Welcome to the January 2026 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.
Every few months, I give you a glimpse into 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.
In this post:
👩🏽🍳🍽️ What I’m working on in the biz
In case you missed the big news, after a year of hard work, we finally launched our brand new meal planning website this month!
From running surveys and interviews with thousands of readers like you, I’ve learned that what most home cooks need is not more recipes, but structure and help with the logistics side of things.
The mental burden that exists outside of the kitchen — choosing recipes, cobbling together grocery lists, and figuring out meal prep steps so weeknights are a little smoother — is actually the biggest challenge most home cooks face.
We designed our meal planning website to do that work for you so you can simply focus on the fun part: cooking delicious meals.
And it brings me GREAT JOY to see that so many of you are absolutely loving the meal plans and already experiencing so many of the positive impacts I had hoped you would 🥹
If you want to take our new site for a spin, you can try it out risk-free for 7 days!
🧘🏽♀️What I’m working on in life
About a decade ago, I was dealing with quite a bit of stress—a demanding job, uncertainty about my career as a lawyer, chronic migraines, a restrictive elimination diet to uncover the cause of said migraines (which made said migraines even worse).
I started meditating to deal with the stress, and it helped quite a bit. But, if you’ve ever tried to meditate, you already know—it was hard. Like, really hard.
In the years since, I’ve halfheartedly tried to resume meditating on a number of occasions, but frankly, I am weak and soft. While the practice of meditation eludes me, I have been working on mindfulness more broadly. Here are a few ways I’ve been adding more mindfulness into my life.
Breathwork
In the last 3 to 4 weeks, I’ve been doing deliberate breathwork every day, specifically “cyclic sighing,” which has been shown to reduce stress and improve mood.
I knew I would stick with this habit only if I tied it to another habit I already do (AKA habit stacking) or bundled it with an activity I like (AKA temptation bundling).
I have the habit of brushing my teeth and scraping my tongue as soon as I wake up, and during winter, I’m always tempted to get back into bed afterwards (it’s still dark out and 61ºF in my house). So I started allowing myself to get back in bed after my oral hygiene routine, but only if I do my breathwork for 7 to 10 minutes while in bed.
And so far, I haven’t missed a day.
I feel calm and centered during and immediately after breathwork, which is a nice way to begin the morning instead of rushing around to get my day started. I also find myself using this technique later in the day if I feel stressed or agitated, and while it might not solve 100% of the problem, it does noticeably help.
Hobbies
A few years ago, the idea of taking a break in the middle of the workday to read a novel or to color on the couch would have felt so foreign, so lazy, so unlike me. But, after working hard on my workaholic tendencies (ironic!), I’m proud to report that I do just that on a regular basis.
And luckily, these two activities are also good opportunities to experience mindfulness…if, of course, you don’t allow yourself to get distracted by other things, namely your cell phone.
So, whenever I treat myself to one of these breaks, I make sure I leave my phone in another room. That way, I can truly focus on the activity, whether it’s getting utterly absorbed in the plot of a great book or giving all of my attention to coloring an intricate design.
📚 What I’m watching, listening to, and reading
📺 Watching
I can’t stop recommending Task, the new-ish HBO show starring Mark Ruffalo. It follows two main characters—an FBI agent heading a task force assigned to investigate a string of violent robberies, and an unsuspecting family man.
It’s dynamic, weaving between leave-you-on-the-edge-of-your-seat suspense and heartfelt emotions, and it delves into the complicated question of what happens when good people make bad decisions.
📚Reading
I’ve read SO many good books lately (check out my top reading picks of 2025), but there’s one I want to spotlight for this month.
Family of Spies, Christine Kuehn
A thrilling, shocking true story of an American woman who slowly uncovered her family’s past as Nazis, first living in Germany in the 1930s as Hitler came to power, then in Hawaii as spies who aided the Japanese government in attacking Pearl Harbor.
Even though you know the basic premise of the story from the beginning, every page is gripping and suspenseful.
It feels like a particularly important read now for Americans, as it’s a reminder that the Nazis didn’t start executing Jewish people as soon as they came to power.
They laid the groundwork over years: they tapped into nostalgia and nationalism for a Germany that once was great, created a cult of personality around one man, attacked the press for reporting facts, banned books deemed unpatriotic, waged war on intellectual thought and expertise, targeted political dissidents, demonized Jewish people as The Other, and crushed dissent with violence on the streets…before they eventually turned to their Final Solution of death camps and gas chambers.
The parallels with what’s happening in the U.S. today are striking. It’s easy to feel helpless, so here are some organizations doing great work that you can support:
How you can help
National Level
National Immigrant Justice Center
Immigrant Defense Project
Impact Fund (immigrants rights portfolio)
Minnesota-Specific
You can choose from a variety of organizations linked here that are helping people and communities affected by ICE’s occupation of the Twin Cities.
Or, you can donate to one of these food resource orgs suggested by my friend Lindsay of Pinch of Yum, who lives in St. Paul, Minnesota.
Dios Habla Hoy
Second Harvest Heartland
Twin Cities Food Justice
My goal with RPL at Home is to generally focus on the positive—things bringing me joy, experiments I’m trying out in my personal life, fun stuff in my personal and professional life.
But things are really heavy and scary in the U.S. right now, and I’d be remiss to not talk about it here.
🎧 Listening
Circling back to the theme of building habits, I loved this recent episode from NPR’s Life Kit podcast on building tiny habits. Good habits can be hard to build, and I loved this bite-sized, low-effort approach to it from behavior scientist, BJ Fogg, author of Tiny Habits.
Also from Life Kit, I enjoyed this episode on how to take a break from alcohol. Even as someone who’s drastically reduced their drinking over the last few years—dabbling between zero alcohol to minimal alcohol to sober curiosity—it was still an informative listen.
💃🏽 Fun Things
It’s been a busy work period launching our meal planning website…but we are headed to Australia for two weeks!
We’ll be in Adelaide visiting Max’s family, then Kangaroo Island for lots of wildlife viewing and outdoor activities, and Melbourne for a couple days (my favorite food city!).
If you have recommendations for fun things to do in the Adelaide area, Kangaroo Island, or Melbourne, please leave them in the comments!
That’s it for this month! Drop me a line below and let me know what you’re reading, watching, or working on in your own life!
I recently went to Adelaide for a girls wknd and we had dinner at Part Time Lover and it was amazing! The food, the vibe, the service, everything! Would highly recommend!
Yes always good there.
I hadn’t read the blog in a while, and something made me read it today, and I am glad I did!
As a German who just moved back to Germany from the US, the historical similarities are eerie, very concerning and very obvious. You approached the topic, in such a thoughtful and intelligent way. Encouraging people to read and see the pattern! I hadn’t heard about that book but will certainly read it! Thank you! Loved the mindfulness tips too! 😊
Hi Nisha,
My wife and I watch a show/podcast on YouTube called Tasting History (https://www.youtube.com/c/TastingHistory). It’s a history show that used food and cooking as the vehicle for exploring history. Each week he finds a recipe from original historical source material, cooks it, and then discusses the history surrounding it. He has made 3,000 year old Mesopotamian beer, Viking food, meals served on the Titanic, saag from the Mughal Empire in India, etc.
I love that you are incorporating mindfulness into your daily life. I meditate myself. You can also bring mindfulness into your daily routine while you engage in ordinary activities, like always walking through doorways with one foot or the other (e.g. always step through with your left foot [or right]), taking one mindful breath in and out before answering the phone, etc. It keeps you in the present moment throughout the day without requiring any investment of time at all.
Love this edition, especially the way you highlighted the current ongoings. It is scary and also that things are cyclical.
I enjoyed the pic of your book, lots of overlap! I’m currently reading The Lonelinesess of Sonia and Sunny 🙂
Thank you so much! Your blog posts and recipes are truly things I look forward to each week and month.
I agree with Olivia’s suggestions for Melbourne restaurants but would add The Green Man Arms in Carlton and less well known is Centonove in Kew that do a vegan menu for a special night out.
I went to kangaroo island last year and it was magical. We stayed at southern ocean lodge which became one of our most favorite places on this earth. And we have been to a lot of places! The natural beauty there is amazing. Of course kangaroos everywhere, koalas in trees, sea lions on the beach, flinders Chace national park and the serenity of looking out at the southern ocean and knowing that there is nothing between you and Antarctica is a feeling that has to be experienced to understand. Southern ocean lodge completely catered to my vegan diet at every meal and it was superb! I can’t wait to go back!! Adelaide is underrated in my opinion. It was lovely. I only wish we had rented a car because it is a beautiful place to drive around. I was carried away with flocks of cockatoos that flew over the valley out the window of my hotel room. Hahndorf was a charming German village that we visited. Lots of great wineries all over. You are going to have so much fun!!
Love RPL at home! I love your enthusiasm and creativity!
Question, where do you get your aprons?
Loving your tofu bacon these days… honestly that is just so easy to eat and enjoy 🙂
Thank you!
I love your upbeat and thoughtful energy. Enjoy your family trip which are the best in my book.
Keep your sharing coming and recommendations.
Your book choice is a must. I agree with similarities in our country and Nazi Germany but I try to remain positive and hold an eagle’s perch in viewing it all. I daily surround our world with love, light and healing of all the hatred.
Love your cook book!
A few of my favourite recs for your time in Melbourne! Places I go again and again – Smith & Deli, Smith & Daughters, Ballard’s, Red Sparrow, Pickles Mylk Bar.
Also a feature I’d love with the Meal Plans – you’re able to tick off ingredients when you use them while cooking, I’d love if you were able to tick/cross off steps once completed. Running back and forth between the stove and my laptop, I get lost with what step I’m up to. Loving that you’ve taken the stress of cooking off my plate!
Hi Olivia, thank you for the Melbourne recs! This will be my third time there, so I’m happy to say I’ve been to Ballard’s several times as well as Smith & Daughters, and love them both! The only one that’s new to me is Pickles Mylk Bar, so I will look it up.
Thanks for the meal plans suggestion and for being a member! Designs for this are in the works with our development team, so we’ll plan to highlight this feature once it has launched.
Hi Nisha,
I think it’s very good that you brought up the parallels with what’s happening in the US right now. I live in the Netherlands and even here we are very cautious about what’s going on in the US (and in a lesser way in Europe as well). I really get that you try to keep things light usually, but it ís happening and you brought attention to it in a kind, loving and constructive manner by focusing on how we can help. The good and the bad stuff can be in our minds at the same time, right? We don’t have to focus solely on the bad stuff, but we also shouldn’t ignore it.
Btw, I started paint by numbers as a zen activity, so I totally get your coloring!
Thank you and sending love,
Emma
As a native Adelaidian my recommendations are:
1. Langmeil and Charles Melton are my two favourite Barossa wineries
2. When you go to KI try Snellings beach. My sister lives near there and it’s beautiful.
3. Come up north to Brisbane and I will happily show you around the subtropical side of Australia 🙂
Hi Nisha! I lost my comment when I signed up for follow up comments so I will write again. Thank you for mentioning the terrifying events happening in America and listing ways people can provide support. I love you even more now! I started Family of Spies last night. I prefer true stories so this book is a good choice for me. I love coloring, but recently discovered beautiful 1000 piece puzzles and completed 4 puzzles in the past month. I also enjoyed Task very much. The acting was amazing. I’m doing great establishing a consistent exercise habit which has been a struggle in recent years. The key was to create a message group with a few people who want to be accountable to each other. We report our exercise types and minutes/hours for each week on Sunday. I don’t want to report failure and no excuse so the accountability is working for me! I love your updates and recipes, Nisha. Have a great 2026!
No trip to Adelaide is complete without a visit to the Adelaide Central Market. McLaren Vale is beautiful and only a short distance from the beautiful southern beaches like Maslins, Port Noarlunga, Port Noarlunga South, Moana, Silver Sands. Or check out the gorgeous beachside township of Port Elliot and have a swim in Horseshoe Bay if the weather is warm enough.
Love your work Nisha! I’m in Melbourne, Australia and it surprises me that’s it’s your favorite food city, so you’ll have to tell us more. Have a wonderful trip DownUnder
Cheers
I love your Master Piece. Thank you for sharing.
Kangaroo Island is fabulous…also a great foodie spot. Have fun!
I’ve absolutely been loving the meal planning website! So far I’m on my third delicious week, and I and my family have loved it all, even my picky eater daughter. The recipes are easy, well explained, and have such great variety. So excited to try more.
As a suggestion for a possible future tweak, I wonder if there would be a way to have the grocery list, the items you need to shop for, exported separately as a list on their own, rather than crossing out on the full list? Or is there a way to do this I haven’t discovered yet? It’s not a huge deal but I like to bring a printed shopping list (phone is too small for my aging eyes, lol), and it would be nice to have a list just of the ingredients I need to buy rather than having to print the whole page or copy/paste.
Also, have you considered making this into an app? It might be easier to navigate, and you might find subscribers who haven’t come across you online. Thank you, Nisha, for helping me become a better cook, and feed my family such wonderful meals!
(On a separate note, thank you for the links on how to help families affected by ICE. I live in NJ, but I and a bunch of friends are working with a friend in Minneapolis to help a large family there that has been basically trapped in their home, scared to work (hospitality and construction), send their children to school and even to go out for groceries. Without the help I don’t know how they’d survive. The family includes children from 5 months to 11 years old, and they haven’t left their home since December. It’s heartbreaking and so horrible, I can’t imagine living in so much fear.)
Hi Elizabeth, thanks for stopping by!
I’m so very happy that you and your daughter are enjoying the meal plans! Thank you so much for sharing that!
As for the grocery list question, it’s possible that this video in our help center may guide you (start around 00:30): https://www.loom.com/share/1cfc87bedb1f4389864bb21ed7df3f31?t=30
The video covers how to (1) print the grocery list on its own and (2) copy just the items from the list as plain text.
As for an app, right now, our small team is working on dialing in our product on web before we think about new platforms, but it’s certainly something we can explore in the future!
And finally, it breaks my heart to hear that families are terrified to leave their homes, for children to go to school, for families to go to the grocery store and the doctors’ office. Bless you and your friends for helping this family–it is beautiful to see community extend across city and state lines.
Your newsletter is such a fun Saturday read! I also loved Task on HBO. Now we’re watching the Pit. It can be a little hurt at times, but I like how each episode is written in real time.
PS I love your recipes and watching you on YouTube. You give such great meal inspo! I’ve made your wraps, learned how to bake tofu and cook chickpeas. I even made a curry dish! Yum! Thanks for all your great content.
Melbourne my favorite Australian city. The Victoria market is a MUST although I expect you already know that. We were there a couple of years ago and did a city bike ride it was great fun. We also took in a show at the theater Down near the art gallery, great seats and prices.
Adelaide also has a great market and good restaurants downtown. Enjoy it’s my favorite place in the world!
PS
I am currently RV ing in Florida, y brought your Big Vegan Cookbook with me!
Nisha,
I have been enjoying your recipes for a couple months now! So yummy!! I’m learning to cook!
I loved Task it was so good. I highly recommend The Pitt as well. Thank you so much for speaking out about what is going on in the United States right now. I wish more people who have a platform would speak out because they may reach people that don’t listen to the news or pay attention to politics. The main stream news is not showing everything that is going on either. I watch independent journalist on Youtube like Keith Edwards, Adam Mockler, Robert Reich, The Bulwark, Hawk’s Podcast, Jesse Dollemon, TabithaSpeaksPolitics, Don Lemon (who was just arrested), The MeidasTouch, Parkrose Permaculture and there are many more. Maybe you could put a list of these independent journalists in your newsletter. I also highly recommend the stand up comedian Josh Johnson he is brilliant in the way he presents things and keeps me laughing while also informing his fans. He is a regular host on the daily show with Jon Stewart. The regime wasn’t counting on independent journalist calling out what they are doing.
As I add this comment I have one of your recipes/dishes on the stove. We’ll be eating in 20 mins so this is a quick message! My husband and I have so enjoyed your recipes. He’s joined me by helping with prep for several meals now. He’s having fun too! And we clearly see some health benefits too.
We live in Minnesota so I echo the comment by another reader. Thank you for speaking out, for using your platform to address what’s going on in our country. You’re not just thinking of and promoting your business; you’re taking the time to let readers know where you stand and that you care. I commend you for your courage to speak out.
I’ve been following you since you started and have cheered your successes and recommended you to countless vegan and non vegan foodies. I’m sad to say that ends today. You really missed a huge opportunity to stand up your Jewish friends and followers. At first, I thought.. That’s not what she does. But then you used a book about the HOLOCAUST not to call out antisemitism across the globe but to call out the horrors of ICE. Don’t get me wrong; I am protesting every weekend against ICE here in Philly. But, c’mon, you’re about to go to Australia where there was a huge slaughter of Jews. There’s be the largest rise in antisemitism and violence against Jews since the Holocaust and you blink over it. On top of that your fave show stares a known outspoken Jew hater. Nisha, I wouldn’t expect you to speak in any of this, but you brought up Jewish history so kind of obligates you to speak in the present tense. Otherwise, please find something else to compare it to. I always guessed you were a woman of intelligence who eminates love for all. But I think this post is a shock to all Jews and their supporters. Please rethink it.
Hi!! I love RPL at Home! Do you have a Goodreads account? I’d love to friend you!
Hi! You should check out The Storygraph. It’s got a lot more to offer than Goodreads (multiple graphs of your reading, quarter and half star rating, and it’s not owned by Amazon) and you can easily transfer your Goodreads info over so you won’t lose years of reading tracking.
Nisha, if I may,
You have made my food life sooo yummy and now you are givng me the gift of yummy books. So grateful for what you do. My son became vegan and your website and book are my go-to. THANK YOU!