On Thanksgiving Day Americans gather together to eat a symbolic meal of traditional foods with family and friends. Reconnecting with family and those most important in our lives to share food together must have a significant meaning to most all of us or we wouldn't enjoy it so much.
With our ability to connect in so many ways though social media, now more than ever people have resources available at their fingertips to help them figure out how to get through the process of making a Thanksgiving dinner. When you get family and friends sharing advice and experiences on how to cook the meal on your social network, it then adds even more meaning to the holiday. Food seems to be the universal language that transcends all barriers.
With our ability to connect in so many ways though social media, now more than ever people have resources available at their fingertips to help them figure out how to get through the process of making a Thanksgiving dinner. When you get family and friends sharing advice and experiences on how to cook the meal on your social network, it then adds even more meaning to the holiday. Food seems to be the universal language that transcends all barriers.
Elaine McFadden, Smart Health Talk Radio Show Host would like to get people excited about cooking again. “The new concept of food at home is not just putting one person in charge, but making it a family responsibility where creativity and trying new healthy foods is encouraged and adds to the fun that all members get to share together. Meals have more value when those eating them feel they have contributed in bringing the food to the table for all to eat. It doesn't have to be that they cooked it, they could have helped choose which recipe version would be made, helped shop for the ingredients, or set the table for dinner. It all counts as contributing to the meal."
With all of the fast food options today, making dinner in a kitchen from scratch is becoming a forgotten skill. People that have been raised on fried foods, meat at every meal, and refined carbohydrates, may not be sure how to cook any other way and are overwhelmed with the idea of having to change what they have learned and believe about cooking.
With all of the fast food options today, making dinner in a kitchen from scratch is becoming a forgotten skill. People that have been raised on fried foods, meat at every meal, and refined carbohydrates, may not be sure how to cook any other way and are overwhelmed with the idea of having to change what they have learned and believe about cooking.
Thanksgiving is great in that it can inspire people that may not have ever considered themselves cooks, to get in the kitchen and give it a try. Making a Thanksgiving meal can help some rediscover just how rewarding it can be to prepare a home cooked meal for those we love. Getting any adult or child in the kitchen for the first time can help them discover they have found something they are passionate about, cooking!
Sitting around a table for a meal with family, and working to make that a nutrititious meal has the potential to improve the health of our families, teach our children healthy cooking skills and habits, and bring a sense of sharing that only food can deliver.
Because Thanksgiving comes with no prerequisite of decorations and gifts, just down home cooking and family time, it can become a starting point for more higher quality home cooked meals served per week. Maybe even build a garden together.
Sitting around a table for a meal with family, and working to make that a nutrititious meal has the potential to improve the health of our families, teach our children healthy cooking skills and habits, and bring a sense of sharing that only food can deliver.
Because Thanksgiving comes with no prerequisite of decorations and gifts, just down home cooking and family time, it can become a starting point for more higher quality home cooked meals served per week. Maybe even build a garden together.
Most important you take it one step at a time. When you focus on developing one skill at a time such as replacing one meat meal with a non meat meal one time per week or replacing lard or butter with olive oil in cooking, you then get that one skill down so it becomes everyday in your life. Next thing you know you have not only been successful but in the process given yourself a head start for the next healthy cooking goal!
Choose goals that easily fit because they involve things you already love. A good example is replacing a burger or shredded beef burrito with a brown rice, bean, and cheese burrito on a whole wheat tortilla because you already love to eat beans. You might want to choose to make non meat night "eat out night" and treat yourself to a meal made by top vegetarian chefs and get wow'd when you find out just how great it can taste. You might even get ideas for your own recipes to try at home, and since meat is more expensive you can save money too.
Choose goals that easily fit because they involve things you already love. A good example is replacing a burger or shredded beef burrito with a brown rice, bean, and cheese burrito on a whole wheat tortilla because you already love to eat beans. You might want to choose to make non meat night "eat out night" and treat yourself to a meal made by top vegetarian chefs and get wow'd when you find out just how great it can taste. You might even get ideas for your own recipes to try at home, and since meat is more expensive you can save money too.
If we could fit in more family mealtimes everyday in place of fast food meals, perhaps we could rediscover our cooking skills and appreciation of food.
Once these types of skills are learned at home, children become more willing to try new foods, and as they grow up begin to recognize and appreciate the advanced culinary skills of chef prepared meals. Turning meal preparation into a family affair makes it easier to incorporate new healthier foods because everyone feels they OK'd it so when it is served they can follow the "three bite rule" and give the new food a chance. Sometimes it can take more than one try, and even up to 10 tries before people like a new food so don't get discouraged that a new healthy food is not a hit for everyone. Keep trying and be a role model yourself. Parents have the most influence over what their kids eat than anyone else in their life.
Getting family members involved in recipe choice, shopping, ingredient choice, meal preparation, and table display helps them learn more about all aspects of meal production, and gives parents more opportunities to pass on skills such as food handling and safety, kitchen clean up, table setting, and table manners. Something you rarely regret you have taught your child, but can be hard to teach if you are not in a situation to do so.
After eating home cooked meals for awhile, most often the preference will switch from the predictability of fast food flavor, to the surprise taste variations that happen at home or when skilled chefs push the creative ingredient scale to new levels at restaurants around the country.
Teaching healthy cooking and eating skills to our children could have more impact on their lifelong health habits than anything else. Those eating habits could later impact their risk for disease and ultimately save their life if prevented. Eating healthy family meals works to protect health both ways that include parent and child. When parents become healthy eating role models, they also reduce their risk of disease and increase the chances they will be around to watch their children grow up and mature.
After eating home cooked meals for awhile, most often the preference will switch from the predictability of fast food flavor, to the surprise taste variations that happen at home or when skilled chefs push the creative ingredient scale to new levels at restaurants around the country.
Teaching healthy cooking and eating skills to our children could have more impact on their lifelong health habits than anything else. Those eating habits could later impact their risk for disease and ultimately save their life if prevented. Eating healthy family meals works to protect health both ways that include parent and child. When parents become healthy eating role models, they also reduce their risk of disease and increase the chances they will be around to watch their children grow up and mature.
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