July Is Here! - Hello, Summer 😎

It's time to get cooking ... mindfully, of course

Jul 02, 2024

Every year, I walk through my local farmer’s markets looking for surprises. We always have one or two new vendors that offer something I haven’t seen before. Something I haven’t cooked with before.

It doesn’t happen right away on the first weekend. Sometimes it takes several weeks for a new ingredient to find its way onto the tables.

I knew it walking into the stall. Was it fennel? Or a turnip?

Turns out, I’d found kohlrabi.

Kohlrabi is from the cultivar family, the same species as cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, kale, and Brussels sprouts. It has the sweetness of broccoli with a bit of peppery spice of turnips or radishes. Mmmm …

Do I have your attention yet? Me too. I took one home, and set out trying to figure out what recipe to make.

This month’s July Motivation will cover …

Cookbook Time!

In my search, I came across a cookbook that has made its way to my cookbook shelf. Vegetable Kingdom, by Bryant Terry.

If you’ve been here for a bit, you know I love getting to know the authors/chefs by digging into their cookbooks. I always find a nugget of inspiration somewhere in their content. With this cookbook, it came in his introduction.

“My sincere hope is that this book affects real change in your world by inspiring your journey into the vast and verdant pleasures of botanical bounty. If this book moves you to try new vegetables, and to think more critically and creatively about how and what you eat, I’ll have fulfilled the calling to create this homage to health as learning and pleasure. Now, go forth, and explore Vegetable Kingdom.”

His table of contents intrigued me. He splits his book into sections like seeds, bulbs, stems, flowers, fruits, and leaves.

He includes a playlist - a soundtrack that he listened to throughout the process of researching and developing dishes.

And of course, a section with several kohlrabi recipes. The Apple and Kohlrabi Coleslaw is superb.

Vegetable Kingdom
By Bryant Terry

See, here’s the thing with cooking … you will never be an expert at it. Because just when you understand one thing, you discover an entirely different nuance. You add one ingredient to something familiar, and - BAM - it changes everything.

Like his Sweet Potato and Leek Soup. Sounds like something you’ve made before, right? But he adds a puffed black ginger rice that makes it next-level. You cook the rice in water and ginger juice, bake it, then fry it to puff it. Yum! (The song he suggests to go along with it had me feeling this recipe too.

I’ve been having so much fun with this cookbook. It has really brought out my creativity in the foods I’ve been cooking. And to me, that’s the whole purpose.

Food isn’t just about eating. It’s about experiencing. Savoring. Living.

In the words of Bryant Terry, this cookbook will give you recipes that “teach you the basics of a great vegan meal centered on real food, not powders or meat substitutes.”

If we get back to its ultimate purpose of nourishment, we’ll quickly discover a whole new depth to eating. This book is guaranteed to move you a little further down that path.

Setting Your Healthy Morning Habits After Burnout

Many years ago, I was in a coaching program that challenged me to think about the way I did everything. A lot of my current life patterns came from that time in my life. (I often think if school was more like high-level coaching, how much more would our kids get out of life … but that’s for another story. 😉 )

I remember my coach telling me how important a morning routine was to success. The most successful people in the world start the morning in a similar way.

And I’ve confirmed it by reading plenty of books and memoirs from people I choose to learn from. No matter what time you rise in the morning, successful people tend to have a well-crafted morning routine. There’s science to back it up.

By establishing a morning routine, most people find they gain several positive benefits:

Greater Happiness

- because a set morning regimen means you’re more likely to wake up with a feeling of gratitude and remain happy all day. You literally build happiness into your daily routine.

Stress Reduction

- a morning routine gently guides you into your day, without getting overwhelmed with the busy parts. It allows you to take control over your schedule, and have the time to enjoy what you want without rushing that comes from being unprepared.

Increased Productivity

- research shows cortisol levels are higher the few hours after you rise. This gives you increased alertness and productivity. It gives you a planning mechanism that helps keep you on track each day.

Better Sleep

- I personally am in bed by 9 and rise by 5 every single day, Sunday through Saturday. I may bump it an hour on the weekends - 10 to 6 - depending on our plans. But I know consistently going to sleep and waking improves the quality of my sleep and makes it easier to rise without an alarm clock. This is my natural rhythm, and my body is better for it.

Confidence

- if you need motivation to push you through your days, this is the way to do it. You structure how you want your mornings to go. You control what you do and how you do it. It makes you feel better simply by being a part of the routine.

If you’ve followed along for any length of time, you know I’ve been experiencing burnout. At the beginning of the year, I stopped almost all of my routines. I gave myself a chance to do whatever I felt like doing in the moment.

If I needed to sleep in, I did so. If I wanted to take a longer, slower walk, I went with it.

I gave myself permission to be who I was each day.

I’m still on the path to moving forward. I believe this is a natural part of our lives, especially when we’ve collectively experienced everything we’ve been through these past few years. And let’s face it - 2024 is chaos.

Science says routines are everything. I agree.

I also think that occasionally, you need to step back, just be, and then slowly add the most meaningful things back into your life.

Here’s what that looks like for me:

I have an added bonus for you in case you need it. It’s my free Healthy Morning Habits Checklist and Journaling Prompts.

It’s my way of helping you take what’s working for you now, and crafting a new morning routine that works for you as you move forward.

Kitchen Joy

No matter where you rank cooking on your love-hate list, I’m willing to bet you have one meal you LOVE to cook in your most intimate moments. Maybe something you cook when the whole family comes over. Or when you’re alone with your partner, trying to impress. Or something you remember from your mom or grandma.

It’s the “family” recipe, one you consider yourself pretty good at.

But here’s the thing … As much as you love it, you know it’s not good for you. It uses too much … Just too much. You might cook it for special holidays, but never for every day.

Yet you really like it.

What if there was something better for you, something that wasn’t so bad-for-you/unhealthy/high-caloric/insert-your-word-here?

Maybe it’s a mac-n-cheese recipe. Or meatloaf. Maybe a potato salad. Or a casserole your family brought everywhere …

Think about those recipes. Choose one or two of your favorites. And let’s make them healthier!

To start, pull those recipes out and look at the ingredients. Identify which of them need plant-based substitutions.

Need a little help? I have a gorgeous guide I’m gifting you called Vegan Food Substitutions. These can easily replace anything animal-based in any of your recipes.

You can also spend some time in your favorite grocery store. Most stores have vegan sections these days, and you’ll be surprised at how many things you can replace.

With your new ingredients at hand, make the substitutions, and give your new recipe a try. This is trial and error. Try adding herbs and spices, or adjusting the amount of other ingredients.

Can’t find the right balance? Maybe it’s time to Google it instead.

I’ve found many of my current favorite recipes simply by searching and finding someone else who has done the work for me.

Why This Works: I’ve found that if you have a few favorites, a few recipes that are special to you and hold meaning in your life, you’re more likely to stick with the plan of moving to healthier recipes. If you enjoy what you’re making, you’re more likely to cook!

That’s how I’ve created many of the recipes you’ll find right here on my Substack.

It’s also how I find many of the cookbook authors I highlight in my Cookbook Club. Let me give you an example.

I’ve been a “cookie monster” since I was small. For me, dessert and cookies go hand in hand, there isn’t a dessert I love more. I’m willing to give any cookie a try. My mom was considered the cookie-baker in our family. She was the queen at baking during the holidays, filling tins with many different sizes, shapes, and flavors. Yet outside the holidays, there were always chocolate chip cookies in our house, and I loved them.

I don’t eat them much anymore. But occasionally, I love me a really good cookie. Chocolate chip, preferably.

In 2023, I featured TheFirstMess’s Laura Wright in my Cookbook Club - I LOVE her approach to food, and use a ton of her recipes throughout the year. Last year, I had a hankering for a chocolate chip cookie, something to bring along on our picnics in the summer, and found a recipe for Jumbo Grain-Free Tahini Chocolate Chunk Cookie on her site.

O
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I follow it to a T, garnishing it with flaky sea salt, cacao nibs, and sesame seeds on top. And they are THE BEST! And not half bad for you either! 😉

You gotta try this chocolate chip cookie recipe … mmmmm …. >>

“If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world.” ~JRR Tolkien

Eating healthier should never be about taking away. Instead, it should be about what you’re bringing to your life. The joy of being healthier. The indulgence of crafting delicious food. And doing so in a way that avoids all of the “bad” stuff corporations are now putting into “fast” food, and slowing it down to creating something truly gorgeous.

That’s where kitchen joy starts. That’s where good food begins. And Gorgeous Wellth follows …

Roots!

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Happy July everyone!

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