Now We're Cooking

If you ask me if I like to cook I’d say, Sure* (note the asterisk). I don’t think of myself as doing a lot of cooking but instead, I make a lot of meals. Here’s the difference and where the asterisk comes in, when I cook for my family it’s when I’ve thought about what to serve and what I’ll need and what should be done ahead of time. Cooking is when I’ve got my act together and I truly enjoy turning basic ingredients and seasonings into something lovely. However, most nights I make meals. They are made with just enough love to be healthy and well balanced (assuming frozen veggies count), but I do it because I have to and I often find myself standing in front of the pantry at 5 o'clock wondering what substitutes for pasta in a pasta dish – I’m not prepared and therefore unenthusiastic about this huge responsibility, feeding ones family.

And the daily meal making (or cooking if you are one of those people I hate just a little) feels sometimes like an even bigger responsibility - like all of mankind kind of responsibility. I’ve allowed myself to learn just enough about what really needs to change in our food production to not panic and build a chicken coop in my yard but be informed enough to make the best choices. We are eating a lot less meat so that when we do eat meat, it’s the kind I can feel good about for my kids, the sacrificed animals and the earth itself. We did the CSA thing (Community Supported Agriculture) last summer, but I was overwhelmed and ended up throwing so much food away that the point was moot it seemed. I don’t know about you cooks out there but I can’t incorporate green pepper and eggplant into breakfast, lunch and dinner for weeks on end. Yuck. So, the kids and I are committing to visit the farmers markets in our area and get the amount of food we can use in a week.

Two nights ago I cooked the meal pictured. The kids and I had been to the farmer’s market that day and I had a new recipe in mind so I found what I’d need all fresh and feel-goody because the veggies where grown here and not transported thousands of miles, wrapped in plastic and sprayed with poison. Nice. It was a simple and pretty vegetarian meal that everyone gobbled up. It was a pleasure to feed my family that evening, but the thing is, the evenings just keep coming one after the other so I’ll continue to mostly make meals that I can feel okay about and do some real cooking with the best summer harvests coming soon!

P.S. I don't normally photograph our meals but I knew I wanted to write about feeding my family