Someone’s in the Kitchen with Zola



Guest Contributor Chris is married to Zola. They are celebrating their 37th wedding anniversary this month.
“No one is born a great cook,” said Julia Child. “One learns by doing.”
One of the “secrets” of losing weight on Plan Z is that you cook your own food. That puts you in control of everything that goes into your mouth.
You may have said to yourself, “I don’t have time to cook.” The processed food companies are counting on that.
On the other hand, do you have time to spend in doctors’ waiting rooms? Because “the path to feeling good from day to day and staying clear of dialysis machines, heart stents and prescription pain pills runs through a place that’s long been a center point of human living—our own kitchens.” Melanie Warner wrote that in Pandora’s Lunchbox: How Processed Foods Took Over the American Meal.
Staying healthy and out of doctors’ offices and hospitals is a big reason why I make the time to make dinner with Zola most evenings.
Zola’s mother told her, “If you can read you can cook.” And Zola can really cook.
There are about a thousand recipes on the Plan Z Diet website. I’ve tasted every one of them. Usually, I’m Zola’s prep cook. I wash vegetables, chop them and clean up behind Zola. It’s a nice way to spend time together.
Here are three more thoughts about cooking to reinforce the need to do more of it.
—Barbara Kingsolver, Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life
― Robert H. Lustig, The Hacking of the American Mind: Inside the Sugar-Coated Plot to Confuse Pleasure with Happiness
― Mark Hyman, M.D.
Most evenings I’m in the kitchen with Zola; watching and learning from her.
Last night I made Zola’s delicious mushroom and bacon soup for dinner all by myself. All I had to do was read and follow the recipe. I can read. And — what do you know? — I can cook. If you’ve read this far, I bet you can cook, too.
VP Anger Management
How to Buy Spaghetti Sauce
People write to me all the time and they say something like this: “You taught me how to read labels as part of dieting. I had no idea how many products have sugar in them! I now know sugar is everywhere!”
Sugar may not be everywhere, but it sure feels like it sometimes. It’s work to find brands that don’t add sugar.
Smash Burgers
Smash burgers are all the rage. Step into a brew pub and you’ll likely find a smash burger on the food menu.
These are NOT the huge, 8oz burgers we’ve been fed in the past. These are a thinner burger that’s usually six ounces or even less. You can always make your burger with two patties and bring it back to huge but more popular is to just make your burger with one patty.