What Worked and What Didn’t in My Cooking Life Last Year

Making dinner is my happy place most nights. I love the therapeutic rhythm of chopping vegetables, and the sizzle of searing meat. But just because my work in the kitchen touches my love of creativity and good food, doesn’t mean that it’s not worth examining to see what went smoothly, and what did not work well. Once examined, I can better plan for 2025. 

I have some goals for this next year and those goals will be reflected here at The Nourishing Gourmet. I will continue to concentrate on a nourishing real food diet for the entire family, but one that meets my specific needs as well as my family’s differing needs (more on that below). I have to keep an eye on our food budget with rising food costs, and making easy and quick dinners for busy weeknights is a must, too. 

With that in mind, here is what worked and what didn’t last year for us. 

What didn’t work: 

Food costs killed our budget 

My husband sat down last year to figure out exactly how much we were spending on our food and I was shocked at how much more we are spending than we ever have in the past. While granted, our kids are now older, and thus maybe eating a little more, the vast majority of the increase in our food budget is from rising food costs. While rising food costs are outside our control, I realized the need to be more creative in cutting down on our food costs. This year, I’ll definitely be looking to continue to shave off what food costs we can while still eating well. 

I had to acknowledge needing a limited (healing) diet for myself 

Philosophically, I don’t hold that a more limited diet is a better diet. In fact, I think that the healthier you are, the more widely you can enjoy various foods. Sadly, my body became re-inflamed after mold exposure. (I am highly sensitive to mold after getting mold sick years ago. Subscribe to my email list if you would like to be notified of a short email series on my journey battling mold illness that will be released soon.) Long story short, I finally had to acknowledge how much better I now feel if I stick to a healing, but limited diet. I don’t think I will need to be on such a limited diet forever, but for now, it’s part of my healing protocol. 

What did work:

Teamwork with my husband 

While my husband will never love cooking as much as I do, he’s always helped carry the load in the kitchen, and that’s been a lifesaver during a very busy year for us. We will continue sharing the load (sometimes both of us working together on a meal, sometimes taking turns cooking). 

Cooking my healing diet, while also cooking a wide variety of foods for my family

I continued to hone my skill of making meals that meet my needs for a high protein, high produce paleo-ish diet, while also, without making a second meal, meeting my family’s need for grains and higher carbohydrates. This worked well overall for us. I found that cooking for my needs helped ensure that my family was also getting plenty of vegetables and good-for-them food, which is great! I also got even better at figuring out what types of meals work well for all of our needs to be met. 

Rediscovering my love of sourdough 

Ironically, the year that I had to go back to a more paleo-ish diet for myself was also the year that I fell in love with baking sourdough again. I used to make sourdough weekly before I had to go gluten-free. For a while I made gluten-free sourdough as well (which is great, but not as easy to work with as regular bread). With only two in our family gluten-free, we were spending too much buying organic bread at the store (we try to eat organic wheat products as much as possible). It was a busy year, and one in which I wasn’t trying to give myself more work in the kitchen, but I thought I would give it a go. I very quickly found my pace again in baking bread. I am saving a lot of money by baking our bread, it tastes better, and we’ve cut out snacky store-bought food and now generally concentrate on fruit and sourdough bread for snacks in the house (healthier and cheaper). It’s been a huge win! 

I got so inspired, that when our family was cast in a local theater production of A Christmas Carol last month, I ended up baking Cardamon Cinnamon Loaves for everyone on the cast, and then later that week, baked loaves for everyone on my husband’s worship team for the Christmas Eve service at our church. After baking over 50 loaves in a week, I still managed to retain my love of baking sourdough! 

My Goals for this Year: 

• Continue a healing diet for myself, and a nourishing diet for the family. 
• Continue to be creative in cutting down food costs where possible without cutting down quality. 
• Continue making sourdough for the family. 
• Enjoy good food with my growing family, remembering that these years are precious. 

I’m looking forward to bringing more recipes and what works for us techniques to all of you here on the website! 

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KimiHarris

I love beautiful and simple food that is nourishing to the body and the soul. I wrote Fresh: Nourishing Salads for All Seasons and Ladled: Nourishing Soups for All Seasons as another outlet of sharing this love of mine. I also love sharing practical tips on how to make a real food diet work on a real life budget. Find me online elsewhere by clicking on the icons below!

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