Cooking for the Soul: Thirds

Posted byAbPosted incooking, Parenting, recipes, wellbeingTags:, , , , ,

2025 is the year of lean. This includes leaning into activities that bring me joy and comfort, like cooking.

The hubby and I also want to be leaner with our food expenses.

While we are budget conscious, we can do better at eating out less and getting Uber Eats takeout, which we do out of convenience in our busy lives working and as special needs caregivers.

Cooking is a hobby I picked up during the pandemic and it’s one I still enjoy when I have time.

I get inspired by bloggers and influencers – and have a long list of recipes I will never get through.

One of T’s New Years goals, as he told his teacher before the break, is to learn how to cook.

I had suggested to T that we’d start a weekend cooking club so he can start working on his goal.

He’s helped out numerous times in the past, but he has yet to take me up on the cooking this year.

I’ll keep trying!

Helping brush egg yolk on a strawberry rhubarb pie at age 5, in the early days of pandemic lockdown.

In the meantime, here a few of my recent cooking therapy adventures, which have brought me enjoyment, comfort and momentary respite from the daily grind. 😊

I like to cook with ingredients I’ve never used and fennel was an item I always walked by the supermarket and didn’t know what it was.

This chicken fennel barley soup was comforting to make! I cooked it soon after The Heart of the Matter ladies’ engaging podcast chat about soup. I encourage you to listen!

I saw this Persian cucumber salad on an Instagram influencer’s feed and had to make it.

The flavour combination of cucumber, avocado, dill, lemon juice, fresh feta and toasted walnuts was refreshing.

Served with roasted chicken thighs.

We eat salmon once a week, as fish is lean and healthy. I usually air fry it as it’s time efficient on busy work and school nights.

I made this simple salmon fried rice as I wanted a change! 😅

This crispy pork carnitas was so simple to make!

I’ve just started to explore Mexican cuisine and look forward to trying beef barria ramen soon.

I couldn’t find pickled red onions in the store so I topped our tacos with leftover feta in our fridge.

I haven’t made gochujang chicken in a while and the hubby was craving it and I had leftover gochujang in the fridge.

It was a simple and nice pantry dinner!

Sichuan boiled fish is a dish I’ve wanted to make for a while. It looks fancy and I love spicy food. It was fun to demystify this dish by making it.

I used tilapia but you can also use haddock, cod or catfish.

I love sundried tomatoes and made baked sundried tomato chicken for dinner tonight.

If you have a favourite recipe or enjoyed making a recent recipe, please share it in the comments! I’m already hungry and dreaming up my next cooking adventures! 🤗

45 thoughts on “Cooking for the Soul: Thirds”

  1. Pingback: Cooking for the Soul: Thirds – Stay Healthy Weekly Magazine

  2. My gosh, I wish I was your neighbor! I would bring wine or dessert! All of that looks so good! I wish I liked cooking, but, meh. I’m currently eating a cheap micro-meal, so… yeah. I also don’t know what fennel is. I’ve at least heard of it! 😛

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    1. Thanks Gary. So far no interest in exploring this goal of his. But it’s still January. 😆 I look forward to your great bake-off this year!

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    1. Thanks Stacy! I know some of my blogging friends are not meat eaters so thank you for indulging my post. 😊 And yes, they’re far from lean. 😂😂😂

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  6. Everything you made looks so delicious! When you mentioned the Sichuan boiled fish, I was immediately reminded of a YouTube channel called Chinese Cooking Demystified. If you haven’t seen their videos, you should. I love how one of T’s goals this year is to learn how to cook. That’s something I wish I had done when I was much younger, when my mother was still around. But this post makes me think, maybe I should write about her recipes in my blog, so my dear blogging friends, like you, can try the dishes she made.

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    1. Thanks Bama. I’ll have to look up the Chinese Cooking channel. It’s fun trying to demystify how certain things are done. When I finally learned about the corn starch slurry, it was like the most magical discovery. 😂

      I would love, and I know many others would too, if you wrote about your mom’s recipes on your blog. And if you do so, o hold if also brings you comfort in the process of sharing too. 😊

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  7. That’s very cute that T made learning to cook one of his goals for the year. Looks like you’ve made some delicious meals so far. And nicely done with the plate presentation. I also enjoy cooking (and especially baking) and wish I had more time for it.

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    1. Thanks Linda. He still has 11 months left to work on that goal cuz January just flew on by. 😆

      As M gets older, it may create a window for you two to do baking projects together. 😊

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      1. I sure hope so. She got one of those toddler towers for Christmas and loooves watching me cook (and playing with things in the sink). I imagine her “helping” will make everything take longer and will result in more things to clean up afterwards, but it’s a great way to spend time together 🙂

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  8. Wow, wow wow, Ab – all these dishes look so amazing! And really beautiful pictures, too. The pork carnitas caught my eye (and taste buds) as did your cucumber salad and barley soup. Thanks for the shout out! Hope you have lots of leftovers and a great week!

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    1. Thanks Wynne. I really enjoyed making these, over the stretch of a few weeks, and fun to look back at them for this post. Your podcast conversation is inspiring me to do more soups! 😊

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  9. oh wow, everything looks so delicious. I do love sun-dried tomatoes and I am curious about the rhubarb pie. I do hope that T takes you up on the cooking club. I think that every child should learn how to cook. Blessings to you and your beautiful family!

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    1. Thanks Ana! The strawberry rhubarb pie was fun. We have a small rhubarb plant we inherited from the previous homeowner and every spring, we may a pie or two with our harvest. 😊 I agree that cooking is an essential skill kids should learn from a young age.

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  13. Love that you are encouraging T to learn some of these skills with you Ab. I remember a conversation with my son specifically and how he wished that he had gotten the opportunity to cook more when he was young. It was a busy time of life, much like you talk about in your family but that comment made me pause and really think about what may have been much more important for him…

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    1. Thanks Deb. Teaching him life skills is definitely on our minds, as he gets older, and cooking is a good to have.

      Hindsight is such an interesting life teacher. For me, I too wish I had learned certain skills while I was younger. Carpentry and sewing skills are what I would learn if I could go back in time.

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    1. Thanks Vicki. I’m a very slow cook and those dishes were a culmination of weekend meals over a series of weeks. Our weekday meals are much more simple and plain. 😆 But I appreciate the voice of confidence.

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  15. I am so impressed Ab! You definitely can cook and all of your plates of food look so inviting! I hope T jumps in to learn how to cook. The first thing I taught my daughter to cook was French toast, my favorite breakfast. She still talks about that today.

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    1. Thanks Diane! 😊 It’s something that brings me a lot of enjoyment and comfort. And you’re one of my daily inspirations with your posts and recipes. That photo of T brushing the strawberry rhubarb pie was the first time we made it using your recipe!

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  16. Oh, These all look delicious and now I am hungry 🙂 Pickled red onion are super easy to make: just slice some onions mix water vinegar salt sugar and hot water and pour over the onions. Let sit for about an hour and then refrigerate. You can play around with the ratio of water to vinegar (I do about 50/50), or google a recipe that will give you exact quantities. I always have a jar in the fridge.

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    2. I’m going to have to try this! Thanks Margie! They look and sound so tasty. I still have half the pork shoulder from my carnitas in the freezer that I can make it with. 😊

      No worries about the comma, although I have no brain cells left at the moment to mentally insert them in. 😆

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  17. how great! I think cooking is a win on many fronts. you’ll save money, can make your food as healthy and delicious as you’d like, and the process and practice will be so good for t to learn. eventually maybe he can choose a dinner menu for one night each week to help prepare and serve.

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    1. Thanks Beth. It really is a win both from a health and financial perspective, especially with the ridiculous inflation – and I hate to say it, with incoming tariffs, the price of groceries will go up too.

      T is such a selective eater, likely due to his diagnosis, so I like the idea of trying to get him to take ownership of his menus! 🙏

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      1. all true, and I’ve seen over the years of teaching children, as well as my own, they will eat most anything that they cook. it’s a miracle. I had parents shocked that their kids ate vegetable soup, but they helped to make it and were excited about it. p.s. I apologize on behalf of my country for the actions of the power-hungry one at the top.

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