5 Things I Taught in a Cooking Class
Life is hard; food doesn't have to be #189 [vol5, 10.1]
Wednesday night I taught a cooking class at my church. Here are the top 5 things I encouraged attendees to do:
Meal plan on __________ (day of week). There are a million ways to meal plan. Find a way that works for you. In the Lazy Genius podcast #245 how she personally plans, Kendra said something that resonated with me. (Read more of my thoughts on meal planning + meal ideas here.)
… not everything can matter. For meals especially, you cannot hold equal priority for the following words: quick, easy, healthy, homemade, and cheap. And frankly there are dozens of others you could list.
Make sure to have a sharp knife. Three are all you need: chefs, paring, and bread knives. I have had an 8” Global Chef’s knife for 22 years, my inlaws bought locally at Heimerdinger’s on Shelbyville Road. Use a honing steel weekly; have the knife sharpened at least yearly.
Use butter or avocado oil instead of inflammatory oils like vegetable, corn, or canola oil and margarine. Inflammation is the root of disease. You could swap melted butter for oil in boxed brownie mixes. True bakers might scoff at such a swap but I’m here to say melted butter works and tastes delish.
Learn to cook a whole chicken - with bones. The joints and bones bring flavor and moisture to the meat then can be used for broth. Once the chicken is cooked there are countless ways to use the meat!
Learn to make homemade broth. Bonus: make soup with homemade broth.
Three Things I Focused on in Class
Don’t be afraid of salt. The book Salt, Fat, Acid, Heat by Samin Nosrat helped me understand the power of using the right amount in the right time. There’s a Netflix show of the same title. I’ve not seen the show but heard great things.
- Switch to a mineral rich sea salt like BajaGold. It’s my favorite tasting salt because of the lower sodium content and higher minerals it actually tastes sweet!
Table salt is 99.9% sodium chloride (NaCl for the science people) and BajaGold is only 75-80% NaCl, leaving room for 90 other trace minerals the body desperately needs for proper function. We tasted BajaGold first then a sprinkle of table salt. EVERYONE could instantly tell a difference in taste. BajaGold donated a one-pound bag for everyone in the class!! Get 10% off with code NTL10 from my friend @nourishthelittles, free shipping over $49 and it’s cheaper from their site than Amazon. If you’re local I bought 25lbs and will sell you a pound.
Invest in a sharp knife. It makes 100% difference. Learn how to chop veggies efficiently.
taught me so much about knife skills and has free guides and a class I recommend. You share a video of your technique and she gives personalized feedback. The best way to get better is practice!! Remember how slow you were when you first learned to type? Now it’s automatic.Tips for Cutting Vegetables
If your cutting board is moving, lay a wet cloth or paper towel underneath the board.
Aim for the flattest surface of the veg on the board.
Make a bridge with your non-knife hand to hold veg securely.
Work towards using a claw grip in your non-knife hand with fingernails or knuckles as close to the knife blade as possible.
How to Cut an Onion
Rip off any straggly root hairs.
Slice ½ inch off the tip (opposite end of root).
Lay the freshly cut tip flat on your cutting board.
Slice the onion in half, through the root to the tip, or down to the cutting board.
Remove the papery skin.
Lay one half flat on the cutting board.
Slice one half from tip to root but not through the root. The root holds the onion together while you chop. Your slices will be like rays of sun, or spokes on a bicycle wheel.
Now slice the onion 90* perpendicular to the slices you just made. These cuts are parallel to the first cut you made off the tip. This will give you a chopped onion.
With the weather cooling, I encouraged everyone to cook a whole chicken once a week and make broth. We talked about stovetop, crock pot, InstantPot. Then I made creamy golden chicken soup at the end of class. Everyone raved.
The day after class I roasted two chickens in a 9x13 pan. I should have used a bigger pan or two 9x13pans for even cooking. The below image I shared on Instagram.
Life is hard; food doesn’t have to be.
Julie
In case you missed last week’s post: Real Food Snacks for Hospitality. It resonated with many of you. Thank you for the encouragement. If you follow other free content creators, be sure to encourage them occasionally. :)
Please oh please listen to the first 15 minutes of this podcast with Dr. Casey Means. She and her lobbyist brother, Calley, expose how Big Pharma + government agencies + the food industry poisons America and keeps us sick.
It’s super engaging and jaw dropping.
If you’ve ever felt like you’re trying to convince your family to eat better — ask them to watch with you the first 15 minutes of the interview, it has 3M views on YouTube. I held kids captive on a commute and made them listen, pausing occasionally to engage them with questions. Their book, Good Energy, has moved to #3 on Amazon after several weeks (months?) at #1.
Here’s a GoFundMe to Support Farmers and Grassroots Food System Organizing in WNC in the wake of the hurricane.
I saw this truth today on Instagram:
If you under eat protein,
you’ll over eat carbs.
If you under eat salt,
you’ll over eat sugar.
If you under eat real food,
you’ll over eat junk food.
Treat food as fuel.