When we owned our restaurant, our guests were amazed that good food could be healthy food, too. And good food doesn’t have to break the bank or take hours to prepare!
We talk to so many people who think they will never be able cook food that tastes amazing! Listen, cooking doesn’t have to be your passion in order to create delicious meals for your family.
Here are a few principles to cook by if you want your meals to be delicious!
- Cook, Don’t Recipe. Don’t get stuck in a recipe rut! Use recipes as a jumping off point. Taste what you’re cooking. Do you like it? Learn to make recipe your own, suited exactly to what your family needs or likes.
For instance, maybe you hate mushrooms; leave them out of a recipe. Or the recipe calls for margarine; use butter. Can’t taste the garlic? Okay, add more a bit at the time until it tastes amazing! - Use More Seasoning Than You Think You Should. You heard me right. Most people don’t season their food enough! Start with a small amount and add more until you’re down right amazed at yourself for how good it tastes! In the words of Emeril Lagasse, “I don’t know where you get your flour, but mine doesn’t come seasoned!”
- Fat Means Flavor. The right kind of fat is good for you, essential actually. But fat also means flavor; it carries all the goodness and shares the love with your taste buds! If you’ve salted just right but something’s still missing, you may just need to add a bit of fat.
- Turn Your Mistakes into New Recipes. If you reeeaaalllly over-salt something, you may not be able to save it. But most bloopers can be salvaged. One time I added too much milk to a spread I was making for lunch, so I turned it into a delish dip for veggies.
- Use Recipes As a Jumping-off Point. We love spicy, but perhaps you don’t. I hate mushrooms, but maybe they’re your fave! Don’t skip over a recipe just because it has a component you don’t like. Make it your own. Make it better! My mom makes delicious dumplings. I took her recipe and made it my own by adding some cream to the broth, and by using chicken stock to make the actual dumplings. (Yes, this one is a variant of point #1 above. It’s so important, that it need to be repeated…)
And Healthy, Too…
It’s really not difficult to cook healthy food that’s gourmet! But it all starts in your pantry.
- Stock real food. Fruits, vegetables, meat, from scratch.
- Avoid processed foods.
- Learn to read labels.
- Stock your pantry with healthy sweeteners, fats, and grains.
- Get your family on board. Life will be way easier.
Want a little more help with what to stock in your kitchen for healthy meals? Get our Free Shopping Guide and Week 1 of our How to Stock a Healthy, Nourishing Kitchen! You’ll be eating better in no time!
You can do it!