As the cold winter season approaches, ensuring a healthy, responsive, and robust immune system becomes even more important. Freezing weather, short days, and reduced sunlight can put stress on our bodies and increase our chances of getting sick. A plant-based diet, full of immune-boosting antioxidants and nutrients that naturally fight inflammation and promote immune response, is an excellent way to make sure you and your family stay as healthy as possible this winter.
Filtering by Author: Lisa Viger Gotte
Cooking with Lisa: Winter 2025
This Winter Vegetable Buddha Bowl is a nourishing, colorful meal featuring roasted sweet potatoes, Brussels sprouts, carrots, and red onions over a bed of quinoa. Topped with fresh kale and spinach, creamy avocado slices, and sprinkled with pomegranate seeds, it’s drizzled with a tangy tahini dressing, offering a perfect balance of warmth, flavor, and nutrition.
Open Your Heart to Cacao: Healing Through Ceremony
“This is the heart medicine that the world needs,” said Lindsey Glasson, founder, and protector of cacao at i.e. Kawa, as well as a facilitator of cacao ceremonies in Michigan and in places around the world. An intuition-led purchase of twenty pounds of cacao at a Costa Rican farmers’ market just before the pandemic inspired Lindsey’s journey that has helped her heal herself and others through cacao and ceremony. Cacao, she said, “is the doorway of the soul.”
Cooking with Lisa~Vegetable Chili with Chocolate and Chocolate Sweet Potatoe Brownies
Cooking with Lisa~Did you know that a bit of cacao powder, or even a bar of dark chocolate, can enhance your favorite chili recipe? It adds a rich, complex depth by enhancing the savory and spicy flavors with a subtle, earthy bitterness. Cacao’s slight bitterness balances the chili’s spiciness and acidity, creating a harmonious blend of flavors that is just delicious.
Cultivating Connection: The Power of Community Gardens
A community garden is like a little shared oasis, a special spot where folks from all walks of life come together to grow delicious veggies, fragrant herbs, and beautiful flowers. It becomes a green sanctuary, where members roll up their sleeves, dig in the dirt, and let nature work its magic. Often organic, community gardens help promote soil health and community connection as much as they do delicious, locally grown food.
Cooking with Lisa: Spring/Summer 2024
Summer recipes for Creamy Asparagus Soup and New Potatoes.
Cooking with Lisa: A Flavorful Winter in Michigan
In Michigan, winter can be cold and snowy which limits the availability of locally grown fresh vegetables. However, some flavorful vegetables can still be in season during winter, especially if they are grown in greenhouses, cold frames, or are properly stored. Here are some vegetables that are in season and readily available during our winters. Many root vegetables like carrots, beets, turnips, and parsnips can withstand cold temperatures and are nearly always available in winter. These are versatile and can be used in a number of ways, including roasted, and in soups like the one below.
Tantre Farm Honeybee Nut Festival A Fall Celebration of Nature’s Bounty
If you’re looking for a fun, free, educational, and delicious way to celebrate fall, the Third Annual Tantre Farm Honeybee Nut Festival in Ann Arbor is the place to be on Sunday Ocotber 8th.
Cooking with Lisa: Cozy Soups for Fall
As the crisp autumn air sets in, it’s the perfect time to indulge in comforting and nourishing fall soups. From hearty stews to creamy bisques, these seasonal delights capture the essence of fall flavors and warm our souls. Here are two easy and delicious fall soup recipes that use seasonal ingredients and will keep you cozy and satisfied throughout the season.
Cooking With Lisa
Vegan burgers are plant-based alternatives to traditional meat-based burgers. They’re made with a variety of healthy and tasty plant-based ingredients, such as beans, grains, vegetables, and soy protein, and can be seasoned with a variety of spices and herbs to create a flavorful and satisfying meal.
Hygge-- Create a Cozy Winter
Hygge, pronounced “hoo-gah,” is a Danish word that can most readily be described as a sort of coziness, although it’s more than that. It also comes from the word hugga, which is related to the word hug and means to comfort and console. So, it’s little surprise that it’s what keeps the Danes the happiest people on the planet even though they endure frigid winters with little daylight. Sunrise in a Copenhagen winter can be as late as 9:00 am while sunset can arrive not long after by 3:30 p.m.
Cooking with Lisa
Lisa Viger Gotte is a Chelsea resident passionate about plant-based cuisine and loves showing others how simple, delicious, healthy, and joyful it can be. A vegan diet improved her own physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health and she’s seen it do the same in others! She is also an artist, cookbook author, MSVA Vegan Life Coach, and RYT 200 yoga teacher. You can learn more about her and find more tasty recipes at planted365.com.
