Home-Cooked Meals & the Nourishment We Forgot We Needed
BB, Ghee Me Some Potato Gnocchi with Herbed Butter, Please! Our November Cooking Class!
Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I knew home cooking. My mom, aunties and grandmothers were all great cooks and bakers! I lived in houses that smelled like bread and sauerkraut. At some point in there however, I remember my grandma giving my mom shit for using canned goods in her cooking. I still give her shit for making Betty Crocker cakes even though I still love them because they are objectively, scientifically-crafted to be yummy.
The 1970’s and 80’s changed how people ate. Easy, cheap, delicious, processed food fooled our taste buds into thinking we were eating actual food. McDonalds was a ‘“treat”. Back in the day we rarely went to a restaurant for a meal, and now I eat out all the time. People today cook less, and some not at all, and I think we as individuals and a society pay a high price for that.
What is the cost of not having made-from-scratch home-cooked meals? And what is a meal? What does a home-cooked meal nourish?
We know a meal is supposed to build your body and its tissues, however we also know many meals do not. Many meals simply fill our not-yet-even empty bellies with mass – so we feel like we have eaten and are satisfied. But oftentimes we aren't satisfied. We may be full, and in many cases overly-full, but do your meals actually satisfy and nourish?
When intended to be so, home-cooked meals are a love language. When consciously prepared meals are medicine.
Meals are also moments we share with others while we nourish ourselves. Meals are an event – in time and place – where we nourish ourselves through companionship and each other's attention. A good meal nourishes relationships. Home-cooked meals offer the possibilities of being fed on love in the heart and hearth of the home.
Ayurvedic meals are based on an Ayurveda. Ayurveda, often referred to as Ayurvedic Medicine, has gained prominence as one of the fastest-growing healthcare systems globally and stands as the world's most ancient holistic approach to healing, written about in the Vedas of India 5000 years ago and in the earliest known Ayurvedic texts, the shastras, dating back to at least 1000 BCE. Notably, Ayurveda served as the foundational influence for Greek and subsequently Western medicine, albeit diverging in its focus, with Ayurveda emphasizing prevention, holistic well-being, and equilibrium among the body, mind, and spirit.
The essence of Ayurveda beautifully mirrors its name's origin, where "Ayur" symbolizes "Life," and "Veda" embodies "Knowledge". It is an art and science based on principles of nature that don’t change. Ayurvedic cooking, however, is not a rigid diet but an evolving, personalized way of eating meals that aim to maintain balance and address health issues.
Eating Ayurvedic meals isn't exotic or intimidating; it simply involves choosing and preparing foods that will enhance your health at any given time. Consider the nourishment a new mother needs compared to other times in her life, or the types of foods prepared for someone recovering from an illness. We need different things for different reasons, seasons and stages of our life.
It emphasizes the importance of strengthening your agni, or digestive fire, and is tailored to an individual's unique constitution, known as a dosha. This approach to eating and cooking invites us to live with the rhythms and wisdom of nature – because we are nature. In our modern world with its constant demands, it’s so easy to forget that – and our wellness pays the price.
So much of our well-being originates within our digestive system, making our food choices, and eating and cooking habits crucial determinants of our overall health. Food functions as medicine. We are not what we eat. We are what we can digest.
Through the act of preparing and consuming meals filled with life force energy, or prana, approached with gratitude, creativity, and affection, we establish a closer connection to nature with each bite, and maximize our nourishment.
Generally, Ayurvedic Cooking:
Uses fresh, pure, seasonal, local ingredients without chemicals, pesticides, or artificial flavors. It's predominantly plant-based, but meat is allowed, and the diet includes fruits, vegetables, beans and legumes, nuts and seeds, and whole grains.
Focuses on proper digestion, so meals are timed and eaten when hungry, and only to the full capacity of the stomach. Ayurveda also believes that freshly cooked food nourishes the body, so it's best to consume food within three hours of making it.
Aims to include all six tastes, or rasas, in each meal to prevent cravings. These tastes are sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent, and astringent.
Uses herbs and spices to carefully combine foods and re-center the body.
Ghee is considered the most beneficial oil in Ayurveda, and traditional texts say it's good for overall well-being and longevity. Modern research confirms its immense value.
Eating sattvic and ojas-building foods - considered the essence of vitality and immunity in Ayurveda.
Emphasizes balance and moderation in all things, including food intake. Overeating and undereating are discouraged, with an emphasis on moderation and listening to the body's hunger signals.
How can you take the world's oldest healing science and apply it to your own meals? It’s simpler than you might think. If you shop for fresh produce at the market, you're already taking a step toward an Ayurvedic lifestyle.
Ayurveda is grandmother wisdom and has profoundly shaped my approach to well-being in the way it provides a common sense, holistic understanding of the interconnectedness of body, mind, and spirit as foundational to health. Remembering the simple principles of Ayurveda serves as a touchstone so I can go live a big, expansive, fun, exploratory life and use the wisdom to guide my decisions so my overall energy is aligned with Ayurveda — nature’s wisdom and rhythms.
I hope to impart this on my clients - that Ayurveda is not restrictive but instead it’s expansive. It allows me (us!) to be healthy enough to live robustly and feel well doing it.
It shows us we can be free to indulge in life’s bounty as long as we also balance it with the discipline to make smart choices, too. It has wiggle room and because it focuses on agni’s health, you can afford to eat a street taco and have a cocktail and not have it take you out.
I want clients to know and experience the Grandma common sense it is, and that they have that same sense inside them once they see it.
Want to learn more? Join me in my home kitchen for some cooking classes where I’ll be sharing some of my favorite Ayurvedic meals.
