Make Time To Cook, Play With Your Food + Eat Your Leftovers

Stuffed Zucchini with Chicken Sausage + A Poached Egg

The other day I made the most beautiful chicken sausage stuffed zucchini. Nothing gets my motor running like stuffing things. That also sounds sexual, and it's supposed to, because that's how I write when it comes to food. 

In a city of single men and women on the go, pressed for time and with to do lists as large as the day is long I know cooking can seem like a most daunting feat. A waste of time. Too much time. Boring. Not fun for one. Grocery shopping allergy, anyone?

But do you realize your health and well being depend on it? 

What if I told you cooking, reinventing leftovers, plating food and sitting down to eat meals saved my life (among working on a few other critical habits that I'll get into another time)? 

I made an active choice to take responsibility for my food. I learned to make time to shop and cook - play and get creative with meals. I turned feeding myself into an event. Something I would do just for me, most nights, but I really lived to share it with my friends. My cooking story began with remaking my grandmother's lentil soup from taste memory. Later, as I worked full time in graphic design production I cooked and made food into art (hence the pretty photos), and that's further changed my relationship to food and myself. I created curiosity around food by learning new flavors, experimenting with new vegetables and taking an interest in food outside of stuffing my emotions down with it. 

Cooking for one (and for a family for that matter) can be uncomfortable at first, with excuses bubbling up in your brain like what will I do with 6 stuffed zucchinis? I have to go out and get ALL OF THOSE ingredients? Yes, you need to go shopping, yes it takes organization, yes you will have leftovers when you cook. And you're a grown ass woman/man, so you will deal with figuring out how to manage your time to do the above. And I'm here to help.

If you want to feel like a champion, you need to start thinking and act like one when it comes to your food choices and the way you frame food in relation to your time. 

There are 6 Habits that changed my life and creating a routine around each of these habits has been the reason I can eat what I want (no, I'm not thin, I am healthy and I love what my body looks like and can do) and believe moderation is the key to health - whether you're trying to lose weight or simply feel better. 

On Friday night I made some killer stuffed zucchinis and after hound dogging two at dinner (along with a bitchin' side salad), I took a break on Saturday. Me and the sausage stuffed vegetables needed a day apart, it happens. But on this bright, chilly and glorious Sunday morning (I'm feeling optimistic, love me for it, hate me for it, I don't give a shit) I was ready for some AM stuffing.

This breakfast was created from a firm belief that there is not one food you cannot put an egg on and turn into a new meal. This morning, Sunday November 12th 2017, I made sweet, salty, yolky love to Friday night's leftovers.

Recycle your meals my friends, not your old lovers - that will get you no where. But learning to feed yourself well will. With the added benefits of getting in vegetables at the top of the day, this is also a meal guaranteed to sustain my energy and keep me full for a few hours. 

How can you take a meal you've made this week and flip it?
How will you begin to think about your food and have fun with it?
Think about it. Eating well requires some thinking. 

I've been at this for a hot 16 years, and it takes practice and commitment - but I know you can get there. Take the first step by stoppin' your bitchin' and gettin' in your kitchen - simply imagine what might unfold.

And if you don't know what to do, put an egg on top.
Or contact me if you're ready to make some real life health changes.  

Recipe for Friday nights dinner is here.

The best method to poach an egg can be found here.

And if poaching an egg is too much work, scramble those bad boys or go sunnyside up - you're learning, so be kind to yourself and patient.

XO