eat food, as much as you like, all plants

Tis the season for comfort food, right? If you are like me you had a mound yesterday for Thanksgiving hopefully with some incredible gravy. And like me today is a new day so you are probably ready for more MASHED POTATOES! RIGHT?!!! Well these are potatoes you CAN eat every day. Rather than worrying about when you will make it to the gym next all you need to do is worry about if you made enough for leftovers. But don't potatoes make you fat? I'm no doctor....but this guy is
The most important thing to remember when contemplating whether you should eat potatoes or not is this.

Potatoes are good for you. Fat and oil, sour cream, butter, meat chili, cheese and all the other fatty foods that get dumped on potatoes are what make you fat.

Diabetics can eat potatoes every day if they can just learn to eat them without fat. I did. I eat them every day and the last time I checked my blood sugars they were at 75. I am no longer considered diabetic.

You see most diabetics have been hoodwinked…

Kabocha squash is so good. Its sweet, starchy, savory, awesomeness. The skin is very thin and can be eaten although not in this recipe. 

We usually roast it with other veggies at our house and enjoy it with brown rice and a lot of sriracha. 

Recently we roasted large pieces and topped with pumpkin pie spice. It was a revelation! That lead me to believe that we could whip it up and serve it like mashed potatoes. Hope you all enjoy this.My apologies to any sweet potatoes who may get uneaten this holiday as a result.
HARVEST SPICE & MAPLE MASHED KABOCHA SQUASH
makes 6-8 servings 2 Kabocha squash 2 TBLS pumpkin pie spice
2 TBLS maple syrup
1/2 cup of vegetable broth Scrub squash and pierce with a fork multiple times. Cut squash in half, scoop out seeds and stringy material. Place cut side down on baking sheet.

Roast squash in 375 degree oven on parchment paper for 45 minutes to 1 hr. or until flesh is soft enough to mash with a fork and very little pressure.

Remove from oven and let cool slightl…

I grew up never touching that disgusting looking gelatinous can shaped cranberry sauce at the Thanksgiving table. Like many of my food experiences I was probably selling a whole berry-cranberry sauce at Whole Foods when I tried it for the first time. Geez...that's fun! Sweet, tart, tangy, red.

*UPDATED* 11-22-11
Over the years I have grown to really appreciate the high quality whole berry versions. I prefer the chutney style more than the jellied that is for sure. Replacing some of the water for orange juice, adding citrus zest, and lots of spice is the only way to go as far as I am concerned. When putting this version together I looked for a few key components.

1. no refined sugar
2. a complementary fruit flavor to go with the citrus and cranberry
3. a lot of spice and citrus flavor

So here you have it. Takes about 10 minutes to prep and about 15 minutes to cook.

*NOTE: I updated the original recipe to use less date sugar and cook the sugar on its own for a minute. The texture an…

Thanksgiving is the most treasured food holiday in the United States. Its generally speaking all about the meal. I know its about giving thanks for what we have in the spirit of the pilgrims, blah, blah, blah...

But really. for most Americans its about eating food. Huge, portions of rich fatty food.

But isn't turkey a lean meat? Its healthy right?

According to all recipes.com the average Thanksgiving meal contains a whopping 2,200 calories per serving.

A 3 oz. serving of dark meat turkey has 71mg of dietary cholesterol.

How much is 3 oz? Well 6 oz. is about the size of a deck of playing cards. So half of that.

Last time I ate turkey I probably ate...hmmm at least 2 "decks of cards" worth I would say. On my first plate at least! So that would be 4 (3oz. servings) @ 71mg=285mg.

as a comparison...A burger made form 85% lean ground beef is 77 mg per 3 oz. serving. Average size burger 1/3 pound? 1/2 pound before cooking? Either way its about 136mg-205mg.

So you aren't sco…

IN THE BEGINNING THERE WAS AN ARMENIAN AND A PIZZA... I have been in the food business since I can remember. My first stab at it was at Rico's pizza in San Jose, California when I was 14. As an Armenian kid I was told that I qualified for a job there just by being Armenian. I was super nervous when I approached the owner for a job. "I heard that if you are Armenian you can get a job here." 
the response? "When can you start?"
thus a life long career in the food business was born.
The last 15 years have been spent in the natural foods industry and of the last 11 they have been almost obsessively focused on selling cheese, wine, beer, chocolate...you know, the good stuff that everybody wants and nobody needs!


After many years of climbing the company ladder in the world of cheese and living a somewhat sedentary lifestyle of VERY rich food indulgence I found myself extremely obese (by medical definition), with the triple threat of lifestyle induced diseases. Diabetes, h…