Substitutions

There’s a time and a place to cook with recipes. Recipes give us an opportunity to beef up our kitchen skills and introduce to wonderful new flavors, foods and processes. However, the process tends to be time consuming and heavy on effort. The beautiful process of making a meal can quickly turn into a chore and headache if a recipe is mandatory.

I would like to introduce you to the concept of inspired cooking. I’m sure you’re already employing this in your cooking, but I’m here to add to your arsenal. Inspired cooking allows you to make something out of seemingly nothing - the odds and ends of your fridge and pantry. It’s taking something you know and love and tweaking it to create many possibilities.

This week’s idea is simple but fun: a baking challenge! Maybe you make muffins, quiches, breads or roast vegetables. My oven is indispensable to me at this time of year. I love the way it fills my kitchen with warmth and the house with delicious aromas. This week I took my blueberry breakfast cake recipe and transformed it into a cranberry breakfast cake. It was a refreshing take on a household favorite. And it was as simple as trading blueberries and lemon rind for cranberries and orange rind.

This week try swapping out a sweet or savory ingredient in your tried-and-true dishes. It can even be as simple as subbing out some whole wheat flour for some almond flour. Enjoy!