Learn to Cook!

What's the number one thing to help you stay healthy? Learn to cook! 

How do you learn to cook? Make the same recipe over and over until you're really really good at it! And maybe some similar recipes. And then get comfortable in the kitchen. And then try new things. And get really good at those. And then invent your own combinations! 

It can be frustrating, if your recipes don't turn out, or you drop an egg on the floor (have you ever tried to clean up an egg?!) , or your husband says it makes him want to barf... but if you keep trying, you'll get better!

For instance, we've been cooking Paleo, and someone asked me about it. "What's Paleo and how do you do it?" I said, "Well, the quick rundown is no grains, no gluten, no dairy, no legumes, no white potatoes, and no added sugar." And she answered, "Well, what do you eat?!" and I laughed and said, "It's not that hard when you get used to cooking it." 

Because there's no cheese in Paleo, and we're used to putting cheese on EVERYTHING, you have to get used to cooking without cheese. And it's good! But we might have said, "This would be better with cheese" a few time at the beginning. 

Also with Paleo, you have to do a lot of prep and cooking. Which means that this weekend, I got groceries at three different stores, cut up strawberries, made apple-pear sauce, cooked a chicken, marinated a pork roast for the crock pot, and looked at the BBQ sauce recipe and decided that I could make it in the morning. Then I made BBQ sauce, pork, and Brunswick Stew. Tonight, Steve made sweet potatoes on the grill to last us the rest of the week.

The Brunswick Stew recipe has a lot of parts, but the more often you make it, the easier it seems. It becomes routine.