Experience Nutrition

Tag: cook at home

Experience Nutrition: Farm-to-Table Beet Burger
Thanks so much to the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market for requesting a recipe for a “Beet Burger.” I honestly love your market all these years and our beautiful entrepreneurial community at the market. Thank you so much for all the hard work, dedication, and commitment to our community to stay open as an “essential grocery story” during the Coronavirus Pandemic. We all appreciate you and all the farmers and vendors.
Looking forward to the Fall when we can continue our “Shop the Farmers Market” Cooking Demos. Meanwhile, I’m honored to share the Beet Burger recipe and hope you enjoy the recipe and have fun preparing and eating it. – Melanie Albert

Enjoy the Beet Burger Video
- A glimpse of the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market during the Coronavirus Pandemic.
- Beautiful veggies grown by Blue Sky Organic Farms.
- The mindfulness and beauty of mise en place.
- Steps to saute the veggies, aromatics, and spices for the beet burgers.
- Mindful plating.
Recipe: Arizona Farm-to-Table Beet Burger

The beautiful, nutritious plant-based beet burger features veggies and beans grown by long-time Arizona farmers who support our community at the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market. Thanks so much to my friends at Blue Sky Organic Farms in Litchfield Park, Arizona, for the red beets, carrots, parsley, green onions, and Spring garlic. And, thanks to Crooked Sky for the black beans.

Beet Burger Veggies. Thanks Blue Sky Organic Farms.

8 Servings

Simple Ingredients
- 2 tbsp organic extra virgin olive oil
- ½ medium red onion (1 cup), diced
- 2 garlic cloves, minced
- 1 large red beet (1 cup), diced
- 1 yellow or orange carrot (1 cup), shredded
- 1 ½ cups black beans, cooked
- ¾ cup quinoa, cooked
- ¾ cup walnut pieces
- 1 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- 2 tsp freshly ground cumin seeds
- ½ tsp black pepper
- 1 tsp sea salt
- Garnish Ideas: Avocado, tomato, walnuts, hemp seed cream, capers
Beet Burger: Ingredients.

Simple Steps
- Prior to making the burgers, cook black beans and quinoa.
- Cook the Burgers
  - Preheat oven at 350 degrees F.
  - Pre-heat medium sauté pan on medium heat.
  - Add olive oil to the pan.
  - Add red onion to the pan and gently cook for 3 minutes, until translucent.
  - Add garlic to pan and cook for 30 seconds.
  - Add carrots and beets to pan. Stir. Cook covered for 5-10 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  - Add black beans and quinoa to the pan, and stir well.
  - Add walnuts and parsley. Stir.
  - Add paprika, cumin, black pepper, and salt. Stir.
  - Remove pan from stovetop.
- Make the Patties
  - Transfer 1/3 of the cooked mixture into a food processor and process until thick.
  - Place the mixtures from the sauté pan and food processor into a large bowl.
  - Hand mix (with gloves, if possible).
  - With your hands, form tightly packed burgers.
  - Place burgers onto parchment-lined flat sheet.
- Cook the Patties
  - Cook for 25-30 minutes, flipping at 12 minutes.
Beet Burger: Plating Mise En Place
- Mindful Plating
  - Garnish with avocado slices, tomatoes, walnuts, hempseed cream, capers.
  - Enjoy!
YUM. The Farm-to-Table Beet Burger.

A photo for the Coronavirus Pandemic…My weekly trip to the Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market.

Melanie Albert, Experience Nutrition, Downtown Phoenix Farmers Market, Coronavirus Pandemic. May 2020.

Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenutritionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

Sedona Plant-Based Cooking & Self-Care Retreat Update

Excited to share with you that our next Sedona Retreat is September 18-21, 2020. And, wanted to let you know that we decided to cancel the June 2020 retreat, in light of the Coronavirus. If you’re interested in the retreat, or a custom retreat for a group of your friends or business associates, please let me know, 602.615.2486 Mel@MelanieAlbert.com

Click to learn more about the Sedona Plant-Based Cooking & Self-Care Retreat and enjoy some photos of our 2019 retreat.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
May 14, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Simple Avocado Salsa, as Featured in Natural Awakenings Magazine, Arizona
It is again such an honor to create recipe articles for the Natural Awakenings Magazine, Phoenix and Northern Arizona during the last few years. And, I am humbled to contribute to the important May 2020 issue during the Coronavirus Pandemic, to bring a little joy to our lives, with beautiful food. – Melanie Albert
Recipes in the Natural Awakenings, May 2020 article include: Three Beautiful, Simple Plant-Based Recipes

Enjoy mindfully and intuitively creating these simple dishes. Take time to appreciate the beauty of the food, the mindfulness of the cooking process, and the final food art of your culinary creations.
- Hummus. Three Ways. Classic. Turmeric. Beet.
- Raw Carrot Cake. Simple, beautiful, tasty, aromatic dessert.
- Simple Avocado Salsa. Intuitively create with the veggies, aromatics, and herbs in your kitchen. (Today’s recipe.)
Simple Avocado Salsa

I hope you are inspired by this simple to-prepare, tasty avocado salsa, along with “food art.”

Enjoy the video with the steps to prepare and plate your own avocado salsa.

Serves 1

Have fun intuitively creating your own avocado salsa with the veggies grown by our local farmers and available right in your own refrigerator. With the avocado as a base, add in your choice of aromatics (onion, garlic), citrus (lemon or lime), favorite veggies, such as carrots, green or red peppers, radishes, cauliflower, tomatoes), and a fresh herb (basil, cilantro, marjoram).

Thanks to my Arizona farmer friends for the beautiful produce in this Avocado Salsa.
- Blue Sky Organic Farms, Litchfield Park: Grafitti (purple) Cauliflower, Green Onions
- Pinnacle Farms Phoenix: Mini-Carrots, Spring Garlic
- Melanie’s Edible Garden: Fresh Basil, Mini-Tomatoes
Simple Ingredients
- 1 soft, ripe avocado
- 4-5 mini carrots, chopped
- 1 green onion, chopped
- 3-4 clove raw garlic, minced
- 4-5 cauliflower florets, chopped
- ½ lemon, juiced and zested
- 4-5 basil leaves, chiffonade
- Pinch sea salt
- Garnish: Basil leaves and flowers, mini-tomatoes
- Pinch sea salt
Simple Avocado Salsa: Beautiful Arizona farmers ingredients.

Simple Steps
- Chop all ingredients.
- Place avocado in a bowl and mix with a fork.
- Add all other ingredients to the bowl and gently mix all ingredients.
Simple Avocado Salsa: Mise en Place

Simple Plating
- Place ring mold onto plate or bowl.
- Scoop avocado salsa into the ring mold.
- OPTION: If you do not have a ring mold, place a mound of the avocado salsa onto the plate.
- Garnish with basil leaves and mini-tomatoes.
- Enjoy!
Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

I’m feeling that very soon we will ease out of our Coronavirus Stay-at-Home, so if you or your organization is looking for a live in-person hands-on interactive plant-based cooking experience, I’m happy to chat with you to explore opportunities. Feel free to call (602.615.2486) or e-mail (Mel@MelanieAlbert.com) – Melanie

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
May 7, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Farm-to-Table Zucchini Salad. The Farm at South Mountain CSA
Again this week, I’d like to honor our local farmers and farmers’ markets in Phoenix, Arizona who are continuing to bring our “essential” beautiful food to us during the Coronavirus Pandemic. We truly appreciate you.
As always, I am so honored to create recipes for the CSA at The Farm at South Mountain, a small urban farm about half a mile from my home in Phoenix, Arizona. In early May our farmers are transitioning from the “cooler” to “warmer” weather crops. So this week, many farmers are harvesting end of the Spring root veggies (carrots, beets), along with the early Summer veggies, like zucchini.

This week I was totally inspired by the beautiful 2 pound 5 ounce (yes, I weighed it) Costada Romanesco Zucchini. I intuitively created a simple Zucchini Salad with Cashew Cream featuring The Farm’s grapefruit and fresh mint and lemon basil. I invite you to use this recipe as a guide to create your own Zucchini Salad with a nut cream prepared with fresh herbs and citrus available at your local farmers’ market, farmers, or grocery stores. – Melanie Albert

Enjoy the video that showcases the steps to prepare the salad including how to:
- Prepare a refreshing Raw Cashew Cream.
- Spiralize zucchini.
- Peel carrots for salads.
- Mindfully plate with fresh veggies and edible flowers.
Let’s take a look at The Farm at South Mountain CSA (Community Supported Agriculture)

The May 2, 2020 CSA, with the transition from Spring to Summer:
- Roots: Beets, Carrots
- Greens: Glacier Lettuce, Salad Greens, Swiss Chard
- Veggies: Zucchini
- Citrus: Grapefruit
- Herbs: Lemon Basil, Mint, Sage
- Eggs
The Farm at South Mountain. Soil & Seed Garden CSA, May 1, 2020.

RECIPE: Raw Cashew Salad. Cashew Cream.

Ingredients: Zucchini Salad. Cashew Cream.

Serves 2

Cashew Herbal Cream

Inspired by The Farm’s grapefruit and fresh mint and lemon basil.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- 1 cup raw cashews, soaked in water, 2-4 hours
- 2 TBSP grapefruit juice
- 1 TBSP grapefruit zest
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2-3 stems of mint and lemon basil
- 2-3 onion green onions, sliced
- Pinch sea salt
Mise en Place: Cashew Cream.

SIMPLE STEPS
- Pre-soak cashews in water; rinse the cashews prior to using in the recipe.
- Place all ingredients into food processor.
- Process until smooth.
Spiralized Zucchini

Spiralize the zucchini and peel the carrots for the salad.

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- ¼ zucchini, spiralized
- 1 carrot
SIMPLE STEPS
- Spiralize the zucchini with a spiralizer.
- If you do not have a spiralizer, use a veggie peeler to thinly slice the zucchini.
- Slice the carrots with veggie peeler.
Costada Romanesco Zucchini. Spiralized.

Zucchini Salad

SIMPLE STEPS
- Toss the zucchini and carrots with the Cashew Cream.
SIMPLE PLATING

Ingredients
- Zucchini Salad
- 1 Swiss chard leaf
- 3-4 fresh herb leaves: mint, lemon basil
- 3-4 mini-tomatoes
- 1-2 green onions
Zucchini Salad: Plating Mise en Place.

Simple Steps
- Mindfully plate.
- Place Swiss chard onto the plate.
- Layer the tossed zucchini onto the Swiss chard.
- Add the garnish ingredients.
- Enjoy.
Enjoy a few plating views of this simple, delicious, beautiful “summer salad.”

Zucchini Salad. Sunflowers.

Zucchini Salad. In the Garden.

Zucchini Salad. On the Video Set.

Stay in Touch. Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

Please reach out if you are interested in future plant-based farm-to-table cooking experiences, or catering. Look forward to collaborating when “the time is right.”
May 2, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Hummus 3 Ways. As seen in Natural Awakenings Magazine, Arizona
So honored to create plant-based recipe articles during the last several years for the Natural Awakenings Magazine, Phoenix and Northern Arizona. This month, May 2020, I am especially humbled to contribute to the magazine while we are all together during the Coronavirus stay-at-home. And, while so many people are experimenting more in the kitchen with families and kids.

For this article, I decided to bring a touch of positivity to our world with “The Joy of Beautiful Food.” Experiment with the tips to add beauty to meals and have fun creating dishes with beautiful food and edible flowers. – Melanie Albert

Natural Awakenings, May 2020.

Top 4 Ways to Add Beauty to Your Meals:
1. Buy Beautiful Veggies from Our Local Farmers.
2. Add Color and Texture to your Dishes.
3. Add Natural Aromatherapy to Your Culinary Creations.
4. Plate Mindfully.
I hope you are inspired to add a little beauty and joy to life by creating some beautiful, mindful plant-based dishes. Share your creations with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenutritionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition.

Happy to share a few of my very favorite recipes in the Natural Awakenings article. Importantly, you can easily modify the recipes with local farmers’ seasonal produce, along with the fruit and veggies in your refrigerator. Enjoy!

Three Beautiful, Simple Plant-Based Recipes

Enjoy mindfully and intuitively creating these simple dishes. Take time to appreciate the beauty of the food, the mindfulness of the cooking process, and the final food art of your culinary creations.
- Hummus. Three Ways. Classic. Turmeric. Beet.
- Avocado Salsa. Intuitively create with the veggies, aromatics, and herbs in your kitchen.
- Raw Carrot Cake. Simple, beautiful, tasty, aromatic dessert.
Hummus Three Ways: Beet. Turmeric. Classic.

Simple Avocado Salsa.

Raw Carrot Cake. Edible Flowers.

Hummus Video. In the cooking video, come into my kitchen and see the steps to create the Three Hummus Recipes.

RECIPE: Hummus. Three Ways. Classic, Turmeric, Beet.

Use these recipes as a guide to create your own hummus. Once you’ve learned how to prepare the basic classic hummus, have fun experimenting and intuitively creating your own versions of it.

Serves 4

Classic Hummus. Turmeric. Beet.

I’m excited to share with you the same recipe we made for the Super Bowl XLIV VIP Tailgate Party for the Super Bowl in Miami. Now you can make it, too. In addition to the Classic Hummus, traditionally made with tahini (ground sesame seeds), we can create different versions of hummus with turmeric or beet powder. Enjoy!

Simple Ingredients
- 2 cups cooked chickpeas (garbanzo beans)
- ⅓ cup chickpea water
- 3 tbsp tahini (sesame seed paste)
- 3 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
- ⅛ tsp cumin seeds, hand -round
- ⅛ tsp coriander seeds, hand-ground (seeds from cilantro)
- Pinch sea salt
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- Turmeric Hummus: 1/2 tsp turmeric powder, pinch black pepper
- Beet Hummus: 2 tsp beet powder
Simple Steps
- Place all ingredients, except olive oil, into a food processor.
- Blend a few minutes, until smooth.
- Stream in the olive oil and blend until creamy.
- After the hummus has been blended, taste and add more of any of the ingredients to suit your taste.
- Turmeric or Beet Hummus: After creating the Classic Hummus, add either the turmeric or beet powder to the food processor. Process until well combined.
Simple Plating
- Mindfully plate the three versions of hummus with fresh edible flowers, fresh herbs, or chopped veggies.
Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

Will also be sharing the Avocado Salsa and Raw Carrot Cake in videos and blog posts. Stay tuned.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Culinary Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
April 28, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Your Recipe Guide for a Quick & Simple Avocado Salsa With What’s in Your Refrigerator
During our coronavirus stay-at-home, a simple to prepare lunch, breakfast or snack, is an “avocado tartare.” You might call it avocado salsa with a few extra veggies. I hope this avocado recipe guide inspires you to create your own beautiful, delicious avocado tartare with whatever vegetables are in your kitchen. – Melanie Albert

Avocado Tartare Key Ingredients

The 5 base ingredients for avocado tartare are:
1. A ripe avocado
2. Citrus: lemon, lime, grapefruit, Meyer lemon
3. Sea salt
4. Aromatic: onion, garlic, shallot
5. Fresh herb: parsley, basil, cilantro, marjoram, lemon balm
Avocado Tartare: The Add-in Veggies

To these base ingredients, add in a few veggies – any kind – available at your local farmers’ markets, local farmers, or grocery stores. Some ideas: Broccoli, cauliflower, carrots, celery, cucumbers, tomatoes, olives.

The plant-based cooking video guides you through the simple step-by-step process to prepare the avocado salsa. And, for reference, you can printout the recipe.

Avocado Salsa Recipe Guide

Use this recipe as a guide for Avocado Salsa with whatever veggies are in your refrigerator. This is a great recipe to experiment with intuitive cooking, where we choose a few vegetables, herbs, and aromatics we are attracted to and enjoy our creation.

Serves 1

Simple Ingredients
- 1 avocado
- 2 tbsp green onions
- 2 tbsp fresh parsley, minced
- 1 tsp Meyer lemon juice
- Pinch sea salt
- 1 carrot, sliced
- 3-4 cauliflower florets
- Optional garnish: few broccoli stems
Avocado Tartare: Simple Ingredients

Simple Steps
- Chop all ingredients
- Toss all ingredients into a bowl.
- Mix avocado with a fork.
- Add Meyer lemon juice and sea salt to the avocado.
- Mix all ingredients with a fork.
- Mindfully plate.
- Enjoy
Aocado Tartare: Plating Mise en Place

Since I love Avocado Tartare’s so much, I’ll continue to share some of my intuitively created dishes with you, to give you more ideas on how you an mix-and-match veggies, herbs, aromatics, and citrus.

Stay in touch with us on www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ and Instagram @experiencenturitionaz and tag us #experiencenutrition on your plant-based culinary creations.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Cooking Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.

www.ExperienceNutrition.com
April 21, 2020
Experience Nutrition: Cook at Home Roasted Veggie Bowl with “Social Distancing.” 5 Tips to Roast Veggies Perfectly Every Time
Now that we all all cooking more at home, it’s a great time to learn a few simple culinary (it’s cooking!) methods.
With a plant-based way of eating, we do eat a lot of vegetables. With this in mind, it’s important to know several different simple culinary skills to prepare vegetables, such as roasting, steaming, sautéing, and raw.

One of my favorite ways to cook veggies is roasting. With this method of roasting, we cook the veggies spread out “distancing” in the oven to brown the outside, while keeping the center a little soft. We can roast all kinds of veggies which gives us a nice variety of tastes, textures, and colors. – Melanie Albert

Visit our new Experience Nutrition YouTube Channel for the video of the Roasted Veggie Bowl Recipe.

Thank You Farmers and Farmers Markets

Today’s roasted veggies were created with produce from local farmers: The Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, and Blue Sky Organic Farms, Litchfield Park, Arizona. All of the veggies were in CSA’s (Community Support Agriculture) offered by the farms during our Coronavirus stay-at-home.

In Arizona, we are so fortunate that our farmers and farmers’ markets are considered essential grocery stores. Thus, we still have the opportunity to purchase beautiful food from our farmers, and they can continue to harvest and sell to our community. Thank you!

The Farm at South Mountain, Phoenix, Arizona, April 2020

Farm-to-Table Spring Roasted Veggie Bowl

Enjoy this tasty roasted veggie culinary method and create a bowl with brown rice and beans for a perfect lunch. Use this recipe as a guide to roast crispy on the outside and soft on the inside veggies. Choose a few of your favorite vegetables from your local farmers that are right in your kitchen and enjoy roasting beautiful, tasty veggies at home.

Roasted Veggie Bowl: The Veggies, Olive Oil, Sea Salt

SIMPLE INGREDIENTS
- Blue Sky Organic Farms
  - 1 fennel, root sliced
  - 1 spring green garlic, sliced
  - 1 leek, chopped
  - 3-4 celery stalks, sliced
  - 3-4 cauliflower florets
  - 3-4 broccoli florets
- The Farm at South Mountain
  - 2 beets (golden and red), sliced
  - 1 radish (breakfast), sliced
  - 1 turnip ( scarlet) sliced
- Grocery Store / My Pantry
  - 1 sweet potato, sliced
  - 2-3 TBSP organic extra virgin olive oil
  - Pinch sea salt
- Extras
  - Plating: Brown rice, beans
  - Garnish: Edible flowers
SIMPLE STEPS
- Pre-heat oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.
- Chop all veggies into equal-sized pieces.
- One-by-one, place veggies in a bowl.
- Coat veggies with olive oil and sea salt.
Chopped veggies ready to be coated with olive oil and a pinch of sea salt.
- Place veggies flat side down on unbleached, natural parchment-paper- lined flat sheet pan.
Veggies “social distancing” on the parchment-lined sheet pans.
- Cook for 12 minutes.
- Flip.
- Cook another 12-15 minutes.
Roasted veggies. Ready to be mindfully plated.
- Enjoy as a veggie bowl.
TOP 5 TIPS TO ROAST VEGGIES PERFECTLY EVERY TIME
1. Coat the chopped veggies thoroughly with oil.
2. When placing on unbleached parchment paper, be sure the veggies do not touch each other.
3. When placing veggies on parchment paper, place flat side down, so the side of the vegetable can brown.
4. Flip veggies about half-way through the cooking process.
5. Pay attention to veggies while they are cooking, as they cook at different speeds. More dense vegetables (like beets and sweet potatoes) take longer to cook than water-rich veggies, like onions.
If you are enjoying our Experience Nutrition Blog, with simple plant-based recipes and lifestyle tips, please subscribe to the Blog, our www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ , and new YouTube Channel.

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Cooking Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
April 14, 2020
EXPERIENCE NUTRITION: Food & Lifestyle Tip: Stay-at-Home Simple Healthy Cooking Shopping List
To eat well, cook simple meals, and do our best to stay healthy while we are all at home during the Coronavirus “stay-at-home,” it is important to be stocked with a few basic kitchen staples, along with fresh veggies and fruit.
When we first started hearing about the coronavirus in the US, I actually started thinking about what foods would be essential to have at home. I realized that they are very similar to my list of “how to stock whole food pantry” in my book “A New View of Healthy Eating” for any time of the year. – Melanie Albert

For a visual of my personal pantry, visit the Experience Nutrition You Tube Channel, and subscribe for future cooking videos.

Learn to Cook. This whole food shopping list is based on staples to be able to cook, simple, delicious meals. Throughout the next few weeks, I’ll share how to use all of these staples. Please feel free to send me a note on my new Facebook Page (Facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ), if you have any specific questions or foods you’d like to learn how to cook, or if you need to make any substitutions, based on what’s available in your area.

Go Slow. I do recognize that we are all at different levels of cooking knowledge and skill levels. If you are new with cooking, buy what you can and feel comfortable from the shopping list. Do not overwhelm yourself. Go slow over the next few weeks to gradually learn some new cooking skills into your life that may last the rest of your life.

Shopping List Guide. I personally use this shopping list as a guide and invite you to shop for what you can in your own area and based on your personal level of cooking. I will be sharing cooking techniques and tips every day.

Key Shopping Categories

Use the Panty Shopping List as a guide for the ingredients to stock your pantry in the following food categories.
- Whole Grains
- Beans & Legumes
- Whole Grains
- Nuts & Seeds
- Extra Virgin Olive Oil
- Seasonings / Sea Salt
- Dry Goods
- Fresh Produce (hopefully your local farmers markets are open)
Whole Grains

Choose a few different whole grains for breakfast and side dishes. Buy a few pounds of each. If whole grains are not available in your local stores right now, or if you’d prefer delivery to your home, I just checked, and they are available online on Amazon (not promoting, just informing). I’ll be sharing a very simple way to cook whole grains perfectly every time, right on the stovetop. I’ll also share how you can enjoy grains for breakfast, lunch, and side dishes, including Veggie Bowls with Whole Grains.
- Brown rice
- Quinoa
- Steel cut oats
- Rolled oats
Dried Beans & Legumes

I totally recommend dried beans as they are much more affordable than canned beans and taste better, as well. Buy a few pounds of dried beans and lentils to be used to make hummus, tossed in a salad, soup.

With our Food & Lifestyle Tips and Videos, I’ll be sure to share with you how to easily cook dried beans. I’ll also share recipes for tasty hummus originally made for the VIP Tailgate Party at the Super Bowl in Miami in 2009, lentil soup, raw chili, and will create other recipe ideas for you.

Experiment with a few different beans and legumes, such as:
- Garbanzo beans (chickpeas)
- Green lentils
- Red lentils
- Black beans
- Pinto
- Kidney
- Tepary Beans (especially if you’re in Arizona)
Nuts & Seeds

Nuts and seeds are rich in protein and healthy fats and can be eaten as snacks, made into nut milk, used in smoothies, toppings in salads, and delicious raw desserts.

Buy a variety of raw organic nuts and seeds, such as:
- Almonds
- Cashews (great for desserts!)
- Pecans
- Walnuts
- Pumpkin seeds
- Sunflower seeds
- Hemp seeds
- Chia seeds (for smoothies)
Extra Virgin Olive Oil

During this time (and always), you’ll need a high-quality olive oil. Recommend: Organic, First-pressed, Cold Pressed. Less than .8 percent acid.

Will be sharing tips on how to make a simple 3-ingredient home-made salad dressing, and different ways to cook veggies using olive oil as flavor. Personally, I use olive oil almost every day and believe it is a must in our kitchen all the time.

Seasonings

The top seasoning is sea salt or Himalayan salt. Salt brings out or enhances the flavor of whatever we cook. I use coarse Celtic sea salt and hand-grind it in a mortar and pestle for cooking.

A few basic seasonings you can use now while we are “at home” and continue to cook with in the future.
- Dried Mediterranean herbs: Combination or separate herbs, such as basil, oregano, marjoram, thyme
- Seeds: Cumin (for hummus and soups)
- Dried Mexican spices: Any kind of peppers, such as chili, ancho, chipotle
- Dried spices: Cinnamon (key); Extras: nutmeg, cardamom
Dry Goods

Other extra foods to stock your pantry.
- Coconut water (for smoothies)
- Vinegar: Any kind for salad dressings, such as balsamic, red wine, rice, apple cider
- Stone-ground mustard (for salad dressings)
- Coconut oil. Virgin, unrefined (for desserts)
- Extras: Olives and goji berries (my favorite extras)
Fresh Produce

Roots

In the Daily Food & Lifestyle Tips, I will be sharing how to cook root veggies a few simple ways: Roast, Steam, Sauté, and even Raw.
- Carrots
- Beets
- Sweet potatoes
- Radishes
Greens & Veggies

We can enjoy nutrient-rich greens in side dishes, soups, and veggie bowls.
- Dark leafy greens: Kale, collards, arugula, spinach
- Broccoli
- Cauliflower
- Celery
- Lettuce
- Tomatoes
- Bell peppers
- Your favorites
Fruit
- Bananas (freeze some for smoothies)
- Apples
- Lemons, limes (important for salad dressings)
- Avocados
- Dates
- Your favorite fruits, for snacking
- Frozen fruit: Mixed or separate berries, such as blackberries, blueberries, cherries, raspberries, strawberries
Fresh Herbs

Purchase a few herbs, available at your local farmers markets or grocery stores. We’ll use the herbs to add flavor to all kinds of veggie dishes. Or, if available, plant a few of your favorite herbs. Side note, here in Arizona, one of our plant-start entrepreneurs is delivering plants, including herbs, to our homes.
- Parsley
- Basil, dill, oregano, marjoram
Shopping List Guide. I invite you to use this shopping list as a guide to shop for what you can in your own area and based on your personal level of cooking. I will be sharing cooking techniques and tips every day.

Cooking Videos. I’ll keep you posted on new, whole foods, plant-based cooking videos on my Experience Nutrition You Tube Channel, so you can actually see how to prepare dishes with the basic foods in the shopping list.

Share on Facebook. Finally, as I mentioned earlier, please reach out to me with any questions on my Facebook page: www.facebook.com/ExperienceNutritionAZ

By Melanie Albert, Plant-Based Cooking Leader, Founder & CEO, Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona. Award-winning cookbook author, speaker, corporate wellness, team building, retreat leader, and caterer.
April 9, 2020
EXPERIENCE NUTRITION: Food & Lifestyle Tip of the Day: 5 Steps to Cook Intuitively During our Stay-at-Home. Avocado Salsa Recipe
Now that nearly everyone around the world is staying at home to help flatten the Coronavirus Curve, I will be sharing simple Food & Lifestyle Tips of the Day. The intention of the tips is to give you ideas that you could incorporate easily into your day-by-day activities around living a healthy lifestyle while we are all at home. And, in the long run implement tips that resonate with you to positively affect your life. — Melanie Albert

Some of the tips will be around plant-based food, cooking, and eating with recipes, culinary (cooking) techniques, and even food art. Other tips will focus on positivity, mindfulness, and self-care.

Meet Melanie Albert

As a little background for those of you who do not know me, a few highlights. I am the founder & CEO of Experience Nutrition in Phoenix, Arizona, and award-winning cookbook author.
- My passion is plant-based farm-to-table culinary, and I’ve led hundreds of cooking experiences, courses and retreats. I’m trained with 610 hours of plant-based culinary training.
- 2007 graduate of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition / Certified International Health Coach
- 9 years marketing, branding, and licensing consultant with Weil Lifestyle, LLC/Andrew Weil, MD
- 5 years nutrition and cooking with former NFL players, catering and events at Super Bowls, and official Health & Wellness Partner of the NFL Alumni Association in 2011.
- 200-hour Registered Yoga Teacher and nearly 20 years practicing yoga.
- For decades, I’ve lived my passion around healthy lifestyle, cooking, and eating, and am happy to share ideas with you.
- I’ve been a work-from-home entrepreneur for 25 years; thus I have decades of personal experience with being at home, and enjoying it.
I hope you are inspired by some of the motivational food and lifestyle tips I share with you.

Experience Nutrition: Food & Lifestyle Tip of the Day: Cook Intuitively…with what’s in Your Refrigerator.

What is Intuitive Cooking?

With Intuitive Cooking, we pay attention to food. We notice the shapes, colors, flavors, and aromatherapy. By listening to our heart or gut, we choose a few foods we wish to purchase (at local farmers markets, if possible). When it’s time to cook, we pay attention to our bodies. What are we craving. Which foods are we visually attracted to. Then we cook with those foods and enjoy our meals.

During our stay-at-home, it is also important to cook with our intuition. We listen to our bodies and senses. And, we cook with what’s available in our kitchens during these days when our food options may be limited.

5 Simple Steps to Get Started with Intuitive Cooking
1. Learn basic culinary (or cooking) skills or techniques and then use those skills to intuitively create dishes and meals with ease and confidence.
2. Cook with what’s in your kitchen.
3. Use a recipe as a guide.
4. Substitute ingredients in the recipe with what you have in your refrigerator.
5. Have fun experimenting and enjoy your creation.
Intuitive Cooking Avocado Salsa Recipe

Today, with intuitive cooking in mind, I created a very simple Avocado Salsa with what was in my refrigerator and little edible garden. This is a quick and easy lunch or snack. You’ll need an avocado, an aromatic (any onion), garlic (if you have it), a small tomato, citrus (lemon or lime), a fresh herb (parsley, basil, cilantro, marjoram), and sea salt. Plus, include optional ingredients for plating (such as broccoli or cauliflower).

Use this recipe as a guide for Avocado Salsa with whatever veggies are in your refrigerator. Some ideas: Green or red bell peppers, carrots, celery, cucumbers, olives.

Serves 1

Simple Ingredients
- 1 avocado
- 2 tbsp onions
- ½ tsp garlic cloves, minced
- 1 small tomato or ½ cup mini tomatoes
- ½ tsp lemon juice
- ½ tsp lemon zest
- 1 tbsp fresh herbs, such as basil, cilantro, or marjoram
- Pinch sea salt
- Optional: few broccoli stems
Simple Steps
- Chop ingredients.
Avocado Salsa: Ingredients Chopped & Ready
- Toss all ingredients into a bowl.
- Mix with a fork.
- Mindfully plate.
- Enjoy.
Please share your Avocado Salsa creations with us on Instagram @nutritionauthor #experiencenutrition and let me know if you have any cooking questions.
April 4, 2020