Step by Step:
Liveli Up your Kitchen
A little prep in the form of good eating habits significantly improves our chance to make the most of our days with energy and vitality. When you transform your kitchen, you change the way you eat and live! Remember that each of us is different, and we have different needs.
This kitchen overhaul is the fresh start that will empower you and your family to create a deliciously healthy lifestyle together that you’ll enjoy for years to come.
2 Easy Steps:
First, we’re going to make your time in the kitchen gratifying and nourishing by removing any life-force-sucking ingredients.
We’re waving bye-bye to:
Highly processed foods, sugars, vegetable oils, refined grains and flours, fake kinds of butter, foods with many preservatives, and more...
Let’s start with the fridge; then we’ll go to the freezer and finish clearing the kitchen cabinets.
Your Fridge:
Let’s start with all those salad dressings, mayonnaise, soy sauce, ketchup, barbecue sauce, and other fake sauces. Have you ever wondered why this stuff lasts for so long? They’re full of sugar, salt, acids, and preservatives—that’s why. Salad dressings are made with vegetable oils, which are a big no-no for your brain and body. Want to know why these things are so bad for us? Head to “Curious? Learn Here" to watch our videos.
Next, let’s clear out all the highly processed foods. We’re looking at cheap white loaves of bread, pizza bases, packaged pasta, wheat tortillas, bagels, cakes, muffins... all the bakery goods available in big supermarkets. They’re full of sugar, salt, and vegetable oil and usually made with non-organic, highly refined white flour (the cheapest of all the flours, of course).
Now give a kiss goodbye to all your sweet-flavored yogurt, fake butter and margarine, jam and marmalade, soft drinks, and fake juices (even when the package says ‘all natural’ or ‘99% fruit juice,’ it’s probably not). Say ‘Adios’ to processed meats like salami, turkey, bacon, ham, and sausages, along with the massive amount of salt and harmful cancer-causing chemicals they contain.
Take a relaxing breath.
Don’t worry; LiveliFood will teach you how to replace everything with healthy new options.
Your Freezer:
We’re on the hunt to remove instant meals, frozen pizzas, ice cream, chicken, and fish nuggets. Take out cheap non-grass-fed meat, too— those animals were raised on grain and antibiotics, and when we eat their meat, we’re eating their unhealthy diets too.
Your Kitchen Cabinets:
The cupboard is where we usually find many highly processed foods packed with sugar, artificial flavors, preservatives, and carbohydrates, yet empty of nutrients. These foods seem quick and tasty to snack on, but the reality is that they offer nearly nothing of value to your body. On the contrary, with most of their nutrients lost in processing and some unnatural additives, consuming them daily can seriously harm your body inside.
And, they’re expensive! When we buy processed foods, we’re spending money on crap that will send us to the doctor down the road. While a bag of chips now and then won’t kill you, eating them every week for 60 years is going to take a toll.
Straight talk: Don’t waste your money on food that is bad for you.
Back to the clean-out! Open up those cupboards…
Follow this rule: If it comes in a package and can sit in your cabinets for weeks without spoiling, you don’t want it in your kitchen or your body.
We’re talking about chips, cereal bars, sweet biscuits, cake and pancake mixes, instant foods, and beverage powders.
Say ‘Adios’ to cooking ingredients like refined sugars and highly processed white flours. Adios to breakfast cereals like corn flakes, Cheerios, sweet granola, and choco puffs. They’re processed so far beyond their whole food beginnings that weird stuff gets added back in so that you’ll want to eat them. I might wonder whether the cardboard box has more nutrients than the actual cereal? Probably!
No more instant noodle soups or any of those magic-seeming powders where you add water and, poof! Your meal is ready! Many of these foods were invented for soldiers at war. While that was a noble purpose, we are, thankfully, comfortable in our homes where we have the privilege to eat better.
Good Job!
Now that everything is out on your kitchen benches make your drop off at your local food bank and take out what you don’t need anymore. Wipe down your fridge and cupboards and enjoy the sense of possibility your kitchen now holds.
High five on a job well done!
Here are a few places where you can donate your food if you live in Australia:
Oz Harvest www.ozharvest.org OR Food Bank www.foodbank.com.au
Your new whole foods kitchen is almost ready! There are a couple of pieces of equipment that will help you start cranking out all the delicious LiveliFood recipes: a good food processor and a powerful blender.
Here’s a brief description of what you can do with each of these convenient kitchen appliances so you can decide what would be most helpful to you!
With a food processor...
You can make your flours, like almond flour or rice flour (cheaper than buying them pre-made!). You can shred nuts and seeds for homemade nut milk and our favorite healthy version of granola, nut-hola! You can make hummus and other dips, slice, and shred vegetables, and shred the ingredients for cakes, veggie burgers, bread loaves, and bliss balls.
With a high-powered blender…
You can make all your soups and smoothies. You can also make your jars of nut butter with a powerful blender, like almond and peanut butter. You can blend your ice cream, sauces, and dips.
For other kitchen tools, consider a trip to your local second-hand store (reuse!). Here’s a reminder of some of the things that are useful to have as you’re cooking: glass baking trays of different shapes and sizes, cake tins, a bread pan, muffin pan, measuring cups, nut milk bag, strainer for fine ingredients, spatulas, chopping knives, wooden spoons and cutting boards and a good set of pots and pans. Food containers and airtight glass containers (Ikea is excellent for this) are great for storing all the batch cooking you’ll be preparing! Want to know more about batch cooking? Go to LiveliBlog here.
