Back in July of last year, I wrote a post “When Bad Things Happen to Good People – A Helpful Book to Cope with Loss” in which I basically wrote about how this book helped me accept the early loss of my newly born son, Kush. In response to that post, my girlfriend Bhakti mentioned a book she had recently come across called Sun Kisses, Moon Hugs by two LA based moms, author Susan Bernardo and illustrator, Courtenay Fletcher.
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On a recent and much needed girls’ getaway weekend in San Francisco, my sister-in-law Arti introduced me to LUSH, a beauty, cosmetics and skincare brand that she’s been using and loving. Over the few days that we’d been visiting, I tried a couple of Arti’s buys from LUSH and Swati (my other sister-in-law) and I wanted to head out to the closest location to get some of our own to take back home. Although an English company, Lush opened it’s first American doors in San Fran in 2003 and now have over 150 stores nation wide. Plus they sell their products online.
Walking into the store, you can almost immediately smell that “LUSH” scent. I think either you’ll love it or hate it….because it’s sort of intense. But I kind of loved it and was totally drawn in to their incredibly colorful and completely divine smelling products. Once inside, the setup of all their goods is really unique and enticing. Because LUSH doesn’t use too much water to create their products, they incorporate a cool way of “setting their products free” by making them solids which can be layed out “naked” in big tubs or containers. This means that many of their products – like their masks – are presented without packaging and customers can browse around and literally pick and pack up what they want themselves. It’s sort of like self-serve…I thought that was a pretty neat concept. A lot of their other products are packaged. [Read more...]
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A couple of weeks ago, I was craving some soup. It was cold and rainy and on nights like those…there’s nothing better than a warm bowl of your favorite with some crusty bread or breadsticks for dipping. Hitesh loves Olive Garden’s minestrone soup…so I was inspired to make my own with a few changes of course. One of the main changes in my version of this Italian classic, is that I replaced the pasta with bulgar wheat.
If you’ve never tried bulgar wheat, then you should make your first time with this soup. Bulgar wheat is high in fiber (more than twice than brown rice), rich in protein and nutrients, but low in calories and fat. It’s also another food that fills you up without causing you to pack on the pounds. For more on the health benefits of bulgar, click here.
Back to my soup…it turned out great. Since this week’s forecast out here in Southern California is looking a little cold again, I’m making a batch of this delicious minestrone to last us through a dinner and a lunch or two as well. Make some for yourself…even you meat eaters won’t miss the meat…promise! [Read more...]
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