There’s a move towards greater self-sufficiency, more “natural” ways of living, a move away from the industrial fast paced life to the “made from scratch,” homemade, slower life. I’ve recently scanned through “The Homemade Pantry,” “French Kids Eat Everything.” “Make the Bread, Buy the Butter” and read several blogs that encourage the same homemade approach to life. I’m drawn to it. Another book I’ve scanned “Fat” argues that butter needs to take a more prominent place in our kitchens, especially excellent butter. He says butter should taste like what the cow ate, grassy, herbal. I’ve tasted such butter once- as a sample from Costco. Tom and I talk often of that Irish butter, we wish we’d bought some. Now I want to make some. Anyone have a cow that grazes on clover that I can milk?
The woman who writes “Chiots Run” a gardening blog I subscribe to makes all her own cleaning agents. May I should start doing that?
Too often we end up away from the house at meal times with no snacks- because, well we don’t keep snacks in our house. Cheerios and raisens, that’s about all we’ve got. I have a hard time paying the premium price for healthier snacks, and I can’t bring myself to feeding my little guy sugar loaded nurtionally deficient foods- be they convenient or not. I want to be the type of person who has a gallon size ziplock of individually packaged healthy muffins to grab and go with. I’d love to make my own granola bars with whole grains. But is that the best use of my time?
“Fat,” “French Kids Eat Everything,” “Word of Wisdom Living” all suggest that we slow down and enjoy both the preparation and the consumtion of food. They promise doing so will result in a heathier life. I want to, but I also want to do so many other things with my time. Too often 5:00 rolls around and I haven’t even thought about dinner, and suddenly I have a starving toddler, and no real plan. Making a weekly menu helps. But starting dinner prep at 4:00 just feels like I’m giving my evening away. Surprisingly, often when I do start earlier, I enjoy it more. It’s not so rushed. We turn on the music and dance while we work. Scotland helps me. We’re happy when Dad gets home, instead of stressed and frustrated. Hmmm, maybe they have a point.
I think I need to sit back and think: “I’m going to utilize these modern day conviences in order to do X with my time.” If I’m away visiting a Grandma then we might have pizza for dinner. But if I’m home playing with Scotter, then I’ll turn it into an educational opportunity to teach the skills of stirring, dumping, measuring, and vegetable identification.
Priorities, priorities, it’s all about balance!
One response to “Hmmm”
I think about this a lot because I love, love, love to cook new foods. I try a new recipe at least once every two weeks.
As you were saying, good food takes a bit of time and so there are trade-offs. If you want to have that homemade bread, well, you might not get that time to do something else.
I think that freezer meals–you can make them healthy–and the crock pot have become really good solutions for random days during the week. Not to mention, quick meals with ingredients I keep on hand–pancakes made with whole wheat and then peanut butter on top or homemade jam, tacos are quick and you can put tons of veggies on those, etc.
I never shop without a list of at least three different dinner ingredients that I can buy. If I don’t shop that way, I come home with random ingredients I can’t do anything with.
As my friends and I were talking about your priorities for your life and your family we all decided it’s important to leave behind the guilt and give yourself some credit. The fact that you’re even thinking about this issue means you’re doing better than probably half of the moms out there. As long as you’re trying to throw fruits and veggies and whole grains at your kids, you’re doing about the best you can. Like you said, find the fun in it, leave the stress out.