Vernacular Cuisine
Although some posts will include recipes, this site isn't about cooking per se. It is about eating well in spite of time constraints, budgetary constraints, dietary restrictions, physical limitations and/or lack of access to a full service kitchen.
It's aimed at anyone frustrated with personal or situational limitations preventing them from eating better. If you are fed up with your unhealthy diet and ready to say "No more excuses! I'm going to start eating better!" this blog is for you.
Most recipes, food culture and consumption traditions are rooted in the practice of having a full-time wife and mom at home making meals from scratch for a large family on a regular basis. Everything I am seeing online and hearing from people generally suggests this model no longer works for most people because that isn't the kind of living arrangement they have.
Thus I don't think it says what I mean to talk about home cooking, so I am adapting a term from another field. I'm borrowing from this definition of vernacular architecture to define my invented term vernacular cuisine:
He's a better cook than I ever was and this transition improved our diets while streamlining our food prep and consumption processes. We also generally streamlined our home.
This is a site about living well, eating well, enjoying your meals and taking pleasure in food without tearing your hair out to put a meal on the table. I try to not talk too much about "medical" stuff here but the reality is that I have a serious medical condition which I manage with diet and lifestyle, so this site is influenced by a philosophy of Let Your Food Be Your Medicine.
October 22, 2022; Last updated March 2024.
It's aimed at anyone frustrated with personal or situational limitations preventing them from eating better. If you are fed up with your unhealthy diet and ready to say "No more excuses! I'm going to start eating better!" this blog is for you.
- Dietary Restrictions includes tips on dealing with lactose intolerance, food allergies or sensitivities, eating vegetarian and assorted other issues.
- Low Prep means you put in a few minutes effort up front and then have to wait a bit while it bakes, steeps, etc. If you need to eat something quickly, see posts labeled Quick and Easy.
- Shelf Stable marks posts with tips for things that keep without cold storage. Lunchbox is for situations where you cannot heat food at the point of consumption (school lunch, work lunch, picnic, day trip). Cold Prep ideas involve no cooking at all. See also Takeout/Delivery.
- If you have kids -- or need beginner-friendly ideas -- check out posts labeled Kid Power. See also Food Literacy.
- The right Equipment can make a huge difference in your ability to prepare meals for yourself and can be especially important if you have physical limitations. And, of course, most of us need some Budget-Friendly options to help us make ends meet.
Most recipes, food culture and consumption traditions are rooted in the practice of having a full-time wife and mom at home making meals from scratch for a large family on a regular basis. Everything I am seeing online and hearing from people generally suggests this model no longer works for most people because that isn't the kind of living arrangement they have.
Thus I don't think it says what I mean to talk about home cooking, so I am adapting a term from another field. I'm borrowing from this definition of vernacular architecture to define my invented term vernacular cuisine:
Vernacular cuisine is characterised by its ability to accommodate special dietary needs and other constraints specific to a particular locality using whatever resources are on hand. Vernacular cuisine incorporates the skills and expertise of ordinary people preparing homemade meals or otherwise feeding themselves and their household as opposed to formally-trained chefs.This site grows out of the fact that I had a 1950s-style marriage and did the full-time wife and mom thing for about two decades, then got divorced, got a corporate job and my oldest son took over most of the women's work.
He's a better cook than I ever was and this transition improved our diets while streamlining our food prep and consumption processes. We also generally streamlined our home.
- Our top priority is making things tasty and healthy while keeping it from being a burden to eat well. So we do a lot of one pot meals or otherwise simplified meals.
- For health reasons, we are big on eating fresh, so we typically cook only as much as we expect to eat at that time. We rarely eat leftovers.
- I don't currently own a microwave. I hate microwaves. This is not a place to get tips for how to microwave anything.
Footnotes
Measurements and verbiage skew strongly American. You may need to look up online converters and google up translations for some ingredients, especially if you are from an English-speaking country outside the US.This is a site about living well, eating well, enjoying your meals and taking pleasure in food without tearing your hair out to put a meal on the table. I try to not talk too much about "medical" stuff here but the reality is that I have a serious medical condition which I manage with diet and lifestyle, so this site is influenced by a philosophy of Let Your Food Be Your Medicine.
October 22, 2022; Last updated March 2024.