Food & Drink

This startup creates customized cookbooks tailored for your health and dietary needs

By Tarik Moody

Published August 14, 2020 at 12:41 PM CDT

Each week on Radio Milwaukee, Milwaukee Magazine dining critic Ann Christenson and 88Nine’s resident foodie Tarik Moody discuss Milwaukee’s culinary and restaurant culture on This Bites.

Today we're joined by cookbook author and food journalist Shaun Chavis, founder of LVNGBOOK, a startup that provides customized cookbooks and behavioral tools to help you build a healthy lifestyle and to prevent or manage chronic disease. The customized cookbooks are integrated with Instacart via a QR code. This will allow anyone to create a shopping list automatically. We also talked about Shaun's journey from author and journalist to startup founder and her plans for the future of LVNGBOOK. She also shared one of her favorite recipes for breakfast fried brown rice from LVNGBOOK, which you can check out below.

LVNGBOOK, customized cookbooks — LVNGBOOK customized cookbooks

In this week’s episode, we also talked about Sanford's new menu that is a twist on State Fair favorites, Smoke Shack's Brew City Biscuits pop-up, Hatch chile peppers at Sendik's, Nessun Dorma's Take and Bake meals, and DanDan's Chef Daniel Jacobs upcoming appearance on Beat Bobby Flay.

Brew City Biscuits pop up

Brew City Biscuits is serving up southern-style, unapologetically indulgent brunch fare with a focus on buttery scratch made biscuit sandwiches. The breakfast sandwiches tower high with classic brunch ingredients and a nod to popular menu items across the Hospitality Democracy restaurant group. The Marty McKlucken, one of Brew City Biscuit’s most colossal sandwiches, is topped with Nashville hot chicken, sweet and spicy pickles, lettuce, tomato and buttermilk mayo.

Brew City Biscuits will operate for dine-in and carryout from Smoke Shack (332 N. Milwaukee St.) Saturdays and Sundays, 10 a.m. - 2 p.m., beginning August 15 and ending September 6.

Hatch chile peppers at Sendik

Fresh Hatch Chile Peppers, grown only in the Mesilla Valley of New Mexico, are available for a few short weeks each year in August and September.

Harvested from fertile soil along the Rio Grande, Hatch Chile Peppers thrive in the river valley’s combination of nutrient-rich soil, intense sunlight and cool desert nights. These peppers present a fresh and complex flavor, unlike any other chile.

Learn more over at Sendik's website.

Breakfast Fried Brown Rice via LVNGBOOK

How’s this for a twist on breakfast? Pouches of precooked brown basmati rice get this savory morning meal on the table quickly and effortlessly—with no need to microwave the rice first. You could also use 4 cups of leftover cooked rice. This recipe uses breakfast sausage to turn fried rice into a morning meal. If you have leftover rice, substitute 4 cups of leftover rice for the pouches of precooked rice.

Hands-on time: 15 minutes
Total time: 15 minutes
Makes 4 servings
Serving size: 11/4 cups

4 ounces bulk turkey breakfast sausage
1 cup chopped red bell pepper
2 teaspoons dark sesame oil
2 (8.5-ounce) pouches organic brown basmati rice (do not microwave)
2 cups baby spinach
2 tablespoons low-sodium soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 large eggs, lightly beaten
1/4 cup sliced green onions

Cook sausage in a large nonstick over medium-high heat 2 minutes or until sausage is browned., stirring to crumble. Remove to a bowl; set aside. Add bell pepper and cook 2 more minutes.
Heat oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Add rice; stir-fry 2 minutes. Add spinach; stir-fry 2 minutes. Drizzle soy sauce over rice mixture, and sprinkle with pepper, stirring well. Push rice mixture to sides of skillet. Pour eggs into the center of skillet; cook 1 minute, stirring until soft scrambled. Stir together egg and rice mixture. Stir in sausage mixture. Sprinkle with green onions. Serve immediately.