Back to the Roots

So what could possibly be worse than being a bad cook?  I can’t make prepared meals, I have a hard time with boxed mac-n-cheese, or boiling an egg.  So what have I done now?  After I have infiltrated my head with documentaries and websites telling me of all the bad things that are in our food, we have made one step towards eating more consciously.  It has officially been one month and I have had NO fast food aside from one sub sandwich from Jimmy Johns, and the only meat I have eaten is free range chicken or the grass fed beef in our freezer.  So this crazy idea of mine is to try and learn to cook as much from scratch as possible and eliminate a lot of the processed foods that make our lives more convenient yet extraordinarily unhealthy.

When I first began on my mission, I talked with the farmer that we will get our fruits and veggies from this summer and he was telling me how his family with 6 children have managed to live about 95% self-sustaining.  I was awed as he explained how his children never had things like Ritz crackers or fruit snacks.  My son has been living off of Chick’n in a Biscuits for most of his 3 years I am sad to say.  So the idea of not feeding these sorts of foods to my kids is daunting. I know it is bad for them and  I know I cannot make this change overnight.. I would have an addict with withdrawals on my hand if the biscuits left the building immediately. 

I don’t know that I will ever be making my own chips out of tortillas that I made from home-ground wheat, or making my own whipping cream from the Dairy cow I have tied to my back fence post in suburbia since that is pretty much illegal, but I think there are choices I can make towards meeting the goal of eliminating some of the nasty processed, chemical ridden foods from the pantry and our diets .  In order to do this, I must learn to cook.. not read directions on the side of a box, but actually make some real food from real ingredients.  If our ancestors did it surely I can.  I am sure that not every pioneer or housewife was a perfect cook.  Even Betty Crocker had to begin somewhere.