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Food Feeds More Than The Stomach

February 8, 2017February 9, 2017 Rachel Sherwood

We talk a lot about eating well and wanting to cook but so often this does not happen consistently, we are all busy. This week as I start to bring my New Year, New You series to a close I ask you to think why you cook or why you want to cook more and what food really means to you. I know it’s a getting a touch deep but really even if you are buying all the best food and fining the quickest easiest recipes only gets you part of the benefits. You have to share the meal, eating in community.

You see I write this because so many people come to me struggling to eat well wanting to find solutions to get quality meals on their tables but they often suffer from being over-scheduled and stressed trying to “fit it all in”. This creates anxiety in all areas of life, affects mental focus, physical health of our bodies and emotional health of our relationships. We want to feel better, and for our families to be happy and healthy and you can create that all though food. Sadly it seems, we are all generally too “busy”. Americans today see cooking as more of a chore something that we don’t have the luxury of time to do.

I am so deeply passionate about food bringing friends and family together around it because it is not only good to nourish our bodies. We also gain so many benefits from cooking and sharing a meal with others. If we take the time and make a commitment to honor food and cooking the way we honor other tasks we all might just be a little happier, healthier and better off long term. It is not just about eating food – it’s about creating and sharing a meal together. This is where you get the most benefits from cooking.

Here are just a few of the benefits you receive when cooking and eating together:

Developing cooking skills makes mealtime easier for everyone.
Kids are more likely to eat what they help prepare.
Save money: meals purchased away from home cost two to four times more than meals prepared at home.
Consume fewer calories.
Create a sense of belonging. In a Columbia University study 71% of teenagers said they consider talking, catching-up, and spending time with family members as the best part of family dinners.
Eat more vegetables and choose healthier options.
Eventually as kids are older they can help cook full parts of a meal getting it on the table faster.
Less likely to be overweight.
Consume less sweets and stay fuller longer.
Kids do better at school. Teens who eat dinner four or more times with parents have higher academic performance than those who eat dinner two or less times per week.
Boost self-esteem.
Create strong relationship bonds.
Boost communication skills.
Create a sense of self-worth and a necessary skill of being self- sufficient.
Develop social skills.
Expand knowledge of food, and the world around us.
Improved mental health.
Overall happier and less stressed

You see we all say we want change but the question is, are you willing to make the commitment to change? The opportunity is right in front of us. It can be achieved. Perhaps seeing eating together not as another appointment on a busy schedule, but rather as an opportunity to de-stress, a chance to catch up with those whom we love then, could help our children do better at school, be less likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, get everyone in better shape, and be happier, less stressed individuals. I think we could all benefit from more home cooked meals.

If you need help with practical cooking solutions for busy days let me know. I am here for you. Stay in touch for next week for tips on how to get the entire family involved in creating family meals.

Did you miss an earlier post?

Here are the earlier New Year, New You Topics:

Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
Lose Weight by Eating More
Cut Your Grocery Bill Without Cutting Coupons
How Cooking Makes You Smarter
Pantry Makeover

Sources:

Pantry Makeover

February 1, 2017February 1, 2017 Rachel Sherwood

You cannot cook if you do not have ingredients. It is essential to first equip yourself with the basic ingredients and begin getting comfortable with them learning how to use them best to create easy healthy meals. If you have to run to the store every time you are hungry or need to make a meal you won’t make it and will simply relay on what is easiest and available quickly.

Here is how to put together a well-rounded pantry. Know that every pantry is going to be different! There is no one-fits-all pantry list. However, in order to pull together amazing dishes you must have a few items from each of the main Pantry Essentials categories that fit your taste and diet needs. Below I will explain each group. Know that your needs and tastes may be different and that is ok just be sure you have a few options for each of the categories to get you started on a well rounded pantry.

There are 7 main categories that make up a well-rounded pantry:

3 shelf stable categories that include Gains/Legumes, Canned/Jarred, and Baking.
3 perishable categories: Dairy, Produce, and Protein as well as the final
Ready to eat/Freezer items.

If you have a few things from each of theses categories I promise dinner can be on the table quickly.

7 Panty Essentials Categories

Grains/Legumes: These are great bases for meals providing fiber and protein. The key is to have a few quick cooking varieties like canned beans and couscous on hand at all times for quick additions to meals. Use the longer cooking varieties like wild rice by making them in large batches so you can use them a few different ways throughout the week with only cooking once like a warm wild rice side dish, soup and cold salad.

Canned /Jarred: This is the category with the widest variety and the most shelf-stable products. When you find a few of your favorites stock up on them when they are on sale for money saving benefits as well. When I think about canned items, I think where I can add them, for example to grains to add color, flavor, and texture that would help make a substantial meal. Canned vegetables and fruits, sauces, salsa, coconut milk, preserves, broth, breadcrumbs.

Baking: These items are not only to make basic cakes, cookies, and breads but they are also essential to general cooking for applications like adding sweetness or to thicken items. Flour, sugar, brown sugar, oils, salt, baking powder, baking soda and vanilla extract, chocolate, chocolate chips.

Fresh Pantry: These are all your perishable items so be aware of what you are eating so you don’t stock up too much and have it spoiling and going to waste. I have listed a few of my favorites that are longer lasting items that I always have on hand. To this list, I would add other items like fresh berries, mushrooms, eggplant, cottage cheese, sour cream, fresh meats and fish and rotate through for variety.

Dairy: Milk, eggs, butter, 1-2 hard cheese, cream cheese, yogurt.

Produce: Apples, lemons/citrus, carrots, potatoes, onions, garlic.

Protein: Sausage or cured meats, tofu are more shelf stable. Keep fresh and frozen meats in easy to prepare packaging.

Ready to eat items: Lastly these are your easy additions: items to eat out of hand like dried fruits and nuts as well as pre-made frozen dinner that can easily be put in the oven. Dry cereal, Variety of crackers, Nuts, Dried fruits and vegetables, Tortilla shells, Frozen fruits and vegetables.

Having a few soups, meats and make ahead meals in the freezer also helps pull together a great meal quickly.

Did you miss an earlier post?

Here are the earlier New Year, New You Topics:
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
Lose Weight by Eating More
Cut Your Grocery Bill Without Cutting Coupons
How Cooking Makes You Smarter

How Cooking Makes You Smarter

January 25, 2017January 25, 2017 Rachel Sherwood

With the discovery of fire humans first learned how to cook. Cooking is what sets us apart from other animals. The argument can be made that cooking and cooking alone is what played the developmental role in creating our advanced species, turning us from naked apes to modern humans. Humans are so much smarter because we can cook!

Cooking breaks down fibers making nutrients more readily available, so our digestive systems required less energy to get the calories we need to live and function well. Research suggests that this increase in readily available and easily digestible calories lead to our increased brain size. We no longer had to spends hours chewing raw foods just to survive we now had more than we need to provide energy to live and extra time to do other things leading to more advanced human development over centuries. This is still true even today when we have become so “smart” that we now have machines that make food for us so we have even more time to do other things.

But my questions to you is: Have we gotten too smart and advanced in allowing so much of our food to be prepared by machines? Outsourcing the act of cooking to companies so much are we actually starting to go the other way. By not cooking are we a becoming less smart and connected?

When we cook we are using a variety of cognitive skills at the same time to create a meal. Even before we touch the ingredients a meal idea is formed and organized. To plan a meal takes anticipation, strategic ability, advance planning, and problem solving. The actual physical “work” of chopping, mixing and kneading uses hand-eye coordination, develops motion control. As meal time nears jugging the cooking times and preparing several items at ones takes concentration, visual, spatial awareness and memory skills as we multitask ensuring all the pieces come together just as we had planned hopefully. If not you are back to problem solving and improvising “Plan B” for dinner.

Making and sharing a meal is also a way to stimulate social skills and language development in young children. The activity of dining together actually helps us stay mentally fit. Several research studies show that sharing a meal together is good for the overall health and wellbeing of the entire family. Cooking not only helps our brains stay fit but also keeps us happier because we are connecting and creating community together while sharing a meal.

Dr. Kelly McGonigal, a health psychologist at Stanford, explains a study related to how food choices influence mood. She writes:

“Now, most of us think that eating out is a treat, and that indulgent meals are a special reward. But this study found that women were significantly happier and less stressed after eating at home, and after eating healthier meals.”

She concludes,

“The home is a privileged environment that nurtures healthy eating and in which healthier food choices trigger more positive emotions.”

I believe fully that food is needed for us to live and cooking is an essential life skill we all need to lead happy, healthy, quality lives but through food we can also learn about math, science, art, history and culture. Through cooking we allow for so much more than just filling our stomachs. Cooking helps us stay smart, happy and leave a legacy.

For more ideas on how to incorporate these elements in your everyday meals contact me today for a free phone session and find out how to enhance your strengths and create more value in your family meals.

Did you miss an earlier post?

Here are the earlier New Year, New You Topics:
Why New Year’s Resolutions Fail
Lose Weight by Eating More
Cut Your Grocery Bill Without Cutting Coupons

Cut Your Grocery Bill Without Cutting Coupons

January 19, 2017January 25, 2017 Rachel Sherwood

Welcome back to the New Year, New You series. Is your resolution to save a little cash this year? If so this post if for you. Besides who could not benefit from a little extra spending money if you are tired of clipping coupons, but you still want the best deals while shopping. Try out these top 10 ways to shop smarter and save. Following these techniques, both your stomach and wallet will stay full.

Tired of clipping coupons, but you still want the best deals while shopping? Try out these top 10 ways to shop smarter and save. Following these techniques, both your stomach and wallet will stay full.

1. Don’t Shop From the Middle of the Shelf Product placement in grocery stores comes with a premium price tag. The national brands and most popular items are conveniently placed at eye level and are easy to reach. Shop the top and bottom shelves to find the best deals. Look for store brands, generic and private labels. These items are just as good if not better than national brands and they almost always come with a lower price tag. Many of the products are actually made by the same manufacturers as national brands, only ending up at the store with a different picture on the same can.

2. Cut Costs With Your Knives Don’t buy already cut-up produce. These items usually contain a preservative to keep them fresh after they are cut and you are paying a premium for this processed product. By learning how to use your knives efficiently, keeping them sharp and knowing what knife is best for a particular task, you will enjoy cutting items and cutting your bills. This also goes for meat products, as well. Instead of buying a package of boneless chicken breast and a package of thighs, buy a few whole birds when they are on sale and cut and package the pieces into portions that are easy for your family use. To sharpen your knife skills, sign up for The Cutting Edge class which will be offered this spring. Check upcoming newsletters or the Classes page on our website for more info as it comes available.

3. Stock Up the Savings When the items you use more often are on sale…

Continue Reading “Cut Your Grocery Bill Without Cutting Coupons”

Lose Weight by Eating More

January 12, 2017January 13, 2017 Rachel Sherwood

I am not going to lie to you: change is hard. We all say we want change but so often when change actually starts to happen, we experience resistance. We really do like things the same and when change starts to occur, we become uncomfortable. Only about 8% of people are successful in achieving their New Year’s Resolutions but your chances for success are higher when you work with someone. I am here to help you achieve your goals. Whether it is eating better, staying healthy, losing weight, saving money, learning something new or spending more time with loved ones, you can achieve all of this through food. Over the next few weeks, I will share some thoughts and secrets for success. This week is all about change.

Read my story on How to Lose Weight by eating more and get recipes here

Over the past year, my husband and I have made several changes as we figure out this new life with baby and now budding toddler. It seems every day is a change and a challenge but, with that, there are also several wonderful joys and blessings that come with these growing pains. One of the biggest changes for our family was changing my diet to eliminate gluten and refined sugars.

At first this was really hard, ok extremely hard. The first few months, I was so tired, hungry and frustrated as I was learning how to cook to incorporate this lifestyle. So many favorites and easy “good foods” like jarred pasta sauce were now off limits. I kept looking at all this food that I “couldn’t have.” It really didn’t get better until I did a complete pantry purge and got rid of all these non-acceptable foods. Then, I filled my house with all the things I could have.

This was a profound moment and a mind shift for me. Instead of thinking about and looking at all the food I could not have, I now had so many options of all the things I could have. It was easier from this point and I have had a great time discovering wonderful new healthier alternatives to the things I love.

The trick is to focus on what you can have not what you can’t. Subconsciously, we will always want what we can’t have. My focus shifted very strongly toward all real, unprocessed, nutrient-dense foods. I am actually eating more food now than I ever did before, but I weigh significantly less. I am consuming only high quality calories that my body can process easily. It sounds easy but it is true, eat less junk and more real food.

One of my favorite alternatives is cauliflower, as I have found this to be a very versatile vegetable. It can be used in so many ways from pizza crust

(Cauliflower Pizza Crusts)

and “bread” for grilled cheese to a great substitute for mashed potatoes. Try out this recipe for mashed cauliflower next time you are craving starchy mashed potatoes.

(Mashed Cauliflower)

With all change, there will always be an uncomfortable sticking point that we must push through to see benefits and experience the rewards of our work. I did learn how to cook differently and create simple ways to eat real food without wheat or any refined sugars. Focusing on just these two things, I now sleep better, look better and have more energy than I ever had before. Now I am not saying that everyone should or needs to change their diet to see results, but I do highly recommend looking at how much processed or store-bought food you consume vs. homemade. Homemade alternatives will almost always be a healthier option for you as they will contain less salt, fat, sugar and other chemical preservatives to keep them fresh and tasting good over long periods of time. Start small and notice what comes up for you.

People often ask if I will go back to eating wheat and my answer is I don’t think so. You see the thing with real change is that it is not will power that is driving me. I don’t have the attitude that this is something “I have to do.” I have created ways that are easy, fun and now a sustainable part of my everyday life.

If things are hard we often don’t stick to it over long periods of time. I don’t feel deprived, I feel healthy, alive and refreshed. I can help you do the same. With the Impressions At Home System™ you can bypass the simple mistakes and take the fast track. Working with an expert can help show you the easiest way to achieve your desired results and keep you accountable for what you say you want. Together, you can be happier, healthier, more organized, save money and so much more creating benefits for the whole family.

Contact me today to talk more about what program is best for you.

For complete, hands-on guidance to make cooking, entertaining and everyday meals simpler, the Impressions at Home System™ is designed to create confidence in the kitchen, improve culinary skills and promote a healthy lifestyle. There are three programs to choose from to fit your specific needs. All three programs start with a solid foundation to set up for success. You will receive the Confident Cook Assessment to gauge where you are so we can maximize your current skills and overcome your biggest struggles. Programs include The Confident Cook, Effortless Entertainer and Meals Made Easy.