3 Cooking Shortcuts I Love

Plus, want to join the BHK Cookbook Club? And, a special offer for paid subscribers on my next brain health retreat.

Jan 20, 2023

∙ Paid

Hello everyone! Is it cold where you are? Here in Wyoming, the temps are hovering around zero most mornings. A brisk daily walk is good for my brain, so I bundle up, gather the dogs and go, no matter the weather.

On one of my recent early morning, frost-on-the-eyelashes walks I came up with a plan for us to cook through my new cookbook together. I’ve been seeing a lot of impromptu BHK Cookbook Clubs popping up on Instagram and in private, like my friend Katie who video chats with her parents each Sunday to cook from the book. That got me thinking: wouldn’t it be fun if the Brain Health Kitchen community (me and all of you!) cooked through my new book, season by season?

I organized the book so that each chapter dives into one of the brain healthy foods groups, like Berries, Leafy Greens, and Nuts and Seeds. I wanted to highlight the particular benefits of eating these brain foods, while enticing you to fill in any gaps in your diet. For our BHK Cookbook Club, I’ll create menus from the book that follow along with the seasons. Eating seasonally helps ensure you are getting the most nutrient-dense foods, plus it’s a more economical way to shop and cook.

Here’s how the BHK Cookbook Club works:

In the first newsletter of the month—that’s the free newsletter in case you’re not a paid subscriber—I’ll deliver a seasonal menu from the book. (Look for the first menu on Friday, February 3; you’ll need to refer to your book for the recipes.)
Everyone is welcome. Gather your mom and dad, your kids, your friends. Cook together in real life or via video chat over the weekend. Cook one of the recipes or the whole menu, if you like.
Take pictures of all your beautiful food! Send them to me via email or drop them in the comments section (if you are a paying subscriber), or tag me on Instagram, along with any tips and variations you made. For example, did you use a chia egg in the Whole Grain Blackberry Blueberry Cornbread? I would love to hear!
I’ll share my favorite tips and photos back here on the newsletter when I launch the next month’s menu.

With the BHK Cookbook Club, cooking from the same menu creates a shared experience and builds a sense of community. And community, we know, is a key ingredient to healthy aging. As we work our way seasonally through the book, I hope you’ll fall in love with new-to-you ingredients (hemp seeds! nutritional yeast!) and learn brain-healthy cooking techniques. I can’t wait to see how you fold these recipes into your lives.

So I’d love to hear from you about your cooking experience. Do you often cook together as a family? How much of your cooking is done solo? Do you sometimes invite friends over to prepare a meal together? Have you ever gathered with friends or family via video chat (like my friend Katie) to cook together? And: what do you want to cook first?