Happy New Year!

I hope you had a happy and safe new years. My husband and I had a little gathering at our apartment, and my brother/sister in law and a couple friends came over for drinks and homemade pizza. The drink of the night was a Moscow Mule — I had bought the ingredients to make them for myself but they were a huge hit with our guests! I had so much fun using all of the bar and party gear we got at our wedding — cheese plate/knives, special Moscow mule mugs, and a chip/dip tray. Can you tell I get a kick out of hosting? 

While I will always remember 2016 as the busiest and happiest year of my life (new husband + three new babies of friends/family + new job), it wasn’t my best year for the blog. Page views remained constant for the entire year and haven’t changed much, which was fairly disappointing. But I know that only posting one or two recipes a week and nothing else will not sustain this blog, haha. My goal is to write about what I want to write about — which is not only sharing my favorite recipes, but also encouraging others to cook more at home. 

Which leads us to the topic for today! Re-introducing my cooking school series and what I call intuitive cooking. Many of you are familiar with the concept of intuitive eating:

Intuitive eating is a nutrition philosophy based on the premise that becoming more attuned to the body’s natural hunger signals is a more effective way to attain a healthy weight, rather than keeping track of the amounts of energy and fats in foods.

Intuitive Cooking means becoming more attuned to different foods and flavors, and how to properly prepare them. Like intuitive eating, this is an effective way to attain/maintain a healthy weight by encouraging one to eat more at home and be more satisfied with the foods they cook.

The more a person learns and practices their cooking skills, the more comfortable they become with the kitchen, learning how to create various dishes and flavors. It all starts with learning how to prepare simple dishes such as pasta or vegetables, and them moving on to more intricate dishes (most likely saving these for the weekends). 

You know those people who can look in the fridge or pantry, and just throw something together without a recipe? I like to call these people intuitive chefs. They understand what flavors taste good together and are familiar with basic cooking principles. My Dad is a prime example of this. He can make amazing meals appear out of thin air — he’s been cooking for years and years and knows what tastes good together. 

When I hear someone say that they hate cooking, I want to do nothing more than convince them that cooking CAN be fun and easy! It doesn’t have to be this terrible, annoying, frustrating chore. Cooking can actually be very relaxing! The point is to slow down and take the time out of your day to cook yourself or your family a decent meal. If you don’t have enough time to prepare a meal, then you’re too busy! 

Now don’t get me wrong, I know that it’s impossible to eat at home EVERY SINGLE DAY. Hell, we eat out about twice a week on average for dinner, and sometimes two or three times a week for lunch. But if you can manage a couple of home cooked meals, even if it’s just one or two a week, then you’re doing your body good! 

So in 2017, I want to share this passion with my readers! I am excited to share that I’ll be publishing a weekly cooking article here on the blog, ranging from simple prep or knife tips, to more detailed posts such as how to make homemade pasta! I’m also beginning to play around with video, and have two videos planned for January as well as two Facebook Live events scheduled on my calendar. Video is apparently the future of blogging, so I gotta keep up with the times! 

If you have any cooking demos or tutorials you would like to see in an article or video, leave me suggestions in the comments below! I’m looking forward to discovering our inner intuitive chefs together. :) 

Happy 2017!