Hostess With The Mostest

Posted on March 22, 2016 by Jenny

An Interview with Lia Huber, Creator of Cook The Seasons

Interview by: Jenny Tamayo

There’s no typical day-in-the-life for Lia Huber. In fact, the day we met for this interview, her favorite chicken got hit by a car, she and her neighbor held an impromptu burial in the backyard (R.I.P. Butterscotch), she received an exciting and potentially life changing call from her agent, she got her eyebrows waxed and she was getting ready to pick up her business partner at the airport so they could finishing writing, testing and shooting recipes for her new program, Cook The Seasons. And this was all before 12 noon.

I’ve known Lia for a several years now. She’s worked with La Tortilla Factory on recipe development, brand brainstorms and was an absolute lifesaver when we launched our website in 2014, helping us execute a bunch of food photography. She’s a dynamic individual. She believes that anyone can learn anything at any time. She’s self-taught and she’s trained. And she’s a big, bright, shining, female entrepreneur. We sat down over Himalayan food to talk about her journey, her creative process and the newest season of her revolutionary meal planning program, Cook The Seasons.

Spoiler alert: Lia has been kind enough to offer a discount for Cook The Seasons spring! Plus, get a taste of what Cook The Seasons has to offer with delicious recipes, including one for Moroccan Fish Tacos featuring our Organic Yellow Corn Tortillas. So if you absolutely can’t wait, go ahead and scroll to the bottom of this post to get the discount code and recipes. Thanks, Lia!

“The closer you get to a vegetable, the better it tastes!” – Lia Huber

How do you answer the question of “what do you do”?

I nourish people and I build authentic brands. I inspire and equip people to make the shift from processed foods to real food, in real life. The inspiring piece is Nourish Evolution and the equipping piece is Cook The Seasons.

What season are you in with Cook The Seasons?

We’re just about to launch into spring.

And you’ve already done two other seasons?

Yes – we did summer and fall. We tripled membership from summer to fall, too.

That’s great! And I think that really says something about how much people need a tool like this.

Absolutely.

I know you have a very rich background in the editorial and magazine world. How did you end up doing what you do today?

I was pretty darn successful as a freelance food writer and recipe developer for big name publications like Cooking Light, Health and Fitness. However, after I went through a health crisis of my own with a diagnosis of lupus and a year later a cancer scare, I came out of that [experience] just reeling and knowing that something was wrong. I knew that something like that should not happen to someone in their late 20’s.

This is also when I realized I didn’t know how to eat. I mean, I thought I knew how to eat – I was constantly on a diet so I thought I was doing the right thing – but I wasn’t. So I started on a journey. And for about 2 years, I’d purposely get nutrition focused assignments so that I could interview the experts, the researchers and the scientists. And what everyone was saying across the board was: eat more vegetables. Eat more vegetables with healthy fats, whole grains and smartly sourced proteins.

This was a total paradigm shift for me. I was always a meat and potatoes kind of girl. I hated vegetables. Even into my 30’s I hated vegetables. But I knew I wasn’t going to stick to a diet for the rest of my life, so I thought, how can I make these foods work for me? How can I fall in love with these foods? And well, you know, I started off in the Safeway produce section, then I went to Trader Joes, then to Whole Foods, then to the farmer’s markets and now to growing my own. You realize the closer you get to a vegetable, the better it tastes! It was such a big transformation – and in the process I lost 20 pounds, my lupus was reversed to fiber myalgia, and it changed my life.

Was it at this point that you thought, I want to do my own thing?

Exactly. You know, magazines are really fickle. They want headlines and the hottest, newest thing. And I thought, I don’t want to write about hot-new. I want to write about vegetables, healthy fats and whole grains.

What is one of the biggest hurdles people face when changing their eating habits?

Our own presumptions. We think that we know food. We think that we know what we like. We think we know what we don’t like. We think we know what our spouses like and what our friends like. We think we know all this stuff. And it’s a very humbling experience to say, “I’ve hated beets my whole life. And now at 32 I’m going to revisit that.” You have to be in the right mindset.

I’m deeply interested in where ideas come from and how creative people cultivate them. As an entrepreneur and creative professional, where do you draw your inspiration?

I’ve been a musician, a recipe developer, a writer and a creator my whole life. [Creativity] is like this sacred current that’s running through all of us – it sort of just becomes a matter of how you tap into it. Some people might get to it by arranging flowers, other through exercise. It doesn’t have to look the same. And it shouldn’t.

What comes to mind when I say work-life balance?

The first thing that comes to mind is, there’s this fantastic book by David White called The Three Marriages. It’s about the marriage you have to your work, to your partner and to yourself. His theory is that there is no such thing as work life balance. It’s about putting your all into all of them. That was a real eye opener to me, because I used to have these really hard and fast boundaries like, I cannot talk about work with my husband past 5 pm. But when you’re creating from a passionate place, and it’s your life, you can’t have boundaries like that.

Yes, ideas don’t generally work like that.

Agreed. However on the flip side, I do have very strict boundaries around things such as my daughter, and that when I am with my daughter – I am with my daughter. I’m not answering emails or checking my phone – I’m devoted to being present in that time. So it’s kind of like a two-fold thing…

And lastly, just a fun one. What is the most memorable food item you’ve ever chomped on?

Fried grasshoppers in Oaxaca, Mexico.

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Cook the Seasons is a revolutionary approach to meal planning for busy people who want a healthier, simpler and downright tastier way to eat. Cook the Season spring will be open until March 31st. Get $10.00 off by entering the discount code: LTFSPRING

Get a taste of what Cook The Seasons has to offer with these delicious recipes. Serve the halibut and cabbage with rice for one meal, then use the leftovers in tacos the next night. When you have everything already made, these tacos come together in a snap. To learn more about Cook The Seasons, visit cooktheseasons.com

Middle Eastern Spiced Halibut

Ingredients

2 teaspoons ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon black pepper

2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
3/4 teaspoon sea salt
2 (6-ounce) white fish fillets (sea bass, halibut and long-line caught swordfish all work great, but you can use any firm, white fish)
1 tablespoon canola oil 1 tablespoon butter

Directions
Combine cumin, pepper, coriander, allspice, turmeric and sea salt in a small bowl (extra spice mix can be kept, tightly sealed, for up to 3 months). Rub each side of fillets with spice mix.
Heat oil and butter in a large nonstick or cast iron skillet over medium-high heat. Add fillets and cook for 3-4 minutes on each side or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Remove to a plate and tent with foil.

Coconut-Lime Cabbage

Ingredients

1 medium head Savoy cabbage
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 medium onion, peeled and sliced lengthwise

sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
juice of 1 lime

Directions

Halve the head of cabbage and cut off the bottom part of the core. Then cut each half crosswise into 1⁄2-inch ribbons.
Heat the coconut oil over medium high heat until melted. Add onion. Cook onion for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add cabbage. Toss to coat with oil. Season lightly with salt and liberally with pepper and toss again. Let sit for 4-5 minutes, until the under-side of the cabbage starts to color. Use a stiff spatula to flip the cabbage and let sit for another few minutes, until it begins to color. Repeat.
When cabbage is well-colored and the thickest parts of the leaves are tender (after 15-20 minutes), add the soy sauce, turn off the heat and scrape up anything stuck to the bottom of the pan. Squeeze lime over the top and toss one last time. Season with additional salt and pepper if desired.

Moroccan Fish Tacos with Pumpkin Seeds

These aren’t your average fish tacos. Coconut Lime Cabbage, a spin on raita, and the Middle Eastern flavors takes them Eastward from Latin America.

Ingredients
1⁄4 cup plain Greek yogurt
1 clove garlic
juice of 1 lime
sea salt and freshly ground pepper dukkah (optional)
8 La Tortilla Factory Organic Yellow Corn Tortillas

8 ounces Middle Eastern Spiced Fish
1 cup Coconut Lime Cabbage
1⁄4 cup toasted hulled pumpkin seeds

Directions

Mix together yogurt, garlic, lime and a pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper in a small bowl.
Toast each tortilla over a gas flame for 60-90 seconds, until slightly charred around the edges, and wrap in a kitchen towel.
Divide the fish and cabbage between the tortillas. Drizzle with yogurt mixture and top with pumpkin seeds.

Serves 4