Cooking up a Storm!

When was the last time you sat down to a wonderful meal? Think of all the delicious foods and flavors you enjoyed. Remember the exciting combinations of items that made for a memorable dinner.

How would you like to make those things yourself?

Cooking is actually easier to learn than most might realize. Start small—pick easier items—and go from there. As the saying goes, you have to crawl before you can walk and walk before you can run.

Begin making things for yourself such as salads, pasta, meatballs, sandwiches, soups, etc. Then move on to cooking some of these for your family. Over time, you can volunteer to bring snack items for after Sabbath services. You will soon become more confident—and may even want to host a dinner party. Such evenings are highly engaging, and you will experience some of the best conversation and fellowship possible.

But you do not need to jump all the way to a gourmet meal to reap cooking’s many benefits. If you apply some simple principles, you can quickly learn to make tasty dishes!

Ingredients Are Key

Of course, the first step is deciding what you want to make. Go with something that interests you—and start simple.

Whether a beginner or “seasoned” veteran, you can find many recipes and ideas in cookbooks.

The Internet is another source for cooking inspiration. There are dozens of websites (such as allrecipes.com, epicurious.com and foodtv.com) that contain tens of thousands of recipes, many of which allow you to sort by difficulty and/or cost to prepare.

Selecting quality ingredients for the recipe is the most important step. It can be said that a meal is only as good as its ingredients. It is vital to select fresh and, if possible, organic fruits and vegetables. This will ensure the highest quality and best flavor.

You may have tasted the difference between freshly picked fruit from a tree versus fruit in a supermarket. Fresh fruit is always tastier—and is full of vitamins.

It may be more difficult to choose appropriate combinations of ingredients. While using these takes practice, some are easy. If you prepare a dish for a dinner party, you might not want to combine peanut butter and pickles—as it might be the last dinner party you hold!

Take time to plan and research different ingredients. You will be surprised at how much planning God put into designing them. Items such as garlic and onions have many positive properties and you will want to use them as much as possible.

In time, you will develop a skill in knowing what items to mix together for both flavor and nutrients.

Healthy Is Not Horrible

The vast majority reach wrong conclusions about taste and nutrition, and falsely assume that in order for something to be healthful, one must sacrifice flavor. This could not be further from the truth!

God created our tastebuds and the thousands of ingredients that can tickle them. He knew what He was doing! But many today have spoiled their tastebuds by eating junk—heavily processed and refined items to which the body becomes addicted. The most common of these are white sugar (and the many chemical sugar substitutes) and white flour. If possible, avoid them.

Resisting the urge to use these items may take time. Be patient with yourself. It takes effort to learn how to replace white sugar with natural substitutes—such as honey or maple syrup. It can be similar when replacing white flour with healthier alternatives.

White sugar and bleached white flour are devoid of any nutritional value. Of course, there are many kinds of natural sweeteners. For instance, strawberries and other fruits contain a type of sugar called fructose. There are also plants, actually grasses, that contain sugar. (It is interesting to note that in its natural state sugarcane is one of the most nutrient-rich grasses in the world.)

It is from sugarcane that refined sugar is produced. You may have seen raw or “unprocessed” sugar, which is usually dark brown and more coarse. To produce white sugar, raw sugarcane is run through a series of chemical processes that strip it of all nutrients. The byproduct of refined sugar is so poisonous that it must be labeled “toxic waste” and be disposed of through a special process. The final product is completely devoid of substance and in no way similar to the original.

Is this what you want to put into your body—never mind into the meals you are learning to create?

The process for bleached white flour is similar. All the nutrients of wheat are removed and then what is left is bleached—yes, BLEACHED!—to produce today’s white flour. The body was not designed to ingest these manmade creations and many people suffer health problems because of it.

With experimentation and research, you can use healthy ingredients that not only improve taste, but are also free of side effects. Ask others what they use and you will learn all sorts of techniques.

Share Ideas

Some websites offer tips that will improve your cooking skills. Or you could take a class at high school or a community college.

Share your ideas and recipes with friends. Discuss plans you may have, how certain recipes turned out, what you have learned, or what ingredients work well together.

As with so many things, cooking is best learned by practicing. Remember, when possible, use fresh and organic ingredients. Avoid poor-quality ingredients that will affect your health—and pile on the good ones!

In no time, you will be cooking up a storm!