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Light Bites · Recipes · Uncategorized

Cottage Cheese Bagel: A Protein-Packed Breakfast You Need to Try

cooking tips for stainless steel pans
Uncategorized

Cooking Tips for Stainless Steel Pans To Make Your Life Easier

what kind of pans are non toxic
Cooking Tips · Kitchen Must Haves

What kind of Pans are Non-Toxic? | The Best Non-Toxic Pans on the Market

Welcome foodie friends! Looking for food blog recipes? Here you can find inspiration for your newest kitchen obsession, learn to cook at home with confidence and entertain guests with the healthy main meals. Discover the food blog recipes for easy dinners recipes, light bites, 5 minute side dishes, healthy salad recipes for dinner, easy sweet treats and plant based cooking. Build on your kitchen skills with cooking tips and tricks, cooking techniques, chef knife skills, balancing seasoning and spices & find a new appreciation for food history. Our collection of food finds will organize your kitchen with pantry essentials and the latest kitchen must haves.

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FEATURED THIS WEEK

Cooking Tips for Stainless Steel Pans To Make Your Life Easier
BySophie Balat March 3, 2025February 24, 2025
The Best Easter Brunch Menu Ideas
BySophie Balat January 22, 2024January 27, 2024

MEET Sophie

Hello friend!

I’m a professional chef and self-proclaimed foodie. On my food blog, you can be sure to discover Quick and Healthy Recipes, Cooking Tips & Food Finds.

Elevate your culinary skills list, explore my healthy recipes blog, and uncover the latest kitchen must haves & cooking essentials with me. xxo, Soph

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cooking tips and tricks
Cooking Techniques · Cooking Tips · Knife Skills · Seasonings and Spices

7 Cooking Tips and Tricks for Effortless Cooking at Home

Get ready to improve your kitchen prowess as I discuss these time-tested cooking tips and tricks! Cooking at home can be an outlet for us to express our creative energy, but spending any time in the kitchen…

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easter brunch menu
Cooking Tips · Holiday Cooking & Baking

The Best Easter Brunch Menu Ideas

Add a festive touch to your Easter morning with these Easter brunch menu ideas. The best way to prepare your meal for the holiday is to plan out your Easter brunch menu. When hosting a large holiday,…

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healthy easter basket idea
Food Finds

15+ Healthy Easter Basket Ideas Instead of Candy

Finding alternative healthy Easter Basket ideas can be tricky when it seems like everything at the store is either candy or chocolate. Easter is such a fun time of the year. As a kid, I remember plenty…

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how to improve knife skills
Cooking Tips · Knife Skills

How to Improve Knife Skills and Chop Fast Like a Chef

This post is about how to improve knife skills. Everyone, chefs included, should always be working on improving your knife skills. The basis of cooking starts with a foundation of good knife skills. With strong knife skills,…

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easy christmas dinner ideas
Cooking Tips · Holiday Cooking & Baking

Easy Christmas Dinner Ideas to Save Time & Money

This post is about easy Christmas dinner ideas. Christmas dinner can be overwhelming to plan, but it doesn’t have to be. These easy Christmas dinner ideas can help you feel more in control this holiday. Perhaps you…

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christmas dinnerware sets
Food Finds · Holiday Cooking & Baking

12 Best Christmas Dinnerware Sets for Festive Table Decor

This post is about best Christmas dinnerware sets. There is nothing quite like taking out your seasonal Christmas dinnerware sets to make a holiday meal special. Your Christmas plateware and servingware not only reflects your personality as…

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Meet Sophie

Meet Sophie
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Hello foodie friends! My name is Sophie, and I have been professionally cooking as a chef for over 10 years. I share cooking tips, recipes, and foodie finds with you, no matter where you are in your culinary journey.

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✨🔪How do chefs make cooking look so easy? Out ✨🔪How do chefs make cooking look so easy? Outside of having a commercial-sized kitchen with every industrial-grade appliance at our disposal, there are a few chef tips and tricks that you can apply in your kitchen at home to make cooking easier. 💥

✨Keep a well-stocked pantry. More than just the basics, like salt, pepper, butter, etc— think about what cuisine you like to eat and cook. 

✨If you know you love cooking Mediterranean food, make sure to always have kalamat olives sundried tomatoes, and good olive oil on hand. This makes preparing dinner much easier when the guesswork is taken out. 🫒🌶️🧄

✨Some chefs like to work in silence, but others prefer music! Playing music in the background is an extension of the creative process when cooking. It helps you let loose and have fun! 🎶

✨And finally, always ask for feedback on your dishes. Chefs are constantly tasting each other’s food in the kitchen as it is being prepared, and that’s because everyone has a different palate. 😋

✨It’s important to consider that the level of salt you like in a dish may be too salty for some people. Asking for constructive cristism can help you fine tune your palate and encourage cooking and eating to be a community building activity. 🧂

❗️This is especially important if you have little ones at home. Asking for their opinion on the food they are eating helps them to make the connection between different flavors and textures, growing them into great eaters in the future!💯🐣

#cookingtips #cookingtipsandtricks #cooking

🏷️ eeeats, food, foodie, food blogger, chef, private chef, cooking at home, learn to cook, foostagram, cooking reels, cooking recipes, cooking videos, cooking class, food cooking, cooking receipes, healthy cooking, healthy food, foodies reels, food recipe, food reels, food videos
🔥🍳Cooking scallops the right way is an art f 🔥🍳Cooking scallops the right way is an art form. Seriously. As a chef, you learn to cook scallops by the way they feel and look. 

And for a home cook, this can be a challenge. “How am I supposed to know when scallops are done cooking ? 🤷🏻‍♀️Just by looking at them and… knowing?” 🤯

Yes. 😎

Scallops only take minutes to cook. You should cook them quickly and serve them immediately, otherwise, they can become chewy and rubbery. But when cooked correctly, scallops have an incredibly buttery mouthfeel. ✨😋

And the perfect scallop is truly a sight to behold. Mastering cooking scallops like a chef will certainly impress all your friends at your next dinner party. 💯

🔪Here are my four quick chef tips for cooking scallops:

✨Be sure to use paper towel to remove any excess moisture.

✨Preheat your pan so that it is ripping hot and your scallop begins searing as soon as it makes contact with the pan. 

✨Season your scallops seconds before cooking so as not to draw out any excess moisture. 

✨Don’t touch them! Allow the scallops to sear and watch the bottom of the pan for that Maillard reaction. 

❓What other foods do you have trouble with cooking at home? Let me know in the comments. 

#cookingtips #cookingtipsandtricks #cooking

🏷️ eeeats, food, foodie, food blogger, chef, private chef, cooking at home, learn to cook, foostagram, cooking reels, cooking recipes, cooking videos, cooking class, food cooking, cooking receipes, healthy cooking, healthy food, foodies reels, food recipe, food reels, food videos
🔪👩🏻‍🍳This Chef Life / Content Creati 🔪👩🏻‍🍳This Chef Life / Content Creating Life has been a journey my friends. And as much as I’d like to tell you it’s all been reeeeeal easy, that’s not always the case. 🙃

There are days when I don’t feel like posting any cooking reels… so I don’t. 😣

There are days when I don’t open Instagram — AT ALL. 🫣

There are days when I endlessly doom scroll looking for chef inspiration from other food bloggers and say to myself, “Why can’t my posts look this good?”😪

✨Staying motivated ALL THE TIME— it’s impossible. In all aspects of your life. My advice? Don’t try to be. Have those “cheat days” from social media. If you create a community with your awesome food content and cooking recipes, your followers will still be there when you get back. 🤗

✨Your biggest fan is YOU. It’s gotta be. If you don’t enjoy working on your content, it shows. If you don’t love what you post, it shows. If the chef doesn’t season their food, it shows, and it’s NOT enjoyable.

🌈It’s important that every time you show up, you are authentically yourself. 🌈

✨And finally, posting content every day is NOT the marker of success. There are so many content creators in the food space who will say otherwise. “The only way to grow is to post daily”. WRONG. ❌The only way to grow is to post consistently. Quality over quantity my friends. 

If you post trash every day, and one of those trash posts goes viral and gets a million views… thats an awesome achievement! But what matters is how many followers you gain, and the community you create. That is where your true influence lies. ✨💯

#cookingtips #cookingtipsandtricks #cooking

🏷️ eeeats, food, foodie, food blogger, chef, private chef, cooking at home, learn to cook, foostagram, cooking reels, cooking recipes, cooking videos, cooking class, food cooking, cooking receipes, healthy cooking, healthy food, foodies reels, food recipe, food reels, food videos
🍝We are going back to basics - how to cook past 🍝We are going back to basics - how to cook pasta. And I’ve got three chef tips for cooking pasta that you should remember as a home cook. 🍝

✨Numéro Uno, and arguably, the most important tip for pasta - SEASON YOUR PASTA WATER! 🚰

Adding salt to the water enhances the flavor of the pasta itself. Pasta cooked in unsalted water can taste bland, while salted water infuses the pasta with a subtle savory flavor. 😋

Salt also helps to bring out the natural flavors of the pasta and any accompanying sauces. 🧂

✨Numéro Dos — Cook your pasta al dene. 

Overcooking can result in a loss of flavor as the pasta becomes waterlogged and bland. 🥲

But al dente pasta provides a satisfying chew to enjoy, which also can hold up to thicker sauces. 🍋🍅🧈

✨Numéro Tres — Never add olive oil to your pasta. 

When pasta is cooked with olive oil, it becomes coated with a layer of oil, which prevents the sauce from adhering properly. 🤦🏻‍♀️

This can result in a dish where the sauce slides off the pasta, rather than coating it evenly. So when you go to get a forkful of your pasta, the sauce ends up splattering all over you, instead of sticking to your pasta. 🫣

✨Are there any other foods you need help cooking at home? Let me know in the comments. 🔪🤍

#cookingtips #cookingtipsandtricks #cooking

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