The Ultimate Guide to Home Cooking
Whilst I love cooking I appreciate this is not the case for everyone and it can be daunting to venture into the kitchen when you’re not sure of what to do. And even though I like to cook, I also like to do it in an efficient manner so I can have time for all the other things in my life.
Cooking can be meditative and therapeutic. It can also help you wind down and check in with yourself, your wants and needs after a long day. For me it’s also a creative outlet where I can experiment with different combinations and cooking methods.
When you cook at home, you have more control over the ingredients you put into your body and end up eating more high quality food. Not to mention that preparing your own food allows you to tailor it to your own individual nutritional needs. It’s also cheaper to cook at home that ordering or eating out. Win-win!
Aside from being a form of nourishment, cooking can also offer opportunities to connect with loved ones especially if you live with family or friends who can lend a hand. It’s a wonderful self-love and self-care act to cook healthy meals for yourself but also a beautiful way to show love and care for those around you.
Because I know how beneficial home cooking is for our health, I want to inspire you to set foot in your kitchen more often. Below you’ll find my guide to cooking in a safe and effective manner so you can get the most out of your time in the kitchen - and maybe even start to enjoy it!
Learning to cook a few simple dishes can be the ultimate act of self-care and self-love.
Experiment and have fun cooking at home with these suggestions:
Keep it simple
From Pinterest to Instagram we’re surrounded by beautiful photos of food all the time so it’s easy to fall into the trap of choosing overly complicated or time consuming recipes to try. For week nights limit your cooking time to 30 minutes so it can be sustainable and save the gourmet recipes for the weekend or special occasions.
Use a timer
Sounds obvious but you’d be surprised to learn how many people don’t use one. Even though I’m all for checking food throughout, it’s just so much more effective to put a timer on and carry on with other aspects of cooking (or even sneak in a quick workout) without the constant worry that food will burn (or worse actually ending up forgetting about it!).
Cook once, eat twice
If you’ve followed me for a while you know how much I live by this. Most weeks I cook all of our meal components on a Sunday so I don’t need to cook during the week. I explain this process in more detail in my book “Live Well” but you don’t need to do a full meal prep to enjoy the benefits of this. Simply doubling a recipe so you can have for lunch what you cooked for dinner is a great to spend less time in the kitchen and saving on resources like gas, electricity and water.
Don’t eat foods you don’t like
It’s difficult enough to set time aside to cook at home consistently, I cannot imagine how demotivating it is to use your precious time to cook something you actually don’t enjoy eating. Just because something is healthy, it doesn’t mean you need to eat it. There are a number of different foods that share similar properties so choose them based on your intuition and your unique characteristics.
Invest in GOOD basic kitchen tools
This alone will save you so much time in the kitchen! Tools that actually work also make cooking way more enjoyable. If you’re just getting started I’d recommend: a good set of sharp knives, a couple of cutting boards, different sizes pots and pans made with non-toxic coating, a colander, a set of spatulas and cooking spoons, measuring cups and a vegetable peeler.
Cook with ingredients
Right, let me explain! At the start of my coaching programmes I always ask my clients how often do they cook at home. The vast majority cooks at home most of the time but use a number of pre-prepared condiments, sauces etc to cook their meals. If you use a ready made tomato sauce and boil some past you-re effectively cooking at home but the outcome for your health would be very different if you had made that sauce from scratch and even sneaked in some extra veg.
Keep it clean
Having a clean kitchen will, not only make it more attractive to spend time in, it will also ensure the food you prepare is safe to eat. Apart from the usual wash of hands and produce, clean your chopping boards between each use (use separate ones if you consume meat/fish) and disinfect your fridge once a week. When storing food, opt for airtight containers which are glass or BPA-free.
I hope this inspires you to spend more time in the kitchen preparing healthy foods you love. If you think I can help you further on your health journey, email me!
In love and gratitude, always
Vera x
