Welcome to the December 2023 edition of RPL at Home, where I share what I’m up to when I’m not in the kitchen or in front of the camera.
Each month, I’ll share snippets of what I’m working on, habits I’m cultivating, things bringing me joy, books/TV shows/podcasts I’m enjoying, and more. Think of it as stream-of-consciousness blabbering meets a semi-curated list of recommendations meets life update.
🍽️ What I’m working on in the biz
Honestly, this header should read “What I’m working on in my new biz.”
In case you missed the announcement, we are launching a brand new and very exciting weekly vegan meal plan service in January!
I spent a lot of time over the past year surveying the RPL community about their cooking challenges, and it became clear to me that one of the biggest problems had nothing to do with following a recipe.
It’s all the other stuff that goes into putting delicious plant-based meals on the table on a consistent basis:
- figuring out what to cook week after week
- making organized grocery lists to avoid impulse purchases and food waste
- organizing your busy schedule around cooking
- building an arsenal of recipes that the whole family will enjoy
- figuring out how to take the stress out of weeknight cooking without succumbing to the same boring dinners (or, ordering takeout).
So I’m pleased to share that our brand new vegan meal plans tackle all of these problems!
What you’ll find in each weekly meal plan:
- A complete grocery list that’s categorized by grocery store section and contains tons of substitutes based on allergens and ingredient availability.
- High-impact meal prep steps that take 60 to 90 minutes each Sunday so you can save time and stress during your weeknight cooking.
- Three hearty dinner recipes + a weekly side salad, all of which include shared ingredients and components, reducing your overall cook time and grocery list (and sometimes, grocery bill!)
- Restaurant-quality dinners that come together smoothly and easily during the week.
I can’t tell you how excited I am about launching these meal plans! I truly believe they will minimize the stresses of weeknight cooking and empower you to fall in love with plant-based cooking.
We even had a few of our meal plans tested by 40 beta testers in the RPL community, and the positive feedback has been overwhelming (in a good way!).
If you want to join our waitlist, stay up-to-date with our launch, and get access to exclusive discounts in January, sign up using this form:
📲 What I’m not working on in the biz
With the new meal plan business and all my recent travel (more on that below), there are certain things I have not been working on. Like social media.
I took a break from Instagram in September because every time I opened the app, I either felt anxious, envious of something or someone else, or wildly distracted. So after 7+ years of Instagram being a part of my daily life (a truly wild fact), I decided to take a break.
I thought my break would last 2 weeks. Yet, here we are in December, and it’s been 2 months since I’ve even opened the app, let alone posted content.
This break has been amazing for my well-being: (1) that feeling of never having enough time has mostly disappeared; (2) I feel less anxious; (3) I no longer experience sensory overload.
I have more time
It seems easy enough to say, “If you previously spent 1 hour on Instagram per day and then stopped using the app, you would now have 1 extra hour every day to do something else.”
But that’s a dramatic undercount of how much time I’ve gotten back.
That’s because every time we switch tasks (e.g., taking a break from writing a blog post to check Instagram, then returning to the blog post), it takes considerable time to really get back into the flow of things and to refocus.
Research has found that it takes about 25 minutes to return to your original task after being interrupted! For instance, if I checked Instagram twice during a blog-writing sesh, it would take me, on average, an extra 50 minutes to write that blog post!
Not having the temptation to open Instagram means I have gained literal hours back in my day, and I’ve been using that time to focus on the high-impact work I enjoy the most (and to do more fun things!).
I feel less anxious
Lez be honest, social media can be a dumpster fire sometimes. And even when it’s fun and light, there are certain things that make me anxious and feel like I’m not doing enough. Like seeing how prolific other content creators are (i.e., posting new recipes daily!).
Not exposing myself to this inundation of content means I can stay laser-focused on what I actually have control over. That helps me enjoy the process and feel proud of the work I’m doing instead of feeling anxious, envious, or inadequate.
I no longer experience sensory overload
Short-form videos—which started with TikTok and have taken over Instagram and increasingly YouTube—have made social media platforms places of sensory overload (at least for me).
The distraction of a fast-moving, endless loop of quick videos can overstimulate our nervous systems. This overstimulation makes it harder to accurately sense how we’re feeling, which can worsen our fears, anxieties, and stress.
Taking 2 months off from social media has not just solved that problem for me. It’s also given me a glimpse into what life used to be like before the digital overload era.
For instance, I now find myself craving silence from time to time. The last time I can remember truly sitting in silence and enjoying it was back in college and law school (10-15 years ago). Since then, I have often used social media (and to a lesser degree, podcasts and music) as a tool of distraction when I don’t want to feel my feelings, think about hard things, or do the work that needs doing.
That sobering realization has made me seek out silence more often these days. I’ve even found myself driving or cooking without listening to any podcasts or music (an unthinkable fact just months ago).
All that to say, my hiatus from social media has been really great for my mental health, productivity, and overall well-being.
Though, of course, I recognize the irony of being a “content creator” who doesn’t post on social media LOL.
At least for now, though, I still feel like I’m creating the most high-value content that I can: long-form YouTube videos, detailed recipes on the blog (not as many as I’d like, but still), and meal plans (for the near future!).
That doesn’t mean I won’t ever return to Instagram. I probably will soon, but my relationship with it has definitely changed.
What I’m watching, listening to, and reading
📺 Watching
We’re still slowly working our way through The Americans, which is one of the greatest shows ever made and arguably the greatest TV show about spies (though the French spy thriller Le Bureau is also a fave; I would 10/10 recommend it).
And a few days ago, we started watching Season 5 of Fargo. I loved seasons 1 and 2 of this franchise and am extra excited to watch this season because two of my favorite actresses star in it: Juno Temple (who played Keely on Ted Lasso) and Richa Moorjani (fellow vegan and IRL friend of mine who played Kamala on Never Have I Ever). We finished episode 3 last night and it’s been brilliant so far.
📚 Reading
In a recent edition of RPL at Home, I mentioned I was reading The Covenant of Water by Abraham Verghese. The novel centers around a family in Kerala, a tropical state in southern India that I visited back in college with my best friends Lucia and Sonia (more on them below!).
I was enraptured by how his writing evoked such specific images and feelings of life in India, and Kerala specifically, at precise historical time periods. So I decided I wanted to read more books that take place in India (it is the motherland, after all!).
While I’m not ordinarily one to re-read books (too many books, too little time!), I decided to revisit two books I previously read ~15 years ago.
First, The God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, which I finished a few days ago, and The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri, which I’ll start in a few days.
As soon as you start reading The God of Small Things, it becomes clear why this book was so popular when it was first published in the 1990s and has gone on to sell 6 million(!) copies. Roy has a very unique style of prose, but it’s her narration that sets this book apart. Like any great novel, each character comes alive in your imagination with the most ordinary and extraordinary of details.
She effortlessly weaves together personal tragedies and family resentments with larger historical forces, like the Indian caste system and the powerful force of Communism in Kerala to produce a profound and beautiful yet agonizing novel.
🎧 Listening
I haven’t listened to as many podcasts as usual (see above!), but I loved loved loved this recent episode from Modern Love: Two Boys on Bikes, Falling in Love. The writer and narrator, Eric Darnell Pritchard, has the loveliest voice and his narration about his first love is so pure and so sweet that I want to listen to it all over again.
New Recipes and Videos
New Recipes you might have missed
- Vegan Apple Crisp. Hot take: I like apple crisp better than apple pie. It’s so much easier to make and tastes just as good (if not better). This version features gooey, maple-spiced apples baked underneath a crispy, crunchy and slightly chewy streusel and strikes the best sweet-salty balance. A must-make for your holiday dinner!
- Sausage & Fennel Pasta with Crushed Tomato Sauce. In need of a quick but gourmet-tasting pasta dinner? Look no further than this rich and meaty 10-ingredient pasta inspired by the Italian classic dish, Bucatini all’Amatriciana.
VIDEOS you might have missed
- Pumpkin Ricotta Stuffed Shells. If you’ve ever been curious about my recipe development process and journey, this recent video walks you through how I approach my older recipes and how I improve them. I brought a gourmet upgrade to one of my favorite OG recipes on the blog: pumpkin ricotta stuffed shells! The original is great, but the upgraded version is mindblowing.
- Aloo Gobi. This has been one of the most-requested Indian recipes and I finally filmed a video on how to make it! Bonus: my hilarious and adorable parents do a blind taste test with my version and a restaurant version.
RPL Recipe Club
We’re still going strong with the RPL Recipe Club! Each month, I choose a different recipe for the RPL community to make, and December’s recipe is my Vegan Chili! Anyone can make the recipe, then submit a photo to win amazing kitchen prizes.
This month, we’re giving away an apron and knife from Hedley & Bennett (you probably have peeped me wearing their aprons and using their knives in my YouTube videos!).
For all the details check out the December 2023 edition of the RPL recipe club.
Fun Things
In the most recent edition of RPL at Home (in October), I mentioned that my sister and I were #blessed to have two best friends (and fellow sisters), Lucia and Sonia.
Our moms met in the 1980s as new immigrants from India while both of their husbands (our dads) were busy working as medical residents, often pulling 48- and 72-hour shifts.
Despite the fact that, in 1989, my family moved to California and theirs to Maryland, our moms continue to be besties and so do the four of us gals (we’re more like sisters than friends).
In November, my whole family took a 2-week trip to Baltimore to celebrate both Sonia and Lucia’s back-to-back weddings! My sister was the maid of honor in Sonia’s wedding the first week, and I was the maid of honor in Lucia’s wedding.
It was such a pleasure to be there for our closest friends on their special days and to spend time with both of our families together.
PS: Max and I stayed in DC in between the weddings. Similar to our DC trip in October (for another wedding!), we had incredible vegan food at Planta Queen. If you have a Planta Queen in your area, the Pressed and Torched sushi is probably my favorite-ever dish from a restaurant so don’t sleep on it.
Okay, that’s it for this last RPL at Home post of 2023! Thank you for reading these personal posts this year. I have so enjoyed writing them and sharing a glimpse of my life behind the screen.
Drop me a line below and let me know what you’d like to see in the first edition of 2024!
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Good morning I am so very happy to see your Career prosper and grow. My participation has been limited to your YouTube channel. I’ve signed up for your upcoming meal plan project., And expect that to be very successful. The one comment I have on this site, is that the moving ad pop ups are placed too close to your writing. All the movement makes it an unpleasant reading experience.
Thanks for posting! I really appreciate your insights into doing a social media pause and changing the relationship with social media. I was trying to wean myself off altogether, but have instead cut the amount of time I spend on it, and that’s been helpful. Can’t wait to try the new meal planner!
Love all your work & relaxation time ,& interesting stories to tell about your family , great ❗️❗️💞merry Christmas & very happy new year❗️❗️💞✨️✨️😊🙂✌️
Hi Nisha, I’m a big fan of these long-form blog updates! I love how you can skim some parts and zoom in on others, the books section (as I’m actively trying to read more), and this month, and especially your thoughts on social media. I’ve been going through something similar, and have felt the freedom of getting my time back to do things in my life that truly enrich me!
Though recently its been a struggle again, with all the horrible news, and also my job in marketing where I have to check in on our company’s social accounts. Trying to strike a balance, I find, is a constant active choice I have to make. I’ve made a list of “daily tasks” with all the things I want to be working on in my life, and I try to put my focus on those. Every time I catch myself about to mindlessly scroll, I ask myself “Do I really want to be wasting my time in the vortex now?” and I find it helps, but it took some time to get there. I’m not perfect all the time, but I try to be kind to myself.
It was helpful for you to share the little fact about how it takes us 25 min on average to get back into the flow of focused work again. That’ll definitely be a mental note for the future.
I’m curious to learn more about your strategies for spending more time “in analog” when devices can be so distracting, and also how you try to “enjoy the silence” when doing mindless tasks; I still kind of struggle with this – podcasts/other audio formats *seem* as though they aren’t as distracting(?), but I over-rely on them for stimulation, and that doesn’t feel good somehow…
Anyway I look forward to whatever you want to share in the next edition <3
in the first paragraph:
*and this month, especially…
OOPS! 🥲
Love these blogs! I made your vegan apple crisp for Thanksgiving and everyone loved it! My son and I fought over the leftovers! lol
Ha, consider me honored that you and your son fought over the leftovers! I love the apple crisp too :) So happy you’re enjoying these posts Dorothy!
Somebody should invent an app that allows you to write a post on one platform and automatically post it to all your platforms, and then read the responses on one platform. It would make weeding things out a lot easier.
Of course, easier still, would be if about 5 platforms went out of business and left one or two!
Hi Nisha,
I found a lot of food for thought in your description of going off Instagram and the effects on your productivity and focus. Can’t wait until the meal plan. Product is available!
Hi Rebecca, I’m thrilled you’re excited for the meal plans! They launch in 3 weeks 🥳 And, oh yes, I have learned so much on the effect of social media and your focus and productivity–I feel like I could write a book on it, ha!
Thank you for sharing all of this wonderful information, not just about cooking, but about other aspects of your life. I think it makes investing in your wonderful recipes even better by getting to know you as a person. I’m also someone who has suffered from anxiety, and learning how to sit in silence, or take a walk without my headphones, was incredibly refreshing. Now I walk my dog three times a day without listening to podcasts or music – but rather taking in the sights and sounds of my neighborhood, and enjoying the fresh air. Hope this has created a healthier habit for you. Thanks again!
Hi Eric, it’s great to hear from you, and thank you for your kind words! How wonderful to hear you’ve been enjoying your walks in silence and are taking in the sights and sounds of your neighborhood. Being present in nature is one of the most rewarding gifts in life, so it makes me so happy to hear that you are enjoying it!
I love these updates. Thanks Nisha.
So nice to hear that, Sue! Thanks for stopping by :)
Thanks for making vegan cooking accessible and fun. If you’re looking for a good fiction read, I recommend Lincoln in the Bardo by George Saunders. It’s a beautiful look into what happens after we die
Thank you for the kind words and for the book rec, Rachel! I just looked it up and it sounds so beautiful and unique.
I love RPL at Home and esp look forward to hearing what you’re reading. Kismet: I’ve been on a Jhumpa Lahiri kick this fall, and highly recommend Unaccustomed Earth. And, bonus, you can watch the film The Namesake after you finish the novel — it’s really good.
I applaud you for getting off IG and hope you stay off. It’s such a pointless waste of time.
Hi Bette! I’ve heard great things about Unaccustomed Earth – thanks for the reminder! I will check it out after I finish The Namesake (read the book and watched the movie ages ago but am still excited to dive in again!).
thank you for being you! really enjoy these updates and the book recommendations!!
Hi Neelam! It’s so nice to hear you enjoy these updates :) Hope you have a lovely rest of 2024!
Thanks for sharing. 🙏 If you’re not on IG, please let us know if it would help your business if commented on your recipes elsewhere, e.g. your website, instead. Beautiful wedding pictures. Cheers to cherished memories offline. 📝 Can you believe that people profit from coaching people how to ‘digitally detox?!”
Hi Sarah, you are so very sweet to ask! Rating and reviewing recipes here on my website is always very helpful :) The weddings were so much fun, and even more so because I didn’t feel the need to digitally capture every moment!
For readings do consider Guiliano De Empoli’s Wizard of Kremlin. Awesome read, and thought-provoking! Love your recipies which adorned our thanksgiving table!
Hi Chitra! Thanks for the book rec and I’m delighted to hear that my recipes were part of your Thanksgiving celebration!
Hi Neesa, I’ve only just discovered your monthly updates and have just caught up from March. I love the format and all the awesome suggestions!
Having enjoyed being a beta tester recently, off the back of being a silent viewer for at least a year or two, I’m so enjoying getting more insight into your life and work – and reaching out to tell you as much :) I look forward to seeing what you cook up in 2024 – your natural, open style of sharing great recipes, tips and life advice are delightful to follow, so thank you for all the effort you put in to inspire us, make us laugh and keep us healthy and happy.
I particularly like how you address real life issues here: working too hard and needing to make time for what matters, finding balance, disconnecting as needed and of course eating super wholesome and delicious food. All the best from Cape Town.
Further to my comment below: If only I had typed Hi Nisha* – so sorry, digital Fail :)
Hi Cat, it’s lovely to hear from you! Thank you for signing up to be a beta tester (all the way from Cape Town) and fro stopping by to say hello! I’m so touched you enjoy my way of sharing recipes and content 🥺 This year has been an interesting and rewarding journey for me in terms of finding balance and disconnecting, and it’s been even more rewarding to share my journey here.
Love RPL at home because it really feels like a catch up with a (para social) friend! 😂. Thanks for all you do ♥️
Aw I love that! I’m so very happy it feels like catching up with a friend 🥰
I am SO EXCITED for the meal planning service. I’m going to hop on that as SOON as I can.
I am glad to hear how drastically being off of Instagram has improved things for you. It is something I have been thinking about a lot, (although hard, because I get most of my news updates from friends across the world on Instagram, especially right now) and I think there are some ways I could implement a break without being completely off the app. Definitely need to stop checking during work.
For 2024 – maybe little moments of joy? Glimmers of hope/beauty in your every day life?
Woohoo 🥳 I am so excited for you to try the meal plan service out! It goes live in three weeks!! And I LOVE your suggestion for 2024 posts with glimmers of hope and little moments of joy! I once heard them be described as “joy snacks” and I definitely would love to write about those!
To add to my previous comment, your recipes are very fool proof which means I actually end up cooking them on repeat, unlike just watching through tons of recipe shorts that I don’t end up cooking at all. All is to say, I love your recipes and the effort you put into each and every of them is recognized and appreciated 🤗🤗
I love reading these personal posts and getting food and book inspirations!! Nisha I’m so glad you’re taking an Instagram break. You’re unique and amazing and the fact that I couldn’t even wake to get out of bed and just directly read the post speaks volumes of how much you’re loved and valued 🥰🥰 keep doing what you love because we surely feel that love all the way over here. I love your style and your deep dives into recipes and the science behind food.
Hi there! Thank you for stopping by and for your lovely comments! Consider me flattered that you were excited to read this post and even more so that you value my content and all the deep dives and recipes! Thank you for recognizing the effort that goes into each recipe 🥺
I just love this newsletter. Your energy is inspiring. Your recipes are delicious and I am so happy I stumbled across you on YouTube. Another book you may love is The Space Between Us by Thrity Umrigar a story about an unlikely friendship between two Indian women.
Thank you for what you are giving the world.
Hi Diane! I am so honored you love these posts and that you enjoy my recipes :) Your kind words made my evening!