Friday, December 21, 2012

My Food Rules

1. Experiment. Cook different dishes and try to use various food ingredients. There’s so many vegetables out there… try them all (or as many as you can, at least)!

2. Shop at the farmers markets as much as possible. Take advantage of fresh, local produce while they are around. Food ingredients that are in season really do taste better.

3. Be mindful of food ingredients that are more fragile and rot faster. Cook them as soon as possible.

4. When you come across a recipe that you want to try, do not be daunted if you do not have all the ingredients on hand. Improvise and make use of what you have. This is how you learn how to cook.

5. When in doubt, start with the least amount of salt, you can always add more later. Once you get it too salty, you’ve ruined it.

6. Garlic makes everything taste better.

7. If you could use one and only one oil that is great for all kinds of cooking and even baking, it is olive oil. You will never go wrong with olive oil.

8. Steer clear of all ingredients that are artificial even if it means saying no to green colored cupcakes for St. Patrick’s Day.

9. Never order food at a restaurant that you can so easily make at home. Eat something you know you will be too lazy to make and try something new each time you go out (life is too short to eat the same stuff all the time).

10. Microwave popcorn is nasty. Make it yourself, it’s easy and it tastes so much better.

11. If you have rotting fruit, turn it into jam. Just chop it, throw the bruised areas in the garbage and throw the good parts in a pot with some water, honey, a sprinkle or more of sugar and let it cook until it’s soft enough to mash. Mash until it is the consistency of your liking, some like it chunky and some like it smooth. Save in an air-tight container and refrigerate for up to 5 days.

12. Make your own granola! It is so easy and tastes so good. There’s hundreds of great recipes online and a few on my blog.

13. When at home, heat leftovers in a pan. This way you will feel inspired to add a fresh ingredient or two and pretend that you’re eating something different. I love poached eggs in my curries and sauces! Heating leftovers in a pan also makes you feel like you’re eating a fresh, home-cooked meal. On that note, heat leftover pizza in the oven or a pan, not the microwave. Please do not heat pizza in a microwave, unless you like eating rubbery dough.

14. Say no to store-bought cookies and cupcakes. Why? Because you do not know how much junk is in them. Make sweet treats at home. I promise, they are more delicious, way cheaper, aaand you have control over what you load them with.

15. When you really have to buy things that come in packages, choose the lesser evil. As a general rule, I go for the packaged food with the least amount of ingredients and make sure that I know what the ingredients are.

16. Waste not! Stems/stalks are edible and delicious… i.e. beet greens, radish greens, carrot greens, Swiss chard stalks, kale stalks, and broccoli stems.
 
17.-20. Do you have any food rules that you would like to share? I would LOVE to hear it!

4 comments:

  1. I have never bought cookies or cupcakes. I am a firm believer of the homemade. I love No.6 ;-)

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  2. Thanks for sharing, Margie. #6 is my favorite too! I'd like to try #12. I'm inspired to try more home-made treats!

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  3. Wow. My comment was going to be exactly what Roslyn above said.
    When I saw your post, I thought you were just going to talk about how your food rules, as in, just how awesome your meals are. They are by the way, I love reading your recipes. I'm going to head over to one of your granola recipes. You should have put a link beside #12 ;)

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  4. I love these!! And I live by almost all of them. I really need to get back to the farmer's market though...I miss it!

    I think another one of my (more recent) rules is that it's better to eat a little bit of something indulgent that you were craving than to eat a lot of something less indulgent that you weren't craving...not only will you be less satisfied but you'll probably end up consuming just as many calories!

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