Indian As Apple Pie

The wait is finally over! My second book, Vegan Indian Cooking: 140 Simple and Healthy Vegan Recipes, can now be purchased through Amazon, and already on pre orders alone, it has been ranked in the top 10 Indian cookbooks. Pretty crazy, when the official release date is still not until early July. I want all of you to know how much I appreciate all of the support and the early sales. All of you - whether you buy one book or a dozen - mean so much to me and the success of my book, business, and mission. To best...

There. I said it. I'm a fraud. I always talk about eating healthy - making your own food at home - enjoying the process and not just the get - teaching your kids how to eat healthier and all I feel like is a fake. The last week as I geared up to land in Mumbai (Wed. evening) for a full-fledged food tour of Kerala, I was so packed with teaching classes and getting deadlines met that all I did was stress. And that stress made me want to eat. Not fresh salads and green smoothies like I normally espouse...

I grew up eating mostly Indian food.  Even our spaghetti usually had a hint of cumin. This means my weeks were 99 percent filled with vegetarian meals of lentils, curried vegetables, and homemade rotis (not naan as everyone now mistakenly thinks). Meat made for that one percent. We did eat dairy in the form of paneer and drank milk. In grad school back in the mid 1990's I started to get sick. My immune system was shot, my stomach would cramp up randomly, and I just felt listless. A naturopath suggested I eliminate dairy, meat, and seafood for 6 months....

Chana Masla is the most requested meal in our house. But, before we discuss that, let's first talk process. Simply put, the method in which you do something - anything. For me, it's the hours, sometimes days it takes to perfect a recipe. Or, the months it takes to write a book - nights of giving up socializing with the other school moms, or lost play dates for my kids. Or, the struggle to lose my last 10 pounds, which seem to be stuck to my middle and holding on with dear life. I've realized that to attain any goal you have...

Kill your inner perfectionist: Back in elementary school at Candlebrook in King of Prussia, PA, there was a boy David who everyone knew was really, really smart. He dressed smart (well, cleaner and better put together than the rest of us), walked smart, acted smart, and was expected to perform when it came to tests. He's the one we always looked towards to be the top scorer. Until one fateful summer day. Our teacher handed out an unexpected math quiz. A one-page list of multiplication problems. We were instructed to go through the sheet as fast a possible and answer...

Harness your time. That's my new life motto. Every day, whether I am running on the track, driving to the grocery store, or putting the kids to bed I'm mentally chanting what is fast becoming my personal mantra. Harness my time. Don't let it slip needlessly through my fingers. It's easy NOT to harness. Especially with kids I have no idea where my time goes. And I find myself angry, resentful, and frustrated that my to-do list awaits me while Aria throws one more temper tantrum about not wanting to brush her teeth in the morning. Even this blog post...

Writing a cookbook is a huge challenge. But, finding creative ways to get rid of all the food when you're testing is often a bigger obstacle. Last year, writing a book on slow cooker Indian food had me swimming in dals, rajmah, and chicken curry. What to do? After a few dishes went down the garbage disposal I turned to my community on Facebook and Twitter. Anyone that was interested could turn up on my doorstep with containers that I would fill with steaming and fragrant dishes. For free! All they had to do was give me honest and balanced...

It feels like it's been an eternity since I've actually written - created - anything.  I'm hearing from your feedback that some of you feel the same. I'm sorry for this. In understanding my absence from writing, I'm taken back to my days as a graduate student at the University of Hawaii and East West Center. I was standing in the heart of Waikiki with my 9-foot long board leaning against my side. Vikram Seth - world famous Indian poet and novelist, and author of A Suitable Boy stood next to me dripping in his slightly too-long-to-be-cool orange shorts. As we...

Megan Pringle of WMAR-TV Baltimore interviews me about The Indian Slow Cooker this morning. Megan even tried her hand at spicing the chicken curry with The Spice Tiffin. From the taste testing afterwards -- it looks like she got it just right!

I got to show Stacey Baca, anchor and reporter with the ABC news affiliate here in Chicago not only how easy it is to make lamb biryani in the slow cooker, but also how incredibly easy I've made it to throw your spices in with my Spice Tiffin. While I prepped and mixed, I let her measure and spice. The key to my biryani is mint leaves, cilantro, garam masala, turmeric and a few other key spices. Remember, if you don't care for lamb, it's incredibly easy to swap that out for chicken breast, turkey, paneer or even tofu. When I...