Cooking food is one of the core activities that makes people human. From colonizing India for spices to modern cuisine, it has always been something that humanity enjoys. At least, the ones benefiting from the colonization enjoy it. It is one of the key reasons why people have evolved so quickly, along with the development of tools. So, cooking for one’s family is worth doing. I speak from experience.
Starting a couple of months ago, my sister and I began making dinner every Sunday, alternating each week. This week, for example, I made chicken noodle soup – not that canned nonsense, but soup with all the steps. I did it all: chopped the celery and carrots, prepped the broth, and shredded the chicken. Cooking is definitely a time commitment, but the end result is often well worth the effort. Not every dish needs to take an hour to make either. I was able to make a tasty stir fry in just a half hour, and that included cutting up all of the vegetables. Putting more effort into a dish does often make it taste better though, so the work is often worth it.
The best part about home cooking is that leftovers are frequent, so if a dish is good, one can enjoy it multiple times. In
addition to four extra servings of soup, there was leftover chicken for tacos the next night courtesy of my mother. They were delicious.
It is not very hard to start this habit either. Set aside a day each week to practice a meal. It really is as simple as going online and searching for a recipe for whatever the desired dish is. Want something with, say, eggplant? The first recipe that shows up is a delicious-looking eggplant parmesan, one of my favorite dishes. While the recipe calls for almond milk, a bit of a weird choice, feel free to substitute it for normal milk if that simply does not sound appealing.
Speaking of eggplant, the first dish I made had eggplant in it. While it did not turn out as well as it could have, it was a worthwhile learning experience. That is part of the process, so while a first dish may not be perfect, it is a stepping stone, a starting point toward growth. More people in our society need to take this step toward growing up.
