Your next steps are:
1. Say ‘Hello’ in the comments below and share what you’re hoping to get out of the program.
2. Explore ‘Your Bonuses‘.
3. Sign up for the optional accompanying ’10-Daily Bites’ email series.
If you’d like to receive a daily email lesson over 10 days, enter your email below…
——————
——————
——————
And if there’s anything I can help with please leave a comment below or email me jules@thestonesoup.com
With love,
Jules x
——————
Hi Jules – I won the ‘comment of the month’ a few months back and you sent me the 5 ingredients in 10 minutes book, which I love and use. You have also introduced me to Andrea Bemis and I have bought her book, which I’m also using regularly, (mainly when I have people coming for dinner.) So, your style of cooking seems to suit me. However, I need to get more organised. I hate day to day cooking (love special occasion cooking) and hate having to prepare meals quickly at the end of the day. Hoping for some tips and inspiration. Cheers, Jo
You’re totally in the right place Jo!
This method is really my secret to making end of the day cooking just as much fun as weekend cooking… You’re going to love it!
Jx
ps. Isn’t Dishing Up the Dirt the best 🙂
Hi Jules, I have a toddler and a baby and am hoping to avoid the mid afternoon panic of “what are we going to have for dinner?!!” 🙂
Welcome Jo!
Toddler + baby is hard work so good for you!
Jx
Hi Jules
I want to stop buying expensive ingredients only to throw them away and eat out.
My budget can’t take it anymore!
Time to get organised and hopefully enjoy myself in the process 🙂
Glad to hear you’re aiming to enjoy yourself Sharyn… that’s the real secret… cooking can be so much fun! xx
Hi,
I want cooking to be easy, fun, and healthy. I get overwhelmed by too many options and cookbooks, with too many ingredients and steps. I end up cooking the same 4-5 things and eating out a lot. I hope to get to easy cooking that is both tasty and healthy!
Thanks!
You’re totally in the right place Denise!
Hi Jules,
Waking up at 4:15AM out the door by 5 and not returning until 7PM + makes me just want to get served at a restaurant and get home to bed. Not very healthy! Hoping to learn some weekend prep that doesn’t steal my (nap day) Sunday.
Mark
Great Mark! Wow that’s a long day.
Hi,
for module 1 I prepared rice ahead and then combined it with wilted green and eggs. Very easy, do-able (even with a one-year old hugging my leg:-)) and yummy!
Jules, thank you for your tip on doing less over at the inspiration podcast. The last meal times together with the family were much more relaxed!
I’m so glad to hear that Christiane! I find if I’m getting frustrated or resentful with family meal times it’s because I’ve been trying to do too much or expecting too much of Fergal. Jx
Hi everybody. I want to get home from a days work and know what I am going to cook. I have a terrible habit of eating before cooking because I am tired. I always turn to a recipe book. I want to be ble to get home and know what I am going to cook. I also think that it will help me to get to a healthy weight.
Absolutely Denise! Picking at things while
I make dinner is a danger zone for me too. I’ve recently imposed a self rule that if I’m eating during cooking it has to be a vegetable. Sometimes I break it but it mostly helps me get to dinner! Jx
Help! I cannot access the bonuses. How do I get to see them? The button takes me to a page that says I do not have access to this. TIA
Sorry Elizabeth! Thanks for letting us know.. You should be able to access now 🙂
Yes! Thanks.
I love order and method but have never yet achieved it myself! Still, I live in hope, even after 50 years of mess and wastage, so here I am!
Wonderful Chris! Remember progress is the key.. Not perfection
Hello, Jules and everyone! I joined TOC in the last minute and I’m glad I did it!
This week I started the challenge of building a new habit: to eat a “real healthy meal” in the evenings [failed most of the days] and to bring home cooked lunch to work [big success this week! :)]. So TOC arrived in the perfect moment.
Basically I don’t have the habit of cooking… sometimes I’m super excited and I cook a lot and other times I just feel exhausted and eat a lot of bread, cheese, granola and yoghurt.
I hope TOC can help me to build up this new habit and, as a consequence, to have a more varied diet.
Wonderful Marina! You’re totally in the right place 🙂
Hi Jules
I just love having some leftovers from the night before to build on or to add to some new “arrangement”. It somehow makes decisions about what to make for dinner almost half-solved already. Reading about your class makes me think that this would be a far grander version of using leftovers, which is really appealing to me.
Pamela
It is Pamela! Great minds 🙂
Hi all, I’m a very busy mum of two boys (one teen and one pre-teen) and wife to a wonderful husband. We both work long hours and even though I work from home four days per week I don’t get to spend as much time in the kitchen as I’d like; and then I tend to overcompensate by spending waaaaaaaaay too much of my weekend preparing meals.
My aim from this course is to get some a good balance going through the week where we have a blend of some meals made ahead and some simple meals up my sleeve ready to cook. Love the idea of mise-en-place and looking forward to getting a few different preparation ideas for my favourite veges. I don’t mind spending an hour or two in the kitchen on weekends but I’d rather not feel like I’ve lost a whole Saturday or Sunday to food prep.
Totally agree. It’s feast or famine for me too. And then it all goes off or
I get exhausted / convinced I don’t have time to cook.
Welcome Niki! Balance us definitely key
I love cooking but find that I overspend by not being organised – about to move house so timing not perfect as next couple of months will be very busy before I’m in my new kitchen at beginning of August – but looking forward to starting afresh then!
Great Andrea! Good luck with the move
The older I get, the lazier I seem to get in the kitchen especially now I live on my own. And I know for my own health and well being I need to use some of my cooking skills and actually cook myself a meal in the evening. I have a couple of your e-books and love your simple approach to food. I’m hoping your course will give me some tools to stop making excuses and actually prepare something…not just order takeaway and watch my veges go off in the fridge.
Wonderful Kate! I find that prepping ahead is the best way to help with this 🙂
I’ve taken this course before and have learned about ‘mis en place’ but every so often I just seem to lose my place and forget about it. When summer rolls around (for us northerners that’s now) I start to think about all the fresh greens and vegs at the farmers market or in our CSA (starts in 2 weeks Yeah!) and want to get back on track. I find that when I take one of your courses Jules it helps me get back on track. Thanks for bringing this back.
Wonderful Miriam! And glad to hear the timing is good for you. I’m sitting by the fire here so it’s hard to imagine Summer.. Enjoy it! Jx
With child #3 arriving very soon, I want to streamline a bit of my kitchen and prep time, while also expanding my rotation of meals.
Congrats on baby 3 Kim! You’ll definitely be needing the Organized Cook with three little ones in the house Jx
Hi Jules,
I have great aspirations in the kitchen, but mediocre execution. With summer on its way here in New Hampshire USA I will have a bounty of fresh veg but I always end up overwhelmed and paralyzed by it. This is the year to change.
I have a few of your e-books, and the few recipes Ive incorporated have rave re Jews from the family.
With a busy husband and two toddler/preschoolers, and a general lack of organization I know a better method in the kitchen will help tremendously. I’m eating real, full fat foods with no added sugar and low glycemic foods. And gluten free for the last eight years, which transformed my life. I’m excited about all you have to teach, and I can adapt what I need to!
Wonderful Erica! So glad to have you in the program 🙂
Hello Jules and gang
I’m hoping for something to click in my brain/habits that makes my cooking organised and easier, can’t wait to explore this class and cook tasty meals along the way. I swing from being organised with meal plans and food prep to living on take outs for a week. Fundamentally it’s down to being too busy without planning in advance. looking forward to organising my pantry to support those crazy times.
Wonderful Hannah! Building some good habits sounds like just the thing for you to get you through the crazy weeks 🙂 Jx
Hi,
Am looking forward to simplifying meal times by being more organised….the older I get the more unorganised I seem to have gotten….and end up throwing out far too much unused produce!!!! So by following “the organised cook” I should hopefully save money!
Hmmm, now what to spend the saved money on??
Love the way your mind works Wendy! Jx
Honestly? I want to stop buying healthy foods when I’m ‘motivated’ which end up going bad in the fridge before I use them since I’m too tired to prepare them when I get home from work!
This is really going to help you Kristine! Just remember to start small at first Jx
Yes, I have had experiences similar to your’s Kristine and I am happy to read form you Jules, that TOC will help, while remembering to start small 😉
Yes!
I am a certified integrative health coach and want to be able to help my clients be more effective in the kitchen. I am a very good and healthy cook but am not a bit organized! I cannot teach what I do not practice. So this is my commitment to them and to myself.
Dorothy
That is so great Dorothy! Good for you 🙂
Hi,
I was sent to your website by my grown daughter. I used to cook all the time and was quite good, then the kids grew up, my husband’s job had weird hours, and I was working 12 night shifts as an RN. Suddenly, cooking was impractical as no one was home at the same time to eat, so food was either not eaten and thrown out, or put in the refrigerator because no one was ready to eat and then forgotten about – and thrown out. I am hoping, now that I have retired and the kids are grown and gone, that I can get back into cooking. My husband & I eat out all the time now, and my husband’s waistline is getting larger by the day. I am hoping to learn some healthier ways of cooking than I did in the past when everything was meat, potatoes, and gravy. I am also hoping for motivation to strike along with the organizing of the process of cooking.
Welcome Cherie! Cooking more is definitely the best thing you can do to help your husbands waistline. So glad you’re here Jx
Hello, so glad to have this class re-introduced this month! I have always been ultra-organised in my work life, but in the kitchen, well … let’s just say I really need this class 😉 I am just beginning to spend some time in the kitchen after several years of being unable to do so due to illness and disability. I sort of forgot how to organise myself when cooking. I guess you would say my timing is off. Looking forward to getting back in sync. Thanks, Jules! -Michelle G, Belper, UK
Wonderful Michelle! Great to have you on board. Jx
I want to be a Domestic Goddess.
Awesome Sharon!
You’re in the right place then 🙂
For months now I’ve been making your cauliflower/chickpea recipe every week and taking a portion to work for my lunch every day. I’m still not tired of it but decided to expand my options. I’ve always loved your blog and videos and I want to learn how to make healthy good meals for life without necessarily following a recipe. I can’t wait to change “me in the kitchen.” I’m so glad you do this!
Wonderful Tangela!
Let me know how you find the class 🙂
Jx
hello again ~ love the idea of getting more organised about food. we keep missing meals and ordering take out as I’m pants at making meals!
Hey Hannah!
You know if you’re really ‘pants’ (love that expression) at making meals, this is the right place for you.
Let me know how you get on… and if there’s anything in particular you need help with.
Jx
Hi Jules,
Last month I came across your website and enjoyed seeing how you made real foods with recipes that were simple and flexible.
I have a hungry husband and two teens who eat a lot of food, and now we need to go gluten-free and dairy-free (and I try to avoid egg and soy and go low carb) because of food sensitivities. So I’m looking for a way to prepare and cook healthy GF, DF food…and lots of it.
Getting organized is more important now that we can’t just pull out frozen processed food, but I believe this will also keep us healthier in the long run. So I’m looking forward to the course!
Darla
Welcome Darla!
So glad to hear you’re turning your back on processed frozen food… Good for you!
Jx
Hi, Jules. I just finished a nutritional “challenge” where I exercise. We learned how to eat right – protein and veg at every meal. The problem is that I have two wards who need lots of medical and psychological attention, and I am constantly on the go. Being able to put together meals quickly and easily would be a big help with feeding my family healthy meals and keeping me on my just-learned meal plan. I love what I see in your emails, so here I am to learn more.
Welcome Meg!
Good for you changing your eating style… I think you’ll find prepping in advance will really help you.
Let me know how you get on 🙂
Jx
Hi,
I’ve followed Stone Soup for a while now & several of the recipes are in pretty heavy rotation here. I’ve been off the boil in the kitchen recently though, too many random shopping trips, too much rubbishy quick food. So, just really hoping to reboot & get things back on an even keel again.
Wonderful Liz!
You’re in the right place 🙂
Jx
Hi Jules,
I stumbled across stone soup a while back – starting with the easy sourdough. I love your take on cooking and I am excited to have taken the plunge with membership to the virtual cookery school! I am generally pretty organised but my work is increasingly busy and late nights make it hard to get real food on the table (we try to have a dinner-type meal for breakfast and then a light breakfast-type meal in the evening for that reason). Hoping this helps me get things together a bit more 🙂
Welcome Jessica!
I love your approach of having a heavier meal in the morning… I think you’ll find using ‘building blocks’ will be really helpful for pulling together healthy meals in the morning (and the rest of the day!)
Do let me know how you get on.
Jx
Hello Jules. I am checking in. I have consulted your recipees on the main website and the free e-mail insights and tips that you send to me for about a year. My sister first recommended your cooking method to me about a year ago while I was stationed in Germany. I really enjoy getting to learn new ways to put recipees together with the different bursts of flavor. I joined the Organized Cooking Class for an adventure, when you get good and understand how to master cooking in the kitchen it is a great feeling, invaluable skill, and makes it really fantastic when I cook for company and on a regular basis. So that is why I invested in this class, I really can’t say enough good things about you and this website.
Kelly
Hi Kelly
Thanks so much for your lovely comment. You’ve made my day!
So glad you’re finding the SVCS helpful.
Jx
“chickens had escaped the fence and were roaming around like nothing had happened!”
LOL
Glad you found it funny Kitty 🙂
Today I had two mailings in my post box from Australia – a thank you card from my daughter’s sister in law and a lovely cookbook from Stonesoup. I’ll love having a hard copy for the kitchen having downloaded the same from Amazon for my Kindle. Thank you so much!
Lovely Joan!
I’m glad the book arrived safely 🙂
Hi,
I really enjoy cooking and see the weekend as an opportunity to solidly prepare for the week ahead (I work, my wife stays home with our two young daughters). I have a Sunday check list and would like to have a few go-to recipes that help get the week off on the right foot but also give me the chance to try new big recipes (like roasts, stews, etc.) one day of the weekend.
Jo G- I read in a book of cooking ideas lately to have a medium sized plastic bin labelled “use first” in the fridge and have found it really helpful to stop from wasting food. I tend to glance at the bin and think about what I’m making that day that might include whatever I popped in the bin- or I just grab and eat.
Welcome Bryce!
Thanks for sharing your ‘use first’ idea… I love it. I think I’m going to try this by allocating one drawer of my chiller section to the ‘use first’ category and see how I get on… my only hesitation about using a plastic bin would be that I’d forget to look in the bin!
After being gone a month, I am flying home today and have made a grocery list for the week using the recipes from the second module. Tomorrow I will shop and do the prep for the week. I’m cooking a pot of beans, great northern is what I will use. I will also make the sofrito, roast a chicken and root veggies, and make the Ragu. It looks as if I will have enough food for at least two weeks.
Great plan Joan!
Hope you had a lovely time away 🙂
So excited this course is up! Desperately in need of some help to get our lives back on track 🙂 We are adjusting to life as a family of 4 – with a just turned 2 year old toddler and a 10 week old bub! Things have been crazy and any help to take a bit of the day to day stress and frazzledness out will help immensely 🙂 Especially seeing our toddler seems to be hungry and eating endlessly ALL DAYYYYYYYY.
Congrats on the new arrival Angela!
I can only imagine how crazy things must be for you right now.
Glad to hear your toddler is a good eater!
Jx
Hi Jules and all,
Been on the email ist for a while, wanting to transition to better eating especailly as I’ve noticed my youngest really prefers to eat carbs and the marshmallows from her babycinos – eek! I HATE meal planning and I HATE the way I’m wasting food and wasting money on takeaway because I’m not organised enough to cook the beautiful fresh organic food sitting in my fridge. So here I am! About to roast some veg and make a curry – I think! Love the layout of your books Jules.
Cheers – Robyn
Welcome Robyn!
Lovely to have you here. And glad to hear there’s already organic food sitting in your fridge! You’re totally in the right place.
And I wouldn’t be too worried about youngest eating carbs… growing bodies have different nutritional needs to adults.
Jx
Hello Jules,
Just started a full time job and hope to find some gems of your wisdom in how to get organized in the kitchen and get healthy meals on the table. I am excited to begin this course!
Petra
Welcome Petra
Congrats on the new job!
Jx
Hello everyone, I have been following your blog for a real long while Jules, and I didn’t imagine I will learn so much more from the subscription but wanted to give back after following you for a such a long time 🙂 I was pleasantly surprised of course, thank you for the great work and I am very much looking forward to this coming class
Hi Ruba!
Thank you so much for your lovely comment. So glad to hear you’ve been pleasantly surprised 🙂
Jx
Hi,
I have a very busy wife and a less busy personal schedule. I thought it would be fun to be the home cook. This seemed like a good place to start. Get organized!
Mark
Good for you Mark!
Welcome
Jx
Excited about this and hope to be able to put your tips into practice. I am pretty disorganized and distractible….And always running in twelve different directions (and not all of it is entirely within my control, alas). Here’s hoping your class will help me be better prepared to put healthy meals on the table.
Welcome Karen!
Glad to hear you’re starting from being pretty disorganized because that means lots of room for improvement!
The thing for you to remember especially is to start small and take baby steps 🙂
Jx
Hi Jules,
Hoping to refine my routines & get some new ideas. I love your concept of mise en place in the home kitchen. I am always trying to think how I can mise en place something whenever I’m in the kitchen cooking. I now wash & chop my broccoli etc at the start of the week so it’s easy to grab & cook quickly. Does chopping it so far in advance affect the nutrient value significantly?
Nic
Hi Nic!
Glad to hear we’ve already got you thinking about mise en place on a regular basis 🙂
Good question on chopping in advance…
I think about it this way…
Most of the losses are going to happen right at the beginning. So whether you cut them now or a few days ago you’re going to lose the light and oxygen sensitive vitamins before you eat regardless. As time goes on there will be further losses but these won’t be as dramatic as the upfront.
The other thing to remember is that not all nutrients are sensitive to light, heat and /or oxygen. Your protein, carbs, fiber and fat will still be there as will the minerals and many vitamins.
so if prepping ahead means you’re actually going to eat the veg vs no eating veg, it’s completely the best choice to prep ahead.
Jx
I have some of your books but this is my first class. I really like the idea of simple, easy cooking. I hope your lessons bring back the joy of putting a good meal on the table. I also hope that I can keep the fridge mostly empty instead of having little containers of leftovers which I mean to use again, but don’t and then it just ends up a cluttered fridge.
Welcome to your first class Joan!
Really looking forward to helping you with putting more joy back into your cooking.
The little containers of leftovers can be tricky… but we’ll have you covered in Module 5!
Jx
Hi, Jules and all,
I am hoping to become better organized when it comes to making weeknight meals — thinking ahead to make sure what I need is thawed, or having plenty of ingredients already stocked for easy, last-minute meals. My husband teases me about being so “5S” with everything else in the house, and it seems to me that the things I’ve already learned from Jules about kitchen organization fit the same reasoning! (For those not working as a quality systems engineer, or involved with one, “5S” is a workplace organization method that uses a list of five Japanese words: seiri, seiton, seiso, seiketsu, and shitsuke, which translate into English, roughly, as “Sort, Systematize, Shine, Standardize, and Self-Discipline”.) Looking forward to learning a lot from Jules and all who post comments, as always!
Allison
Welcome Allison!
And thanks for the introduction to ‘5S’ for the group… we used to use that system when I worked for Arnotts (a cookie manufacturer in Australia) and I loved how it worked.
Jx
Hi Jules! Can’t wait to go through the newly revamped course, always love your approach and could use a little fresh inspiration.
Wonderful Carol!
So great to have you back
Jx
Hi Jules,
I’ve been using your cookbooks and meal plans for a while now, but this is my first class. With a family of five and all our busy schedules I’m looking forward to trying out this class to put some sanity into our lives.
Cheers,
Brent
Welcome Brent!
Wow a family of five.. good for you.
Jx
Hi!
This is also my first class, I’m excited to get some healthy meals prepped to keep me to my good intentions while life is a little crazy.
M.
Welcome Matilda!
You’re totally in the right place… and if life is a little crazy at the moment that’s when your habits are so important in helping out.
JX
Hello! And so excited! Thanks for this great class, looking forward to it, Grace
Welcome Grace 🙂
Hi Jules
I’ve got to be honest, I baulked at the cost of this but then realised I waste more than this every month in unused food or takeaways – so here I am!!
I’m also using it with my 16yo daughter as our August school holiday project, as I’m keen for her to learn how to feed herself cheaply and nutritiously.
Looking forward to learning..!
Jo x
Wonderful Jo!
So glad you’re going to be taking the program with your daughter… A great reminder to everyone that you can totally share the experience with your family and friends!
And thanks for the feedback on pricing… always a tricky part of business 😉
Jx
Hi Jules, this is going to be my first class. Its the perfect topic for me as I struggle to be an organised cook. I’m hoping it will bring my interest in cooking back, which I used to love before kids. I often feel I’m just “feeding” people, not enjoying meals together.
Let’s cook! B.
Welcome Brooke!
So glad to have you in the class. Really looking forward to bringing some of the joy back into cooking for you.
Jx