Wait, wait, wait. So all these shenanigans started with a informal, just-for-fun, search for yoga schools to attend in a few years? Yes! Are you sure you even want to go to culinary school? Yes and Yes!! How can you be sure?
I am one of those never-measure-anything type of cooks. It calls for 3 cups all-purpose flour? What will happen if I use 1 cup whole wheat flour, 1/2 cup coconut flour, 1/2 cup rolled oats, 1/3 cup flax meal, and 2/3 cup almond meal. That equals 3 cups right? And 1 tsp cinnamon? HOw about 2 Tablespoons. That sounds good. Oh, you want me to make the stir-fry I made last week? I didn’t write down what I did and I’m not sure I can re-create it but I’ll try and hopefully it will be tasty anyway. There are pros and cons to this type of cooking!
Mr. Plate and I have enjoyed the last five years at our little urban homestead. We have loved working in the garden and adding edibles to our yard. We enjoy the satisfaction that comes with growing your own food and eating organic and in-season fruits and veggies. We keep chickens and eat their organic eggs every morning. We have increasingly started sweetening desserts with the honey from our beehives. These are things that we have put great value on.
At the beginning of 2016 I started realizing how much I enjoy experimenting in the kitchen. It is really fun to sub in healthier or more nutrient dense ingredients when using conventional recipes. I like anticipating how it will turn out. I have always had an interest in nutrition and for that to actually affect my life and the lives of those around me I need to be able to apply the nutritional knowledge in the kitchen.
I had been tentatively planning to get a masters in nutrition from a holistic school (like Hawthorne University http://www.hawthornuniversity.org/ ) eventually. Then I read In Defense of Food by Michael Pollan and a degree in nutrition didn’t seem like quite the right fit. Maybe down the road, but not right now. I started looking into online options for getting Health Coach Certified. That will probably still take place. But the minute I looked into the Natural Epicurean’s Professional Chef program something resonated with me.
The program teaches five types of health-supportive cuisines: Ayurveda, Macrobiotics, Raw & Living Foods, Vegan, and Vegetarian. Cooking and nutrition rolled into one! The fact that this chef program is more specialized in health-supportive and plant-based foods is a definite bonus for me as I’ve had such an interest and passion for healthy living and self-improvement.
I feel so strongly that taking care of our bodies can affect every facet of our lives. I think what we eat is a huge part of that. It’s hard to do. I’ve struggled with making the right choices and I don’t always succeed in doing so, and I think many in this day and age feel the same way. We are busy and it’s hard to resist the perfectly engineered oreo or the store-bought goodies that your co-worker brings to the office. There is such an abundance of “food-like” substances that are calorie dense and spark the senses momentarily but greatly lack when it comes to having any actual nutrition.
So here is a little corner of the universe where we can commit to try a little better in loving ourselves and our bodies and to fuel them the best we can. We can learn to embrace cooking with whole foods again and in nourishing our body and minds with positivity and good intentions. I’m a glutton for an inspirational or self-improvement story so here’s to yours and mine.