Keeping it Simple with Cooking

According to a new survey, over 1/2 of us Canadians don't cook our own meals! We rely on take-out, which has probably lead us to our obesity rates... So don't be afraid of cooking! Here's some ways to keep it simple...

Find a really good cook book... When I was about 10 my mom gave me a Campbell Soup Cook Book, and I still live by it today. Most meals in it don't take longer then 20 minutes to make. That's the same amount of time it takes to drive to a restaurant, order, drive-thru, and go home. Plus it'll be cheaper (think of the gas you're spending too!) Once I got older and really wanted to experiment, I found fabulous recipes on-line, one of my fav's is allrecipes.ca and cooks.com

Don't always follow the recipe... if you don't like cinnamon and the recipe calls for it, don't put it in. Once you've learned the recipe you'll find ways to tweak it to your liking.

Don't over complicate things... The first recipe you try shouldn't be one that has a million steps. Try small first, like learning how to flip an egg without breaking the yolk. One day I went through 9 eggs before I got it (I blame it on the flipper!)

Conquer one dish at a time... One of the first specialties I learned was a chicken, broccoli and mushroom pasta dish. I made it for a a few weeks till I had it perfected. Now it's a requested dish!

Don't be scared of the stove... they were invented to be cooked on! (Who knew??)

Stock your cupboards and fridge with your favs... This way you'll want to go in the kitchen and prepare a meal!

Make your kitchen comfortable... if ya like music, put in a hanging cd player, get your favorite lighting, and a comfy table to sit at.

If it's good from a packet, use it... I love A Taste of India's Peanut Sauce, it's delicious and there's no way I could recreate it. So why try?

Make foods for the inner child... remember when you used to bake cupcakes or make cookies and get really dirty by using your hands and spilling stuff? It's a lot of fun! Just because your older doesn't mean cooking has to be a chore!