I Cook. Every Meal. Every Day. From Scratch. And I Love it.And I have to confess that of all household tasks, cooking is the one I enjoy most. So it turns out that I am in the minority. Please watch this if you have 20 minutes. The last 5 or so are questions from the audience, also interesting, but the meat of the presentation is covered in about 15 minutes.
*”From Scratch” means: I prepare enough for two days of meals, when it comes to the main meal. My bread is (sourdough) baked in advance and usually frozen. A big (very big) bowl of homemade hummus – now I give it a smoky twist by adding a bit of cumin and smoked paprika as well – does for lunches along with raw sauerkraut (not made myself but made locally and bought in a farmers market stand) and any salad vegetables we have (tomatoes, cucumber etc.). The breakfasts are very easy, just toast made from my bread and peanut butter (only containing peanuts, bought in bulk, made locally) and local honey.
Supper is some meal made with beans, rice and vegetables with spices, peppers, onions, garlic and herbs in different recipes. Or risottos with nuts etc. (We are vegetarian, so those meals give us the nutrients we need to keep healthy.)
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I always find something I can eat, +Lynn David Newton – not everything has meat in it. But we are not in the US.
The reason we initially went vegetarian, apart from the fact that I never felt very good after a meal with meat in it, was to avoid GMOs. All meat has GMO, it's safe to say, and so does most fish. I can't afford organic meat and only rarely have those animals lived a decent life anyway.
The British sadly are under the illusion that their meat is GMO free unless labelled. But there is no obligation to label meat when the animals have been fed GMO feed. Where does the corn and soy for feeding animals in the UK come from? From the USA. Ergo GMO.
+Ellie Kennard, it took me a while to get around to watching this, but I enjoyed it very much. At first I was a bit put off by the speaker's presentation style, but I got over it. The principles and core facts (about how society is moving away from cooking) are quite true, and something about which I have only recently started to become aware.
Furthermore, it was only yesterday when I heard a Terry Gross interview on Fresh Air with a doctor-researcher whose specialty happens to be the various bacteria that grow in our guts — this speaker had a term for it. Gastrointestinal biome or something like that? And it's something I'd never really thought about. His point of view had little to do with eating, but with overuse of antibiotics. But hearing that rare term come up in an informed discussion twice in two days was attention getting.
We are emphatically not vegetarians. Furthermore, you couldn't force feed me either hummus or saur kraut (especially that), but that doesn't mean that I'm a habitual junk food eater, either. Once a woman in a mall wanted to capture me for a survey, and I said okay, so in her preliminary questions to narrow down the demographic, her first question was, "Have you eaten at a fast food restaurant in the last six months?" My answer was no. She thought I was from Mars, so she asked the same question. I repeated my answer.
But I could clearly improve what I eat. The summer I spent at age 13 on my uncle's farm, where the only thing electrical was a light bulb hanging from the ceiling in each room, was probably the healthiest time of my life, as I ate like farmers did, and got healthier and stronger by the day. Today we don't do that. It's as much a social problem as it is one of personal habit. When was the last time you went to a gathering of friends and found food that you could gladly eat? Anyhow, thanks for sharing that.
Keep it up!! =-D
Fascinating talk. Thanks for sharing.
we cook from scratch here too
I do not have time now to watch the video, but if I read that you do your kooking every day by yourself! then I have to stop and send you my admiration! Kudos! :o)
I prefer to use flaxseed 'eggs' in my baking. Just because. We eat so few eggs that there's no point in buying them to leave them in the fridge for weeks. And so the flaxseed substitute works wonders. And is also good for us. +Natosha Davis – and thanks for the links and the thoughts on them.
I made these two recipes recently that called for coconut flour:
http://thecoconutmama.com/2011/09/sweet-potato-crackers-grain-free-2/
this one is okay. they go soft again once coole down.
and
http://comfybelly.com/2012/08/popovers-using-coconut-flour-and-a-workshop/#.U017u1VdXpU
wasn't crazy about that one. too eggy tasting and mine did not mix well.
not sure but I'm guessing you don't do eggs.
there are a lot of recipes that call for coconut flour. so far i'm not impressed.
i still go back to almond flour.
keep me updated on the coconut flour Natosha. What would you use it for I wonder?
hehe
I use coconut oil all over me and in my cooking. Love it. Started using coconut flour recently…not sure how I feel about it yet.
You are right, the Extra Virgin (unprocessed, ie has a smell of coconuts) coconut oil is expensive, but I use it for everything, cooking instead of butter for on my toast, under eye cream and to remove my eye makeup.
I don't do the organic olive oil unless I get an amazing deal on it and I buy a ton at that point. At one time I had $80 invested in organic oil that I had got at the price of regular. Lasted me for a couple of years, as I don't cook with it any more, just use it for salads etc.. The nuts seem expensive, but not when compared to meat, so I bite the bullet. I have gone through the checkout with $20 of raw cashews and had the cashier query it. If it had been a big tray of ribs she wouldn't have batted an eyelid. On the other hand, the ribs would not have made such delicious raw cheesecakes, would they? 😉
+Natosha Davis
I mean things like coconut oil…the extra virgin organic kind. I just had to buy some more and it was about $11. Rarely do I buy turkey (I eat that on occasion). And organic olive oil, raw nuts, etc. So expensive and it adds up.
If I ever stop procrastinating I may grow some veggies. Organic kind are expensive too!
+esther ligthart , +Serena Kierra and +Christin McLeod – thanks! Christin, I don't bake cakes. But I do make a super easy orange and date muffin, which is a popular item. I make small ones and freeze.
Absolutely agree +Natosha Davis – once we stopped eating meat (over a year ago now) and fish, we could afford the fancy lovely ingredients a bit more. Things like avocados for lunch sometimes with maybe some home made mayo or, in my case, Vegenaise, the organic one, and coconut bacon I have made. Yum. I don't deprive myself and am sure that my meals cost less than the meat equivalent. Take the hobo stew I made last night. I got special Puy lentils to make it with and it was excellent. Filling, so flavourful and not too expensive at all, as it had no meat.
+Lynn David Newton – I added to my posting to explain how I do it so that it is not a burden. The longest task is chopping vegetables, but I usually listen to audio books or podcasts when I am doing that (or music) as it is mindless and almost therapeutic. What I added above was:
"* I prepare enough for two days of meals, when it comes to the main meal. My bread is (sourdough) baked in advance, in batches of two large loaves and usually frozen. A big (very big) bowl of homemade hummus – now I give it a smoky twist by adding a bit of cumin and smoked paprika as well – does for lunches along with raw sauerkraut (not made myself but made locally and bought in a farmers market stand) and any salad vegetables we have (tomatoes, cucumber etc.). Or I make a huge pot of soup with nuts and miso and that lasts for days, which makes a very satisfying lunch.
The breakfasts are very easy, just toast made from my bread and peanut butter (only containing peanuts, bought in bulk, made locally) and local honey. If you like cereal for breakfast then you can make your own and store in a screw top jar rather than buy packaged cereals. I have also enjoyed eating rice for breakfast, with cinnamon, a bit of coconut oil and a little maple syrup.
Supper is some kind of meal made with beans, rice and vegetables with spices, peppers, onions, garlic and herbs in different recipes. Or risottos with nuts etc. (We are vegetarian, so those meals give us the nutrients we need to keep healthy.)"
I cook everyday too and would love it more if I could afford more of the crazy ingredients I use.
It's nice to sit down to a meal that is so good that I made.
Something good about that.
I love cooking as well. Not a baker so much, though.
I love it too! Thanks Ellie! 🙂
LOVE to cook…love eating too ;-))) Thx for sharing. Always inspiring
I do admire you for your attitude on cooking. I'll have to watch that video.
I don't cook much at all myself. Suzy is very good. But it's not that often that we get a complete cook from scratch meal in the sense that you mean it. Life is complicated for the majority of people today, and all sorts of things interfere even with the fundamental task of getting ourselves fed.
I did. And was totally confused! 😀
Sorry if you read the original before-edit on this. I meant to post it in response to another message!