In the last 6 months I have fallen in love with cooking. I like the whole process: Chopping, dicing, slicing, mixing, searing, stirring, browning, brazing, zesting, seasoning, tasting, mixing, boiling, coating, tossing, baking, broiling, simmering, and grilling.
Cooking is a very active process that requires attention and a certain degree of precision and creativity. It makes me feel good to spend an hour each day cooking breakfasts, sack lunches and dinners for myself, the boys and Sheri. My favorite is when one of the boys wants to help. Grant is my usual assistant. He has learned to chop an onion correctly, brown ground meat, mix ingredients and flip stuff. I think he gets the same satisfaction I do. I am not sure how exactly to explain the feeling other than it just feels right to cook your food.
I also enjoy grocery shopping now that I understand foods better. I pride myself in finding fresh organic veggies. I spend a lot of time comparing nutritional spec on different foods and picking the best ones. I am certainly paying a lot more than we used to for groceries, but I know that my family is generally putting the best things they can in their bodies and that will make them live longer, happier lives.
We used to go to the restaurant most nights. That whole process is frustrating for me now: Get in the car, Drive somewhere, Wait to be seated, Wait to place order, Place order, Wait for food, Eat food (wondering what bad stuff is in there), Wait for check, Pay too much for so-so food, Drive home. There is a ton of wasted time and money going out to eat and at the end of the process, you generally only get marginally better food than fast food from a nutrition stand point.
I have started doing more planning in my cooking now too. At the end of dinner, I will ask the family what they thought. Do they want that dish again? How do they rate it? It is important to me that they enjoy what they eat as well as eat nutritiously. I also ask them what they want tomorrow (from a list of pre planned choices). That gets them involved in the process and let's them feel like they have some control over their diet. I have to be careful about offering Taco night or steak. They always want those.
Lately, I have been working on presentation. Good looking food is yummy food. Small adjustments in final presentation on the plate or in the bowl can make a meal seem much more special for very little effort or cost. Arrange the cherry tomatoes in a pattern, shape the meatloaf with a nice arch at the top, Use red bell peppers to add color, cut grapefruits perfectly, Sear the meat at 45 degrees to get the cross pattern, pile your cottage cheese into a pyramid.
It is humorous to me that I now have an hour to work out and an hour to cook each day and I still feel like I have free time because I watch less TV and need less sleep. Cooking and working out are my two favorite hours every day and I was not even doing either before. In fact, what the heck was I doing?
Go cook something yummy!
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