Quick and easy eggplant dish

Rinse the eggplant, cut it into slices, put it into a bowl and steam for 10 mins. On serving, stir it with chopped ginger and spring onion, garlic, sesame oil and a little vinegar and soy sauce.

Quick Asian flavor noodle bowl for lunch or dinner

This is a quick and easy way to make a meal out of left over that is otherwise too little to make a full meal. I happend to have the items below at home but feel free to substitute.

1 bowl - Cooked glass noodle or any kind of asian noodle you like
4 tbsp - Miso dressing from Trader Joe's (optional)
1/2 cup - Asian salad dressing - I use Feast from the East asian dressing from Costco but you can also make your own with sugar, vinega, salt and pepper, sesame oil and other spices to your liking.

Heat up the leftover either in a pan or in the microwave. Put the hot noodle in a bowl. Mix the miso dressing with the asian salad dressing and then pour over hot noodle. Top with leftover.

Time: 10 mins.

Vegan Chili in 5 minutes

This is a really easy recipe and you will have tasty vegan chili in 5 mins.

Ingredients:
Trader Joe's vegan chorizo sausage (1)
Kidney bean, canned (1 can)
Unsweetened Almond milk (1/2 cup to 2 cups)

1. Peel off the plastic casing on the sausage and crumple it in the saucepan.
2. Add kidney beans and 1/2 cup of almond milk.
3. Heat the mixture until hot. Add more almond milk if you want the chili to be milder in taste.

Eat with rice, nacho/sour cream, or any way you like to eat chili.

Note: you can use other beans if you want to. I am allergic to soy milk but I think you can use unsweetened soy or coconut milk.

Keep ants away

Ants won't crawl over chalk, so sprinkle powdered chalk around window casements.

Mix 10.5 oz water, 3 oz tobasco sauce, 1.5 oz Dr Bronner's liquid peppermint soap and spray where ants enter the home.

Cayenne pepper is another natural deterrent: mix 1/4 tsp with 1 tsp dishwashing liquid per quart of water and spray around entry points to your home.
I forgot to add dishwashing liquid last time but as soon as the water evaporates, the ants crawled over the cayenne pepper so I don't think this method works.

Plant some goldenrod outside - it attracts ant predators such as ladybugs

Jump start to wellness

I was reading an article I saved from one of those women's magazine about wellness. It gave strategies to achieve four goals: lower your blood pressure, slash cholesterol, clean up your diet, banish fatigue.

Some of the tips were pretty obvious lifestyle adjustments like drink more water, eat more vegetables, eat smaller meals but snack more often, exercise, get good quality sleep, reduce salt intake, get a massage, learn to breathe.

However, I find that the first three goals can be achieved effortlessly if you switch to a vegan diet. It is unfortunate that people are so brainwashed about getting protein from meat and dairy that we don't realize meat is the cause of much health problems in our country: obesity, heart disease, cancer, and many more aliments that can be avoided. Less developed country with plant based diet start to suffer dramatic increase in these diseases when they start to adopt our western diet. I wonder when people will find that meat is bad for you, much like how tobocco company use to make people think that smoking is alright.

Improve your quality of sleep

Don't drink before bed - A glass of wine with dinner may relax you temporarily, but alcohol will actually wake you up again four to six hours after you've taken your last sip. That's because your body digests the alcohol, some of the by-products interfere with the stages and duration of your sleep.

Wear socks to bed - That added warmth encourages good blook circulation, which signals neurotransmitters in your brain that it's time to relax and go to sleep

Take your vitamins - Calcium and magnesium both help nerves stay healthy so they can effectively signal muscles to relax at night. When you know you're facing crazier-than-normal days ahead, make sure you get your daily 1,200 millgrams of calcium through dark leafy greens, and your magnesium by eating legumes, nuts, and whole grains.

Get out of bed - if you find yourself tossing and turning for longer than 15 minutes, get back up until your body feels ready to sleep. Try reading something boring.

Instant stress-buster

Sit cross-legged on the floor and grasp your right shoulder with your right hand and your left shoulder with your left hand. Twist to the left at the wasit; hold for ten seconds. Repeat on the right side.