Monday, October 18, 2010

Are You Up For The Challenge?

Yesterday afternoon I was rolling coin with Jeremy & I flipped to the Food Network.  Jamie Oliver's Ministry of Food was coming on & I caught the first episode of a 4 episode series.  The show takes place in Rotherham, South Yorkshire where Jamie tried to inspire the residesnts to cook meals from scratch.  A concept that seems to be slowly falling by the wayside in our instant gratification society.  Jamie taught 8 non-cooks (& when I say non-cooks I mean NON-COOKS one delightful lady didn't even know what boiling water looked like...lol) some recipes & then they had to teach two friends, who then had to teach two friends etc.  I was touched by one mother who had a beautiful little girl & she had never ever cooked a meal from scratch for her little girl EVER!  It made me feel very sad.  It was very exciting to see how this same mom at first was so excited & turned out to be a good cook.  I was also struck by how negative some people can be about Jamie's message.  I had heard that Jamie wasn't always liked over in England, but I've never understood why I am still confused about that.
So the show got me thinking which is a good thing.  How much do I actually cook for Jeremy from scratch?  I would say at least two times a week I do & that would be completely from scratch.  The rest of the week we eat leftovers as I'm often just cooking for two of us we do eat our share of leftovers.  Then one night of package fresh pasta & sauce.  At least one night we eat out.  Okay not the worst menu, but there is room for improvement. 

So I'm going to challenge myself to cook from scratch at least one more night a week.  Not every night just one more night & with leftovers that will mean I've covered 6 days of the week & only have had cook 3 times.  That's not to bad.  Sooooo are you up to join me for the challenge?  How often are you cooking form scratch?  Think seriously about increasing it by one day.  There are LOADS of easy recipes online that don't take much time Jamie's site offers some, but one of my favorite sites for fast meals is from Clover Leaf Take 5, recipes with 5 ingredients & 5 min prep time that are yummy.  I make the tuna curry in a hurry & Jeremy really likes it.  Just some ways to get you thinking of cooking more from scratch.  Let's pass down this important life lesson to our children, friends, family & loved ones.

7 comments:

Meeling said...

That's a great personal challenge. With everyone's busy schedules it's hard to make the time to cook from scratch but so worth the extra effort! Way to go!!

Crunchy Diva said...

I agree everyone does have busy schedules that's why my challenge is to only increase my cooking by one day...lol. I'm going to give it a try...lol.

ColorSlut said...

Great challenge! I'm sure you will rock it and love all the great food you make.

Frannie said...

Great challenge. I make most of my meals from scatch. I use few ingredients. I eat mostly raw. But on occasion I will make something like raw lasagna .....which can be time consuming to make. So that is my treat.

I make chili and veggie lasagna from scratch on the weekends and freeze 1-2 portion sizes for my husband. He loves it!
I would love to hear how your challenge goes throughout the next month. Once you try this challenge I bet you will love it.
My best,
Frannie

em's scrapbag said...

Great challenge! I cook from scratch most nights. I want to make sure my kids eat right and that it doesn't cost an arm and a leg. With three teenagers and a preteen we rearly have leftovers. They pretty much eat me out of house and home as it is.

cabin + cub said...

I love cooking.. we try and cook dinner everyday from scratch... well, I don't go as far as making my own pasta dough or pressing olive oil and stuff.. but we do try and cook with fresh ingredients. ;)

Crunchy Diva said...

See my thing is I don't LOVE cooking so that's always been a challenge for me. Losing over 80 lbs I was forced to cook as I couldn't eat anything processed so that moved me from hating to cook, to tolerating it, to liking it. So now I'm at the stage where I like to cook. I know it's important to cook for jeremy my son, & for Chris & my health so those are my main reasons. Now when it's Chris & I cooking I love that. Love cooking with him except we only get to do that maybe once or twice a week at the most. I will keep everyone updated on my challenge.