Post on 09-Jun-2015
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It’s a Balancing Act!
Feeding the Body While Maintaining the Mind
Janice Mansfield / Real Food Made Easy
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What to have for dinner is becoming a minefield of questions!
Paleo
Vegan
Slow carb
Organic
Slow food
Low carb
Raw food
Gluten-free Dairy-free
Clean food
- Food intolerances
-Allergies
- food-related chronic
illness
-new emphasis on
therapuetic foods
- foods that disrupt
wellbeing
- the role of food in
family unity!
- cooking as competitive
sport
Much depends on
dinner!
(and on those who
prepare it!)
And the stakes seem even higher than ever!
We're expected to fill so many roles in the kitchen ... and manage it all serenely
Chef
Prep chef
Dietician
Nutritionist
Broccoli eating
cheerleaderDishwasher
Short order cook Mind reader
Quartermaster
Now THAT's more like reality!
You know things are messed up when governments feel the need to get involved! From a talk I gave at IdeaWave 2010: " It is in fact, so bad that the latest US food guidelines (due out this fall), have come to the conclusion that “Nutritional education, cooking skills and food safety needs to be strengthened, especially among families. The idea is to get people to cook and eat at home more” (as reported in the NY Times, June 15, 2010). Pretty sad when your government has to tell you to stay home and eat!"
We've been on the receiving end of mixed messages about food for a while now! ● Nutrition science dates to the mid 19th century and was
originally focused on increasing food yields that would net a more robust workforce for the factories! And (not unrelated), a more content workforce, less likely to start an insurgence!
● Campell’s marketed canned soup as a way of helping overburdened homemakers as early as 1914.
● In 1919, Fleishman’s was marketing readymade bread as superior to home-baked (ironically the origin of the term "know where your food comes from")
● Swanson TV dinners were introduced in 1954, and sold 10,000,000 in their first year!
● The early 1970s saw both the opening of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse AND the launch of the Egg McMuffin
One of the best things we can do for ourselves and our families is cook our own food ... from scratch Consistent message coming from a number of food writers and those researching the role of food● Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Michael Ruhlman, Raj Patel
Where to start? Despite the preponderance of cooking shows food blogs, etc. for many families, cooking from scatch has become a lost skill.
Remember, we're not all Julia Child
... and that's OK! just start cooking!
Just cook!
○ Don't overthink it! Remember, our grandmothers just used to get dinner on the table! Not always five-star, but always nourishing
○ Its fun to play with kitchen gadgets, but be realistic about what you will use! Unused appliances can haunt you with guilt, like the ghost of Xmas past!
○ Despite what they say on Top Chef, there are a limited number of cooking methods! baking, boiling, frying, steaming, and poaching. Everything else is a combination of these!
Kitchen tactics
○ Try new ways of streamlining your cooking!
○ Cooking in quantity
○ Use the oven more often
○ Simple is often best -- things like lemon zest, a splash of
sherry vinegar as seasoning make a big difference.
○ Rethink your investments in the kitchen -- If you don't
use a stand mixer, save the money you would have
spent, buy really good olive oil instead!
○ Get a knife that fits your hand!
Kitchen tactics
○ Flow - Are your knives by the cutting board?
○ Preparation! It sounds trite, but plan ahead, even if you
have made something before! (I have had many a night
baking only to realize I was out of a key ingredient!).
○ Preparation! Mise en place!
○ Preparation! Think of cooking sessions as potential prep
for later in the week? Cooking chickpeas for something
today? Cook double the amount to use in salads, for
hummus later on.
○ Clean counter-rule is only as firm as you choose! If you bake a lot, leave out your most-used mixing bowl with measuring cups, spoons, spatula nested inside.
○ Keep a garbage can + compost pail handy while you are cooking
○ Some things are better in multiples -- spatulas, whisks, wooden spoons, mixing bowls.
○ 2 gadgets to invest in if you bake: a kitchen scale and an oven thermometer!
○ 1 gadget to invest in even if you don't bake: a digital thermometer.
○ Have fun!
Kitchen tactics
○ Try new ways of cooking things to create different flavours! - poach chicken rather than roasting. Oven-roast vegetables rather than steaming or boiling them. Experiment with braising!
○ You can use the oven for many things you might not have thought of!○ soup bases○ caramlized onions○ tomato sauce○ polenta○ cooking dried beans
Kitchen tactics