Happy 2026 and we hope your 2026 has been off to a great start!
The new year starts off with this healthy nutritious vegetarian/meatless bowl meal nicely balanced with a variety of cooked vegetables, roasted chickpeas/garbanzo beans, and black rice.
A salad fit and mighty as a main dish protein salad bowl featuring shredded chicken, quinoa, red cabbage, Brussel sprouts, snow peas.
Quinoa is nutritious whole grain that can be easily added to vegetable salads and make salads a meal. Make Smoked Salmon Turmeric Quinoa Bowl, Broccoli Cauliflower Celery Quinoa Bowl, Biryani-Inspired Quinoa Pilaf, Asparagus Quinoa Bowl.
Whole-grain oats is a great way to get soluble fiber in your diet. Research suggests that increasing your intake of soluble fiber each day may result in a drop in "bad" LDL cholesterol.
Rolled oats are usually incorporated as breakfast foods e.g. Homemade Granola or Muesli, High-Fiber Breakfast Oats with Milk. However, not restricted to morning consumption, you can also add rolled oats when making multi-grain rice for lunch or fish + oats egg frittata that tops a lunch protein bowl.
During the course of making these homemade healthy bakes such as Eggless Banana Cacao Oatmeal Cups, Banana Bran Muffins, Eggless Pineapple Cacao Muffins, Peanut Butter Powder Low-Fat Low-Cal Muffins, a personal baking-style has also evolved - call it easy, fool-proof style. Today's bakes returns to this basic, simple ingredients Rolled Oats Muffins - truly easy and fool-proof.
Traditionally, florentines are typically made from nuts (most of the times, hazelnuts and almonds) mixed with sugar melted together with butter and honey, then baked in an oven (Best Selling Smart Oven). However, modern day florentines have evolved to be healthier biscuits (or cookies) or more accurately, thin crackers formed from a mixture of nuts, seeds, egg whites, honey.
Our family version of florentines consists of a mix of sliced almonds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts, chia seeds, ground flax seeds, sesame seeds, and in replacement of honey, date syrup (I used Organic Just Date Syrup, 1-Ingredient: 100% Organic Medjool Dates)
A few days away from daylight savings when we turn our clock back an hour. The days are getting shorter and temperatures are down to sweater weather.
A warm wholesome bowl of multigrain congee (this Rice Cooker /Multicooker will be useful) is a welcoming meal as we embrace autumn and winter. Call this Surf and Turf as shrimps (prawns) and ground meat (pork, chicken) are added to the otherwise plain bowl of congee made from brown rice, millet, quinoa.
What's for breakfast or after-meal dessert (have you tried this One-Ingredient Ice-Cream yet)?
We enjoy breakfast homemade rolled oats muesli (low-sugar muesli/granola option available) with milk (dairy or dairy-free) topped with fresh berries. Feast like a king for breakfast, there is always add-on peanut butter bread paired with coffee.
In the hot summer months (right now!), high fiber breakfast oats gets amped up with bountiful fresh berries and stone fruits. When it gets to cooler months, we comfort ourselves with warm breakfast such as Black Sesame Oatmeal.
Whenever whole grains such as quinoa or other multigrains are planned in our family meals, extras of chicken and seafood such as shrimps, canned fish are added while cooking these grains - not only to impart flavors; but more importantly to boost protein in the cooked grains. This is in addition to other main protein dishes that are being prepared separately. For example, One Pot Shrimp Quinoa and One Pot Shrimp Multigrains can be served with chicken (main protein) and veggies as a protein-worthy grain bowl.
Sometimes when there is leftover grilled/roasted salmon, it can be as easy and simple as gently flaking leftover salmon into the cooked rice (or grains), fluff and mix salmon into the rice. When there is no leftovers, the often forgotten pantry-friendly canned fish becomes our friend. Canned sardines or canned mackerel if you have; but today, this canned version of braised eel with fermented black beans fits the bill of One-Pot Canned Eel Quinoa.
Which rice cookers or multi-cookers are you currently using? I am using this rice cooker which is one of the most common multicooker (cooks rice, steams/stews/braises dishes, cooks soups etc.) in many Taiwan households. It operates with simple ON-OFF and COOK-WARM buttons, its durability and reliability has been proven as my family has been using it for years (and hopefully, many more years).
What did you have for breakfast this morning?
Our family, we enjoy homemade rolled oats muesli with milk (dairy or dairy-free) topped with fresh berries. Feast like a king during breakfast, so there is always add-on peanut butter bread paired with coffee.
In the hot summer months (right now), high fiber breakfast oats get amped up with bountiful fresh berries and stone fruits. When it gets to cooler months, we comfort ourselves with a warm breakfast such as Black Sesame Oatmeal.
How about lunch and dinner, my friends? We go big with salad bowl meals or lighter with sandwich/wraps.
Swap out multi-grains in this One-Pot Shrimp Rice for quinoa; and make Duck & Shrimp Quinoa, Veggie Bowl similar to this Duck Protein Bowl, just better.
A typical breakfast oats may occasionally look like this - rolled oats with nuts, seeds, fresh berries;
and other times, like this - rolled oats with chia seeds, berries, banana, dragon fruit.
Raise your hand (or both hands) if you consume those banana fibers inside of the banana skin, and if you scrape the dragon fruit from the inside of the skin to get fiber to the max. Say yes to zero waste kitchen, and say no to rising food prices. Some frugal fiber does not hurt our health and wallets.
A nutritious protein bowl easily prepared and put together with store-bought smoked salmon (found this good quality Cambridge House smoked honey-roasted salmon from Costco), sliced cucumber, turmeric quinoa, and leftover chimichurri tofu.
Recently, our family made use of a Prime Day offer and went on a Amazon Prime 30-day free trial, a great opportunity to test out some of the perks especially free next-day delivery without a minimum purchase. A 30-day trial is a good gauge to find out if Prime is FOR us, will it be relevant for our family needs or just an excessive "feature" - good-to-have but nothing lost if missed. The free delivery service (no minimum purchase vs non-Prime account holders who have to go by a $25 minimum purchase for free shipping) did come in handy when we purchased groceries such as organic rolled oats and organic chia seeds. Prime Day might be over but the Amazon Prime 30-day free trial is still available. Try it for 30 days and if it's not for you, cancel it before it expires.
Likewise, once in a blue moon (mood), I'll go experimental with cookies-baking, just like a trial.
I don't usually bake in restrictive manner but in this case, there is no butter, no egg, no added sugar, so it's vegan. Some skeptics may equate no butter, no egg, no added sugar with no taste but these cookies are great-tasting with natural aroma and flavor from coconut and sesame seeds.
This quick-cook blend of seven grains (farro, barley, wheat berries, buckwheat, red rice, black rice, oats) cooks in about 10 minutes. Shrimps, typically, take approximately the same time to cook, why not put shrimps (protein) and multigrain rice (carbs) together as one-pot/rice-cooker Shrimps Rice/Multi-grains? Isn't it more wonderful when the rice is infused with savory shrimp flavors while the shrimps cooks in (and with) the rice.
Other one-pot possibilities include One-Pot Tomato Rice, One-Pot Turmeric-Spiced Rice, Cabbage Rice.
This fiber-rich multigrain blend of organic farro, barley, wheat berries, buckwheat, red rice, black rice, oats cooks quick and easy. In about ten minutes, the nutty aroma of fabulous grains fills the kitchen, and lingers to flavorsome grain goodness at the meal table.
Substitute multigrain blend with quinoa: make Chicken Broccoli Quinoa Bowl, Chicken Asparagus Quinoa Bowl.
Today, this multigrain blend pairs with freshly steamed broccoli, cauliflower and entree of the day (leftover chicken breast steamed/quick-braised with shiitake mushrooms; vegetarians can choose Tofu Mushrooms Stew).
This 3C Rice Porridge/Congee cannot be bought with Cash or Credit Card. It is homecooked and worth many carats...or rather, carrots.
A fuss-free 3C - Carrots, Celery, Cod Fish Porridge/Congee recipe that you can easily make at home, this porridge/congee stands alone as one-dish meal consisting of vegetables (carrots, celery), proteins (fish) and carbs (rice/ grains).
The carrots add subtle sweetness and celery, a tender crunch to the savory cod fish porridge/congee.
Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are good sources of potassium and a form of simple sugars that can be easily consumed after exercise to quickly replenish energy in the body.
Personally, dates as they are, are too sweet (for me) to snack on. But I have found a way to use them in these homemade energy bites as healthy workout snacks e.g. Hazelnut Oats Energy Balls, Pumpkin Seeds Stuffed Dates.
Practice makes perfect. Such a comment made after my first attempt making these energy bars. However, since I made these No-Bake Protein Bars (far from perfect, texture-wise), I have not tried making them again, until today.
Today is the day. The day for some homemade energy bites, especially after T passed me some of her homemade peanut butter and chocolate chips energy snacks after our workout session. Thank you, T!
Now, I am "motivated" to make my own homemade energy bites ONE MORE TIME! Not just ONE MORE TIME, but THREE! Yes, practice makes perfect, hopefully.
The first "flavor" will be these Nutella-Inspired Energy Balls.
High-fiber-and-protein, low-fat low-cal snacks such as these No-Bake Protein Bars and Buckwheat Quinoa Flour Bran Banana Muffins are great on-the-go workout snacks.
Today's convenient and portable bite-size snack (or sweet) is Seeds-Stuffed Dates. Though walnut-stuffed dates are widely-seen as the similar, seeds are definitely a feasible (stuffing) alternative.
Besides bananas, Medjool and Deglet Noor dates are also good sources of potassium and a form of simple sugars that can be easily consumed after exercise to quickly replenish energy in the body.
There is not many breakfast variations in my family. Believe it or not, it's almost the same breakfast everyday but it's not boring. We enjoy it and look forward to our breakfast bowl early morning before the day begins.
Our breakfast bowl is typically built up from homemade muesli mixed up with chia seeds, ground flax seeds, or superfood powder blend depending on what is available, then topped with fresh (sometimes frozen) fruits depending on what is in season.
In summer, our Summer Berries Breakfast Oats is loaded with immune-boosting antioxidants-loaded fresh berries e.g. blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, and stone-fruits e.g. peaches and nectarines; making this a must-try breakfast in any healthy home.
Though breakfast is kept a constant, our lunch veggie or grain bowls are varied with many options (see Veggie Bowls and Grain Bowls).
Making your own marinara sauce from scratch is not difficult. But when you are pressed for time, even 15 minutes is a lot of time. Store-bought marinara sauce makes meal preparation easier and reduces cooking time as there is no need to prep. the onions, garlic, tomatoes; and it is not necessary to wait for the ingredients to cook down over the stove.
Pasta marinara sauce is not only good for pasta, it is also quite handy as "seasoning" sauce. For example, simply think shrimps and vegetables stir-fry with tomato-based "seasoning sauce" . Oh, isn't that sweet and sour shrimps? Quite close.
Sweet and soup or tomato-sauce shrimps is the protein feature of the grain bowl today. With store-bought marinara sauce, these delicious tomato-sauce shrimps can be prepared in less than 20 minutes.
