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10 Culinary Resolutions To Help You Stay Healthy

While it’s important to take a moment to congratulate yourself on all that you’ve already been doing amazing (yes, yes, you’re great!), It’s also an opportunity to adopt new good habits for the year which opens.

I therefore offer you 10 inspiring but accessible culinary resolutions to make your life in the kitchen more beautiful. 

1: Take advantage of the cookbooks you already have

You probably have cookbooks full of your shelves, but how often do you open them? Always follow your cookbooks carefully for you to enjoy the cooking time while staying healthy.

2: Save your peelings and carcasses for the broth

Start a “broth box” in your freezer to store the vegetable trimmings and the bones of the meats you cook. This will allow you to make a delicious homemade broth for a long time.

3: Enjoy your chocolate like a pro

Slipping on the entire tablet while thinking of something else is a real shame! Learn how to taste chocolate for all of your senses to benefit. You will see, that changes everything.

4: Plan your meals

Planning your menus in advance is neither difficult nor boring. This will help you to save time, money and energy, but above all eat much better.

5: Take care of your fresh herbs

Nothing is more depressing than to find a magnificent mesclun or a nice bunch of sticky coriander at the bottom of the fridge. 

6: De-clutter your closets

It’s amazing what can accumulate in closets when your back is turned. The best counterattack is to take inventory first, then focus on using what you already have before you buy anything. My secret boot to “get rid” of small leftover nuts and dried fruits? 

7: Sharpen your knives

Trying to chop up your fruits and vegetables with a dull knife is not only frustrating but dangerous. Treat yourself to a quality sharpener or better, entrust your blades to a professional who will sharpen them for you. 

8: Take a reusable shopping bag everywhere

You probably have several reusable shopping bags, but it doesn’t do the planet a favor if you leave them at home. Get in the habit of carrying one with you always – in your purse, in your backpack, in the trunk of your car, in the little one’s changing bag, you get the idea. (Don’t forget to wash your bags regularly, to avoid the “bacteria nest” syndrome.)

9: Eat more plant-based

If you’re only doing one thing this year for your health, fitness, and the environment, do this: Fill your plate with varied, colorful, and seasonal plant foods. 

10: Receive more often (but simply)

Having friends over for dinner is like playing an instrument: the more you do it, the better you do it, and the more you enjoy it. But if you think it has to be a whole reality TV production, you’re exhausted just thinking about it, that’s understandable. So I vote for simplicity: a small number of guests and easy dishes. But invitations issued with regularity, depending on what is realistic for you. Nothing will brighten up your year more than lively conversations around shared meals.

How To Make Good Home-Made Soup

I’m probably not the only one at this time of year who wants nothing more than a bowl of something warm and comforting and lots of good things. But as you may have already noticed the hard way, good intentions aren’t always enough to get something really good.

To begin with, I refer you to my post on all-round soup , a sort of ultimate soup guide that explains in detail how to improvise with what you have on hand, without however the result being brown and floaty with threads that get stuck between your teeth.

And for those who have mastered the basics, I offer you these 5 tips that make the difference between the basic soup and the one that will make your spoonful of excitement.

Follow the seasons
For the carbon footprint, the suitability for the weather and respect for traditions, but also and above all because seasonal vegetables have infinitely more taste, and if you want a soup that sparkles with flavor, there is no no better.

Luckily, winter vegetables are asking for just that, with their high starch content and their slightly subtly sweet notes. Can’t remember what is in season when? I have prepared a fruit and vegetable calendar just for you.

Tips For an Enjoyable Picnic

If you love the idea of ​​a picnic, but you don’t feel like it when someone throws the idea on a Friday night, this blog is meant for you.

So for you, for me, for us, here are some ideas that I brandish in front of the nose of my grumpy Smurf (which he has also very pretty, oh no, that’s Cleopatra), to remind me that if Yes, we can make it colorful and fun and easy for our picnics this summer!

The hard truth, you know it: without a minimum of preparation, it will all end up in rice salad, canned corn, paper towel roll and lukewarm soda. (But maybe your rice salad is very good, I haven’t tasted it.)

No, what we want is fresh, cheerful, and a little originality.

Picnic Tips: Recipe Ideas
So this summer, to change the ham and butter – admittedly very good – we can make banh mi, this star sandwich of Vietnamese street food. A baguette that doesn’t have too much crumb, marinated and grilled meat or tofu, grated carrots and cucumber seasoned with magic sauce, chili, a little mayonnaise, and a lot of coriander: it’s an approximation acceptable and a delight.

And if we find that sandwiches are awfully good, but they still make a lot of bread, we can make rolls wriggling with freshness by garnishing rice leaves (like a spring roll) or leaves with raw vegetables. grilled nori seaweed (maki style, like the nori, avocado, and cucumber rolls which are one of my most popular recipes on Pinterest ! Life is well done.).

Another option: give in the smørrebrød, the Danish toast . Instead of making sandwiches for everyone, they provide sliced ​​black bread and a several ingredients: butter, cucumber slices, hard-boiled eggs in strips, thinly sliced ​​gouda, marinated herring, Roast beef in very thin slices, sliced ​​new onions, fresh herbs… We have everything on the picnic table or in the middle of the tablecloth spread out in the clearing, and each one does to its taste.

As for the salads, which are always a bit risky to eat on their knees, with the dressing that drips when the discussion is lively, I like to compose them and serve them in jars (I use the glass yogurt pots of my yogurt maker, in fact I have a spare set ), with a nice effect of successive layers as a bonus. We thus have the different elements – little cereals and/or legumes in the bottom, cooked vegetables, raw vegetables, fondant (tofu, cheese), crunchy (roasted hazelnuts, sprouted seeds), and we pour a sauce on top: it will suffice to shake at the last moment to soak everything up.