Food is Power
I recently wrote a quick blurb on Instagram about the power of food and cooking and I just felt the need to express on this thought further. The original blurb stated,
“Food is power — not only for our nourishment but also our lifestyle.
Dedicating time to cook your meals and really give it your attention has the ability to ease so much stress if you let it.
Cooking dinner each night is something I look forward to. Putting on music, taking my time prepping veggies and sharpen knives. Giving attention to the protein I’m cooking and it’s process. I never want to rush it. I cook to escape and give myself grace and patience to care for myself and create a meal that I’m proud of. Even if it’s just chicken and veggies..”
Nourishment is priceless and dinner is on the agenda.
My husband is the one who made me learn the importance of food. We have had plenty of times where money became extremely tight and it was a toss up on either paying our rent or buying a full set of groceries and he would always mention that buying good food + ingredients was much more important than a possible late payment on our rent. And I started to agree, I mean, our bodies are going to be with us much longer than our current housing situation so why wouldn’t I dedicate my resources to it?
And in extension, when it comes to actually preparing our food each evening, how can we believe that anything else is in competition for it’s time slot? Our daily agendas should always have a couple hours blocked out for dinner. In our house, Dylan gets home from work around 5pm and I begin cooking around then as well. I know that when 4:45 rolls around, it’s time to wrap things up with work or chores. I prepare my mind for those moments of prepping, cooking, + dining. Everything else can wait a couple hours.
It can be an adjustment + lessons are to be learned.
I’ve only been cooking for about 2 years. Before that, we were constantly eating frozen pizza, boxed mac-n-cheese or bagel bites. But when we moved to Memphis, we were tight on money and I remember looking up some cheap dinner ideas. I realized that cutting up some veggies and and shredding some chicken was totally do-able. I wasn’t great at it though. The chicken was tough and lacking flavor, veggies could use some sprucing and the overall mood of the food wasn’t the greatest. But I kept going. I branched into using the crockpot (hello tuscan chicken, yuummmm) and I watched a few 5 minutes Gordon Ramsey videos on how to cook meat.
And now after 2 years of s l o w l y learning and trying and experimenting — i found my love in cooking. I really hope that you can give yourself the patience and a real college-try to lean into this journey. Food is power.. and cooking is the invitation to grow that power further.
