I am deeply passionate about food; the taste, texture, aroma, and visual appeal, but also the health aspects. I find the mastery of various techniques stimulating as I do the tricks and tips enabling easy, fast, and low-cost meals. As an executive in the food industry, I have always felt there was a shortage of practical information that would help people overcome their reluctance towards cooking from scratch and instead, reap countless benefits: health, flexibility, control, cost savings, and the joy of accomplishment.
Mission:
Enabling others to discover how easily they could be eating well with recipes and techniques that are fast, easy, healthy, inexpensive, and delicious.
Background:
You might ask, how have I compiled this information and why do I care to share it with you?
This simplest answer is that when I really needed it, as the result of multiple life-changing events, I could not find it, so I had to do more research than one would ordinarily care to undertake and then make some pretty radical changes how our family eats.
Further Explanation:
After many years as an executive in the food industry, I found that I was conflicted between the motives of growth and profit versus more genuinely investing in our customer’s larger and more authentic needs.
For example, there has been a lot of marketing effort put into declaring that we have solutions to your daily meal needs. But that energy is naturally skewed towards how can we make greater sales and profits by having something that we pitch as a solution to your needs.
Herein lies my personal conflict; are we truly asking what is it that people really need? If we help our customers eat healthier meals, made from scratch, is that also in the best interest of the business? Answering these questions for myself has lead to the mission of this site.
I took the opportunity to interview a lot of people (mostly moms) who were responsible for feeding their families. What I heard was pretty consistent:
- People are uncomfortable with their menu planning and cooking skills and therefore reluctant to step out of their somewhat limited comfort zone.
- They know they and their family, out of convenience, are eating more prepared foods than they probably should, and this is concerning them from a health perspective, but also, the nagging notion that they could probably also be saving some money.
Various significant events in my life have most recently placed me in the role of caregiver and Mr. Mom. Secondly, my own health has required me to turn my diet, and therefore my cooking, completely inside out.
As my cooking shifted from the occasional pleasure of preparation of an elaborate meal for entertainment to the everyday ‘utility cooking’ for the family, and I was further challenged with picky eaters on one end of the spectrum, and very specific and constraining health-related dietary needs on the other end. I now have a much, much greater understanding and appreciation for at least some of the challenges families are facing when it comes to putting food on the table.
Objectives:
The objectives of this site, and therefore each of the recipes, techniques, and other information blogs are to fulfill at least one, if not many of the following:
- Easy – low effort and difficulty.
- Fast – requiring the least amount of prep time, and oftentimes, being ready to eat in a short period of time.
- Inexpensive – enabling you to prepare a very delicious and healthy meal for just a few dollars per person.
- Healthy – demonstrating that it is possible to easily have enough information and options to prepare meals within your and your family’s specific health parameters (e.g., heart-healthy, diabetic-friendly, inflammation free, gluten-free, and so on).
- Delicious – we are still talking about, the most basic need and pleasure in our lives, so in the end, delicious and beautiful to look at are pretty darn important.
- Beautiful – we probably first take in a meal with our eyes, then our sense of smell, then finally, our mouth. So it is important, and satisfying, to present a meal beautifully as well.
Full Disclosure:
Building and maintaining this site is one of my core jobs along with stock trader, digital marketer, writer, photographer, and family man So you will see ads and links in the sidebar and in the content of the site. Clicking through on these ads and links will allow me to earn a commission, albeit pennies. But they do add up enough to help compensate for the time and expense that goes into this effort. So please let me thank you in advance for clicking any of the ads or links that may suit your needs or interests.