Blissful Cooking
Approached as a creative art, rather than as a chore, cooking becomes joyful!
Today I want to talk about how we approach cooking. The way we think about this essential part of a whole food, all-plant lifestyle, can honestly make or break us. How we feel about cooking is one of the most important elements behind our success or failure.
Some will say, sorry. I simply don’t enjoy cooking. To that I say, give your words more thought. You have no choice but to cook, true or false?
True. Correct.
How you feel about cooking is a choice, true or false?
Again, the correct answer is true.
Third question: Would you rather spend your time feeing good or shitty?
The answer is good.
So taken together what have we learned? We have no choice but to cook, we get to decide whether to enjoy it or despise it, and we’d rather feel good than bad.
So that middle part, where we decide how we feel about cooking is the key part we need to tweak in order to allow us to feel good more of the time.
Makes perfect sense to try to do so, no?
Yes!
That kind of logic, by the way, can be applied to almost all of life’s problems. It’s the kind of thing I teach over on the Bliss Blog at BlissBlog.org
But how?
That is the key question, isn’t it? How to change something I don’t enjoy doing but have to do, into something I do enjoy?
Take heart dear ones, I have several methods below, and I hope you will try one or all of them, no matter how trivial or silly they might seem.
Taking action, even the smallest step toward the goal you want, sets off a chain reaction of events and energies that will build, one upon the other, if you allow it. Pay attention, this is good shit.
Method 1
Take a cooking class OR watch cooking demos on YouTube.
Why? Because you’ll see at least a couple of dishes that look really good, and that you think you can do. If you get excited about trying even one dish or method, that’s golden.
You can do this for $ or for free. There are countless people demonstrating how to cook whole food plant-based meals on YouTube.
Here are some I’ve saved to a playlist that desperately needs updating, but there are some excellent ones here: Maggie’s WFPB Playlist
Here’s an excellent YouTube show, Plant-based with Jane and Anne Esselstyn.
Here’s another, The Whole Food Plant-based Cooking Show
I have taken and highly recommend the Forks Over Knives Ultimate Cooking Course.
None of these are affiliate links, by the way.
Tips
Take notes
Watch cooking demos through once before trying
Watch on a phone or iPad in the kitchen while cooking, so you can pause after each step
Do not be afraid to substitute ingredients. A quick Ecosia search and common sense go a long way here (Ecosia is my preference to Google for searches. They plant trees and don’t kiss felonious asses.)
Remember oils, refined sugars, & refined/enriched flours are not whole foods
As soon as you find a recipe or demo you get excited about, put that into action ASAP. You want to capitalize on that good energy.
Method 2
Buy some new pans. I know, but you need decent pans to cook this way. They can be ceramic. They can be stone. They can be heavy, uncoated stainless steel. Try to avoid the non-stick coatings like Teflon.
Why? Because when you get a new tool you want to use it. It’s fun to write with a freshly sharpened pencil. It’s fun to drive a brand new car. It’s just more fun to cook with a shiny new pan.
When you first get a new pan, wash it gently, dry it thoroughly, and follow manufacturer’s instructions regarding “seasoning” the pan before first use.
I recommend you start with a frying pan, and practice your skills with The Oil-Free Sauté:
Mini-Cooking lesson: The Oil Free Sauté
Heat the pan on medium or very slightly above medium heat until a drop of water beads and dances when dripped onto the surface. Scrape in onions and other veggies. Stir with a non-metal utensil, scraping the bottom, as the veggies cook. When thick brown sticky stuff forms, that’s sugar. Add a splash of veggie broth to deglaze before that stuff burns, and stir it back into the veggies. Repeat until veggies are fork tender.
You can also practice with French toast and pancakes. Same pre-heating first step as above, but this time the key is NOT moving the food around. Once the coated bread or batter is in the pre-heated pan, let it stay there. The pancake, until its upper surface is covered in bubbles. The French toast until it’s no longer sticking to the pan. Pry up an edge a little. It will move freely once it gets cooked enough. Flip it then and not before.
Method 3
Get yourself a white apron and a chef’s hat. It doesn’t have to be a tall Chef’s hat. I have two sets that are not tall like that.
Wait, pics right here.
Why?
It’s very much like creating a workstation or studio area for my writing. It signals that you are taking the project seriously. It also keeps hairs and dust/litter from around the house from falling into your creations. I have very long hair, and spend a lot of time with my dog, so I always “suit up” for cooking.
Get some gear, hang it in your kitchen at the ready. And go for it.
Method 4
Choose a chef’s knife. I think 75% to 85% of cooking is cutting, chopping, slicing, dicing, peeling, mincing, and so on. A chef’s knife is right up there with a good frying pan on your list of essentials. And of course you’ll need a cutting board on which to use it.
Why?
Using a razor sharp knife feels amazing, and improves your cooking skills all by iteself. It also makes meal prep easier, faster, and more fun.
Most of us probably already have these things in our kitchens. If you have a chef’s knife, have it sharpened by someone who knows how, or learn how yourself. (Youtube videos again.)
Alternatively buy yourself a nice chef’s knife. It’s nice to be able to handle the knife in person so try that if possible. You can also ask for a knife as a holiday, birthday, or other gift and offer suggestions so you get the one you like.
Then, watch a tutorial on knife skills, and begin to practice yours. Make each cooking session a knife skills honing exercise.
My husband bought me a pink-handled chef’s knife with “Eat Like You Give a Shit” and my name engraved on its blade. I love that thing. It was a brand name, but I don’t recall which one. One of the daughters also bought us a set as a holiday gift. 6 or 7 blades with a magnetic wooden board to which they attach. It sits upright on the counter. Again, excellent brand, but I don’t know the name. You’ll have to find another blog for a knife expert’s recommendations. If it fits my hand, and holds an edge, it’s a great blade, IMHO.
Method 5
See some of these methods require money (new knife and/or pans) and others just require what my grandma called elbow grease. This is one of the latter.
Hoe out and re-organize your kitchen and/or pantry including the fridge.
Why?
How much easier and more fun is it to cook in a kitchen that has everything you need, nothing you don’t, and you know precisely where to find every bit of it, than in one where you spend ten minutes on a step-stool unloading spices from two shelves in search of smoked paprika?
That’s why.
Here’s how. Start with the cabinets. Unload everything. Wash the shelves. Then, as you replace the items, sort them. Get rid of old stuff and stuff you’ll never use. Organize the rest. All the flours in one spot. All the herbs and spices in another, in a rack of their own with any luck. All the canned goods in their own cabinet, grouped by contents, shelf by shelf. All the pastas and rices in their own space, and so on.
Then move on to the Fridge, same process. Empty, clean, sort, re-fill. And as you re-fill, group things, and put them in a logical order for you.
This is going to make your next cooking session feel light years better.
Method 6
Experiment!
Why?
Because where’s the fun in same old, same old? Try recipes you’ve never tried before. Even better, veganize old recipes from your omnivore past (if you have one) that you thought were gone forever. I did that recently with scalloped potatoes. They stuck to the pan, and I thickened the sauce too much, but I’ll try it again!
The way to do this, after you’ve tried all the recipes you’re sure you’ll like from your favorite cookbook or video blog cast, start trying some of the recipes you’re not so sure you’ll like.
You’ll be stunned at how often one of these experiments ends up joining your ever expanding list of go-to meals.
Method 7
Make the cooking easier by cooking in batches and prepping ahead.
When you make chili, make an entire pot full. I feed leftovers to hubby in his lunchbox, or pour them into perfectly portioned containers and freeze them.
Ditto the above with Spanish rice, Stews, Soups, and Goulash.
When you cook rice, pasta or other grains, cook enough for at least two meals instead of one. Split it up. Use a portion for dinner and store the rest in the fridge for later in the week.
Make the meal prep easier by washing and cutting the produce that will tolerate it all at once, rather than as needed. If I need to wash a few grapes to eat, I will wash all the grapes, pat them dry, and put them back in the fridge.
Ditto the greens. Wash them all at once shake dry, re-store in clean containers with a paper towel in the bottom. They’ll keep longer, and now they are grab and go.
Less prep time means more ease, and more ease means more fun.
Method 8
Backup music. Or TV. Or audiobook.
I always have more going on than whatever it is I’m cooking. Most frequently it’s music. I have several playlists, all of them make me move. So I cook and dance and do resistance moves for my muscles while I’m cooking.
When I’m feeling less ambitious, I use my cooking time to read audiobooks, catch up on podcasts.
Least often of all, I’ll pop on the TV. If I do it’s usually news, so I try not to do that too often as the news is not fun these days.
When I do the music thing, I get my exercise in at the same time.
I am the Multi-tasking Madonna!
Method 9
Share.
Partner up! Cook as a family or as a couple. Cooking together can be one of the most romantic things a couple can do. And what better family fun than meal prep? It should never be one person’s job to do most or all of the cooking unless only one person lives in the household.
Make a friend who is also WFPB and start sharing and exchanging photos and recipes, trials and errors, successes and lessons learned. It makes it so much easier to have a partner in crime.
Likewise, sharing your meals with other hungry humans is an excellent way to enhance your joy of cooking. There’s nothing quite like people at a table making yummy noises over the food that you prepared! So cook, and invite guests to enjoy the bounty.
That’s all I’ve got for today! Happy cooking!
Your next obsession….
Wings in the Night was the original “Twilight” vampire romance series…and it launched a genre.
Read the book that started it all, TWILIGHT PHANTASIES
Video has sound
“This book is a work of art!” —Amazon reviewer
