Cooking without Recipes: A Complete Guide

What if you could whip up a meal, lickety split with very little planning, on the fly? And what if you loved doing it too? Let’s see, you’d be able to cooking wholesome meals for you and your family even when you haven’t prepped and planned. Nothing against prepping and planning, but sometimes you just can’t pull it together. It’s so helpful to be able to break free of recipes from time to time, or if you’re like me, all the time! To pull this off cooking and eating may need to look a little different to you than it does now.

Your Mindset

The most important aspect of healthy eating is not willpower or adherence to a particular healthy eating paradigm. The most important aspect is how you feel about healthy eating and how healthy eating makes you feel. And your intentions and attitudes greatly influence your likelihood of long term healthy eating success. Try these simple tips to help you begin to create a healthy mindset.

You should try and tweak as many times as you need to, to find what works for you and your family. There is no one size fits all solution.

Establish rituals.

No, I don’t mean violently sacrifice the family pet at the dining room table altar. You can create rituals around small things that sort of set the mood of calm and mindful. Some examples are setting the table, saying grace or doing a mini-meditation before you eat. Every meal should be a sensuous experience. Take the time to notice and enjoy the sights, smells and ambiance of your experience.

Practice gratitude often.

Be grateful for all the food you have and actually pause to think about what went into the creation and preparation of the dish(es). Appreciate the farmer, your garden, transporters, means to purchase, and the chef. This will help to break the mindlessness around eating. It will also establish a spiritual connection with your food which actually aids in nutrient absorption and relaxation.

Redefine comfort food and decadence.

How many foods do you consider to be comfort foods that do anything BUT make you feel comfortable after you’ve eaten it? And although a bowl of fresh steamed broccoli may make you feel good after you eat it, it may not qualify as comfort food either.  Now, what about something like broccoli rice au gratin? I grew up with that from a box. But the homemade version of broccoli rice au gratin is comfort food to my family. The idea is that you can and should create healthy food that both tastes good and makes you feel good too.

Your Space

Your environment directly influences your mood, efficiency, and experience before and during meals. Very often the condition of your space will determine whether you go in the kitchen and whip up a wholesome meal, or become overwhelmed and resort to the fast food drive up. So it is definitely worth it to spend a little bit of time in the beginning establishing the ideal conditions to keep your organized, happy and relaxed.

Clean.

Clean and disinfect your surfaces and the sink. It is much easier and seamless to start cooking with a blank slate.

De-clutter.

Tidy your kitchen in a big way. Get rid of papers, hardware, ugly bric-a-brac, bills, packaging or any other junk that impedes your ability to mise en place or prevents you from having company in the kitchen comfortably. Your kitchen is now a place of joy and happiness so remove anything that doesn’t fit that goal.

Lighten up!

Be sure that your kitchen is well lit. Replace bulbs if necessary, let natural light in if you can. I had a galley kitchen with a dropped ceiling and fluorescent light for years. Then when we got the chance to remodel, we tore down some walls and made the dining room a part of the kitchen. The dining room has 3 floor to ceiling windows that bring in loads of sunlight. Now, even cleaning the kitchen is a joy because I no longer feel trapped in a dim and murky space alone. It made a HUGE difference.

Jam.

Set up a music system in your kitchen and create a few upbeat cooking playlists. While we were doing the remodel job, we went to a lighting supply showroom and discovered a pendant lighting system that had a wireless speaker system on it. And it came with a woofer and receiver that you can plug a phone, tablet or computer into. What a game changer!! Now I can turn my cooking and kitchen chores into a soca party. Even if it’s not a good time for you to remodel, bringing in your portable music will make you enjoy every minute you spend in your kitchen.

Beautify.

Pretty up your kitchen without creating clutter. Make small improvements like painting, color coordinating tools and cloths or hang some art. My favorite pictures on the wall are of a spice market and some framed Gullah postcards about cooking seafood from the South Carolina Low Country, where my grandmother is from.

Simplify.

If you have a television in the kitchen, remove it. Put it out in the garage or something. Television doesn’t bring joy, it just distracts. The same way that eating in front of the television interferes with the sensual experience of eating and renders it mechanical and mindless the same is true for cooking in your kitchen. You really want to enhance the experience, not deaden it.

Take Action

Stock your pantry.

Establish your basic pantry staples (herbs, spices, sauces, vinegars and aromatics) and create a system of making sure you always have them on hand so you can put together a delicious meal on the fly without having to run to the grocery store first.

First you need to have some basics on hand because it’s just not efficient to be running out to the store every single time you want to make something.

These are ingredients that you can use to create the most versatile meals. The list is extensive but you figure that these are necessary to take simple groceries and turn them into masterpieces. Some of the items would not be found on a typical pantry basics list, and that’s because I culturally, we like certain things.

Don’t feel the need to run out and buy all of these items at once. It’s best to make a start and build the stock gradually over weeks or even a couple of months.

Spices

• You have all the spices in the world, but be sure you don’t run out of these staples:
• Seasoned salt
• Kosher salt
• Whole black peppercorns or mix of black and white
• Cayenne pepper
• Cumin
• Onion powder
• Powdered ginger
• Cinnamon
• Paprika – both sweet and smoked
• Nutmeg
• Curry powder (a good one from an international market)
• Dried parsley or chervil
• Crushed red pepper
• Bay leaves
• Your favorite blends
• Cloves *optional, I hate cloves and never use them*

Aromatics

• Onions (red and yellow sweet)
• Garlic
• Celery
• Carrots
• Peppers – red and green bell, jalapeno, scotch bonnet (hot!)
• Fresh ginger
• Shallots *optional, one of my FAVORITE things*

Herbs (dried or fresh)

• Rosemary
• Thyme
• Cilantro
• Parsley

Dry staples

• Brown rice
• Jasmine or basmati white rice
• Pilaf or wild rice
• Quinoa – any color
• Macaroni or penne pasta
• Red potatoes
• Oats
• Couscous
• Lentils and beans (any)

Sauces and condiments

• Dijon mustard
• Ketchup
• Mayonnaise
• Soy sauce
• Worcstershire sauce
• Vinegars – balsamic, apple cider, red or white wine, etc.
• Hot sauce
• Oils – EV Olive, cold pressed avocado, coconut
• Chicken or vegetable broth – carton or homemade LINK TO RECIPE

Baking

• Baking powder
• Baking soda
• Brown sugar
• Cornstarch
• All-purpose flour
• White whole wheat flour
• Granulated sugar
• Honey
• Cornmeal
• Dry yeast (I only use the Fleishmann’s pizza crust packets)
• Powdered milk or powdered coconut milk

Cans

• Crushed tomatoes in puree
• Tomato paste
• Beans

Refrigerator

• Butter
• Eggs
• Cheeses
• Yogurt
• Bacon, pancetta or diced pepperoni for seasoning
• Arrowroot
• Unsweetened cocoa powder

Prep for busy days.

To make homemade cooking on busy weekdays easier, do food prep, like chopping aromatics and vegetables, marinating meats or mixing sauces ahead of time and refrigerate for later use. Resist the urge to fully prepare dishes in advance only to be reheated leftovers. However, you can prepare ahead certain dishes that actually improve when the spices have time to meld together and are better the next day (like chili).

Get your stuff together.

Mise en place (French term meaning having all the ingredients together and prepped on your workspace before beginning to cook). Measure out each ingredient into small bowls on your workspace before you start the preparation. This will help take some of the anxiety away from cooking from scratch and definitely frees up mind space so you are less prone to making mistakes. Mise en place is also a fantastic way to get your little ones involved in the cooking. The older ones can help you measure and the younger ones can add the ingredients.

Be fancy.

Plate your food like a chef and make it beautiful. You don’t have to be a professional chef, just place your food in an appetizing way on the plate as if you were going to photograph it. If available, add a garnish like a sprig of parsley or chopped chives or a sprinkle of paprika. Making food pleasing to all of the senses, including sight enhances your meal to the level of positive sensual experience.

Keep food simple.

Dress up single ingredients rather than compose an elaborate dish. A lot of times people think that making healthy food (or any food) taste great requires some complication. It doesn’t. When you are learning to eat fresh food on a regular basis, a good part of that time should be elevating simple dishes to a new level without overpowering them. Two of my favorite enhancers are shallots and chicken or vegetable broth.

Here is an example. One day we were just sitting around doing nothing when our cousin called to say he’s in town with a couple of friends and wanted to come by. I hadn’t even thought about what we were going to have for dinner that day. So they came and we sat in the living room chatting. I got up and went into the kitchen and whipped up dinner. They thought it was so fast it was a magic trick. I cooked baked salmon with blood orange glaze, wild rice and green beans. Could be boring, right? Well the wild rice was cooked in some homemade broth I had in the freezer plus some chopped onions, celery and carrots. The green beans were fresh, crispy and bright green and tossed with some caramelized shallots. They still rave about that ordinary meal all the time because it was so simple, yet so tasty.

Relax.

Sip wine. But don’t do shots. I know it’s self explanatory but you want to make the mood festive, but you don’t want to anesthetize yourself from the sensual experience.

Share meals.

If you don’t have a lot of family nearby join or start a supper club. You’ll take turns hosting and it’s a great way to build confidence by impressing people with your skills. Even if you don’t feel super confident, go back to taking simple ingredients and making them shine. Trust me, this will change your life. Sharing meals with others is essential to healthy eating, believe it or not. It promotes community and improves mental health.

Reset your thinking.

Relax, and change your attitude. If you find yourself dreading your time in the kitchen, stop and focus on what you’re doing. Be present and allow happiness to happen.

Slow down.

Don’t eat on the run. When you thoroughly chew your food and fully experience it, you become satisfied sooner and avoid overeating.

Explore the food world!

If you haven’t already, open your mind to different ethnic cuisines. This will give you are broader flavor palate and more options to make your food fantastic.

Also, pay attention to the rich cuisines of Africa and the Caribbean, as some of these dishes can offer healthier alternatives to the typical American comfort food that will give you the same warm and satisfied feeling inside. In general, my favorite cuisines are Mediterranean, dishes from North Africa and Southern Europe; and Caribbean dishes (which is often a fusion of exciting African and South Asian flavors). I think the common thread here is simple, fresh ingredients highlighted with herbs, spices and aromatics. Nothing boring or bland here! Experiment and find out what regional cuisines (besides your own) you love.

Conclusion

I hope you enjoyed this guide to making healthy eating a realistic and joyous party of your and your family’s everyday lives. Please understand though, that this is just the tiny tip of the iceberg.

To truly understand and implement your healthy eating lifestyle strategy you will need much, much more.

Find out how you can get a better and more complete perspective on actively improving your health and well being while also living the joyous and full life you want to lead, and being able to sustain your new skills and knowledge for the rest of your life.

Get a head start on your healthy lifestyle today!!!

Click here to ask questions or schedule a quick chat with me if you are inspired (or just curious) to find out where you are and how you can move forward to a place of optimal health, beauty, joy and energy not only for yourself, but for your whole family as well because you and they definitely deserve it.