Kitchen Confidence Edition
a new newsletter format that includes a cook, no-cook, and assembly only option to meet you where you are in the kitchen
I have some big ideas in the works for Common Kitchen—and you!—so I’m trying something a little different this week. Let’s call it… Kitchen Confidence Edition (at least for now).
Instead of one recipe, I’m sharing three: a cook, a no-cook, and an assembly option—because in short, I think this just better reflects a flexible, supportive, and sustainable cooking practice. No pressure to make everything here, the goal is just to give you options.
Whether you’re turning on the stove or just opening the fridge, showing up for yourself in the kitchen in any way is its own kind of skill.
And speaking of skills, each edition will still focus on specific skills to help you build confidence in the kitchen, and recovery-focused reframes to support you in shifting how you think and feel about cooking.
I’m sure I’ll yap more about this another time, but for now, let’s get to the good stuff.
Cook Option: Arugula Pesto Pasta Salad
By now, you’ve probably heard that a very *problematic celebrity suggested that arugula could be a swap for dairy. She said this during a cooking segment on the Today Show and the timing could not have been more ironic for me.
I planned to share this Arugula Pesto Pasta Salad last week—the literal day the segment aired—but I held off as I was processing yet another ridiculous, diet culture-fueled food and cooking claim made by a public figure that has no business doing so.
So, what originally felt like a pretty normal recipe to share on Instagram, became a big F you to diet culture—at least in my mind— because this particular pasta salad has arugula PLUS two different types of cheese. And in case you need to hear it from a qualified professional (I am a dietitian, after all), arugula is NOT a replacement for cheese or dairy of any kind. K, glad we got that cleared up.
*she’s notorious for recommending restrictive eating and vagina steaming. Yes, you read that right.
The Skills
Timing - we’ll make the pesto while the water comes to a boil, and we’ll cook the asparagus with the pasta in the last 2 minutes of cooking
Tasting - the pesto can be adjusted as you go based on your taste preferences
Ignoring diet culture messaging - not swapping out the dairy with arugula (can’t believe I’m even saying that but here we are!)
A Supportive Reframe - as always, feel free to take it or leave it
“I’m allowed to make meals according to my own needs and preferences—not a celebrity or wellness influencer’s.”
The kitchen can be such a powerful place to practice self trust and making choices based on our own needs, rather than someone else's. That’s hard to do when we’re constantly being bombarded with food rules, food “hacks,” and questionable advice from people with large platforms and little expertise.
The truth is that your meals don’t need to reflect the latest wellness trend. They don’t need to be optimized or approved by the internet. They just need to work for you.
Recipe
No-Cook Option: Banana Bread Oat Bites
If you’ve ever used Pinterest, I’m 99% certain you’ve encountered some variation of a Protein/Energy bite or ball recipe. They had a big moment there for a while, (and maybe still are, I just don’t hear about them nearly as often as I used to).
I remember making a batch several years ago—per the recommendation of a client that swore by them—and I have yet to have a stronger “ick” response with any other food I’ve tried since.
It was bad.
Not because of the taste, but the super thick texture just completely weirded me out.
So when I ended up with a few overripe bananas but didn’t feel like baking banana bread, I was shocked that I immediately thought of Banana Bread Oat Bites (or energy bites… whatever you like to call them).
I was in a snack rut at the time so I guess my brain was just more open to the general concept, but I also realized that I could just…change the shape. There are no rules that say they have to be in ball-form 😂
So, even though these are made the same way, with the same (or similar) ingredients—one small, obvious tweak changed everything for me. And now I enjoy these banana bread oat bites as a snack, with breakfast, any time really. I just love them.
The Skills
The big one here is honoring preferences—including texture— and adjusting accordingly. More on this above!
A Supportive Reframe
“My preferences matter and I am allowed to honor them with flexibility, practice, and patience.”
When your relationship with food has felt complicated, genuine preferences can be hard to identify. But they're in there — and flexibility, curiosity, and good ol’ trial and error in the kitchen is an opportunity to connect with them.
Recipe:
Assembly Option: Trader Joe’s Gyros with Tzatziki
Assembly-only meals are helpful in so many scenarios—you're short on time, you're emotionally and/or physically drained, you just don't feel like cooking something from scratch, etc.
And yet, they're often the meals we feel least confident about or most guilty for defaulting to.
Here's the thing: knowing how to put together a satisfying meal in a pinch without a recipe or a pot/pan is a legitimate kitchen skill.
Utilizing convenience items to get a meal on the table isn’t cutting corners in the kitchen—or in recovery—but it is one way to take care of yourself.
Ingredients:
Trader Joe’s gyro slices
Pita bread/pockets
Tzatziki
Lettuce
Sliced cucumber + anything else you’d like to add!
Instructions/Notes:
In or on a pita (I went for lowest effort possible and put everything ON the pita as you can see below) layer on some tzatziki, lettuce, sliced cucumber, and gyro meat
Add any other toppings you like that feel doable!
The meat is fully cooked, but I do recommend at least microwaving per the package instructions (unless you genuinely prefer cold gyro meat in which case, you do you, boo!)
Remember - the goal isn’t perfection! It’s ease and convenience!
A Supportive Reframe
“I don’t have to cook everything from scratch to care for myself.”
Sometimes the most supportive thing you can do is choose the option that gets food on the table with the least effort.
How do you feel about this structure for future newsletters and recipes? Let me know your thoughts! My hope is to make this resource as helpful and supportive as possible, so I’m always open to feedback and suggestions. Thanks for being here.