So the big news this week, aside from Egypt’s revolution in progress, is that eating out and eating convenience foods causes weight gain. I had to laugh, because really, how can this be a surprise to anybody?
While I think it’s pretty unfair to blame this on working moms, implying that dads are incapable of reading and following a recipe, it is one of those things that maybe isn’t as obvious as it seems on the surface, though. The truth is, if you eat at a restaurant or buy convenience foods at the grocery store, unless you read labels carefully and ask a lot of questions, you may not really know what you’re eating.
Hidden sugar, for instance. The percentage of fat. The number of calories. Salt. It’s very easy to have a reasonable sized meal that’s much higher than you expect in calories, sodium, fat, sugar. Since something like 3 meals a week on average are eaten at home in this country, it’s not surprising that there’s also a national health crisis. The nation’s health crisis isn’t going to be solved by Washington. The
solution might require an ad campaign to change public perception of
the value of cooking, however.
Once you start looking at nutritional information, it’s very easy to come to the conclusion that a coronary isn’t convenient at all and maybe it’s not that hard to cook at home.
It isn’t. It really isn’t. We pay a high price in health (not to mention our wallets) for convenience, and with a little organization and planning, you can shift to eating at home and find that it doesn’t take more time than it does to drive to a restaurant.
The Betty Crocker Cookbook is an old standby that covers the basics of everything from what to do with various kinds and cuts of meat to breadmaking, main dishes, desserts, the works. Basic kitchen equipment like a set of pots and pans and a set of utensils, will cover 95% of what you need.
Making a menu plan a week in advance means you can grocery shop for the ingredients you need and on the weekend, and an awful lot of meals can be put
into a crockpot in the morning to be ready at dinner time, or prepared in 15-20 minutes before going into the oven.
If the grocery store gives you sticker shock, here are some ways to save: get a Costco membership and buy in bulk. Shop your local farmer’s markets, join a co-op, or buy a share in a local CSA, which sometimes includes meat and eggs in addition to produce.
Most of all, give yourself credit for having the ability to do something humans have managed to do for thousands of years: make your own food. If you are a working parent juggling a job, parenting, household chores and other responsibilities already, you’re more than qualified to handle a pot of pasta. Make it a family project and have everybody pitch in; even small children can learn to do a lot of basic kitchen tasks and they love to help.
Your health will thank you, your waistline will thank you, your budget will thank you, and you might even find it enjoyable.
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