Day 7: Mise En Place
You’ll often encounter this term in the culinary world. It means “everything in its place.” Before embarking on a cooking spree, you need to prep all your ingredients and make sure everything is in order.
Mise En Place.
For me, however, it means more than a list of recipe ingredients weighed and measured and set aside.
Culinary medicine has become a meditative journey, so that each cooking experience is an exercise of Mental Mise En Place.
Is everything in order in my life? Are my priorities in place? Do I view things in its proper perspective? This ensures that I approach health in a holistic way.
As I prepare to pursue a healthier lifestyle, what do I need to put in place? These past week, we've tried to set a plan, wrote our SMART goals to put our health numbers back in place.
I've shared Eve’s story in Day 4. As part of her weight loss plan, let’s assess where she was in terms of eating habits. This will give you an idea how she used the Mediterranean Diet Checklist.
This is her usual meal.
Her breakfast consists of croissant with butter, and coffee with cream and sugar. Her lunch is a McChicken with some shredded lettuce and large ice tea. For dinner, she opens a can of sardines or meat loaf or burger helper (using regular ground beef) and eats them with white rice. Sometimes she eats about half a cup of green peas or puts the green peas in her fried rice. She drinks a glass of soda or orange or grape juice with dinner.
She uses butter or lard for cooking and snacks on potato chips (1-2 small bags a day) and M&Ms (1-2 small brown pouches a day). Before sleeping, she drinks a glass (about 1.5 cup) of hot cocoa using whole milk and a grocery-bought ready-to-mix packet.
Here are her results:
1) 2-3 servings of vegetables - 0 point. The shredded lettuce in her McChicken barely makes a cup.
2) 1/4 cup of legumes per day - 1 point for her green peas during dinner.
3) 1 1/2 cup of fruits and 1/4 cup of tree nuts per day - 0 point. She’s not a big fan of fruits or nuts.
4) 1 1/2 cup of whole grains per day - 0 point. She uses white rice and her croissant and McChicken are made of white flour.
5) 2 servings of fish per week - 1 point for her sardines.
6) omega-3-rich oil or fat - 0 point. Her butter and lard are animal-based and high in saturated fat.
7) less than 1 cup of dairy (preferably fermented or aged) - 0 point. Her portion of milk goes over the recommended amount and high in saturated fat.
8- Less than 1/4 lb or 3-4 oz of lean meat - 0 point. She uses regular ground beef high in saturated fat.
9 - 1 serving of red wine. - 0 point
10 - about 8-10 cups of water - 0 point. She consumes sugar-sweetened beverages instead of water.
Her Med Diet score is 2. She wants to increase her score by 2 points a day to improve her health. She learned that if she scores 8-10 consistently, she will experience drastic health improvement. How will she do this?
What about you? What’s your score? Where can you improve?
If you want to pursue the Med Diet Plan, Mise En Place will entail stocking your pantry with ingredients that will score points and achieve a perfect 10.
For instance, you cannot eat fruits and nuts if these are not available and accessible.
I remember how a fruit remained uneaten in our home unless my mother peeled and sliced them. I have become that mother now. When I stock the fridge with sliced fruits, it’s predictable to disappear fast. But whole ones tend to linger untouched until these grow into science projects—moldy, green and hairy, about to crawl out of the fridge. Gross. If you have no time to peel and slice, buy pre-cut ones. Get the fruits that are easy eat like mandarin orange. Even frozen berries count.
Stock your pantry with ingredients for easy dump-and-stir recipes. Canned unsalted black beans and legumes (garbanzos and lentils), roasted diced tomatoes, and roasted bell peppers are handy for busy evenings. Chopped and frozen vegetables are time-savers when all your fresh ones are gone.
Fresh is best but practicality dictates that you begin the journey using a route that you can easily tread for the next 40 days and the rest of your life. Once you learn to climb the hill, the mountain becomes less ominous.
Mise En Place.
What's in your pantry and refrigerator? Look at the list below and see if you have what it takes to make a change and succeed in this 40-Day journey and make-over.
Start with a healthy pantry and you’ll end up with a healthy dish.
Mise En Place.
For me, however, it means more than a list of recipe ingredients weighed and measured and set aside.
Culinary medicine has become a meditative journey, so that each cooking experience is an exercise of Mental Mise En Place.
Is everything in order in my life? Are my priorities in place? Do I view things in its proper perspective? This ensures that I approach health in a holistic way.
As I prepare to pursue a healthier lifestyle, what do I need to put in place? These past week, we've tried to set a plan, wrote our SMART goals to put our health numbers back in place.
I've shared Eve’s story in Day 4. As part of her weight loss plan, let’s assess where she was in terms of eating habits. This will give you an idea how she used the Mediterranean Diet Checklist.
This is her usual meal.
Her breakfast consists of croissant with butter, and coffee with cream and sugar. Her lunch is a McChicken with some shredded lettuce and large ice tea. For dinner, she opens a can of sardines or meat loaf or burger helper (using regular ground beef) and eats them with white rice. Sometimes she eats about half a cup of green peas or puts the green peas in her fried rice. She drinks a glass of soda or orange or grape juice with dinner.
She uses butter or lard for cooking and snacks on potato chips (1-2 small bags a day) and M&Ms (1-2 small brown pouches a day). Before sleeping, she drinks a glass (about 1.5 cup) of hot cocoa using whole milk and a grocery-bought ready-to-mix packet.
Here are her results:
1) 2-3 servings of vegetables - 0 point. The shredded lettuce in her McChicken barely makes a cup.
2) 1/4 cup of legumes per day - 1 point for her green peas during dinner.
3) 1 1/2 cup of fruits and 1/4 cup of tree nuts per day - 0 point. She’s not a big fan of fruits or nuts.
4) 1 1/2 cup of whole grains per day - 0 point. She uses white rice and her croissant and McChicken are made of white flour.
5) 2 servings of fish per week - 1 point for her sardines.
6) omega-3-rich oil or fat - 0 point. Her butter and lard are animal-based and high in saturated fat.
7) less than 1 cup of dairy (preferably fermented or aged) - 0 point. Her portion of milk goes over the recommended amount and high in saturated fat.
8- Less than 1/4 lb or 3-4 oz of lean meat - 0 point. She uses regular ground beef high in saturated fat.
9 - 1 serving of red wine. - 0 point
10 - about 8-10 cups of water - 0 point. She consumes sugar-sweetened beverages instead of water.
Her Med Diet score is 2. She wants to increase her score by 2 points a day to improve her health. She learned that if she scores 8-10 consistently, she will experience drastic health improvement. How will she do this?
What about you? What’s your score? Where can you improve?
If you want to pursue the Med Diet Plan, Mise En Place will entail stocking your pantry with ingredients that will score points and achieve a perfect 10.
For instance, you cannot eat fruits and nuts if these are not available and accessible.
I remember how a fruit remained uneaten in our home unless my mother peeled and sliced them. I have become that mother now. When I stock the fridge with sliced fruits, it’s predictable to disappear fast. But whole ones tend to linger untouched until these grow into science projects—moldy, green and hairy, about to crawl out of the fridge. Gross. If you have no time to peel and slice, buy pre-cut ones. Get the fruits that are easy eat like mandarin orange. Even frozen berries count.
Stock your pantry with ingredients for easy dump-and-stir recipes. Canned unsalted black beans and legumes (garbanzos and lentils), roasted diced tomatoes, and roasted bell peppers are handy for busy evenings. Chopped and frozen vegetables are time-savers when all your fresh ones are gone.
Fresh is best but practicality dictates that you begin the journey using a route that you can easily tread for the next 40 days and the rest of your life. Once you learn to climb the hill, the mountain becomes less ominous.
Mise En Place.
What's in your pantry and refrigerator? Look at the list below and see if you have what it takes to make a change and succeed in this 40-Day journey and make-over.
Start with a healthy pantry and you’ll end up with a healthy dish.