Featured Member: Farah Saad (Farahscuisine)
This month, EatLiveBegrateful is super excited to interview Farah Saad of @Farahscuisine. Farah’s passion has always been cooking and food styling. Through her Instagram account, she shares simple and delicious recipes. Please visit our page where some of her recipes are featured.
Can you tell our readers about yourself, where are you from, where do you live?
My name is Farah Saad, I am a wife and a mom of two. I am a Lebanese living in Beirut. I completed my studies in Business & Management and worked in Finance.
Can you tell us about your blog, how long have you been blogging and what inspired you to start a food blog?
Cooking and food styling have always been my passion and it is the most enjoyable thing I do. My family inspired me to share with others my love for cooking and I started my blog almost a year ago. I mainly post simple and delicious recipes that require minimal effort and time.
What do you like the most about blogging?
What I like the most is that I get to know new people from different countries with different cultures, who share the same passion.
What is your favorite Middle-Eastern dish?
My favorite Middle Eastern dish is “Laban Immo “.
Name 3 ingredients you love using in your dishes?
My top 3 ingredients that are never missed in my kitchen are:
- Spices because they are the essential ingredient to boost any dish with flavor, aroma and color.
- Pomegranate molasses simply because I’m a big fan of it. I love to add it to my salads, my sauces and over many dishes.
- And nuts! Middle Eastern dishes and desserts are never complete without pine nuts, walnuts, almonds, cashews and pistachios!
Give your Top 3 Food blogs that inspire you the most
There are many unique Food blogs with great content that inspire me, but my favorites are:
- M.orfali
- Mamas.joy
- Potsnbites
What’s your favorite recipe from your blog?
I have 2 favorite recipes: The Strawberry Cheesecake and the Creamy Mushroom Chicken.
What’s the one kitchen tool you could not live without?
My food Processor?
The best piece of advice or tips you would give for people who want to learn how to cook.
The best advice I would give is to keep it simple and organized. Start by choosing simple and easy recipes and prepare all your ingredients ahead of time. Be patient, enjoy the learning process and you will impress everyone with the outcome.
How can our viewers connect with you?
Instagram: farahscuisine
Featured Member : Laila Farhat (Lylys Kitchen)
We are very excited to share with you our new featured members section in which we will feature each month one member of our community. This month, we would like to welcome Laila Farhat (Lylys Kitchen) as our first featured member. Laila shares her passion for food on her instagram account and on our website. She is very passionate about Middle-Eastern and Mediterranean cuisine. Please visit our page where all of her recipes are featured.
Can you tell our readers about yourself, where are you from, where do you live?
My name is Laila Farhat. I am Lebanese living in Los Angeles with my small family.
Can you tell us about your blog and what inspired you to start a food blog?
My blog is about my daily home cooking dishes. Friends & family inspired me to start my blog as a business, because they truly sure that my tasty food is going to inspire all kind of people.
What is your favorite Middle-Eastern dish?
My favorite Middle-Eastern dish is kibbeh b sunyeh because my family loves it.
Name 3 ingredients you love using in your dishes?
Eggplants , spices and potatoes
I choose eggplants and potatoes because I can make a several dish with them. Spices are the main ingredient to making good food.
Give your Top 3 Food blogs that inspire you the most
I have a lot of inspiration blogs, but these blogs are my top 3 favorites.
– Pots n bites
– Manal.massoud
– Atyab tabkha
What’s your favorite recipe from your blog?
I love all recipes especially when I try a new one. But my favorite one it will be always my special kibbeh b sunyeh.
What’s the one kitchen tool you could not live without?
The one tool that I can’t live without is a good sharp knife, especially when I making TABOULEH.
Best piece of advice or tips you would give for people who want to learn how to cook.
My best advice is to always be patient and to try several times don’t quit from the first time. There is a rule I always try to use it: if I can do it you can do it!!!! So each lady have to remember this rule when she wants to start cooking.
How can our viewers connect with you?
Instagram: lylyskitchen
HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR RECIPES ON OUR WEB PLATFORM
Do you have a favorite recipe you would like to share with the world?
You need to register in order to be able to submit a recipe.
Go to https://eatlivebegrateful.com/
- Click on Register.
- Enter your Username and Email. Do not use Characters like ?! $ & when you create your username.
- Click on Register.
After you click on register, a registration confirmation email will be sent to your email address. *****Please make sure to check for the email in your junk folder email box.
- Go back to Go to https://eatlivebegrateful.com/ and click on Login
- Enter your Username and your Password and Click on Login
- Click on “Submit a Recipe” button.
- You have 2 options to choose from. Click on “Your own recipe” if this recipe is yours or “Recipe from another site” if this recipe is a recipe taken from another site.
If you click on your own recipe be sure to include the followings:
- Recipe Title: A clear recipe title.
- Description and directions: A little bit info about the recipe as well as your clear directions on how to prepare it.
- Ingredients title: You can include it if you want. Otherwise, do not enter anything.
- Ingredients: enter the ingredients one by one followed by their amount.
- Prep time: Preparation time in minutes.
- Cook time: Cooking time in minutes.
- Servings
- Calories in each serving: if you have this information include it, otherwise do not enter anything.
- Course: Choose from the pull-down options: Breakfast, Main dish, snack.….
**if the type of course you want is not there, let us know and we can add to the list.
- Cuisine: Choose from the pull-down options: Armenian, American, Indian, Middle Eastern …
**If your type of cuisine is not there, you can send us an email and we will add it to the list.
- Skill level: Choose between Easy, Medium or Hard.
- Tags: enter tags separated by commas for example healthy, diet, muffin, vegan, low fat.
- Image: Be sure to include a photo of your creation. Do not take photos from the web. The photo has to be taken by you.
- The required photo size is: 1140px by 500px or larger. Max file size: 10 megabytes
- Click on “submit recipe”
After you click on “submit recipe”, your recipe will be sent for review and to be published.
You can submit as many recipes as you like and just make sure each submission is for one recipe
If you click on “Recipe from another site”, be sure to include the followings:
- Recipe Title: A clear recipe title.
- Description and directions: A little bit about the recipe and what makes it special.
** DO NOT INCLUDE THE DIRECTIONS SINCE WE WILL PUT THE RECIPE LINK NEXT.
- Recipe Link: The website link where you got the recipe from. example: http://www.recipe.com/delicious-cookies
- Site title: Title of the site the recipe is from. For example Allrecipes.
- Prep time: Preparation time in minutes.
- Cook time: Cooking time in minutes.
- Servings
- Calories in each serving: if you have this information include it, otherwise do not enter anything.
- Course: Choose from the pull-down options: Breakfast, Main dish, snack.….
- Cuisine: Choose from the pull-down options: Armenian, American, Indian, Middle Eastern …
- Skill level: Choose between Easy, Medium or Hard.
- Tags: enter tags separated by commas, for example, healthy, diet, muffin, vegan, low fat
- Image: Be sure to include a photo of your creation. Do not take photos from the web. The photo has to be taken by you.
- The required photo size is: 1140px by 500px or larger. Max file size: 10 megabytes
- Click on “submit recipe”.
After you click on “submit recipe”, your recipe will be sent for review and to be published on the site.
Top 5 benefits of cooking at home.
Welcome to the launch of our Eat Well, Live Well, Be grateful Web site and our first blog post.
With our busy lives and both parents working, more and more people are finding it hard to find time to cook at home and are relying on outside food. However, home-cooked meals have so many benefits and today I want to dedicate my first blog post discussing the TOP 5 benefits of cooking at home.
YOU SAVE TIME
While we may all think that grabbing something ready to eat from a supermarket or a drive-through is a fast solution to feed our hunger, in fact, these days with so many “less than 30 minute” recipes it is much quicker to prepare something at home if you plan in advance.
Meal planning saves a lot of time throughout the week. In our upcoming blogs, we will be discussing
YOU EAT HEALTHIER
Eating at home is healthier than eating outside. When we are eating from outside, we have no knowledge of the amount of calories, salt, sugar, fats, oils added to our food. Even the healthiest options like salad dressings can be packed with excessive sugar, low-quality fats and unnecessary calories. Cooking at home enables us to limit the amount of sugar, fat and salt that is in our food.
In fact, research shows that consuming home cooked meals have been linked to a lower risk of diabetes and less weight gain.
YOU SAVE MONEY
For a family, eating out every day is expensive. With meal planning, it is unbelievable how much money you can save.
Here are some of the ways to save money:
- Create a week-long meal plan
- Write a shopping list from your week-long plan
- Use ingredients which can be used for more than one meal
- Stick to your list when you do your shopping
- Buy local brands
YOU ARE IN CONTROL OF FOOD HYGIENE PRACTICES
At home, when we are cooking, we always ensure that we are preparing foods efficiently to prevent foodborne illness from developing. We always make sure to cook food to the correct temperature. We wash our hands periodically. We have total control over these factors.
IT STRENGTHENS YOUR FAMILY’S BONDS
Cooking food brings your family together. Sitting down with your family and discussing each person’s day over a home cooked dinner prepared with the freshest ingredients and cooked out of passion is life’s biggest gift.
Finally ordering food can be a nice treat every once in a while, but we have to be setting a good example for our kids and build healthy eating habits.
So what are you waiting for you? Let’s start cooking.
HAPPY COOKING!
