I love cooking shows. Cooking shows of every kind!! Right now on my DVR there are mainly shows from the Food Network with my favorites right now being... What Would Brian Boitano Make?, Semi-Homemade, Iron Chef America, Ultimate Recipe Showdown, Dinner Impossible, Barefoot Contessa, Ten Dollar Dinners, Chopped and Money Saving Meals - in fact I think there's at least one if not more of all of those shows that I need to watch.
I really do watch them with the best of intentions. I get excited about what they're making, it sounds amazing and then the printout of the recipe gets shoved aside or used by Conner as scratch paper for his latest drawing or made into one of his creations using the last bit of tape we have in the house.
I love to cook, really I do.... it's just that after working at least a 9 hour day and coming home pretty drained, the last think I want to do is cook anything. I LOVE the nights when I get home and I open the front door and the house smells amazing - YES!!!! Sam has cooked yet again and I really don't care what it is, I'm just glad that I don't have to make a thing!!
We've been trying for a while now to eat healthier, organically when we can, to have fresh, healthy snacks at home and be cooking things from scratch and not frozen / boxed / full of preservative meals... Not that we eat horribly, but there are nights when cereal or a Totoni's pizza that's ready in just 12 minutes and requires no prep is it for dinner. But uugghh..... have you looked at the ingredient list on that??? We have been doing better for a while now!! There's healthy organic snacks for me and the kids and I've even found some that Sam will eat. It's just a process that takes time and PLANNING AHEAD!!! Planning lunches ahead and separating my veggies / fruits into individual baggies saves so much time in the a.m. when I'm rushing Conner out the door to get to school on time. Then I've got something to eat / snack on at work and don't spend all my money on lunches.....
Anyways all this rambling on and on has led up to Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, on Friday nights. I've watched each one since the season started and it's been amazing and very eye opening. With going to a very small private school, we didn't even have a cafeteria that sold meals til I think I was in 10th grade?? Everyone just brought their own lunches. And even when we had the option to purchase meals, most of us still brought our lunches in. It was just habit by then, but mainly my parents weren't going to fork out the money for me to eat lunch at school on a daily basis. Even now we don't have the money for Conner to have school lunches, so I make it every day for him. Except for most Friday's - which is pizza day and you know what - it's alright to have pizza every now and then...
Fastforward 15 (eek....) years and now the whole school lunch system is so much more evolved. There's programs providing kids with meals - not only lunch, but sometimes breakfast as well. But even with the progression, the whole of the school lunch is still the same - frozen, loaded with sodium and ingredients you can't even pronounce, brown, brown, all brown lunches. I mean really - what elementary school kid when given the option of fries vs. fresh steamed broccoli, which are they going to chose most of the time?? Jamie's purpose is to change not only the families views on food living in this town - Huntington - which is called the unhealthiest city in America, to the school lunch system making the change from preparing processed food to cooking fresh healthy meals for the kids.
Last week's episode was wonderful and had me in tears - from the stop at the funeral home, to the girl whose adoptive father died because of complications from his gastric bypass surgery, to the mom whose 12 year old son is overweight and finally the high schooler whose liver is so messed up the dr. only gives her 5 years to live because she is so overweight.
I think it's great that Jamie is doing this - it's been an eye opening show and I look forward to watching the rest of the season.
I really do watch them with the best of intentions. I get excited about what they're making, it sounds amazing and then the printout of the recipe gets shoved aside or used by Conner as scratch paper for his latest drawing or made into one of his creations using the last bit of tape we have in the house.
I love to cook, really I do.... it's just that after working at least a 9 hour day and coming home pretty drained, the last think I want to do is cook anything. I LOVE the nights when I get home and I open the front door and the house smells amazing - YES!!!! Sam has cooked yet again and I really don't care what it is, I'm just glad that I don't have to make a thing!!
We've been trying for a while now to eat healthier, organically when we can, to have fresh, healthy snacks at home and be cooking things from scratch and not frozen / boxed / full of preservative meals... Not that we eat horribly, but there are nights when cereal or a Totoni's pizza that's ready in just 12 minutes and requires no prep is it for dinner. But uugghh..... have you looked at the ingredient list on that??? We have been doing better for a while now!! There's healthy organic snacks for me and the kids and I've even found some that Sam will eat. It's just a process that takes time and PLANNING AHEAD!!! Planning lunches ahead and separating my veggies / fruits into individual baggies saves so much time in the a.m. when I'm rushing Conner out the door to get to school on time. Then I've got something to eat / snack on at work and don't spend all my money on lunches.....
Anyways all this rambling on and on has led up to Jamie Oliver's new show, Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution, on Friday nights. I've watched each one since the season started and it's been amazing and very eye opening. With going to a very small private school, we didn't even have a cafeteria that sold meals til I think I was in 10th grade?? Everyone just brought their own lunches. And even when we had the option to purchase meals, most of us still brought our lunches in. It was just habit by then, but mainly my parents weren't going to fork out the money for me to eat lunch at school on a daily basis. Even now we don't have the money for Conner to have school lunches, so I make it every day for him. Except for most Friday's - which is pizza day and you know what - it's alright to have pizza every now and then...
Fastforward 15 (eek....) years and now the whole school lunch system is so much more evolved. There's programs providing kids with meals - not only lunch, but sometimes breakfast as well. But even with the progression, the whole of the school lunch is still the same - frozen, loaded with sodium and ingredients you can't even pronounce, brown, brown, all brown lunches. I mean really - what elementary school kid when given the option of fries vs. fresh steamed broccoli, which are they going to chose most of the time?? Jamie's purpose is to change not only the families views on food living in this town - Huntington - which is called the unhealthiest city in America, to the school lunch system making the change from preparing processed food to cooking fresh healthy meals for the kids.
Last week's episode was wonderful and had me in tears - from the stop at the funeral home, to the girl whose adoptive father died because of complications from his gastric bypass surgery, to the mom whose 12 year old son is overweight and finally the high schooler whose liver is so messed up the dr. only gives her 5 years to live because she is so overweight.
I think it's great that Jamie is doing this - it's been an eye opening show and I look forward to watching the rest of the season.
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