Random Fodder

Looking to scare away the vampires this Halloween? Why not try one of these tasty garlic recipes? 

Pretty certain you don’t have any vampires living in your vicinity? There are other great reasons to embrace garlic. This spice is packed full of nutrients that can help to reduce blood pressure and boost one’s immune system. It’s also guaranteed to bring a delicious zing to any meal (there’s a reason it’s a key ingredient in many classic European and Asian dishes). 

Below are just some of the best recipes that involve garlic.

Garlic bread

Garlic bread is commonly served with many Italian pasta dishes. It’s very easy to prepare – all you need is bread, garlic and oil (or butter). If you want, you can add other ingredients too such as caramelised onions or cheese. 

Start by mixing up the garlic and oil/butter. Most people use a French baguette to make garlic bread, although other forms of bread can be used. Make several cuts in the loaf and then add the garlic oil/garlic butter to each cut. Bake for a few minutes and you have garlic bread. 

Garlic mashed potatoes

For a tasty potato side, why not try this garlic mashed potatoes recipe at apinchofhealthy.com? You’ll need potato, oil, garlic, butter, milk, salt and pepper (you can also add onions for extra flavor).

This recipe involves roasting the garlic first. Start by drizzling oil onto the garlic and then sprinkling salt and pepper on top. Then bake the garlic until crispy. You can then infuse it with your mashed potato. 

Garlic and black pepper shrimp

Black pepper and garlic can make a great shrimp seasoning. This involves frying shrimps in garlic and black pepper with a splash of oyster sauce and Chinese rice wine thrown in.

You can check out the full recipe here at rasamalaysia.com. This could make a great starter dish for a dinner party. 

Spicy garlic chickpeas

There are lots of ways to spice up chickpeas. One option is to use garlic, chillies, salt and pepper. This will give your chickpeas a satisfying kick.

Spicy garlic chickpeas can be eaten on their own or served with a main dish. This is a very easy dish to prepare and it is great for vegans. 

Roasted garlic soup

There are a lot of great soups that use garlic. Roasted garlic soup is one example that is certain to satisfy your garlic craving. 

To make this soup, you’ll need garlic, onions, parmesan cheese, olive oil and butter. Start by roasting garlic cloves in a baking dish. Then add to a pan with onions. Using a stock, you can then start turning this into a soup.

Garlic chicken stir fry

Garlic chicken stir fry could be another dish to try. You can make this using garlic, chicken, broccoli, soy sauce, honey and sesame oil. Simply add all these ingredients to a wok with some noodles and you have a tasty garlic-infused meal.

Cooking can be plenty of fun, a chance to learn about foods from different cultures, and create delicious dishes. Boosting your culinary skills is easy with the help of these five simple tips.

1. Listen to podcasts

Food-themed podcasts have plenty of cookery wisdom to inspire your efforts in the kitchen. Try making a start with these top shows:

Recipe Club: The recipe club are on a mission to find the very best recipes on the web. Hosted by David Chang, each week a team of chefs cook a new recipe, debate the outcome, and decide on a winner. Get the low-down on ramen, okra recipes, and what to pair with polenta.

Spilled Milk: Hosted by Matthew Amster-Burton and Molly Wizenburg, here you’ll get lively discussions about a wide range of foodie topics. Learn all about Icelandic junk food, pizza tips and Japanese spice blends, this show will give you plenty of cooking inspiration.

2. Foodie blogs & vlogs

The internet is packed with foodie blogs, you can learn how to cook just about anything. Improving your culinary skills is all about stepping out of your comfort zone, and daring to try new things. 

Want to learn the best technique to knead dough? Looking to perfect your food presentation? There are plenty of cooking based YouTube channels where you can learn from both amateur chefs and pros. To make a start with a tasty new recipe try egg drop soup recipes available here.

3. Read the right books

Enhancing your culinary skills is all about learning new things, and putting that knowledge into practice. Cookery books are a great place to get tips, guidance and inspiration. To improve your cooking ability fast try reading The Science Of Cooking by Dr Stuart Farrimond. This book breaks down on the key culinary concepts, while offering lots of practical advice. Here you’ll find answers to your cooking queries, and learn how to cook like a pro.

According to Time Out some of the best cookery books to buy right now include ‘Food Between Friends’ by Jesse Tyler Ferguson and Julie Tanous, and My Shanghai by Betty Lui. There’s so much to learn, so you better get reading!

4. Experiment with your cooking

If you’re keen to boost your cooking skills it’s a great idea to experiment with your cooking. Challenge yourself to try new recipes each week, and experiment with foods from different cultures. Getting creative and experimental is how you learn new things, gain confidence, and find your cooking style.

5. Get plenty of practice 

When you’re looking to improve your culinary skills you’ll definitely want to get plenty of practice. Offer to cook for your family and friends, host dinner parties, or attend cooking classes. Take the time to perfect your techniques and don’t be afraid to take a few risks in the kitchen!

With these five ideas it’s easy to find enhance your skills and find your hidden talents. You might even consider starting up a cooking journal? Here you can write down the skills you’ve learnt, plus recipes and notes. There are so many benefits of cooking, from improving your diet to stress relief.

With more and more awareness growing about the importance of good nutrition, and the negative consequences associated with eating processed food, many individuals who had previously never cooked for themselves, are now looking to turn over a new leaf. But for some, the idea of cooking more every day is an overwhelming thought.

But when all is said and done, how do you actually fit cooking into your everyday life if you always seem to be busy, and don’t have a lot of experience maintaining this particular habit?

Here are a few suggestions that can help you to fit cooking into everyday life, and to enjoy the process as well, rather than simply viewing it as a chore that has to be dealt with.

Mix up easy-to-prepare staples with more gourmet meals

First things first: if you’re expecting that you’ll have time every day for preparing an ambitious and delicious gourmet meal that you’ve never prepared before, you’re likely to be in for a rude awakening.

Ultimately, these kinds of meals can be fantastic, and can really help to give you a deeper and richer sense of enthusiasm for cooking, and a greater appreciation of life as a whole. Nonetheless, they can take quite a bit of time and energy to prepare – and this is hardly always going to be practical after a long day at work.

Make a point of mixing up easy to prepare staples with more gourmet meals, and save the more ambitious recipes for when you have a bit of extra time.

Fortunately, there are all sorts of delicious recipes that can be found within moments these days that have various different levels of complexity. Check out this recipe for roasted Cornish game hens, for example.

Consider time & energy saving hacks like using a slow cooker

Over the course of everyday life, most of us benefit greatly from a variety of different labor saving devices, ranging from things such as dishwashers, to vacuum cleaners, and more.

Fortunately, there are also plenty of labor saving hacks that you can use to make cooking less time consuming, and more manageable as an everyday practice.

Investing in a slow cooker, and finding some great slow cooker recipes to try out, can end up allowing your meals to essentially cook themselves after a little bit of initial preparation time.

Don’t wait until you’re already hungry before preparing food

Perhaps one of the easiest ways of becoming frustrated and disheartened with the process of home cooking all your meals, is to wait until you are already hungry before beginning to prepare food.

Not only can this cause you to procrastinate and put off cooking, but it could also exacerbate irritation, low energy, and frustration, and could significantly increase the odds that you will just order takeaway instead.

Always have some healthy snacks nearby to take the edge off your hunger, and make a point of cooking regularly enough so that you can eat before you find yourself feeling ravenous. Soon you’ll find that cooking more every day is as easy as any of your other tasks!

When you have picky eaters at the table (or are a picky eater yourself), it’s tricky to prepare a healthy meal. Most picky eaters actively avoid eating their greens —or even their reds, oranges, and yellows, for that matter. In short, they don’t like vegetables. More often than not, picky eaters dislike the texture of vegetables. Unlike proteins and carbs, fruits and vegetables can feel like a “hassle” to eat. However, you can keep little ones healthy and encourage them to try new flavors by hiding healthy greens in their favorite meals!

Hidden veggie lasagna

Everybody loves a warming lasagna dish! But, what you may not realize is that a simple Italian lasagna recipe gives you plenty of room for creative veggie plotting. Indeed, when you make your lasagna from scratch, you can start with preparing a rich tomato sauce using fresh tomatoes. It’s the perfect opportunity to add some thinly d vegetables such as onions and carrots into the sauce. They will become invisible once the sauce is pureed. 

Veggie-packed smoothie

There’s a reason why most kids love a breakfast smoothie. Smoothies are convenient and easy to consume. Besides, they can feel like a milkshake treat if you add a little peanut butter and yogurt. 

Smoothies are high in vitamins as you can pack plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables. But none is the wiser: Everything disappears into the food processor to come out as a deliciously thick drink. 

Steam buns with a surprise

Chinese steamed buns, or mantou, are usually steamed white bread. They can be served with a filling. However, it’s fair to say that picky eaters will shy away from filled buns. Yet, you can mix some delicious vegetable puree into the dough to make them healthier. Butternut squash mantou are sweet and orange in color. You can also experiment with other vegetables, such as using pumpkin or sweet potato puree for flavor. 

Make the most of Halloween colors

The countdown to Halloween has started, and it’s the best excuse to make their favorite dish in exciting colors. But instead of using food colorants, you can use natural ingredients that will transform the dish. For instance, if you enjoy making your pasta from scratch, you can mix some spinach into the pasta dough to make green spaghetti. If you are making ravioli, why not add some beetroot puree to serve pink ravioli? There are many options to bring more vegetables into homemade pasta dough. 

For store-bought pasta, you can turn the sauce into a vegetable hiding party. Greens mixed into a homemade pesto sauce fully disappear from sight. 

Meatballs with a twist

Meatballs are a favorite for little ones. They are easy to eat. For parents, they offer a smart receptacle for thinly cut vegetables. For extra nutrition, you could mix ground beef or minced fish with some carrots, spinach, green onions, and even grated zucchini. Once the vegetables are combined with the meat or the fish, you can coat the ball with breadcrumbs. Under the crunchy crush hides a healthy and nutritious heart filled with proteins and vitamins. What’s not to like? 

Picky eaters often struggle with food texture. However, making greens an integral part of their favorite dish without affecting the texture they know can help create a healthy and balanced diet. 

In general, everyone knows that your diet plays an essential role in your overall health. Eating a well-balanced diet helps with sleeping patterns, gives you more energy, and prevents physical health problems such as diabetes or heart disease. These aspects of a diet are commonly talked about, but did you know that your diet affects your vision as well?

As you age, your eyes and vision are susceptible to change. Just as your muscles tend to become weaker as you get older, so do your eye muscles. The muscles that control the pupil size and reaction to light lose strength, making it harder to see. Similarly, the function of cells in the retina decline over time, decreasing the ability to see brighter colors. Along with the function of the eyes changing over time, diseases such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy, or cataracts can come about. Fortunately, changes in diet can prevent the onset of such occurrences.

Listed below are a few food categories and vitamins that will make a positive impact on your vision:

Omega-3

Research shows incorporating omega-3’s into your diet can help protect against macular degeneration, dry eye, and glaucoma. While this fatty acid is essential for humans, the body does not naturally make them. Because of this, it is key to eat foods that are high in omega-3’s. As you’re grocery shopping, don’t forget to throw some fish, chia seeds, walnuts, or soybeans (among many other options) in your shopping cart!

Carotenoids

From a young age, you are told that fruits and vegetables are a key component of your diet. Carotenoids are a naturally occurring pigment found in those vital foods, acting as an antioxidant. Two carotenoids that play a specific role in the health of your vision are lutein and zeaxanthin. These pigments protect the eyes from unstable molecules that aid in the development of diseases. Foods that are high in carotenoids are kale, spinach, yams, bell peppers, and cantaloupe.

Vitamin A

Vitamin A is important for a number of things in the body like reproduction and the immune system. When it comes to your eyes, Vitamin A is key to healthy vision as it is essential for eye development and maintaining good eyesight. Eating foods like sweet potatoes, beef liver, pumpkin, and spinach will prevent your eyes from drying out, as well as give you the ability to see in low light conditions.

Vitamin C

Vitamin C gets a lot of attention surrounding immunity, but what many people aren’t aware of is its role in making collagen. Collagen is a protein that is found in the eye, giving it its structure. Without this essential vitamin, the eye is potentially at risk of developing cataracts. To avoid cloudy eyes and hazy vision, consider incorporating more foods with Vitamin C into your diet. Some foods that are rich in Vitamin C are citrus fruits, broccoli, brussels sprouts, and peppers.

It’s important to know that diet and lifestyle changes can only take you so far. While eating a nutrient-rich diet will help to prolong or prevent the onset of certain diseases, it’s imperative to reach out to medical professionals when your sight is impaired or in question. Along with diet changes, your doctor may recommend glasses to correct any vision problems. It’s common for people who wear eyeglasses to feel like their lenses aren’t doing the job anymore when things are looking blurry or you become prone to headaches. When this happens, take it as a cue that it’s time to purchase prescription-strength eyeglasses that improve your sight. Doing this might require another eye exam to keep up with your prescription changes.

Eating a well-balanced diet doesn’t have to be complicated. Including foods full of vital ingredients in each of your meals is a great way to make big changes for your health, especially for your vision. Simultaneously staying on top of your vision changes and making adjustments to your diet is the perfect recipe for good eye health.

Breakfast is often called the most important meal of the day, but it can also be the most boring. It’s understandable that when you’re in a rush in the morning, you might stick to toast or cereal because they’re so easy to grab. But if you feel like your breakfasts can be a lot more interesting than they are, you can look for ways to improve on them. You don’t have to spend a lot of time making breakfast if you want something that’s tasty and nutritious. Here are some of the things you can try if you want better breakfasts without too much effort.

Experiment with Breakfast Burritos

Breakfast burritos are a fun way to try some new breakfasts because you can experiment with what you put in them. Ultimately, you could put anything in it and call it a breakfast burrito. But there are also lots of filling ideas with various breakfast ingredients that might be better suited to the morning than others. You could try things like bacon, sausage, and cheese if you want to be indulgent. Or if you want a healthier breakfast, there’s the option of things like avocado and black beans, sweet potato, eggs, tomato, and much more.

Liquify Your Breakfast

A liquid breakfast can be a lot more than just a coffee. If you want to enjoy a breakfast that’s great when you’re on the move or you’re not that great at eating in the morning, a smoothie or juice could be perfect for you. You can put all kinds of things into a smoothie, whether you want a refreshing green smoothie that’s low on sugar or you’re looking for something a little sweeter with some fruit. You can add various things to your smoothie for extra nutrition, whether it’s yogurt, protein powder, or whatever else you feel like.

Play Around with Pancakes

Pancakes don’t have to be a breakfast food that you only have on the weekends. They can be great every day, and they don’t have to take long to do. They also don’t need to be unhealthy, with lots of ways you can make them. If you use a buckwheat pancake recipe, you benefit from the whole grain of the buckwheat and the slightly nutty taste that it gives is delicious too. You can make your pancakes vegan, top them with fruit, and even make them sugar-free.

Try Oatmeal Options

Oatmeal might seem boring and even old-fashioned to some people. But it’s a great choice of breakfast if you’re looking for something flexible. You can add so many different things to it, from fruit and nuts to peanut butter. As well as making oatmeal in the morning, you also have the option of overnight oats, which you can prepare the night before. Oatmeal can be great when made with vegan milks too, so anyone can enjoy it the way that they like it.

If your breakfasts are boring, make some changes so that you can start to look forward to and enjoy them again.

While fully going vegan is a serious lifestyle change that requires dedication and commitment, you don’t have to go full all-the-way to truly enjoy the benefits of a plant based lifestyle! You’ve just got to swap out a bit of meat and cheese here and there for more wholesome fruits and veggies. And why? Because there are so many benefits for your brain and body if you do so, which we’ll go through below for your convenience. 

Vegan is good for the heart

Following a plant based diet can do wonders for your heart health, and help to fight off heart disease in later ages. After all, you’ll be consuming far more healthy fats in your meals, as well as a lot more protein which helps with muscle formation and repairs, and the lack of salt can help that cholesterol level to drop as far down as you need it to! 

All in all, your heart won’t have to work as hard to pump blood compared to being on a diet with more saturated fats, and your arteries are less likely to get clogged up with all of that excess salt found in snacks and junk foods. 

Vegan foods can help you eat more mindfully

When you cut out hefty foods like meat, and fat rich dairy items, you might find that you lose weight faster. Of course, you have to replace these items with more nutritious foods, so don’t just go vegan snacking! Instead, fill your plate up with more vegetables and fit more fruit in between meals. 

Similarly, if you’re currently following an exercise regime, putting together or ordering in a vegan pizza, rather than your usual meat feast type, could help you to keep those pounds off! There’s more protein and fiber in the ingredients in the vegan ingredients used, and that’s great for helping your body to tone and repair. 

Vegan foods can help ease chronic pain

If you’re someone living with chronic pain, and you’re taking tablets and doing gentle exercise to help control it, your diet will also affect the level of pain you feel throughout the day too. And when it comes to the vegan diet, the foods you’ll be consuming are far better at holding pain at bay than any other diet you can follow. 

Of course, always consult your doctor before suddenly switching what you eat, but more fruits and vegetables on your plate, as well as more whole grain carbs, can help to reduce aches felt in bones and muscles. It’s unlikely to totally cure the pain you feel, but whatever you can do to live as pain free as possible is definitely worth it. 

Vegan foods can have a lot of health benefits, and if you’re looking to eat healthy, this is an easy way to do it.

A paleo diet is one that involves going back to basics and eating natural foods, and not foods that are refined and processed. It’s a type of diet that helps a lot of people and allows them to focus on the important food groups and get away from the junk food that they might have been too reliant on in the past. If you want to try out the paleo diet too, here are 5 easy paleo-friendly recipes you can start off with.

Stir-Fried Chicken and Red Peppers

Stir fried chicken tends to use minced chicken meat, combined with red peppers. Using a variety of different peppers works well here; you can add some chilli peppers for a little extra kick and spice, and ground the dish with some basic bell peppers. There are so many ways to approach this recipe. You can just as easily convert it into a stuffed pepper dish by adding some rice and assembling it alongside the chicken inside the bell peppers.

Smoked Salmon and Scrambled Eggs

Smoke salmon and scrambled eggs is a dish that’s as simple as it gets, but it’s a combo that works incredibly well, and that’s what matters more than anything else here. You can combine the two ingredients together and have the dish completed and ready to eat very quickly. You can also add some veggies on the side for an extra boost to your health.

Mahi Mahi in Creamy Sundried Tomato Sauce

If you’re looking for another fish recipe that’s a little different and more unusual, mahi mahi might be something to consider. It’s a great tasting fish with all of the flavors and textures you’re looking for. And this delicious mahi mahi recipe is definitely one to try out. It makes use of a creamy sauce and sundried tomatoes to create a flavorful dish that you can’t help but love.

Asian Style Cauliflower Rice

Asian style cauliflower rice is the perfect example of a dish that’s all about the flavor combined with simple and easy to access ingredients. You can make it vegetarian by placing the focus on the greens and the rice, or you can create chicken thighs with Asian style sauce. It’s a very adaptable dish, so you can do pretty much what you want with it.

Seafood Stew

A seafood stew makes a great paleo-friendly dish, and the great thing about it is you can customize it and change it up depending on where your preferences lie. Lots of people like to include prawns and muscles alongside a fish-based stock. But you can add pretty much whatever you want; some people like to add calamari, for example, but that’s up to you.

There’s clearly a lot to like about the paleo diet, and you can see why so many people have gained so many health benefits from it. If you’ve wanted to try it but haven’t known where to start, hopefully the recipe ideas discussed above will help you get off to the right start.

Baking has a lot of benefits. It’s fun, relaxing, and means you get delicious homemade treats to eat. However, baking can also be a challenge. Here are the best tips to become a better bake to help improve your baking adventures and give you the best chance of your recipes turning out as beautiful and delicious as you hope!

Soften Your Butter!

Butter is the starting point for many baking recipes, so it’s important to have it ready in the way the recipe suggests. The temperature of the butter that you use can have a big effect on the texture of the finished baked goods. There are three different consistencies of butter that most baking recipes call for: softened, chilled, and melted. 

Most recipes want room temperature or softened butter. This should be cool to the touch, not warm. When you touch the butter, your finger will make an indent, but shouldn’t sink down into the butter or slide around. To get the right consistency, leave the butter out on the counter for about an hour before you start baking. 

Chilled butter should be well chilled in the fridge or freezer so it doesn’t melt during mixing. This helps you to create flaky pockets in recipes like scones, biscuits, or pie crust. 

Melted butter should be liquid and lukewarm. If you let it get too hot, it could cook the eggs in the batter. Melted butter works well in cookies and brownies. 

Room Temperature Is Key

If a recipe asks for room temperature eggs or any dairy ingredients, such as milk or yogurt, make sure you follow that instruction. Room temperature ingredients will emulsify a lot more easily into the batter, which helps to create a more uniform texture throughout the finished baked good. Think of cold, hard butter. You won’t be able to cream cold butter into a soft consistency that some recipes need. Eggs are the same. They will add more volume to the batter if they are at room temperature. Temperature is important, so pay attention to it.

Read The Recipe Before Starting

One of the most common, but most easily avoidable, mistakes people when baking is skipping a step altogether, or not being properly prepared for the next step in a recipe. Whether you’re using a recipe book or a roll cake tutorial at sugargeekshow.com, reading ahead in the recipe will help you to know how, why, where, and when you need to do things. It will only take you a couple of minutes to read the recipe through before you start, but it could save you from wasting a lot of time, money, and ingredients on a failed recipe. 

Prep Your Ingredients Ahead of Time

Measure out your ingredients before you start a recipe. Read through the ingredients list and get them all prepared on your counter. There’s not much room for making mistakes when you start making recipes in this way. It saves you from rushing around during the recipe process. 

Avoid substituting ingredients. Baking is chemistry. Make the recipe as it was written first, then make substitutions later if you feel confident to do so. 

Learn How To Measure Correctly

Baking is science. Good baking needs precise ratios, proven techniques, and well-tested recipes. Unlike cooking, you can’t just bake something by throwing some ingredients together, messing it up, and eating it anyway.

One of the most important baking tips is to measure your ingredients properly. Problems are common if your measurements are wrong. Get your measuring techniques right.

Measure dry ingredients in measuring cups or spoons because these are designed for dry ingredients. Spoon and level the dry ingredients. This means that you should use a spoon to fill the measuring cup, and then level it off. This is most important with flour. Scooping flour packs it down and you could end up with up to 150% more than you need. A recipe that asks for 1 cup of flour and baked with 2 or more cups instead is sure to fail and turn out dry. For liquid ingredients, use clear liquid measuring cups. 

Weigh Your Ingredients

A small kitchen scale is an excellent tool to have in your kitchen, and will soon become one of the things that you use the most. A gram or ounce is always the same gram or ounce, but a cup isn’t always a cup. To get the best results, look for recipes that give measurements in grams or ounces, not just cups. After all, in baking, precision is everything, and this makes it easier to be precise. 

What are your favorite things to bake?

After a tough day of work, you can often feel like just ordering takeout or throwing something easy into the microwave (or, in my case, air fryer). However, if you do cook for yourself, you can get something healthier to eat and ease some of your stress. Cooking can be a great way to ease stress. Instead of thinking of cooking as a chore, see it as something fun to do to relieve your stress. 

Love Of Food

Most people love food. Food is a great way to connect people. After all, when we meet up with people, we usually meet over some kind of food and drinks. If you love food, the best way to explore your love is to get into the kitchens and try out some new recipes. When you enjoy food, you’ll focus on making good food, which can distract you from negative thoughts. 

Aromas and Stress

The spices and other aromatic ingredients in the food you cook can also help to battle stress. When you cook something that smells good, like bacon or this delicious and easy caramel sauce, you will concentrate on the good smells. Think of it as aromatherapy, except with food. 

While the effectiveness of aromatherapy is still being studied, it is thought that aromas can lower the levels of the stress hormone, cortisol. There are some different ways to use aroma for stress relief, like perfumes and aroma massage, but food is a natural way to do it. 

Test Your Creativity

Cooking is an art and a creative outlet. When you’re following a recipe, you want to achieve the best results you can. This is why you try different recipes. Cooking is a creative thing to do. For example, if you’re making meatballs for the family, you might want to experiment with a different flavor or a different shape than you have tried before. 

When you’re being creative, you put a lot of thought and care into preparing food, which will make you feel better. 

Cooking For Others Makes You Happy

When you cook for people you love, it makes you feel happy. Whether you’re cooking with them in the kitchen or are outside grilling together, it can make you happy. If you’re cooking for friends and family, you will be looking for ways to enhance the flavors as much as you can to keep your loved ones happy and impress them with your skills. 

When you’re cooking for others, you’re occupied, with less time to focus on stress. Having your loved ones around you, and getting compliments on your cooking will make you feel happier than you did too. 

Show Off Your Skills

Once you’ve got good at cooking, it can be really fun to show off your new skills to your friends and family. If you’re stressed, having your skills validated and complemented can help to soothe your stress. 

Everyone feels better about themselves when they’re being validated. Even if you are only cooking for yourself, preparing something delicious will make you feel good.