Real cooking with Nicole Elizabeth at The Fresh Kitchen

I know I’ve talked about The Fresh Kitchen before, but I wanted to share again. My friend Nicole has really helped me grow as a home cook. I strongly believe in not only her cooking talents but her ability to help others, specifically moms like me. She really has taken the intimidation out of cooking for me. At one point in my life, I would never have cooked dishes that sound scary to me, like ratatouille or polenta. Turns out, a lot of things are easier to cook than I thought. And if they aren’t, Nicole talks me through them. If you have a cooking question, you can always ask on The Fresh Kitchen Facebook page!

Recently Nicole asked me and some other friends to come over for a dinner she’d prepared. I thought I’d share with you some photos of what she made. Some of the recipes are hers; others are inspired by Chef Yotam Ottolenghi, and Nicole has added her own take on the dish. If you’d like to know more about Nicole as well as view some of her recipes, check out her website www.thefreshkitchen.com.

Homemade pita and hummus
Salad made with baby spinach, pickled red onions, pickled medjool dates, red wine vinegar, lemon juice, olive oil, and toasted pita croutons made with butter, olive oil, sumac, Aleppo chile flakes, and kosher salt
Israeli couscous cooked in some of the chicken/apricot/tamarind braising liquid
Chicken thighs braised in apricots and tamarind
Roasted peaches over lemon pound cake with ginger ice cream and browned butter shortbread crumbs
What do you think? Which dish would you like to try?

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Introducing The Fresh Kitchen

Before I was married, I had zero interest in cooking. At one point I even lived in an extended stay hotel months at a time for work. Instead of using the room’s stove top, I pretty much lived on takeout everyday. But then I had Baby J, and we made the decision for me to stay at home with him, at least until he’s in school (unless we homeschool, but that’s another story). Home cooked meals became part of the “job” for me. I wanted to prepare healthy meals for myself and my family, and meals that taste good. I still use ingredients like sugar and butter, but our diet consists of 90% (or higher) unprocessed* foods.

Just a few weeks ago, my friend Nicole Elizabeth launched her revamped site, The Fresh Kitchen. Over the last couple of years, she’s really helped me to become a better cook. These are the three things I love the most about her site and recipes:

  1. She breaks down the recipes for everyone to understand.
  2. Her recipes are from scratch.
  3. She takes decadent, fancy-sounding foods and makes the recipes approachable for home cooks.

Here are a few screenshots from her site:

Looks amazing, doesn’t it?! If you’re interested in not just recipes but learning how to be a better cook, I encourage you to check out Nicole Elizabeth’s site, TheFreshKitchen.com today!

*When I talk about processed foods, I’m not including items like milk, butter, roasted nuts, canned fish, oatmeal, or frozen veggies. All of these are PROCESSED but still good for you. When I say processed, I mean store-bought crackers, chips, breads, frozen meals, most cereals, Hamburger Helper type meals, etc.

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The Fresh Kitchen

Yesterday was an exciting day! My good friend Nicole Elizabeth launched her new Facebook page, Nicole Elizabeth/ The Fresh Kitchen. She has been a huge help to me over the last couple of years, as I adjusted to being a stay-at-home mom and wife. Her approach to cooking is to take the intimidation out of it, specifically focusing on- “fresh, seasonal, and approachable home cooking.”

Nicole Elizabeth has never cooked me anything I didn’t love! From her influence I’ve learned that many recipes that may sound difficult or exotic up front, really aren’t! Not only that, but it’s usually healthier and cheaper to make something from scratch then to buy it in a can or box.

With the holidays upon us, I recommend checking out and “liking” her new Facebook page. She has a website coming soon, but at the moment, you can find recipes right on her Facebook page. Have a cooking question? Feel free to ask directly on her page.

By the way, she’s guest posted here before, and I’ve also posted about some of her recipes. Check out her guest posts about Simple Roasted Chicken and Cooking with Kids: Meatballs.

The Fresh Kitchen

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