When you can't afford to eat out or you find yourself needing to cook meals for the first time, it's all about survival. Although some people have always been interested in cooking, or eating great meals that depended on honing the skill, others need to develop some basic food preparation methods to save money and manage hunger.
Among limited resource populations, cooking is truly a survival skill. For those of us who can afford to eat out occasionally or even extensively, learning to prepare home-cooked meals is often healthier and time saving once you learn a few basic techniques...
Among limited resource populations, cooking is truly a survival skill. For those of us who can afford to eat out occasionally or even extensively, learning to prepare home-cooked meals is often healthier and time saving once you learn a few basic techniques...
My friend's young adult son is taking a leave of absence from his job to write a novel. A New York City resident, he relied on eating out and now needs to cook at home to save money. Where do you begin when all kitchen-related activities seem mysterious?
First, realize you are not alone in your confusion. Everyone who knows how to cook began at square one. My mother taught me how to bake desserts when I was in middle and high school. Because she was feeding a large family she probably didn't want me interrupting her dinnertime cooking routine. At that age I was more interested in preparing desserts anyway and my only dinnertime task involved setting the table. Fortunately, I eventually learned to cook thanks mainly to my husband. He taught himself to cook to survive during some early-career low-wage periods (i.e., graduate school) and shared the basics with me.
Perhaps because I know how to bake, I've always been more comfortable following a recipe whereas my husband will just put ingredients together in a delicious way. Both approaches have their merits. Learning to cook is a lifetime skill that will make you less dependent on fast food and restaurant meals, or foodie friends who will cook for you. If a housemate, or spouse does all of your cooking, you will be in predicament when they are no longer available to prepare meals on a regular basis. When you are living on your own or with other non-cooks, and you are lucky enough to know someone who enjoys cooking, ask them for some guidance and work toward becoming self-reliant in the kitchen.
First, realize you are not alone in your confusion. Everyone who knows how to cook began at square one. My mother taught me how to bake desserts when I was in middle and high school. Because she was feeding a large family she probably didn't want me interrupting her dinnertime cooking routine. At that age I was more interested in preparing desserts anyway and my only dinnertime task involved setting the table. Fortunately, I eventually learned to cook thanks mainly to my husband. He taught himself to cook to survive during some early-career low-wage periods (i.e., graduate school) and shared the basics with me.
Perhaps because I know how to bake, I've always been more comfortable following a recipe whereas my husband will just put ingredients together in a delicious way. Both approaches have their merits. Learning to cook is a lifetime skill that will make you less dependent on fast food and restaurant meals, or foodie friends who will cook for you. If a housemate, or spouse does all of your cooking, you will be in predicament when they are no longer available to prepare meals on a regular basis. When you are living on your own or with other non-cooks, and you are lucky enough to know someone who enjoys cooking, ask them for some guidance and work toward becoming self-reliant in the kitchen.
In his new book titled, Cooked: A Natural History of Transformation, award-winning author Michael Pollan describes how one of his University of California Berkeley food writing students shared her culinary skills by providing him with regular cooking lessons. She explained that "great cooking is all about the three p's: patience, presence, and practice." Pollan found that cooking onions, a common recipe ingredient, was a good place to develop those habits (i.e., practice chopping onions, patience in sweating them - a cooking method similar to sautéing, and presence in keeping an eye on the pan so the onions don't accidentally brown).
The first non-dessert food I remember learning to prepare was an egg sandwich. I babysat for my next door neighbors' children in high school and when the parents returned at 2:00 in the morning the mother would head off to bed and the dad would announce that he was hungry. "Would you like to join me for an egg sandwich?" he'd ask. He would put together the tastiest treat and say, "everyone needs to know how to cook an egg sandwich!" He was right; it's basic survival food. Egg sandwiches are inexpensive and easy to prepare. The egg provides protein, the bread is a carbohydrate, and when combined the sandwich will satisfy your hunger for hours.
Years later when I taught nutrition in limited-resource communities, I modified the egg sandwich recipe for the microwave oven to meet the needs of children who were learning to cook healthy snacks for themselves when they were hungry after school. By preparing foods that did not require a stove, no adult supervision was necessary.
I often make egg sandwiches at home for breakfast, lunch, and every once in a while, as a late night snack while remembering my neighbor, Jim Hertz, who provided me with my first cooking lesson. The egg tastes great in a toasted whole wheat English muffin or a whole wheat tortilla with some salsa. Here's the microwave version and that means there's no pan to clean!
Years later when I taught nutrition in limited-resource communities, I modified the egg sandwich recipe for the microwave oven to meet the needs of children who were learning to cook healthy snacks for themselves when they were hungry after school. By preparing foods that did not require a stove, no adult supervision was necessary.
I often make egg sandwiches at home for breakfast, lunch, and every once in a while, as a late night snack while remembering my neighbor, Jim Hertz, who provided me with my first cooking lesson. The egg tastes great in a toasted whole wheat English muffin or a whole wheat tortilla with some salsa. Here's the microwave version and that means there's no pan to clean!
Another easy breakfast involves preparing oatmeal in a microwave oven. Oatmeal's fiber will help keep you feeling full until lunchtime. You can divide the dry ingredients into individual serving sizes and store them in snack-size zip-lock bags and take them with you to work or for travel. Once you reach your destination, just add water, or low-fat or nonfat milk and micro-cook:
For a simple lunch or dinner, this MyPlate Main Dish Salad will help you eat more plant-based meals:
And you can make your own salad dressings that are healthier than store-bought varieties:
When you have access to a stove, sauce pan, and blender, try this simple Sweet Pea Soup recipe using frozen peas and begin to develop your "three p" cooking skills (practice, patience, and presence) while chopping, sautéing, and observing the onions:
You may also enjoy using this soup recipe template to create your own masterpiece:
It's helpful to always have frozen vegetables on hand. They can be less expensive and often retain their nutritive value better than fresh produce because they are frozen near the field soon after harvest. Frozen vegetables will have a higher nutrient content than fresh produce that has been transported long distances to grocery stores, or kept on a kitchen counter for several days. Just be sure to buy frozen vegetable packages with nothing else added. The list of ingredients on a frozen bag of broccoli should just list broccoli.
If you have access to a farmers' market or join a community-supported agriculture (CSA), you'll need to learn some recipes that use seasonal fresh produce. For several years my husband and I belonged to a local CSA through One Straw Farm. With so much produce arriving in our kitchen every week, we gradually adopted a plant-based diet because there wasn't room to store meat in our refrigerator. We now shop at our neighborhood farmers' market for local fresh produce. Regardless of where you source your seasonal produce, One Straw Farm recipes offer helpful tips for preparing your weekly fresh vegetable purchases.
The internet provides a daunting array of food and cooking Web sites. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a Thrifty Meal Plan recipe guide to help people with limited resources, I find the recipes too heavily meat and dairy-based for my palate.
A home-grown site that may help my friend's son who is learning to cook in NYC is called The Reluctant Gourmet. It's written by a stay-at-home-dad determined to master the art of cooking. The author G. Stephen Jones states, "you need to eat, so learn to cook and eat well" and he invites you to join him as he tames his fears and attempts to overcome his reluctant tendencies in the kitchen.
Another interesting cooking blog, Thrifty Veggie Mamma, describes the author's gradual process of preparing more plant-based meals for her family after watching the movie Food, Inc. that documents the downside of corporate farming. Thrifty Veggie Mamma and The Reluctant Gourmet are written by people like you who are not celebrity chefs or trained in the culinary arts. They're just trying to prepare healthy, great-tasting meals for themselves and their families.
Other Web cooking resources you may find helpful that are listed on my Resources page include:
Cook It Quick
Cooking tips for healthy, inexpensive meals; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension
Cookus Interruptus
Amusing cooking video demonstrations using fresh, local foods
Epicurious
Leading cooking site; search for recipes by ingredient
Get Cooking
Healthy recipes and cooking tips from Kaiser Permanente's Dr. Maring
Mollie Katzen
Vegetarian cookbook author; see her get cooking videos
Recipe Finder
U.S. Department of Agriculture - searchable recipe database
Spend Smart, Eat Smart
Practical, economical recipes; Iowa State Extension
Be Well,
Mary
P.S. Please ignore the text box below; your comments are always welcome here.
If you have access to a farmers' market or join a community-supported agriculture (CSA), you'll need to learn some recipes that use seasonal fresh produce. For several years my husband and I belonged to a local CSA through One Straw Farm. With so much produce arriving in our kitchen every week, we gradually adopted a plant-based diet because there wasn't room to store meat in our refrigerator. We now shop at our neighborhood farmers' market for local fresh produce. Regardless of where you source your seasonal produce, One Straw Farm recipes offer helpful tips for preparing your weekly fresh vegetable purchases.
The internet provides a daunting array of food and cooking Web sites. Although the U.S. Department of Agriculture developed a Thrifty Meal Plan recipe guide to help people with limited resources, I find the recipes too heavily meat and dairy-based for my palate.
A home-grown site that may help my friend's son who is learning to cook in NYC is called The Reluctant Gourmet. It's written by a stay-at-home-dad determined to master the art of cooking. The author G. Stephen Jones states, "you need to eat, so learn to cook and eat well" and he invites you to join him as he tames his fears and attempts to overcome his reluctant tendencies in the kitchen.
Another interesting cooking blog, Thrifty Veggie Mamma, describes the author's gradual process of preparing more plant-based meals for her family after watching the movie Food, Inc. that documents the downside of corporate farming. Thrifty Veggie Mamma and The Reluctant Gourmet are written by people like you who are not celebrity chefs or trained in the culinary arts. They're just trying to prepare healthy, great-tasting meals for themselves and their families.
Other Web cooking resources you may find helpful that are listed on my Resources page include:
Cook It Quick
Cooking tips for healthy, inexpensive meals; University of Nebraska-Lincoln Extension
Cookus Interruptus
Amusing cooking video demonstrations using fresh, local foods
Epicurious
Leading cooking site; search for recipes by ingredient
Get Cooking
Healthy recipes and cooking tips from Kaiser Permanente's Dr. Maring
Mollie Katzen
Vegetarian cookbook author; see her get cooking videos
Recipe Finder
U.S. Department of Agriculture - searchable recipe database
Spend Smart, Eat Smart
Practical, economical recipes; Iowa State Extension
Be Well,
Mary
P.S. Please ignore the text box below; your comments are always welcome here.
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