Good Food for Good products

I was watching the Marilyn Denis show recently when I saw Richa Gupta promote her Toronto Local sauces GOOD FOOD FOR GOOD which have no preservatives, are vegan and dairy free.  She was on the show to speak with the hosts of MasterChef Canada to get advice about increasing her business.  Since I am in Food Revolution Day event planning I was interested in seeing if her products might fit into something that I could showcase at my event so I contacted Richa and she graciously agreed to do a taste testing with some people that I organized.

I was going to organize a separate blogger tasting but I had already planned to host a TedXManhattan Viewing Party in my home for some Food Revolution Day team members and a few of my friends interested in food and health.  I thought it was a good fit as we were all interested in "Changing the way we Eat" in the world as that was TEDXManhattan's theme for the talks.

photo by Susan Ng

I also got burritos provided by Chipotle thanks to the TedX people but I thought we would do the demo before we ate the burritos.   Well the burritos arrived before Richa did so we had to start eating them because as you might know.... burritos wait for no one.  It worked out because I wanted more people to be there when Richa arrived as everyone was straggling in at various times and Richa had a big charity event the night before so she was quite tired so I told her to take her time.  My party ended up lasting all day and my last friend left at 12:30am so it ended up being an extended 12hr plus drop in party.  I  was glad that I didn't really have to cook.  I had snacks and things I had prepared earlier and just cooked up something quick around dinner time which I will post about later as that was a new product as well.

Anyway..  Richa arrived with her little buggy filled with beautifully marinated chicken skewers to cook up for us to try.  I must note that Richa is a vegetarian so this was a stretch for her as she does not know when chicken is cooked so I helped out to get it cooked to the perfect doneness.  Luckily I had a large grill pan to cook them on but boy did they make a mess on my stovetop.  Use a bbq if you can.   The chicken was coated with her Chili Tomate sauce which is spicy but not overly hot.   She also brought along a packet of a competitors sauce for comparison of what her products taste like without preservatives versus the competitors.   I have to say I am not surprised that there was a noticeable difference.  Her sauces are smooth, creamy and delicous.   The price of the sauce may seem high at about $8.99 for a bottle of it but if you have ever cooked Indian food from scratch you will understand why.  She doesn't take any shortcuts.  All the tomatoes are cooked from scratch and all the layers of spices take time to develop.  In general Indian food uses an array of spices that when layered develop an amazing depth of flavour.


While it may take her hours to make her sauces it will take you minutes to cook up a delicious meal in your home.  Add some vegetables pour over steamed rice and you have an amazing meal that will probably taste a whole lot better than your Indian Take Out.

I really feel happy to support Richa as her story is so interesting.  She worked for General Mills and wasn't happy doing and after trying so called Indian Food in Canada she decided to launch her own brand of sauces from flavours that she had when she lived in Delhi, India where she is from.  You can taste the authenticity in the food.  The best part is that for every bottle of sauce sold she donates .25 cents to serve food programs in India and Africa and that's why it's called Good Food for Good.  Do some good buy some of her sauces at quality Grocery Stores like The Big Carrot and more coming soon.   She is a very lovely woman Entrepreneur with a big heart and I hope that you support her and spread the word.

Spice it Up

Spices are one of my favourite things in the Kitchen. I am a bit of a Spice Queen. These spices you see are only half of the spices I have in my kitchen. I also have a lot of seasonings and some fresh herbs. Why do I have so many? I used to have a whole shelf full of spices. I love them because it allows me to travel the world of food with the use of a few spices.

Take a simple chicken, with a switch up of some spices you could have either Moroccan chicken, greek souvlaki, Italian scallopini, cajun chicken or spanish chicken.

Why have chicken that tastes the same every time you make it? Why not SPICE IT UP and experiment with flavours and try a new region every week with a few shakes of spices and seasonings.

If you like Greek food add Oregano to your garlic, lemon and olive oil marinade and you can make souvlaki flavoured chicken.

If can't go to New Orleans but want some Cajun feel make some blackened chicken with cajun spice rub.

Like French food then add some Herbs De Province and you will feel like you have been whisked away to a French Region.

You get the picture. Think of each spice as a place from around the world because that's where they came from. Each spice has been brought to us from somewhere in the world so we might as well use them that way.

Make your own custom spice rub if you do like your own specific flavours that you want to use everyday but mix it up.

One thing to note:

If you have one of those spice stands that has a whole bunch of spices that you never use or don't know what they are then get rid of them because you will probably never use them.

If you have had your spices in your pantry, kitchen cupboards, drawers or on the counter for years and never re filled them? Well it's time to toss them out. Spices should be changed once a year so buy a small amount of each.

Think of the foods you like when buying spices and try and buy spices to compliment those foods.

Switch it up and experiment. Smell the spices in a bulk store and see which ones smell good to you but you have never used and try them on something like chicken because chicken is like a sponge for different flavours. You can use almost anything on chicken but there are some things that just work better.

Here's a starter recipe that will get you thinking about spices differently when you cook your chicken. Roast a chicken and add some smoked paprika and salt and pepper on the skin of the chicken with olive oil before roasting and about 10 min before it's fully cooked take some blackberry jam and spread it over the chicken. You will end up with a smokey sweet bbq sauce glaze on your chicken. You can mix the paprika with the jam but I wouldn't suggest putting the jam on the chicken early because you may burn it because of the sugars in the jam.

Another way to do this is to pan fry chicken pieces until they are golden and then add a chipotle spice and blackberry jam mixture to the pan and melt it down and coat the chicken for about a minute or so. This makes a great sauce something like a chinese sweet and sour sauce.

Cinnamon is your friend. Did you know that Cinnamon has a whole bunch of health properties? Add some to your hot chocolate or your chicken or your stews.

Buy a new spice a week and experiment with it and by the end of the year you will be a spice expert.

A lot of spices have anti-infammatory properties like Tumeric and some aid with digestion like ginger so do your research and see what spices can do to give your foods a flavour and health boost.

Have fun and spice it up.

Enjoy!