I sing the body electric.

Ingredients: black beans, corn, tomatoes, bell peppers, yellow onions, cilantro, cumin, lime juice.

We heated the burrito mix in a small pot on stove for about 5 minutes and ate our meal over cilantro and lime brown rice and homemade guacamole.

Very simple and inexpensive. The cumin and the cilantro were a perfect combo.

We also made some millet-coconut blueberry scones.

Ingredients: Millet flour, coconut flour, tapioca flour, banana juice, maple syrup, brown rice syrup, vegetable oil, baking powder, baking soda, salt, blueberries.

The coconut flour smelled AMAZING. These scones aren’t that sweet and I like it that way. I ate two this morning before heading off to volunteer (got coffee at the hospital so I was extra energetic) and ate two more when I got home.

I enjoy baking because it serves as a wonderful creative outlet. It takes creativity to bake (or cook) with healthy, wholesome ingredients and still have it taste good. I like to think of baking and cooking as a melding of two of my life passions: art and medicine. And when I’m a nurse, I will nag my patients into creatively incorporating whole foods into their meals— or parents of patients if I become a neonatal nurse :).

The only time I bake with enriched flour is when I’m baking for friends. When I bake for myself or for friends and family with open-minded taste buds, I only use whole grains (whether it be wheat or gluten free flours). That being said, I’m horrible at following recipes. I always tweak something— adding more dairy-free milk, adding less oil, manipulating the cane sugar and brown or raw sugar ratios, adding cassia, nutmeg, or other spices when the recipe doesn’t call for any. And for someone who loves to bake, I don’t have much of a sweet tooth. If anything, I have a spice-tooth. Cassia, cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves— I love them all. My favorite cultural cuisine (excluding the one I grew up with) is Indian because Indian food tends to be very, very spice-happy. Italian food comes in a close second due to my love for thyme, oregano, basil, and other herbs. Thanks to herbs and spices, I almost never use salt in my cooking. Soy sauce is my biggest source of sodium but I only use that about once or twice a week.

PS - I started drinking the Cafe du Monde chicory coffee that my brother got me for Christmas. DELICIOUS.