If I had a dollar for every time I heard
someone say that cooking is a chore, I would be a rich man. The act of cooking
a meal is just that: “cooking a meal”. It is not negative, or even positive for
that matter, it is just something we do.
We all need food to stay alive and
since our homes are all equipped with kitchens, we cook. Maybe some of us more
than others but we all still cook. Some kitchens will have their owner’s
unharnessed culinary passions bestowed upon them on a daily basis, while the
only glory days in other kitchens may be derived from someone adding onions and
garlic to a saucepan of store bought pasta sauce… but it is all still cooking.
I hate to even imagine that there is
a percentage of our population that rely on daily practices of consuming
products like TV dinners, frozen pizzas, and spray can pancake batter. Yes, I
did say “spray can pancake batter”! Talking with employees of a large grocery
chain, they tell me that they are constantly bombarded with requests from
consumers for fast already prepared meals that they just heat & serve. Is
there really a growing number of people in our society that have succumbed to
rely on premade meals from a package or container. Have we lost so much time in
our ever-growing busy lifestyles that we cannot commit to practicing creativity
in the one life-nourishing art form that our homes have always been designed
around?
Who made cooking negative anyway? We
did. We did as human beings. Take for example the simple tasks of washing a
vehicle, mowing the lawn, or our daily commute to work. Are these tasks of
complete negativity that all of us are destined to suffer through for the rest
of our lives? No, some of us thrive in these situations. What makes these tasks
at hand, along with cooking, a chore then?
One of the things that we do, that
no other life form does, is analyze and label. Everything we do, other than
breathe or blink, we analyze and label. We create good and bad, positive and
negative with our natural human psyche without even realizing it for the most
part. Cooking, again, is just cooking. If it is positive for one and also
negative at the same time for another, it is because each of those individuals have
made it so. It is because of their opinion or perception that makes the act of
doing something a joyous occasion or a nagging daily occurrence.
Don’t get me wrong; people are
entitled to their opinions, and if there are people out there that are happy
with cooking being a chore, then so be it. What I don’t want is people
believing that they don’t have a choice of it being a chore. Of course you have
a choice. You just need to find the way to create a positive frame of mind
regarding the task at hand. So with cooking in our home, we introduce music and
a favorite beverage to the environment and also use this as an enjoyable
opportunity to catch up with each other and take pleasure in the family being
together in one room.
Everyone is unique however, and what
seems to be a simple change of focus to creative optimistic endeavors with one
person, may need to be completely different for someone else. What makes you
happy? What can you bring into the kitchen environment (mentally or physically)
in order to make a more optimistic approach to this life essential assignment?
Whatever it takes for you to have a
more positive approach, the truth is that you will typically save money and eat
healthier overall for doing so… and hopefully enjoy yourself, your family and
your kitchen more. Until next time... Happy Cooking!
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