donuts.
Sugar is sugar. But some sweets are better for you and they originate in nature and from plants.
If a piece of dark chocolate or a juicy piece of fruit will give you the same effect, learn to let your healthy taste bud rule over your eyes that plays tricks.
Because the truth is if you or I tell ourselves, no, we can’t have that sweet piece of joy, then we just want it more as we have an internal debate.
And once we get a taste of the tasty stuff, our brain’s pleasure center can easily tempt us to go overboard in a weak moment, even if we consider ourselves self-disciplined in every other way.
That’s why lose weight diets (a.k.a. yo-yo or fad diets) don’t work long-term or lifelong because we feel we are missing out on what our mind and body know is out there. Short-term diets are not natural to our bodies. We want real tasty foods that we crave.
But, if you want to fit into that special dress or get your bathing suit body ready for the summer season, you’re better off doing it naturally so that you can stay the same size year-round.
Thankfully our abundant society has wised up with better accessible plant-based and healthier ingredient options (from farm to store), than when we were kids.
Decades ago, I wrote a lifelong diet guide with recipes that included enjoying more or less one day “off” a week.
A few years before then I had gone on a diet of eating low-fat cookies that came from a dark green healthy-color box (that was anything but healthy or plant-based).
I don’t see those cookies on the grocery shelves anymore, but they were a terrible food substitute that led to weight gain and adding unhealthy processed ingredients to my body. I learned the hard way, but that saved me a lifetime of going down the wrong eating path, and from then on, I wised up.
And I try to save others from making the same mistakes I made.
I still very rarely eat red meat, dairy, or more than one or two bites of a sugary sweet, not because I don’t like those foods or can’t eat them (au contraire!), but because I choose to, now knowing what I know. And like Oprah says, “when you know better, you do better.”
And you can do the same with knowledge and a little discipline, which then becomes second nature where you don’t even want those foods anymore because you know they don’t make you a healthier being and that is more satisfying to you.
There’s no guilt, either way… it’s just a choice.
Plus, as you get older, the bad foods and sugar your body could tolerate in your 20s aren’t the processed same in your body so you’re better off wanting to change instead of having to or being forced to.
So that’s where cookie consciousness came into the picture for me.
My sweet weakness is cookies (and decadent cakes and cupcakes). It’s wired in my DNA.
But, I’ve learned to be discerning and find the best ones out there.
I enjoy the cookie if it tastes great and has low sugar content, or if I make my own in a controlled sugar baking environment.
And mostly bake my own cookies or biscuits like these biscotti that uses natural sugars (fructose) to sweeten. The nutrients also offset some of the sweet downfalls without compromising adult taste! 😋
Healthy Biscotti (No Butter or Sugar) - Black and White Chocolate Biscotti
Author Brandy @ Healthy Happy Life Secrets
Ingredients
2-1/2cup flour
3tspbaking powder
1-1/2tspaniseed, crushed
3/4tspsalt
1/4tspcinnamon
1/4tspnutmeg
1/2cupcoconut oil
1-1/4tspalmond extract
2eggs
1cupsblanched almonds
2tspmilk
finely choped dates, orange zest, dried fruits as sweet
Instructions
Make your dough with the ingredients. It should be cohesive and sticky enough to become a dough. You may need to add more oil or can substitute with yogurt or apple sauce.
Roll our two rectangular loafs flattened at the top in 350°F oven for 25 minutes.
Let cool completely. Then use a serated knife to make even-cut biscotti pieces.
Then flip over and bake for 10 more minutes for twice baked.
Let cool and dip in melted chocolate.
Refrigerate and then dip in white chocolate for duo-chocolate.
Keeping it real to yourself is what it’s all about…
And also celebrating your efforts, leaves you happy, your mental health improves, and your body benefits, so you want to balance health and happiness (btw, my blog name is healthy and happy 😊). I mostly do this through modern Ayurveda that my blog is about.
I also like to balance rules because they keep life simple.
So looking at nutrition facts is one practice that I like to do (and seriously I do find fun in a mature, adult sorta way).
And I started out my career out as a catering manager at a DoubleTree Hotel where they’re famous for their c.c. cookies you can make healthy 🍪 but yeah the original ingredients in the official recipe is not listed on the fresh brown paper cookie bags.
I know because I sat next to them and used them as a pound of butter paper weights for my BEO contracts I had on my desk, taking a bite here and there to curb my breakfast appetite.
Gosh, those were the early days!
And, on that note…
Quick trivia question:
Which of these cookies was famously credited as the first?… is it the Fig Newton, Animal Cracker, or Chocolate Chip Cookie? (Keep reading, as the answer is below ⬇️).
Choosing the Healthiest Cookie
This is a healthy chocolate chip cookie without added butter, white sugar, and flour.
In choosing cookies, the first step is acknowledging that all cookies are not created equal. You know this without having to think about it twice.
But when you’re in the grocery aisle, do you make mostly sensible decisions… or sensory-driven decisions?
If you’re not sure or your answer is it can vary, then take a photo of your grocery cart at the check-out line and evaluate when you get home.
Do some grocery introspection.
Take a look at the Nutrition Facts on the back of the food packaging as though you’re looking for the healthiest cookie out there that you want.
When you look closer and compare, you may find an oatmeal cookie may not be lower in sugar count than a chocolate chip cookie. So you are now informed and can make a better decision next time.
In those pleasantly surprising fact discoveries, if nothing else you get what you want and are happier for your choice! And sometimes you’re shocked at what your old favorites tell you.
You can also compare cookies in the same brand like a Girl Scout Cookie.
One GSC can be lower in sugar and another one can be off the charts. They may be made from the same factory, but they have a different makeup.
You can continue reading below how they rank in sugar content as I’ve included in the list. Today, gratefully we have so many healthier choices and from the same brands.
If the food item looks similar to another, the ingredients could be completely different, change over time or the next time, so it’s best to keep doing your due diligence.
This can become a healthy habit and you may end up doing a food pantry audit that’s not a bad thing.
It actually helped me when I discovered it was bothering my skin later in eczema where sweets or over-sweets could exacerbate flare ups. And any inflammation is not a good sign.
If you love a crunchy-style cookie, the list below is meant to open your horizons in search of the tastiest and healthiest cookie (best value). And one day, you may want to switch to even healthier options like making your own savory, plant-based, healthy good recipes and low-sugar summer desserts.
The average cookie listed here has 2 grams or less of added sugar. That’s pretty darn good in cookie terms!
Keep in mind, if a sweet food item or cookie has no sugar or low sugar, it could contain sugar substitute ingredients.
Sugar for sweetness I believe is the safest bet out there (next to pure juices and zests that come from whole fruits, or unprocessed honey or agave).
Be sure to read the actual list of ingredients and pay attention to artificial ones. A general rule of thumb: the fewer ingredients the better (closer to natural vs. processed or store packaged with additives for better taste or preservatives).
In Search of the Healthiest Packaged Cookie (That Tastes Good!)
If you want to be healthier driven, here is a better grocery list with less than 2 grams per cookie (but you should always do your research as cookies change):
Annie’s Chocolate or Neopolitan organic cookies –7 grams of fat for 31 cookies. (Compare that to other store-bought cookie or a deceptively high sugar-filled fig newton)
-Stella D’oro Stella cookies – 8 grams per 3 cookies (I wish they’d bring back the one in the assortment with the fruit in the middle)
-Stacy’s Cinnamon pita chips – 5 grams of fat for 7 chips
-Honey Teddy Grahams- 8 grams per 47 pieces – (wins the sugar healthiest cookie award from this list)
-Dansk Danish cookies (royal blue round tin) – 8 grams per 4 cookies
-Loacker Quadratini wafer cookies – 9 grams for 8 cookies
-Mulino Bianca Batticuori – 1.8 gram per cookie (when in Italy, you may want to stock up on this one)
-Girl Scouts Savannah Smiles – 11 grams per 5 cookies
-GS Trefoils – 7 grams per 5 cookies (the original is the GSC’s healthiest cookie by sugar count… go figure!)
-GS Thin Mints – 10 grams per 4 cookies (my fave stored in the freezer!)
-Nabisco Animal Crackers – 7 grams per 14 crackers
Compared to Not the Healthiest Cookie (above 3 grams of sugar):
-Vienna Fingers: 10 grams per 2 cookies
-Oreo Cookie: 14 grams per 3 cookies
-Chips Ahoy: 11 grams per 3 cookies
-Tate’s Cookies 11-13 grams per 2 cookies
-Carr’s English Tea Cookies (Ginger Lemon Cremes) – 11 grams per 2 cookies
-Girl Scout Do Si Do (peanut butter) – 11 grams per 3 cookies
-GS Samoas – 11 grams per 2 cookies (..was a personal fave until I learned the truth!)
-GS Tagalongs (chocolate/peanut butter)– 8 grams per 2 cookies
-Pepperidge Farm Verona Thumbprint/Brussels/Milano – 11 grams per 3 cookies
-Pepperidge Farm Mint Milano – 9 grams per 2 cookies – (…glad I got this one out of my system as a kid!)
-Pepperidge Farm Milano Dark Chocolate – 7 grams per 2 cookies (…huh, dark chocolate is less? – ok..noted.)
-Keebler Sandies shortbread – 7 grams per 2 cookies
-Keebler Simple Made butter cookie – 6 grams per 2 cookies
-Biscoff shortbread cookie 12 grams per 4 cookies (…good to know as you’re often handed these on some European international flights that don’t include nutrition facts)
-Honey Maid graham – 8 grams for 4 squares (2 whole rectangular pieces)
-Stella D’Oro Swiss Fudge – 11 grams per 3 cookies
Changing Your Sweet Habits
…If your fave is on this higher added sugar list (as my childhood ones are), maybe there’s a lower-refined sugar one in the list above it you can learn to love… maybe?
Just remember, sometimes all you need is a ‘lil something sweet. If you reach for a few raisins or a small handful of low-sugar cereal, that could do the trick to satisfy your want (and add some fiber at the same time ;-). … or maybe all you need is a juicy apple to satisfy your sweet tooth?
Have you ever tried an apple with all-natural peanut or almond butter? I think it’s delicious. If you choose a Granny Smith apple then you get a sweet and sour symphony of tastes, that’s better than a green apple Jolly Rancher… and can be very pleasing to a Vata.
What I’m suggesting here is a lifelong and year-round approach for your health success, and not a list of don’t do’s.
When you start looking at Nutrition Facts sugar content, then you get sugar conscious. Not eating high sugar foods helps you stay healthy and fit, lose weight, and reduce body inflammations (that are no fun).
When you do your household shopping for products at Target or wherever you go, on your receipt printout, most individual items are under say $10, but all those little costs add up… it’s the same with your daily sugar. It adds up daily and your body keeps score. Keep that in the back of your health-conscious mind.
Here are a few additional sugar rules I’ve created for myself and maybe you want to adopt in your life…
1.Be picky about your sugar choices. Think of your dessert as a treat for the day or week. When I was younger, I could’ve had a sugar IV drip in my vein and be happy eating spoonfuls of white sugar.
Weaning yourself gradually to better sweets is a better strategy than eliminating, especially if you have a sweet tooth (remember, the fad diet example I gave above).
2. If you don’t see the Nutrition Facts, ingredients, and the full-sugar content on the food packaging, skip the choice. If you order groceries online and the photos don’t show the written facts, keep going.
3. Eat candy sparingly, and maybe this is a good one to eliminate, as there’s no healthy nutritional value in candy. I think you can get a smile on your face another way. I know that one can be a downer as we all love candy (for the memories if nothing else).
When we were kids, our caretakers/role models could’ve helped us out if they informed us that candy is for kids. I’m serious. When you were a toddler, you were planning to get new adult teeth so cavities didn’t matter. That was the time to enjoy candy galore, not as an adult.
And If you love strawberry Twizzlers like I did and still do, you can stretch out your candy treat choice in moderation. It brings out the inner child happy in me. 👧🏻
You can be smart with your choices and find treats that have a longer shelf-life (e.g. keep in the freezer) so you’re not tempted to just consume more before your treat loses its freshness.
You could also buy a smaller quantity if the item is perishable. Remember telling yourself no, can backfire.
4. And finally, stay away from the gas station junk food aisle. I know that’s a no-brainer for healthy conscious thinking. You aren’t likely to find the healthiest cookie anywhere near those places, but reach for the healthy bar or nuts, or even a Hershey’s dark chocolate bar to fill you up if you get low blood sugar or feel you’re getting hangry with no other food source in sight.
Ok, so now you may know a little about sweet changes you could evaluate/make, and healthier cookies (and not-so-healthy cookies) out there.
Oh, and I didn’t forget…. here’s the Trivia Question Answer (from above):
Depends who you ask, but the Fig Newton made a debut in 1892 from Nabisco (The National Biscuit Company). Then Nabisco came up with the Animal Cracker in 1902. Chocolate chip cookies became famous in the 1930’s, credited to the (Nestle) Toll House Restaurant. You probably know which of these is lowest in sugar content… I’d choose the Animal Crackers.
And if you want a beautifully spiced cookie that’s usually a resurging trend around Christmas but you can enjoy year-round is a spiced cookie.
Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area — a top foodie hub. During that time, I picked up many great summer Mediterranean recipes and experimented with my own.
Some of my fondest memories were the large corporate and bridal events where I could get creative with the festive food and elaborate decorations.
From those experiences, I learned to create balanced menus for preferred and customized tastes around the specific seasons and events.
I’ve taste-tested delicious foods, recipes, and dishes from the chefs I worked with who came from around the world.
Some of my favorite summer Mediterranean recipes(great for warm seasons!) that I’ve added my take and twists to, are below:
Let’s see… does this describe you? You wake up and you want to eat something, but you crave something different than what you had for breakfast yesterday. (That’s a sign you could be a natural Vata). Why not try quinoa recipes for a morning cereal bowl that healthy eaters are raving about?
Off and on with my 20-year hospitality career, I worked behind-the-scenes in catering planning and event execution for Spanish, Italian, and Lebanese restaurants and fine hotels in the Washington, DC area — a top foodie hub.