As a Nutritionist, I see many clients, men and women, who claim they cannot cook, hate cooking or are just too busy or tired to cook! I find this particularly challenging, because to me, cooking is a life skill, a right-of-passage, just like learning to tie your own shoe-laces or learning to ride a bike. Somewhere along our human evolution, we saw learning to cook a task that we no longer needed to worry about, as we moved into the era of take-away, fast food, pre-packaged and convenience foods.
I challenge you to have a think about this before you pick up your smart phone and order your next Uber Eats, or buy your next jar of instant pasta sauce. Pre-made food comes at a price that you may not realise. For this food to be profitable, it needs to have a long shelf life and is often wrapped in plastic, glass and/or paper packaging. To achieve longer shelf lives, many preservatives, colourings and flavourings are added. These artificial chemicals, over time, can build up in your body and cause all manner of health problems as your body works hard to filter and remove them.
Next time you use pre-grated cheese, have a look at the ingredients on the packet. Anti-caking agents and other chemicals are used to stop the cheese from sticking together and from going mouldy.
Jars of pre-made sauces or bottles of salad dressing typically have loads of flavourings, sodium (unhealthy salts) and sugar. Making a salad dressing can be as simple as adding a few ingredients such as lemon juice and olive oil into a jar, giving it a shake and pouring it over your salad. A healthy mayonnaise or aloe can also be extremely quick and easy to make, once you know the basics.
Why order home delivery pizza, which are full of unhealthy artery clogging trans-fats, when it is quicker, cheaper and a hundred times healthier to make your own? Keeping some wholemeal pita breads in the freezer means you always have a pizza base ready to go and it will be thawed out by the time you have put all your toppings on.
Learning to feed yourself and your family should not be a special talent. If you’re too tired to cook, it may well be that your body is nutritionally starving, and ordering more takeaway will not fix that problem. If you’re too busy to cook, then a little preparation and planning may be required. This may include using a slow cooker, pre-chopping or pre-cooking parts of a meal and then throwing it all together when you get home.
As a busy single Mum with a growing 10yo boy who has after school activities nearly every week day, I understand what “busy” means. But my number one priority is ensuring both of our bodies get the nutrition needed, because I want to make sure I have the energy to get through the next day, and that he has the nutrition he needs to grow and develop in a healthy way. How you eat, think and move each day influences your sleep, your mood and your energy levels.
The internet is crammed full of recipes and how-to videos and never before have we had so much information at our fingertips. Using our time wisely to learn and self-develop is a great way to make healthy life changes. Steam up some veg, cook up some quinoa and add some smoked fish. Drizzle with olive oil and lemon juice, and dinner is ready.
Grab a pita bread from the freezer, top with Passata (pureed tomato), and add some toppings e.g. mushrooms, olives, semi-dried tomatoes, sliced potato, pumpkin or ribbons of zucchini. Then grate over some cheese and cook in a hot oven for 10mins. Serve with some fresh baby spinach and a drizzle of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Yum yum yum and much faster than a home delivery pizza.
Make a mayonnaise with 120ml of olive oil, a heaped teaspoon of Dijon mustard, salt & pepper, garlic, splash of apple cider vinegar and one whole egg. Use a stick blender to blend and within seconds you have a luscious white mayonnaise base that you can use in salads such as coleslaw or turn into an aioli by adding some herbs or dill pickles.
Eggs are so very versatile and are nutrient bombs. Chop up some vegetables and lightly cook in a frypan. Break some eggs into a bowl, add some herbs, salt/pepper and whip with a fork. Pour over the vegetables in the pan and cook on low heat to set the egg. Sprinkle over some of your hand grated cheese and place the whole pan under the grill for around two minutes or until lightly golden, bubbling and smelling amazing. Serve with some fresh greens such a baby spinach, rocket or mixed salad greens, drizzled with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and you have a delicious nutritious dinner for two in less than twenty minutes.
Even if you only “cooked” two meals a week, but cooked them in bulk so you had left overs, you could feed yourself for the whole week with little effort. Soups, stews and undressed salads can be made in bulk and kept in the fridge for several days or frozen for another time. Not only will your body thank you for it, but your bank account will look better too. Cooking healthy food from scratch, despite what anyone says, is not more expensive than buying pre-made food. It can’t possibly be, as there is always the cost of packaging and labour with any pre-made meals. And if you believe it is cheaper to buy drive-through meals than making something from scratch at home, then think about what that food is made out of, for it to be so cheap. Is it going to fill a void in your stomach or nourish your body and soul?
If you just don’t have a clue about cooking, and that is not your fault by the way, make a decision right now to learn. There are many companies who offer the convenience of pre-planned meals with fresh ingredients that you cook at home yourself. Weekly deliveries of fresh vegetables and proteins, recipe cards and easy to follow instructions means you can still cook from scratch with most of the hard work done for you. Of course, it’s much more expensive than just buying the ingredients yourself, but it’s a great starting point to put you on a healthier relationship with cooking and food and most likely still cheaper than take-away and home delivery meals.
So now it’s up to you. Decide to make nourishing your body a priority, and take a step towards feeling better, because what you put on the end of your fork is the first step to better health and vitality.
