Your next steps are…
1. Watch the START HERE video above
2. Check out ‘Your Bonuses‘.
3. Say ‘Hello’ in the comments below and
share what you’re hoping to get out of the program.
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Start Here
3. Say ‘Hello’ in the comments below and
I seem to have lost the plot in regard to cooking over the last few years. I went from cooking for a large family to just myself and my husband most nights. When the family come there are 14 of us all together, soon to be 18 (3 pregnant daughters, 1 with twins). Also, for the last 2 years I have been studying a nutritional medicine degree. There has been a combination of stress from being a full time student at the age of 50+ and also trying to take on board what I am learning and completely changing the way we eat. Ironically, my health has suffered and I am feeling overwhelmed. I am hoping this program will help me refocus and put things in perspective. The appeal is its simplicity and the foundation in good health. I just need to remember your advice and focus on 1 thing at a time!
Welcome Bronwyn!
And congratulations on all those grand children on the way. How exciting!
Funny that when you’re studying nutrition is when it gets difficult. Don’t worry you’re totally in the right place. Keeping it simple really is the best way to be healthy especially when you’ve got a lot on your plate.
Jx
I generally cook all my meals at home, but I want to simplify the process. I often shop every day; with this class I think I can reduce the shopping and still eat well.
You’ll definitely be able to shop less frequently Karen!
And if you want to simplify, you’re totally in the right place 🙂
Jx
I am making a commitment this time around to follow and complete the Master Your Meal Plan classes. My goal is to prepare 2 meals each week without recipes and to put some regular mise-en-place action into play. Thanks Jules and Caroline.
Great plan Heather!
Let us know how you get on 🙂
In general, meal planning has worked for me, but there have been some definite downfalls and waste that happens depending on how life gets interrupted.
I’d like to learn more about cooking on the fly by getting to know food better without a recipe. And right now I’m going through a lot of life changes that includes moving, so meal planning is just too overwhelming right now. I don’t want to fall into eating out all the time just because it’s easier during this transition.
Welcome to the program Raelynn!
Lovely to have you on board.
And you’re totally in the right place to learn about cooking on the fly.
Good luck with the move – always a tricky time but also a great opportunity to build some new healthy habits!
Jx
Would love to simplify my cooking and learn how to look forward to eating at home. I like to be in the kitchen and enjoy cooking but need to be healthier.
Wonderful Sheryn!
well I have had a rocky four weeks and am just now joining the class. My husband had an operation, and due to ill health has lost 10 kilos, thankfully he could afford to loose it, and he is not unhappy. After passing a gall stone I have just come out of hospital having had my gall bladder removed. So we are in recovery mode, and definitely in need of simple, tasty and nutritious meals.
You’re definitely in the right place Denise!
And so glad to hear you’re focusing on good food to help with your recovery… it’s so important
Jx
Right now my “meal plan method” is a mixture of the soupstone meal plan and the weekly suggestions from my farmer’s market box. Although I spent less time doing the planning and shopping I want to spent less money and produce less waste.
My wife has dementia and I have taken over the cooking among other things. I am loving cooking. I have steadily learnt different methods of cooking and have explored many recipes learning what goes with what.My four daughters have been a great help. They are all good cooks but the best one is intuitive. I would like to become more intuitive. I have learnt valuable lessons from your school. You ask me to make a commitment but how can I commit before I know whether your meal planning is the way to go for me. It might be the way for some meals but I suspect I will still enjoy sitting down and planning a menu.
Help Ian
Hi Ian
Good for you getting in to cooking. And that’s great your daughters are helping you.
PLease don’t feel stressed out about committing to TRYING this method… I’m not expecting 100% compliance all the time 🙂 Just asking that you commit to giving it a go. To be honest I still plan some meals, especially when I’m having guests or for special celebrations…
Hope that helps you.
J
Hi everyone, I’m playing catch-up due to illness but glad to be here.
My goal for the class is to increase the order and nutrition and decrease the time and food waste around family mealtimes.
I have a husband who does most of the shopping with the kids and bulk cooking on the weekend, while I do most of the cooking and lunchbox prep during the week.
Getting our shopping list together for the big weekend shopping trip is usually a desperate last-minute scramble. Then I live the disorganisation all through the week in uninspired meals, gaps in the kids’ lunchboxes, rushed trips to the shops for missing items and wasted fresh food that I didn’t have time to prepare.
I have a lot of accumulated baby weight to lose now my kids are no longer babies. I want us all to be eating healthy, cost-effective, quick and tasty meals that are planned but not micro-controlled.
I’m also keen to teach my 9 year old some good skills and habits around planning, shopping and cooking as he is currently helping to make one family meal each week and has been assembling his own school lunch for a year or two. He is learning at school about healthy meal choices and this is a good time for us to learn more about making that happen at home.
Wonderful Janet!
That’s great that your husband helps with the shopping. And I love that what your 9yo is learning is inspiring you to eat better
Jx
Thank you Jules for the amazing opportunity to be part of this course and congratulations on the nuptials!!!!
I’ve been doing what I now know as perfectionist cooking for years, and while I’ve learned a lot through recipe books, you’ve taught me a great deal more in the past year or so that I’ve been following your blog. And the resources available here in the virtual cookery school, and especially in this course, are taking that learning to another level.
I have a chronic illness and very little time or energy for the kitchen or shopping. So being able to quickly make great good has been a revolution in my life, because I was eating convenient food of low nutritional value.
My goal is to eat three nutritious meals a day, including the recommended 5 servings of veg, 2 fruit, 5 grains, 5 protein/dairy, in a wide variety of dishes, and also, to HAVE FUN. I can tell already that this course will get me there.
A bonus would be to include my partner in more of my eating adventures when we such have different tastes – he’s a simple carnivore while I’m a pescetarian (I eat seafood, but no other meat or poultry) and a lover of spicy food. Now that I think about it, and not to insult him, but his tastes might actually be served by your “tiny-person friendly variations”. :p
I’m looking forward to learning more and more and becoming a great cook!
Thank you Jules for the amazing opportunity to be part of this course and congratulations on the nuptials!!!!
I’ve been doing what I now know as perfectionist cooking for years, and while I’ve learned a lot through recipe books, you’ve taught me a great deal more in the past year or so that I’ve been following your blog. And the resources available here in the virtual cookery school, and especially in this course, are taking that learning to another level.
I have a chronic illness and very little time or energy for the kitchen or shopping. So being able to quickly make great good has been a revolution in my life, because I was eating convenient food of low nutritional value.
My goal is to eat three nutritious meals a day, including the recommended 5 servings of veg, 2 fruit, 5 grains, 5 protein/dairy, in a wide variety of dishes, and also, to HAVE FUN. I can tell already that this course will get me there.
A bonus would be to include my partner in more of my eating adventures when we such have different tastes – he’s a simple carnivore while I’m a pescetarian (I eat seafood, but no other meat or poultry) and a lover of spicy food. Now that I think about it, and not to insult him, but his tastes might actually be served by your “tiny-person friendly variations”. :p
I’m looking forward to learning more and more and become a great cook!
Hi Jules – best wishes on this, your wedding day, for a fabulous future, and thanks for getting us started with MYMP :). I look forward to hearing/seeing some of the memorable moments you created today.
Hi to all my classmates! Just a little about me and my cooking aims: I’m a mum to 3 primary school boys and I have a great husband who shares (and sometimes takes over) the cooking in our household. Gone are the days of eating out (except for a fortnightly date night and the occasional get together with friends) so we nearly always eat at home (as well as breakfasts for 5 and lunches & snacks to go). I’d say we are at least halfway to becoming creative, intuitive cooks who also manage to feed our family with fresh, nutritious food. Sometimes though, it is just such an effort! I am putting in more hours at the office in my own business this year (oldest going to secondary school next year) and need some confidence to make quick decisions and get on with it (the cooking) and not leave it up to my husband to make the dinner choices.
I’m also working on re-losing the weight I lost a few years ago that has slowly crept back up on me. As part of this, I decided that I needed to “Be Prepared” and “Take Care” of myself. These are my words for 2014. Doing this course is a way to add to my skills (and an early 45th birthday present to myself). As far as meal planning goes, I’ve never been one to follow a ‘diet’, and it sometimes feels like that if you have to plan out every meal for a week in advance, ugh. I like the freedom to be able to choose according to the weather, how I’m feeling and that it’s not so much just ‘winging it’ but being creative enough to cook according to what my body tells me it needs.
Oh, I also found out just before Christmas that I’m highly lactose intolerant so I need to be able to work that into the way I now eat. I’ve avoided cow’s milk for a long time but never extended it to yoghurt (my greatest lament as I make it myself and used to eat it daily), icecream, milk chocolate, protein powder, ricotta, cottage cheese, but thankfully hard/aged/ripened cheeses are ok as I love them, in moderation ;).
Phew, that was longer than I intended and hopefully not TMI. Thanks for reading and looking forward to being part of this. I think it’s so exciting – just think of the possibilities!! Jxx
I am thrilled to be able to participate and be on my way to healthier eating with less planning stress and less wasted food. I cook for myself, only, most weeks as my husband’s job requires much travel. He has health issues that require limitations in fats to lower cholesterol levels, so I am hoping for tips and new meal ideas, also. I live in the eastern part of Tennessee in the US and have access to many farmers’ markets and varied fresh produce which I want to incorporate into my meals. I enjoy gardening, too, and I usually plant containers with tomatoes, peppers, summer squash, cukes and herbs which will help cut my grocery costs as well as provide easily accessible fresh ingredients. I can’t wait to get started on this journey! I am looking forward to easier meal planning, less wasted food left in the back of the fridge, less time cooking and more pleasure from my efforts.
Hi Jules,
I’m so excited to be taking the program. I am about to go back to work from my second maternity leave. My oldest is almost four and my baby is 10 months old. I have been moving more towards a plant based diet and cooking healthy food for myself and my family. I know from experience with my last maternity leave that when I was home I ate from my kitchen and things were easy. But when I went back to work things were very busy and it became really hard to eat the way I wanted to. It became difficult to plan and shop and make things that I liked with limited time. I found that I quickly ended up back to old habits, eating out and eating convenience foods. This impacted my energy level, my budget, ability to eat what I wanted and my waistline! I’ve tried more traditional meal planning but it never works out for me. I either haven’t planned enough or I’ve planned too much! I want to do it different when I go back to work this time (in 6 weeks!) so am really looking forward to learning how to be much more flexible, learn how to cook easy food that I enjoy and mostly how to “run my kitchen” with a different approach. Can’t wait to take the lessons and learn lots of new things!
Kristin
I went to our local farmers’ market on Saturday and couldn’t find what I had planned to cook – or imagine what I would cook with what was available. Same when I went to buy meat and the cut we’d planned to slow cook wasn’t available, so I was standing in the cool room doing an internet search for alternative recipes with what was in stock. Stephanie Alexander’s bible is a great resource when you do buy produce because it looks interesting but you’re not sure what to do with it but I’d like to be a more confident, intuitive cook who can experiment more and waste less. I admire cooks who can open the fridge door or the pantry and throw something fabulous together with what they have, while knowing what goes with what so it works so they’re creating a tasty, gourmet dish, not a hotch potch of mis-matched flavours.
hello im excited to learn how to make exciting dishes for one and still loose weight .Im sick of just meat or fish and salad !!!
Welcome Despina!
And that’s a very worthy goal. You’re totally in the right place 🙂
Jx
Hi everybody…
I’m JT from Canada… After many many years being a horrible cook something finally clicked and now I can cook pretty decently… I really love cooking and would like to solidify my basic skills so that my meals are not so “hit and miss”…
I also have a 5 year old who has a very critical palate and a 2 year old who just won’t eat so I figure any ideas I can pick up to mix things up a little would be great…
Welcome JT!
Great to hear you’ve already made a big change to your cooking… You’re in the right place to hone your skills!
J
Hi Jules,
I always start my week with good intentions but with my work my schedule is always changing and I end up with so much food waste as change my mind and end up eating out. I would love to have a fridge full of things I can easily make a quick meal to take with me or make quickly after work. Like some of the previous comments I have recently had to go gluten free which I am also finding a challenge. Would love in a future class to learn gluten free pizza or bread too!
Thanks for sharing Laura!
I’ve actually been working on a gluten-free pizza recipe… it’s proving to be a bit of a challenge… thanks for the inspiration to continue the experiments!
J
Hi Jules, I am pretty much looking forward to re-learning how to put a nourishing meal on the table when it is just me on my own. I am pre-diabetic and so I have been given a life-line to address this. When I say re-learn, I am in my late 50’s and have been through the stages in life where I have had to cook for my young family, and I did produce healthy meals back then. I have just got into a rut really and need to re-balance my thinking. I too feel I am in the right place. Cheers, Toni
Thanks for sharing your situation Toni!
It’s super helpful for me to know what’s motivating you. And if you’re done it before I’m sure we can get you excited about cooking again! I know it can be touch if you’re cooking for yourself but you have to remember that you’re worth it!
J
Jules,
It looks like spring is finally spring in our area and pretty soon we start receiving our CSA boxes of fresh vegetables. I eat too much sugar and simple carbs and really want a successful way to serve fresh vegetarian meals on a regular basis. Thanks.
Lucky you Ashley!
It’s well and truly Autumn here… and I haven’t found anyone doing CSA boxes around here so I’m jealous on 2 accounts.
J
Hi Everyone! I’m a little late on the introductions for the class, but I’m happy to be here. Since beginning SVCS, my husband and I eat out less, eat healthier all around, and have simplified our cooking so that dinner can be ready in a reasonable amount of time. (His favorite cooking methods of following Alton Brown recipes are delicious, but don’t match up on my must-eat-now-or-I’ll-get-mean time frame. Stonesoup is a wonderful resource that combines the healthy, delicious meals we want/need with my impatience/busy schedule.) I’m hoping to continue our love for minimalist, healthy cooking without sacrificing flavor. I know I’m in the right place.
Welcome back Elizabeth!
Actually Elizabeth… I’ve just seen an email I sent to your bigpond address has bounced… is this the best address for you?
I’ve hardly met a vegetable I didn’t like, yet find myself turning toward the quick and easy junk food more regularly than I’m comfortable with. I’d like to reduce the barriers to making simple, healthy, delicious food on a regular basis. No more vegetables going bad before we’ve had a chance to prepare them!!
Hi Lisa
Interesting that you like veg but are not eating them as much as you’d like…. Thanks for sharing!
Really interested to know what are the barriers for you preparing healthy food?
J
Hello everyone. I want the same as everyone has already mentioned – healthy, smart cooking. More plant-based meals that I can easily knock up after work – because I have been prepared and organised before hand.
I can’t wait to begin!
Thanks Jules!
Welcome Jade!
J
What am I hoping to get out of the program? I want to be efficient and comfortable in the kitchen. I want to remove the stress and enjoy the process. I want to fuel my family with exciting healthy meals.
Glad you’re looking to remove the stress and enjoy it Kori!
J
Hello everyone. I’m one of those apparently rare people who absolutely detests anything to do with meal planning, shopping, preparation and cooking. I find it all very stressful and depressing. The only thing I love about food is the eating of it! Although I’m no connoisseur by any means. I will happily eat a frozen prepared meal instead of cooking from scratch. And I would definitely offer to do your housework if you would cook for me! lol So, while I’m not expecting that I will ever love cooking, I’m hoping that I come to some kind of agreement with it. I’m hopeful that Stone Cookery will teach me “palatable” (pun intended) ways to cook simple, but not boring, foods with a minimum of planning, shopping and preparation. I lost 40 pounds a few years ago and am hoping to keep it off so I am also interested to see how you balance daily intake without counting calories, protein, carbs, etc.
Jeanne!
I think there are a lot of people who hate meal planning, shopping, preparation and cooking…. really looking forward to making this more enjoyable and rewarding for you… I just want you to keep your mind open!
J
I’m absolutely terrible at cooking at home. I hate my kitchen and I always feel strapped for time. But I LOVE to garden and I end up giving away so much of my crops because I can’t find the time or creativity to cook them. I’m hoping that this course teaches me better planning so that I can make the most of my time (and space). Maybe I can even cook a few meals at home a week this summer!
Lucky you having a garden Whitney!
We’ll definitely have to work on you cooking more of your own produce 🙂
J
Hello everyone and big hi Jules 😀
I’m cooking for a small family and having to adapt to healthy choices ALL the time for my toddler’s diet, and deal with her egg allergy and my husband being borderline diabetic. This is a big change as I’m not one for cooking every meal from scratch.
I’ve been struggling with meal planning for ever, and have tried various processes and finally figured out I just don’t have time… I don’t have time to dwell on my recipe books and choose things to cook and I don’t have time to rush out to the shops all the time. I don’t have time to sit down and plan a week or two ahead, and then to make changes when our plans or taste buds rebel.
Like Bronwyn, I know I can’t cook all my ‘meals to try’ list in this lifetime and I have decided my recipe books should go as they are more of a distraction and a point of stress (I have still to take that final step though).
For shopping I have simplified this but perhaps too much as we have been living off the same food for the past few months and apart from being tired of it, we are missing the joys of trying new things, it is now our Spring and there will be a lot more choice for fresh foods soon. I want to take advantage of this without worrying that I have to find a recipe. I do need to introduce some new dishes into my cooking but I am hoping to make them ‘template’ dishes so I can adapt them with seasonal ingredients.
Wonderful Hannah!
Sounds like you’re on the right path…
And don’t worry – your cookbooks don’t have to ‘go’… you’ll probably find that once you get to a comfortable space with cooking from template recipes, they won’t be a source of stress any more and you might actually enjoy cooking from them from time to time on the weekends…
J
I can pretty much put a simple meal on the table most evenings because I have frozen portions of meat in the freezer and fresh vegs in the fridge (we don’t eat gluten or dairy so our meals are simple by exclusion) but just frying a steak or pork chop is getting boring. I’m looking forward to getting more creative without having to spend more time in the kitchen.
Wonderful Miriam!
You’re in the right place
J
Before having my beautiful children I used to love spending whole afternoons in the kitchen with gourmet magazines and cookbooks. Now 15 years later I find them actually very overwhelming as I know that I will never have enough time in my life to cook all those complex recipes, and even deciding on what to cook can be very time consuming. Yet i cannot find it within my heart to discard them and subscribe to cooking more in the moment as I am not yet a confident “no recipe” cook. Correction – I am for my food tastes but not for my family and friends. Naturally my kids have no hesitation in telling me that they didn’t like something. So I have not told anyone in my family that I am doing this course and await to see whether I can feel better about cooking for the family whilst also satisfying the tastes of my family.
ditto for me too Bronwyn, I’m very much thinking the same about my recipe collection and switching to being a confident ‘no recipe to hand’ cook. Good luck 😀
i guess the most basic way to say it is that i don’t meal plan or cook really at all, so don’t ask me what we eat – restaurant leftovers? fast food? cereal? pbj’s? quesadillas? what i want to achieve is to be able to shop and buy ingredients that look interesting (vegetables for the most part), then come home and cook a simple, quick, healthy meal. so one of those totally simple but totally not easy things (:
Perfect Jody!
We should totally be able to help you out with that.
Jx
Jules,
I really want to be able to cook a base for the meal that I can easily add toppings to, based on each of my family members’ unique allergies/sensitivities. I hate cooking three separate meals. Having some of your templates that are safe for everyone that can be personalized for each person AND having it be almost automatic for me will reduce a great amount of stress right now.
THANKS!
Thanks for sharing Bobbie-Jo!
You’re definitely not alone in having to cater for a family with different allergies. I think the key is to try focusing on the ingredients you can use that work for eveyone rather than focusing on the differences or what you ‘can’t’ eat.
IT’s all about looking for commonalities.
J
Hello Jules.
I am very aware of nutritious options but I am not creative and I am very inefficient in the kitchen. I waste a lot of food and time for that matter. I am overly ambitious and often bite off more than I can chew (pun intended!). My boyfriend loves my enthusiasm but it is often a big production on my part, when all I want to do is make dinner and not wait a few hours (for the 30 minute recipe). I just need the tools and templates to guide me onto a different path. I am just tired of being so overwhelmed with my good intentions and desire to use the knowledge of healthy habits and choices to manifest into actual meals on the table.
Warm regards, Michelle
This is great Michelle!
I used to be the same with the overly ambitious thing… I think modern cookbooks and magazines which are mostly written by chefs who have loads of helpers in the kitchen makes us all a bit unrealistic.
The biggest game changer for me was when I started to focus on only cooking dishes with 5 ingredients. I can’t tell you how many time I thought to myself ‘this won’t work’ only to be amazed how good simple food tastes!
Don’t worry about the creativity or efficiency… these will come with time.
What I want you to focus on is keeping it simple.
Even if you’re thinking one of the template recipes is going to need more I want you to at least try it once in the basic form. You can always add more later.
J
Hi Jules,
About a year ago, we starting shopping on a regular basis at the farmer’s market.
Noticed that we were wasting a lot of food and still had to go shopping almost every day to get a meal prepared, since something was always missing. So then I started planning the meals in advance. This actually really helped save a lot of time- didn’t have to go shopping every day and it is such a relief not to have to wonder what should I cook (ie. what can I cook, what do I have the ingredients for and what sounds good. When you are tired and hungry everything sounds good but you don’t have the stuff or time to make it anyways. Then I ended up tired, hungry and frustrated and I still had to make something to eat!)
However the meal planning is quite time consuming and I want to make it more automatic but am not happy with typical suggestions of Monday = chicken, Tuesday = Stew, etc. Or just haven’t figured out how to make it work with our tastes.
My husband and I both work mainly from home, so we also have 3 meals a day to consider not just breakfast and dinner. We usually eat in typical German fashion sandwiches (Abendbrot = evening bread) for dinner but I would like to try and get away from this as well.
I am looking forward to this class. I just read the quote recently: When the student is ready, the teacher will appear. Then I saw the blog post about this class starting up and I thought this is the next step that I’ve been looking for.
Cheers
SL
Hi Sarah!
Love that quote about the student being ready 🙂
And it’s great that you’re already shopping at the farmers markets…
sounds like MYMP is the right program for you!
J
Hi Jules,
For the last year I’ve fairly successfully cut out sugar, wheat and milk from my diet as a way to reduce inflammatory foods. Where I haven’t been successful is consistently having the right foods on hand, so on especially hectic days I grab food that I shouldn’t, and end up with sore joints from the inflammation. I have food in the house for my teens who do eat wheat and sugar, so it’s always available in my unprepared moments. I’m hoping to learn to be prepared so that I don’t have any excuse to eat the wrong things!
Wonderful Barbara!
I can imagine it’s a struggle if you have food like that in the house for your teens…
Hi Jules. My aims are to move towards veg and whole grain, to become more independent as a cook regarding flavor so that I don’t have to rely on expensive sauces and dressings to get the taste profiles I enjoy, and to stop wasting produce I buy. I think your approach is really neat and love the idea of this virtual school.
Hi Kathryn!
Thanks for sharing your insights!
Hi Jules,
I’ve been a follower of your blog over the past year or so and I’ve definitely been inspired to improve my cooking skills and creativity. I look forward to receiving your emails.
I’d really like to learn how to put a meal together quickly, that is fresh, nutritious, tasty and looks yummy too. With the help of your blog, I’ve come a long way, but I feel it’s time to expand my skills even more, especially as I aim to make healthy eating a permanent lifestyle. In the past, I’ve kept up with a month or so of good cooking and then gradually fallen back into old unhealthy habits. I’d like that pattern to be a thing of the past. This new spring season is my new start to lots of small changes in my life and I feel excited and expectant.
Sonnx
Welcome to the class Sonna!
And really glad to hear Stonesoup has already helped you so far… Sounds like Spring is great timing for you…
Hi Jules, I hope to be able to come home and decide what to cook from what I have quickly and without dithering in front of the fridge or pantry. Next, I hope to be able to make up my mind what to buy at the farmer’s stall without being overwhelmed or wasting the food. Finally, I’d like to be able to be prepared ahead of time.
Take care,
Mary
Hi Mary!
Love what you’re aiming to achieve! MYMP is definitely going to help with the first two.
And for the being prepared ahead of time, I’m thinking the ‘Weekend Cook’ class will be a perfect followup for you.
I want to learn how to make quick and simple, but delicious, weeknight meals that highlight the best quality ingredients I found that week. This is made more challenging by the fact that I like a lot of variety in my diet, and my husband subscribes to the more-ingredients-the-better philosophy of cooking.
Thanks for sharing Katrina!
I’m looking forward to seeing if we can change your husband’s ‘more-is-more’ philosophy!
You asked what I want to learn. My husband and I are moving to a plant-based diet for the first time in our lives. We work from 6-6 everyday so we want to automate our meals and cook real food simply. We have been eating too much fast food in the past. Time for eating healthier without spending too much time in the kitchen.
That’s awesome that you are looking to move away from fast food Rebecca!
And you’re in the right place for eating healthier without spending too much time in the kitchen 🙂