Within a mile of where I live, there is a McDonald’s, a Chick-Fil-A, a Cheesecake Factory, an IHOP, and a Shake Shack – and that’s not even including all the little mom and pop spots where I can reliably grab my favorite hot dogs, a burrito the size of a toddler, or the most decadent mac and cheese in the history of the noodle.

My point is, eating clean is hard! Temptation is everywhere, and it is delicious. So, when I decided that I really, honestly, genuinely wanted to eat healthier, I knew that I was going to have to put some serious effort into making that conscious decision every day, starting with cooking at home more!

This meant I needed better cookware – high-quality, easy-to-use pots and pans that would motivate me and keep me on track.

Luckily, I found GreenPan’s Reserve Set: a collection of ceramic nonstick cookware that’s free of toxins, PFAS, and PFOAs, making it the perfect sidekick for my quest to eat healthier.

A Healthy Upgrade

Prior to switching to GreenPan, I’d had the same set of nonstick pans for probably eight years. They’d been subjected to roommates who didn’t know how to cook, multiple moves, and a whole lot of wear and tear. And they were definitely looking (and cooking) the worse for it.

Food was sticking. Things were burning. Smoke was billowing. The whole process had definitely turned me off from cooking, especially with the temptation of a lazy meal just a couple minutes away.

The worst part? The old, scratched up nonstick apparently contained forever chemicals that were leaching into my food. 

I was in need of a serious cookware upgrade if I was ever going to get serious about cooking for myself, and some online research into different types of nonstick pans led me to GreenPan. Unlike traditional nonstick, their pans use ceramic; it’s a safer, healthier option that performs as well as (and often better than!) traditional nonstick with the added bonus of being toxin, PFAS, and PFOA-free.

Pan research had sent me down the recipe rabbit hole, and with the things I was planning on cooking, I knew I needed more than just a couple of frypans. I wound up choosing the Reserve 10-Piece set; it had everything I needed for recipes ranging from simple to wildly ambitious, and I could get it in Sunrise yellow to match my kitchen.

Taking It One Meal At A Time

One of the things that I promised myself when I started this journey was that I wasn’t going to go full granola right out the gate. 

I know myself, and I know my eating habits, so I knew that if I started trying to cook up kale with a side of kale every night for dinner, I’d be back in the burger line in no time.

Instead, I decided to take it slow and start with some simple substitutions. Instead of a fried chicken sandwich and fries, I could roast a chicken breast and potatoes. Instead of Chinese takeout, homemade stir fry. I made my first week all about taking a step in the right direction. Less fried food. Less empty carbs. More veggies. More lean meats. The only absolutes I was sticking to were that I had to cook it myself and it had to taste good.

And my Reserve set kept up with me the entire way. The oven-safe handles let me start my chicken with a sear and finish it in the oven to keep it mouthwatering-ly delicious. The ceramic nonstick was incredibly forgiving when it came to cleaning up my mistakes (like a pan sauce attempt that came out “lightly charred”). And the tempered glass lids let me keep an eye on anything I had covered, which came in incredibly handy as I figured out cooking times the hard way.

All in all, the Reserve set delivered above and beyond anything I had ever cooked on before. And after my first week of dedicated home cooking, I felt ready to take on anything.

The Good, The Bad, and the GreenPan

It’s been a few months since I first started using my GreenPan Reserve set, and my review is still overwhelmingly positive. But, there are a few quirks you should know about if you’re thinking about ordering a set for yourself.