Cook From Scratch
It’s Not Hard to Cook From Scratch – It’s Healthier Too
Too many things are automated, and more is done for us. Society is getting lazier, people are gaining weight, and brains aren’t often functioning at the levels of previous generations. Get back to healthy habits and carve out a bit of time for cooking. Invite a friend or family member to cook with you – it can ease the burden, but also make cooking more fun! Cook from scratch to know your ingredients.
Think of foods you’d like to eat over the week. Figure out the ingredients you need. Do you like eating the same thing over a few days, or would you like to mix it up? When cooking (if you don’t have time to cook daily), you should plan to make more than one meal’s worth, so you can eat it again – whether several days in a row, or whether freezing it, or in a couple days – so you can pull out a meal when you need to grab a bite when you don’t have time to cook. I recently grilled too much of fajitas so I froze the grilled leftovers. I pulled it out and heated it up for dinner a couple weeks later and they were as good as if just made.
Stay on a healthy track – cook from scratch using healthy recipes and organic foods.
Start with easy, healthy recipes that only have a few ingredients and a few steps. You may enjoy cooking and want to take on higher level recipes, but start out with simple ones first, so you don’t get frustrated and then just give up – if you haven’t cooked much before.
Do you like soups? Salads? Stir fry? Meat and vegetables? Think of your preferences and figure out a weekly menu plan with healthy recipes.
Make a sauce or two that you can drizzle over meats, pasta or vegetables to add a kick to them – teriyaki sauce, chutney, tomato sauce, cream sauce, Alfredo, etc. – all are easy to make from scratch. Use them within a week or two, however, so they don’t go bad – keep them in the front of your refrigerator so you will see them to think about (or put it into the freezer to pull out another time).
When you figure the healthy recipes that you’d like to attempt, make a list to go shopping for the ingredients. Food is medicine – produce can heal.
Cut up vegetables and meat into pieces so you can just grab them as needed over the week. Some meats and vegetables need to be used within a couple days though – so don’t just let them sit without using them. Try not to rinse produce until right before you use them – they start going bad shortly after.
If you are unable to cook daily, or know you will be too busy, then make your meal for a couple days’ worth – put serving sizes in the refrigerator or freezer so you can pull out later. If your freezer has a few varieties of meals, you don’t have to eat the same thing over and over and alternate the meals. You can get a stand-alone cooker that you just put your ingredients into and set the time, like a slo-cooker.
If you make your own foods and cook from scratch – you are in control of the ingredients and the pots used in cooking. You can use real butter versus margarine. You can avoid high fructose corn syrup. You can avoid any allergens. You can use the fresh unblemished, non-rotten produce that restaurants and frozen prepared foods do not bother to sort through.
Aluminum is known to leach into foods and is a suspected factor in Alzheimer’s disease, so stay away from aluminum cookware (anodized aluminum may be safer – but research the cookware before buying it). Iron leaches into food – but that’s a good thing for most people – though some people should not eat any more iron. High quality Stainless Steel is a safe choice – low quality has aluminum and perhaps other metals mixed in. When eating in a restaurant, you have no control over the type of cookware they use, and you cannot really ask them.
Take a step at a time – to becoming less “lazy” – cook your own meals and then maybe other things will fall into place – like walking or not using remotes to control everything. The better you eat, the better you feel. The better you feel, the better care you want to take care of yourself, especially with the extra energy. The better your feel, the less need to see a doctor. Cooking your own meals, bringing lunches to work – saves money and keeps you healthier. Try using frozen fruits too. Cook from scratch.
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Eat Foods Closest to the Source
Don’t Rinse Produce Until Ready to Eat
P.R.