Kitchen Chemistry: The 'Mostly' Paleo Cookbook for Couples to Spark Better Health Together

By Amanda Gyuran and TJ Anderson

It's no secret that cooking at home and creating meals from scratch is often healthier than dining out or reheating pre-made food. What might come as a surprise, though, is that doing so with your partner has its own set of health benefits. From refining communication skills, increasing feelings of support, creating quality bonding time, and stimulating sex drive, cooking a meal together is the new and improved date night.

Authors TJ Anderson and Amanda Gyuran will highlight each step of the process for readers, creating rituals for relationships. In doing so, couples develop in and out of the kitchen—preparing food, emotional intimacy practices, and creating time together. By incorporating these rituals, each meal made in Kitchen Chemistry will leave you feeling fully nourished, on a physical, emotional, and relational level.

This unique cookbook for couples features 100 whole food-based recipes, homemade aphrodisiacs and intimacy rituals that will create better health together.

This is the perfect book to grow closer to your partner, get messy, and get healthier all at the same time.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Prensa Press
• Release date: Feb 9, 2021
• ISBN: 9781733240246

Amanda Gyuran

Amanda is a Private Performance Chef for Professional Athletes in Denver, CO. With an extensive background in Holistic Nutrition, Herbalism, Eating Psychology, and Mind-Body Movement, she helps athletes perform at their peak and recover with ease through highly customized, nourishing recipes. Amanda is also a traveling chef for wellness retreats worldwide. Amanda’s passion lies in bringing pleasure back to healthy eating and encouraging others to follow their intuition in the kitchen. She is a fully certified Level 2 STOTT® Pilates Instructor and has helped rehab top NHL and NFL athletes.

Book preview

Introduction: Our Story & How to Use This Book

When TJ and I first met in the Summer of 2016, I had never been in a truly happy and healthy relationship. As a pilates instructor, eating psychology coach for women with eating disorders, and intuitive chef for myself, I always dreamed of being able to fully connect with a partner around food. Even after making the most beautiful and drool-worthy, gluten-free birthday cakes, elaborate meals, and thirst-quenching green smoothies for past-boyfriends, I constantly found myself feeling underappreciated. I was always known as the weird girlfriend who brought her own food to parties and burned sage on group camping trips. I felt like I was on an island with my passion for holistic living.

Then walked in TJ. We met at a fitness conference in L.A., and he took me out on a date for Bulletproof Coffee and grass-fed burgers without the bun. We immediately hit it off and bonded over our love for all things health. It was the first time I felt like I was able to unapologetically be myself on a date. I didn't feel judged for asking the waiter what oils my sweet potato fries were cooked in or wanting to take my shoes off in the middle of an outdoor mall to ground. Finally, my island became a little less lonely.

For our second date, I flew out to his hometown in Iowa, where we spent the weekend playing in the kitchen together. For breakfast, we danced around the kitchen to Jack Johnson's Banana Pancakes while flipping our own version of paleo pancakes. And for dinner, we made bacon-infused acorn squash to share with friends. Creating healthy food and playing in the kitchen together has been ingrained in our relationship from the very start. I believe it's a key factor in our overall growth, as individuals and as a couple.

It's no secret that cooking at home and creating meals from scratch is often healthier than dining out or reheating pre-made food. What might come as a surprise is doing so with your partner has its own set of health benefits! Cooking together helps accelerate growth, individually and collectively by refining communication skills, increasing feelings of support and appreciation, creating quality bonding time, and stimulating sex drive. Co-creating any type of meal together is the new and improved date night!

Throughout the years, TJ and I have had some epic date nights in our kitchen. We've gotten messy and made some amazing recipes. And through it all, breakthroughs have been made, tears have been shed, laughs have been shared, and playful kisses have turned into late nights in bed.

We've created this cookbook, not only because friends constantly ask us for our recipes (which you can find in Part II of this book), but because we genuinely believe in the power of co-creating in the kitchen with your partner. And we know first-hand how supporting your partner in their health goals or struggles can strengthen a relationship ...we've been there.

Six months into our relationship, I became bedridden with stage 4 adrenal fatigue. How I found myself with hormones so depleted I couldn't get out of bed to brush my teeth is a story for another book. However, the relational growth that came out of my sickness is what truly sparked Kitchen Chemistry.

There were two roads TJ and I could have gone down. The first, ending our relationship due to my lack of sex drive, extreme tiredness and bouts of depression, or the second, supporting one another through all forms of healing and growth. Obviously, we went down the latter, choosing each other despite the challenges. That speaks to the power of love, but sometimes love needs to be supported by focusing on health and communication.

Physically, my body had a lot of healing to do. TJ introduced me to the best of the best health-care practitioners, helping me get the advanced blood, gut, and genetic testing I needed to discover the root cause of my fatigue and what was going on inside my body. Our naturopathic doctor gave me a healing protocol to follow along with a list of supplements and nutrition guidelines specific to my results. My main goal, though, was to simply rest.

I wouldn't have been able to heal my body and truly rest if it wasn't for TJ's support. He cooked me breakfast when I was too exhausted to get out of bed to make myself something to eat, which was a challenge for TJ at times because he typically fasts in the morning. He went out of his way to nourish me. He comforted me and stayed home when I was upset about being too tired to attend a party. For a solid year, our life revolved around healing my body.

To accelerate my healing process, we health hacked our home. We received an EMF Assessment to learn how we could minimize our exposure to Wi-Fi signals and electromagnetic frequencies while we sleep. Plus, we were intentional about light sources to balance the body's circadian rhythms, including watching sunsets together, wearing blue blocker glasses to block artificial blue light at night, and only using candles or red light at night to brighten up our home. (We'll get into the power of these health hacks later on in Part III of this book.)

We also worked through healing the emotional triggers my sickness brought up from deep within our hearts. Through conscious, non-violent communication and authentic relating techniques, we began to understand ourselves and each other a little more clearly. We discovered how to be intimate with one another without sex (during the height of my sickness I was often too drained for anything other than cuddling), which actually helped magnify our connection when we were physically intimate.

Through all the challenges, we never forgot to play. We realized how infusing life and food with joy and pleasure not only helps speed up the healing process, but sparks deeper attraction and connection within a partnership. Plus, we developed powerful lifestyle recipes and intimacy rituals (which you will find in Part III). Today, my fatigue is not as much of a major issue. However, healing, like a relationship, is not linear. There are days where my fatigue is still overwhelming, and TJ's support is more than appreciated.

We've been through a lot and can relate to most aspects of the many different stages of partnership: the honeymoon stage of date nights playing in the kitchen turned late nights playing in bed, supporting one another through tough times and health challenges, clearly communicating through the occasional disagreement or fight, and finding balance and deepening intimacy after being together for over 4 years.

Whether you're in a new relationship, or you've been together for 20, 30, 40, or even 50+ years, Kitchen Chemistry is your food and lifestyle recipe guide for creating sustainable health and a thriving relationship, together. We can't wait for you to dive in!

Next, we will share some quick tips for you to consider when asking yourself how you can best use this cookbook.

Tip #1: Each time you come upon a new recipe in our cookbook ask yourself how your body feels while thinking about eating or drinking this recipe.

The more you can tap into your body to see how a particular food or drink resonates with you, the more you can deepen your intuition! The more you can operate from a place of intuition, the more fulfilled you will be from your eating decisions.

Tip #2: Set and/or renew your overall intention inside your relationship.

Going through unique experiences with your partner can be a great way to set or renew your intention in the relationship. Use your experience of exploring this cookbook as a way to help you reconnect with your partner, communicate about opportunities for growth, and create clarity on your desire to show up- together.

Tip #3: Go through this cookbook with your partner, but don't force it.

The whole intention of our cookbook is to inspire couples to grow in health and relationship together. If one person is more excited about going through our cookbook than the other, that's OK. In any given task or project, you need someone to lead the way. The key is involving the other person in a timely manner.

For instance, review your favorite recipes in our cookbook with your partner and ask them which sound the most exciting. When it comes to the lifestyle recipes to experiment with, it's ok to try some of them out on your own if you're sensing your partner may not take the lead. There is nothing wrong with leading by example! Don't forget to involve your partner as much as possible, in a smart, creative, patient way. In Part III, we will share communication tips and ideas for you to use with your partner to ensure you feel heard, understood, and supported along the way!

Tip #4: If you're not in a relationship, that's OK! You can try recipes out on your own or in your other relationships.

While Kitchen Chemistry focuses on helping couples create together inside the kitchen, it also provides an opportunity to see how we can co-create in every type of relationship.

If you're not in a romantic relationship but are still interested in learning the tools to make healthier, better-tasting food with other friends, family, or co-workers, or even on a future date, welcome! We're glad you're here. There will be certain parts of this cookbook that will only apply to those in romantic relationships. But for the most part, everything else can be transferable to other relationships.

Tip #5: Let your intuition guide you.

Many serious chefs and bakers will scoff at the lack of weights and proper directions in our recipes. I created these recipes using my intuition as a guide, never using measurements on the first try. When we began to recreate each recipe, TJ was close behind writing down my every move to record the exact measurements and thus create a recipe. If your recipe doesn't feel quite right during the creation process, experiment! Try adding something new, a little more of this or a little less of that. We created these recipes to be adaptable and want to empower you to tap into your inner chef so you, too, can make your own recipes without measurements! Use our recipes as guidelines to begin creating your own variations with loved ones. Work with what you have, play to your tastes, and make our recipes your own! This might take a little practice, but the more you experiment, the more confident you'll feel creating in the kitchen.

Crank up some good mood tunes, play with your partner and loved ones, and get cooking! Without further adieu, welcome to Kitchen Chemistry.

Part I: The Food, Love, Health Connection

Chapter 1: What is Kitchen Chemistry?

You can learn a lot about a couple by how they show up for each other in the kitchen. From the depth of their relationship to their skills in preparing healthy, delicious meals, there is an innate connection between the food we eat, how it impacts our health, and the love we experience along the way.

To be honest, I've never felt 100% confident in the kitchen. I forced myself to learn how to make meals for myself as I learned how important it was for overall health. It was Amanda who showed me how to take it to the next level. I'm constantly impressed and inspired by how she approaches food. She calls me forward to learn ways to be creative in the kitchen, and shows me the value of slowing down to honor and enjoy food with intention and grace. For this, and countless other reasons, I am grateful.

Amanda and I developed this cookbook to be a guide to empower couples to take their co-creation skills to the next level. It just so happens that creating in the kitchen is the perfect way to kill two birds with one stone—to grow in health and relationship together!

The healthier you are personally, the healthier your relationships can be overall. And the healthier your relationships are, the healthier you can be personally. Each relationship (with yourself and your partner) comes full circle as a feedback loop constantly informing and impacting the other.

So what do we mean by Kitchen Chemistry?

To dive into what it means to use the kitchen to spark more love, joy, and health in your relationship, let's start by taking a quick drive down memory lane.

We are writing this book at the beginning of a new decade- the 2020s. Relationships have changed quite a bit over the past 70 years. Romantic relationships, specifically, in our modern-day world are a lot different than they were in the past. For typical families in the early 1950s, a woman's job was to shop, cook, clean, and raise children. The man provided the money through his work. This is no longer the case for many couples in today's world.

In addition to changes in relational dynamics we've experienced numerous changes in our food system. We have the choice of picking up pre-made meals at stores and restaurants. We can have our food delivered to us with the click of a button on our smartphones. We can sign up for community supported agriculture (CSA) programs to source local quality animal proteins