53: Heart-Healthy Valentine’s Day Recipes

Narrator

How would you like to improve your health and keep your family safe? You're listening to that healthy home hacks podcast where we firmly believe enjoying optimal health shouldn't be a luxury. Healthy Home authorities and husband and wife team Ron and Lisa will help you create a home environment that will level up your health. It's time to hear from the experts. listen in on honest conversations and gain the best tips and advice. If you're ready to dive in and improve your well-being and increase your energy, you're in the right place. Alright, here are your hosts, Baubiologists, authors, media darlings, vicarious vegans and avocado aficionados, Ron and Lisa Beres.

Ron Beres

Hey guys, welcome back to The Healthy Home hacks podcast. Today's show kicks off season three in our 53rd episode, and we thank you for being part of it. One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. -Virginia Woolf

Lisa Beres

Guys love is in the air. Yep, guys and gals. Valentine's Day is right around the corner and we've got you, your sweetheart and your heart covered. In fact, did you know According to surveys by the National Retail Foundation, American consumers plan to spend a whopping 21.8 billion on Valentine's Day in 2021. Men spent an average of $231 while women plan to spend an average of approximately $101.

Ron Beres

So, what do they spend all of that hard-earned dough on you ask? It turns out 24% of the people spent money on eating out while a whopping 41% spent money on a special celebration or dinner at home. Let's face it, eating out is fun. At least nice to dine out all the time. In fact, I don't think we had a piece of food in our refrigerator but cooking in you can be so much more romantic. The aromas, the flavors you're making something for your loved one. You can't beat it.

Lisa Beres

I agree Ron and as they say the way to a man's heart is through his stomach. I can personally attest friends with my husband. So, if you're feeling the cozy, stay in and cook for your sweetie kind of vibe, then you'll love today's show. And by the way, this isn't just if you have a sweetie so gal celebrating Valentine's if you're single, you can treat yourself okay or your friend or your mama anyone. But today we're dishing up healthy recipes and decadent desserts from our special guests. Now don't worry if you're new to cooking or intimidated behind the apron, she is going to share heart healthy and easy peasy secrets and recipes that will have your bae swooning.

Ron Beres

Chef Mareya Ibrahim is also known as the Fit Foodie, a nationally recognized food safety and clean eating expert and award-winning entrepreneur, television chef, author and inventor. She is the CEO and founder of Grow Green Industries, and the patented co-creator of the eatCleaner, eatSafe and eatFresh lines of all natural and organic products that help offer cleaner, safer, longer lasting produce.

Lisa Beres

That's right. And if you like food, and you like your health, you don't want to miss today's episode. Mareya is a lifestyle nutrition expert, a celebrity chef and author of the book Eat Like You Give a Fork: The Real Dish on Eating to Thrive.

Ron Beres

Welcome to the show, Chef Mareya, welcome.

Chef Mareya

What an introduction. I want to be on all of the time.

Ron Beres

Be careful what you wish for, Chef Mareya.

Lisa Beres

Thank you so much for being with us today. We're so excited.

Ron Beres

So, you know I'm a cook of our household and I can tell listeners, it's never too late to get comfortable behind the stove. I believe I started in my late 30s I had no idea what I was doing. I couldn't boil.

Lisa Beres

We had a pot rack and people will come over and go, why is there dust all over your pots? Yeah, we had we just didn't use them.

Ron Beres

Well, so let's dive right in.

Lisa Beres

So, chef Mareya, you're an expert in healthy living, even on a holiday, which I totally agree with. So why is there nothing more seductive than cooking for your sweetheart? And why is it important to care about their heart too?

Chef Mareya

Oh, this is to me, food is the ultimate love language, right? It's the thing that you can engage with all five senses. And when you take time and you do things with intention, you feel it, you feel it, you taste it, you experience it on so many levels.

I remember when I was growing up on Middle Eastern come from a family that every single celebration was around what was happening in the kitchen. And the love that we shared and that connection with each other through the food, but also just gathered around the table looking at each other eye to eye, you know, without fractions, having wonderful conversations laughing, taking our time. I mean, there are no better memories. And that remains true today. Every day, I feel like if I don't have a chance to sit down with my husband and my kids to actually eat, something's missing. Yeah, connection that we nurture, especially on a holiday like Valentine's Day. And I love what you said, it's not just about like your significant other, it's for your kids for your mama, your help. Yeah, it's really about love and connection, no matter who that person is to you. And when we can sit down with a beautiful meal that we had created, or better yet cook together. That is a beautiful thing.

Ron Beres

Oh, that's a great point. Are you the only chef in the house? Or is your husband a good cook? Or how about your kids?

Chef Mareya

Let's just say my husband is a good cook, but he defers to me 99% of the time. What's great is my kids are actually kind of following in my footsteps, and they love to cook and do when they have time. Love to take that effort. My daughter's in college now and she'll send me pictures, you know, she made for her roommates.

Lisa Beres

In her dorm? She's got her little warmer. That's so funny. I love what you said that food is love. Ron and I even though in the beginning of our marriage, we really truly didn't cook, we ate out a lot. And it actually did help us become foodies, because we got to learn about all kinds of different flavors and things that we wouldn't have known how to make. And we are definitely foodies. We're vegan, but we can tell good spices. And we always say, Oh, this food was made with love. Or maybe it wasn't. Sometimes you get an entree and a restaurant and you're like, yeah, no, that's just did not make this with love. You can tell when something was thrown together. But it is a gift you give to people, the art of cooking and the love that goes into preparing whether it's even baking or cooking. I think it's spectacular.

Chef Mareya

Yeah. And of course, I love restauranteurs. And by no means am I dissuading people from enjoying their local restaurant, support our chefs. But there is a difference when you're cooking for 80 guests one. I think when it comes to romance and actually doing something, this with intention, creating an atmosphere and environment that is romantic and seductive that goes along with that is something that you can control versus, you know, perhaps sitting next to somebody who has having a conversation you don't necessarily want to hear.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, or the or the not so great table spot and the restaurant.

Chef Mareya

Next to the bathroom. You can set your own mood, so to speak. And also, the thing I really love about cooking is you get to control the ingredients, you get to know what the source of your proteins are and how your fresh fruits and vegetables were handled.

Ron Beres

Fresh is right. You want to make sure it is clean.

Lisa Beres

Ron�s a picky chef. He�s very picky with pretty much all organic, non-GMO, and we're vegan. So, a lot of effort goes into all of that. And of course, when you go out, you know, you're not going to be able to get that all the time, especially the genetically modified ingredients. You kind of have to assume that everything has that in there. Unless they specify that it doesn't.

Chef Mareya

And how much oil they're using, what kind of oil they're using. I mean, when you cook, you get to be the chef of your own kitchen in every respect. Yeah, how it tastes to your health. And I think we just need to help demystify and make it simple. I like to say the kiss approach. Keep it simple and sexy.

Lisa Beres

Oh, I love Valentine's Day. Mareya, what is it again? Kiss?

Chef Mareya

Kiss the kiss approach. Keep it simple and sexy.

Lisa Beres

Oh, I love it. Okay, love it. Well, good segue. Let me ask what add one more thing because I think this is important for everybody listening, when you talked about the special bond that you create when you have dinner together as a family. So, this going back, it's okay. If you don't have kids, it's just whoever that is your family, your extended family, whatever. But do you feel like that's kind of breaking in today's society that there isn't as much like gathering around the table and that we need to work on that more as a society making that time because people are so distracted and on their phones and they want to just eat in front of their computer or their TVs.

Chef Mareya

For I mean, I think the last couple of years have taught us how to slow down whether we like it or not. And if there's anything that we can take from that experience is to hold on to that you have to make that time sacred. You know, it's just like, anything that's important, whether it's exercise or meditation and prayer or sleep. I mean, anything that we know is important and really vital for our health. And well-being is something that we need to carve out time for. And the truth is, food is survival. It's not just a nice to have, as humans were kitchen magicians, or alchemists, we can take something that comes from nature and turn it into something beautiful. And I think that is a gift that we get to enjoy every day. And if we can do it with the people that we love, more serotonin for. Yeah, down and enjoy it and connect. It's really important for our vital well-being.

Lisa Beres

I think so too. So, if you're listening, you're not having dinner together with your family carve that time out, I grew up every day, five o'clock, we sat around the table every day, without a doubt. We never ever, ever sat in front of the TV. And neither do Ron and I. Like if we're having dinner, even if we're eating something in the living room, we'll put music on as I feel like it's, I don't know, conscious eating too, right? You want to be conscious of the food you're eating and have that gratitude toward it and not always, always be distracted and be on.

Chef Mareya

I think we've come into a time where every little moment needs to be filled with something. Right? Right. And screen time is just it's such a not only a distraction, I think it can be the thief of joy and a lot of ways. And when you are with people, that should be your screen, right? That should be what you're paying attention to. And also, really experiencing food and tuning in to the flavors and the texture, eating slowly so that you digest your food right out and therefore you're also not overeating. What ends up happening is people when they're on the go, or they're distracted by something else tend to eat a lot faster or gulped down their food and that affects digestion, which then affects so many other things that can lead to poor health. So slow down.

Ron Beres

I feel like you're looking at me, Chef Mareya.

Chef Mareya

No, I think it was funny. I studied in Italy and I made an Italian friend and we were having dinner one night and he said, you know, you Americans you eat too fast. A long time ago, by the way, this was like 20 something years ago. Imagine now. Yeah, and it's true. Like we see people eating their car on the way to this that or the other. There's no intentionality there and therefore there's not a whole lot of joy. It's more of a chore. Yeah, I guess I'm a geek that way. No, it's a beautiful lunch and ate it myself today. I was alone. I enjoyed making it I enjoyed savoring it the colors looking at it smell. Yeah, that, to me is where we connect with not only what is tasting good for us, but what is fueling our DNA. Yeah, our genetic code because we can upgrade or downgrade with every bite.

Lisa Beres

Oh, okay. That's a sound bite, Mareya. Upgrade or downgrade with every bite.

Ron Beres

You're right about that? Well, Valentine's Day falls smack dab in the middle of the American Heart Health Month. And Chinese philosophy the heart chakra is called a sea of Qi and it's responsible for the vital energy flowing through the entire body. So, chef Mareya, can you give us some heart healthy options to cook for your sweetheart? That are not only delicious, but that are nutritious, heart healthy, and only take one pan or pot to prepare? Can you think of one?

Lisa Beres

Ron�s kind of meal. He does, right? I mean, I think I think we could all agree everyone on this listening. Who wants pots and pans in the sink? That's annoying.

Chef Mareya

Well for me the pots. I�ll cook just if somebody else do the dishes. I can't. It's just like the one thing that drives me crazy.

Ron Beres

What's the hardest part?

Chef Mareya

Again, how do we keep it simple and sexy for people and one pot meals are one pan meals are really words that let me just start by saying number one, you want to try and include foods that feed your heart right and the color red, not coincidentally is our signal because red signals that a food contains lycopene and lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that helps to oxygenate the blood and help to keep our ticker talking. So, choosing foods like tomatoes and red bell peppers. Red chard and red berries, raspberries and strawberries and watermelon, things like that that are the color red are always a great thing to defer to. Number two is foods that are rich in omega threes, omega three fatty acids that also help to keep our cardiovascular system healthy. And that can come from seeds like flax seed and chia seeds. It can come from all kinds of different plant-based oils. It can also come from seafood that's fatty like salmon and sardines and things of that nature. And then greens, greens are something that we can all adopt easily that benefits so many different systems, but they're full of phytonutrients that help to again, keep our cells healthy. Keep that mitochondria intact, and keep ourselves from degrading and oxidizing. Finally, one more just quick tip, the good news is chocolate.

Ron Beres

Whoa, yes. Timely.

Chef Mareya

It�s a heart-healthy food filled with magnesium and selenium and other vital minerals. But let the caveat there is you want to make sure that it's at least 70% or more unsweetened cacao.

Lisa Beres

You're preaching to the choir, Chef Mareya, we hear it Yeah, yeah, that's all we know. That's all we that's all we eat in terms of chocolate, basically.

Chef Mareya

You have to get used to it. For those that are used to like a sweeter chocolate. It just takes a little bit of retraining. And I actually talk about retraining your taste buds in my book detail because we talk about all these heart healthy things, but some people are like, you�re going to make me eat a grain or a vegetable?

Lisa Beres

You�re mean. Isn't that funny? I�ve heard people say, Oh, I don't like guacamole. Because it's green. I'm like, boy, have you had it? Like, it's the most amazing thing in the whole wide world, one of my favorite foods of all. And so, people will just judge a food by its color, literally.

Chef Mareya

You know, I think once we can kind of get over our own phobias around food, and a lot of them can be pretty deep rooted, we can then open up our palates to crave differently and allow ourselves a chance to retrain our brain through our taste buds. And that is something that you can do in a matter of just a couple of weeks. So, it's just be open to that. Going back to Ron, what you were saying about like, how do you do this simply, well, I created a recipe for this that would be really easy for people to take and make their own and it's cooking in parchment paper. And on top cute. It's very fancy for a parchment little envelope, papillote.

Lisa Beres

So, you buy it. You buy the parchment paper like that?

Chef Mareya

You buy just a roll of parchment paper; parchment paper and you can make a little Think of it like a little love bundle little. And in that I love to cook fish. But if you're a cheater, you can do vegetables, you can do 10 Pay, you can do a cauliflower steak. All of those different types of preparations work in parchment paper, but the beautiful thing about Parchment is number one, it helps to protect your sheet pan so it doesn't get dirty.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, we use it all the time. Yeah. And I'll add listeners if you're using nonstick cookie sheets. This is great way to repurpose those because the parchment paper will create that barrier between your food until you are ready to dispose of your nontoxic, I mean your nonstick toxic sheet and get a stainless steel or something healthier.

Chef Mareya

Yeah. And the great thing about cooking in a parchment envelope is that or bundle is that it helps you keep the scheme in. So, you layer for example, a recipe that I prepared for people to try out for Valentine's Day is a Greek style wild card. And what Greek style because we let it marinate and a little ouzo what is who's out who's there was a wonderful Greek liquor and it kind of is reminiscent of fennel, the taste of fennel in the ouzo with some fresh lemon juice and some spices and it absorbs that gorgeous flavor and then hooking it just ever so slightly there and the flavor but it just helps to also absorb some of the fishy flavor and you cook that I love to do it on a bit of cauliflower rice so as a big omit the fish do the cauliflower rice and vegetables on top and we add onions and garlic and you can do little slivers of red bell pepper adding the red in.

Ron Beres

You taught us that red is for blood, right? The blood flows. Heart okay.

Chef Mareya

Sun dried tomatoes are great. And then you package it all up and bake it in the oven for 25 minutes and you open the packet and the smell and the steam. It's just a beautiful presentation as well as simple thing to prepare that basically takes care of itself in the oven. Wow.

Lisa Beres

Okay, so explain how we make these envelopes. We take the parchment paper; we have a sheet. Is it complicated?

Chef Mareya

No, not at all. I�m teaching this on a Facebook Live.

Lisa Beres

Okay. So, I'll put a link to that in the show notes. I'll put a link.

Chef Mareya

So, you can actually watch me do it step by step. But you basically just layer everything on the inside of a little sheet about a foot wide by a foot long. And then you fold the two ends over. And then you take the sides and you twist them almost like a little tissue paper package. Like if you were going to wrap a little package and twist the ends. Oh, yes. And so that the inside stays nice and tight with a little, almost like just a little, like a little stay in there.

Lisa Beres

So, it looks like a little package. And would you take whatever the entree is going to be the cauliflower or the fish and then just put it in there. You're not cooking anything before this point? No.

Ron Beres

That�s simple. Wow.

Lisa Beres

And it just sits in the oven. How long would you make that?

Chef Mareya

25 minutes.

Lisa Beres

25 minutes on 350. Is 350 the rule of thumb with cooking is pretty much if you don't know what to do?

Chef Mareya

I mean, with fish just so that it doesn't dry out. Okay, a white fish like cod, which isn't as fatty as salmon, for example. I like the low heat with that. And then that gives it a chance to kind of mingle with all the other ingredients and Okay, cauliflower rice so that it's nice and cooked also just the perfect kind of combination.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that sounds like the art of the temperature. I mean, I'd never even really thought about how broiling and boiling and all I should say, broiling. Right? Ron and I love boiling. We do that with our grilled artichokes and that. Now, I have a personal question on cauliflower steak, Mareya, I've tried to make cauliflower and we're terrible at it, it always comes out too hard. What's the secret to getting a good cauliflower? Do you have to seam and then cook it?

Chef Mareya

Cauliflower because it has a firm texture, and it can dry out easily. The best way to cook it is in some sort of liquid. So, you can braise it, which means cooking in liquid. So, you can raise it in a pan with a veggie stock for example or me so or some sort of flavorful broth. And if you are going to grill it, it's important to use enough oil so that again, it stays moist, but I would either blanch it, which means bringing water to a boil and letting it sit in the water for about 20 to 30 seconds and then taking it out and plunging it into some ice and stopping the cooking process and then grilling it sounds like a lot. But the idea number one, you don't want to dry it out. And number two, you don't want to cook it and have it just tastes like a crunchy piece of cauliflower because the whole point is so that it's moister on the inside. And then more a little generalization is seared for on the outside.

Lisa Beres

That�s a good tip, cuz we've gone out to eat and we've had that. We've had cauliflower steak of a lot of restaurants and a lot of restaurants don't even do it right because it's the hardest. I'm out. Yeah, hard as a rock. You feel like you're eating raw cauliflower.

Chef Mareya

Yeah. It defeats the purpose of what the idea of a steak is.

Lisa Beres

Exactly. Yeah. Thank you for sharing that. Okay, so back to Valentine's ideas. What about dessert? Do you have any dessert you'd want to kind of explain people could do that would be healthy and heart healthy?

Chef Mareya

I have several desserts in my book. Eat like you give a fork. The real dish on eating a Thrive that I love, love. And you mentioned avocado. So, I'm going to talk about this one first. I have a dark chocolate avocado mousse with raspberry coulis which is a fancy word for a sauce. Whip it's all vegan. Wow. So decadent and delicious and you make the mousse in a food processor or just a high-powered blender like a NutriBullet something like that would work. And then you make the raspberry coulis just in a little sauce pan and you can buy a prepared coconut whipped cream to use for that but you just layer and it looks gorgeous. So, it's very again you're bringing in that red in the raspberry which is great for your heart health that dark chocolate with the cocoa powder. And then avocado, which is just wonderful all the way around for our health.

Lisa Beres

What are you putting the avocado in? Are you mixing them in with the chocolate?

Chef Mareya

Yeah, you post it in the food processor.

Lisa Beres

Oh, okay. Yeah, cuz I had a chef who did a guest blog post and she had come up with avocado cupcakes and she used the avocado in the frosting to give it a real creamy texture. Yeah, so then oh my gosh, you could not tell.

Chef Mareya

It works so beautifully with chocolate. So does beets by the way. Beets and chocolate worked wonderfully too. I made. I was on a show called Recipe Rehab. And I made a chocolate cake and took out all of the saturated fat. So, all the butter and all the sugar and replaced it with pureed beets. And I love that.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that is such a great tip. Well, speaking of Do you have any other healthy swaps, like a lot of problems for people would be butter, oil, milk, because so many people are lactose intolerant and cheese, because I watched your recipe rehab when you did the mac and cheese and I was like, I need to eat that mac and cheese now. Oh my god, you use the butternut squash, which was so spectacular. So, give us a couple swaps. Someone listening right now was like I need to get healthy this year. Just give me the basics. What can I swap out right away?

Ron Beres

Before they buy your book, before that.

Chef Mareya

So pureed vegetables and fruit are a great substitute for fat because fat basically acts as a moisture barrier, right? It's to keep the moisture in the food. So, like I mentioned pureed beets, pureed butternut squash. Applesauce is a great replacement. Some people of course, avocado, I've used cauliflower. So avocado is a wonderful replacement. I actually made some cupcakes with cauliflower in the frosting was it really soft, and it's just another way to make a food more nutrient dense and keep that moisture in there. So, there's a lot of ways to replace the fat with your fruits and vegetables, and then sneakily kind of get those nutrients, especially for kids into the things that they love. Right? I haven't used it as much but zucchini can be used in a lot of preparations. I mean, zucchini bread, of course. But I've seen brownies made with zucchini too.

Lisa Beres

Wow, isn't it amazing? So as a general rule of thumb, you could say anytime it calls for like a lot of oil or a lot of butter, you just go to the processor pureed fruit and or veggies and substitute that is that kind of a rule of thumb?

Chef Mareya

In baking definitely. Okay, when sometimes it's a little bit of trial and error. And certainly, there's some guidelines out there, people that have published recipes that can give you a good basis. But for me, for the most part, it's cup for cup. So, a cup of butter, you can do a cup of cooked pureed beats to substitute for that.

Lisa Beres

Well, that's amazing. It's a great way to get your beats to because people don't really like to eat just a pile of beats. But if when it snuck in your food, you don't even know you're eating it.

Chef Mareya

Totally. And with chocolate, it's a no brainer. works beautifully and you will not taste them at all.

Lisa Beres

Wow. Okay, sweet. Yeah. Pumpkin. I know my sister in law's uses pumpkin puree and her brownies.

Chef Mareya

Just like the butternut squash, you can interchange those. That's always a fall favorite for us. And I cook I always have canned pumpkin in my pantry at all times, all year round nine teen bites. And I use the pumpkin in there too, to give them some moisture with oatmeal. And they're awesome. But yeah, use pumpkin. The bottom line is, have fun with this. You know, I think sometimes it's a little trial and error. But I think for people to explore, sometimes you find your favorite hats by being creative, right?

Lisa Beres

Don�t get caught in a food rut. I know everybody does. I know we have as vegans it�s like ah, that again. You know, even as even as great as the dish is, or like, Okay, we know how to make that. So, we'll make that once a week. And you get really burned out on those recipes, quickly. I love your tips. These are really different foods that you might not be thinking of.

Ron Beres

So, chef Mareya, we're going to put you on the spot here. You know, we've all heard that oysters and chocolate are aphrodisiacs right is the first of all, is that true? And can you share some healthy foods for our audience that are aphrodisiacs? I know you can answer this.

Chef Mareya

Well, oysters are considered aphrodisiacs because they're rich in trace minerals. And our body requires these minerals just like what you find a chocolate too by the way, in order to just run efficiently right and when we're running efficiently we are libido is also in check to if you're not feeling good if You're off, obviously everything else is going to go out the window as well. So not everybody loves oysters, some people don't like the texture of it, that can be a turnoff for other people. Next appeal. Right now, the only caution and I don't mean to be a wet blanket for the people who love oysters, but oysters, they can be pretty iffy from a food safety standpoint. They have been known to carry Vibrio which is a very serious foodborne illness and can attack the nervous system. So, if you are going to eat the raw oyster, you really want to make sure that it comes from very cold-water source, and that it's been kept cold, very cold. So, eat with caution proceed with caution.

Lisa Beres

Wouldn�t you say that with sushi too, or any raw food?

Chef Mareya

With raw, you want to ask for that is has been handled properly. Meticulously I would say if you're not going to cook it because the cooking is the kill step right the kill step to kill off bacteria that can be harmful and even deadly. And you want to make sure that your food has not been cross contaminated with other proteins or even raw produce that is carrying bacteria like E. coli or salmonella. So again, going back to when you go to a restaurant, oftentimes you don't see what's coming out or how things have been handled. This is also part of being a cautious eater.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, I agree. That's true.

Chef Mareya

Now chocolate, on the other hand is pretty risk free.

Lisa Beres

You can�t go wrong with that, right?

Chef Mareya

You can�t go wrong with that unless you�re allergic to and if you are, I'm really sorry.

Lisa Beres

We make vegan sushi. And I'll tell ya, it's so good. And if you like sushi, but you are hesitant of the parasites and all this that you can get vegan sushi. Oh my gosh, you guys, you get the flavor cuz you use the seaweed, we use the coconut aminos or the Tamari whatever you use for your soy sauce. But yeah, you get that whole vibe, you get them then we'll put a lot of veggies like carrots and cucumber and maybe brown rice and cabbage and avocado and you just feel like you're eating sushi.

Ron Beres

Especially with the wasabi on top of you feel like it's burning your mouth anyway.

Lisa Beres

You got the ginger, you get the whole flavor, you get the vibe.

Chef Mareya

You know, it's still okay to eat the fish. I mean, I love sushi too. You want to know that the source is good. If you're going to make sushi at home, a tip that I would give people is five fish bros. Because freezing in a way is also a step that helps to prevent the growth of bacteria. And a lot of vendors will sell fish people think that they should buy it fresh, but it's actually safer to buy it.

Lisa Beres

That is a great point. Yeah. Oh, that's a great point. Yeah, yeah.

Ron Beres

Definitely. You mentioned earlier you always have pumpkin puree in your cupboard. Right. So, what are some other must have ingredients that listeners should have on hand to share their cooking healthy, and that they're doing everything they can to help themselves be safe?

Chef Mareya

Yeah, well, I think this is a great thing for people to really take a close look at their pantry because it's obvious that we should keep fresh food right, we should always have access to fresh fruits and vegetables, fresh proteins. If you do dairy, I personally will eat pull Greek yogurt key for probiotic rich foods like that. So, you can have a range of those types of foods but often we neglect what's in the pantry the pantry can be really helpful in terms of helping to shortcut the cooking process and add flavor and hope to our meals too. Right. So canned tomato products, you actually metabolize lycopene better when a tomato was cooked. So can tomato products are a good thing to always have tomato paste canned tomatoes, you can do some dried tomatoes. I love the flavor of those. And that is a great way to kind of just mix up the tomato addition to your foods. So those are great things to keep certainly canned beans, talking about adding moisture. You can do black beans and brownies. Yeah, we did that we make bread brownies. Yeah, they're great. They're really garbanzo beans, cannellini beans, I cook with all of those. So, I always have canned beans by the low sodium ones if you can, because they do use a fair amount of salt.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, and get the BPA free cans. Amy's is all BPA free and Eden foods. Look for that BPA free logo on the front of the cans. It's worth the extra 10 cents or whatever you're going to pay.

Chef Mareya

Definitely.

Ron Beres

What are your favorite spices by the way, so if not, including salt and pepper will be your next like top three or four go to�s?

Chef Mareya

Can I mention one more thing? Actually, two more things in the pantry that I think are really useful for people can see food. Again, a wonderful source of Omega threes to get canned sardines and mackerel and salmon, and sometimes they're not available fresh. They're always wild caught in the can. And wild cod is always better because the animal is eating what it's supposed to. So that is a great thing to stock up on. Again, look for the BPA free you can often find those in pouches. But I've got a bunch of recipes that use canned seafood that are delicious and just a great easy way to be able to make dinner quickly or put together a salad. And the other can thing that I lower packaged food that I love our package grains like quinoa, and coos, coos and millet, faro, things like that, that you can pull together a meal, brown rice, that round out kind of the Holy Trinity of macronutrients. And those are ways to keep your foods diverse, and create easy convertible meals where you've got your proteins cooked off your veggies, and then you can put a grain with it. So those are great things to always keep in your pantry.

Lisa Beres

Those are great tips. What would be the biggest No-no like that people are doing wrong? We talked a lot about oils on this show hydrogenated oils and things like that. What would you think that's it? Or is there something else that stop using, dot, dot, dot?

Chef Mareya

Well, I think oil is definitely one. And the way you use oil, canola oil has become really prominent and prevalent and a lot of foods and the sources of canola oil is not always very clean. So, I think it's important to try and source when you can organically oils because they're being produced without synthetic additives or pesticides. And anytime a food is processed, so it's in an oil form. It's being processed, right? And there can be synthetic processes in the creation of those oils. So that and opting for cold pressed oil where there's no heat used so that they're not becoming oxidized or, you know, kind of going through that synthetic process. I think oils are really important. I also think this is more of a texture flavor thing, but please don't mistake canned spinach for fresh.

Lisa Beres

Canned is good sometimes with some foods not all, right?

Chef Mareya

Canned works for some things like canned corn is okay. You know, it's okay. Can spinach, no!

Lisa Beres

My mom made that growing up.

Ron Beres

I asked for, as a four-year-old so I watched the Popeye cartoon and I literally thought that if I ate that as a mom to buy it that I would have huge muscles. Yeah, I don't think you were the only one took about 20 years. But I did it eventually. But it didn't happen right away like pop. I'm joking. So, when the cannon I know it's an old cartoon. But I must have been at my grandparents� house watching something.

Chef Mareya

And I think what ends up happening just like with canned beets, for example. I hear people tell me all the time; beets are terrible. And I'm like, Yeah, well, the texture changes completely when you can an item. So, think about that. And in many cases, frozen foods are more readily available. Now. You can find so many different varieties that are frozen, that the quality of the food is so much better than buying it can. So that's more of that versus a safety thing. But I definitely think it can be a turn off if that's what you're used to.

Lisa Beres

Yes, this is where certain foods got a bad rap because our parents made these canned things. So, we're like, Oh, I hate spinach. I hate beets. But when you try the fresh one, I would totally agree. It's a whole world different. Because I love spinach now and I hated it when I was little but do, they can you know? Yeah, yeah. And I want to add to this buying organic food. There was a peer reviewed study that just came out that found glyphosate, which is the herbicide that's in now bear owned, Monsanto's that used to be Monsanto, now Bayer owned. And it's in Roundup with that thing. I can think of the word glyphosate which is an ingredient in Roundup. So, for those that were on an organic diet, the glyphosate levels, which is the cancer causing chemical, likely to be cancer causing drop 70%. So, I know some people go, Oh, organic, so expensive, but we're talking about your health, you're investing in your health. I think of it like your vitamin or your mineral every time you're paying a little extra for that fresh food that you talked about or that organic food.

Chef Mareya

Yeah, and I believe that you kind of invest in your health now or you pay for it later. And I fully realize that fruits and vegetables, they should be the cornerstone for everybody. half your plate should be fruits and vegetables. Whether you're vegan or an omnivore really doesn't matter. And sometimes organic produce is not always available. That's why we created eat cleaner, our product line our Fruit and Vegetable Wash. It's proven to remove up to 99.9% of that harmful pesticides.

Lisa Beres

Nice, a shout out to that. Okay, that's fantastic.

Chef Mareya

Yeah, so always better to buy organic because it's more sustainable and it's better for the soil. And our soil health is absolutely crucial for the health of the food and the health of our planet. But if those foods are not available, and even if you are buying organic, it's still important to wash them properly, especially if you're eating them raw to avoid foreign illness. About 48 million people get sick from food every year, in the US alone, and half of those foodborne illness causing foods are fresh produce items.

Lisa Beres

It's crazy, right?

Chef Mareya

I know, you think you're doing such a good job that's happening around and we're like what we're eating so healthy, and we're eating I get it. But of course, there's bacteria and vegetables like greens. They have a lot of crevices and if they're grown near runoff, or there's a conventional farm near an organic farm, and there's runoff. I mean, there can be flyover content. I mean, there's a lot of ways food can be contaminated from field. And we don't wash anything with water alone, right? We don't wash our hair or car or dishes.

Ron Beres

Yeah, that's a good point.

Lisa Beres

Yeah, that's so great. I'll put a link to your product. So, chef Mareya, where can our audience find more recipes and healthy options and your book, eat like you give a fork the real dish on eating to thrive?

Chef Mareya

Everything is on our website at www.eatcleaner.com Find a lot of food for thought. You'll find links to recipes and blogs and podcast episodes and videos. I mean, it really is a wealth and resources. And you'll also find our award-winning products. The book, you'll find some fun little accessory items. We have some great aprons I want to send you guys some.

Lisa Beres

I�m inspired to help out more in the kitchen.

Ron Beres

Well, you can inspect it later. One will be dirty one will be clean.

Lisa Beres

But your videos are fantastic. I think it's one thing to read a recipe but watching you cook it I learned better that way I think and your videos were really I'm your mac and cheese if I didn't mention it her. It was vegan. It was a total vegan mac and cheese and a Whoa, some of the ingredients I won't say I'll put a link to it will surprise you what she put in there and it won. You won. The it was a contest.

Chef Mareya

That show was really fun, because its kind of brought this whole concept to mainstream America, not just people who were into their health and wellness, it was on daytime television on the weekend on ABC. And we took family recipes that were full of sugar and saturated fat not so great ingredients and just made them 100 times better and the family's got to cook them and really adopt them as their own. So, I think opened up our minds and our palates a little bit. We can really open up the world.

Lisa Beres

Okay, and that was called Recipe Rehab? Yeah, what a cute concept and so amazing because I'm sure a lot of the families that you worked with were like, but I had no idea I could make this meal healthier and tastes even better.

Chef Mareya

That episode with the chocolate cake. I remember the host Danny was like, beans? I just heard everybody across America drop their fork.

Lisa Beres

I love it.

Ron Beres

Thank you so much for joining us, Chef Mareya. I really appreciate you. We love the work you do. Love all the tips. I can't wait to go to watch your videos later and make all these wonderful recipes you talked about for Valentine's Day. I can't wait.

Chef Mareya

Guys, thank you so much for championing healthy lifestyle, a toxic free lifestyle because this is such an important part of being a responsible eater. And from the pans we use the products we use to packaging. I mean, it really goes without saying like we have to be educated about our choices. So, thank you for furthering that.

Lisa Beres

Oh, thank you for saying that. I appreciate that. And right, you don't want to eat all this healthy food and then turn around and slap on toxic personal care or use toxic cookware and things like that. So, it is like we say it's a healthy lifestyle. It's not just one aspect of your life. It's all aspects. So as Jillian Michaels said, I only eat healthy food and I only want healthy love. We couldn't agree more Jillian, friends thank you for joining us today and Chef Mareya Thank you. We are ready to done our aprons and get cooking.

Ron Beres

Yes. And don't forget to head to www.RonandLisa.com/Podcast now to get all the links and recipes that we discussed in today's shows, including the show notes and have a very happy and healthy Valentine's Day everyone. See you next week. Bye.

Lisa Beres

Bye everyone. Bye chef Mareya.

Chef Mareya

Thank you, guys.

Narrator

This episode of The Healthy Home hacks podcast has ended. But be sure to subscribe for more healthy living strategies and tactics to help you create the healthy home you always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best content. See you on the next episode.