I’m very happy to share my interview with Wellness Chef extraordinaire Orianne Cosentino! These 5 questions are just a sample of the services that Ori provides as a Wellness Chef, with questions focusing on living and cooking in a pandemic world, food substitutions and remedies for eating within a specific diet, plus recipes for healthy sweet and salty treats.
Her Instagram page, @omcooking_, is full of amazing recipes! With all of us cooking at home more than ever before, Ori is an incredible resource that I’m sure you will be thrilled to know about.
Have you found yourself in a situation where you are changing your dietary intake to accommodate a healing process or a food allergy, and what you end up with are meals you don’t like to eat? … Sometimes, falling back on a diet that exasperates the condition you are working hard at healing. Reaching for sugar or salt during stressful times? Ori offers personal one-on-one consultations, meal plans, and recipes that promote optimal health suited specifically to your health concerns. Her creative spirit (She’s also a brilliant painter) brings an extra flare to basic recipes; she can turn anyone into a Happy Wizard in the kitchen!
Dr. Jean Loscalzo: With limiting our trips to the grocery store, what are your favorite staples to have on hand in the kitchen to make any meal delicious?
Chef Ori: Great question! Wanting to be prepared for the unknown while limiting grocery trips has caused me to give my pantry a lot of thought. When you say “staples,” I think of non-perishable items that can be replenished each time we shop, in addition to buying our fresh and seasonal items. Staples also means that if all else fails, we can throw a meal together from combinations of those items.
I try to always have the following ingredients on hand: canned or dried beans/lentils, olive oil, vinegar, Dijon mustard, nut butter, non-dairy milk, corn tortillas, frozen and/or dried fruit, canned tomatoes, oats, an array of dried herbs and spices, soy sauce, sauerkraut, canned fish (tuna, salmon, sardines), rice, pasta/noodles, olives, honey, and some sort of flour. Oh, and kosher salt! It’s my most-used ingredient, for sure.
Slightly less perishable things that I also always have: onions, garlic, root vegetables, cheese, tofu, and eggs. Even with minimal fresh produce, you can make delicious and healthy meals using these staple ingredients. For example, tuna with white beans and olives dressed in oil and vinegar with a little Dijon can be a gourmet experience. Or crumbling together oats, flour, oil, and honey to top frozen berries bakes into a delicious fruit crisp.
Dr. Jean: A lot of patients have mentioned to me that they have been falling back on an old food crush that may not be so great for them. What are some good alternatives to cane sugar that will still provide that sweet treat people seem to need more of these days?
Chef Ori: It’s ok to revisit one of these old faves once in a while, but hopefully, if you don’t keep them around all the time, you can smoothly reduce the amount of consumption. On a regular basis, a little advanced planning can help you be prepared with alternatives that taste good and make you feel good, too. Smoothies are a great way to have a satisfying, sweet experience using pantry ingredients (listed above).
Are you a chocoholic? Add some raw cocoa powder and a banana, maybe some coconut milk (also a great pantry staple), to that smoothie and nip that craving in the bud with pure deliciousness.
Another way to curb binging on sweets is to learn how to make healthier versions of your favorite foods: brownies, choc chip cookies, and banana bread. If you feel inexperienced in the kitchen, the internet can be your best friend.
There are so many recipes out there that are easy to follow and substitute classic ingredients like white flour, butter, and sugar with great alternatives like whole grain flour, mashed fruit, and cane sugar substitutes like maple or coconut sugar. Whenever I follow a sweet recipe, I also automatically reduce the amount of sweetener by 25%. I have found that it doesn’t make a huge impact on the flavor, and you still get all the satisfaction.
If you add a few homemade goods to your routine instead of eating processed, store-bought sweet foods, your palate will begin to reject overly sweet and chemically-based things and crave whole foods and healthier treats instead. It might take a little time, but it can send that old crush packing forever.
Dr. Jean: Is there a quick, delicious recipe you found during these COVID times that you rediscovered or created?
Chef Ori: Yes! I have been working on a recipe that I really like: a Skillet Pancake. It’s fast and easy to make, and I can really alter the recipe to fit what I have around. It is similar to a pancake batter that gets poured into a hot skillet and then finished by popping it into the oven until it is baked through. For breakfast, I might make it with almond flour and fruit with a drizzle of maple syrup. If I am craving something to have with an afternoon cup of tea,
I’ll flavor it with cinnamon, a few raisins, and chocolate chips instead. A skillet pancake can also be savory! It’s a versatile thing!
Dr. Jean: I noticed that a lot of diets aren’t very balanced. How do you like to approach the balance between healthy eating and dieting?
Chef Ori: Healthy eating is a lifelong process. Dieting is a temporary one. For example, if I am looking to do a cleanse or perhaps heal from an illness, I will put myself on a special ‘diet’ to help my body complete its process. I know exactly what I am eating/not eating and for exactly how long. Healthy eating is learning how to make good choices the majority of the time, with a little wiggle room to live it up on occasion. A quick tip on healthy eating… aim for foods that are altered as little as possible from their natural state.
Example: At the store, when choosing peanut butter, I would read the labels. If one jar said “Peanuts” and another said “Peanuts, Oil, Sugar, etc., etc.,” I am going with the single ingredient choice. If I want a sweeter peanut butter experience, I will still take home the ‘just peanuts’ version and add a little honey to it when I am ready to eat it. That way, the amount of sweetener is controlled by me. Double bonus: Honey is also an all-natural ingredient!
Dr. Jean: Do you have a favorite sweet and also a salty treat that can also be healthy?
Chef Ori: Hu Chocolate has been my secret stash! It is a sustainably and ethically made chocolate that uses coconut sugar instead of cane sugar, which is what I also choose to use in my baked goods for its residual nutrients and lower glycemic index than cane sugar.
For a salty treat, I think roasted sweet potatoes with melted cheddar are a new obsession for me. I halve the potatoes and rub them with a small amount of oil, then dust them with chili powder, salt, and pepper. Then, roast cut-side down at 400F. Once cooked, I smash them flat, add a thin layer of cheese, and pop them back in the oven for a few minutes to melt. Yum!
My Instagram is full of recipes! Skillet Pancake is in the highlights, and Sweet Potato Pizza Crust is the most recent post!
Contact Ori to Find Out More about Her Services
Orianne’s career as a freelance chef has taken her to many unique places. Movie sets, classrooms, penthouses, and tiny little basements. Even on a beach, she can create a hearty meal anywhere, and she can teach you to do the same. A graduate of the Natural Gourmet Institute for Food and Health and an avid traveler, Ori collects recipes and techniques like snapshots of a journey. These findings become the inspiration for the food she cooks. She is a firm supporter of the philosophy that good, high-quality food promotes a good, high-quality life and has found this to be prominent the world over. Currently, she is helping people learn to cook healthy food through private online lessons.
But wait, there’s more!
ocosentinoart.com or find her on Instagram: @omcooking_ and @ocosentinoart
