Now that my kids are getting older, they are more vocal about the foods they do not want to see on the weekly dinner menu. One of the veggies they wanted booted off the menu was spinach. With little success - I tried spinach salads mixed with their favorite protein and veggies; I tried serving it in sandwiches and burgers; even tried sautéing the spinach. No matter how I served the kids spinach they could not get past the earthy flavors often found in the veggie.

Mom was a great vegetarian cook, with minimal ingredients mom would turn boring veggies into flavorful meals. Preparing a vegetarian meal was her prime. Her non-veg meals were always tales. She would add oregano and call it Italian, or she would add soy sauce and call it Chinese - we would joke that she was making the same dish just adding a different herb or sauce to call it something else.

Growing up my mom would make a variation of this Indian carrot dish or a regular basis. I remember coming back from school and cringing when I realized that this carrot meal was on the menu for the evening. I grew to despise this carrot meal, so much so that I stopped eating carrots for a while.

As a working mom I am always looking for quick, easy, and tasty meal ideas. Cooking a meal at the end of the work day is near impossible. Between wrapping up work and taking the kids to their after school activities, the end is usually over before it begin. So I generally do my meal prep in the mornings before the sun its out.

 I did not grow up eating a lot of sweet potatoes in Hong Kong. Occasionally sweet potatoes would be included in curry. During the wintertime, there would be the occasional street hawker selling warm roasted sweet potatoes - absolutely fantastic for those cold days spent walking around the city. But that is really the extent of my recollection of sweet potatoes as a child.

I grew up watching my parents and extended family have their morning chai - warm black tea boiled and then steeped with spices (like cardamom, cloves, ginger, cinnamon, and star anise) and milk . I always loved the smell but never appreciated a good cup of chai until I was much older.