Spring starts

I wasn’t planning to make a long post today, because mostly it is my day off, and I have a lot of things to catch up on around the house. My brain has been ticking all morning though, so I thought I’d make this Friday post a big one.

A lot of people ask me, “how do you have time to do all that cooking in grad school?” This question surprises me, because I don’t feel like cooking takes all my time, and I don’t feel like it is a chore (dish washing on the other hand, always feels like a chore). I usually start by telling people that we don’t have TV, which is why we have time to cook, but this isn’t really true. I also tell people I grew up cooking with my mom, which is why I cook now. This still doesn’t explain it, and it doesn’t seem to answer the question. We have time to cook because we make time to cook, and TV has nothing to do with it. I want to cook, it is relaxing, and feels like a break from mind-bending classes.

I had a long talk with my mom last night about this very thing, and she pointed something out to me in a way I didn’t realize before. We cook for ourselves because we make it a priority. Sounds simple I know, but it is true.  We put cooking first during the week, before happy hour or errands, or other tasks that eat up our time. We cook together because we enjoy spending the time together, taking care of each other, and making meals that will be healthy and satisfying. Some nights my Intern cooks for me, some nights I cook for him, but most of the time we cook together.

My intern and I both grew up in families that always shared meals, and cooked at every meal. I know it is much easier, and takes a lot less work to get take out, or eat something frozen or pre-made, but we cook because we want to know what we are eating. We want to know what is actually in our food, and we want to make decisions about what we put into our bodies, beyond just counting calories.

So, to answer the “how do you have time in grad school” part of the question, here is my answer.

We make meal plans. Every week we look at what is in season, what we have in our pantry, and how we can make several meals out of what we buy. We buy local vegetables, we buy whole ingredients.

We make enough food every night to have leftovers for lunch. This means I pack my lunch every day, so we save money weekly, just by avoiding packaged lunches, and I always know that I will have a balanced meal at lunchtime, so I won’t come out of class half-crazed and starving. I might come out of class a little crazy, but it won’t be because of hunger or a crap lunch.

Cooking stops feeling like a chore when it becomes part of your day, not just an item to check off your list. We listen to music while we cook, I take a break from homework during that time, so I can enjoy it without feeling rushed or distracted.

Something to think about, Jamie Oliver’s TED prize wish: Teach every child about food

http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf

And in other news…

Our little container garden has started growing in the last few months, with the addition of kale and swiss chard to our little collection of herbs: sage, rosemary, mint, and for the cats, their own little potted cat-grass. Now that the weather is warming, we’ve decided it is time for a few more plants. This weekend we went to the nursery for seeds, gloves, and a few more pots to really get our garden going.

We have a nice sunny back porch, and hopefully, with the help of a few free afternoons, more sunny weather, some horse manure, and a few sad spots in our backyard, we’ll be able to expand our garden even more.

The seeds are all inside for now, in a sunny spot in the back of the apartment, with a grow light just in case. Once they are bigger we’ll move them outdoors… we’ll start seeing some sprouts in the next few days!

That is all from me… See you all on Monday morning!

Tags: dinner, free time, garden, vegetables