Cooking Course Intro

The aims of this course are to:

  • Introduce some of the key elements of whole food nutrition
  • Apply these elements to everyday eating
  • Show you how to replace poor quality, modern food stuffs with healthy alternatives

The course is composed of 15 lessons. It is suggested you do one lesson a week, but it’s up to you how you fit it best into your timetable.

There are also some appendices, with extra information on:

  1. Basic metabolic typing
  2. Food for infants & expectant mothers
  3. Gluten, grain or starch intolerance
  4. Dairy intolerance (and how to make butter and ghee)
  5. Egg allergies
  6. Weight Loss

Whole food cooking is an enormous subject and no single course can cover everything. To allow a clearer focus on these aims, some basic knowledge has been assumed. The course is aimed at a person who is already familiar with the basics of cooking and who understands the rationale behind eating whole foods.

If you are not familiar with the principles of whole foods, it’s suggested you read the following pages from www.diet.net.nz before starting the lessons:

A good source of further info on whole food diets and healthy lifestyles is www.westonaprice.org

Also note that everybody has individual dietary requirements, and it is up to you to find the foods from this course that work best for you. If you know your metabolic type, choose the recipes suitable for you. If you don’t, check out the appendix, and take note of which recipes you feel good on, and make these part of your “repertoire”. And remember to avoid foods that you are allergic, intolerant or addicted to, even if they are organic and unprocessed.

If you have a chronic health issue, you may need more individualised nutritional recommendations. Contact me for a consultation on how to incorporate these recipes into a total health plan.

Other Resources

Although the course has enough recipes for you to do it without other books, I highly recommend you buy a good whole foods cookbook. This will allow you a much wider range of recipes.

  • My recommendation is Nourishing Traditions (NT), by Sally Fallon & Mary Enig. This is a wonderful book that has hundreds of traditionally prepared whole food recipes, plus a mass of information on nutrition. If you only wanted one book on food, this would be it. There is some optional extra reading from NT suggested with each lesson.
  • In some lessons, I also suggest extra books you might want to look into, if you want to explore that section in more depth.

Kitchen equipment

Most recipes can be made using the normal range of kitchen equipment, but there are some additional things that you may want to think about getting:

  • Blender – For breakfast smoothies
  • Food processor – Useful for a multitude of tasks
  • Mini processor – I use this every day. Mine has a “wand” which is great for blending soups in the pan, a whisk for egg whites or cream, and a mini food processor that is great for chopping onions.
  • Coffee grinder – for grinding nuts, seeds and spices
  • Crockpot – especially in the winter, it’s great to be able to throw a pile of things into the crockpot before you go to work, and come home to dinner already made.
  • Large stockpot – Good for soups and stews – especially if you don’t have a crockpot
  • Dehydrator – Crispy nuts and jerky (lesson 2) can be made in a cool oven, but it’s easier and more convenient to use a dehydrator
  • Breadmaker – to make your own bread (though there are some recipes that don’t require one)
  • Large glass bowls, jars and bottles – if you want to make your own “soft” drinks

Enjoy making the transition to a healthier way of eating, and please let me know your experiences with each lesson.