by Melanie A. Albert, intuitive cooking expert, author, speaker, Founder & CEO Experience Nutrition Group, LLC
As I sit here late tonight with the beautiful full moon above my home in Phoenix, with a beautiful cloud ring around it, I really want to be outside looking forward to the Super Blue Blood Moon. Thus, tonight’s blog will be very short.
This morning while making my Superfood Smoothie, I realized that I actually almost always set up my “mise en place” when I cook, prepare, and plate food. Even with today’s smoothie, I mindfully put my ingredients into place before “plating” (if you want to call it plating) my smoothie.
My Smoothie Mise en Place
Today’s Superfood Smoothie
Excerpt from “A New View of Healthy Eating”
Mise en Place: Be Organized When You Cook
Mise en Place (French pronunciation: [mi zɑ̃ ˈplas]) is a French phrase that means “putting in place,” as in “setting up.”
Mise en Place is used in the kitchen to “set up” all the ingredients needed to prepare a dish before we start cooking. The purpose is to be organized when we cook, with everything ready so that it’s easier to cook. Mise en Place is a useful cooking technique to incorporate when you are cooking in your kitchen for both complex and simple recipes.
With the Mise en Place concept, before we start cooking we get all the ingredients ready, sliced, diced, measured, and organized. To be super organized, we can even set up our ingredients in order of use in the cooking process, which is especially beneficial when cooking a fast-paced meal like a stir-fry or a recipe with a lot of ingredients.
4 Reasons to Love Mise en Place
- Be prepared and calm. You will not be scrambling around your kitchen during the middle of the cooking process, looking for that one ingredient you really need. Also, you will be so organized that you won’t need to rush out to purchase a missing ingredient.
- Cook when cooking. You will not need to quickly chop food you might have forgotten about right in the middle of the cooking process. You will mindfully enjoy cooking your meal.
- Save time. As an example, if you are mincing onions or garlic for several dishes, you can mince them at the same time while setting up your Mise en Place.
- Cook mindfully and clutter-free. Cooking is much more enjoyable in a neat, clutter-free environment. Your cooking process will be mindful and beautiful when you cook in an organized fashion.
ACTION: I invite you to use the Mise en Place process when you cook to bring more mindfulness, organization, and calm to your cooking. Would love to see your Mise en Place photos on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/NewViewHealthyEating
