Cooking Tips

Culinary Knife Skills Videos

Basic Culinary Knife Skills Article

Here is a series of short basic knife skills that are great to know!

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Basic Culinary Knife Skills Article

This article shares basic knife skills and has photos and a clearly written explanation.

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How to Cut Everything

Basic Culinary Knife Skills Article

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Check out these great videos and written steps with pictures to learn tips on how to cut an avocado, onion, pineapple, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, mango and more!

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How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

The Importance of Knowing the Smoke Point of Cooking Oils

How to Cook Spaghetti Squash

Watch this 3 1/2 minute video on how to cook spaghetti squash in the oven or in the microwave. There are also additional helpful tips in this article too.

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The Importance of Knowing the Smoke Point of Cooking Oils

The smoke point is the temperature at which an oil stops shimmering and starts, yes, smoking. It is alternatively called the burning point. Smoke can be a sign that the oil is breaking down. And when oils break down, they can release chemicals that give food an undesirable burnt or bitter flavor, or free radicals that can harm the body.

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More Smoke Point of Cooking Oil Information

The Importance of Knowing the Smoke Point of Cooking Oils

As the name alludes, the smoking point is the temperature at which the fat or oil begins to smoke. Smoking is evidence of the fat's breakdown due to heat and can create a very off-putting smell and flavor and become toxic.

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How to Use Cooking Oils Safely

Sprouting and Soaking Seeds and Nuts

Best Types of Nontoxic Cookware

Dr. Axe explains the difference between extra virgin olive oil, virgin olive oil, light olive oil, avocado oil, ghee, coconut oil and red palm oil, their smoke point, how to safely cook with each, and which ones should not be used with heat and why.

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Best Types of Nontoxic Cookware

Sprouting and Soaking Seeds and Nuts

Best Types of Nontoxic Cookware

We live in the age of convenience and the age of fast. We don’t even want to be bothered taking the time to melt some butter or coconut oil on our pans so food doesn’t stick so we opt for nonstick cookware. Some of the most popular and widely used brands of cookware are nonstick and known to contain a chemical that has been linked to major health concerns including cancer.

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Sprouting and Soaking Seeds and Nuts

The Importance of Soaking Nuts and Seeds

This guide from Dr. Axe's site shares the benefits or sprouting and soaking seeds, nuts and beans.

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The Importance of Soaking Nuts and Seeds

The Dark Side of Refined White Table Salt

The Importance of Soaking Nuts and Seeds

This article from Wellnessmama shares reasons why soaking nuts and seeds can be beneficial and how to do it.

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The Dark Side of Refined White Table Salt

Table salt is stripped of its natural minerals and often fortified with iodine and manufactured with other unhealthy ingredients, such as dextrose (sugar) and caking agents. Check out this article for more details and see article on what foods contain iodine in them naturally.

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Sea Salt vs Himalayan Salt vs Table Salt

The Dark Side of Refined White Table Salt

Check out Dr. Axe's article on the benefits and risks of different salts.

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Iodine Rich Foods

How to Best Store Produce

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How to Best Store Produce

Megan from the Academy of Culinary Kitchen shares how to best store fruits and vegetables to keep them fresh and to last.

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How to Store Cabbage

How to Select and Store Cabbage

Recipe Lion gives tips on how to store cabbage in the fridge and freezer.

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How to Select and Store Cabbage

WikiHow gives tips on how to select cabbage and store it for maximum use with photos.

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cooking tools

Having two sharp, solid knives, one small and one big knife, is the most important tool for cooking along with a honing tool to keep the knives in good shape so they last a long time and a cutting board that is toxic free. I have one cutting board to cut meat and another one to cutting board to cut everything else.

Amazon Basics Knife Set

Check out this video and article to learn how to hone a knife correctly.

It is recommended to hone your knife after every time you use it and sharpening is usually only needed once or twice a year.

Check with your local QFC store to see if you can bring your knives in when they have their knife sharpener come in to sharpen their knives. They will usually let you do this for free!

Check out this article on why it is better to not sharpen your own knives.

Other cooking supplies that you will need which you can find at a thrift store or neighbor giveaways, garage sales, etc. are a glass mixing bowl, glass storage containers for leftover food, a mixing spoon, baking sheet and frying pan.

Cast iron is preferred over teflon due to the toxicity with teflon. Non-coated stainless steel and ceramic can also be better than teflon. For more information about the pros and cons of pots and pan cooking materials go here.

There are other cooking equipment that can make cooking a little more enjoyable, but are not necessary, such as a blender, muffin baking tray, cookie baking sheet, and casserole baking dish.

Here are some non-essential cooking products I use:

18 Piece Pyrex Glass Storage Containers - BPA free, Microwave, Oven (not the lids) and Freezer safe

Glass Mixing Bowls

Vitamix blender

Ninja 6 quart slow cooker