Saturday, June 30, 2018

What I Learned From Opening a Cookbook This Month

Dear all roommates past and present,

I'm sure you rolled your eyes or survived a fit of laughter or almost peed your pants when you found out I wanted to do nutrition-y stuff with my life. And I'm sure you said to yourself, "Doesn't she know that nutrition involves actually cooking...?" I'm sure you pondered on our months of living in the same house and counted on one hand the number of meals I cooked. I'm sure you thought about all the delicious and nutritious meals you actually cooked for me and thought about how you would probably make a better nutritionist than I would.

Well. Have no fear. I thought the same things. Fortunately for me, June 2018 came, and along with it a goal to cook three dinners per week.

The rules were as follows:
1. Every meal had to have at least one side dish.
2. Either the main dish or the side dish or both had to be something I had never previously made.
3. I could only crock pot once (because I'm sure all those meals you counted on your one hand involved the crock pot).
4. Don't worry about anything else (i.e. how nutritious it actually is, how it looks, how it smells, how it tastes, how long it takes, etc.).

I honestly had my doubts as to whether or not I could do this goal, but guess what! I DID IT!! Okay, I missed 1.5 meals, but still. Success.

Here's the crazier part: It was like my old kitchen self died and was replaced by this really awesome new kitchen self.

Old Kitchen Self:
1. Cringes at the very thought of cooking.
2. Takes a million years every time she cooks anything because she reads the recipe ten million times, asks 12 million questions, complains 45 million times, cuts her finger, doesn't have all the ingredients, gets teary when chopping onions, finds a hair in her food, etc.
3. Has to follow the recipe with exactness or else she has a heart attack and a stroke at the same time.
4. Doesn't even go into the kitchen so as to avoid 1-3.

New Kitchen Self:
1. Finds herself calm and content when thinking about what to make for dinner.
2. Has superhero speed when it comes to chopping, mixing, measuring, etc.
3. Can easily go with the flow when it comes to recipes that aren't very specific, and somehow finds a way to make it all work out just fine.
4. Not only does she enter the kitchen, but she brings friends with her to partake of the food.

I'd say the highlight was the day I invited a small crowd to come eat food I made for my birthday, because 1) I don't cook and 2) I don't invite crowds of any size over.  It was a real plot twist for everyone involved.

So a big fat thanks to anyone who ate my food this month. Good news: I think New Kitchen Self is here to stay, so get excited to see what July has in store for us.

The crowd minus the food



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