Fast Food

Just what is our obsession with fast food? I see a lot of it coming from an "I really can't be bothered" attitude that prevails in our society. We're so busy all the time that we've come to resent taking the time to actually prepare and eat food that is good and good for us. We resent taking the time to figure out how to prepare actual raw ingredients and shop for them. These are just one more damn thing on the list for a lot of people, and not a very high priority item at that, especially given that so many of us have a pretty unhealthy attitude with food. It surprises me when I listen to people talk about food and eating how many people out there don't even realize that they really don't LIKE food. They don't trust it or they fear it. They have a love-hate relationship with nourishment in many cases.

Saying that Americans don't like food probably sounds pretty silly to most folks, given the national obesity problem, but then from my perspective, when you don't like food well enough to learn about it and give it an appropriate place in life, you open yourself up to consuming cheap, fast food just to get the process over with. Or eating things that tout themselves as good for you, no matter how tiny or nasty they are. You'll actually believe that little tiny cans of protein drinks are an acceptable substitute for good food that really is good for you. Which only serves to reinforce your idea that food isn't worth it.

I am surprised at the number of people who say that they don't have time to cook, but they do have time to sit in lines at drive-throughs and stand in line for a table at Applebee's. It's not logical. If you have 20 minutes to kill sitting in your car waiting to reach the window, then you got time to cook. And cook something that is a bit more satisfying than a mega-burger and fries most of the time.

A well-stocked pantry is a key to it all. Now, that doesn't mean that you need every food product known to man on hand. What you need are the basic ingredients for two or three simple things that you know you like to eat. Figure out a couple of "go to" entrees that you can round out with a tossed salad or some steamed broccoli. Me? I usually have the ingredients on hand to make a very simple Tuscan bean soup (canned chicken broth, canned white beans, canned Italian style diced tomatoes, and frozen chopped spinach), a vegetarian chili (canned chili beans, canned diced Mexican style tomatoes, shredded cheese and Boca crumbles in the freezer), and some kind of pasta that begins with dried pasta of some kind and canned or jarred marinara sauce. I keep canned tuna and salmon around for the ease of tuna or salmon salad. I keep eggs around for simple meals of scrambled eggs or an omelet. All of these things can be tossed together pretty much when I walk in the door and I can be having dinner within half an hour or so. With the eggs and the canned fish, it can be within 15 minutes. And there is nothing wrong with eating scrambled eggs and toast or a tuna salad sandwich for dinner. It need not be gourmet fare every day of your life, and a standard "test" for most aspiring professional cooks is something as simple as "can you scramble eggs?". The important thing to bear in mind is whether is suits your tastes for that day. If I really can't be bothered with cooking, eggs and toast or tuna salad are no-brainers, as is that bean soup or that chili.

I make use of prepared and convenience foods all the time, too. I've talked about my love of the rotisserie chicken, but I also like pre-cut fruits and veggies and consider them worth what I spend on them. Yes, whole watermelons are cheaper, but I'm a single person that really can't eat that much watermelon, so a quart of watermelon chunks or a couple slices of watermelon are worth it for me because I'm not paying for a whole watermelon to rot in the fridge because cutting it up is too daunting. Fine if I've got the time and the inclination, but I know myself well enough to know that washing lettuce and chopping up melons are the places I can't be bothered. The pre-washed, pre-cut fruits and veggies are where I save time that I'll devote to other things, like washing and chopping fresh parsley and other fresh herbs. It's nice to devote an afternoon to making somebody's homemade marinara sauce, but I've found that there are plenty of prepared sauces that suit my tastes and that don't require an afternoon and 5 lbs. or roma tomatoes. I'm okay with that.

I also like leftovers, so I'll make casseroles and rice and pasta salads that can be portioned out into containers to tote for lunches so that I can toss a cup of yogurt or a piece of fruit into a sack with one of the containers and call lunch a done deal without resorting to the in-store Pizza Hut every day. I like having something in the fridge so that all I have to do is make up a salad or cook a vegetable while a portion of something reheats in the microwave or the oven at the end of the day.

It's really not that hard, but I will concede that it does take practice to acquaint yourself with your own food preferences so that they become a habit and something that you don't have to think about all the time. Which makes shopping based on those preferences much easier. Which ensures that you have your ingredients close to hand for those "go to" meals when you feel rushed and can't be bothered.