Everyone loves home-cooked meals and associates them with love.
Nowadays, it’s more possible than ever for you to prepare tasty meals for your entire family without spending hours in the kitchen.
Let’s dive in and explore how!
The importance of food
From commercials to family gatherings, it’s clear to everyone that food plays a central part in our lives.
When little ones cry, we most often answer them with food and by doing so, we have developed a deep association between food with emotions. We tend to live our lives through this behavioural prism.
Think about it – we always prepare food when there are celebrations, be it birthdays, weddings, or graduations. We are using it as an antidepressant, even looking for aphrodisiac food. Our lives, values and cultural traditions are expressed through it.
Thousands of advertisements tell us how to eat right and what to consume so we can reduce inflammation, improve focus and achieve beauty.
Nowadays, however, we have too little time for ourselves and our loved ones, let alone for cooking. And yet, we think of starting a healthier lifestyle only when something bad happens to us. Until then, most of us are being controlled by our cravings just to cope with life.
That’s why it’s essential to understand early that food brings our bodies the needed nutrients to sustain life, and what we consume matters. Studying nutrition can help you lose weight, maintain good shape, and save you thousands on medication and doctor visits.
And it all starts with preparing your own food. The good news is that you do not have to be Gordon Ramsey or Jamie Oliver to do that. After all, some delicious recipes can be cooked in no time.
Everything Starts With a Clean Oven
First and foremost, every chef has to have clean tools and appliances at his disposal.
That’s why, after every big cooking, it is best to clean the oven.
We know that for many of us, it is probably the most disliked household chore. However, many good reasons exist to keep your oven and kitchen appliances clean.
For one, you will ensure that the dish is cooked properly and that the ingredients and effort are not wasted, like when you’re trying to prepare sourdough bread from scratch.
A sparkling clean oven is more energy efficient and also distributes heat evenly. You won’t have to open it every time you want to check on the meal, which is bad, because when you do that, heat escapes and the temperature in the oven drops.
When you want top notched hygiene for your kitchen, you can take the professional route and look for a reputable oven cleaning company. Such cleaning services can restore your oven’s look and leave it as good as new. You will be ready to make some tasty food when the cleaning team is done.
Alternatively, you can look for alternative appliances that can prepare food faster and more healthily, such as multi-cookers or steam cookers.
The former significantly reduces cooking time on certain dishes, while the latter can be used to prepare veggies and other healthy meals without using vegetable oil.
Oh, and they are both much easier to clean and maintain than scrubbing the burnt bits of the oven every few months.
3 simple recipes everyone can benefit from
So, now that everything has been prepared for, we’re ready to begin.
Here are 3 easy and delicious recipes for you to try out:
Lentil and Spicy Root
The needed ingredients are for four servings:
- 4 carrots;
- 2 parsnip;
- 2 garlic cloves;
- 1 onion;
- 2 tbsp vegetable oil;
- 2L vegetable stock;
- 700g potatoes;
- 2 tbsp curry powder.
To cook this, you will need about 35-45 minutes.
The Preparation
Chop the onion and garlic and slice the carrots thickly. Cut the potatoes into chunks. Heat the oil in a pan and add the garlic and onion. Cook them for about 3-4 minutes on a medium heat. Then, add the potatoes, carrots and parsnips and turn the heat up. Cook for 7-8 minutes while stirring until the vegetables are golden.
Add the curry powder and pour in the vegetable stock. Let it boil after that, reduce the heat and add the lentils. Cover the pan and simmer for 20 minutes. The vegetables should be tender, and the sauce will be thickened.
Add the coriander, season and leave it on the heat for a minute.
Oven Frittata
Ingredients for 4 servings:
- 1 Bunch of spring onions;
- 85g canned sweet corn (you can use frozen if you prefer);
- 85g peas;
- 1 pepper;
- 2 large eggs;
- ½ tsp olive oil;
- Fresh thyme leaves;
- 50g cheddar, grated;
- 2 tbsp Parmesan, grated;
- 100g macaroni 1;
- 50 semi-skimmed milk.
To cook this, you will need about an hour.
The Preparation:
Heat the oven – fan 170C/ gas 5/ non-fan 190C. Grease the dish you will be using with the olive oil.
Cook the pasta according to the labels on the package. But remember to put it in salted water and count the minutes after it has boiled. After that, add all the vegetables and cook them for 2-3 minutes. The vegetables should be slightly softened. Drain, put them in the baking dish and mix well.
Beat the eggs together with the milk and add the thyme. Add most of the cheeses in the egg mixture and season. Pour the mixture into the baking dish and scatter the rest of the cheese on top. Bake for about 35-45 minutes until golden.
Homemade Strawberry Ice Cream
Ingredients:
- 400g strawberries;
- 250g mascarpone;
- 350g condensed milk;
- Cones and sprinkles.
It makes 1 litre of ice cream. The time to prepare it is about 30 minutes, and then it needs to stay in the freezer.
The Preparation:
- Clean the strawberries from the green hulls, cut them into quarters and put them into a flat-bottomed dish.
- Squash the strawberries as much as you can and tip them into a bowl
- Add the mascarpone and mash. It may look a bit lumpy. Add the condensed milk to the bowl with the strawberries and mascarpone and mix them well.
- Put the mixture into a metal or plastic box. It is best to stay in the freezer for at least 6 hours.
- When it is ready – decorate it as you like
Alternatively, you can try these strawberry snack ideas.
Conclusion
We hope we have convinced you by now that preparing your own food is easy and necessary for a healthier lifestyle.
Learning about nutrition and utilising the power of technology to cut down cooking and meal prep time will also ensure you have those extra moments to take care not only of yourself but your family as well.
Remember to start small and be consistent in your efforts, and in a few weeks, you’ll notice having more energy and a much-improved mood, and then you’ll probably never look back!
Have fun and enjoy your food!