Ask Aunt B

Dear Aunt B,

How do I learn to cook? I am tired of eating out all the time and I need to save some money. I want to eat healthier, but I don’t even know where to start. I find when I try to cook at home I am just buying processed food anyway. I’m not really sure what they mean by processed food. Help.

Need some help in the kitchen

Dear Need some help in the kitchen,

Kudos to you for reaching out on this one. I believe a lot of people are struggling with this issue. Believe you me, I am not the best cook in the world by any means, but I have a few dishes that I am proud of. That being said, don’t even worry about that at this point. Just start. How many people are you cooking for? It can be a little more challenging if it is just you. But then again, if it’s just you, you don’t have to worry about what others like. So let’s just begin.

There are so many venues to gather information these days. I can spend hours looking at Instagram recipes. I have never been on TikTok, but I am about to because of all the hacks people have told me about that they got from TikTok. Oh, and don’t forget about YouTube. I swear you can find anything on YouTube. I know everyone talks about the evils of social media, but I think it has many benefits as well. As with everything, some good and of course people can get carried away.

Of course, if you don’t have a computer or access to one, you can still go to the library. Hopefully you can find a library. It makes me sad that they can be a little hard to find. Another great place is used bookstores. They are crowded with cookbooks. Possibly a friend or family member might have some cookbooks they would lend you.

Check in with your friends. You may have someone that loves cooking or wants to join you in this adventure. That would be fun.

Let’s start with the definition of processed foods. Some would say processed food is any food that has been cooked, canned, frozen, packaged or changed in nutritional composition with fortifying, preserving, or preparing in different ways. The worst processed foods in my opinion are the prepackaged foods with little or no nutrition. In order to eat no processed foods many would believe you would be stuck with a raw foods diet. I don’t believe that is what you are going for.

I bet you can find your favorite foods and ways to cook them healthier. That probably would be a good place to begin. We get hooked on the flavors of fast food and that can be a hard habit to break. Any way to make the break easier would be good.

I am sure you have heard the saying when shopping at the store to stay within the perimeter of the store. That’s pretty good advice but again pretty strict.

Start where you can. Start simple. Good luck.

Love,

Aunt B

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