It’s a Balancing Act!

Feeding the Body While Maintaining the Mind

Janice Mansfield / Real Food Made Easy

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What to have for dinner is becoming a minefield of questions!

Paleo

Vegan

Slow carb

Organic

Slow food

Low carb

Raw food

Gluten-free Dairy-free

Clean food

- Food intolerances

-Allergies

- food-related chronic

illness

-new emphasis on

therapuetic foods

- foods that disrupt

wellbeing

- the role of food in

family unity!

- cooking as competitive

sport

Much depends on

dinner!

(and on those who

prepare it!)

And the stakes seem even higher than ever!

We're expected to fill so many roles in the kitchen ... and manage it all serenely

Chef

Prep chef

Dietician

Nutritionist

Broccoli eating

cheerleaderDishwasher

Short order cook Mind reader

Quartermaster

Now THAT's more like reality!

You know things are messed up when governments feel the need to get involved! From a talk I gave at IdeaWave 2010: " It is in fact, so bad that the latest US food guidelines (due out this fall), have come to the conclusion that “Nutritional education, cooking skills and food safety needs to be strengthened, especially among families. The idea is to get people to cook and eat at home more” (as reported in the NY Times, June 15, 2010). Pretty sad when your government has to tell you to stay home and eat!"

We've been on the receiving end of mixed messages about food for a while now! ● Nutrition science dates to the mid 19th century and was

originally focused on increasing food yields that would net a more robust workforce for the factories! And (not unrelated), a more content workforce, less likely to start an insurgence!

● Campell’s marketed canned soup as a way of helping overburdened homemakers as early as 1914.

● In 1919, Fleishman’s was marketing readymade bread as superior to home-baked (ironically the origin of the term "know where your food comes from")

● Swanson TV dinners were introduced in 1954, and sold 10,000,000 in their first year!

● The early 1970s saw both the opening of Alice Waters’ Chez Panisse AND the launch of the Egg McMuffin

One of the best things we can do for ourselves and our families is cook our own food ... from scratch Consistent message coming from a number of food writers and those researching the role of food● Michael Pollan, Mark Bittman, Michael Ruhlman, Raj Patel

Where to start? Despite the preponderance of cooking shows food blogs, etc. for many families, cooking from scatch has become a lost skill.

Remember, we're not all Julia Child

... and that's OK! just start cooking!

Just cook!

○ Don't overthink it! Remember, our grandmothers just used to get dinner on the table! Not always five-star, but always nourishing

○ Its fun to play with kitchen gadgets, but be realistic about what you will use! Unused appliances can haunt you with guilt, like the ghost of Xmas past!

○ Despite what they say on Top Chef, there are a limited number of cooking methods! baking, boiling, frying, steaming, and poaching. Everything else is a combination of these!

Kitchen tactics

○ Try new ways of streamlining your cooking!

○ Cooking in quantity

○ Use the oven more often

○ Simple is often best -- things like lemon zest, a splash of

sherry vinegar as seasoning make a big difference.

○ Rethink your investments in the kitchen -- If you don't

use a stand mixer, save the money you would have

spent, buy really good olive oil instead!

○ Get a knife that fits your hand!

Kitchen tactics

○ Flow - Are your knives by the cutting board?

○ Preparation! It sounds trite, but plan ahead, even if you

have made something before! (I have had many a night

baking only to realize I was out of a key ingredient!).

○ Preparation! Mise en place!

○ Preparation! Think of cooking sessions as potential prep

for later in the week? Cooking chickpeas for something

today? Cook double the amount to use in salads, for

hummus later on.

○ Clean counter-rule is only as firm as you choose! If you bake a lot, leave out your most-used mixing bowl with measuring cups, spoons, spatula nested inside.

○ Keep a garbage can + compost pail handy while you are cooking

○ Some things are better in multiples -- spatulas, whisks, wooden spoons, mixing bowls.

○ 2 gadgets to invest in if you bake: a kitchen scale and an oven thermometer!

○ 1 gadget to invest in even if you don't bake: a digital thermometer.

○ Have fun!

Kitchen tactics

○ Try new ways of cooking things to create different flavours! - poach chicken rather than roasting. Oven-roast vegetables rather than steaming or boiling them. Experiment with braising!

○ You can use the oven for many things you might not have thought of!○ soup bases○ caramlized onions○ tomato sauce○ polenta○ cooking dried beans

Kitchen tactics