Kitchen & Cooking Basics
This topic has been updated. Please read our October 2024 highlights for the latest information.
Healthy cooking and eating does not need to be overwhelming. Let’s break down the kitchen basics to make healthy cooking as easy as possible. Learn about recommended tools, ingredients and preparation tips to lower the stress, save time, and enjoy healthier meals.
Important Education Takeaways
Stock your kitchen with the essentials. Ensure you have the needed kitchen equipment such as pots, pans, knives, cooking utensils etc, as well as fridge, freezer, and pantry food basics.
Choose quality ingredients for healthy meals. Optimize your health by choosing fresh foods and preparing nutritious meals from scratch.
Keep it simple! Healthy eating doesn’t have to be fancy, complicated, or expensive.
Start by mastering simple cooking techniques and familiar food combinations.
Gradually start using different cooking methods, making ingredient swaps, preparing new recipes, and enjoying new flavors.
Recipes
Recipe of the month: Chiles Rellenos Remix, Cucumber, Jicama, and Mango Sticks
As always, this recipe is the showcase of our live taught, virtual cooking class. Our chef and registered dietitian bring the recipe to life as they walk you through food prep, swaps to meet dietary or taste preferences, plus tips and tools to support you being your own healthy chef at home.
Bonus recipe: Strawberry Basil Balsamic Vinaigrette
From Jamie’s kitchen to yours, our monthly bonus recipes are published on our website and social media the 4th Wednesday of each month. We invite you to browse our recipe collection and come back often to find more flavorful and heart-healthy recipes.
We invite you to join us for the live taught, virtual nutrition classes each month to gather more information on our nutrition topics. This is also an opportunity to ask topic-related questions of our experts as well as connect socially with attendees for idea sharing. As a registered participant for our In the Kitchen program, you receive a few reminders ahead of each scheduled monthly classes, but here’s an easy to remember schedule: Nutrition Education (30-minutes, 2nd Wednesday, 12pm), Cooking Class (up to 60-minutes, 3rd Monday, 12pm).
Contributing authors: Kayla Guillory, MS, RD, CDCES, diabetes educator, Providence Community Teaching Kitchen; Jamie Libera, RD, LD, CCTD, registered dietitian, Providence.