Take A Look In The Mirror

We have to learn to be more self-reliant. It is so, so important that this is a priority.

In our daily lives living well means living well simply. Getting rid of complicated products and learning simple tasks.

I am not talking about ridding processed food or ready-made things from our lives altogether; I am simply talking about being capable and knowing how to be more self-reliant by knowing how to cook from whole foods.

Being able to bake a loaf of bread.
Being able to think ahead and stocking up.
Being able to go into the market and buy whole foods rather than processed, prepared foods.
Being able to use your kitchen to its full capabilities for the well-being - the nourishment for body and soul - of your family.
Being able to think in an organized way about your family's meals.
Being able to set a budget and follow it, stick to it.

This is not about becoming Little House on the Prairie. It is about becoming more participant in our lives and more self-reliant when it comes to meals.
It is about self-reflection; knowing the needs of your family. Through self-reflection, understanding your family's needs and being able to meet them with a self-reliant, hands-on 'I'm there. I can do it attitude'.

Simple home cooked food.

Whether we want to think about it or not; Our lives start at home with the food we eat. Our mornings, noons and nights for our children and ourselves - our life is created by these rituals.

More and more children are getting breakfast at school, lunch at school, snacks at school! This is meal time, this is how these children, our children - our future generations are being raised. Not with table manners at home - but in benches. I know and understand that these children are hungry and need good nutritional meals - but how are we as parents working to turn this around? Are we going to be able to say 'I raised my child. I made sure he ate a good home cooked meal - cooked by me at least twice a day. I made sure he chewed with his mouth closed and told me about his day. I made sure I knew what he liked didn't like. I was the one who told him to try new things - at least a bite before he could say he didn't like it. Note here: I have one son, so I tend to lean on he rather than she.

How are we going to bond with our children and build our families if not through cooking food and eating our meals together?

Inspired Home Cooking is a lot about the philosophy of what we cook and eat and how we do that within our budget. Our perspective of home cooking from a hands-on working and doing it point of view as it is woven into our daily lives as real people with real jobs and children and chores and relationships and bills to pay. How does home cooking become a priority in our life? We have to make it that way.

What in the hell is our society going to look like in ten or twenty years with a whole generation of children who were raised on meals prepared by strangers and eaten outside the home? Meals are the basic foundation of family.

I needed to hand out the mirrors today. I needed to share what I have been thinking about. I know jobs are hard to come by, I am right there with you. I know feeding a family is stressful and getting help through schools takes a lot of stress off of us - trust me I can speak from experience.

I know our children need to have nutritious meals, but, I would much rather know that a child was given breakfast and dinner by a parent, no matter how stressful the situation. We are raising our children, who one day will be people, and we want them to be responsible, caring adults with self-respect and respect for others. How can we give them this unless we interact with them in the most basic form.

Look in the mirror and study your life as it is now. Maybe there is not a whole lot you can do - it's temporary. But, could you with the simple act of cooking your family's meals make your world a better place?

~Julie