Fresh herbs are a wonderful addition to your healthy cooking. Fresh herbs always remind me of summer when herb gardens are the most bountiful and first learning how to dry herbs. And, when you’re cooking healthy dishes in your kitchen, cooking with herbs becomes much easier when they grow in your yard.

In fact, cooking with herbs is one of the great treats of the summer. But, what if you have much more fresh herbs than you can possibly use before they wilt and spoil in your refrigerator?

If you put your fresh herbs in your refrigerator, they will slowly wilt and die. Instead, of letting the refrigerator give them a humid and cold death, you should dry your herbs.

It’s very easy to dry herbs so that you can be cooking with herbs during any time of the year. Your bounty of fresh herbs can be dried naturally, in your oven, or as demonstrated today, snipped with scissors and frozen in ziplock bags.

Either way, make the most use of what comes from your garden, your local farmers market, or your friends and family this growing season and include fresh herbs in your healthy cooking. And, if you end up getting more than your share, don’t kill your fresh herbs in the refrigerator when dry herbs that came from your garden can be just as flavorful. In the end, your house could be the one that everyone wants to visit because you're cooking with herbs all year long!

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If you love cooking healthy using fresh ingredients, you’re in good company. The trend today is away from the large, corporate agri-businesses and in support of your local farmer. This is great news as you can have more healthy cooking using locally grown, fresh produce. And, nothing helps your cooking to taste fresher than cooking with herbs especially those grown locally. Sometimes, you may get a great deal on your herbs and decide that you need to dry them. This week, you're going to learn about what to do with your local herb bounty as well as the secret to drying herbs.

Chef Todd Mohr gets his produce sent to him weekly from The Produce Box. This week’s produce box from his local farmer included turnips, broccoli, squash and endive lettuce. The most surprising content was a tumble-weed size of fresh dill.

Healthy cooking always includes cooking with herbs. Fresh herbs are the artist’s final touch on your dinner creation. Cooking with herbs means being able to use their fragrance to highlight your dish whether they’re fresh or dry herbs.

However, if you find yourself with a month’s worth of fresh herbs in your produce box, and suspect that the herb will not last the week in the refrigerator, it’s time to plan ahead so as not to waste all that expensive herb.

Drying herbs is a very simple process, and there are three ways to dry herbs that are excess from your garden, given by a neighbor or obtained from your local farmer.

1. You can dry them naturally by hanging them in the garage or a warm dark place
2. You can dry them in the oven at a very low temperature for an extended period of time
3. You can wash and dry them completely and trim the fresh dill with scissors into a ziplock bag for freezing

To add even more flavor and aroma to your healthy cooking, consider using fresh herbs. If you are cooking with herbs and have too much fresh herb, you can easily become an expert at drying herbs for later use.

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Want to make some easy healthy recipes and ensure that your kitchen is only producing healthy cooking? Then you are going to love the idea that I'm going to share with you today. I just received my first Produce Box! The Produce Box is filled with healthy, fresh ingredients that practically guarantees that I will be cooking light recipes all week.

Why The Produce Box?
Growing your own fresh vegetables can be fun and rewarding. I think it’s a big pain in the neck. The second best thing is going to your local farmers market to buy the most wholesome fruits and vegetables that are grown in your community by your local farmer. However, I’ve discovered the next best thing to THAT! It’s a produce box that is delivered to my front door each week.

The Produce Box is an excellent example of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) that is now becoming very popular, and may now be available in your area.

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
CSA is a way for the farmer to cooperate directly with his customers, as we all agree to purchase whatever is freshest and best from his farm this week. Each week’s box will contain different items based on the local conditions, not the national conditions and price futures, you work directly with the farm and farmer.

Healthy Cooking
Besides having the best ingredients with the most nutritional quality and flavor, I love the Produce Box because of the serendipity of opening the box. I don’t know what surprises I’ll find, but I’m always up to the challenge of being ready to cook whatever is in the box. The Produce Box makes it easy for me to cook light and healthy. I bet it will help you too!

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You don't have to be a gourmet cook to like the best tasting fruits and vegetables. I like the freshest produce, because they always yield the best flavor. Other people may look for fresh ingredients because they want to retain the most nutrients in their food or get food with the most nutrients possible. Some people may be concerned about supporting their local farmers and community supported agriculture to get the best ingredients. Still others are concerned about the earth, agriculture, or the health benefits of eating only what is grown seasonally and locally. Many people are concerned about the labor practices employed by large corporate farms that serve half the world. All of these are healthy ideas that will result in healthy cooking.

I don’t care what your reason is, but you should be concerned about where you food comes from. Whatever reason you choose, it’s easy to support local farmers by simply asking your local grocery store where your produce comes from.

If you are already shopping at your local farmers market, you probably already know where your food comes from, because you’re shaking the hand of the guy that pulled it from the ground. If you’re shopping at your mega-mart, start asking where your fruit and vegetables come from. Start examining the flavor, texture, and your enjoyment of produce grown locally and those brought from a large distribution house. You should be asking why you are sending your money to the international grower instead of to your local neighborhood. It's difficult to deliver healthy ideas in your own kitchen if you can't get healthy produce from your local market.

These are more questions to ask of Sandi Kronick of Eastern Carolina Organics. Eastern Carolina Organics has been in existence since 2004 and is dedicated to helping local farmers with quality control, business assistance and expanding the market for their locally grown family produce.

Local farmers are not subject to the same weather problems in other parts of the world. The huge fluctuations in price of produce that comes from a single corporate operation is called “Stock Market Pricing”. This is when prices will climb or fall based on future yields or promise of good growing season. Local organizations like Eastern Carolina Organics can help with the supply and flow of food by partnering with the farmers who are also owners of Eastern Carolina Organics.

In the partnership between Eastern Carolina Organics and the local farmers, they can help each other to get the best food at the most fair price to the farmer and their customers and ensure that there is healthy cooking occurring in our homes. So, whether you attempt gourmet cooking or just want to bring healthy ideas into your kitchen, supporting your local farmers is a great place to start.

Related Posts:
Why Do You Doubt: Healthy Food + Good Cooking = Healthy Cooking?
Koloa Sunshine Farmers Market in Hawaii

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Are you looking for healthy ideas for your cooking? You may need to start paying more attention to where your food comes from. Healthy cooking starts with healthy ingredients and the healthier your ingredients, the more "gourmet" your cooking is going to taste. Where my food comes from is of great concern to me because I want to make the best dishes that I can. And, I know that the best ingredients yield the best dishes.

You don’t need to be a chef to know good ingredients, you don’t even have to know how to cook to care where your food comes from. If you can tell the difference between the fresh taste and texture of a raw carrot from your local farmer and the one that was flown from half way around the world, you know the impact of fresh, local foods on your palate.

The nutrients and flavors are better in fresher ingredients, it’s obvious whether you cook or not. However, if you can skillfully apply basic cooking methods to the seasonal ingredients, then you really have the most nutritious and best tasting meals you can be proud of and your cooking will be more healthy.

I want to spend this summer examining where our food comes from, who is growing our food, and how they’re growing it. You might begin to care about where your food comes from for any of the many reasons that exist: The cost of bad food, Better quality foods, Ecology and local farming, the flavor of ingredients, the better nutrition, or world-wide labor practices, the use of pesticides, organically grown food, non-irradiated, low carbon footprint...WHATEVER the reason, you should start asking where your food comes from and how it impacts not only your health and nutrition, but the entire world’s.

The first step in my investigation is a conversation with Sandi Kronick from Eastern Carolina Organics to ask some basic questions about how I can get started in finding the freshest, most wholesome ingredients in my area.

Eastern Carolina Organics is an organization dedicated to making local, family farmed and organic foods more available to the general population. They support local farmers with education and distribution channels for their products.

Remember, healthy cooking and healthy ideas start with healthy ingredients and you don't have to be cooking gourmet dishes to care or tell the difference. Sandi will answer questions about how to identify local ingredients over international ingredients, as well as the many benefits to buying local produce. In other words, “Why should I care where my food comes from?”

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By avoiding cooking healthy and not eating nutritious foods, you have been committing crimes against your stomach. I used to be a repeat offender until I came up with 4 steps that have kept the food police away.

Here's how you can work off the crimes against your stomach:

1. Eat Purposely: Stop, sit down, and it’s time to eat.  Bring back actual meal time, even if it’s at your desk. Don't eat on the run, stop eating in your car, don't eat while you are trying to accomplish other tasks. By not focusing on your food, you are making it easier to eat unhealthy foods. Slow down and you will begin to appreciate better foods as you pay more attention to what you are putting in your mouth.

2. Better Breakfast: Start eating a breakfast of whole grains, granola and fresh fruit every morning. Stay away from the one-handed, on-the-go breakfast as these are usually very heavily laden with salt and calories.

3. Grocery Store Lunch: Go to the grocery store, that’s where the food is! The real, whole food, nutritious food that your body needs. This is where you can get a freshly prepared sandwich, salad, Odwalla juices, nuts and granola bars. Stay away from the drive-thru, fast food restaurants, and the pizza place, all of which will keep you from eating healthy.

4. Methods vs. Recipes: At dinner time, practice basic, simple cooking methods, not complicated recipes.  Complicated recipes have ingredients that you may not be familiar with, are hard to find or may be difficult to understand. By practicing basic cooking methods, you could, for example, make pasta and cook a chicken breast  instead. That's so much healthier than having someone ring your doorbell and deliver your dinner in a cardboard box or a paper bag!

The more you cook and eat nutritious, healthy food, the more you'll crave nutritious, healthy food. You'll sleep better, your anxiety levels will go down and your body will feel healthier overall. Remember, I'm talking from experience and I can tell you that I started craving better foods more, and bad foods less.

You can too! Get over your fear of cooking by learning basic, simple cooking methods. You'll feel better too, and of course, you'll get the food police off of your back.

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So, you’ve been committing crimes against your stomach instead of cooking healthy, nutritious food. Maybe you're thinking that it's not so bad, I mean, what's wrong with eating pre-packaged foods, processed foods, frozen foods, foods with ingredients you can't say, much less spell? What's wrong? Well, it's a crime to treat your body that way! What do you think your body does with all of those ingredients? It's not only unhealthy, I want to know what you think you would do if the Food Police were to catch you committing your crimes.

What would you do?

Well, of course, you would have excuses! Isn't that what we do when we're doing something that we know is wrong? Sure it is! And, I've come up with a list of excuses that the Food Police might hear from you...

The Speeding Excuse:

"Officer, I don’t have the time to cook."
"I'm in a big hurry!"
"It's just quicker and easier to go to the drive-thru."

The Broken Speedometer Excuse:

"Officer, the oven temperature is off, so I can’t cook anything."
"My oven just doesn't work right and I don't have the right pans."
"I just can't cook."

The Impending Event Excuse:

"Officer, It’s an emergency, I’m a pregnant woman and I have to get to the drive-thru!"
"My kids have basketball tonight and this fast food place is on the way."

I have to tell you that just as with real policemen, none of these excuses would soften the food police. However, there are some changes that you could make to your eating habits that might grant you some leniency from the food police.

If the food police are watching you:

Whole Fruit Breakfast: Eat an apple or your favorite piece of fruit each morning instead of your favorite muffin or other baked goods.

Whole Food Lunch: Instead of walking under the golden arches, if you were seen walking into the grocery store for lunch, returning with a salad, cooked chicken breast, or whole fresh fruit juice, the food police just might look the other way.

Healthy Dinner: If your house is bugged by the food police, you’ll want them to hear the sounds of a basic sauté method, the sizzle of a sauté pan, the oven opening and closing and the timer going off.

Cooking and eating more nutritious foods will help you to keep the food police at bay and even if they catch you committing the occasional crime against your stomach, you'll be more likely to have the charges dismissed in open court.

In my next blog post, I’ll tell you how the charges against me have been dismissed.

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People will see me or write to me and say, "But, Chef Todd, how can you possibly understand my fear of cooking? You cook beautiful, nutritious foods for thousands every week." First of all, I haven't always eaten or cooked nutritious food because healthy cooking wasn't on my agenda and as far as the fear of cooking...well, I certainly do understand it, because I still have it.

Let me tell you a couple of stories that developed my fear of cooking:

Story #1 - I was the executive chef at a very large hospital, I was also a chef at the National Security Agency (NSA) in Washington D.C. and we fed 15,000 people breakfast and lunch every day. Talk about a moment for fear of cooking! In fact, on my first day on the job at NSA, I had to grill cases and cases of chicken breast (remember, 15,000 people!!). I had the non-stick spray in one hand and the chicken breast in the other and began to spray the chicken, put it on the grill, spray the chicken, put it on the grill (you get the picture) until I began to smell something foul. I looked down and to my shock and horror, I was spraying the chicken with stainless steel grill cleaner! I had to throw about 100 chicken breasts into the garbage on my first day on the job.

Story #2 - This is my catering horror story that could strike fear in anyone that cooks (professional or not). I was catering a very large wedding with approximately 450 people in attendance. I had a warmer loaded with food for all of the wedding guests and placed it in my catering van using a big lift gate. Everything was great, we took the first turn and there was a sound from the back of the van, but we continued until we got to the event. We opened the back of the van and the warmer was tilted on its side with gravy pouring out of the bottom and all of the food smashed against the front of the warmer.

My fear of cooking is on a professional level, and I can’t avoid it. If I tried, I would be out of business. You, on the other hand, you can avoid cooking, but it would be a crime. It would be a crime against your stomach and your entire body. How do I know? Well, because I used to avoid cooking for myself at all costs.

I would cook all day long, beautiful nutritious food for my business, deliver my healthy cooking and think to myself, "Wow, now I'm tired and hungry!" And you know what I would do? I would pull my upscale catering van through the drive-through at McDonald's and commit crimes against my stomach. I would be cooking healthy all day long and then not eat healthy myself.

And do you know how I know that I was committing crimes against my stomach? Because keeping myself from eating healthy, nutritious foods left me feeling badly, sometimes I would even feel depressed and lethargic, and on top of that, I didn't sleep well. How embarrassing! To cook healthy foods all day long and then choose not to cook for myself and eat less than nutritiously sound foods. Even though I was cooking great food for others, I was committing a crime against myself.

Fast food, packaged foods, heavy-salt frozen foods are all ways to avoid being able to understand and handle whole foods. I have committed these crimes against my own stomach and now I want to help you with some community service on your intestines and start giving a few ideas to fill your stomach with more wholesome food, whether you cook or not.

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