Healthy Eating Takes Time

Learning how to cook for yourself or your family can be hard, confusing, and stressful. I am here to tell you that it is simple, but it takes time. Good food ALWAYS takes time. Think of it like an art piece. Do you think the painter got their piece done within 15 minutes? The answer is no. Food is art. Food is important. Food creates feelings and how you feel about preparing it goes into your food. So if cooking or baking is a challenge for you take a moment before you start to calm yourself down. Begin with journaling your thoughts on cooking or baking. Then take 3 deep breaths and begin.

The process to making healthy eating easier

There is a process to EVERYTHING. So, let's list our process for getting through the first day of healthy cooking.

• Step 1: Begin on your day off. So you can give yourself time, compassion, and patience.
• Step 2: Clean the kitchen.

Start by clearing off your countertops. Put things in the sink, pantry, fridge, or freezer, and put dishes away. It doesn’t have to be perfect now.

Wipe down the countertops, stove, and microwave.

Clear the sink out. Place dishes in the dishwasher, but ensure you don’t put the dishes you need in the dishwasher. You won’t see it for another hour or so. If there are more dishes afterward, clean them by hand. Then clean your sink. ALWAYS clean your sink before starting a new project in the kitchen.

Sweep the floor. Do not have to mop the floors because remember we are setting our kitchen up for success. If the floors are moped then we will not want to make the floor dirty again. Also, it's dangerous to work on wet floors because well... you can fall. Let's make our kitchen safe and ready for the project.

Then begin on the project.

• Step 3: Put away any kitchen gadgets you will not need for this project. Give yourself more space, because more space will help you move faster instead of wondering where to put the next thing.
• Step 4: Now that you have counter space, place the essentials on your counter in a neat order.
• Step 5: Measure out ALL of your ingredients. Place them in the order you will need them.
• Step 6: Begin putting the project together
• Step 7: Once you have the project in the oven, stove, air fryer, or anything other gadget that will cook or bake the food. Begin cleaning up while keeping an eye on your project. If having to stir something occasionally, Start with your dishes, is the dishwasher done? Yes, put them away then stir the pot. Then begin putting dirty dishes in the dishwasher. Then go back to the pot to stir. Then begin wiping the counter. Then stir the pot.

Clean up as you go is not just a saying, it is what helps chefs keep moving effectively, efficiently, and quickly. If you let the mess sit there until the food is done it will GLUE to the countertop then it will take longer to clean your kitchen. Make the process simple. Once the kitchen has been cared for. Care for you, drink some water. Sit for a minute, but keep an eye on the project.

• Step 8: Taste test!!! ALWAYS taste your food. Do you like it? Does it need more salt? More pepper or other spices? Do you feel like an element is missing?

It can be stressful to taste-test your food and know exactly what you need. It takes time to reach this point of knowledge, but if you don’t begin the journey of making your own food then you'll never know.

Don’t gaslight yourself. If your brain is saying more salt, add 1/8 teaspoon (tsp) and see how that worked out. Need more? Okay! Add another 1/8. Go small before you know your comfort zone with seasonings.

• Step 9: ENJOY YOUR CREATION!!! Whatever it means to you to enjoy food do it! You like to eat in front of the TV, you like to eat in silence, or any other scenario to enjoy food do it.
• Step 10: Rest for 30 minutes to an hour if you can.
• Step 11: Then clean up, you do not want any food particles to become glue. It makes cleaning up so make harder. Empty out the dishwasher then begin putting new dirty dishes in. Whatever is left over is to be washed by hand. Then wipe down the counter spaces and go about your day until the next food sign happens.

Start small

You MUST start somewhere. Did the painter create a beautiful natural background by just picking up the paintbrush? No! The painter started small like how to draw a tree or grass or a road. So, you start small by:

• Start is easy changes like making a salad for lunch or scrambled eggs for breakfast.
• Reading your recipe. Read the ingredient list. Read the instructions. Highlight or underline words; sentences that you may not understand and look them up.
• We all buy those block sets of knives and only use the chef knife and steak knives. Let’s put the whole block to use with the recipes.
• Measuring cups and spoons are VERY important in the kitchen. They help guide you to get every piece of the recipe correct.
• Lastly, there is a little bit of math involved, but we can save that for a different day.

The Essentials

There are SO MANY kitchen gadgets out there. Knowing which ones are great and which ones are useless is hard to know when to begin eating healthy. So here is a list of my current essentials:

• Cutting boards
• A really good chef knife
• Saute pan
• Saucepan with a lid
• Sheet tray aka cookie sheet
• Parchment paper
• Mason jars of different sizes
• Spatulas

We hear and listen to others speak about healthy cooking and sometimes information is incorrect so sometimes its hard to know what products to use daily on the food I am trying to make healthy. So here is a list of ingredients I keep in my kitchen:

• Avocado or Coconut oil: Why? Avocado and Coconut oil should be used when cooking with heat. Oils have a smoke point, and once they have reached that smoke point they become unhealthy.
• Olive oil: Why? While we would stop using olive oil to cook heat with, it is good at room temperature for your salads.
• Balsamic vinegar: Why? Balsamic vinegar has great health benefits and goes well with olive oil on a salad.
• Sea salt: Why? Sea salt is natural and clean. A great source of sodium without other toxins.
• Onions: Why? Most meals require onions so get a pack of them. They will last a week or more in the fridge.
• Garlic: Why? Onions and garlic are best friends in the food world. They go great together. They will almost last a week or more in the fridge.
• Flour: Why? Bake goods from the house vs the gas station or food joint will have better benefits. It is MORE than okay to eat sweets when learning how to eat healthy, but instead of buying them pre-made. Make it yourself. Almost a lot of recipes call for flour in the cooking section of the culinary world.
• Honey: Why? A better version of sugar. Honey has ALOTS of benefits and one of those is moving away from refined sugars.
• Vanilla: Why? Bake goods can have some more flavoring than just honey and flour.
• Cinnamon: Why? Cinnamon is a baked good that gives more benefits to it with the honey.

Give yourself grace

Lastly, give yourself grace, compassion, and patience. It is hard to cook healthy. It is also hard to not cook healthily. Learning how to use bare minimum equipment in your kitchen will allow you to be successful, but it also means you're going to fail. Learning new recipes will lead to failure, but success. However, you cannot learn how to be a great cook for yourself or your family if you do not start somewhere. Failure and getting back up WILL ALWAYS lead to success. If you find yourself upset, walk away from it for a moment. Maybe pick up that cheeseburger you've been thinking about while you were trying to make something. Like the cheeseburger be your success award for failing and then try again.

The most important piece of learning how to cook healthy is knowing someone is out there willing to help you. I would not be a good chef to this day if I didn’t have help. I had help from a box, from pinterest, from YouTube, and most importantly my coworkers from every restaurant I have worked at. So you are welcome to lead on my shoulder and follow me on Instagram for helpful tips and tricks in the kitchen.