Archive for cookbook author
Happy Meatless Monday! As you may or may not know, Planet Forward has pledged its support to the Meatless Monday campaign – a non-profit initiative in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Meatless Monday is part of an eco-friendly worldwide movement to reduce consumption of animal products in favour of more plant-based meals to fight global warming and improve our personal health. This week, a tasty recipe from Canada’s popular top chef, TV host and cookbook author, Ken Kostick.
Ken has a fantastic new cookbook aptly named the $10 Gourmet: Restaurant-Quality Meals that won’t break the budget. This cookbook is a wonderful selection of recipes that are easy to prepare and combined with standard household ingredients, cost under $10. We’ve got a delicious recipe to share with you from Ken that features Portobello mushrooms. Portobello mushrooms are hearty and perfect as a replacement for meat in certain recipes.
Sweet Portobello Mushrooms Sautéed with Onion in a Balsamic Reduction (Serves 2)
Cost of ingredients: $6.65
Ingredients:
- ¼ cup (60mL) tbsp olive oil
- 3 large Portobello mushrooms, cleaned cut into lengths – $4.29
- 2 medium red onions, sliced – $0.80
- 1 red bell pepper, sliced – $1.56
- ¼ cup (60mL) balsamic vinegar
- ½ tsp (2mL) dry basil
- ½ tsp (2mL) dry rosemary
- ½ tsp (2mL) chilli powder
- ½ tsp (2mL) sea salt
- ½ tsp (2mL) ground black pepper
Directions:
- Using a large sauté pan heat the oil and add all of the vegetables.
- Sauté the vegetables about 4-5 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients and allow the balsamic vinegar to reduce.
- Sauté about 3-4 minutes and serve immediately.
Low-Fat Option:
Use grape-seed oil.
Padma Lakshmi Mixes An Eco-friendly Perfume
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Padma Lakshmi wears an eco-friendly scent all her own. What do we know about her?
- Once married to Salmon Rushdie (now divorced)
- Host of Top Chef
- Foodie cookbook author
- Former model
- Pregnant (she is mum on the baby-daddy details)
- Has a large scar as a result of a car accident
- Makes her own perfume
Yes, that’s right, I said makes her own perfume. The beautiful and multitalented Padma mixes her own fragrances. Now why would a wealthy woman, who seemingly could have any fragrance she desired choose to mix her own perfume? The reason is simple; she enjoys mixing the organic essential oils she purchases online into a fragrance that suits her mood.
Padma shared this little secret when Kelly Ripa complimented her on her scent during an interview on Live with Regis and Kelly. Padma is not selling her perfume (yet although this may be an endeavor she will delve into in the future) but obliviously her creativity was enough for Kelly to take notice. She made it seem so simple…perhaps this is something we should all try.
First it is imperative that you get an eco-friendly, high quality, organic essential oil (you can order them online too). Prior to ordering you need to identify the scents you like, and then buy them. Purchase some empty bottles, either with an atomizer on it or simply something with a lid – cut glass is not recommended as they attract light and that is not good for the scent inside. Once you receive the oils pour some (not all) of the scents in the jar. Play with the scents and have fun. You can try to emulate the notes of your favorite perfumes to come up with something that is essentially and uniquely you. This is an eco-friendly economical solution, as you are not paying for packaging and marketing. This is an eco-friendly option from commercial perfumes as it would cut down packaging as you will not have the plastic and other elements of pretty packaging that come will boutique perfumes; but the cardboard boxes that your purchases will come in can be easily recycled.
By mixing your own perfume you are also limiting the additives and chemicals in the mixture. Here is a recipe for a Citrus Blooms Body Splash recipe courtesy of pioneerthinking.com:
Tags: cologne, cookbook author, eco-friendly perfume, Kelly Ripa, Live with Regis and Kelly, organic, organic essential oil, Padma Lakshmi, perfume, planet forward, Regis and Kelly, Regis Philbin, Salmon Rushdie, sustainable lifestyle, Top Chef
