Commentary: Reasons to cook

If you are just are just tuning into the Monday morning food show with me, Kendra, for the past couple of weeks I have been talking about knives and peelers. Today, I want to get on my soap box and talk about why we should cook. I’m not talking about just simply heating and serving, but I’m talking about taking whole foods and creating healthy, appealing and tasty dishes.

Reasons to cook for your family:

· Taste- boy, if you sit down to a home-cooked meal, there is nothing like it

· Healthier- the closer to its original form, the healthier it is

· Know what the ingredients are (we are what we eat)- there are lots of ingredients in processed foods that have been proven to be cancer-causing

· Family time cooking and eating together- a big plus for the family!!!

· Obedience to God for providing for one’s family- this is one of the main reasons that I take extra time to cook- though I don’t necessarily bring a lot home financially, I feel this is one of those scriptural Lydia things (where she provides for her family)

Many times I hear people say that they can’t cook. Do you know what my first response is? It is in the form of a question. I ask if they can read. If you can read, you can cook. Now, I don’t expect you to take one of my professional cookbooks and produce a dish from it, but there are literally hundreds, if not thousands, of cookbooks out there that have very fundamental instructions on how to create healthy, appealing and tasty dishes.