People who don’t cook need to begin doing so. You’ll pay closer attention to ingredients, you’ll start eating better, and your family will spend more time in the kitchen. “There’s no time!!” What did you have a family for? So everyone could retreat to their separate corners with their digital opium pipes? “Kids, dinner is ready!” A frozen lasagna from Jewel. Well done, mom, you just failed.
For one, make your own lasagna. For another, read the ingredients list on that lasagna. It’s a nightmare. Sounds like you’re building a bomb. Except, you didn’t build anything. You just popped it in the oven. I understand sometimes it’s fun to cheat. But as a lifestyle? That’s a failure.
We’re eating a very small list of grains. Corn, corn, everywhere. Commonly, it’s corn derivatives. Yuck. Don’t be fooled by the grocery store. The richness of diversity is an illusion. There is not as much there as you might think. The cereal aisle? How many companies are playing the cereal game? Not many. And all that nonsense is the same, just colored differently, put in differently designed boxes, and way overpriced. How about some oatmeal, Greek yogurt, and fruit instead?
Organic is not a guaranteed answer to this. It’s a step in the right direction. But, it’s very expensive and you’re not always getting what you think you are. Do some research and decide where it’s worth it to spend a little extra on organic.
Like Michael Pollan says, “shop on the outside of the grocery store.” Leave the Wheat Thins, and the kettle chips, and the two liters of pop on the shelf—and those godawful TV dinners. Go buy some carrots and some apples and some broccoli. Learn how to make a salad. By “salad” I do not mean drowning iceberg (head) lettuce in ranch dressing. Make your own dressings, for a start. Leave the bottles on the shelf. Try different lettuces, different vegetables to add to your salad. Meat has no business in a salad. Pine nuts are overrated. Try radicchio. Apples. Walnuts. Try walnut oil and champagne vinegar. A delicious combination. Experiment. Let the kids help.
Your kids are not picky eaters; you’re just an uncreative cook—and an uncreative parent. Kids will eat just about anything. No, I am not advocating turning your kid into a “foodie.” But if your kids are living on chicken tenders and pizza puffs, you are exposing a defect in your parenting. “My kid won’t touch a vegetable!” Maybe the problem is your vegetables. Ever thought about that? Perhaps the kids are right.
Let the casserole go. Casserole can be fun comfort food, but most of it is crap. Be a better cook. Be better than casserole. There are numerous videos on YouTube that will teach you how to dice an onion, roast a chicken, make a salad that isn’t pitiful, and spaghetti sauce. STOP BUYING JARRED SAUCE! Have some confidence and make your own. It is not hard. Here you go:
1 lg. can stewed tomatoes
1 lg. tomato sauce
2-3 cloves of garlic
1/2 onion, chopped
• Saute onions and garlic in olive oil until light brown
• Add tomato products. Stir
• Add a good splash of red wine and a 2-3 Tbsp. of balsamic vinegar
• Adjust pH: add 1/8 tsp. baking soda. Sauce should froth up. Maybe add more. This is a crucial step
• Add herbs (oregano, basil—fresh is better), S&P to taste
Done. You can add meat if you want. Some sausage, if you’d like (brown it first!). If folks are not drinking alcohol, the alcohol from the wine burns right off.
STOP BUYING JARRED SAUCE!
If you live in the greater Chicagoland area, look these folks up. They’re good people doing good work. Fightin’ the good fight. I know the owner. He’s a hoot. Try his pickles. Wash Tub Farms. Tell’em Harms sent you. If enough of you lot show up, maybe I can score some free pickles.
https://www.facebook.com/washtubfarmsinc
