There’s nothing like a home-cooked meal!

Remember what it felt like eating your grand-mother’s cooking during a family gathering?

The delicious smells coming from the kitchen would make your heart burst with happiness and your mouth water. Every bite of the food was like an explosion of delicious flavors, that made you want this moment to last forever, as the food melted in your mouth. It was like bliss on a plate.

And home-cooked meals are also the best way to support your immune system and reduce the risk of heart disease, high blood pressure, weight gain and diabetes.

When you cook your own meals, you have control over the quality of the ingredients you use. You can make sure the chicken you use is not filled with hormones and antibiotics and your vegetables are filled with nutrients not with pesticides, insecticides and fungicides. You can choose foods you love and can digest easily. You have control over the amount of oil, salt as well as the presence of preservatives, colorings and flavorings.

Cooking at home can feel like a chore

Despite the healthful benefits and joyful experience of eating home-cooked meals, for many people cooking at home feels like a chore.

Here’s why:

A lack of time and energy is one reason. Cooking can be time-consuming and it may seem difficult to fit in your busy schedule. And it can feel physically and emotionally exhausting when you don’t know what or how to cook.

Waste is another reason why cooking at home may be dreary. New recipes can be too complicated and oftentimes require ingredients you’re never going to use again!

A lack of ideas can deter from cooking at home. Boring foods are not appealing.

A fear of failure and messing up the dish you’re cooking. Especially if you try to cook something you’ve never cooked before.

Cleaning up afterwards is tiring!

It doesn’t have to be that way! Cooking your own meals can actually be fast, fun and facile or easy if you’re willing to try!

Scroll to the bottom of this article to join me for a free plant based cooking class on how to make everyone’s favorite: a kids-approved gluten-free vegan pizza!

Ways you can make cooking at home fast, fun and facile!

Fast

You don’t have to cook every day! You can cook basic foods in big batches to last you for a few days.

Basic foods are foods like grains, vegetables and beans and lentils.

You can prepare a big pot of rice and/or quinoa to last you for a few days.

You can roast vegetables. My favorite vegetables to roast are potatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli, cauliflower, Brussel sprouts, bell peppers and asparagus.

You can make a big pot of lentil stew or bean chili.

Mix and match these different ingredients for your meals during the week.

Also, you can purchase already chopped vegetables.

Fun

When I think of fun, I think of visually appealing and enticing to my taste buds!

And here’s how I do that! I usually like to combine 3 different vegetables according to their color. I’ll have green, orange, red and/or yellow vegetables on my plate.

Then I’ll decide which base flavors I want to add to my dish. I’ll choose my base flavors using different spices from different world cuisines. I’ll use turmeric, coriander, cumin and fennel for an Indian base flavor, and thyme, oregano and rosemary for an Italian base flavor.

Another way to make cooking AND eating fun is to have diverse tastes. In Ayurvedic Medicine, we have the 6 Ayurvedic Tastes: sweet, sour, salty, pungent or spicy, astringent and bitter. Foods are categorized according to these 6 tastes. A well balanced dish is one which contains all 6 tastes.

Facile or Easy

Start where you are!

Experiment with making one thing and then add it to your favorite store-bought/prepared foods. I’m a big fan of Whole Foods and Fresh Market hot bar!

Learn how to make your favorite dish!

If you’re interested in learning more about cooking your favorite foods in a fast, fun and easy way, come to my cooking class.

In February, I’m teaching you how to make a gluten-free vegan pizza!

And it’s kids-approved! How do I know? Every time I’m invited to a party and I bring my pizza, if there are kids, the pizza is gone even before the adults can get to it!

In this fun, hands-on class, you’ll learn: