Publication Date: October 15, 2024
Re-Engineering the Kitchen™ is the practical how-to guide for anyone who wants to eat less ultra-processed food and more unprocessed Real Food, while saving time and money doing it.
Beyond diets and nutrition headlines, Re-Engineering the Kitchen™ provides a new perspective on how we manage our food by taking a step back and addressing our overall food process from planning through preparation. With a BS in Chemical Engineering, an MBA in Finance & Business Economics, and a Certificate in Nutrition and Healthy Living from Cornell University (as well as decades as a working mom), Alin’s quantitative process-focused background allows her to bring a unique and practical perspective to the conversation about food. Re-Engineering the Kitchen™ applies process improvement methods to the process of feeding ourselves.
Re-Engineering the Kitchen™ takes a step-by-step approach to improve the entire food cycle, including:
Regardless of your experience and expertise, this book will give you a new perspective about food in our 21st century world and practical tools to make less processed food a reality.
Let’s Re-Engineer your kitchen and make it easy to spend less time, money, and effort on better food!
A new perspective on food
An engineer has put together an outstanding book about how to improve the way we feed ourselves. It is well written and has a lot of graphics that make the concepts easy to understand. I never thought about food planning, shopping, and cooking in such a logical and organized way before.
I particularly liked the fact that, unlike most other books I have read, the author does not present a specific (or fad) diet, but rather a diet-agnostic process complete with charts and templates to put your own food plan together. I highly recommend this book to anyone from vegan to meat lover to the average family who wants to make eating more healthy, unprocessed foods easy. – Patrick
Great resource for anyone looking to improve their approach to healthy eating
Re-Engineering the Kitchen offers a novel and logical approach to combining nutritional information and food planning to help you achieve your goals, supported by a significant amount of research and noted literature/references. The book contains a wide variety of delicious recipes – I enjoy the “Agile Recipe” format as they are very easy to follow and describe substitutes where possible and are so clear my kids can follow them and cook meals! – be407
It all makes sense…..food sense. I never realized how poorly that I have been eating!
This book is written for me, an average foodie, not a scientist! I love the way that Steele breaks everything down into a well thought out, common sense approach to food. I had never realized just how badly that I have been eating and you are what you eat. I love the approach that was taken to break everything down into “bite-size” nuggets of what to eat and why to eat it.
Also, the recipes are so yummy; the bread recipes are so good and use so few ingredients. The Banana Bread is a favorite. I can’t wait to try more of the recipes and the way that they are written with substitutes and ways to tweak it to your own are especially helpful.
I bought more copies to give as Christmas gifts to my kids….you are what you eat! – Michael Vadnais
An engineer takes a thoughtful approach to gaining more control over how we eat.
In a world obsessed with diet culture, Alin E. Steele addresses our relationship with the kitchen. It affects so much of our lives.
In Re-Engineering the Kitchen™, she shifts the focus onto improving nutrition and discussing how finances and environmental impact play a role in consuming and purchasing food. With our fast-paced lives flying by, it’s common for people to feel out of control when it comes to how their kitchens operate. Steele suggests that it just takes a bit of re-engineering to get us all back on track. Is it a simple solution? I’d say yes and no.
While Steele doesn’t attempt to make this look like a cake walk, she does a tremendous job of breaking down the thoughts and ideas that go behind people’s actions in the kitchen and provides the answers on how we can change things with just a little more intention and the right tools on our side.
Re-Engineering the Kitchen is a standout among food & nutrition books, offering a logical solution to the problems that create our bad eating habits.
You’ve probably heard of the saying “You are what you eat.” Steele doesn’t attempt to reinvent the wheel by disputing that claim. She does, however, challenge us to think of our food in a new way when she says “…you eat what you buy.” Simple, yes, but it speaks to so much. Another feature is learning how to tackle and control food waste. Labeling foods as preferred foods and paying attention to food longevity can be the building blocks to avoiding the dreaded bag of uneaten greens at the end of the week.
She also dives deeply into getting daily nutrients through fresh foods, which is not something that is often accomplished. Then she provides the stats you’d need to attain those goals. Using herself as an example, she goes into detail about how to accomplish your food goals and ensure that you’re eating the foods that will pay off the most for your health.
What I liked most about this book is that Steele doesn’t just stop at suggestions in her book but works to provide readers with ways to take action. She’s not shying away from the monumental task she’s asking readers to do: address their hopes and fears about how they run their own kitchen. But she also provides readers with the information they need to do better, and that comes in the form of nutritional facts as well as worksheets and new information in a simple and digestible way.
Speaking of digestion, one of the great additions to this book is that it doubles as a cookbook. Steele introduces the idea of Agile Recipes too, a term she coined to describe her streamlined recipes and cooking instructions. Unlike your favorite food blogs, this recipe doesn’t come with a long intro about what this meal means to her and her family or any funny quips about how she’s failed a million times to finally land on this perfect recipe.
It gives you only what you’re looking for: the instructions, the ingredients, and the measurements. She throws in a picture or two for good measure but gets right to the meat of the task at hand: providing people with the simplest way to make food that aligns with their goals.
High nutritional content, low waste, and cost efficiency are at the top of Steele’s priorities, and she nails them with over 100 Agile Recipes in this book. It’s a nice break-up to the informational portions of Re-Engineering the Kitchen.
Re-Engineering the Kitchen is a book that will help you feel more in control of your kitchen and, perhaps, the rest of your life.
Finally – a book about making healthy food easier!
I truly want to give my family wonderful, healthy food but I only have so much time, energy and money. I really like that Re-Engineering the Kitchen gives me a no-nonsense approach to making better food possible. I will now be spending less time and money to feed my family more nutritious food because of this book. – PJR24
How to “declutter” your food habits-so effective!!
This book has so much going for it!! Especially in the way that it forces you to analyze your eating, creates an easy process to follow that actually changes your shopping habits to get you closer to eating your way through that ever elusive FDA food pyramid! It applies the government’s recommended food guidelines to real life & teaches you how many servings really come in that pack of veggies so you can buy the right quantities & stay on track. All this, no matter which diet (or not) you’re following because it’s easily adaptable & truly helps you clear out the physical & mental food “clutter” – both good & bad- that we are bombarded with daily.
I’ve always been into nutrition & this guide still helps me reinforce & plan things better in order to make sure I am buying & incorporating enough of those high priority foods. It helps you to improve, no matter your baseline.
BUT one word, okay 2 actually, “AGILE RECIPES” !!! I know this isn’t “just” a cookbook but for me these recipes are a total mic drop! All of the recipes I have tried are short and sweet (always only on 1 page, no getting lost, yay!), tasty (without the fuss) & most importantly gets you to the point of focusing on cooking with the important priority foods that we need to be eating daily!
They say most plans fail due to a lack of execution but with this guide, you can’t fail. It’ll get you organized & ready for what basic ingredients (veggies, fruits, meats) you need to shop for so that you can cook them with ease & actually enjoy eating them so you’ll always be full and healthy 🙂 You do have to stick with their plan & resist buying those “convenience” foods & this will save you time (in the kitchen & shopping), money (by not letting fresh foods spoil because you finally have a plan on how to use them) and your health!!
This book shows you that you don’t have to spend hours on a recipe or use a ton of spices to make it taste great. All the recipes are just a few ingredients with just enough effort – their bread recipe is amazing- you don’t even have to get your hands dirty to make it, lol!!
I also love that they provide several recipe variations for a different spin on the same recipe-this is amazing! They also provide substitutions for many ingredients right in the recipe itself, right across from the main recipe (ketchup instead of tomato paste, etc.) and it will still let the recipe come to life without having to stop to run to the store or stop to google substitutions on the internet. Saves a lot of time, effort and energy this way.
The author also provides online versions of their recipes that are always in the same easy to follow, one page format, in case you’re into that. I haven’t used that much but it’s nice to have.
I have never been much of a “food waster” but more of a “time waster.” I have always had trouble managing my time & shopping & cooking are no exception. This book is helping me reduce how much time and energy I spend on “thinking” about what to do and just do it- pick out your goals for foods & quantities with this guide, shop for them fast & easily, pick the recipes & go!
This book offers an incredibly unique way of looking at & solving this age old problem. It’s highly effective & I highly recommend it if you’re ready to improve your food health! – Eldiva
How to buy Re-Engineering the Kitchen™
For retail purchases, start with your local indie bookstore. If they don’t carry it, they may be willing to order it for you. Otherwise, you can buy the book on the following websites: Barnes & Noble, Amazon, thriftbooks, and Bookshop.org.
Wholesale orders can be placed through the IngramSpark content network or contact White Bear Publishing ([email protected]) for direct orders.
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