An Exclusive Look Inside the ChinTwins' Fridge
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Whether it’s your home, your meals, your job, your family or your hobbies, balance is a key part of life. Identical twin sisters Kimmy and Crissy Chin, also known as The ChinTwins, understand the importance of balance and seek to help others achieve balance in their own lives on their TV show, also called The ChinTwins, airing on The Design Network. The twins’ dedication to yoga helps them incorporate balance into all areas of their lives, including their modeling and fashion careers, raising their families and of course, in their kitchens.
Tune in to an episode of The ChinTwins and you’ll see exactly what we’re talking about. Whether it’s preparing a meal for their families or planning a party, Kimmy and Crissy simplify some of yoga’s more complex principles and help you use those principles to live a healthier, happier and more balanced life.
We were lucky enough to meet up with The ChinTwins to get a full tour of their fridge and then we sat down with Crissy to chat all about food, balance, Mother’s Day gifts and some of the unique ingredients Crissy was introduced to through her husband and photographer, Nigel Barker.
SheKnows: How does your knack for creating balance in all areas of your life relate to your cooking?
ChinTwins (Crissy): Well, I think it’s having healthy things in your diet and preparing healthy food for your family, but also allowing space for the excited or unexpected or to have, you know, the big cheat day as they call it. I think as a parent, being a mother, it’s that constant struggle of like less sugar and less fried foods and I think the best way to really bring balance to your diet and your children’s is just to make it fun. Keep it exciting, keep it fresh, keep it new and involve them in the process. When they were younger, this wasn’t the case, but now that I have teenagers, I involve them when I make the grocery list, so they get to request certain things, I take them to the grocery store with me, make them responsible, give them their own list and say, go for it. When they have ownership over the process, whether that’s shopping or cooking, or you just setting the table and sitting down as a family, I think is really important for having not only a balanced meal eating, but just the experience itself.
SK: What are some of your favorite ways to keep your fridge and pantry organized?
CT: It’s a daily thing. Yeah, you know how they always joke with, you know, like, meditation or even yoga that it’s a daily practice? I guess the same applies to organization. Some people are in the school of thought where you dedicate one day a month or one day a week, but I feel like that’s what creates clutter. So I feel like if it’s a daily thing like whenever you’re putting something in the refrigerator or your cabinets, have a look around, see what doesn’t belong, see what’s empty and just sitting there or expired. I think it’s just that constant. It becomes less of a chore as well.
SK: What’s the strangest ingredient we would find in your cabinets or pantry?
CT: There probably are Sri Lankan curry ingredients. My husband and his mother are from Sri Lanka and she sends us all kinds of things. Probably the Maldives fish. They’re these teeny-tiny, little dried fish from the Maldives. The exotic spices would probably be the biggest surprise. There’s one called asafoetida, we use it as a spice when making curries.
SK: What does a typical breakfast look like for you?
CT: Well, the weekdays obviously are quick, but we still like to get some fruit or something in the kids. But weekends we have a tradition of making crepes or waffles something that’s just very, you know, gets everybody in the kitchen and it normally turns into more of a brunch game. You have weekend breakfast or a huge tradition, and also the powdered sugar that you sprinkle out of the flour sifter over the pancakes or crepes is kind of our new obsession.
SK: Do you have any controversial food opinions (for example avocados are trash, cilantro tastes like soap)?
CT: My husband can’t stand dill, but I love dill. I don’t know. I mean, we don’t eat meat. I’m a pescatarian. But as far as strange ingredients? No, we love everything.
SK: What is your favorite small appliance or tool in the kitchen?
CT: I would have to say my carrot peeler, I just use that thing for all types of jobs. I use it to shred. I use it for things like ginger and potatoes. I just love using it. I’ll peel vegetables into a salad. Yeah. So I love my carrot peeler.
SK: What’s your go-to meal when you only have twenty minutes to cook?
CT: Ramen! I like the ramen from the health food store and I don’t use the flavor packets, but they put in it but I love doing a warm ramen soup with some miso that I keep in the fridge and then you can top it with whatever fresh vegetables you have in your fridge.
SK: What is the one condiment you could not live without?
CT: I could not live without Marmite in our household. It’s an English spread. We put it on our toast, I even use it as a bouillon when I’m making soups. It’s just a savory yummy spread that is honestly available in almost every grocery store.
SK: Can you describe your ideal mother’s day brunch menu for us?
CT: Well, I’d have to say my husband making me a curry would be a treat because it’s so delicious and we feast on it for days.
SK: What has been your most memorable mother’s day gift?
CT: Probably this beautiful fruit tree that was given to me a few years ago, actually in the middle of the pandemic, and we planted it in the garden and it’s gorgeous. It’s a peach tree. I love things that last.
SK: Go-to Mother’s day gift for other moms?
CT: You know what I like to do? Just a very decadent beauty product, whether it be a lovely body oil or something that they can spoil themselves with because sometimes we don’t always splurge and do that for ourselves.
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