Yesterday I had to take baby to the doctors AGAIN, to find out he has an ear infection. He's been leaking from his eyes and nose, and is miserable all round. I dealt with his screaming for the day, and when husband came home, he took baby out for a small stroll while I cleaned up the kitchen (Sainsburys had been delivered earlier, I only had time to put away meat and milk, etc). Once we finally got baby down, hubby asked what he could do - I simply replied "Let me cook".
For the next hour and a half I boiled, pureed, peeled, skinned, chopped, set up the crock pot, and portioned into freezer pots. I did the next 5 days of baby food, made 'breakfast' (chicken breasts over root veggies with tomato puree), and boiled a whole chicken in fresh herbs that I let cool overnight (and broke down today for chicken salad). I felt much, much better.
I've always considered cooking to be a relaxing activity, something that I do when I am stressed in an effort to let go. Maybe it's that I can be creative; more likely it's because I equate food to comfort. When 9/11 hit, I (who lived alone) made a turkey dinner. I was stuck eating increasingly dry turkey sandwiches for the following week.
Part of resetting my eating mindset is resetting my cooking mindset, which is far more difficult. I cook all the time, for necessity (I cook all my child's food), for thriftiness (living in London, you do NOT want to waste a lot of money on packaged foods), for creativity (*can* I make the greatest bacon dressing known to mankind? YES!), but always in the back of my mind because I know everything I make I can eat. And because I love to eat, I love to cook....
A vicious, vicious circle...
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