I read a thought provoking post lately. The aim was teaching your kids to tackle hard things. The author is a homeschooler, and she challenged one of her kids to persevere and accomplish a hard task in their schooling. It wasn’t fun at times (for the mom or the child), but the sense of accomplishment and the lessons learned were invaluable to the child (and mom!).
I have up’s and down’s with this new lifestyle. Put simply: it’s hard work.
I can’t find the exact article I read, this one is interesting though, but I read an article that looked at how much time we (Americans) spend in the kitchen preparing food. As one might guess, this has decreased over time landing around 1 hour per day as of 2008. Many people choose to eat out or prepare packaged, quick meals.
The thought of how much time I spend in the kitchen has been rolling around in my head. Although I haven’t timed it (and it does vary day to day), here’s what I think I spend in the kitchen. The times below are meal prep and cooking, not cleaning up.
- Breakfast – 30-40 minutes
- Lunch – 15-20 minutes
- Dinner – 1.5 – 3 hours
Generally, I hit the national average by lunchtime. I only stay under 20 minutes at lunch if we are eating leftovers (which I try to do most days!), if I prepare fresh food, that easily hits 45-60 minutes. Dinner varies dramatically based on the number of veggies I need to chop and the difficulty of the meal. While I love this cookbook. Most recipes are 2+ hours to prepare.
So, it’s hard work. Eating well is not easy. It takes a commitment of time and skill on my part, training on the part of my children (they are often in the kitchen with me!), and sacrificing “me” time (I often cook through nap time.).
But I believe it is not only worth it for our health; it is also worth it for:
- Our budget (WAY cheaper than eating out! Especially if you factor in long-term health effects of eating out.).
- My kids to learn how to prepare real, good food.
- My family to experience a variety of food.
- Me to serve my family with a good attitude during my “free” time. (This is the hardest one most days)
It is hard, but it is worth it.
What hard thing are you tackling right now? I guarantee that it is worth it. Hard things usually are.
I get disgruntled with time spent in the kitchen as well. I’ve been trying to be more positive about it, but I am often annoyed with how many food sensitivities I have to work around. This is a great list for me to ponder.
One thing that I tend to do is make twice as much for dinner as needed and so that I can cook dinner every other day. This gives me extra time during the off-day for cooking multiple servings of healthy breakfasts, lunches, sides, and treats or making the grocery run.
Yes, me too I double recipes often to save my sanity of having to cook everyday! I feel pretty good about lunch and dinner. What do you do for breakfast? Do you have leftovers at that meal?