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  • Writer's pictureLaura E Mayer

Ten Tested Truths to Conquer Clean Cooking: Part Two

Updated: Apr 6, 2019


In Part One I suggest ways to relinquish kitchen perfectionism, create cooking habits, and balance the workload when cooking clean or from scratch. Some of those themes are interwoven into the last five truths here in Part Two; however, the main truth here is organization, organization, organization!


“You can eat anything on that list if you cook it.” For some that directive would feel restricting, but for me that directive was liberating. For months I had been following a detox diet that included a longer list of foods to avoid than foods to include. I had been determined to follow that food prescription, but when I started having severe health problems—that left me emaciated, fatigued, and home-bound (too sick to work) for eight months—my nutritionist gave me a different diet to follow.


Eight years ago with that new list in hand, I walked the aisles of the produce section like child on a shopping spree in a toy store. What’s the difference between a radish, turnip, and rutabaga? What does burdock root taste like? (It looks like a stick.) How do you cook asparagus, eggplant, artichoke? What is kohlrabi?


I went grocery shopping every day. This (rightfully) disturbed my husband, our family’s financial planner. “Why don’t you meal plan and go to the grocery store once a week?”


His suggestion-turned-epiphany almost embarrassed me. I am a teacher: planning is supposed to be my forte. Thus, I added an organizational mindset to my kitchen. It led me to learn the following truths.


6. Organize logically / keep organized

Think about your kitchen like your desk at work. Everything you use regularly is within your reach, correct? So which kitchen appliances and tools do you use most frequently? Put those within your reach too. For instance, I use my blender daily for smoothies, my electric pressure cooker for dinners, and my mini food processor for meal prep, so they sit on my counter instead of underneath; spatulas, wooden spoons, ladles, and tongs live in a ceramic jar on my counter instead of a drawer for easy grabbing.


Organization isn’t only about neatness; it’s about functionality. So your spices may look pretty in a basket or on steps, but if you have to pull that container out every time you cook or have to move the first row of spices to see what’s behind it or have to walk to a cabinet to get those spices away from your work space, you’re adding time to your preparation; you’re making the process inconvenient; you’re disrupting your work flow. Put those spices in a single row on a lazy Susan in a cabinet near your work space and organize them in the order of frequency and similarity: sea salt, pepper, Italian seasoning, onion flakes, garlic powder, cumin, cinnamon, paprika, chili flakes, and cayenne are the most commonly used spices in my cooking, so they stay together with the Lazy Susan rotated to display them in the front.


When you’re done with something, put it back in its designated spot. This builds a habit and a system that will also eventually decrease your time spent in the kitchen. Insist that others—if you can get kitchen help—follow your organization plan also.

We ordinary cooks may not have hidden elves measure ingredients in bowls and chop vegetables (like on the magic of television) but we can make meals faster with efficient organization.


7. Meal plan

Depending on whatever goal you’ve set for clean cooking (once a week to every day), plan what you’re going to make in advance. Before your trip to the grocery store, write down the meals you plan to make for the week in a notebook and the ingredients required in a shopping list. Next to each meal, make a note of the recipe location using shorthand: I abbreviate my cookbook titles or boards on Pinterest using the first letter of each word. Nourishing Traditions becomes “NT” or my vegetarian recipe board on Pinterest, Veg Out, becomes “Pin-VO” and the former is followed by the page number, such as “NT 48.”

This week's cookbook references (above) and meal plan with location tags (below).

A common complaint when buying produce is that it typically goes to waste, but when you cook clean, buying fresh is a must. Therefore, in order to minimize food waste, use this technique when meal planning: Go through the refrigerator and find leftover vegetables—the cabbage cut in half, three scallions, a third a bunch of parsley—and put them in the same place, such as the bottom right drawer. Label it “old vegetables.” Next make a list of those vegetables and look for recipes that contain them as ingredients whether in your favorite cookbook, on Pinterest, or in a Google search.


After you’ve prepared a meal from your plan, check it off and add notes: was it worth making again? Meals that were particularly enjoyable are circled in red pen with the word “Excellent!” in my family’s meal plan notebook. Further, the notebook serves as a meal record, so when my husband says “Can we eat that dish with the beans and melted cheese again?” I can find it easily in the notebook and its recipe source (using the location tag).


8. Give yourself a break

I admit it. Some nights I just don’t feel like cooking. Some nights I’m too tired or I’d rather finish a home project or chore instead of spending it in the kitchen. Those are the nights I allow myself a break and the family eats frozen or canned food or we eat out or call delivery. No shame, no blame. Those breaks get added into meal planning and budgeting, so I only write down six dinners every week. That gives me at least one night off from kitchen duty.


9. Have a back-up plan

Other nights I’ve already used my get-out-of-kitchen-card and I look at my meal planning list like it’s a mountain to climb. I don’t have the desire, energy, and/or time to follow a recipe, so I declare it “breakfast for dinner night.” We always have eggs, bacon or sausage, and pancake mix on-hand, so it’s fast, mindless, and delicious. My husband enjoys the excuse to eat breakfast more often, and my baby loves bacon. Win-win for everyone!

What’s an easy, go-to, pantry meal for your family?


10. Have fun / enjoy the process and fruits of your labor

I don’t sing in the shower; I sing in the kitchen! If I’m preparing a labor-intensive meal that requires much chopping, I’ll put on my favorite jam so I can belt lyrics while doing the drone work. If I’m peeling and cutting an extra-offensive onion, I’ve been known to run to my husband or son with crocodile tears and runny mascara to complain about something asinine.


Now with a toddler in tow, dinner preparation is more entertaining with my little sous chef who can pour, mix, lick, and spill ingredients. His assistance does add time to the work, but it’s a learning opportunity for him and a bonding opportunity for us both. With his kitchen helper tower in front of the stove, he points to the gas flame saying “Fire, fire, fire,” and “Hot, hot, hot!"


When the meal is ready, I display it neatly on plates and take a photo for Facebook. I’ve earned those bragging rights! I’m proud of my effort, and I enjoy showing off—er, I mean inspiring and teaching others.


Lastly, after cooking clean regularly, my body just feels better. During the holidays and times of illness or recovery when my family does not eat our normal, non-processed diet, we feel sluggish and icky. We get sick more often. We gain weight. My body craves clean food! In the beginning of my cooking journey when my husband and I were still transitioning from eating mostly packaged and restaurant food, we used to say “We can make that better at home!” when tempted by easy, pre-made, convenience foods. It was our motivation to stay the course—because most food manufacturers and restaurants cut costs by using cheap ingredients. Eating clean means using fresher, high quality foods, and that’s why it’s healthier, tastes better. Remember: professional cooking skills are not required for better health!


What motivates you to keep cooking clean? Which one of these tested truths resonates most with you?

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