The French Fry That Killed Home Cooking

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Home cooked meals are increasingly becoming a distant memory.

Fast food chains today provide such an array of options and variety that they have established themselves as the new mom in the kitchen.

When your mom used to cook in the kitchen, did she just slap out any old muck that was high in taste yet contained little to no nutritional value? I don’t think so – well my mom didn’t anyway. Recent years have shown that vast major of fast food outlets have been forced by consumer watchdog authorities to provide content and nutritional information on their packaging and ultimately forced to provide healthier options. Believe me when I say, if they were not forced to provide you this information, they certainly wouldn’t do it out of the kindness of their heart or because they care for you and your health!

“Time is money” is the key principle that is killing the art of home cooking, with more and more people claiming they don’t have enough time to cook at home. So ultimately people believe using their time in making money will provide the means to buy the pre-prepared food needed to properly sustain a healthy lifestyle. Err – wrong!

Actually the dietary needs of humans have very basic principles, which simple planning can help with. Lets be honest, how valuable are you to a company when you get sick easily or do not have the energy to perform a solid day’s work simply because of a bad diet? You are already aware that developed countries have the highest obesity rates – right? Well unfortunately these are exactly where these food chains have originally sprung up from and continue to thrive financially.

So why then is the art of home cook meals suffering a slow death at the hands of the French Fry?

The underlying perception that home cooked meals take too much TIME to prepare and cook. Not true! A nutritious and very tasty meal can be prepared and cooked within 15 minutes. I’m not talking here about pre-prepared, over processed meals – but a proper lip smacking home cooked meal made with vegetables, salads and meats. As an example, you can buy snap frozen vegetables at any food place instead of microwave dinners.

If you can accurately remember your childhood I bet some of the best conversations ever held with your mom or dad where while you were helping get dinner ready, peeling potatoes, setting the table or even washing dishes. Time spent on these activities is never wasted and like gardening it can be a time of refreshment, relaxation, and reflection, something most of us fail to take time to do on a regular basis.

Cooking can be a delightful pastime proving the opportunity to show off your individual flair, provide you with the inner satisfaction of creating something, spend time reflecting or communicating with loved ones, or simply a skill to teach your children for when they grow up. Cooking is by no means the domain of women, it is something that every man should know too, after all you don’t want little Johnny to eat badly for the rest of his life or marry simply because he can’t look after himself, right?

That is why I have dedicated a website that is designed to provide everything you ever wanted to know about cooking but were too afraid to ask. I have provided a great deal of information about every sort and form of cooking down to the very basics on HOW to COOK. As an opening special to my web site I have also provided an extra special deal with the “…Learn How to Cook and Become a Better Chef” e- book I am selling. Check it out quickly as I can only offer this to the first 150 buyers, so it will not be there very long. You will get a total of 4 books on how to cook a long with 10 great recipe books, one called “Things Mother Makes” – great old recipes you thought were forgotten forever.

Don’t let the French Fry get away with murder, teach yourself, your friends and most importantly your family to cook properly.

Here are a few tips that might just help everyone get into the cooking scene:

1. New rule to be announced – No one cooks more than twice a week and the cook never does the cleaning up. Encourage those who don’t know how to cook, but have the capability, to learn how to cook. You might have to put up with a few bad meals but your encouragement will ultimately lead to a happy home at meal times. All the non- cooks need to share the cleaning up even if it was a full ‘pitch in’ cooking session. Sorry about those living a lone – your it, so tip number 1 doesn’t apply.

2. Fast food only once a week. Very quick, 10-15 minute, meals during the week and larger meals during the weekend. Make Friday your ‘get your own’ or takeaway day. Get everyone to pitch in with preparing the week-end meals. This takes a little extra coordination and a little more time but the quality time spent together is worth it. You also may end up with lots of cold cut meat for sandwiches during the first part of the week if you cook extra (hint). Your bank account will also love you.

3. Eat Five plus vegetables and fruits every day. Ensure everyone gets a selection of at least five different vegetables and fruits each day of the week. I.e. if you take a banana and apple to school, with oatmeal and raisin (dried grapes) cookies, you only need two or more vegetables.

4. Be a clean cook. Try and reuse utensils while cooking and clean as you go, as opposed to one big mess later. Try to reuse larger items like saucepans by rinsing them under hot water for re-use. Once you have used the ingredients try to put them away and dispose of any off cuts from vegetables, etc, as you cut them. These are better for your compost heap or worm farm than shredded in the waterways via the waste disposal.

5. Sit down together and eat. This may seem very obvious and dumb, however I strongly believe this is what cooking and food is ultimately about – sharing it together. It is the simple things in life that make it so worth living and it doesn’t get much better than sharing a great meal together in peace (i.e. NO TV), and just talk. You heard it right – TALK TO EACH OTHER. P.S Don’t forget to complement the chef, and try not to talk while you have food in your mouth – do it between refills.