Let’s GOOOOOOOOOOOOO 2026!!!
January brings a sense of calm for me. It’s a time I reflect on the previous year, set intentions for the current year and kick-off an improvement to set the year off right.
This month I’m focused on Meal planning, organizing my time well (lime making time to plan and prep) as well as checking out some new tools. One of the new tools I’m using is a Remarkable! It has worked wonders for organizing my notes at work allowing me to think deeply witout all the distractions a computer or phone brings. When you let your mind do the work instead of a device, the level of creativity becomes exponential. I’ll be giving it a try in organizing my blog, and teaching kitchen classes and materials. This should be fun!
📝 This Month’s Blog Topics:
- Chai Say What!?!?!
- In September I attended the Cincinnati Coffee Festival. There I had the privildge of meeting and sampling authentic Chai from India. Of course I had to bring some home! I’ll talk about the pause of making chai and how it slows me down.
- “Feel emotions, feed hunger”
- Learning to feel our emotions instead of feeding them is a powerful act of self-awareness and care. Choosing to sit with an emotion, take a few deep breaths, pray, journal, or step outside honors the body and the spirit in a way food cannot. Food is meant to sustain us, not soothe every feeling. We’re going to dive deep into this topic.
- Dragonfruit, my newest obsession
- This beautiful fruit hist all the senses, smell, taste, visual it’s is EVERYTHING! I’ll share more and even a video of my simple dessert if I can squeenze it in!
- Monthly Meal Planning
- This month I’m taking on the challenge to meal plan monthly! Phew so far it’s going well. I’ll share the results at the end of the month.
- Kitchen Knife recommendations from a Pro!
- I’m co-teaching a Tubers and Squash class with Chef Mona. A local expert on home cooking. I’ll share with you her kitchen tips for affordable knives. Can’t wait!!
You can learn more about managing stress and hunger even before the blog comes out with this link.
I’m sharing this calendar preview to keep us on track! If you like this format, drop me a line and let me know! Let’s chat 👸🏾
📚 Books of the Month: Let’s Read!
For this month’s books, I first recommend checking them out at the library for Free! Can we talk about the joy of that?!?!? I LOVE the library and check out many many books a month. 🏃🏽♀️ Start with your library!
What if, instead of greeting each day in a scramble to keep up, there was a clearly laid out plan, complete with breathing room for rest and fun? In Best Laid Plans, Dr. Sarah Hart-Unger offers an intuitive planning method for setting audacious goals, working with the natural rhythms of your life in every season, and bringing a sense of peace and joy back to every day.
With Best Laid Plans, you’ll learn:
- How to create and accomplish nested goals for every year, month, week, and day
- The magic of planning in seasonal quintiles, or five seasons instead of four
- The airtight task management method for handling all of those pesky to-dos
- How to fill each day with meaningful moments of connection and delight
I listened to this Podcaster for quite some time, until her podcast go a bit too “salesy” for me. I’m looking forward to her “no ads” book I can give a listen to without distraction.
Waiting to Exhale is a bestselling 1992 novel by Terry McMillan about four African American women in Phoenix—Savannah, Bernadine, Gloria, and Robin—who support each other through relationship struggles, personal challenges, and the search for love and identity, all while “waiting to exhale” for a better life.
I remember reading a bit of this wayyyy back when but could not appreciate the “real-live” these women were loving. I’m feel like I am now adult enough to re-read and appreciate this masterpiece for what it is.
The NPR crew did a really nice job analyzing this book. Check out their views here.
A Dutch oven cookbook with 150 recipes for delicious one pot meals, plus expert-approved product recommendations and Dutch oven cooking hacks! A Dutch oven is the most versatile pot in your kitchen: a soup pot, a deep fryer, a braiser, a roaster, an enclosed bread oven, and the perfect vessel for one pot meals. So don’t push your Dutch oven to the back of the cabinet—learn how to put it to work every day in 150 delicious recipes!
I got a Wicked new Dutch oven for Christmas! Love, love, love it. So I’ll be making a Moroccan CousCous and Chicken recipe (it’s on my meal plan ;). It’s literally so delicious (come on now Kamalata olives) and easy for a weeknight. I’ll be reading this book to get some tips on cooking well in my new pot!
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Stay well,
💛 J