The Lost Art of Home Cooking

Have you ever though about all the things that we simply DON'T DO anymore?

• Like spending Saturday morning watching cartoons - Bugs Bunny for me thanks
• Here's one - using a telephone book to look up a number...
• Or hanging clothes out on the line to dry in the sun...
• Growing a garden in order to have fresh vegetables...
• Or how about CANNING vegetables, like grandma used to do, so we'd have fresh veggies all winter
• For that matter - how about just simply COOKING a meal, without zapping it in the microwave?

Just cooking a meal from scratch is sadly becoming like a lost art or something.

Pretty soon we'll be calling it : The Lost Art of Home Cooking.

And what's even more sad is the fact that in order to be really healthy in today's society, especially now that you're plant-based or vegan - you are simply going to HAVE to cook for yourself!

Sorry but there's just no two ways around it.

 

• But I'll just eat at Restaurants you say?   

Good luck.  While you may find a restaurant or two that actually serves Vegan or Vegetarian Food - chances are it will still be covered in butter, oil, cheese, or worse.

• Well then I'll just buy some of those vegan meals at the store….  

Sorry - but can you say junk food?  Yes there are tons of frozen meals labeled "Vegan" on the market now - but most have just as much fat, salt, and sugar as regular junk food.  Look at the labels.  You're not going to get trim and healthy eating this stuff.

• But I don't know how to cook? 

And that's why there are websites like this:  To give you the recipes, and the instructions, to show you how EASY it is to cook delicious, home cooked meals, in no time at all.

Trust me, if you can boil water - you can cook.

 

The Lost Art of Home Cooking

 

Somewhere along the line, we have lost our love of home cooking.  It seems almost no one likes to cook anymore.  It's like cooking like grandma used to is a lost art now or something.

Like canning.  Remember how our moms and grandmothers used to spend hours canning fruit or tomatoes?

No one does that anymore.

We rely on fast ready-made meals and restaurants for everything now.

• Did you know that in 1900, only 2 percent of meals were eaten outside of the home?
• Today, that number is more than 50 percent.

This is bad, not just for us, but also for our children.  We now have a brand new generation of Americans who don't know how to cook.

• The average child in America doesn't even know how to identify the most basic vegetables or fruit.
• And ask them where our food comes from and they'll say a grocery store or restaurant - not a farm.

And I can't tell you how many checkers at my local grocery store have to ask ME what the item in my basket was....  like a Sweet Potato, or Parsnip.

And don't even get me started on the Lost Art of SACKING groceries!  One of my first jobs in High School was at a grocery store where I learned how to sack groceries properly.  And Miss?  The Drano does NOT go in the same bag as my fresh strawberries and apples....thanks..

• Sadly, cooking today means zapping something in the microwave..
• And our food "grows" in boxes, plastic bags, and cans.
• And if you actually read a label you'll end up with a science experiment, not actual food.

Somehow we got brainwashed into thinking that cooking costs too much, is too hard, or takes too long. So we rely on cheap convenience foods instead.  But these highly processed 'frankenfoods' come with a price.

They aren't so 'convenient' anymore when we become so sick we have to spend hundreds of dollars every month on pills, and we can no longer work because we are too sick, fat, or sluggish.

Did you know the average American spends eight hours a day in front of a screen?  And get this, we actually spend more time watching cooking shows than actually cooking?

Seriously?!

Convenience is killing us.

• 70 percent of us today are overweight, and obesity rates are expected to top 42 percent by the end of the next decade.
• One out of every TWO Americans now has either pre-diabetes or diabetes.
• And in less than a decade, the rate of pre-diabetes or diabetes in teenagers has risen from 9 percent to a whopping 23 percent.

Think about that.

Almost one in four kids has pre-diabetes or Type 2 diabetes!

And even more shocking, 37 percent of kids who are currently AT a normal weight, will end up with one or more cardiovascular risk factors such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or high blood sugar.

These are our children folks.

Our kids!

 

It's Time For a Change

 

It is time to take back our kitchens!

You may think that taking on the giant food industry seems impossible, but actually it's pretty easy.  The answer is in our shopping carts, our refrigerators, our pantries  -- and on our dining room tables.  This is where the power is.

It's all those little choices we make every day that will eventually win the battle against big food.

And just because we're Vegan doesn't make it any harder.  If anything it's easier!

We eat a WHOLE FOODS, PLANT BASED DIET.

And whole foods are simple and easy to prepare!  You don't need a hollywood kitchen or some elaborate recipe to make a tasty, nutritious, home cooked, vegan meal.

• Whole foods are potatoes, which can be baked in an oven.
• Whole foods are stalks of corn on the cob which can be boiled on the stove or roasted on a grill.
• Whole foods are bags of rice which can be easily cooked in a rice cooker.
• Whole foods are salad fixings fresh from the garden with a balsamic vinegar based dressing.
• Whole foods are tomatoes - right off the vine - which we all know taste a million times better than those nasty things they sell in the stores.

Plant based home cooking can be very simple.

Search my blog or others like it and find a few recipes you like.  Many are very easy with just a few ingredients.

This Mushroom Gravy is very easy to prepare - and when served over a baked potato and some steamed vegetables make a tasty, nutritious dinner.

 

Think of Your Health As An Investment

 

The bottom line is this:

Health and well-being are an investment that not too many people take seriously anymore.

They believe their doctors can fix anything so they may as well enjoy life while they can.

What they don't realize is that it's hard to enjoy life while you're sitting in a wheelchair, or hospital bed getting your chest cut open for another stent or bypass.

They also don't realize what a financial burden a few days in the hospital or a lifetime of prescription drugs will be.

It doesn't have to be like this.  You can do something about it.  And the food you eat three times a day is the best place to start.

Get back in the kitchen and learn to cook.

It will be one of the best investments you ever make.

 

It's The Food!   Dr. John McDougall, MD

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