Six Tastes Kitchen

Be – SALTY, SWEET, SOUR, SPICY, BITTER, or SAVORY. Live Life in Your Taste Buds! Rebranding STK’s Brand Statement: Read what it means.

Welcome to home-style cooking, easy, healthy & delicious! 

You can call me Lyn or Marilyn. I am an advocate of good food and healthy food choices! Thoughts about food excite me like you wouldn’t imagine. But not all foods are created equal. I only care about food that brings “goodness” to our body, to our home, to our community, to our country, and to Mother Earth.

When I look at food, I see different layers:
— Producers, handlers, and creators (chefs and cooks) who worked together to deliver and bring out the best in food
— Sources or places on earth where these foods grow
— Flavor Profile such as taste, texture, and aroma
— Pleasures that this food delivers
— Health Benefits to our body, mind, and soul

The Six Tastes Kitchen is a collection of personal home-style, easy, healthy, and delicious recipes featuring the six basic tastes known to our palate: Sweet, Sour, Salty, Savory, Spicy, and Bitter. Please join me on this journey, and together let us explore, experience, and learn everything about food.

My vision…

I went to school for Culinary Arts, and I cook and bake for a living. When I create a dish – tastes and flavors are not the only concern, but also the benefits it brings to the body. I don’t promote just one specific diet or advocate the elimination of certain food groups. I am an advocate of every healthy diet on this earth! 

I strongly believe the body needs all the vitamins, minerals, and micronutrients found in every food group. Instead of selecting, focusing, or eliminating certain food groups, I believe in three basic principles:

* Consumption of all food groups in moderation. 
(fruits, vegetables, good grains, good fats, good carbs, and good proteins)
* Smart food pairings.
(a higher ratio of “fruits/vegetables/good-carb” to “meat” in any given meal)
* Healthier food substitutions.
(white meat/seafood over red meats) (or more plant-based protein sources)

In the Midwest, for instance, where I lived for more than 15 years, people’s diets are still 10 to 20 years behind, while other parts of the US are opening up their palates to food diversity. Food dishes in the Midwest are still heavily German or European-influenced. Steaks and potatoes are mainstream dishes, and heavy creams and cheeses are added to most comfort foods. How could we change this –> make healthy food choices!

Eating in moderation.
Healthy choices could be as simple as eating food in moderation. Red meat takes about 72 hours to digest, but if you eat it with vegetables, the digestion process speeds up because of the fiber present in vegetables. This is the proper spacing of food consumption, which simply means knowing how long certain food groups digest in the body before consuming the same again. Since meat takes 72 hours, I would maybe suggest red meat only once or twice a week, or having chicken or fish instead, which digests for an average of 45 minutes to 1 hour.

Cooking from scratch.
Healthy choices could be as simple as one healthy choice at a time. Say, I want to make an apple pie. Typically, I would go to the store and get a frozen pie crust and apple pie filling in cans. But if I were to make a healthy choice, I would get fresh apples and make my own pie crust from scratch. I know, I know…. Most of you would say who’s got time for that. The truth of the matter is that anything we eat fresh or make from scratch is healthier than anything we buy processed. The simplest way food is made is often the best and healthiest way to eat it.

Smart food combinations.
Healthy choices could be as simple as one healthy order at a time. Say, I go out to eat in a restaurant, and I feel like eating steaks. Typically, I would order a T-bone steak, mashed potatoes, and gravy, or potato wedges on the side. If I were to make a healthy choice, I would ask for an extra lean cut, which is anything with “round,” “chuck,” or “loin” in the name. And I would choose a cut graded as “Choice” or “Select” instead of “Prime,” which usually has more fat. To top it all, I would order steamed broccoli or any vegetables and sautéed mushrooms on the side instead of mashed potatoes. I would add an order of sweet potato fries instead of regular potato fries.

Healthy substitutes.
Healthy choices could be as simple as one healthy substitution at a time. Say, I want to cook dinner, and I want spaghetti, garlic bread, and fried chicken. I would use spaghetti pasta in the box, spaghetti sauce in the bottle, frozen fried chicken, and pre-baked garlic bread. If I were to make a healthy alternative, I would use healthier pasta brands such as gluten-free, all-wheat bran, or whatever suits me. I would still use store-bought spaghetti sauce, but I would add in garlic, diced onion, bell pepper, and other fresh vegetables of my choice, but without ground beef (since I’m already having fried chicken). I would make my own garlic bread using leftover bread in the cupboard, brushed with melted butter (and topped with minced garlic), and pop it in the oven until it’s brown and crunchy. For fried chicken, I would make a batter from a mixture of cornstarch and potato starch, and a seasoned egg-milk mixture, and dip the chicken before frying. This takes a little bit more time to prepare, but it is worth doing.

Healthier food substitution is far easier to achieve now than years back, thanks to global trading. There are varieties of food items on supermarket shelves available in healthier preparations, such as low-sodium, low-fat, non-dairy, etc. With these new “healthier” items flying off the shelves, we still have to shop smart by reading the labels because some of these food substitutes could do your body more harm than good if they are made with ingredients that you can only find in chemical laboratories.

Healthier substitution also means using other healthier food items to replace them. For instance, instead of using heavy creams, I would make a mixture of skim milk and cornstarch, tofu and soy milk, or cottage cheese and soy milk. For dessert creams, I would use evaporated milk and vanilla, or silken tofu and vanilla. The possibilities are endless! And with the internet, everyone has tried anything and posted it online. So I suggest, experiment and Google it 😉

Thank you for reading!