Ikarian Longevity Stew from Blue Zone Solution

Recently, I read a book called Blue Zone Solution. This book is about going to many places in the world where many people live over 100. Then, they look at the similarities and try to implement the concept to some cities in the United States. What I like about it is that they know it is very difficult to leave it to individual choices especially in the United States where our life style is very different from those Blue Zones. In order to make it a successful project and outcome, they try to change the whole community so it is easier for individuals to make right and healthy choices.

Anyways, they have Okinawa (an island in Japan) as one of Blue Zone and it made me happy to see my country as one of healthy area but I think it is also completely different story when you look at Tokyo. The lifestyle has changed so much and people are busier and it is sometimes difficult to make right choices.

If you are interested in this book, here is the link for Amazon.



This book have many recipes from those Blue Zones and I tried a few of them. One of them which I tried was Longevity Stew from an island called Ikaria in Greece.

Here is the recipe from Blue Zone website. Click here for the recipe. 

This soup has many vegetables and it is easy to make. It has black-eyed peas and it is yummy and satisfying.

The book said you can freeze this so I made a big batch and froze half of it. It will be a great lunch or dinner when I don't have time to cook.

When you look at those people who live long life in those area, some of the similarity they have is they eat lots of vegetables, they move a lot, they have a close community and friends they can rely on and they have some type of religious believes.

My husband's grandmother is like 95 years old and she is very fit and strong. When I think of her, many things are similar to what the book said. She has a garden and she works on her garden everyday. She is constantly moving. She is eating a lot of vegetables from her own garden. Everyone in her village know her and she is always going to different parties and gatherings.

Eating healthy is not easy sometimes but I want to incorporate more vegetables into my cooking. I will still eat meat and fish but I will also have vegetable days few days a week or I will use some meat or fish but make a meal which include more vegetables in it than the meat and fish.

This soup is a great soup. I will be making this soup again. I used to hate beans and peas but lately I am forcing myself to eat more beans and I am starting to like it more and more. I am excited to find more beans and peas recipes in the future!

So NY is finally getting warm. Actually somedays are like summer already. I love summer so I am happy that it is warm but I have one complaint this spring.

It is the pollen! It seems like the pollen has been going crazy this year. I normally don't have it this bad but my eyes have been so itchy this year. I heard because it was a long winter and now everything is blossoming at the same time. Hopefully, it will go away quickly so I can enjoy this beautiful weather!

Nutritious Vegetable Soup

When someone has a cold or when we feel like we are not eating enough vegetable, I make this vegetable soup which my mother-in-law taught me how to make. It is easy and quick but very tasty and nutritious.

Normally, my mother-in-law add vegetable bouillon and so do I but this time I just used my homemade chicken stock with salt without bouillon. It was still tasty and great.

Vegetable Soup  3~4 serving 

Green Onion  1bunch
Carrot             3
Celery            4
Zucchini        1
Raddish          7
Ginger           size of a thumb
Chicken Stock   8~10 cups
Salt and Pepper   for taste
Vegetable Oil      1 tablespoon

1, First, cut all the vegetables into small pieces.

2, Then, add vegetable oil into a pot and add ginger and green onion to saute.

3, Add Carrot, celery and raddish.

4, Add chicken Stock and simmer until vegetables are tender.


5, When vegetables are soft, add zucchini and simmer for a little bit. (I add zucchini at the end so the color stays green. A trick which I learned from my mother-in-law)

6, Serve

This is a great soup for my son since sometimes he is picky with vegetables. When I made his soup, he always always eat all the vegetables without any complaint. I love making this soup for him. Sometimes, I add small pasta or barley or rice to this soup when I want to make it more hearty.

Warm Maitake Mushroom Salad

Yes, it is yet another salad. This one has warm mushroom on top. 

This is also what my mother-in-law made for me before. This salad is great especially when you need something warm and meaty with salad. 

You can use any kind of mushroom but I had Maitake mushroom in the fridge so I used it for this salad. You can also mix different kind of mushrooms. I love mushroom and every time I go to Japanese or Korean supermarket, I buy all different kind of mushrooms. 

Anyways, for salad I used mixed green, tomato and avocado but this also can be anything you like. 

Warm Maitake Mushroom Salad 

Mixed Green (or any kind of salad leaves)        a handful 

Tomato  (Small)                                                  2~3

Avocado                                                              1

Maitake (or any kind of mushrooms)                 a handful 

Butter                                                                  1 Tea spoon 

Olive Oil                                                             2 Table Spoon 

Soy Sauce                                                           1 Tea Spoon 

Balsamic Graze                         as much as you like (for me about 2 table spoon) 

1, Cut Mushrooms into bite size pieces. 

2, Add 1 tea spoon of butter and 1 table spoon of olive oil into a pan and heat up. 

3, Add mushrooms into the pan and sautee the mushroom

4, Add soy sauce into the pan and mix. Turn the heat off. 

5, Place salad leaves on a plate. Cut tomato and avocado and add on top of salad leaves. 

6, Add mushrooms on top

7, Drizzle olive oil and balsamic graze. 

Caprese salad

Yes, it is salad again! This is very pretty and easy Caprese salad (Tomato and Mozzarella salad). I Love Caprese salad and my husband loves it even more. 

You can use any kind of tomato and mozzarella but in here I used mini tomato and these small mozzarella called "Bocconcini". These are about same size so it looks beautiful and easy to each together. I julienned basil and sprinkle over. 

For dressing, I simply used white balsamic vinegar and olive oil. (I know, it seems like I only use those two as salad dressing lately..) 

This is quick and easy beautiful salad you can eat as a main with bread or as a side of your main dish. 

Those small mozzarella balls are addictive. I couldn't stop popping into my mouth while I was making this dish. 

Greek salad

It am eating salad everyday for lunch. Even though I went out with my friends in Manhattan last night at Greek restaurant called AVERA and had greek salad, since I had ingredients for greek salad I made it for lunch and enjoyed it. 

Olive was little too salty for me. I should wash it out next time before I use it. 

Anyways, this is super simple salad but tasty and perfect for summer. 

Greek Salad 

Green salad leaves       a handful 

Cucumber                    1/4 cup (chopped) 

Mini Tomatoed            1/4 cup  (cut into half) 

Feta Cheese                  1/4 cup  (Crumbled) 

Olive                             1/4 cup 

White Balsamic Vinegar   1 Table Spoon 

Olive Oil                           2 Table Spoon 

Dried Oregano                  1/4 tea spoon 

The greek salad I had last night also had red onion in it. Since I didn't have red onion, I skipped it today but it is a great idea to add red onion stripes. 

The restaurant we went last night was very busy. I didn't know about this restaurant by my friend book it and it was delicious greek food. We had some appetizers such as grilled octopus, grilled Sardine, Greek Salad, Zucchini Chips. All were really good but my fav was grilled octopus. It was so tender and yummy!!! 

For main course, we shared branzino. It was really fresh and wonderful. 

We had so much fun together last night. I laughed so much that my cheeks were hurting afterwords. 

It is great to have friends like this whom I can laugh with. I am very thankful to have them in my life. We realized that we don't do this often enough. We decided to get together at least quarterly from now on. I am looking forward to our next quarterly meeting! 

Easy summer salad with farm fresh corn and tomatoes

I just came back from a farmer's market and got some fresh vegetables so I had to make a salad for lunch. Today, I got those corn, mini tomatoes, egg plants, potatoes and basil.

The tomatoes were just amazingly sweet and I couldn't stop eating them.

Simple Summer Salad with corn and mini tomatoes

Serving 1

Salad leaves    a handful
cucumber         1/4 cup (cut into small pieces)
Corn                 1/4 cup (boiled)
mini tomatoes    about 8
Crumbled Feta Cheese   1/4 cup
Olive Oil           2 table spoon
White Balsamic Vinegar    1 Table Soon

1, Toss salad leaved and cucumber with vinegar and olive oil

2, Add Feta Cheese, tomatoes and Corn on top

I love eating Salad in summer especially when you find fresh ingredients. This is super easy salad which you probably don't need recipe for and you can add any kind of vegetables of your liking.


By the way, we were in Germany to see our in-laws. We had a great time there and since my in-laws were watching and playing with my son all the time, I was able to do some reading for myself. Here are the books which I read during the trip.

This one is a mystery which is quite dark as the title indicate.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307341577/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_il_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=0307341577&linkCode=as2&tag=mauskit-20&linkId=P6SZV5VXLIE63EHJ

Since I like her other book "Gone Girl", I might have expected too much. It was OK but not as good as "Gone Girl" in my opinion.



This another book is called "The Glass Castle". It is about authors childhood and it is quite a childhood this author had. It was very interesting and I liked it.



Since I finished two books which I brought with me, I went to the library in Germany and borrowed this English book.


After I borrowed this one, I realized that I actually read another book from this same author before.
I did not really like this book. I think the concept was good and it makes you wonder what happens next throughout the book but it was actually a bit disappointing at the end for me.

The other book I read before from this same author was this one.


Again, I think the concept was interesting but I didn't really like the story and how it end. Well, it seems like she is a popular and famous author so I guess it is just I don't like her style and many people find her book very interesting.

This last one was the most entertaining book I read in this trip. Actually, I wasn't really interested in reading this one but I didn't have anything else to read so I borrowed this one from my father-in-law.


I know the author is super popular and many of his books were made into movies. I just didn't think I would like this kind books. I thought the vocabulary will be too difficult for me since it was about lawyers and tax and stuff. However, I was pleasantly surprised how easy and entertaining to read this book. Now I know why he is a popular author and I would love to read his other books also.

I would definitely watch the movie also. I think Tom Cruz is a good choice for the main character. I am just very interested who else were casted for other roles. You know, when you read a book, you have a certain image in your head for all the characters and sometimes it is right on when you watch a movie but something it is so different from what you have in your head. Anyways, I am curious.

Well, I am excited to cook some food with the vegetables I bought today at farmers market. Love Summer!

Stuffed Acorn Squash

How is everybody doing? Everyone must be busy with all the Christmas related parties and get together and preparations.

I actually just came back from Japan. I decided to go there spontaneously and stayed there for three weeks. It was a wonderful trip and my family were super super happy to have us. Our son was very happy to have many people to play with every day. He made my family laughed a lot. It was wonderful to see my family laughing and feeling happy.

I off course ate lots of good food while I was there. The weather in Tokyo was quite nice while I was there. Sunny everyday and the average temp was about 15C everyday which is about 60F.

So now, I am back to NY and experiencing this COLD COLD weather. I really don't like cold weather. Oh well, I should be thankful that I don't have to stay outside all day in this cold weather.

Today, I would like to write about the dish which I made before I went to Japan.

I see lots of pumpkins and squash in fall and I love using those vegetables when it is in season.

I saw a nice acorn squash so I made stuffed acorn squash. I actually made this dish before. I checked when I made it last time and found out that it was 2009. 4 Years ago!! Wow, time flies. If you are interested in the previous acorn post, click here.

I mentioned before also but I first ate stuffed pumpkin back when I was living in California. One night, I went to visit my friend who is French. He got hungry so he got some dinner leftover and ate it. I ate some and that was the first time I ever tried stuffed pumpkin. I thought "Wow, I never had this before. I guess this is some kind of French dish."

I believe they actually used pumpkin but since I found good acorn squash at my local supermarket, I use it. And this time, I added some rice to it also.

I didn't measure anything and I just winged it but this is how I made it.

I cut the top of acorn and took the seeds out. Then, add some brown sugar, salt and pepper and baked in the oven till it is soft.

First, I sautéed carrot, onion and celery.

Then, add ground beef with some spices. I used nutmeg, all spice, cinnamon, etc. When the meat is cooked, I added cooked rice.

When the acorn is soft, take out from the oven and stuff it with rice and meat mixture. Arrange extra mixture around it.

Put the lid back on and serve.

It was good but I made too much mixture. I should have made half of this. Also, I tasted too much All Spice. It has some room for improvement.

By the way, Christmas is approaching before you know it. It is just one week before Christmas!! I am not ready at all but we don't have big Christmas party or anything so I don't feel stressed. We might just go to Manhattan sometime to see the Christmas tree at Rockafellar Center or something like that. It will be nice to do something Christmasy with my family. Also, I would like to make Christmas cookie with my son and husband this weekend :-)

What is your Christmas plan? Hope everybody is having a great Holiday!

Cherry Tomato and Mini Zucchini Pasta

This is a super easy and yummy pasta which my mother-in-law makes for us. Since we love it so much, I started to make this one quite often also.

This is quick and easy and vegetarian. Perfect summer pasta when tomato and zucchini are at its peak!!

Normally, I use red cherry tomato and regular zucchini but this time I had yellow cherry tomato and mini zucchini so I used those.

Here is how I made it.

Cherry Tomato and Zucchini Pasta

Ingredients:
Spaghetti     about 1lb
Cherry Tomato  about 20
Mini Zucchini   about 6
Garlic                 3 cloves
salt and pepper   for taste
red chili pepper    (optional)
Freshly Grated Parmesan cheese  for taste
Olive Oil      about 3 table spoons

1. First cut the tomatoes into hald and zucchini into a bite size pieces. Chop garlic.

2. Start boiling pasta in salt water.

3. In frying pan, add olive oil and heat up. Add zucchini and saute.

4. When zucchini start to get some color, add tomatoes.

5. When tomatoes started to get soft, add some salt and pepper.

6. Then add garlic. (Don't let the garlic burn)

7. At this point, your pasta should be ready to drain. Drain and add pasta to the pan and mix well. If needed, add some pasta water or olive oil.

8. plate pasta and sprinkle with freshly grated parmesan cheese.

I love this pasta. Hope you like it too!!

Ellie Kreger's Autumn Vegetable Curry

So, I have been cooking from this Ellie Kreger's cookbook lately and this is another recipe from her. This is called Autumn Vegetable Curry. This has tons of vegetable in it and healthy yet tasty.

Well, it has some curry power and coconut milk. In the recipe, it required only 1 cup of light coconut milk but since I love coconut milk, I just used the whole can. (plus, it was not light) so I think mine is little bit richer than her original recipe.

Here is the link for her Autumn Vegetable Curry recipe. 

My husband and my son loved it and I was also very happy with it. I cook my son's separately and made it less spicy for him. I was not sure if he would like all these vegetables but since it is cooked well and soft, he didn't mind eating all these vegetables. He even liked chick peas!

I think this is a great way for you and your family to eat more vegetables. I think when I make something with curry, I and my husband always like it. We love curries!

I also made another dessert from her cookbook. This time, Peanut butter cookies!

This one has some whole wheat flour so they are little bit healthier than regular peanut butter cookies. We don't give much sweet to my son yet (also not yet peanut butter) so he didn't eat these but my husband loved them. For some reason, I didn't expect him to love it so much so I was a bit surprised.

When I was watching her show on FoodNetwork, I didn't find any recipes which I wanted to try so I am quite surprised to find so many recipes which I wanted to try and liked from her cookbook.

When I borrowed it from the library, I had no expectations but it sure was a great cookbook. I tried many new things from this book.

Greek Salad

Today, I would like to share Greek Salad I made. This is also something my mother-in-law made for me.
It is called Greek Salad because it has dolma, Olives and Feta Cheese.

I love Dolma and now I can get already made dolma from Trader Joe's. This is great! because I think it is quite a hassle to make dolma on your own.

Anyway, this is salad so it is quite easy. You just have to cut the ingredients and mix them. So for this salad, I added butter lettuce, orange pepper, yellow pepper, red pepper, tomato, kalamata olive, feta cheese and dolma. I used simple dressing of balsamic vinegar and olive oil.

This is great salad! This is yet another great dish from my mother-in-law. Dolma has rice in it so this is very satisfying salad. You can have this salad as a main course.

Mushroom Bread Pudding

I went to a restaurant called "The standard grill" at The Standard Hotel in Manhattan on New Years Day with my husband and our friends. My husband had this dish called "Mushroom Bread Pudding" and he absolutely loved this dish. (Please click here for that post)

I tried it also and I was pleasantly surprised. I wanted to make this at home and I was able to get a few different kind of fresh mushroom last week so I decided to make it.

Since I had no idea how to make this. I serached for some recipes on the internet. I found many different recipes but I used this one which seemed quite simple and easy. Click here for the recipe from Los Angeles Times. 

I was not sure how it will come out but it came out pretty good. I was very satisfied with the result and I think it tasted quite similar to the one which we had at the standard grill.

First, I cut mushrooms and baked in the oven. At this point, the smell of mushroom filled the room and I wanted to just eat the mushroom but was able to I hold back.

Then, mix french bread (cut into small pieces), cheese, thyme and mushroom into a bowl.

Prepare the mixture of eggs and heavy cream.

Then, mix the liquid with bread mixture.

Transfer to oven dish and top with some butter.

Put in the oven and bake. This is how it should look like after baking.

Sprinkle chives and serve.

I think it was pretty close to the one I had at the restaurant. I tasted really rich and great. In the recipe, it require truffle butter but I didn't have truffle butter so I used just regular butter.

If you like mushroom like me, I think you would love this dish. Please give it a try sometimes!

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprout with Oinion

I had some brussels sprout in my fridge which I need to eat somehow. I have seen people roasting brussels sprout so I decided to roast them in the oven with some sliced onion and chopped garlic.

Oven Roasted Brussels Sprout

Ingredients
Brussels Sprout    about 10
Onion                   1
Garlic                   1 clove
Olive Oil              3 Table spoons
Salt and Pepper    1/2 tea spoon each


1. Preheat the oven for 370F. First, cut the brussels sprout into half. Slice onion into thin slices. Chop garlic. Then, in a roasting pan, add all the ingredients, sprinkle olive oil, salt and pepper. Mix and coat them well.

2. Throw them into the oven and roast for about 20mins. When it is charred, it is done.

3. Enjoy as is or as a side dish for your main course.

I love using oven for cooking. It is so easy. You can just throw things in the oven and put a timer on and do something else while it cooks. I think vegetables get extremely tastier when it is roasted.

I don't buy brussels sprout too often but I really liked this easy dish. I think I will be buying more brussels sprout this year :-)

Aglio Olio Peppronchino, Miso Eggplant, Miso Ramen & Kazuo Ishiguro

 I would like to post some of the things I had this past few days. They are all easy and am not sure if I can call them cooking but those are great when you are lazy or don't have time.

First, it is pasta. Pasta is always easy thing to make. I love creamy or tomato sauce pasta but sometimes I just want to eat simple pasta such as Aglio Olio Pepperonchino. It is just garlic, olive oil and chili flakes.
If you prefer, you can add some anchovy or sautéed shrimp but this time I made it simple. I love this pasta because it is easy but very tasty. I can really enjoy the taste of pasta itself. I added some parsley on top at the end for color.

Next one is "Miso flavored eggplant sautee". This is a dish my mom makes quite often. It is super easy and quick but you can eat lots of eggplant. I love eggplant so this is one of my favorite dish my mom makes. I can just have this and rice and be satisfied. It is easy and healthy. Mine tasted little bit different from my mom's. I should ask her how she make it next time when I talk to her.

Then, Miso Ramen. This is just a store bought fresh miso ramen. It comes with fresh ramen noodle and soup. I added lots of vegetables. These vegetables are frozen stir fry mix from trader joe's. I just take it out from the freezer and sauté them a little bit and add on top of ramen noodle. I also added some corn for color. Ramen noodles are super popular in Japan. This is a great dish for a cold winter day.
Also, I love this stir fry vegetable mix from trader joe's. I sometimes just add some meat for this mix and saute them together, flavor with salt, pepper, sesame oil and oyster sauce and you have a nice stir fry dish for dinner.

By the way, I borrowed another book from the library today.

I found out about this book from a Japanese magazine which I was reading a while ago. Since the name of the author was Japanese, I assumed that it is a Japanese book and I have to get it in Japan or Japanese book store. However, little bit later, I found out that he was born in Japan but moved to England when he was little and become a British Citizen. So I thought the original of this book must be written in English and I search for it and found it. I ordered it from the library. I think it is quite popular book since it took for a few weeks to arrive at my local library. I got the notice from them so I went to pick it up.
I really don't know much about the story but I am going to start reading it today. I am so excited!!

Apple Cinnamon Muffin & Potato Cabbage Gratin

I had a craving for cake all of a sudden so I was searching something at home. I found this muffin mix which I bought a while ago. Since I didn't want to spend a lot of time baking, this was a perfect choice for my craving.

This is a very famous brand in Germany but I see this brand quite often here in the U.S. also. This one is organic muffin and somehow looked little bit healthier than other brand's muffin mix and I just love the smell of apple & cinammon.

Anyway, those cake or muffin mix are great because you just have to add milk and egg and bake. This one took me about 15mins to prepare before putting it in the oven.

It amazes me how many different kind of those mixes there are at a supermarket. I haven't try many of them but I would love to try different kinds. The best thing about it is that normally it comes out as it should be. (Even though, I had to ruin three boxes of brownie mix once. I had no idea what I did wrong but it did not came out the way it should had been...)

For dinner, I wanted to use potatoes which I had at home. I also had some leftover cabbage and mushroom and so on so I decided to make potato cabbage gratin.

This is how I made it.

First, I sauteed sliced onion and bacon and chopped garlic in a frying pan.

Then, added cabbage.

Then, added mushroom and leeks.

Then, added sliced potatoes

After sauteing a while, add flour and milk and cook until it thickens.

Transfer to a casserole container and sprinkle with cheese, cover with foil and bake in the oven for about 1 hour. When it is about 50mins into baking, take the foil off to make a golden/brown top.

It was a bit too liquid but tasted really good. I think I should have added some nutmeg though.

The muffin was pretty good. It was not too sweet so I think this is also great for breakfast. It is just amazing how easy this was.

We also had spinach salad with gratin. This is one of my favorite salad. It has some bacon, onion and tomatoes and mushroom.

This is a great satisfying dish with lots of vegetables. If you have leftover vegetables in your fridge, this might be a good option to clear your fridge.