Pizza (with millet !?!)

We make a lot of pizza - without the slightest amount of guilt.  Well okay, every once in a while we order pizza and I do perhaps have a little guilt about that.  But most of time it's homemade pizza.  Interesting vegetables, less cheese, and homemade crust with whole grains.  I actually feel good about the amount of pizza we eat! 

Fiddlehead fern pizza with feta bombs

You can ferment that!

Fermenting your own foods to make sauerkraut, pickles, yogurt, or kimchi probably sounds kind of crazy. The type of thing that only a person living in the middle of nowhere or someone who is unemployed would even consider attempting.  I can assure you that nothing is easier.  It will take you less time to make a jar of your own pickles then it would to select a jar from the wall 'o pickles probably available at your supermarket.

From left to right:  Red cabbage sauerkraut, bok choy kimchi, sauerkraut with jalapeno, sauerkraut.

But I don't know what is healthy!

I’ve heard this a million times and probably said it like 1,000 myself, “but I don’t know what is healthy”.  But think about this, really think about this, and it’s pretty ridiculous.  We know, and certainly don’t need some scientific study to confirm, that eating a medium delivery pizza for dinner is not healthy.  We know that eating a big bowl of ice cream at night while watching TV isn’t healthy.  We know that eating ½ pound of bacon for breakfast isn’t healthy.  We know this.  We just wish there was a way to get away with it.

Step 2: Start Simple - Whatcha got?

Sometimes I'm inspired to prepare something involved, but we do an awful lot of  "whatchagot"  meals (soups, stews, rice dishes).

With very little time, planning or inspiration you can whip up easy whatchagot dinners if you keep some basics in your kitchen like: rice or couscous, bouillon, garlic, and carrots.

Brown and wild rice, carrots and red pepper

Starting Your Rediscovery of Real Food

An easy place to start to rediscover cooking is to begin by making meals based on what you have in your house and what is in season and available at your local market.

Making meals that are as simple or complex as you'd like.  Meals that can be improvised.

Meals where the preparation is not stressful and doesn't require a lot of planning.

Getting back to simply cooking.  Simply cooking real food.