Making tasty organic foods can be a challenge, especially when you’re cooking for children or you’re on a tight budget. Let’s face it: most of us have become used to the convenience of being able to pick up things like jelly or granola bars from the grocery store. Trying to eat healthier usually means breaking the budget and spending a lot of extra time reading ingredients on packaging, then researching what those ingredients actually are.
Of course, eating whole unprocessed foods like fruits and vegetables is always a healthy option, but they’re just not as fun as the snack foods we’ve come to love. How can we get the fluffy deliciousness of giant Jet-Puffed marshmallows in a healthier version? Turns out Lovina Zook has the answer.
Zook grew up Swartzentruber Amish, so she was not exposed to technology or other modern conveniences until after she left the Amish religion. Fortunately for us, though, all the knowledge she gleaned from her simplistic childhood remains.
Zook has been using her knowledge of making homemade foods, treats, and everyday products to teach others on social media to make healthier, homemade versions of their guilty pleasures. Her simplistic recipes that are typically cost effective have been a huge hit; her how-to videos regularly rack up millions of views. Zook’s video on making homemade butter has nearly 20 million views and the recipe is only two ingredients, heavy whipping cream and salt. In the video about making butter, she says that a gallon of cream makes 3 lbs. of butter and you’re also left with a good amount of buttermilk which can be used for baking or making pancakes.
One person commented, “She’s teaching everyone to live more affordably and i love this,” Another wrote, “Girrrrrrrrrrllllllllll you are saving Americans money.”
Zook’s video on making three ingredient grape jelly has 17.4 million views. The recipe makes several jars of grape jelly by using really simple organic ingredients: organic grape juice, organic raw cane sugar (but white sugar will work as well), and pectin. She boils it up while whisking and, in a few minutes, she’s pouring the liquid into mason jars. She turns them upside down to cool and when she comes back it’s perfectly smooth grape jelly. Her recipe made five jars of jelly for likely the price of one jar of store-bought jelly.
“I don’t care what anyone says, this is the best beginner-to-intermediate cooking channel on TikTok,” one viewer comments.
Another writes, “Amish food is the most organic, chemical free, delicious homemade food out there! We can definitely learn something from the Amish! Thanks for your videos and wisdom!”
In a few more recent videos, she shows her followers how to make homemade marshmallows, granola bars, graham crackers and even Velveeta cheese. Her page is a plethora of knowledge and affordable recipes that don’t take a lot of time to learn.
As a show of support, people have also flocked to her page to shut down some viewers who were poking fun at her eye contact with the camera and accent.
As someone who grew up without access to technology, she’s not accustomed to all the understood social norms of regular Internet use. As far as her accent, most Swartzentruber Amish speak Pennsylvania German, also known as Pennsylvania Dutch. It may be unique, but it doesn’t stop her from sharing her knowledge.
One person writes in support of Zook, “I just saw somebody talk about how people were making fun of you for looking into the camera. Do not change who you are. You do great on here and don’t look down ever.” Another person joined in by saying, “love this! please continue to educate us with these fantastic homemade recipes. And for everyone else who wants to step in with rude comments, please keep it to yourself and move on.”
We certainly hope Zook continues to share her knowledge with the world as the economy changes and people aim to put healthier foods into their bodies. Since starting her page, Zook has been able to earn an income and recently released a digital cookbook that has more than 150 Amish recipes, many of which she has made on her social media pages. Hopefully she’ll keep cooking and sharing secrets to eating healthy on a budget.