Arugalyssa

🍜I love making new recipes and especially ones using noodles. 🍜 This week I made a noodle stir fry part of #lnycookoff @melissasproduce ! I used … 🍜Egg Noodles 🥬Baby Bok Choy Daikon radish 🥕Carrot 🧄Garlic Olive Oil Soy Sauce Veg Oyster Sauce Sesame Sauce It was delish! It is always so fun to try new recipes. What is the last new recipe you made?

Sometimes we FAIL and that’s okay! To celebrate lunar new year @melissasproduce produce teamed up with own or my favorite chefs @jettila to create this fun recipe challenge! #LNYCOOKOFF The recipe last week called for beef but since I am a vegetarian I opted for tofu and I couldn’t find Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli) so I used yu choy instead. However my attempts at this recipe failed lol because tofu was not the right vehicle for the vegetable. It ended up falling a part and I had to eat them separately. I was disappointed at first but you know what, it still tasted delicious and I was exposed to a new vegetable! I will be using that marinate A LOT. Do not be afraid to experiment or mess up in the kitchen. That’s part of the joy of cooking!

Tofu noodle stir fry with cabbage, mushrooms, and Chinese broccoli #nappacabbage #noodleslover #noodledish #stirfry #veganmeals

It’s #nationalsoupmonth and #soupseason 🥣 And we are celebrating soup! And soups are the perfect way to add nutrients and maximize nutrition. This is because it they utilize food synergy. Food synergy is consuming foods at the same time to better absorb nutrients. For example, consuming vitamin c from a citrus fruit like an orange or lemon and dark green vegetables enhances the body’s absorption of iron! In addition eating fat like olive oil along with vegetables can help enhance our absorption of phytochemical. Some of these nutrients are lycopene (found in tomatoes) and lutein (found in dark green veg)! Food is so powerful and eating a variety of different foods is the best way to have optimal nutrition. Many times we eat these combinations without even thinking about it. This soup has a lot of food synergy just by nature. I sautéed the veggies in olive oil which helps absorb the nutrients of the pytochemicals. I also cooked with spinach and tomatoes which helps the body absorb iron. Don’t stress about food synergy, its probably happening in your meals without you knowing! #dEATS: photo 1 - @barillaus penne - Chickpeas - Tomatoes - Spinach - Onions - Celery - Carrots

Quick and easy plant based dinner #veggie #veggiebowl #plantbaseddiet #easymeals #nutrition

Listen. I do love to tell people I had cancer. It’s like my little secret. #thyroidawarenessmonth #thyroidthursday However I do NOT love when people comment on my neck scar and ask me about why or how I got it. The other month I was somewhere and someone pointed to my neck scar saying “oh you had your thyroid out too?” And then I was in the position to either tell the entire room or lie. I didn’t want to lie so I ended up telling the entire room my cancer story when I wasn’t ready to share. I like to share when it’s on my time and when I feel comfortable. It made me so insecure and uncomfortable to have to let people I didn’t know that well into my personal medical history. So this is your reminder to never comment on someone’s body because you don’t know how they will feel about it. I know the persons meant no harm, but it ended up really bothering me.

Celebrating pb on National peanut butter day #nationalpeanutbutterday Peanut butter is one of the best sources of plant based protein you can have. Its loaded with protein and healthy fats. With one serving, you get 25 grams of protein. Yes, that much meets about 15% of ones protein needs. It is rich in niacin, magnesium and contains 73% of the RDA for manganese. PB even has biotin so you can stop taking those silly biotin supplants too, those things reallllllyyyy don’t work. Really what is not to love about PB? #dEATS: Oats: Contain soluble fiber Chia seeds: Full of omega 3 fatty acids Raspberry For antioxidants Blueberries: For fiber Cashews: Healthy fats PB: Good protein Honey: For sweetness

Happy Lunar New Year! Lunar New Year is a holiday celebrated for 15 days and starts on January 22 this year. However the first 7 days are considered a public holiday. It is sometimes called the Spring Festival by some Chinese communities in the world. Lunar new year is also celebrated in Vietnam and Korea. People decorate their homes with red as good luck. This year is the year of rabbit. 🐇 In Cantonese, the tradition new year greeting is "Gong Hei Fat Choy" (恭喜發財). This means “wishing you prosperity. In Mandarin, people say "Xin Nian Kuai Le" (新年快乐), which simply means "Happy New Year". To celebrate Lunar New Year, people will eat delicious dishes like peking duck, tang yuan, mandu, rice balls and noodles! People will eat longevity noodles for Chinese New Year. These noodles symbolize longevity. This is one of my favorite dishes from @jettila “101 Asian Dishes” to celebrate. It’s a yummy lo mein I am always trying new recipes from other cultures. It’s important to be aware of what holidays are important to different cultures and communities. It makes you a more well rounded and considered person and practicer!

For the rest of my life I will be someone who had cancer. And this did not occur to me until I had to start marking it on medical forms. #thyroidcancer #thyroidawarenessmonth #thyroidthursday You see this wouldn’t be an issue if I was a lot older because we assume that you only get cancer when you’re old or well into your life. However was diagnosed when I was 21 and I have a whole lot of life to live. So from now on when I have to fill out forms, I have to fill out the section that says “cancer” and I get so uncomfortable because for the rest of my life I have to check off that box even when having cancer might be a thing of my way past. This is not to say I want to hide my last but this is not a thing I ever considered before. Each year I find new things to reflect on and how I choose to move forward and share my experience. I am grateful for what this experience had taught me and I don’t shy away from continuing to evolve

What if I told you I hated bell pepper? Well, I do and these in fact are bell peppers on my dish. #tacotuesday I have slowly been trying to incorporate them into my diet because they are pretty cheap to buy and are LOADED with vitamin C and I love to help out my immune system. I think they do happen to taste pretty good in tacos. I had absolutely no vegetables in my fridge except for bell pepper so I decided to bite the bullet and utilize them so they wouldn’t go to waste. So I sautéed onion 🧅, bell pepper, @meetunmeat.us crumbles and zucchini to make delish tacos. 🌮 I used @missionfoodsus corn tortillas and @meetunmeat.us crumbles I don’t think I’ll be eating bell pepper as an apple soon, but I encourage you to try foods you don’t really like a few times to see if you’ll end up liking them!