Ready to save time by ditching recipes and whip up meals with what’s in your fridge and pantry?
Doors to Ditch the Recipes are closed.
Join the waitlist and I’ll also send you the Kitchen Time Hacks FREE series … so you can plan, prep and cook, simple delish and healthy meals faster.
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Being busy doesn’t mean you shouldn’t cook your own meals. In fact, it’s a reason you must.
You can follow a recipe. Feel like you have some skills in your kitchen belt.
Yet it’s a 50/50 tightrope. You’re not starting from scratch with learning to cook but you know there’s a lot you don’t know… like your kitchen vibe has gaps. You need some new skills and flavour combo’s.
But that doesn’t mean you’re enjoying cooking, that it flows or feels natural… (and it can and should). In fact, it might even feel like you’re pushing the proverbial up hill every day and you’re sick.of.it.
Cooking can feel relentless. Fitting it into an already packed schedule is like Tetris on the advanced levels. Everything is moving so fast and you’re crashing full speed from commitment to commitment.
Without a solid routine, skills and confidence, things aren’t going to get any better on their own. In fact, there’s a big risk they could get worse.
#I’velostmykitchenmojo
Let me guess, you find yourself nodding along to most of these statements.
▷ You dream of being able to whip up a meal with what you have. The idea sounds part Martha Stewart, part rebellious and part ‘kitchen nonna’.
▷ You want to save money on your grocery bill. You know you spend too much and when you ‘budget’ you end up with uninspiring food.
▷ You care about what you eat. Yours (and your families) health is a priority that you don’t take lightly. You know there’s a lot you could make but it seems scary and complicated.
▷ You’re on the recipe hamster wheel and sick of cooking the same meals over and over. You need new flavour combo’s and don’t have the time for failures.
▷ You’re busy with many balls in the air. You know you need to meal prep but it feels clunky. You want to open that fridge and see all that prepped goodness staring back at you. You know it’ll make the big weeks that much easier.
▷ The process of recipe searching, planning, shopping and cooking feels like a full time job. And you already have one of those.
▷ You *secretly* dream of being this cook that makes all the cool things. Whether it’s yoghurt, kimchi, jam. Maybe it’s preserving the seasons so you have pretty jars on your shelf that you gift to your friends. But you know before you get to that, you gotta sort out this dinner thing first and making healthy delish meals fast.
Of course cooking doesn’t feel like fun. It feels like a chore when you’re always searching for recipes. Racing the clock to put dinner together. When you mess up a meal trying to put your creative flare on it. When your partner/fam turn their nose up at dinner (again).
Experiences like these build up over time and you’ll start to think it’s you. That you don’t have what it takes, that you’re not creative enough, that you’re too busy with life and work and kids and you must follow a recipe and cooking ‘isn’t for you’… but you still have to do it.
It’s that special kind of damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Here’s the good news and the bad news
You are a citizen of the #Convenience-Generation where life has been 1000% stacked against you cooking for yourself.
THE SHORT VERSION OF HOW WE GOT HERE: About 50 years ago. Big Food told everyone that cooking was difficult, messy, time consuming and replaceable with processed food.
And in 2 generations poof the highly coveted life survival skill passed down from generation to generation was forgotten.
The best bit?
It’s not your fault
I’m Lou. Kitchen Coach, Mama …
and lover of crispy bacon, homemade popcorn and 3 drinks at once (coffee, water and OJ and no I definitely can drink them all).
I bought the concept of ‘healthy lunch delivery’ to the Sydney CBD in 2013 when you had to walk 45 minutes to get a half decent bowl of greens.
And back to those 3 hour corn fritters, I’d serve them up, with nothing else. Then demand my guests cook their own eggs (and mine too).
You’ll find me in Vogue, Harris Farm, Buzzfeed, and Body+Soul. And most notably (to me) cooking day in and day out for my family, while being a mum, running a business and having a life.
MISTAKES I’VE MADE
– I followed recipes to a ‘T’. Step by step. I was so busy focussing, I never learnt anything and I’d be exhausted by the time the meal was ready.
– I’d buy all the ingredients and then never use them, wasting my money.
– I used to plan my meals by following other peoples recipes, not paying attention to the seasons.
– Because I didn’t pay attention to the seasons. My veggies weren’t fresh and delicious like seasonal is and I spent more money on our grocery bill.
– And because I lacked confidence and skills, I couldn’t freestyle with the ingredients I had meaning I’d waste food that I left sitting it the fridge.
– When I started experimenting with ditching the recipe. I made a lot of bad, bland and inedible meals because I lacked a solid cooking foundation and flavour knowledge.
Throw in a Cancer scare at 21. A lot of bland meals and litres of sludgey poo-brown smoothies. I’ve emerged with the cooking knowledge of a 150 year old Nonna.
I’ve hacked the recipe planning system to make my life easier while cooking for hundreds a week and this is what I’m teaching inside my newest creation…
Meet: ditch the recipes
The 6 week program designed to fill in the gaps of your cooking skills. That shows you how to save time, money and reduce the mental bandwidth of cooking by ditching the recipe books.
So you can whip up tasty AF meals with what’s already in your pantry and fridge in 6 weeks. Without over complicated recipes, blowing your grocery budget on ingredients you’ll never use again or wasting hours in the kitchen.
KIND WORDS FROM A STUDENT:
You sparked my love of cooking and have saved so much time and money. I cook with ease, fun and a spring in my step. Worth the time and investment, ten fold.
I wasn’t a confident cook and I over complicated everything. Cooking felt like a chore. I followed recipes to try and make it easier but I was so scared to stuff it up and I’d get so disappointed when the recipe didn’t turn out right. I wasted money on random ingredients I never used and ordering takeaway. I didn’t know how to put a simple meal together and I wasn’t good with flavour combo’s.
Lou’s recipes and classes were simple, clear and enjoyable. I felt renewed after the cooking sessions. I enjoyed the no fuss, no drama, entertaining classes. Lou’s passion for cooking is contagious and she was so generous with the amount of time she dedicated to us.
Working with Lou sparked my love of cooking. I now have the guts (and skills) to try new ingredients and recipes. Since our classes I have saved so much time and money. I no longer over complicate the process, I am creative, I can cook without a recipe, with ease and it’s fun! I use what I have and I no longer waste food. Working with Lou was worth the time and investment ten fold. If you want to smile in the kitchen, save money, and eat well, then work with Lou. Read her guides and cook with her – it changes how you will cook forever.
– Allanah
KIND WORDS FROM A STUDENT:
I am more willing to just throw things together when cooking, resulting in some never-to-be-repeated amazing meals. And getting to use up lots of leftovers which I love!
I used to struggle about even *thinking about cooking a proper meal. I lacked motivation and it affected me financially, as I was missing out on food cost savings because I would buy (relatively healthy) convenience meals.
Working with Lou was clear, simple and the step by step process was very supportive and motivating. The classes were taught in a relaxed way that made it very easy to follow.
After watching lots of Lou on Instagram and participating in the Kitchen Saucery classes – I was proud of myself for actually being able to roast a chicken! And it tasted good! I am more willing to just throw things together when cooking, resulting in some never-to-be-repeated amazing meals. And getting to use up lots of leftovers which I love!
– Lauren A
How much it costs to keep cooking the way you’re cooking
According to the EPA the average home throws out 1 in 5 bags of groceries. Totalling $2,500 per year… and that’s pre-2022 inflation.
Add the cost of emergency takeaway, pre-made meals and meal kits. These are all expenses eating into your back pocket because you’re stuck in limbo following recipes but not equipped with all the skills required to cook.
LET’S LOOK AT THAT FOOD WASTE STAT IN A CHART:
The average person cooks for 40 years of their life. And will bin $100k worth of food in that time. If you improved your cooking skills and invested that money you could have an extra $300k in your back pocket…. or a lot of shoes 😉
The way you’re doing it now is costing you…
$2,500
Average food waste amount (per year)
$2,600
Takeaway cost.
$50 per week.
$2,600
Additional grocery spend. Due to lack of foundation skills and not buying seasonally. $50 per week.
26 hours
That’s 1 day and 1 hour. Time spent researching recipes each week. 30 minutes per week
78 hours
That’s 3 days and 6 hours. Extra time spent referring back to recipes while cooking (not including actual cooking time)
KIND WORDS FROM A STUDENT:
Dinner tonight was simple, quick to make, healthy and super tasty. The whole fam; 3 year old, 8 month old and hubs devoured it. It wasn’t a recipe from anywhere. I used what I had and made it up and trusted my instinct, got a little creative, reinvented a previous ‘fail’ and not only was it not stressful or hard but I found myself effortlessly doing it with babe on the hip.
This course is priceless. You are fucking wonderful, the work you do is fabulous and you made my cooking head and heart soar! And that has made such a difference to my life on many levels.
Tonight was the night I realised the impact of your course. Since I signed up I have been doing little changes here and there to my pantry, my fridge, my purchasing. I’ve been watching your videos and dabble in your recipes and take bits from here and there but to be honest I had been having this underlying feeling of frustration at myself that I had not been doing more, more of your recipes, asking more questions, connecting more to the live lessons.
But tonight it just hit me. I’m fricken good at cooking- no I am fucking great at it and I god damn love it.
Dinner tonight was simple, quick to make, healthy and super tasty. The whole fam bam; 3 year old, 8 month old and hubs devoured it. It wasn’t a recipe from anywhere. I used what I had and made it up and trusted my instinct, got a little creative, reinvented a previous ‘fail’ and not only was it not stressful or hard but I found myself effortlessly doing it with babe on the hip.
Your gems and philosophy have crept into me and filled me up and armed me to be a cooking genius without me even realising!
Tonight hit me in the face how far I have come over the past few months because of you and your course. My pantry is full with jars of lentils, beans, rice, my spice rack has expanded, I’ve got homemade ghee smiling at me, homemade granola replacing expensive cereals, salad sprinkles and toppers ready to go, a freezer full of meals and homemade treats of yum! But it’s how easy it was and is that surprised me and how good I feel about it. I realised I don’t have to tick boxes or be a certain way or complete this and that… its my life and food is a part of my everyday. I just need to take responsibility for it and make time to have that healthy relationship with myself and cooking.
– Shell
Doors to ditch the recipes are closed.
Join the waitlist.
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KIND WORDS FROM A STUDENT:
Even though I already pretty much ‘knew how to cook’, I had followed your journey for years and liked your quirky funny style and excellent recipes. I’m always looking for great healthy recipes and was particularly keen for some easy sauces and salad dressing options as I always make the same one and was so bored of it.
I found your course approachable, funny and light hearted and this made it so much fun to learn. You made us feel relaxed to ask questions and it felt good being part of a cooking community where you’re all in the same boat.
Kitchen Saucery gave me new recipes but more importantly techniques and tips and a new way to think about meals and salad dressings. Having a jar of the best tasting liquid gold makes lunchtime fun, easy and quick. I really believe that being able to cook and nourish yourself is a non-negotiable life skill and you’re not going to get those vital skills from google or a book.
– Amelia
Imagine this
While everyone’s off endlessly searching for recipes and feeling like they’re in a recipe rut hamster wheel, with a 50% dinner success rate. you’re cooking, eating, loving and repeating.
You walk in the door after a helluva day.
Open the fridge and see a bunch of pre-marinaded chicken thighs staring at you from the bowl of lemon, garlic, garden herbs and some sneaky cumin and sumac they’re marinading in.
The chicken sizzles in the pan while throw together a quick salad.
You find the jar of home-made labneh everyone loves, marinaded olives and that tahini maple dressing you made in bulk on Sunday that you’ve been drizzling on everything in sight.
All piled on the table with a bowl of that spiced rice you made 2 nights ago.
Dinner done in less than 30, it’s delicious and no recipe in sight.
