Easy Peas Recipes

Living in a fast-paced world. Scheduling activities at a break-neck pace. Enticed by “the comfortable life.” Reveling in the idea of “me first” and “I deserve it.” What about, “No pain, no gain?” These cliches are far too familiar.

We adults also set traps for ourselves by feeding into the misconception that we need to stay with the pack in our society – run with the swiftest, post with the most prolific and strive to out-perform everyone on social media. We carve out more time for our self-promotion and the social advancement of our kids and less time for family engagement, reflection and relaxation.

Does this sound harsh? What does it have to do with cooking? We have exchanged cooking for convenience.  Nourishment for empty fuel. The health of our bodies has taken a backseat to the social marathon and that steals time from us. Let me explain.

The state of cooking today is not like when my mother was a new housewife in the 1950’s. Even with the later introduction of new, modern conveniences like the microwave oven, our mom still created the majority of our meals from scratch, on the stove or in the oven. Today, our hurried and harried lifestyles make packaged and convenience foods an alluring meal option. As a result, Americans are eating with less mindfulness and consuming foods with less nutrition. Our kids are also falling into this trap by our own hands. We’ve all seen the proof that food allergies and obesity are at an all-time high. Eating pre-packaged foods rob our bodies of energy and leave us starved for nutrients. Eating out at restaurants is more and more expensive – a few bites, and our wallets are depleted. But, we can do something about all of this – by cooking and eating more unprocessed foods, prepared at home.

Have you ever heard that “your body is your temple” and “you are what you eat?” That is to a great degree, true. Our bodies are built to run on natural food. But, if you feel like this whole cook-healthier-at-home thing is too difficult, too time-consuming or too little too late, don’t give up; keep reading.

Cooking meals at home, from scratch, requires three things (remember The Three P’s?):

1. Planning
2. Preparation
3. Patience

Planning meals requires you to sit down and think. Think about your schedule and which recipes would be the most feasible on busier days. Think about what you’d like to cook and what your family would love to eat. This is not just good for your state of mind regarding cooking, but shows your regard for your family’s tastes and needs. Planning also makes you vividly aware of two very important things; what you already have in your fridge and cupboards, and your shopping budget. Don’t buy what you don’t need.

Preparation takes some time and thought as well. There is something therapeutic about organizing, chopping, washing and packaging ingredients. Family members can help prepping foods. Talk with your kids about veggies as they help you wash them. During your conversations, you may find out a surprising fact about what your kids or spouse feel about a certain food or recipe.

Prepping food for the week allows you to pull together a meal more quickly. Mark containers or baggies with the contents and which recipe they go with. Some of my friends even put all their baggies of food for a recipe together in another bag in their fridge!

Crock pots are popular cooking assistants. Utilize their aid on busy days. Dump your prepped ingredients, set the cook time, and leave it. If you’d rather bake in the oven, simply prep the night before. You can combine ingredients for a casserole right in the baking pan for someone else at home to slide into the oven for you while you’re at work or running errands. Just attach a note with baking instructions, and a hot meal will be ready when you get home.

Patience is always a good practice in and out of the kitchen. Patience helps order our priorities by showing us what is important and what is in and out of our control. Rushing a cooking process could end in a total fail. But, being patient unveils beautiful results. And, when you burn a roast or you forget an important ingredient in a recipe, be patient with yourself. Cooking “mistakes” can usually be fixed or even altered in some way to create an ingenious dish.

The Three P’s allow you to be more aware and in control of your cooking needs. This is much better than feeling out of control of your time, thus “unable” to cook at home.

To be honest, there are going to be take-out days, drive-thru days, boxed-dinner days. I’m not trying to be judgmental – a burger and fries in a paper bag have been my go-to many times. However, if you make the time to plan ahead, prep, and create a home-cooked, from scratch, whole-food meal with the love that only you can provide, you and your family will be nourished both body and soul.