I sometimes look for recipes on the internet too and I also easily find good stuff. But it is in finnish so maybe Finns do mostly food blogs that are easy to use and are mostly about the main topic.
I am a veggie guy all the way although I eat sometimes dairy,eggie and meaty stuff but only when I am hungry... Or when I am not hungry. But seriously I do think animals that are raised to be eaten should have better lives and not be locked in some one square foot area. Maybe some time in the far future, all animals will be free and people will eat just veggies as it takes a lot of energy and food stuff to feed all the animals that are raised as food. I would be happy to go on a meat free diet but it just seems difficult to accomplish this and also I like a good beef.

sharke
 
Anywhere it says butter, I substitute coconut oil. In fact I use coconut oil a LOT. Love it on a toasted muffin with peanut butter.

 
Shouldn't that be peanut coconut oil ?

paulo

sharke
 
Anywhere it says butter, I substitute coconut oil. In fact I use coconut oil a LOT. Love it on a toasted muffin with peanut butter.

 
Shouldn't that be peanut coconut oil ?

Depends on whether I'm at the top or bottom of the jar of peanut butter. I buy this stuff that's literally just ground peanuts with no other ingredients. The oil rises to the top and you have to stir it first. The first half of the jar is usually really oily but by the time I get to the bottom it's kind of dry, but luckily the coconut oil makes the muffin moist so it's all good. 

Hi,
From my 20+ years in restaurants, including management.
 
Cooking is not hard. Learning a few easy details helps define the way you do things and allows for you to make your own combinations.
 
In general, I never use cookbooks, and I cheat, since I used them for many fancy items for many years ... see if you can do a Chateaubriand correctly, or if you can flambee those peaches in one piece!
 
It's all about procedure.
 
Of all the books I ever looked at, there is one that is HUGE, but it has in it, something that most cookbooks do not. A "basic" section for most items. For example ... one for Lamb, one for Beef, one for Chicken, one for Pork, and so on. Learning these is fairly simple, but you will eventually figure out how to cook other things, and create masterpieces, based on the very BASIC process for each piece.
 
Ex: You want that chicken to NOT taste bland and watery, with a nice sauce around it. You don't just place the sauce over the chicken, which, for the most part, is just making it look pretty and not necessarily tasty. In this case, the piece of chicken will still taste bland and watery, and the contrasting sauce too spicy (or salty/peppery) than it should.
 
Thus, the basic for chicken, includes basting, brazing and the like, leaving enough room, so that you can finish the chicken with the specified sauce and allow the chicken to "absorb" some of the sauce. At which point, there is a nice balance between the chicken and the sauce.
 
NOTE: Tendency is to make the sauces strong and the meats over done. If you do this, the meats will not absorb anything, or share its "juices" with the sauce. If you undercook the meat, the sauce will over power it, and then you might have a piece that is undercooked, although tasty, not advised for proper consumption ... ie. undercooked pork, or chicken, specially with any kind of fresh vegetables in it.
 
NOTE2: Home cooking is not designed for fancy stuff like restaurants can do. For example, no one has a "warming oven" at home, A great example of these would be those 30# turkeys, or those 20# Prime Ribs, that you should cook for 10 hours at 180 degrees (time is based on the weight), and the slow cooking, allows all the juices to stay inside and all you have to do later is braise it at 375 degrees for 15 to 25 minutes, to give it color. The flavor is all inside.
 
NOTE3: Home is not the place for the large grills, that have one advantage of the home cooking apparatus! The grills "set" temperature, makes it easy to do a variety of things ... a fried rice ends up consistent ... and braising vegetables for a soup is much different in the result instead of just throwing all the vegetables into the soup.
 
The book is called "LAROUSSE GASTRONOMIQUE" and is of French origin. It is a huge book, but its "basic" information is incredible, and off one "basic" setup, it tells you how you can make 10 to 15 things off it.
 
All of a sudden cooking is easy!

Moshkito
All of a sudden cooking is easy!

Even easier here....
 

craigb

Moshkito
All of a sudden cooking is easy!

The only thing that is hard to do right in that box is actually getting the noodles right so they are not over cooked!
 
The rest is a tree wasted at least to get a little colorful cover!
 
(... couldn't help it Craig!!! sorry!)
 
 
 

Mesh
Even easier here....
 

Even simpler ... flour, water and some salt for the crust ... the rest is just your ingenuity and creativity!

sharke
Anywhere it says butter, I substitute coconut oil. In fact I use coconut oil a LOT. Love it on a toasted muffin with peanut butter. One of my favorite meals at the minute is a pizza I make with lavish bread brushed with coconut oil. I just spread tomato paste on it, sprinkle with Italian herbs then put onions, peppers, garlic, olives, capers, sweetcorn, broccoli, cauliflower, mushrooms and cherry tomatoes on it. 15 mins in a hot oven and oo la la. 
 
I think I have quite a high fat diet despite being almost vegan. But it's all good fats. I eat an avocado every morning and sometimes one with dinner as well. 
 
Don't eat tofu, soy, or any of those fake "vegan meats" at all. Can't stand them. Soy makes you grow moobs. 
 
So I get most of my good protein from eggs, but I also like the Vega protein shakes, which I mix with Max Vibrance (a powder full of greens and vegan protein). I also eat a lot of nuts and beans, if you mix them with grains you get some complete protein there also. 
 
Me and the girlfriend don't eat out much (in fact hardly at all) because we find that we enjoy our own meals more than anything we can get in a restaurant. We make a killer salad and once a week we'll cook up a big batch of something - lentil soup, black bean soup, quinoa salad, chili, curry, risotto, chana masala, shakshuka etc - then pour it into glass freezer boxes and freeze it. So the freezer is always full of meals to defrost and have with a salad (or some steamed veggies). Everything done in my little kitchen on my smallish stove. Yep space isn't exactly this apartment's strong point but I've lived in some tight situations in the past and you just adapt. 
 
One great thing about being off dairy is that I'm no longer tempted by any of those little cakes and cookies they have on display in coffee shops like Starbucks. I used to eat that crap all the time, no more. Nowadays I always carry a big bag of home made trail mix with me - pecans, cashews, almonds, walnuts, raisins, goji berries, pumpkin seeds and sunflower seeds. 

That's actually pretty great, well rounded, and easy to toss most everything together in many configurations.
 
An interesting concept to not plan a meal around a chunk of meat, but you can actually plan it around itself. lol
And you're right about munching on those nuts and berries. So much good clean energy in them, and there's so many varieties to fit almost any taste.
 
My problem is I'm not a salad fan at all ... never found a dressing I liked to cover it up either. lol
I grew up thinking veggies were just colorful decorations for beef, and I'm selective, but now I'm trying to eat better, less fat, and less meat is starting to sink in a little.
 
 

sylent
 
That's actually pretty great, well rounded, and easy to toss most everything together in many configurations.
 
An interesting concept to not plan a meal around a chunk of meat, but you can actually plan it around itself. lol
And you're right about munching on those nuts and berries. So much good clean energy in them, and there's so many varieties to fit almost any taste.
 
My problem is I'm not a salad fan at all ... never found a dressing I liked to cover it up either. lol
I grew up thinking veggies were just colorful decorations for beef, and I'm selective, but now I'm trying to eat better, less fat, and less meat is starting to sink in a little.
 

 
The trick to a good salad in my opinion is to include as many ingredients as possible and chop/dice them finely. There is nothing worse than a salad with large leaves of green and huge tomato slices and onion rings etc. When everything's diced you get this wonderful combo of flavors on your fork and it's so much more satisfying to eat. 
 
My signature salad includes the following:
 

• Greens (kale/arugula/spinach etc)
• Microgreens (mustard, kale, sunflower, broccoli  - they come in tiny little shoots)
• Baby broccoli
• Baby peppers
• Button mushrooms
• Californian endives
• Celery
• Cucumber
• Red onion
• Cherry tomatoes
• Garlic
• Sunchokes (Jerusalem artichokes)
• Radishes
• Beets
• Sauerkraut 

 
All of that gets chopped, diced or shredded. For a dressing I just use a copious amount of olive oil (with a little walnut oil if I have it), a nice splash of balsamic vinegar, some wholegrain Dijon mustard, oregano, parsley and celery seed. If you make the above and it doesn't taste amazing to you, then I guess you really aren't a salad person, lol. 
 
My latest discovery is avocado on toast. It's best with sourdough bread but tonight I warmed up a wholegrain baguette and spread Dijon mustard on it then smooshed avocado on the top, with a little salt and pepper. Oh la la.