How I actually cook

Rule 01

Single ingredient first

Most of what I buy has one thing on the label. A chicken. A bag of carrots. Dried oregano. Nothing in a box unless the label lists one ingredient. Anything more usually means a long list of things I can't pronounce. When something has a list, that list should be short and every word on it should be food. This one rule quietly solves most of the others.

Try it: Roast Chicken and Potatoes with Lemon and Herbs →

Rule 02

No pork

It simply is not in my kitchen. Most cuts run higher in saturated fat than the lean poultry and fish I cook with, and the cured and smoked forms, bacon and ham and sausage, are the ones I feel strongest about leaving out. This is how I eat, not a prescription for anyone else. Chicken, turkey, lamb, and fish carry the weight instead.

Try it: Pan-Seared Herb Chicken with Spaghetti Squash →

Rule 03

No tomatoes

Tomatoes are acidic, the same reason vinegar is off the table. This is the one people think will be hard, and it's the one that changed my cooking the most. Roasted red peppers and lemon make a base that stands in perfectly for tomato: bright, deep, and right at home in salsas or anywhere else a recipe calls for that tomato foundation. I no longer miss it.

Try it: Sweet Bell Pepper and Chickpea Skillet →

Rule 04

No vinegar

Vinegar, wine, and anything pickled are acidic. Citrus is the exception. Lemon and lime taste acidic, but they're the go-to for brightness instead of vinegar. Fresh herbs, toasted spice, a little citrus zest where it works for you, and actually browning things properly instead of covering them up do the job just as well, sometimes better.

Try it: Herb Crusted Wild Salmon →

Rule 05

No refined sugars

Sweetness comes from fruit, honey, and pure maple syrup, the natural sugars already in good ingredients. White sugar and corn syrup spike and crash the body, and they mask flavor instead of building it. Once you stop relying on them, you start tasting food again.

Try it: Deconstructed Apple Pie Bowl →

Rule 06

No gluten

This wasn’t about trend. It was about how the body responds. Grains and starches without gluten digest easier and sit lighter, and sprouted grains are gentler still. Sweet potatoes, potatoes and organic sprouted rolled oats carry the load instead. The one exception is sourdough, and only homemade. Sourdough bread and anything else sourdough is allowed only when it’s made at home with organic, sprouted, whole grain bread flour. The only store-bought exception is low-sodium Ezekiel bread.

Try it: Deconstructed Apple Pie Bowl →

Rule 07

No GMOs

If it's been engineered in a lab, it doesn't belong on the plate. This one is simple: closer to how nature made it, better for the body. It means more label-reading up front, but it gets easier fast.

Rule 08

No leaveners

Baking powder and baking soda are shortcuts, and shortcuts usually come with a trade-off. Whipped eggs, steam, and time do the same work naturally. When a recipe needs more structure, organic sprouted oat flour, bovine gelatin, chia seeds, or flax step in instead. Homemade sourdough and low-sodium Ezekiel bread are the exceptions. It takes patience, but the result is food your body recognizes.

Rule 09

Organic only

Every ingredient in this kitchen is organic, no exceptions. Conventional produce and meat are grown and raised with pesticides, synthetic fertilizers, hormones, and antibiotics. Organic means eating closer to how food was always meant to grow: cleaner, less processed at the source, and without the chemical residue.

Rule 10

Wild caught, only

All fish and seafood in this kitchen is wild caught, never farmed. Farmed fish are raised in crowded pens, often fed an unnatural diet, and routinely treated with antibiotics and pesticides to control disease in those conditions. Wild caught means the fish ate what it was meant to eat, moved the way it was meant to move, and carries none of that chemical load onto the plate. It's the same principle behind everything else here: closer to nature and better for the body.

Try it: Herb Crusted Wild Salmon →

Rule 11

Pasture raised, only

Every egg and every cut of meat in this kitchen comes from animals raised on pasture, never confined. Animals raised in crowded, indoor conditions are typically fed grain instead of their natural diet, and routinely given antibiotics and hormones just to survive those conditions. Pasture raised means the animal lived and ate the way it was meant to, which shows up in the food itself: richer nutrients, none of the chemical load, and meat and eggs the body can actually recognize as food.

Try it: Roast Chicken and Potatoes with Lemon and Herbs →

Rule 12

No caffeine

Coffee, black and green tea, energy drinks and soda are all out of my kitchen. I let them go for the sake of my health, and I wanted my energy to come from good food and good sleep, not from a cup. Mornings start with roasted dandelion root or chicory brewed like coffee, or a pot of herbal tea: rooibos, peppermint or fresh ginger. The ritual stays. The caffeine doesn’t.

Rule 13

No chocolate

Chocolate brings caffeine with it, and it almost always brings refined sugar too. Pure organic carob and roasted mesquite flour give baking that same dark, rich depth without either one. Carob is naturally sweet, so it needs less help to taste like a treat.

Rule 14

No microwaves

A microwave ruins good food, and there’s no place for one in my kitchen. It doesn’t heat food evenly. It leaves cold spots in the middle and scorching edges on the outside. It steams everything from the inside out, so crispy turns soggy, roasted chicken turns rubbery, fish goes tough and dry, and bread goes chewy and then hard as a rock. And it usually means heating food in plastic, which is the last thing I want warming up next to my dinner. In my kitchen, food gets warmed on the stove or in the oven. It takes a few extra minutes, and it tastes like it was just made. A hot skillet crisps the edges right back up and brings leftovers back to life.