Eating to Thrive Part 2 – What You Need to Cook

In the first part of this series, I wrote about how to use the Law of Four to create a menu based around mainly whole food items.

We are creatures of habit, structure sustains us or we will fall into chaos, disorder, and eating a meal plan based around random cereals, candy bars, and gas station pizza. We tend to select the same foods week in and week out.

If you don’t believe me, track what you buy over time and you will see trends.

The Law of Four will serve you well with fast, efficient food shopping, and during food preparation.

Preparation, the dirty word of eating.

The part that many new meal planners go into with the best of intentions, but end up ordering Dominos with frustration.

There is a quote floating around the Internet that says, “by failing to prepare, you are preparing to fail”. I am pretty sure it is attributed to Benjamin Franklin, but that is irrelevant.

This quote is applicable across all areas of life and food preparation is zero exception to this rule.

Cooking Appliances

You have a stove and a microwave. That is a nice place to start, obviously, but I can tell you there are two more appliances you should immediately purchase, without hesitation, which will level up your food prep ability.

Air Fryer and Instant Pot

I can tell you I use both of these appliances daily, and they have simplified my food prep down where I can cook an entire day’s worth of meals in less than 35 minutes.

We will go into my personal food prep in a later edition of this series.

I am going to state the obvious and be painfully specific about what you need to start to food prep correctly, so bear with me if you have experience in this realm, but you may learn something anyway.

• Two cutting boards
• A good set of knifes, ensure one is a Santoku, my GOAT kitchen knife
• Two to three decent sized bowls - not “normal” but not mixing bowls either
• 10” and 14” skillet
• Cooking sheet
• Food storage containers of various sizes - I prefer Pyrex as nuking my food in plastic doesn’t work for me
• A good food scale
• Measuring spoons and two 2 cup measuring cups
• Ziploc Freezer bags for pre-cooking storage

It goes without saying you will need forks, spoons, plates, cups, but if you forget those things, maybe this blog is a little too advanced for you.

If you have these items in your home, good, if not, purchase them immediately. It may seem like a lot at first, but if you are going to learn how to cook for yourself, these are indispensable items you will use repeatedly.

Next you will need to decide what spices you will need to cook.

This is important, as you have a list of food in front of you, appliances and gear you need, and if you don’t plan to make this food taste good, you will fail. Nobody likes bland food.

I recommend starting with spices that are easy to work with, work wonders on adding flavor to food, and are versatile.

• Sea Salt
• Black Pepper
• Red Pepper
• Paprika
• Cinnamon
• Garlic
• Onion Powder
• Oregano
• Cumin
• Chili Powder
• Penzey’s Fox Point seasoning

This is a basic list of 10 spices which I use often. As time goes on, and you become more proficient in the art of cooking, your spice selection will grow.

I also use spices like coriander, nutmeg, chipotle lime, and paprika often enough where I have those on rotation in my cabinet.

Next you may need additional food prep items such as:

• Soy sauce or coconut aminos
• Mustard
• Etc..

These items are often last on the list and are recipe specific and taste specific. If you can’t eat certain foods without mustard, by all means, get it.

This seems like a lot of planning, and expenditure, at first. If you start from ground zero it most likely is, and truth be told I have worked with enough clients who have started from the ground who had to do these exact steps to even learn how to cook properly.

You will be stunned if you knew the amount of adults who simply don’t know how to cook for themselves. I could blame the lack of Home-Ec in schools, the ease of availability of processed food and take-out, but it comes down to two words:

Personal responsibility

Once you admit your own food consumption is your responsibility, you can then begin anew with a healthier outlook on it.

Cooking well takes time if you are new to it, I have talked down many people from the ledge with simple ideas, processes which break down the act of food shopping, cooking, storage, and planning. This blog series will aim to give you a usable, simple, and effective method to begin your walk away from an unhealthy lifestyle to a healthier and stronger one.

In Part 3 we will start to prepare a few basic things to get you started using my personal Law of Four items.

For coaching help with training through our team at Kansas City Barbell or with Nutritional Coaching through KC Nutrition, please contact us below for more information.

NOW is the time to nail an eating plan for health, performance, and sustainability. NOW is the time to develop the habits to sustain you through life.