Blog.EmealsForYou

I had the opportunity to engage in a conversation with a cousin last weekend at a family gathering. She, like a lot of women, is a single mom, working full time and going back to school at the same time. Needless to say this leaves little personal time.

As most of my conversations go we turned to the discussion of meals and meal preparation. I asked her how she handled the daily routine of meal prep. She told me her day started early, dropping her son off at school, then on to work… pick up her son, go home and throw something on for dinner; admitting she probably should do more towards a healthier diet. Cooking the family meal had become a chore, something that was loathed but had to happen. I truly believe she is in the majority in this thought process.

As our discussion progressed I asked her to imagine coming home from work and preparing a warm, bubble-filled bathtub… sinking into the sudsy water for 20 minutes of pure relaxation; rewarding herself for a job, both motherhood and professional, well done. This appealed to her; frankly I don’t know anyone who wouldn’t enjoy this. My next statement was to imagine coming home and taking the same 20 minutes, 20 minutes you will spend anyway on the usual fare, to prepare a great dinner, something she had looked forward to all day. So, this is where it begins. This is the start of the paradigm shift. You need to stop thinking of cooking as a chore and begin to think of it as a reward… something to look forward to. Good cooking takes the same amount of time as bad cooking; you just get more pleasure out of the good stuff.

Stop thinking about the chore and think about the end result, a reward for you and your family. Special meals are normal meals made special by the way we think about them. The other thing is that special meals don’t have to cost more than normal meals; chicken breasts prepared quickly can be very special.(a recipe follows) I’m not advocating forcing yourself out of the old habits and into the new habits 7 days a week. Why not try making one “special” meal a week. You may find yourself enjoying it, more importantly your family may realize just how special you are.