A Matter of Perspective

I am going to let you in on a little secret...I don’t know how to cook.

Well, it’s not that I don’t know how to cook, I think it is more that I don’t know how to prepare a meal. There is a difference.

I don’t know how people do it. When I look in the fridge or cupboard, I don’t see things to make a meal with, I see cans and vegetables and milk and fruit. I see ketchup and meat and mustard. I see lettuce and salad dressing, but I don’t “see” a meal. I see individual items.

I think this stems from my childhood and eating school lunches from those cafeteria trays.

You know those trays that had those individual little compartments that separated your peas (yuck) from your peaches and your hamburger from your potatoes?

Do you have the image in your mind? Yes, that’s the one. Instead of seeing things as a meal, I saw them as individual items compartmentalized on a tray.

Now I have to actually read and follow a recipe to a “T” in order to make a meal.

Cooking makes me so nervous, that I really don’t ever do it unless I have to. Sure I can make a pork steak in the oven, but what do you eat with a pork steak?

I can fry hamburger, but what do you put with it? The whole thing is very confusing to me.

Obviously, I don’t have a problem eating, but cooking? That’s another story...

If I could only eat what I could cook, I would either be incredibly thin (I wouldn’t be eating much) or even larger than I am (I would be eating cheese and macaroni at every meal).

Part of the problem for me is also that I want to eat less processed things and more healthier things. But how do you make a meal from tomatoes, lettuce, apples and kale?

I don’t see a “salad” of any type as a meal (well, maybe a taco salad—but I also don’t consider that very healthy).

I recently bought a new cookbook because I know I need to eat healthier and I need to see how to combine healthy ingredients together to make a meal, a treat, a snack.

I am seeing a lot of salads in the book, but they are different than the ones I am used to making, so maybe they will even taste good!

Since the recipes in the book are quick and easy, I may actually be able to do this!

If not, it’s back to writing my own cookbook—The How to Eat Cheese and Macaroni and Salads for Every Meal!