Cook With Me!

I was introduced to garlic salt at the beginning of this year and it quickly became one of my favorite seasonings. The sugar and salt balance the sharp flavor of the garlic. Ingredients 4 tbs salt 2 tbs garlic powder 2 tbs sugar 1 tbs dried parsley Mix! You can add some uncooked rice to absorb moisture and keep your powder from sticking together. Use liberally.

Tahini is just crushed up sesame seeds. You can use toasted or untoasted sesame seeds. Toasted will give it a richer flavor. Ingredients 1 cup sesame seeds 3 tbs oil (olive, canola or coconut) Put the seeds and oil in a blender and blend until smooth. That’s it!

Here’s a little secret: hummus is super easy to make at home and then you can customize the flavors and always have your favorite kind of hummus on hand. Make a batch over the weekend and eat it throughout the week. Ingredients 2 cups chickpeas 1 tbs tahini - make your own! 1/2 cup olive oil 1/4 tsp garlic salt - make your own! 1/8 tsp paprika A small dash of liquid aminos Toss the tahini and part of the oil into the blender and blend it up before adding the other ingredients - this makes the hummus extra creamy. You can also just make the tahini in the blender at this point before adding the chickpeas. Add the rest of the ingredients and blend until smooth! I cook my own chickpeas. Dry beans are so cheap, and also so easy to cook, especially with a rice cooker. You stick them in the bowl with plenty of extra water, and then drain, refill the water and turn the rice cooker on for two hours. It’s a great thing to do on Sunday evenings while finishing up tha...

Hello everyone and welcome to my blog! My name is Laurel and I’m a senior in college. Family dinners were always a big deal in my family, and as a kid I would always hang around the kitchen as my parents were cooking, and often they would invite me to help them. My dad especially loves to cook and taught me lots of tips and tricks for making cooking easy and fun! He’s Italian and Polish, so many of the recipes I got from him are Italian and Polish inspired. My mom is a nutritionist, so she’s always made sure we ate our vegetables and inspired us to be healthy. This year I am finally living in a house with housemates and we’ve had lots of fun cooking for each other, but it also made me realize that not everyone has been as fortunate as me to have learned so much about cooking from my parents. I’ve noticed some of them and other friends being nervous about their cooking even though they always make delicious meals, so for everyone out there who’s nervous about cooking healthy, quick c...