The Goji berry is another fruit rich in antioxidants, specifically carotenoids such as beta carotene and zeaxanthin. It is found in China and the Himalayas and is a dark red fruit related to the cranberry and blueberry. Goji berries have a tangy sweet taste and are considered nutrient dense, rich in phytonutrients and containing essential vitamins and minerals.
I grew up eating Goji berries in the Himalayan foothills. My aunt had huge bushes on her property that grew these little berries abundantly by the hundreds. I would gather the large, ripe soft ones and eat them by the dozens. They were juicy and delicious!
And guess what! I found a website that actually sells seeds so I will be ordering some and growing my own. They are known to be very hardy plants so I am hoping to enjoy some fresh fruit in a couple of seasons. Can’t wait.
Do you have any experience with Goji Berries? I would love to hear about them.
On March 11, I had the pleasure of meeting Pete Carcione, president of the Golden Gate Produce Terminal and owner of Carcione’s Fresh Produce, and experienced a wonderful visit and glimpse into the busy activities of the wholesale produce warehouses at the Golden Gate Produce Terminal.
Pete’s family has been in the produce business for over 90 years, starting with his grandfather who came to America as a teenager and opened a small produce store in San Francisco. You may also remember Pete’s father Joe Carcione, who hosted snippets of advice and tips for fruits and vegetables on television in the 1980’s. Joe also wrote a newspaper column, published two books, and was syndicated on about 80 television stations nationwide for his television and radio spots.
The family legacy continues through Pete Carcione, whose wholesale produce business has been supplying fresh, high quality fruits and vegetables for 35 years to over 400 stores and restaurants throughout northern California.
Pete is currently in the process of re-publishing one of his father’s books, The Greengrocer Cookbookwhich is currently out of print but appears to still be in popular demand, and I am so honored that some of the recipes from my book The Deity Diet are going to be featured in the upcoming release of The Greengrocer Cookbook.
As I drove through the gates of the Golden Gate Produce Terminal, I was absolutely amazed at the size of it – multiple wholesale produce distributors in huge warehouses spread out over 17 acres and 200,000 square feet – filled with farm fresh produce of fruits and vegetables, literally from floor to ceiling, spread out into the street – boxes and boxes of delicious, colorful oranges, apples, Swiss chard, rhubarb, crates of beans, avocados, pineapples, and mangoes from local farms and countries as far away as France and Chile.
It was an art just dodging the forklifts beeping and moving about while they load the shipments on trucks destined for local grocery stores and restaurants. By 9:30 AM most of the activity had slowed down as trucks took off for their deliveries.
I tasted succulent, crunchy baby cucumbers, and sampled fragrant, juicy Mandarin oranges that were dripping with sweetness. I learned about the Name, (pronounced “Nami”) a tuber which looks like an oversized potato but filled with antioxidants and vitamins, and how to pick the best mangoes (but that is another blog post).
I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the produce terminal is not just for business customers but is open to the general public as well. It is located near the San Francisco International airport at 131 Terminal Ct, South San Francisco, CA.
So the next time you are out and about you may want to drop in – maybe you will be lucky enough to pick up a fresh box of sweet, juicy Mandarin oranges for a lot less than what you will pay at your local grocery chain.
The following salad is delicious and filled with amazing health benefits and a rainbow of colors.
In addition to wholesome carrots, apples and nuts, one serving of this salad contains nutrient richKaleandSwiss Chardloaded with minerals andVitamins A, C and K(one cup of Kale provides over 300% of Vitamin A and 80% of your Vitamin C daily needs, while Swiss Chard provides 374% of your Vitamin K daily needs).
Red, Yellow and GreenBell Peppers are high in antioxidants,phytochemicals and lycopene,and known to fight heart disease, stroke and cancer; whileCilantro is powerful cleansing agent, good for the digestion and full of antibacterial qualities.
Ingredients
2 cups Red Swiss Chard, chopped
2 cups Kale, chopped
2 cups Romaine lettuce, chopped
1 cup celery, chopped
1 cup red apple, chopped
1 cup red pepper, chopped
1 cup yellow pepper, chopped
½ cup shredded carrots
½ cup finely chopped cilantro
¼ cup slivered almonds (sprinkle over finished salad)
Directions
Wash vegetables and apples thoroughly, prepare and drain using a salad spinner so salad is nice and dry. Mix thoroughly in a large bowl.
Sprinkle slivered almonds over the top of the salad and serve with your favourite dressing.
This is an excerpt from my book The Deity Diet which highlights some of the personal experiences my American husband and children had, integrating with the culture of India and with my Indian family.
In the culture of Northeastern India, a baby’s first birthday is cause for celebration. We prepare a big feast for relatives, friends, and neighbors, who all gather to wish the baby well.
When my daughter was about to turn a year old, however, I was living in the United States with my American husband. Not a single Indian relative was here, and his family was so scattered about, it would have been impractical to get everyone together in one place.
We were fairly young and didn’t have much money, but I wanted so badly to take my daughter home and show her off to my family that we did what any proud modern-day parents would do: we racked up our credit cards and took off for India, baby in tow. Here is a picture of the happy baby before our trip.
At that time, I had six younger brothers and sisters still living at home, plus my mother, grandmother (sadly, my grandfather had passed away), a multitude of aunts, uncles, and cousins, and tons of old friends and neighbors.
You can probably imagine what it was like to bring an eleven-month-old baby into this lot, where the youngest child was my brother, age seven, practically ancient in comparison to his new niece. My daughter was passed around from one person to another, kissed, doted on, fed all kinds of very un-baby-like treats that I pretended not to notice, and was thoroughly spoiled.
And, of course, there was the complicated business of planning The Birthday Feast, who to invite, what to serve, how much to cook, who would cook it; and “should-we-only-have-tea-or-have-tea-and-then-later-on-dinner,” what music to play, who will provide the blessing, and so on and so forth. You would think we were planning a wedding.
By the time my mother and grandmother were through, it was almost like a wedding, with over two hundred guests. Most people in India think nothing of this – the celebration is both a feast and a religious ceremony – but to my American husband it was all a little mind-boggling.
I have had so many people ask me for this recipe so I am going to post it here in my blog. This recipe creates 4 large servings but it can easily be made into 6 servings depending on how much you want to pile your plate with it. Normally butter chicken has higher calories but this one is about 292 calories per serving and even less calorie content if split into 6 servings.
Mix the chicken, salt, black pepper, cayenne pepper and lime juice in a bowl, cover and set aside in refrigerator.
Chop onions, garlic, ginger and cilantro and set aside.
Mix the yogurt, garam masala, cumin, coriander and turmeric and add to the chicken, mixing thoroughly. (Optional: you can marinade for one hour in refrigerator).
Heat oil in frying pan on medium high heat. Add onions and fry until golden brown. Add ginger and garlic and fry for a couple of minutes.
Add the marinated chicken and fry until all the ingredients are nicely mixed together (about 5 mins). Add tomato paste and water and cook for another 5 minutes until mixture is bubbly. Lower heat, cover and cook until chicken is tender and gravy is thick.
In another pan, melt butter and pour it over the chicken. Sprinkle brown sugar over curry mixing gently and top off with chopped cilantro. Serve with basmati rice or naan.
I have another story about two little village boys I met while traveling through one of the beautiful remote areas of Meghalaya,India after my Oct 08 Himalayan Boot Camp. My husband and I, with my sister and some friends were driving back one late afternoon after spending the day doing some fabulous sightseeing when we came across this little village. The setting sun on this village was so beautiful that we stopped the car for a moment to take some pictures.
While we were taking pictures, I noticed two little boys standing near the side of the road, by a stone quarry, looking at us. They just looked so cute I asked them if I could take a picture. The older brother (who was about four years old), as soon as he realized we were going to take their picture, shouted to us to wait and ran to his little hut nearby and brought out this little pair of shoes that he put on his younger two year old brother so his little brother can have his picture taken with his shoes on. It was just done with so much dignity for such a small child. This just really tugged at my heart as I took some pictures of them.
This experience has really been on my mind since then, and I have been thinking that I have been so blessed and take so much for granted, I really would like to do more; and perhaps there is a way for me to help some of the children in the region on my boot camps. I am still investigating one of my ideas and will post more on this next week. I think it may be of interest for many of you. Please stay tuned!
I would like to share with you an absolutely delicious and healthy recipe that my guests at my March 15 boot camp (Scotts Valley, CA) loved. I have been getting requests for the recipe from some of them so I thought I would just post it here.
This is such an easy spread to make so here it is:
2 cups of edamame beans
3 garlic cloves
2” section of fresh ginger
4 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup of water
Blend everything together into a paste. Depending on how thick you want it you may need to add a little more water.
If you want to make it a little spicy, add some cayenne pepper or fresh chillies. You can get edamame beans in most grocery stores (under $4 at Costco for a large container).
You can enjoy this spread on whole wheat crackers, or with fresh fruit for a nutritious snack or light meal.
I am so excited to share that I made my television debut on The View from the Bay! It was a lot easier than I expected. I thought I would be more nervous, but I wasn’t. I learned about cooking on TV. You actually prepare everything ahead of time and basically pretend to cook! Live television is fun. At one point, Spencer poured all the oil into the ingredients when I wasn’t looking and when I went to stir fry the curry I didn’t have any oil. In fact, I think I told Spencer to put the oil in because I wasn’t paying attention. Ah! Fortunately, the team was very experienced. Spencer made a joke while locating more oil and it turned out great!
The information in this blog is for educational purposes only. For diagnosis or treatment of any medical problem, please consult your licensed health care practitioner.
The Goji berry is another fruit rich in antioxidants, specifically carotenoids such as beta carotene and zeaxanthin. It is found in China and the Himalayas and is a dark red fruit related to the cranberry and blueberry. Goji berries have a tangy sweet taste and are considered nutrient dense, rich in phytonutrients and containing essential vitamins and minerals.
which is currently out of print but appears to still be in popular demand, and I am so honored that some of the recipes from my book 
