A Beautfiul Breakfast is a Healthy Breakfast

Start your breakfast with a beautiful plate of healthy goodies.

As you may know, I'm a big fan of the morning masterpiece. Waking up and making something extra-special to get your day started. I love to take this opportunity to wake up my senses in the morning in every way. If you're looking for healthy breakfast ideas, this is a great start.

All it takes is a mix of textures, colors, flavors and a little bit of imagination. I like to start with a white plate. It's like a blank canvas for me. I then make some healthy breakfast choices. Raw food makes gorgeous ingredients for your artistic palette as well as your taste palette. I usually like to start with yogurt as a foundation to build upon. Jams, jellies and squirts of juice add great bursts of texture to the plate. Large pieces of fruit make a great anchor visually and I often I like to stud it with honey comb. Honey makes a great drizzle texture. Granola and nuts add crunch and variety to the plate. I like to choose from colorful and exotic fruits and often edible flowers from my garden to complete my composition. Consider adding cheeses, meats, dried fruit or anything you desire.

Breakfast in my courtyard

Don't be afraid to play with your food! Have a great time. It's also a wonderful activity to do together with your kids. You can make a healthy breakfast for kids, they will think they are making art and the will love eating their magnificent morning creations. Provecho!

Blue Corn around the Corner in Silver Lake

Blue corn quesadilla with potatoes and chorizo

Today I had quite a pleasant surprise when I was walking home from Dinosaur Coffee and ran into the blue corn quesadilla lady of Echo Park. She happened to be working an event at Mack Sennett Studios. I couldn't resist a quesadilla.

Street food is my favorite. Just like in Mexico City, potato and chorizo quesadillas are my number one choice.

One of my favorite ladies in Los Angeles. Making some homemade tortillas from blue corn for quesadillas.

Cookbooks Just In... from Roy Choi, Julia Child and more!

Cookboks by Roy Choi, Julia Child and more

I just added some new cookbooks to add to my library. It was a little gift to myself for Christmas. Cookbooks are great gifts for any occasion. They are also a great gift for yourself - a way to learn new food recipes from you favorite chef, learn about new food ingredients, different cooking methods and open your palette up to a whole new food culture.

The books I ordered were a mix from new chefs, classic chefs, world cuisine and making homemade pantry recipes. I'll be preparing recipes from these cookbooks soon so make sure to check back and see what recipes I cook up in the kitchen.

Check out these new cookbooks I just ordered:

L.A. Son: My Life, My City, My Food by Roy Choi
Mastering the Art of French Cooking, Vol. 1, 40th Anniversary by Julia Child
The Homemade Pantry: 101 Foods You Can Stop Buying and Start Making by Alana Cherlina
Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales: Flavors from the Griddles, Pots, and Streetside Kitchens of Mexico by Roberto Santibanez

Morning Masterpiece

Fig Yogurt with Banana, Guava, Honey and Cinnamon

I love fruit. I've been called a fruit. But sometimes fruit can feel a little boring in the morning. Making overnight oats or dumping some yogurt, granola and fruit in a bowl doesn't always give me extra satisfaction I sometimes need in the early hours of the day.

So when I need an little extra visual fulfillment or just need to impress a stranger who stayed over the night before, I like to put my best fruit forward and make a lovely looking plate filled with healthy ingredients to start the day.

I stop thinking of my food as ingredients, and more as materials for art. After assessing my materials I start thinking of the shapes, colors and textures before me. I begin cut shape profiles and lay them out on the canvas, which in this case is now a white plate. A dollop of yogurt, a drizzle of honey and a sprinkle of cinnamon completes my edible art.

So, next time you have guests over for brunch, or just want to make sometime special for yourself in the morning, take a few extra minutes for plating and make your own morning masterpiece. If you create something I would love to see it. Upload your breakfast to Instagram and use the hashtag #morningmasterpiece.

Dia de los Muertos in Los Angeles

My "Dia de los Muertos" altar in Los Angeles, California

My memories of "Dia de los Muertos" (Day of the Dead) at the cemetery of Xoxo in Oaxaca, Mexico live on in my California home every November. I honor those who have been in my life and celebrate their lives. The last week of October, I begin to collect my photos, objects in one spot and buy fresh marigolds from the farmers' market. My bookshelf slowly begins to transform into a beautiful altar to remember important people in my life - this year primarily in my thoughts were my grandfather, my cousin Josh and my friend Josh Clayton-Felt, as well as the "Ayotzinapa 43" (the forty-three students who were "disappeared" in Mexico). Each item on my altar is carefully selected and holds special significance. Candles, copal (incense) and marigolds are among the gifts that welcome and guide the spirits' return.

My altar lit with candles at night 

Altar detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Altar Detail

Among these gifts you will also find water and food, which often was a favorite of the deceased. Potatoes and eggs are offered for the spirit of my grandfather who taught me to make fried potatoes with which he often topped with a fried egg. "Pan de muerto" is a special bread that is made for Day of the Dead. It is slightly sweet, spiced with anise, flavored with orange and topped with sugar. My loaves are made with traditional bone shapes on top, but this year I switched it up and made a full skull shape with crossbones.

Ingredients ready to make "Pan de Muerto"

Making "Pan de Muerto" at home

"Pan de Muerto" at my altar

Crew of Bones Muhroni and my friend, Anselmo, with make up and ready to party.

With our large Mexican community here in Los Angeles, "Dia de los Muertos" has long been a community tradition. The most popular of celebrations is usually sponsored by Self-Help Graphics. This year people gathered around the altars built in Grand Park and celebrated with traditional dance and song.

City Hall in DTLA behind the Grand Park celebration for "Dia de los Muertos"

Downtown LA altar detail

Giant skull on altar in Downtown Los Angeles

The candle on this altar reads "Justice for Tayvon Martin"

Mac and Cheese Waffles, Leftover Makeover!

Mac and Cheese Waffle topped with Sarayo by Xhico

My aunt sends me emails constantly of stuff to try cooking. I think somewhere in the flurry of her emails I saw something about Mac and Cheese Waffles. I never read the article, but remembered it today when I was thinking of what to do with all this leftover amazing Mac and Cheese. So I decided to pull out the waffle iron and give it a go.

I gave the waffle iron a light coat of non-stick cooking spray and heated it up on medium-high. Then I saw some smoke and could smell a burning odor. Oops. I put the cooking spray onto way too soon. But I kept going. I sliced out a piece of mac and cheese from the casserole dish. I laid it in the waffle iron and it began to sizzle. I pressed the waffle iron until it was tight. I could hear the cheese crackling away and I could begin to smell it in the air. It was delightful. I waited and waited for about 8 minutes and thought it was done.

When I opened the waffle maker my macaroni surprise fell apart. The center feel right out as the top stuck snuggly to waffle iron. I pried it away from the top and bottom and set the crispy bits on a paper towel. I tasted them and they were salty, cheesy, crispy goodness. I had to make this work. Being a designer, makes me a good problem solver among other things.

After a quick wipe down, I let the waffler get hot. This time I sprayed a nice coat of non-stick cooking spray right before I put the slice of mac and cheese in. Also, I just gave it a gentle pressure as I closed it and didn't force it in too hard. This time I waited with anticipation. Would my adjustments give me a magic-mac-cheesy-waffle?

The aroma of the cheese crisping was promising. The crackling sound was another sign things were going good. After about 10 minutes I opened the waffle iron and it came away from what has become a golden crunchy crust of cheese. "Yahoo!" I exclaimed. I was so excited that I had actually accomplished this leftover make-over. I took the waffle out and could hardly wait to eat it. I threw it on a plate, topped it with some Sarayo and got to work on that salty, crackly, gooey, cheesy wonder waffle.

Get my BAKED MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE here!

Recipe: Baked Mac & Cheese

Baked Macaroni and Cheese

When I was a kid I loved when that little blue box would come out. I could here the noodles shake in the box and Could totally relate to how my dog felt everyday when he heard the food coming. In that blue box was mac and cheese magic. Little elbow noodles in nuclear orange colored sauce that tasted like heaven. By the time I was ten, I could manage to make it on my own.

It wasn't until I was a teenager and staying at a friends house when his mom said she was making macaroni and cheese, but there was no blue box in sight. No jiggling sound of noodles. I was puzzled. But then I was mesmerized as she began to mix together butter, flour, milk and cheese to make this incredible cheddar sauce. She poured the creamy goodness over perfectly cooked jumbo shells and folded them together. And to my amazement, there was macaroni and cheese – made from scratch, not a little blue box. 

Baked Mac and Cheese

While I was in college, I remembered that night and decided I too would make mac and cheese from scratch. I found a cookbook with a recipe. Though I was frightened by the idea of a bechamel sauce, I would find that it was easy and would become a foundation for many cooking techniques later. So don't be afraid. Ditch the blue box and make some real homemade mac and cheese for your family, but more importantly your self! Treat yo' self!

BAKED MAC AND CHEESE RECIPE:

You will need a large casserole or baking dish, a large high-sided sauce pan for sauce, a large stock pot for pasta and wooden spoon.

Ingredients:

Bechamel Sauce:

1 Stick Butter

1/2 Cup Flour

4 Cups Whole Milk

Seasoning:

5-7 Cloves of Garlic, Finely Diced (You can add more garlic if you're into it and don't have anyone to kiss after dinner)

1 Tbsp Salt (plus more for pasta water)

1 Tbsp Ground Black Pepper

1 Tbsp Mexican Oregano (you can also use Italian Oregano)

1 Tbsp French Thyme

1/4 tsp Freshly Grated Nutmeg (Optional)
1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper (Optional)

1/2 Cup Panko Bread Crumbs - Reserved for Topping(Optional)

Cheese:
2 Cups Sharp Cheddar

1 Cup Smoked Cheddar

1 Cup Gruyere

1 Cup Pecorino Romano

(You can use all Cheddar if you want or any combination of these cheeses or other cheese such as Monterey Jack, Fontina, Pepper Jack, etc.)

Noodles:

1 Pound Box of Elbow Macaroni

(I also like to use Jumbo Elbow Macaroni, Penne and Rigatoni)

METHOD:

1. PREP

- Chop garlic

- Measure out all seasonings and put in small bowl

- Grate cheese and put into one large bowl (Set aside a 1/2 cup of cheese for topping)

- Butter the bottom and sides of your casserole or baking dish

2. Preheat oven to 400º F and put the rack in the center.

3. Bring a large pot of heavily salted water to a boil in a large stock pot. Add noodles and return to a boil and cook for about 3-4 minutes. The noodles should start to be soft, but still undercooked. Drain noodles and rinse with very cold water to stop them from cooking. Set pasta aside.

4. In large high-sided sauce pan add butter on medium-low and let melt. Once butter is melted add flour. With a wooden spoon constantly stir flour mixture and it will form into a paste. Continue to cook for about 3 minutes until it starts to turn golden-brown. This mix is called a roux and is often used to thicken sauces and soups.

5. Once your roux is golden brown, slowly add your milk about 1 cup at a time. Constantly stir the mixture as you add the milk - slowly breaking up the flour mixture. It will look clumpy and first but as you add the milk it will loosen up. Continue stirring constantly and bring to a boil. Be sure to stir gently and scrape the bottom of the saucepan as you stir. This will prevent the milk from building up and scorching at the bottom. 

6. Turn off heat and stir in garlic and seasonings. Stir until mixed through. Begin to add cheese handfuls at a time. The sauce should still be hot enough to melt the cheese itself. Stir until all cheese is melted and throughly combined. At this point taste the sauce to see if you need to add any additional salt or seasoning.

7. Gently fold your noodles into the sauce until all noodles are coated with sauce. *Note: If you don't want to bake it and eat it all hot and cheesy right off the stovetop, you can! Just cook your noodles all the way to al dente and you're good to go!

8. Pour the noodle mixture into your baking dish. Top with 1/2 cup of cheese and bread crumbs.

9. Bake uncovered in oven at 400ºF for 30-40 minutes until cheese is bubbling and top is golden brown. Remove from oven and let stand 5-10 minutes before serving.

Provecho!