OOOHMAMA! is my dream come true.

After completing courses at the Institute for Integrative Nutrition in 2013 and Rouxbe Culinary Arts in 2015, I became passionate about preparing plant based whole foods and had big dreams of sharing this passion with anyone who would listen. The unexpected death of my beloved husband Gary, changed the landscape. Filled with an immense amount of grief and sorrow, I sidelined my dreams for a low wage soul-sucking job.

It took four dark years before the loving food related memories of Gary resurfaced, flooding my daily thoughts and ultimately inspiring the OOOHMAMA! product line. My favorite memory is when Gary would come home from work, approach the kitchen and ask “OOOHMAMA! What have you made?” Gary’s enthusiasm for my efforts finally inspired me to snap out of it, leave that soul-sucking job, and launch the OOOHMAMA! product line in spring 2021 at Uptown Farmers Market in Phoenix. Upon reflection, it is the hardest times in our lives that push us to realize our true worth, value and unending importance.

Learning how to make plant based cream cheese at the Rouxbe was a game changer in our home. Eliminating dairy was a must since food allergy testing revealed that three of my family members were allergic to all forms of dairy. Removing dairy left my recipes lacking, but the plant-based cream cheese came to the rescue. It provides probiotics with active cultures that are good for the digestive system, gut and it’s delicious.

 

 

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The base, plain cream Cheez, is delicious by itself. Cheez is a cultured food that gives it a perfect cheesy flavor in any recipe that calls for cream cheese. I have been perfecting my recipes for years and use it in a variety of ways like cheezcakes, aioli’s, alfredo sauces, frostings, dips, and spreads. Every recipe is better than the original.

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My oldest son is the inspiration for the Queso. He began mixing Cheez with regular hot sauce to make a spicy spread for tortilla chips. It pleased him and gave me an epiphany. I could refine his simple recipe to make a true Cheez Queso which morphed into two more variations.

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The Jalapeño Green Onion and Queso features lacto-fermented peppers. Lacto-fermentation is an ancient method of preserving food with only filtered water and sea salt. It produces a flavorful pickle and becomes more nutrient dense because the method preserves all of the nutritive properties in the food along with the addition of healthy probiotics.

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The Spinach Artichoke Dip was inspired by one of my nephews who always requested this flavor combination. He is a tattoo artist who rents from Carly’s Bistro on Roosevelt Row in Phoenix and he talked it up so much that Carly’s owners tried it and ended up loving the dip.  It is now served as one of their specials.

 

Find OOOHMAMA! at the Uptown Farmer’s Market on Central and Bethany Home Road
in Phoenix on Saturdays.