Come on it isn't THAT hard to do

[guidedbybobafett]

I think people can take things a little too far- If you're cooking from scratch, gardening, grinding your own whatever, and that gives you pleasure and doesn't wear you out then that's an amazing thing.

However, I recently read a post from one of those "real food" people where she realized her daughter was picking up some really unhealthy habits from her, like obsessively reading ingredient lists and being afraid to eat certain things because they might have preservatives or something "bad" in them. That hit home for me, as that's what I used to do with food when I was anorexic. I was OBSESSIVE about looking at what was in things, how many calories, etc, and it wore me down.

It's good to be focused on what you and your children are eating, but its also important to remember that it's not going to hurt anyone to eat it in moderation, it just isn't. If the behavior is making someone feel bad, then it's probably better to just eat the stupid candy bar, since the stress will definitely be worse for you in the long run.

[Arete]

Those canned items look horrifying! The American relative of Fray Bentos :ew:

Although it's frustrating to see the Duggars with all the land and free labour that would make growing their own veggies a breeze, I can see to a point that it would be impractical for them: the amount of travelling that they do would mean that they'd miss harvests and get all behind with the crops. I find it annoying enough when I put effort into growing runner beans, and then go on my summer vacation when they come to fruition! Half of them end up going to waste... I bet the Duggers would have that issue, exacerbated by a lack of knowledge.

Easy problem for the Duggars to solve. They have friends-excuse me, sweet people they fellowship with-, they can get garden babysitters. I do this for my own friends. I'll come water and weed after work during their vacation in exchange for whatever ripens when they are away and a cut of production afterwards (by this time of the year, people are looking to ditch their extra zucchinis left and right, by September those who always put in too many tomatoes are calling me up to get rid of some). When I'm away one of them will stop by and water my pots.

[gravelmonkey]

That sounds just like my husband. He LOVES cream of anything soups - and, I have figured out how to make cream of tomato soup from scratch (it's delish) but I have not yet figured out how to make cream of mushroom anything yet. I'm working on it ;). We are trying to eat healthier - now that one of us stayed home with the baby it is easier. When we both worked our diet was atrocious. :embarrassed: It's better now, but every now and then I get the craving for popcorn suppers and cake :lol:

treehugger, is there any way I could get your cream of tomato soup recipe? I've been looking for a good one, but haven't found it yet.

[treehugger]

treehugger, is there any way I could get your cream of tomato soup recipe? I've been looking for a good one, but haven't found it yet.

Yep. I use two 14 oz cans of organic tomato sauce (I get mine at Costco - really, really cheap and GOOD! I use it for pizza, spaghetti sauce and pretty much everything else). Then for every can of sauce I use a cup of water (actually, I use organic chicken broth - also from Costco, but water works and is cheapest ;) ). Add 2 - 4 tbsp of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. I also use a dash of creole seasoning for extra pep, and sometimes a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast, but those are all optional. Mix it up in a pot and bring it to a boil, top it with some grated cheddar cheese and that is it.

[Dark Matters]

No. Carbs do not make you fat. Consistently eating more than you move makes you fat. There can be other things that play into it -- hormonal imbalances, eating disorders, or other health issues -- but one macronutrient is not responsible for obesity.

I beg to differ. In some people, those of us who have metabolic disorders, carbs (meaning grains, beans and starchy veggies like potatoes and sugars) do make us fat. I've been obese since toddlerhood (I'm 58 now) and didn't start dropping the pounds until I cut most carbs out of my diet. I am currently 200lbs lighter than when I started several years ago and I did it just by losing the carbs (and without exercising).

[ADoyle90815]

Please tell me this is an urban legend :shock:

Unfortunately, it's real, and someone even had a picture of it as their avatar.

[ohnomoe]

If I had 19 kids I'd probably only serve processed food too. Right now I cook pretty much everything from scratch but right now that is pretty easy because I can afford nice ingredients, have the time to do it and am only cooking for two people. I suppose you'd really have to get your head around the world of kitchen gadgets. I'm ok with a knife but dicing onions for 21 people would get old quick.

[gravelmonkey]

Yep. I use two 14 oz cans of organic tomato sauce (I get mine at Costco - really, really cheap and GOOD! I use it for pizza, spaghetti sauce and pretty much everything else). Then for every can of sauce I use a cup of water (actually, I use organic chicken broth - also from Costco, but water works and is cheapest ;) ). Add 2 - 4 tbsp of heavy cream and salt and pepper to taste. I also use a dash of creole seasoning for extra pep, and sometimes a tablespoon or two of nutritional yeast, but those are all optional. Mix it up in a pot and bring it to a boil, top it with some grated cheddar cheese and that is it.

Many thanks! :D

[formergothardite]

Unfortunately, it's real, and someone even had a picture of it as their avatar.

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! OKTBT better not bring that back! Scary baby chick is so much better than the canned chicken. You do not want to see the canned chicken. I repeat. You do not want to see it. It is right up there with roast sitting when it comes to things no one needs to think about.

[meda]

NOOOOOOOO!!!!!! OKTBT better not bring that back! Scary baby chick is so much better than the canned chicken. You do not want to see the canned chicken. I repeat. You do not want to see it. It is right up there with roast sitting when it comes to things no one needs to think about.

For the love of God, let us not resurrect the canned chicken. That avatar extended my morning sickness for a month, at least.

[Arete]

For the love of God, let us not resurrect the canned chicken. That avatar extended my morning sickness for a month, at least.

I told people she needed to be punished for bringing that image here, but did anybody listen? Nooooooooooo.

[wtylcf]

I feel like there are food-oriented people and non-food-oriented people in this world. I am definitely the former. I love shopping for food, meal-planning, cooking things from scratch, making bread and desserts, trying new foods and recipes, reading about nutrition, and making food for my friends and family. The rest of my immediate family (my mom, dad and brother) are all non-food-oriented people. Sure, they have favourite foods, but for them, dinner is a chore to complete so you can eat something decent and filling and doesn't have to involve things like "recipes" and "weird ingredients." I grew up eating things like rice, chicken and cream of mushroom soup casseroles. The last time I tried canned cream of mushroom soup as an adult instead of as a kid at home, I couldn't believe how disgusting I found it. I used to love that stuff!

The rest of my family would just rather spend their time on things other than food prep - things like music, hobbies, fixing stuff around the house, exercise, and socializing with friends. Intellectually I get this, and I grew up not knowing a thing about cooking when I moved out at 22, though in my adulthood cooking has become a big part of my life. They eat decent, healthy food, and although I may not like eating re-heated frozen vegetables or eating the same 4 meals on a repeat cycle, it works just fine for them. Usually when I go home, my mom prefers to cook most of the time while I take a kitchen vacation. I try to focus on how nice it is that someone's prepared a meal for me, and try to not pay attention to the repetitiveness of the menu. In return they usually let me cook one "fancy" meal for everyone, which they really enjoy, but which creates five times the dishes and mess of any meal they'd prepare ;). So no, it's not hard to cook almost everything from scratch, but I understand why some people wouldn't want to do it.

*edited because I do my best editing after I hit "submit"

[E Street Fan]

One of my cookbooks, basically a guide for cooking for poor people, has an intro in which the author, from the Maritimes in Canada, says her father used to hide his lobster and homemade bread sandwiches at work because it was so embarrassing not to be able to afford bologna and white bread.

What's the title of the cookbook? I could use something like that.

[RandomTrivia]

What's the title of the cookbook? I could use something like that.

I was going to ask too, it sounds interesting. I seem to be gathering obscure regional/international/ethnic cookbooks or something anyway. And just-plain-bizarre ones, I've got a Jell-o cookbook that makes my head spin. :)

[salex]

This isn't all there is to American recipes. I think a lot of these recipes began as ways to advertise the soup. My grandma and mom used to have all these cookbooks that, I think, were given out free or free-with-purchase, and all were focused around one company's stuff. So, for example, one of my grandma's cookbooks was from the Pet company and you never would have guessed there were so many uses for Pet condensed milk, Underwood ham, Ro-Tel, and so on. Every recipe used some premade product this company produced. She also had some "secret" cookie recipes, all of which turned out to be printed on the packaging of various ingredients.

I think this started in the mid-20th century but a few generations later, these had worked their way into people's family traditions and become "their family's secret recipe," and people didn't even necessarily remember where they'd come from.

[patsymae]

The Rustic Cookbook by Constance Snow, Harper Collins.

I was going to ask too, it sounds interesting. I seem to be gathering obscure regional/international/ethnic cookbooks or something anyway. And just-plain-bizarre ones, I've got a Jell-o cookbook that makes my head spin. :)

[louisa05]

I think the truth is that a lot of people perceive it as hard whether it really is or not. And, as wtlycf said so well, if you don't enjoy cooking, it is a chore and the faster the better. So many people lack even basic food prep skills. On another forum I read, a woman is asking for "recipes" for things like mashed potatoes, boiling pasta, and making a hamburger. I kind of laughed at the whole thread--but the reality is if you need a "recipe" to boil macaroni, you aren't going to be making cream sauces from scratch any time soon. I also think that when the very food-oriented among us begin to tell people "that shortcut your taking is disgusting" and "you're doing it wrong" (the Slate cooking feature with that title irritates me to no end!), we just contribute to intimidating them right out of the kitchen. My mother-in-law doesn't even bother with the cream soup recipes, she mostly just heats frozen casseroles from Costco. (The upside of that is that I can put the simplest dish on the table and my husband loves it!). The way to teach people to do something new and different is never to tell them what they are already doing is wrong, but to actively show them a better way. All good teachers know you cannot berate someone into learning. When I made a simple spaghetti carbonara in front of my mother-in-law and served it to them, she was intrigued by the fact that the whole thing was not complicated as she would have imagined and decided to try it herself.

[Arete]

I'm all for demonstrating that cooking isn't hard and certainly doesn't have to be complicated. Agree that berating is not the answer, but I am going to forcefully disagree when I hear assumptions reinforced that cooking from scratch is something only a privileged upbringing can teach you, that it is more expensive than McDonalds, or that it is rocket science on the level of churning out weekday dinners. Part the veil. Basic cooking is not mysterious. Some people may not like doing it, but that is not an excuse to serve crap food to your family. You don't have to spend hours in the kitchen, you don't even have to come close to serving gourmet food. It's a skill, it can be taught.

[louisa05]

I'm all for demonstrating that cooking isn't hard and certainly doesn't have to be complicated. Agree that berating is not the answer, but I am going to forcefully disagree when I hear assumptions reinforced that cooking from scratch is something only a privileged upbringing can teach you, that it is more expensive than McDonalds, or that it is rocket science on the level of churning out weekday dinners. Part the veil. Basic cooking is not mysterious. Some people may not like doing it, but that is not an excuse to serve crap food to your family. You don't have to spend hours in the kitchen, you don't even have to come close to serving gourmet food. It's a skill, it can be taught.

And I did not say any of that. What I said is that people have the perception that it is difficult. And the foodie culture is not helping dispel that, and I think at times makes that perception seem even more valid to those that hold it. A friend of mine was asked by someone to show him some basic cooking skills and, being a sort of foodie wannabe, informed him that before he could make basic dishes he had to grow his own herbs in pots at his house. He decided to stick to frozen food. If someone doesn't know how to boil noodles, you can't get them interested in cooking by starting with how to grow your own cilantro nor does the Slate "you're doing it wrong" approach work.

[Arete]

And I did not say any of that. What I said is that people have the perception that it is difficult. And the foodie culture is not helping dispel that, and I think at times makes that perception seem even more valid to those that hold it. A friend of mine was asked by someone to show him some basic cooking skills and, being a sort of foodie wannabe, informed him that before he could make basic dishes he had to grow his own herbs in pots at his house. He decided to stick to frozen food. If someone doesn't know how to boil noodles, you can't get them interested in cooking by starting with how to grow your own cilantro nor does the Slate "you're doing it wrong" approach work.

Oh, I agree and I didn't mean to imply that you yourself were saying that cooking is hard or that you had to have foodie level interest to put a good dinner on the table. I was having a little rant at both the foodie and the "cooking whole food is for the privileged" sets that scare people off learning to cook. Your cilantro example is kind of emblematic of both.

[alchemy]

One of my cookbooks, basically a guide for cooking for poor people, has an intro in which the author, from the Maritimes in Canada, says her father used to hide his lobster and homemade bread sandwiches at work because it was so embarrassing not to be able to afford bologna and white bread.

Oh, that was like me growing up. I would have died to have a nice Wonder Bread and lunch meat sandwich and instead was stuck with homemade brown bread and sockeye salmon sandwiches (my dad comes from a family of commercial fishermen so salmon overload. I dislike it to this day.)

[patsymae]

The Food Nanny (whom I really like, even tho there is a little preachy element there) and Rachel Ray, who has the hate sites to prove it, are, I think, good resources if somebody wants, and I stress want, to learn simple cooking from scratch. There's also a $10 dinner show on some networks.

I have to say, though, that often for me it IS too hard. I'm veggie and live by myself, and although I have good intentions most veggie cooking is too labor intensive, or makes too much food, so if I'm not making something the rest of the family (lives close) wants, I wind up plopping in front of the TV, not cooking, at the end of the day. If it weren't that I live near a Trader Joes and lots of ethnic places, I'd probably be living on yogurt, fruit cups and cheese sandwiches for weeks at a time.

[jenny_islander]

Another facet to this is if you are learning how to cook for a family, you have to be able to waste food now and then. If the food you have to eat for dinner is THE food you have to eat for dinner, and if it gets burned or whatever you'll have to eat it anyway or go hungry, learning how to cook looks very intimidating.

[bal maiden]

Oh, that was like me growing up. I would have died to have a nice Wonder Bread and lunch meat sandwich and instead was stuck with homemade brown bread and sockeye salmon sandwiches (my dad comes from a family of commercial fishermen so salmon overload. I dislike it to this day.)

Same here also! My parents were wholefood hippy types, so I would be at school with a packed lunch of sprouted mung bean salad and home made yoghurt. I used to trade it out with my classmates for Penguin bars (don't think you have them in the US - type of chocolate cookie bar) and white bread peanut butter sandwiches!

[Talitha Cumi]

If I had 19 kids I'd probably only serve processed food too. Right now I cook pretty much everything from scratch but right now that is pretty easy because I can afford nice ingredients, have the time to do it and am only cooking for two people. I suppose you'd really have to get your head around the world of kitchen gadgets. I'm ok with a knife but dicing onions for 21 people would get old quick.

Yes, but you're assuming you'd be cooking. We know Michelle doesn't. If she did, she could get the middle kids to help. They probably shouldn't handle knives, but they can stir things, measure things, etc. Since the middle kids are boys, they could even use that as a FU Internets moment.