The Midlife Feast
The Midlife Feast
#149 - Cooking for Pleasure Not Perfection with Chef Andrea Buckett
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Feeling uninspired with your go-to menu lately? Chef Andrea Buckett is here to bring the joy back to your kitchen. With 20 years of experience, she shares her refreshingly simple approach to food—because cooking should be fun, not stressful!
Andrea’s five-ingredient meals, pantry hacks, and creative condiment tips (wait until you hear what mustard can do for salmon!) will help you break free from boring weeknight dinners. Plus, she challenges the guilt we attach to food, reminding us that pleasure is essential to a healthy, sustainable way of eating.
We also dive into her journey from corporate life to professional cooking, and her new book The Essential Cottage Cookbook!
Connect with Andrea:
The Website: https://andreabuckett.com/
Instagram: @andreabuckettcooks/
📚Grab the Book: The Essential Cottage Cookbook
Click here to hang out with me on YouTube!
Looking for more about midlife, menopause nutrition, and intuitive eating? Click here to grab one of my free guides and learn what I've got "on the menu" including my 1:1 and group programs. https://www.menopausenutritionist.ca/links
Hi and welcome to the Midlife Feast, the podcast for women who are hungry for more in this season of life. I'm your host, Dr Jenn Salib-Huber. I'm an intuitive eating dietitian and naturopathic doctor and I help women manage menopause without dieting and food rules. Come to my table, listen and learn from me trusted guest experts in women's health and interviews with women just like you. Each episode brings to the table juicy conversations designed to help you feast on midlife. And if you're looking for more information about menopause, nutrition and intuitive eating, check out the midlife feast community, my monthly membership that combines my no nonsense approach that you all love to nutrition with community, so that you can learn from me and others who can relate to the cheers and challenges of midlife.
Jenn Salib Huber:Have you ever walked into the kitchen at the end of a long day and opened the fridge or opened your cupboards and thought, even though the cupboards were full, I have no idea what to make, I don't know what to cook and I'm so bored of all the things that I'm eating. So I hear this question a lot and people will say I know how to make a few recipes, but I'm tired of them, or my family's tired of them, but I don't have the energy to learn a new recipe or even look one up. If you can relate to that, you are going to want to listen to this conversation with cook and chef Andrea Bucket, and so Andrea is a fellow Canadian and she's on Instagram and I love her. On Instagram she has tons of great tips and videos, and one of her series, this five ingredient series, really caught my attention, probably a couple of years ago Another one that's called what the hell do I do with this?
Jenn Salib Huber:She's just really funny, she's just really real and she's also in midlife, and so this conversation is all about the intersection of all of that. But she shares some of her tips, pantry staples, some creative uses for mustard that I had never heard of before, and it's just a fun conversation. So I hope you listen to this one and I hope it inspires some food joy for you in the kitchen. Hi Andrea, welcome to the Midlife Feast, thank you. I'm very excited to be here. Well, I'm excited to talk to a fellow Canadian. That always makes me happy, and I lived in Toronto and you're in Toronto, and we were discussing a few other things in common, so I'm very excited to talk about food.
Andrea Buckett:Well, that's my jam, so I'm the girl.
Jenn Salib Huber:So you've been at this for a while, right? So why don't you just kind of introduce everyone? I, you know, I've introduced you, you know, as a chef and all those wonderful things. But, like, how did you get to doing this and how have you been doing this for so long this way? Because you're, you've been doing this for a while.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, I've been doing it for 20 years and, to be honest with you, it's not really a path I considered as a career. Cooking has always been a passion of mine and you know, I started very young, when I was like I mean 18, catering for my friend who was going to Australia and back then, like the only kind of food content that was available was like the Food Network and I like ate that food content up so much. It should have occurred to me, and probably my parents, that I should have gone into chef school or something like that, but I didn't. I just kind of like it was been a side hustle for all the years that I kind of worked full-time corporate jobs until it just became the main thing. So, yeah, it's kind of I won't say it happened by accident, because I've worked really hard to get to where I am but I didn't necessarily know where I was going all those years.
Jenn Salib Huber:I love all of that the not knowing where you're going and also giving yourself credit for the work that you've put in.
Andrea Buckett:Yes, exactly, women don't do that enough. Yeah, exactly.
Jenn Salib Huber:So I'd love to know do you have a memory of what sparked your love for cooking Like? Do you have, like, a childhood memory?
Andrea Buckett:Well, I talk about this a lot in when I was younger, my parents used to have dinner parties Now, when I say dinner parties like, I grew up in a middle class working household and they would have friends over and I always remember two recipes that my mom and dad always made. One was French onion soup and the other one was Caesar salad and I mean, those are like to this day those are two of my favorite recipes to eat and to make and I just think that those recipes sort of just like sparked something in me. Um, when looking back, I was like, yeah, definitely those were the recipes that sort of uh set me on the path that I am today.
Jenn Salib Huber:That's awesome. So funny you mentioned French onion soup, because by the time this is out, this story will not be about last week, but last Friday. I had a massive craving for French onion soup. And so Friday night, what was I doing? Cooking three pounds of onions for two hours. But you're right, like that is one of those meals that, when it's done right, it is just the simple experience of like, pleasure and taste and deliciousness.
Andrea Buckett:I think you've got basic ingredients, you've got bread right, you've got cheese like Gruyere or some sort of Swiss style cheese. If you're doing it right, I'll have to say Onions, like a big bag of onions that are really economical cooked down in a beef broth. I mean, there's not that many ingredients, maybe a little alcohol in there, but when they come together it's just like magic. And but you're right, it can, it can go offside. I've had like really salty french onion soups that aren't the greatest, but then just ones that you know my friends make at home that are like the absolute best.
Jenn Salib Huber:So it sounds like that connection to like pleasure right A hundred percent. A hundred percent so, and as a podcast that talks about nutrition, but also intuitive eating, we talk a lot about. Food is meant to be pleasurable right. It's not meant to be just functional, like it's not just filling a hole, you have to enjoy what you're eating, right yeah.
Andrea Buckett:And I have to say I heard so. Eric Ripert is a famous chef and I had the opportunity to meet him once and someone asked him what his guilty pleasure was, and he had to me the best answer and he said guilt and pleasure is a very North American thing. You know, in France we don't think or associate our food with guilt. It has to be pleasurable, has to be enjoyable, or you're doing it wrong. And I was just like, yes, sir, that is the best answer I've ever heard, and so I use that line all the time. I think that you shouldn't really equate the pleasure of food with guilt.
Jenn Salib Huber:Absolutely yeah, 100,000%. Yeah, and also because if we don't enjoy what we're eating, it's not going to be satisfying and that's going to make it harder to know when we're full. So, you know, we have this like unfortunate reductionistic nutritionism approach to health nutrition, which is like eating something for what it's going to do for us or what it contains. But eating and food is a sensory experience oh my God, absolutely, and we have to enjoy that.
Jenn Salib Huber:So I love that you do that, yeah, okay, so here's a question for you. So obviously my audience, the people that I work with we're in midlife. Regardless of our family situation, whether we have children or not, this is a busy time, and so one of the things that I hear all the time from people is I'm so exhausted or I just don't have the mental energy capacity. We talk a lot about capacity, too. I don't have the capacity to think about cooking, so we get into ruts, right? We?
Jenn Salib Huber:have our five recipes on five recipes on repeat. So how do you? Have you ever been in a cooking slump? I've always wanted to ask a chef that.
Andrea Buckett:I mean absolutely I have. What helps me not be in a cooking slump is that I spent many years as a corporate chef where every day I had to come up with a different lunch for this corporate team and they all had different dietary needs, and so creativity is my strong suit. So, but when you cook for a living, when you come home to cook for your family, trust me, I'm the same as everybody else. I don't want to do it. I would rather pick up the phone and order from my favorite Thai place or my favorite jerk chicken place and have that. But the truth is, I can open the cupboard, and it is a skills set to be able to open up your cupboard or your fridge and say, hey, I have these a couple ingredients, I'm going to throw something together and do it quickly.
Andrea Buckett:I think we're in a really odd space and time in cooking because not a lot of people are cooking, but there are recipes everywhere. But what I will say is that they seem like they're very aspirational recipes. So, like every salad has to have like 10 different ingredients in it. You know, sweet potatoes, black beans, red onions, salad, fennel, like. It's just like I don't want to, like I don't have time, I don't want to chop that stuff up, so I think just simplifying things is the best way to go. The older I get, you know, keep it simple is a great motto, and that's why I did my five ingredient recipe series a couple of years ago, and it really hit the mark with a lot of people because, even though they may have tweaked it a little bit or wanted to add something for a different flavor, at the core they were five ingredients that were easy to put together with a skill set that most home cooks have.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, and so I'm glad you brought that up because I want to talk about that. So anybody who doesn't follow you on Instagram definitely needs to. And it's Andrea Bucket Cooks, is it? You got it? Oh, look at that. And so there are two styles of videos that I, that I binge whenever I come up on them, and one of them is the. What the hell am I supposed to do with this series? Yes, which is hilarious but also creative, and I love it. Yeah, the five ingredient series. I think you're right in that. At one point, I think I did.
Andrea Buckett:I did, for sure Don't ask me what the recipe was. Now I probably have a hundred recipes. No, no, no.
Jenn Salib Huber:And I'm trying to remember it too, because I think this was the first one that I came on and I love halloumi but I'm the only one in my family who loves it, and I was like, oh, halloumi, croutons, wait a minute.
Jenn Salib Huber:And I thought it was going to be really involved. Yeah, and it wasn't. I think it had like maybe chickpeas or something like that Exactly, and I think that was the first time and I was like, oh my gosh, it's the first time I've seen like halloumi other than just being grilled in a recipe that isn't like 10 steps.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, and the thing about halloumi for me is that it is really salty, especially the stuff you get in North America. I have a friend that's from Cyprus and she says it's quite different there, but the ones that we get are, you know, it's got that squeaky texture of a cheese curd, but it's really salty. So I never love it. I mean, I shouldn't say never, but I enjoy it in smaller doses. So I wanted to cut it up a little bit smaller and enjoy it that way as like part of a salad, as opposed to like the whole chunk.
Jenn Salib Huber:And it was so good I loved it. I loved it. Okay. So five ingredients. What would you? What are your five favorite quick ingredients? Like if somebody, if you were like on the stand. Five ingredients, okay.
Andrea Buckett:A good condiment. So like a pre-made sauce of some sort. It could be like a curry, it could be like a teriyaki sauce. Dijon mustard is like my absolute fame. I think you could put that in almost anything to like amp up the flavor. So start with like a good base of condiments. Pantry staples I love myself. Some legumes, chickpeas, black beans, white beans. You open up the can. If you want to cook your own, go for it, but we're not doing that here.
Jenn Salib Huber:We're opening up the can. I don't do that either.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, we're rinsing it. I do like have some concerns around sodium, but if when you rinse a can of beans like, it reduces the sodium by like 60%, or buy yourself some low salt ones, you know. But you know fiber, protein, all the nutrients are awesome. So beans, and then of course, your standard ones like rice, pasta, all those kind of things are super quick. That's three, right.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yep.
Andrea Buckett:Oh my gosh, this is hard. Okay. So I said condiment beans. We just talked about starches, the pantry staple ones, I mean, you know, cheese.
Jenn Salib Huber:I'm living in the Netherlands, so you're like you're preaching to the choir here.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, like a little like we talked about the halloumi, a feta cheese, all those things, and then something crunchy like nuts, nuts, almonds, pistachios, walnuts. I love those for the crunchy bits that they offer. So I find that when you have like a good condiment and you have some good seeds and nuts and cheese, it's like you can make something out of nothing and make it kind of gourmet-ish.
Jenn Salib Huber:And that, for anybody who's listening, that really kind of goes along with this three legged stool nutrition analogy that I use right.
Jenn Salib Huber:That we need to have protein, fat and carbohydrate at most meals. But leading with satisfaction which is where the crunch for me always comes in, of course, is so important and we tend to forget that. I think when we're thinking about like cooking for health, for whatever reason, we tend to immediately like, think plants and, you know, don't really think about the experience of eating, but also don't think about like what can enhance the taste, flavor, even the nutrition of those 100.
Andrea Buckett:you know fats help to enhance the absorption of a lot of the fat soluble vitamins so exactly that cheese and things like that, yeah yeah, and for me it's like you know, I do lead with what are the things that I need to have in my diet. For me, I do focus on fiber and protein, but I want it to taste good as well. I do have a history of like type two diabetes in my family and heart disease, so the recipes that I'm putting out on Instagram are like a combination of healthful not that I'm like throwing that in people's faces, like it's not something I really talk about, but it's something I'm conscious in my own life but it has to be delicious and I think people need to understand. It's not. It doesn't have to be mutually exclusive. Right, you can have both.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, because I'll tell you.
Andrea Buckett:I did spend a long time. I grew up. I'm in a bigger body as a person my whole life. I didn't really have a lot of diet messaging coming to me from my mom growing up, but my dad and my Nana and all our sisters were always on Weight Watchers so that messaging was coming in regardless, and so I spent a lot of my youth and a lot of my 20s eating to make myself smaller right, because I thought that was what I had to do and working out to make myself smaller. Pro tip, it never really happened. This is the body that I'm in. I look at my ancestors my mom, you know, my dad, my grandma and my mom's side and this is the body that they'm in. I look at my ancestors my mom, you know, my dad, my grandma and my mom's side and this is the body that they all have. And as soon as I switch and be, I was like, huh, they've been on Weight Watchers for like I don't know ever and nothing's ever changed.
Andrea Buckett:And because I have some you know education in health studies, I was like I've got to change the way I'm approaching food, and so I think actually cooking for a living did that for me, which I think actually puts me in a much better spot at midlife to sort of deal with things that maybe people that are in smaller bodies have never had to deal with. I'm like girl, I've been dealing with that for my whole life, so I kind of feel almost more prepared for this journey of midlife than some of my you know other female counterparts.
Jenn Salib Huber:I love everything that you just said and I already know that that is going to be one of everyone's favorite part of the podcast because it is so relatable. But I'm curious have you ever heard the term gentle nutrition? I haven't. So gentle nutrition is one of the principles of intuitive eating, and you may not know what it's called, but it is what you described. And it is finding the sweet spot between what you want and what you need.
Andrea Buckett:Right.
Jenn Salib Huber:And being able to still choose with nutrition and intention in mind. So choosing foods because they're a great source of protein or fiber, but also because you enjoy them. Right, yeah, that's my MO, a hundred percent and that's how we make food and the process of eating feel easy again, because it's instinctual to want to eat foods that taste good.
Andrea Buckett:And I feel like this is to want to feel good, so, oh, a hundred percent. And I feel like this is this middle ground is kind of what's missing in the narrative out there, Because you have one side that's like do all these things and you will be this way, you will look this way, you will feel this way, and then you have other people that are trying to counteract that, but in doing so they're saying you know what, you don't need to die, you don't need to do this and all that. But then you're like but I'm 50. And I've got a history of type two diabetes and heart disease in my family. So there has to be a middle ground where, like, you know what you're eating matters, but you don't do it in such a way that you're, you know, taking away from your health and well being and mental health.
Jenn Salib Huber:Yeah, and what you're describing is the difference between not dieting and intuitive eating. So a lot of people think that not dieting is intuitive eating, but it's not Intuitive. Eating is learning to listen to. Am I hungry, am I full, am I satisfied? Leading with some intention.
Jenn Salib Huber:And intuitive doesn't mean automatic either, which is one of the other things that I think you know. I joke that when people hear about intuitive eating, they think I'm going to teach them how to like, use a crystal ball to define what they want. But it's really just about tuning out all the noise and coming in from diet culture and being able to take okay, this is my history, this is my genetics, this is how I want to feel, this is what I like, this is my ability, my capacity, and turn that into the skill that is cooking. That is right for you, Right.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, and I think and I think that's that is very important about you know, that's how I lead now Like I know, for instance, you know, I know there's a lot about alcohol right now in the news, but I know for myself, you know, a year ago or so, when I started, when I was drinking alcohol, I just didn't feel good. And then, you know, you know, a month would go by and you're like, oh, I'm going to have a glass of wine. And he was like no. So it's like these subtle reminders keep coming in and you're like, yeah, I don't feel good when I do that, so I'm not going to do it. And it's okay to have to be reminded a couple of times. But eventually you're like I have it. Yes, chances are I can't really eat as much as I used to, but I'll eat it. And then maybe I'll be like, oh, maybe I shouldn't have done that.
Jenn Salib Huber:Or whatever you know.
Andrea Buckett:But if you listen to those cues as opposed to listen to all that outside noise, it does help get you to a better place, of having a healthier relationship with food, for sure.
Jenn Salib Huber:So I love that you've kind of you know, introduced this idea of how you incorporate intuitive eating, but didn't know that that's what it was called. But you know, you've got, you've clearly got a good sense of what that is and I love that. What I kind of going back to, what I love about your channel and what you do, is that you make food seem approachable and it just seems easy, Like five ingredients. Everyone's first reaction is I can do that, Totally. Yeah, what do you think is an underrated ingredient? Like what is what is something that you I know we talked about these pantry staples but like what is something that it really doesn't get enough credit for? Like all the things that it can do.
Andrea Buckett:Oh man, I mean I will say I'm going to just say mustard. Okay, I'm gonna say mustard because everybody has mustard. Everyone probably has one or two bottles of mustard. They have probably have a ballpark mustard and they probably have a Dijon or something along those lines. And I think that I think that what's missing in a lot of people's cooking is seasoning. So whether that's salt, spices, acid fat, because fat carries flavor, but mustard can do all of that stuff. It's kind of salty, it has a vinegary note to it, so it heightens the flavor of anything. You can use it in salad dressings and marinades. Sometimes I mix it with like a little bit of marmalade or apricot jam to put it on salmon or chicken.
Jenn Salib Huber:Dijon mustard and jam.
Andrea Buckett:Yes, because you get that sweet and salty combo and like, yeah, marmalade and Dijon mustard, mix it up, slather it over a piece of salmon and bake it and honestly, it is so darn delicious. Another way I like to use it is just straight up mustard on the outside of, like chicken or pork, and then put some breadcrumbs on top of it and bake it off. So you don't have to do the whole process of, like you know, a typical breading station which is like egg and flour and then the breadcrumbs. You just use the mustard and that acts like the glue for the breadcrumbs to stick to. So you get that gorgeous pop of Dijon or whatever mustard you're using flavor and then the crunchiness of the breadcrumbs to stick to. So you get that gorgeous pop of Dijon or whatever mustard you're using flavor, and then the crunchiness of the breadcrumbs and it's like a great weeknight win.
Jenn Salib Huber:I am a hundred percent trying mustard and marmalade tomorrow. Yeah, do it. This has been amazing. So you also have a new cookbook. I do Tell me about it, can?
Andrea Buckett:I show it.
Jenn Salib Huber:The name of it is awesome. Can you see this? Is it backwards? No, it's perfect. The Essential Cottage Cookbook, and so, being from Ontario, I'm assuming you have a cottage in cottage country.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, so my parents have a cottage. So a little history there is that my dad's mom and her three sisters bought a plot of land in Inglesby, ontario, and built four cottages there. To this day it's still there but it has, like you know, outhouses and rain barrels Fast forward. My mom and dad sort of bought a smaller cottage down the lake and that's where I've been cottaging for I don't know. I mean I've been going up. My dad was like I don't know 10 or 7 or something when they bought that piece of land.
Andrea Buckett:So going to the cottage is definitely in my blood. It was never a thought that, oh, I'm going to definitely write a cottage cookbook one day Because my cottage was the place I escaped to right To shut down from work. But honestly, I was lying at the cottage one day, I was by myself, no kids, no parents, and I was like, hmm, cottage one day. I was by myself, no kids, no parents. I was like, hmm, I wonder if there isn't a cottage cookbook. And surprisingly there weren't very many. There was a few editorial style, like Canadian Living had one and such. But as soon as that idea popped into my head, the book essentially wrote itself, like the chapters just started popping into my head and the ideas for recipes and the idea for how the book would look and honestly, it's been such an amazing journey. And I know some people call it cottage, some people call it camp cabin, yeah, but it's that place that you go to escape. You know everyday life and sort of like disconnect, and so, yeah, I'm very excited about the book.
Jenn Salib Huber:So what makes the recipes cottagey? Obviously, I'm sure you can make them without a cottage, but like what what makes them cottage related?
Andrea Buckett:yeah, so again, simple, right? Not all cottages are huge like muskoka mansions, and some of them are, and if you have those great, I would love an invite and I'll come to you. No joking, um, uh. But some cottages are like like I grew up with a very bare bones style of cottage, so they have to be simple, with, like, minimal ingredients, minimal equipment and then seasonality. A lot of the recipes are informed by the seasonality. You know memories of stopping at the roadside stands to pick up a dozen cob of corn, fresh peaches, and then nostalgia. You know things like for me, closing weekend, thanksgiving in Halliburton. You know we would always have a big Thanksgiving dinner and the nostalgia of, like, the cheese tea biscuits that my aunts would make or the lemon meringue pie that my Nana would make, and it's like. So those are the three things the simplicity, the seasonality and the nostalgia.
Jenn Salib Huber:I love it and, being in Ontario the seasonal, you know what you, what you have available in the growing season is pretty spectacular.
Andrea Buckett:Yeah, it's all. It all happens like July, august, yeah.
Jenn Salib Huber:That's awesome. Oh my gosh. Well, where can people get the cookbook?
Andrea Buckett:You can buy the cookbook at all major booksellers. You can in, you know, us, and in Canada. You can head to my website, andreabucketcom, and I have all the links there that you can go and purchase it. Yeah, go buy it. It's excellent, even if you don't have a cottage. You just want to like. You know you're pretending that you're uh off somewhere in your backyard. The recipes are for everybody that's amazing congratulations.
Jenn Salib Huber:I can't thank you so much, jen okay, so what do you think is the missing ingredient in midlife For?
Andrea Buckett:me or for just in general, just whatever. Just in general.
Jenn Salib Huber:In general, whatever. This is a hard question. I need some water for this. Remember, it is not Barbara Walters, oh butter.
Andrea Buckett:No, I'm joking, Butter is a missing ingredient for midlife. No, I'm not going to say that. You know what I'm going to say. The missing ingredient for midlife is just women acknowledging how far they've come, how much they've done with their life, just taking that self-confidence and like moving forward, knowing that they've got through that back half and now it's time to like slay that second half.
Andrea Buckett:um, I love that, I love everything about that, because I don't think women give us, give ourselves enough credit, I I'm included in that you know, like, when I look back at the career I built, I'm like, gosh girl, like you did an amazing job and you're still doing an amazing job. But if you're anything like me, you kind of like brush it off and move on to the next thing. So sitting and acknowledging the success I think is a missing ingredient in midlife.
Jenn Salib Huber:I think that's the first time that's been said and I love it, so thank you. Thank you so much for joining us, and I know this will spark lots of creativity in the kitchen, so I thank you so much for your time.
Andrea Buckett:Thank you, it was absolutely my pleasure.
Jenn Salib Huber:Thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of the Midlife Feast. For more non diet, health, hormone and general midlife support, click the link in the show notes to learn how you can work and learn from me. And if you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful, please consider leaving a review or subscribing, because it helps other women just like you find us and feel supported in midlife.
