becoming a better cook

Ask someone today to name a famous cook, and most young people will name one of the celebrity chefs who show up on cooking shows and own numerous restaurants. Once…

last call!

I don’t remember the last time I heard “last call” in a bar. I may have closed down a bar 2–3 times in my entire life as a patron. I…

meal planning—made simple!

I’ve been wondering whether any animals other than humans do any meal planning. Birds certainly seem not to need it with suckers like myself to provide for them. With Thanksgiving…

happy thanksgiving cooking!

How’s Thanksgiving prep coming along? What?!? You haven’t started yet?!? Thanksgiving often feels like the most important holiday of the year at my house. My Chinese-born husband has always loved…

what’s (not) working?

How often do you reflect on what’s working and what’s not working for you? First: a story. I recently flew to Nashville for my niece’s wedding. Before that, I hadn’t…

what do you want on your tombstone?

Did you know that it’s a thing for people to put a recipe on their gravestone?!? Consider my mind blown. I heard Rosie Grant, maker/baker of such recipes, interviewed on…

back to basics | mindfulness + gratitude + food

Earlier this month, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series. This week, we’re taking on my fourth food rule: practicing mindfulness and gratitude around our food and, perhaps more…

back to basics | cook from scratch

Cook from scratch?!? But that’s so much work…. Last week, we kicked off the “Back to Basics” series by talking about whole foods and how as a health coach, I…

i’ll start january 1st….

It’s almost January 1st, 2023! Have you ever set a goal and thought, “I’ll start [tomorrow/next week/next month/next year]?” Well, here’s a true test of this approach. This coming Sunday…

turn, turn, turn

To everything there is a season (Turn, turn, turn.) And depending on your inclinations, you can thank Ecclesiastes or Pete Seeger—or both—for the earworm. And this season, I find myself…

cooking: where to begin?

Cooking from scratch at home is a huge part of most people’s health journey—and it can feel incredibly stressful to even think about. Where to begin? “We all have to…

baby steps | meal plan

Quick! What comes to mind when you hear me say, “meal plan?” If your mind immediately goes to a carefully laid-out grid showing a week’s worth of breakfasts, lunches, dinners,…

a healthy lifestyle in 2022

[W]e’ve lost ground in other [health] areas, and a lot of them are a function of the fact that we don’t have a very healthy lifestyle in our nation. Particularly…

a year of prevention

What does “healthcare” mean to you: symptom management or disease prevention? I’ve been listening in on the Lifestyle Medicine Summit 2021 this week—I know, there are just so many online…

empty nest = hatching plans

My nest is an empty nest. It’s been that way for almost a month now. I’m a confirmed completist and definitely believe in a Chinese expression that was commandeered by…

are beans truly Instagram-worthy?

Are beans Instagram-worthy? As much as I appreciate good food porn, I admit to feeling that part of the reason Americans no longer cook from scratch is that we feel…

w(h)ither the food system?

The pandemic has certainly made very clear just how many of and how deeply our policies and systems are flawed and how tightly they are intertwined: just for starters, in…

lockdown survival(ist)

As cases of COVID-19 begin to multiply, there’s a lot of panic around putting in supplies for self-isolation and/or being quarantined. (I learned a new German word for this behavior:…

Happy 2020!

I’m on vacation this week, trying to practice what I preach and keep boundaries around my family time, so no musings for you this week! Instead, just a quick reminder…

Greatest hits | What’s for dinner, Mom?

As summer winds down, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the recent changes in our family life are playing out in the kitchen. My daughter spent her first summer…

So much new + good!

how do you eat an elephant? As we plunge into the second half of 2019 (whattt? how is that possible?), I find myself reflecting on the first two quarters of…

Oooh! Aaah! Fabulous prizes!

In scrolling through my calendar recently, I came across a few dates of note: May 2 is the 4th anniversary of when I officially established my practice although it’s been…

#eatmorekale

Spring is here—which in Michigan means the temperature still dips below 40ºF and yet the upper limits (in the 60s) are starting to show up more often than the dips….

What’s for dinner, Mom?

what’s for dinner, mom? For a working woman, that one innocent question at the end of the day can cause a lot of stress. (Yes, yes, I know men cook,…

Food porn fast

‘Fess up: did you binge watch the first season of Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix? Because yeah, I did. And I read the book in 2015. I saw…

Word-perfect

A quick shout-out to those who filled out my Tell me about yourself survey—I appreciate you taking the time out of your busy day to help me out—and a request…

I can hook you up … with some good bacteria!

“I fed my sourdough this morning.” “What? What sourdough? Who’s got sourdough? I want some!” “Liza got it for me.” “Oh! That reminds me, Liza, can I get some more…

Fl!p Your (Airbnb) K!tchen

Airbnb has been around since 2008, and as usual, I’m a late adopter—this summer’s trip to Scotland was my first time taking advantage of it. From Edinburgh to Inverness to…

#healthcoachvacation

When I was growing up, it seemed as though my vacations never lined up with those of my parents, who taught at a small liberal arts college. There may have…

Overwhelmed in the kitchen?

Join me Tuesday, January 16 at 5:30pm at Argus Farm Stop on Packard for a hands-on introduction to meal planning. Argus is a next-generation farmers’ market whose mission is to…

How do you come to the kitchen?

As I mentioned last week, explaining what I do as a health coach can be difficult: while the profession is certainly growing, it’s still an alien concept for many. I…

Thanksgiving 2017 Helpline

Have you downloaded the Fl!p Your K!tchen Thanksgiving 2017 recipe packet yet? If you have and you have questions about the recipes or the strategy that will help you cook…

SOLE food | Your nickel’s worth

This is the final post in the SOLE food series, in which we stepped away a bit from primary foods nutrition and focused again on secondary foods, the ones we…

SOLE food | Organic

This month, we’re stepping away a bit from primary foods nutrition and focusing again on secondary foods, the ones we put in our mouths. As you find your way on…

We interrupt this programming…

Fair Food Network, the awesome non-profit where I work part-time as a contractor, has been growing in leaps and bounds since I started there eight years ago. When I reduced…

Laundry loads and mental (over)load

A few weeks ago, I was tickled by a comic strip in The Guardian about “mental load.” Yes, it’s sexist, and it generalizes (a lot), and yet, based on the engagement a…

Belly up to the [fill in the blank] bar

It’s a gray early Sunday morning in Ann Arbor—even I sleep in most Sundays (sometimes even as late as 7am 🙂 ), but today is my first 5K—nope, just walking—and…

Crazy Wisdom covers release of FL!P YOUR K!TCHEN

Thanks to Crazy Wisdom Journal for covering the release of Fl!p Your K!tchen and to the Crazy Wisdom tea shop and store in downtown Ann Arbor for carrying the cookbook! You can pick up…

Goodbye, Hello: New Year, New Practice

As I get older, I feel the pull of the seasons more and more strongly, and the words of Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 feel more true each year: “To every thing there is…

Fill Your Plate | Feed Your Life

One of the fundamental principles of Integrative Nutrition® health coaching is that we are not only nourished (or toxified) by the food we put in our mouths—our secondary foods; we are…

Baby Step #11 | SOLE Kitchen

This is the eleventh of a 12-part series titled “Baby Steps.” On the first of each month, I post 1 tiny step toward better health that you can take every day…

The buzz in the kitchen

Seventeen years ago, I spent Labor Day in labor: Happy 17th Birthday to my firstborn! This year, I’m spending Labor Day weekend on the final revision of Fl!p Your K!tchen. If my…

Baby Step #7 | Cure the sugar blues

This is the seventh of a 12-part series titled “Baby Steps.” On the first of each month, I post 1 tiny step toward better health that you can take every day…

Supper + Support | Fall 2016

do you need to develop a new cooking + eating style? Have you decided (or have you been told) that you need to change your cooking + eating style – eat…

Share the love!

FL!P YOUR K!TCHEN How to cook 21 meals a week from scratch (without spending your life in the kitchen) Cookbook, cooking class, and time management tool all in one, Fl!p…

Happy (early) Father’s Day!

A big shout-out to all the dads and all those who act as our dads: thanks for all you do! So why is it that for Mother’s Day, we expect…

Fl!p Your K!tchen | Cookbook update

What’s New + Good? Lots! In fact, so much that I couldn’t wait to share some of my good news about the progress of the cookbook and express my gratitude…

Mother’s Day Sale!

Mother’s Day is May 8 – and Mom doesn’t want more stuff she has to dust! Show your love by getting her a hands-on cooking class or sign her up for…

Fl!p Your K!tchen update!

Lots going on with the cookbook these days – first and foremost, the pre-order page will soon be available! In the meantime, deepest appreciation to my village: creativity coach Chad…

Taking it back to the basics

Fl!p Your K!tchen, the cookbook, will be published in time for the Holidays in 2016, and there are a number of ways you can come along with me on the publishing journey!…

Come with me…

As I mentioned in a previous post, 2016 is going to be an exciting year for me: I’m dropping down to part-time at my day job to focus on growing…

A “Knight Out” in the Kitchen!

Join me at Knight’s Family Kitchen for our fall cooking classes – we meet the first and third Wednesday of every month! Classes run from 6:00-8:00pm – arrive at 5:45…

Flip Your Kitchen: Deconstructing Soup

…one of the biggest barriers we’re facing, in terms of people eating healthier food, is that most Americans don’t know how to cook that well. It is absolutely possible to…