The First Post

I’ve never been much of a cook. A baker, sure, but the savory, nutritious stuff has never been my thing. When asked if I can cook, I usually respond, “I can assemble food products into a meal.”

As the one in charge of meals and cooking in my house, the daunting task of planning and executing a dinner that both my husband and I enjoy is often too overwhelming, and so I end up settling on a frozen pizza and some salad, or Zatarain’s Red Beans and Rice and tortilla chips. Dining out has always been a good stand-by for us, as we are both picky eaters in our own ways, though my compulsive alternating dietary restrictions tend to limit even those options. Finding a restaurant where Erik can get a stick-to-your-ribs meat-and-potatoes kind of meal and I can get a non-dairy, no soy, vegetarian meal is frustratingly difficult.

So, meals tend to be unsatisfying on a good day, and downright disappointing on a bad day. I’ve gone through phases in which I cook regularly, but there comes a point at which I either get bored, get frustrated, or get lazy. And then we’re back to pizza and Zatarain’s.

But I have a daughter now, and I don’t want to raise her to believe that home cooking is something you get at Hoover’s, or that a healthy portion of meat is the chorizo-stuffed chicken at Trudy’s. I want her to enjoy food and all its complexities, but also learn what’s healthy and unhealthy for her body, mind, and spirit.

As the sole food-preparer in the house, this duty falls on my shoulders. I have some big obstacles to overcome:

1. We need to branch out quite a bit. I tend toward, when cooking at home, some combination of chicken breasts, rice or pasta, and a vegetable of some sort. No wonder I get bored. I’d like to try cooking with things like morels, kale, and quail. Not complicated or exotic ingredients, just those I’ve always been too intimidated to try.

2. Vegetables first! I think the key to a well-balanced meal is to make vegetables the main component, then accompany them with healthy-sized portions of meat and starch.

3. We need to seriously cut back on the sweets and junk food. It’s stuff that we really only eat if it’s there, so if it’s not there I’d like to think we might not eat so much. I don’t plan on hiding my daughter from things like Doritos and ice cream, but they should be occasional treats, not kitchen staples.

Great plan, right? Well, we’ll see. It’s one thing to say all this now, before Eliza has even started eating solid foods, and another thing entirely (I’ve heard) to try to get a stubborn toddler to eat her vegetables. I accept that there may very well come a time when Eliza only eats chicken nuggets, or purple foods, or Cheerios, but I will cross that bridge when I come to it.