Beginning the Journey - Getting your environment ready

The first step in your journey toward the freedom of food is getting your environment ready. Just like your desk at work, your kitchen needs to be an organized, pleasant place so you can function smoothly and calmly.

Let's start with lighting - if you can't see what you are doing you can't get it done efficiently. There are 2 types of lighting readily available today - incandescent and fluorescent. Both have advantages and disadvantages. Incandescent (the regular light bulbs we are all used to putting in our lamps) lights give a "warm" yellowish light which is the best for looking at food while fluorescent (the long tube lights or strange shaped bulbs now available) lights put out a "cool" blue light which tends to wash out the colors of what we see. That's why lighted makeup mirrors have different settings for office (fluorescent lighting) and evening (incandescent lighting or candlelight).

Fluorescent lighting is more energy efficient than incandescent lighting (by about 80%) but recent research is showing fluorescent lights may be leaking mercury into the air which we then breathe.

If you opt for fluorescent lighting in your kitchen, please use a full spectrum bulb. The full spectrum bulb has the energy efficiency of fluorescent and the "warm" light of incandescent.

Whichever type of lighting you choose, make sure you have a fixture directly over your work area. The aim is to have minimal shadows on your work space. If the only light in your kitchen is the overhead in the center of the ceiling and you're working on the counter top by the stove you are working in your own shadow (since you are standing in between the light and the counter) which makes it rather difficult to see exactly what you are doing.

Under-cabinet light fixtures are a wonderful cure for this and you don't even need to run an electrical wire in order to install them. You can buy battery operated fixtures which just stick to the underside of the overhead cabinets or you can get fixtures which just plug into the wall socket. Prices start at about $40.00.

I find the space between the sink and stove to be the perfect work area - you are close enough to the sink to get water and rinse dishes as you use them yet still close enough to the stove to not have to carry your prepared food across the kitchen in order to cook it. The prime reason for choosing a particular work space is to reduce the number of steps you have to take in order to go from raw ingredients to prepared meals.

If your kitchen does not have enough counter space to work between the sink and stove, pick the largest counter space available to you. Should you live in one of those apartments with NO counter space you can get a rolling island to work on. I found a great one which has 2 drawers and shelves under them along with the worktop for $269.00. It's solid wood and on wheels so you can move it out of the way when you don't need to work on it.

I don't recommend working on your dining room table because it is too low to work on while you're standing up and too high to work on when you're sitting down. However, if it is the only work space available, use it but plan on working in short bursts to avoid fatigue.

On the subject of fatigue - if standing for relatively long periods of time is difficult for you get a kitchen stool to sit on at your counter while you work. I always sit on mine while I peel potatoes. I arrange the stool next to the counter with my cutting board, drag the trash can over so I can peel the potatoes straight into it (that way I don't have to carry the peels across the kitchen and probably pick up several of them off the floor afterward). With this arrangement I can peel the potatoes, rinse them (remember I work between my sink and stove), chop them on the cutting board, and put them into the cooking pot. All without getting off my stool!

Next week we'll talk about food storage.