About – The New Kitchen

Welcome and Thanks for Visiting

You’re in the right place if you

struggle to consistently make the healthy meals you really want to be eating
face health challenges that are limiting, frustrating or just plain scary
can’t consistently make meals to maintain a healthy weight
don’t have time or don’t know how to cook
are bored making the same things night after night
feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the kitchen or view cooking with dread or even panic

I’m glad you’re here! Because this where you can discover how to easily make delicious health-giving meals so you can prevent disease and, more importantly, enjoy good energy, good health and a healthy weight.

About Mary Collette, Healthy Kitchen Companion

I’ll be your guide and supporter on your healthy eating journey. I’m happy to help in this role because I come to you as someone who’s been where you might be now.

Nearly 30 years ago, I was struggling with two very sick toddlers and a very sick me. Thank goodness a naturopath helped me understand what we needed to eat to regain our health: a vegetable-rich, real and whole food diet free of gluten and dairy.

But when I got home from his office, the hard part began. How was I supposed to make meals and feed my family as he prescribed?!! Especially when gluten and dairy products comprised nearly 75% of what we ate! And how was I supposed to do that not just for a couple weeks or months, but for life!

The New Kitchen Way Long story short, I figured out the how part so I could successfully do the what part. In other words, bit by bit, I figured out The New Kitchen habits, systems, tools and skills needed to make the meals my naturopath recommended. And I was able to do make those meals day in and day out, week after week so that we could realize the amazing, health-giving benefits of simply eating well.

Healthy Kitchen Companion So ended my career as corporate attorney as I pivoted to the role of Healthy Kitchen Companion—because of course I needed to share my kitchen know-how so others could realize the health-giving benefits of eating well, too.

It soon became clear that our hectic modern lives were the biggest barrier to making the real, whole food meals that would prevent chronic illness and deliver good health. So over the last 30 years, I devoted myself to observing, brainstorming and developing programs to make healthy meal making doable despite the crazy busy-ness of our lives. To that end, I have:

developed a meal management software program,
provided one-on-one coaching,
authored the book, Take Control of Your Kitchen,
blogged on healthy meal making and eating for over a dozen years, and most importantly,
taught hundreds of classes and exhibited at dozens of health fairs reaching thousands of people.

The New Kitchen Way Throughout all this work, my message has always been: Yes! We CAN make the fun and delicious meals that will make us strong, well people. We just need to re-learn the practical skills, tools and habits that transform meal making into an entirely doable activity–which is exactly what The New Kitchen Way is all about.

About The New Kitchen

In 2011, we founded The New Kitchen as a non-profit*, with this mission:

To prevent chronic disease and other serious medical conditions that are debilitating, costly and rob us of the ability to live in enjoyable and productive ways.
To contribute to this important cause by teaching busy home cooks how to easily and consistently make the health-giving meals that are one of the most important disease-preventing measures available.
To help create a world where preventable diseases no longer cripple us physically, emotionally or financially so our energies can be re-purposed to create a more caring world.

The Implementation Gap The New Kitchen arose out of a problem I had seen again and again in the years prior: People wanted to cook healthy meals but there was a huge gap between their good intentions and their ability to deliver.

Plenty of health professionals had studied what we must eat for optimal health and had shared that information widely with the public. Yet I kept seeing people struggle and give up when it came to implementing that advice.

For example, we might walk in the kitchen to make a good meal but take-out containers and a few condiments are all the help your frig offers.

Or we might have wondered all day about what to make, but still arrive home without a clue and fritter away 20 precious minutes just trying to decide what to make.

Then, for lack of anything better, we end up making the same old things we always do-–the very foods that got us into trouble in the first place!

The culprit lies in our lack of kitchen know-how, cooking skills and motivational habits. The past several decades of convenience eating have robbed us of these tools that are vital to make the meals that will ensure that we both survive and thrive. That’s why we focus on re-skilling well-intentioned people who are stuck in the Implementation Gap.

The New Kitchen The unique contribution of our non-profit led to the need for an organization that reflected our new approach. Hence, The New Kitchen. We offer an approach 1) that is founded on a new view of the kitchen and 2) that is both comprehensive and integrated.

A New View of the Kitchen We share a new experience of the kitchen–as a place where it is natural and easeful to prepare delicious, comforting food that nourishes body and soul, families, friendships and community.

We’re “New” because we introduce you to a new way of viewing the kitchen, as a creative, engaging, fun and vibrant avenue to good health.
We offer new perspectives and thoughts, new food ideas and flavors, a new easy approach to healthy meal making and a new way to spend your time in the kitchen so healthy meal making is entirely manageable for everyone.
We hope to help transform your food life so you become confident and comfortable making delightfully wholesome meals that support your health and free you to do what you love–family, work, building community or saving the planet, being fit or just having fun.

A Comprehensive and Integrated Approach Unlike most cooking programs, we go beyond offering single-use recipes and specialized techniques. To help ordinary home cooks avoid the Implementation Gap, we address what it really takes to implement a lifestyle of healthy meal making:

Cooking We demystify and simplify cooking so everyday healthy meal making is something that flows naturally in your life.

Kitchen We share the know-how to put the right kitchen infrastructure into place and set yourself up for success.

Thinking We help you reconnect to the goodness of kitchen, cooking and food so you have a continuing source of motivation and inspiration to continue your healthy meal making journey–for life!

The E3 Goal and The Bigger Picture

Ultimately, our programs have an E3 purpose: Educating, Exciting and Empowering home cooks to retake control of the food they make so they can retake control of the food they eat, along with their health.

But there is a bigger picture beyond just individual health. The food we choose to eat and our health—or lack thereof—have far-reaching consequences for our communities, local economies and even the planet.

It turns out that the kitchen and meal making offer dozens and dozens of opportunities to make choices big and small, for not only a healthier you, but also for healthier families, farms, environment and more. Can I invite you to read more about how I came to this realization on my healthy eating journey. Maybe you’ll join me in making this Bigger Picture grow and expand to become a a big part of our food world.

Read more about The New Kitchen’s approach here. And this pretty picture quickly summarizes it:

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* Everyday Good Eating is the registered name of the non-profit, operating under The New Kitchen.