Comments on: Cook it yourself

By: Erron

Erron — Sat, 17 Jul 2010 17:28:15 +0000

Ohhhh I love it. Someone else has joined me on my soapbox. I'm catching up on blogs so excuse my late comment. I'm a food lover, and a food hater. I've never watched a Jamie Oliver show, but I already love him in fact his whole family is pretty cool. (His wife let the media take pictures of her after giving birth with a real I just had a baby belly.) It seems we've stopped eating food and now eat whatever comes out of the zip top bag. Autism happened to us, and that's what started our personal food revolution. By cutting certain ingredients out of our diet we became really aware of what exactly we had been eating. I can't remember the last time I bought something without reading the label. We don't do diet or low fat, just natural. We do a pretty good job of eating well I think, we're not perfect, we still eat things we shouldn't at our house, but mostly we keep our pantry full of the kinds of foods we want to eat, and leave the rest at the store. It makes for some complaining when you go to sit in front of the TV at night and there are no “snacks” so you have to have some carrots or wholegrain crackers. We have kids, and birthdays should still include cake, but I like that I can read (and approve of) all the ingredients in the cake mix we now buy instead of the mass produced betty crocker or whatever. Even better is when I make the cake from scratch, but with four kids I can allow myself a better mix every now and then. I’m so proud of you for becoming a food visionary. It’s always a rough start, you need to let it take over slowly ie don’t throw out everything in your pantry, just replace it with the better food as you need. Kyle was a tough convince he didn’t see anything wrong with the way we were eating. Another commenter said: processed food taste good. That’s what we thought too, but steer away from it and you’ll realize it’s the chemicals that keep you hooked, not the taste. Eat clean for a while and you’ll find it’s all too sweet, to salty, and unnaturally coloured. KD tastes bad, it really does now that we make our own noodles with raw milk cheddar, a splash of (almond)milk, and a touch of paprika, and guess what it’s not a whole lot more work either.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Thu, 15 Jul 2010 03:09:19 +0000

One kind of mental shift that can help is the "getting the food" part of the job. While I understand that maybe you can run out during the day and get some items you really need, it can really be beneficial as a couple to shop for the big orders together (plus your little guy).

Chad and I often make our list and go to Save on when we know it won't be too busy, sometimes on a saturday evening (yes we are party animals). We kind of troll the isles and discuss what we are buying. We try some different things once in a while, like recently we got some sole fillet stuffed with king crab from the fish counter. Neither of us are real fish eaters, but we gave it a try and loved it. Chad really watches the salt content in food and he helps me find lighter alternative for my weight watchers diet.

I know this sounds cheezy but then we can kind of make a date out of it and help each other make better choices (we even smooch in the isles when no one is around). Then getting food does not feel so much like a chore, you feel good about the groceries you are bringing home and look forward to doing something cool with them.

There are also great farmer's markets that you can go and enjoy and get some great local ingredients.

Anyway, these are just a few of the things we have done in the past while to embrace a few better habits. Plus The Food Network has inspired both of us to get more pleasure out of food and not just cram quantity in our yaps!

By: Legion

Legion — Wed, 14 Jul 2010 20:51:12 +0000

I think the #1 way to solve the time crunch is, simply, planning. It's something I never did before. I started thinking about what I wanted to eat right around the time I got hungry, at which point pulling out a recipie book only to find out I'm missing ingredients was a guarantee I'd resort to pre-packaged dinners, or a restaurant. It required the least amount of thought on my part. With this new staying at home gig, I've been forced to plan ahead (because it was now my job to shop for food) and at first that was a huge mental adjustment that freaked me out a little. But also I can spend all day working on a meal if I choose (and that has happened once or twice), so I've definitely got a luxury not everyone has. I totally agree about the subsidizing thing too, the problem, though, is on the surface it's such an easy statement "we subsidize food to help farmers and make food cheaper", who's going to argue with that. It's only once you start really digging into who profits and the final result of the system we've created that one begins to think maybe we need to something different. But that's also the best thing about changing my eating habits.. I can vote with my dollars for alternatives like local farmers and the more people who do that, the more our health, our economy, our ecological diversity and so much more benefits. Just by eating differently. It has the potential to truely remake the world, just by not buying and eating crap.

By: Cliff

Cliff — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:51:43 +0000

Unbelievable! I go away for a weekend, and James starts blogging?!

Good stuff, dude. Cooking is awesome, and it's great to see someone else who has realized that it isn't 10% as difficult and taxing as all the ads for the companies selling pre-fabricated crap in a bag would like everyone to believe.

I wonder how people would feel in this current economic climate if they actually realized how many billions of government dollars being poured in to subsidies for major food companies? And that's why fast food and pre-packaged meals are cheaper than actually making your own...because they're subsidized to such a ludicrous degree that they're making a profit before actually selling anything? Hmmm...we can cut education spending, or we can stop sending truckloads of cash to massive corporations that don't need it...tough call, that one.

By: Tammy

Tammy — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 17:41:03 +0000

I too have watched Jamie Oliver's food revelation. When watching the UK version, there was a family that had a 7 year old that had NEVER eaten a home cooked meal in his 7 years of life. The family was really obese and unhealthy and the moms liver (she was in her 20s) was enlarged, like a foie gras.

I know that is extreme but we all should do better to get back to the basics. I have been working on weight loss and a big part of that is home cooking prob 95% of the time and portion control. We have found some great recipes that don't take to long and taste great. I am a big fan of roasting veggies. Root vegetables and asparagus taste great with some olive oil and roasted in the oven.

I think your re-kindled romance with good healthy food is awesome and I think it can be a rewarding and creative outlet as well. We will have to share some recipies some time!

By: Chad

Chad — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 15:30:09 +0000

Good to see you blogging again James, and I'm glad that there's something that's grabbed your interest enough to write about. :)

Tam and I do our best to try to cook our own meals as much as possible. We've started to read labels on the products we buy at the grocery store but it is a hard habit to get in to. When I think about it, I think the hardest thing for us is cooking a meal from scratch (no mashed potatoes in-a-bag or whatever)... it is just the time involved. When we get home from work after a long day, a lot of the time we feel just too tired to spend another hour (or more) preparing dinner.

I'm glad to hear that you're taking advantage of being at home all day with Nathan and using some of the time to cook for realz.