Even if you don’t consider yourself a cook, at the very least your kitchen is the place in your home that nourishes you. In the upheaval of the world as we know it right now, our kitchens are naturally taking on a more of an important role in our wellbeing.  They can provide us with a sanctuary to nurture ourselves, fortify our families and weave that invisible magic that is preventative medicine with good food.

By practising a little kitchen witching, you’re honouring your kitchen for the important role it plays in your life. This blog will guide you through some key ways you can harness its healing gifts.

Over the years, I’ve combined my training as a naturopath and infused it with my own love for cooking.  All of these tips are simple, tried and true.  And it’s my hope that it will make your kitchen a little more magical while we’re all staying home.

Have a Day Dedicated to Cooking

This doesn’t need to be more than two or three hours. It will save you so much time throughout the week. After you do your grocery shopping, washing your fruit and veggies, doing some chopping and storing in glass containers will make putting together meals in the evening a cinch.

Example Food Prep in Under 2 Hours

• Cook a batch of grains in your rice cooker
• Roast a few trays of veggies of both starchy vegetables and non-starchy vegetables
• Put a stew or broth on in your slow cooker
• Rinse and chop salad ingredients
• Make 1-2 dressings
• A dip and/or pesto
• Boil eggs
• Create a trail mix that you divide into small glass containers
• Marinate all your proteins
• Prep smoothie ingredients.
• Also, make big batches of food so you’ve got enough for leftovers!

 

If you don’t like being in the kitchen, there are other options.

If being in the kitchen is not your thing, that’s okay! You can still prepare deeply nourishing meals via doing clever prep work and making sure that you have:

• a cooked grain
• prepared protein
• salad veggies with a good salad dressing.

 

If you’re very short on time.

Ordering groceries is fabulous. Getting a local Co-Op or grocery store does a mixed fruit and veggie box is often a great solution. Or you can use services like Harris Farm, Whole Foods Market, Sydney, Doorstep Organics to do all your shopping online and have it delivered to your door.

Invest in a rice cooker.

A rice cooker makes getting a diverse range of whole grains in your diet simple and easy. You can soak your grains or grain mixes overnight. And then when it comes to mealtimes, flick the switch on your rice cooker. In 20 to 30 minutes, you’ll have perfectly cooked grains.

Keep things simple!!

You do not have to be a good cook at all to enjoy preparing simple, nutrient-rich, balanced meals. If anything, the tools and information I give you can make you a fabulous preparer. You want to be aiming for real food that is simple, delicious, satisfying and can be prepared in under 15 minutes.

All the meal templates will give you a good idea about all the elements needed for a nourishing meal. If you’ve got everything you need in your kitchen, this should not make it any trouble at all. Do not put any pressure on yourself to make every meal gourmet. Nothing needs to be elaborate, complicated or gourmet.

Magical Kitchen Alignment

Here’s a list of ideas in no particular order of ways to infuse more magic into your kitchen and to become a certified kitchen witch!

1. 1. 1. Have an open shelf or an open floating shelf in your kitchen and arrange your herbal teas, legumes, and grains in them to display.
      2. Have small spice jars or invest in a simple spice rack and fill them up with all your elemental supporting herbs and spices.
      3. Have a jar or vase that you fill greenery growing in your area. I love simple eucalyptus small branches – they last for weeks!
      4. Keep a couple of houseplants in your kitchen or grow some fresh culinary herbs on a sunny window sill.
      5. Hang framed pictures or prints to the wall that evoke a sense of nourishment and wellness
      6. the kitchen. It’s amazing how it can bring coziness and warmth to the space.
      7. Invest in some beautiful display bowls either from an op shop or from another store to display your produce. Seeing your fruit bowl as you pass your kitchen magically makes you want to eat more fruit.
      8. Buy organic, non-GMO and local produce wherever you can afford. A great guide to know how to go organic where it counts is the Environmental Working Group’s clean 15 and Dirty Dozen lists.
      9. Have your own Kitchen Book of Shadows (or simply recipe journal) jot down recipes and flavour combinations that work well. Keep a list of your constitutional balancing foods and practices in there to keep as a reminder.
      10. Eat wild when you can. Learn about the local weeds growing in your area that are edible. There are many herbs that are in plenty, such as chicory, dandelion, nettle, chickweed, and violets that make fabulous salad greens. Because they’re wild, they’re teaming with far more nutrients than cultivated varieties of lettuce.
      11. Stay organised. Clean up after meals to promote a feeling of peace and harmony. When you come to the kitchen to prepare a meal it will feel inviting as opposed to overwhelming.
      12. Incorporate herbs and spices wherever you can – it’s easy to add them to soups, to smoothies or to hot beverages.
      13. Dedicate that one day a week to preparing your food. This will save you hours throughout the week when it comes to preparing your meal.
      14. Create an altar in your kitchen and include items that are sacred and represent nourishment to you. This could be a candle, smudge sticks a small indoor plant or succulent, a journal that you record favourite recipes in.
      15. Add magic: When you’re in the kitchen, make it enjoyable!  Have plenty of kitchen playlists, have a special herbal tea that you sip my you prepare your meals, light that warm spicy incense.

 

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