Home-Cooked Meals

I was invited last fall into a Facebook group that’s all about food. Some posts show meals eaten out. Mostly, it’s about what everyone is cooking that day for dinner. I grew up rarely going out to eat, as well as my mother cooked mostly from scratch. As my own kids got older and life got busier, we began using more and more convenience foods from the grocery or going out to eat more.

Now, as I read articles on health and many of the health conditions we all face, I”m inspired by my Facebook group foodies posting all these delicious and sometimes unique meals! When I shop at the grocery store , I’ll see something that looks yummy and think twice about buying it. I’m also trying more new foods to me, especially at my local farmer’s markets and Market Wagon. (have you tried Market Wagon yet? Check to see if it’s in your area! If you sign up for their free account and list me, ElderBEARies by Jen, as a referral, you’ll get $20 off your first order!) I recently found that I don’t mind raw turnips from one of my local farmers. They’re crisp, and juicy and sweet, with a slight flavor of radish.

When my kids were young, I was thinking about cooking from scratch to save money. Now, I’m thinking more about cooking from scratch again to avoid all those chemicals and words I can’t pronounce, much less know what they are and what they’re doing to my body.

Quite a few years ago, I’d read concerns with high fructose corn syrup. But it didn’t really concern me too much until my oldest boys were in high school chemistry and the teachers were letting the students know that high fructose corn syrup is a foreign substance to the body and the body generally tucks it away in fat cells, since it doesn’t know what to do with it and can’t digest it. That may be over simplified, but as we started looking at labels and cutting out foods with that ingredient, we did notice a difference in being able to lose some excess weight. Now, you can find many foods, like ketchup, for example, with no high fructose corn syrup. Some salad dressings, and drinks are now using regular sugar again like they used to. I’m not suggesting we all eat a bunch of sugar-filled drinks and foods- it’s Not that sugar is good for you, but at least the body can do something with it.

Enough people have discovered the issues with that one ingredient alone, that there is a call for food without it. There are now quite a few alternatives. Many (but not all) glass bottled sodas are made with real sugar. I enjoy a soda a couple of times a week. And there are also many drinks that are flavored sparkling water (not sure about what they use as flavorings; I haven’t researched that) as well as many drinks sweetened with stevia, a naturally sweet, calorie-free herb. Zevia is one I really like!

There are plenty of other preservatives in many store-bought foods that we enjoy, but now, I ask myself “could I make this without taking a lot of extra time?” And if the answer is yes, then I’ll pass on the convenience. I believe that when it comes to the food we eat, the closer it is to its natural state, the healthier it is for my body.

Look online to find recipes for your favorite foods. Experiment until you find the recipe your family loves best. I”ve had to try many different broccoli-cheddar soup recipes to find the one my hubby likes, as well as biscuit recipes we both can agree on (I like homemade flaky; he likes canned, doughy). But there are SO many recipes online, you’re sure to find the things your family will like if you try enough. So tonight, we’re having homemade bean soup and homemade cornbread from scratch.

What’s for dinner at your house?