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!
Thanks for sharing your thoughts even while running the risk of being criticized or cancelled. It’s truly appreciated. I hope you have a lovely trip and time with Max’s family. Someday I’ll go to Australia. 🙂 And thanks for the recommendations too, sorry I can’t help! If you were going to my homecountry (Brazil) maybe I could give some suggestions. 😛
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us. It’s important to understand that practicing compassion doesn’t just extend to animals. We are meant to care for all.
Love your vegan recipes but don’t want to hear about politics. I’m up to speed on all things ICE so don’t appreciate your adding your favs in a food e-mail.
Any human with a conscience and a platform should absolutely be using their platform to its fullest extent in this very dangerous moment in history, to highlight the atrocities that are being conveniently ignored or downplayed by much of the mainstream media.
Thank you for the meal planning service and updates! I especially appreciate the MPLS and book recommendations. My current reading list is a bit on the dark side/paralleling the current state of the world, but also impossible to put down:
Tunnel 29 – A gripping account of life in a divided Berlin.
Parable of the Talents – Written in the late 90s but somehow Butler predicts a MAGA demagog! Eerie but good.
For a lighter book, Kate & Frieda is a fun read for foodies!
I live in Adelaide and recently enjoyed an amazing dinner at Africola. You should go, and get the Feed Me option! They can cater for dietaries.
I’m glad you followed your heart and mind and shared your concerns and specific ways people can get involved. You seem to really value integrity so of course you care about injustice against people not just animals, and you seem to really value giving practical help to people, which you did when you gave suggestions. I, for one, am so grateful for how you show up in the world. If people only want recipes, then they can only look at your recipe emails and not the RPL At Home.
Nisha,
Thanks for speaking out on what is going on in our country. It is scary times.
My goodness, did you kick a hornet’s nest! If I were you, I’d read through all the comments that have to do with politics and do my best in future to keep my followers/readers focused on the main mission and point of your web site: vegan food and cooking. Losing focus on your main goal can lose you a lot of readers/followers. It can be difficult to do, I realize, but I just try to remember the old advice of never discussing sex, religion or politics in ‘mixed company’. If I’d not talk openly about the intimate details of my sex life between my husband and myself, if I’d not want to push any certain religious views on a large group of people I do not know, no more would I mention anything to do with my specific political views. Because, as they say, ask any 10 people their views on any one subject and expect 15 different responses! Focus on the food.
Yours is the only negative comment, so not sure what you mean about kicking the hornet’s nest. Telling her to focus on food is extremely condescending. She knows what she is doing by sharing her values on a public forum. If you don’t like it, you can pass by.
@K, this is not about politics. It’s about fundamental human morals, ethics, and values. Those issues are CRITICAL to speak out about, and by critical I mean literal life and death. I appreciate a full-throated condemnation of the evil, greed, corruption, cruelty, and depravity that some desperately want to normalize, condone, or inflict upon us. Also, the bottom line is that it’s Nisha’s blog, not yours; you are free to read other blogs and scroll past this one if it offends you to read about real things that are happening to real people right now. Your comment is out of touch and out of line.
I hope I don’t sound ageist, but this is the most old fashioned, backwards way of thinking I have heard in a long time. While the sex you have with your husband affects only the two of you, what is happening in this country affects everyone who lives here. This is not just politics as usual. These are serious issues that are stripping away human rights and eroding the fabric of our democracy and EVERYONE should be talking about it.
Thank you for mentioning the big fat elephant in the room. So many won’t take a stand for fear of losing part of their audience.
Your trip to Australia sounds awesome. Would love to see the wildlife and birds from there. That’s how I deal with the stress. Even watching the few birds we have on our bitterly cold and snowy Massachusetts winter this year has helped to manage my despair over this country’s decline .
Making your red lentil curry this week.
I love the idea of the breath work after oral hygiene. I will definitely give it a try! Thank you for the thoughtful reminder of history currently repeating itself in the United States. These are frightening times and people need to be reminded the horrors of the Holocaust.
Enjoy your trip to Australia.