Some people see cooking as a therapeutic outlet that allows them to wind down and unleash their creativity, while others dread the thought of having yet another task to complete once they get home from a long day.

The kitchen for me is the hub of the home. In fact one of my favourite past times would be cooking for my son, girlfriend and friends.

I believe that many of us have somewhat lost touch with the connectiveness of food and how cooking can bring us together, not to mention that look, taste and touch aspect that helps us appreciate what we are eating and how it can nourish our bodies.

In my new recipe e-book Nourished, I have featured my favourite family friendly recipes that are time efficient and will hopefully encourage family unity by offering delicious, simple, nourishing recipes, but if you are not there yet and you have no love for cooking, here are my top tips that may help ignite a future passion.

Learn To Appreciate The Importance of Cooking

The beauty of cooking at home is that you know exactly what is going into your food. When you get take out or fast food, it is harder to determine how your food was prepared, by whom, how hygienic the kitchen they are working from is and if they have been using sodium or sugar rich packaged foods to make the final product.

If you are health conscious and you care about what goes into your body and how you feel, then it may be worth acquainting yourself with the kitchen.

Cooking is Not Rocket Science

While many Australians feel inspired after watching an episode of My Kitchen Rules or Masterchef, understand that it’s not necessary for you to make food that has smoke coming out of it or food looks like an architectural design. These shows are fun to watch on TV, but some of the recipes are not practical for the home setting.

Cooking is not rocket science. Simply find some recipes that you enjoy and run with them. If you are time poor, my tip would be to choose a few recipes that you can have on rotation and change them around when you get bored.  Easy!

Don’t Aim for Perfection

Your meal dosen’t need to look perfect. It just needs to be healthy, cooked properly if you are eating chicken or fish and nourishing. Don’t stress yourself out by thinking that the plate needs to be perfectly designed or that you need every ingredient. If you forgot to buy one thing from the shop, unless it is essential, just proceed without it. Don’t stress!

Make It Therapeutic

Consider cooking time to be ‘me’ time. Put on some calming music and unwind from the day. Cooking will only be stressful if you make it stressful. Enjoy the process and the delicious food that you are creating.

If music doesn’t work for you, try an audiobook or a podcast. That way you can keep your mind active by learning while you are cooking.

Use a Fast recipe

The ultimate #fail for someone who is time poor is to choose a recipe that takes and hour or two to make after a long day.

Aim to choose a recipe that will take a maximum for 30-40 minutes to complete. You don’t want to end up getting frustrated half way through the process because you chose a recipe that takes 2 hours to make on a school night.

The modern diet is laden with convenience and inflammatory foods which is why it is good to get into the habit of cooking at home. In my mind, it’s far better to know exactly what is going into your food than hope for the best with your local delivery.

If you need some inspiration, check out my new e-book Nourished. All of my recipes are devoid of inflammatory foods such as grains, conventional dairy, legumes and sugar. I hope that by making cooking convenient and easy for you, not to mention having you feeling nourished and your very best, it may help ignite a new found passion in you for cooking.

scott

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good luck!

Scott Gooding

Scott Gooding is one of the biggest stars to come out of My Kitchen Rules. He has authored 6 cookbooks, is a successful personal trainer and has just launched his new project- Scott Gooding Project.

Scott Gooding Project is a platform where Scott shares healthy, affordable recipes for families and his family friendly health tips.

As part of that program, Scott will be releasing a series of e-books. His first book Nourished was released in April 2016.

 

 

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