recipes

I admittedly don’t know how I should organize this section, and I will probably redesign it entirely, but in support of starting something so I’ll be motivated to finish it...

I guess in the simplest way you could see these as recipes, but I feel like an imposter calling them that. Really, I just mix stuff together that I think tastes good. It never takes more than 30 or 40 minutes of actual effort to execute, and they tend to mimic tastes and textures from all the unhealthy foods I used to chow down on. So here we go…

POTATOES

Potatoes didn’t seem to have an effect on my gout, so when I was diagnosed a few years ago I turned to potatoes for a large bulk of my evening meals. Since this happened during the pandemic I decided to learn a bunch of different ways to prepare potatoes; boiled, baked, mashed, smashed, hasslebacked, planked, diced, chunked, chipped, or any other shape/type I could get instructions for. I was doing it so much I bought a mandoline slicer, which uniforms all the food shapes you slice. My favorite recipe was the lemon potatoes from Chef John on his YouTube channel FoodWishes. While experimenting with different preparation methods, I also experimented with Greek yogurt toppings.

GREEK YOGURT

The first potato I baked I topped with butter, salt, pepper, and Greek yogurt. It was delicious. It’s pretty hard to beat butter, salt, and pepper as a potato topping. After that I began mixing different spices into the yogurt. I grew up in Kansas, so ranch was always an option as a condiment. It’s loaded with buttermilk and oil though, and it’s pretty calorie heavy. Instead of using ranch dressing, I just bought the ranch seasoning packets and tossed half of a packet into a cup of Greek yogurt. It was definitely close enough to the real thing that I had found my buttermilk/oil ranch dressing substitution. In that regard, here are some ways I mix nonfat Greek yogurt. There are no measurements here, it’s all just add to taste. Have fun with it.

Garlic Peppercorn Ranch:

  • Garlic powder

  • Salt

  • Ranch seasoning

  • Fresh cracked black pepper

Taco Dip:

  • Garlic powder

  • Salt

  • Taco seasoning

  • Fresh cracked black pepper

  • Cayenne pepper

  • Salsa

  • Cilantro

Buffalo Dip:

  • Garlic powder

  • Salt

  • Fresh cracked black pepper

  • Frank’s Buffalo sauce

basic cooking skills

I would suggest you learn the very basics of cooking. Go grab a frying pan/wok, spatula, some butter, spices, bell peppers, onions, and learn how to sauté vegetables. Just knowing how to sauté vegetables with the spices/foods you enjoy will go a long way to feeling satiated after a meal, or at least it does for me.

Understanding how flavor attaches itself to food is important as well. At one point I thought “well I’ll just cut out all of the butter and oil and fat, it’s just extra calories.”. After four or five meals going without those ingredients, I added them back in. Heat, oils/fats, salt, time, and effort are things you’ll need to make a good meal.

it’s also worth mentioning that if you’ve been eating cold or lukewarm meals for a while, make a point of eating a comfortably hot meal at some point in the near future. We all get very busy and get used to grabbing things on the go, but taking the time and effort to cook will help you feel better about yourself, at least it does for me.

MAKE IT FUN

Odds are there’s a piece of pop-culture that you enjoy. We live in an age where everything that can be merchandised, is merchandised, and if it’s not then you can customize some other generic product to fit your personal style. Find kitchen tools that are fun for you. If you like a certain fantasy show, go see if they have themed kitchenware. Don’t buy anything that seems unsafe, but have fun with your choice. I did, and it helps me look forward to cooking