Skinny Bitch_ Ultimate Everyday Cookbook - Kim Barnouin [3]
For that convenient, cheap thrill in a wrapper, we are doing some serious damage to our bodies. The rise of heart disease, arthritis, osteoporosis, and cancer isn’t just a pretty little coincidence. Use your noggin. These diseases are just another by-product of our food industry. Experts even suggest that up to one-third of all cancers are related to diet.1 Then tag on the calories and refined sugars, and preservatives. As our daily lives grow busier and busier, our waistlines grow thicker and thicker. It’s a vicious circle. Every time we forgo a home-cooked meal for the drive-thru, we consume an average of 50 percent more calories, fat, and sodium. Pot bellies and love handles come free with each order! It’s no wonder we live in a world with more than one billion overweight adults with a whopping 300 million of them considered obese.2 We’re ordering it right off the Value Menu.
We need to quit using food as a quick fix. Food has a special power. It has a soul. It has the ability to bring people together just for the sake of enjoyment. It’s time for us to get back to the days when Mom accidentally broiled apple pie and Dad had to reassure the fire department that there was not a problem. The days when roommates bonded over a home-cooked eggplant lasagna and great records. The days when young, independent women chose to cook themselves a good meal rather than sit in their office at 10 p.m. to meet a deadline. I want us to find new ways to enjoy cooking and realize that the kitchen doesn’t have to present difficulty. Let’s kick the mind-set that quick, savory meals are exclusive to fast food chains and restaurants.
So, what’s stopping us?
Without a doubt, most will blame time. Or a lack thereof. I’m not implying that you drop everything and hole up in the kitchen every night of the week. Your pots and pans don’t offer the most scintillating social interaction. I hear you. And I wouldn’t expect you to give up the restaurant experience. It’s fun, and nice to have someone else wait on you every once in a while. What I am suggesting is to pick a few days and nights a week when you can enjoy a traditional meal and the timeless beauty of preparing it. Often those days and nights of cooking will lead to leftovers, which save you even more time. Make your kitchen a playground.
Next on the list will be the issue of money. People tend to think that it costs more money to cook homemade meals, but actually, the opposite is true. I cannot dispute that the 99-cent menu is easy on the wallet, but if you shop smart, the ingredients for one dinner can cross over to many. Dinners turn into packed lunches for work or school the next day. Honestly, I couldn’t say it better than the highly acclaimed food writer and author Mark Bittman, when he said “You don’t need a capital investment for rice and beans, any more than you do for cheeseburgers and fries.” Ten dollars can buy you a few key cooking utensils, and in the end, you get enough wholesome calories to live by.3
Finally, some of you will be candid and admit that you’re just lazy. Or that cooking really isn’t your thing. Well, guess what? Though your honesty is refreshing, being an overweight, lazy ass who cries about her cottage cheese thighs isn’t really anyone’s thing. Challenge yourself. Prepare a healthy dish, ask yourself how you feel and what you liked about it, and make tweaks. Take baby steps. Eating crap has done nothing but make you a statistic. Learn more about how cooking can help turn around your entire life.
To say that I have learned a great deal about cooking is an understatement. Since working on the first cookbook, Skinny Bitch in the Kitch, I have learned more about the art of cooking as personal therapy. I have fallen asleep with hundreds of different dog-eared cookbooks sprawled across my chest (each of them wonderful in their own right),