How Tia Mowry Stays Healthy and Keeps Her Kitchen Organized

MATT ARMENDARIZ PHOTOGRAPHY

Tia Mowry, the Sister, Sister superstar, has carved her way into the culinary world with a YouTube cooking channel called, Tia Mowry's Quick Fix, which twins with the name of her second cookbook, The Quick Fix Kitchen, out this month (buy it: $23 at Target). Mowry sat down with :BLACKPRINT Meredith to talk about her book, kitchen organization, how she manages wellness of mind, body and spirit, and her guilty pleasure.

After having health issues and trouble conceiving, Mowry overhauled her entire health and wellness plan, immersing herself in learning about foods and practices that are beneficial. In The Quick Fix Kitchen, she put together healthy and delicious recipes like Baked Oatmeal Muffins and Banana Sushi Rolls, accompanied by vibrant photos that'll make you salivate. Although the recipes seem to take center stage, Mowry's main focus with her cookbook was to de-stress the kitchen experience for her readers. She says, "The number one goal was basically to get people in the kitchen, to not make people feel that the kitchen is an overwhelming, confusing, depressive place." Mowry loves cooking for her family and remembers having conversations with her mom and siblings in the kitchen when she was a kid. "I want to inspire people to do just that," she says.

What's one of the keys to enjoying your time in the kitchen? Mowry says, "Organization and decluttering." There's a whole section devoted to it in her cookbook. "Let's get rid of the clutter. Let's take out things that we're not using, that we're not needing." She makes sure that she assesses her kitchen twice a year to see what's working and what's not. (Want to take her lead? Here are five expert-backed tips to get a more organized kitchen in minutes.)

When thinking about organizing, Mowry advises, "When you're making those eggs and you're looking for a spatula, you [need to] know where it is, so you're not running all over the kitchen." Pantry organization for Mowry is key. "Think about what you need in there that you can grab quickly to create healthy stress-free, practical and delicious meals." Tia's pantry trinity is onion, garlic and extra-virgin olive oil. She says if you have that, you're good to go and can make something delicious, even if the rest of your kitchen is looking slim.

But no matter how much she organizes and declutters, there are two kitchen tools that Mowry can simply never do without. "My cutting board," she says. "I feel like it's a tool that everybody needs to have in different sizes. What's really important to me is to have them stylized and to make them look really cool so that you can use it as a design piece in your kitchen."

Mowry says her second kitchen must-have is a great knife. She doesn't like the dull knife life and she says, "If your knife is not good, then cutting's not going to be fun. It's going to be a struggle."

You can bet we'll see both kitchen tools, as well as many other cool items in her new cookware line, coming out later this fall.

Mowry has a full and very busy life—she's a wife, a mother of two, an actor and an entrepreneur. But to handle it all, she has a great five-step wellness plan to keep everything from spiraling out of control: Mantras, meditation, exercise, eating well and being around positive people.

Mowry says, "I think it's important to have mantras. Whenever I'm overwhelmed or frustrated, I tell myself, 'You got this.' Meditation is training the mind to focus on the positive things, exercising is giving your body what it needs to feel great and awesome. Eating well [and] being aware of what you're putting in your body [is important]. Being aware of how food makes you feel when you eat it—mind-blowing. When you start to get that relationship, you really start to feel whole." Mowry continues, "And a part of self-care is being aware of who the people are that you are around most of the time. Are they speaking negative things into your life?"

With her wellness plan intact, Mowry folds in time to enjoy her guilty pleasure—all things red velvet. "Whether it's red velvet cake, red velvet cookies, red velvet cupcakes, red velvet anything. It doesn't matter. If something red velvet passes me or is in my peripheral, I'm like, 'Aah.' I love red velvet." We can relate, Tia!

See the full interview with Tia Mowry at blackprintmeredith.com and follow :BLACKPRINT on Instagram