Happy New Year! I’m excited to announce my upcoming virtual workshop Healthy, Make Ahead, Meals Organized for You with Chef and Nutritionist Chelsea Fechtner of The Wildflower Kitchen! Chelsea will demo how to whip up two delicious, make-ahead, breakfast and lunch recipes and I’ll show you how to organize your kitchen to make them easily. To kick us off,  Chelsea offered to share her best tips on creating a recipe bank. Here is her post:

Meal planning is one of my favorite tools to use when supporting clients in creating healthy and sustainable eating habits. However, I’m always getting questions about how to stay inspired in the kitchen and how to find great recipes. I always recommend starting a recipe bank, which is a collection of your favorite recipes that you feel comfortable cooking and eating regularly! Below are a few ways to get started on your own recipe bank:

Choose a Platform:

Do you like holding a cookbook or recipe in your hands or would you rather look off of your phone or computer? Are you someone that likes to follow a recipe perfectly or do you like to have a rough outline that allows for creativity and adaption? Depending on your cooking style, you could either use an online resource to store recipes like Google Docs or Plan to Eat, or you could opt to print out recipes and store in a binder.

Build it Up:

Now for the fun part – shopping for new recipes! I love using food blogs, pinterest, cookbooks, Instagram and writing down my own kitchen experiments to recreate later on. If you need a place to start, I share ten new real food recipes in The Wildflower Cooking Club each month!

Experiment & Play:

This might seem daunting at first if you’re a strict recipe follower, but I recommend including some playfulness in the kitchen by adapting recipes to align with your nutrition needs, taste preferences and with what’s in your kitchen. Be sure to take notes on flavors and changes that you love and add your new creations to your recipe bank!

Wishing you a happy, healthy New Year!

Chelsea

Chelsea is a Certified Nutritionist, Personal Chef and creator of The Wildflower Kitchen. She offers healthy meal delivery packages, nutrition consultations and workshops that support women through all seasons of life by helping them prioritize their own nourishment. She is passionate about optimizing nutrition from preconception to postpartum and supports women and families all around the greater Seattle area.