It's pretty sad the kind of food that I often see families eating these days.
I once saw a report—I can't seem to put my fingers on it at this moment—that showed statistics for children that make good or bad food choices on their own. It said that children whose parents made it a point to have dinner together at night on a regular basis were much more likely to make healthy food choices when left on their own to feed themselves (like after school snacks and such.)
I was at my YMCA the other day resting between racquetball games and I saw a mother feeding her two young children frozen-dinner-in-a-box. Every little chicken nugget was pristinely shaped like a different animal. There were two little containers of sauces neatly tucked in two of the corners of the box—laden with sugar I'm sure.
I wonder what kind of adults those children will grow into? Will they grow up regarding frozen dinners as something superior to what they themselves could cook?
And the funny thing is that a lot of the food-in-a-box that children eat today is so incredibly replicable by any home cook. We just don't realize it.
Take Hamburger Helper for example. I could teach you three basic sauces that you could very easily prepare in the time it takes to brown a pound of ground beef or turkey. And I guarantee it'll be a thousand times better than that Hamburger Helper.
One of the most basic of all sauces is the béchamel sauce. From this one sauce alone, the French have produced literally hundreds more sauces just by adding various combinations of other ingredients.
You've had a form of béchamel sauce if you've ever eaten a properly prepared dish of macaroni & cheese or a serving of creamed spinach. It can also be the base of all kinds of soups.
All you have to remember to learn a basic béchamel is "1 to 1 to 1." In other words, one tablespoon of butter or oil, one tablespoon of flour and one cup of warm milk.
To that basic sauce, you can add your flavors. My favorite is a Mornay sauce, which calls for a tablespoon each of Parmesan and Gruyère cheeses. Makes a fabulous topping for veggies, scalloped potatoes and, you guessed it! Homemade Hamburger Helper.
Another great sauce is marinara. Also, very easy to prepare. And with a marinara, you have the starter to Chicken Parmesan, Chicken Spaghetti, Lasagne, and a great sauce for grilled Italian Sausages with tortellinis.
And do you have
any idea how simple it is to make your own taco meat sauce?
The only reason your mother didn't do this for you is because she didn't know. But, now YOU know. So have some fun with it!
The real value of preparing your own meals is you have total control over the ingredients that go into them.
I've provided these recipes for you on my recipes page, as well as some others of my kids' favorites.
Let me know what's your kids' favorite meal. Everybody's got at least one thing they can do really well that everyone likes.
I'd love to hear from you!
Bon Appetit!
