The Macro Bowl

With a busy schedule, one quick thing that I often like to make is the one-bowl meal! It's a great idea for weekdays. I love this recipe from Zach and Ryan's The Juice Truck cookbook (see my book review and more of their recipes here). It's also one of The Juice Truck's top sellers. It's super healthy, satisfying, colourful, tasty, and most importantly, it's really easy to make! The dressing reminds me of Chinese cold sesame noodles. It's so good that you'll want to drink it up or put it on everything! In the recipe, there was no cooking time listed for baking the yam, tofu, and cashews; I would recommend baking the cashews for 15 minutes, tofu for 20 minutes, and yam for about 30 minutes.

Overnight Quinoa and Oat Porridge with Apple Pecan Pie Topping - hot method 蘋果派免煮燕麥粥

I love cold cereals, but on freezing cold days like we have in Quebec (when it starts to go below -5C), it's no fun to wake up shivering and then have to swallow a big bowl of cold cereal first thing in the morning! I'd say it's time to make some adjustments in our habits to fit the winter. What do you say? As we all know, a good breakfast is an important start to the day. Especially when the weather is cold, my body often screams for hot food in the morning. Growing up in Taiwan, I was always given warm or hot food by my mom in the winter. There's something comforting about that, and further, I was told that eating cold food would only make your body work harder to stay warm.

Warm Quinoa Turmeric Cauliflower Salad with Cranberries, Hazelnuts and Goat Cheese 藜麥薑黃花椰菜、蔓越莓與榛果沙拉

 

During the past few months in Taiwan, one of the grains I really missed having was quinoa. It's not something you can find easily there, since it's not what we cultivate, nor is it in our diet. I love quinoa for its rich nutrients and nutty taste. Since it's a superfood, I can simply pair it with other vegetables and enjoy it as a light healthy meal. How convenient!

In this recipe, I chose to pair the quinoa with cauliflower. I know what you're going to say - it's not most people's favourite vegetable, and guess what? Nor is it mine! A lot of the poplular Fall quinoa salads are often made with butternut squash or kale, so I really wanted to make the salad with a not-so-popular vegetable. It's always more challenging for me to use some ingredients that I don't necessarily like so much, and transform them into something I like.