Someone’s in the Kitchen with Zola
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Guest Contributor Chris is married to Zola. They are celebrating their 35th 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
Grilled Eggplant Parmesan
A nice, summery meal that can also be eaten in cooler months.
THESE TIMELESS KITCHEN HACKS WILL MAKE YOU THE BOSS
“Hack” is a new slang word for trick. So what we are going to talk about today is kitchen hacks that make your life easier, and maybe more creative or efficient in the kitchen. Let me give you one example from my home...
Crunch!
While developing Plan Z, I never really thought much about what I now call the Crunch Factor. I was never the kid in our family that face-planted in the bag of potato chips. I left that to my brothers. I went for the donuts.