VGRC

One thing that I've noticed since living on my own is how, for most of my younger years, I had taken food for granted. Now, the first thing you are thinking is what every college-age kid goes though, wishing he/she had a nice homecooked meal that they were used to their parents making. Please, throw those assumptions out the window so I may continue, thank you.

No, is what I'm talking about is the preparation aspect, and even more, what goes into said food. Our society places value on an efficient use of time, and because of this, "common" meal choices to be things like pre-made frozen products that you pop in a microwave, or things you just unwrap and eat. This is something that has always kinda gotten to me. However, it wasn't completely apparent how depressing a system it is until I moved out on my own and became self-employed. No longer faced with having to punch a clock or for that matter wake up at a certain hour, the idea of trying to rush through everyday activities to beat a schedule sounded almost silly.

One day when I had woken up at midnight and was up all night, I found myself with the unfamiliar predicament of not only being wide awake when the sun rose, but with plenty of time to stand around in the kitchen and cook a real breakfast. And I don't mean something quick like a bagel or a Pop-Tart. No, I finally cracked open that box of Cream of Wheat I bought a few weeks prior on a whim. Boiled a pot of milk on the stove, and stood around for nearly 10 minutes. It was a strange feeling, as actually "cooking" a breakfast was an alien concept. I'd do it years back when I had a snow day from school, but otherwise having to beat a clock to work combined with me not being the kind of person who can wake up early an on a schedule... well, you get the idea.

This little experiment was repeated a few times, and I began to have an appreciation for it. Eventually, I broke out of the "breakfast time" shackles and it was something I made when I woke up, whether it was midnight or noon, didn't matter. The careful stove-top preparation, the sitting down to eat; I was losing nearly half an hour of time with this activity, but I found that it was relaxing and left me in a more peaceful state before I had to tend to whatever work would be on my desk when I went to my office. Breakfast played into my life perfectly for once: My line of work leaves me making my own hours; it doesn't matter when the work gets done, just so long as it gets done. With no work schedule to keep came the fact I no longer had a sleep schedule to keep. And with no sleep schedule to keep, why have a meal schedule? So... why am I still eating "quick" foods? What is the point of rushing?

So more and more lately, I've been making it a point to try and take my time in the kitchen with my own food, which so far has been an awesome success, both in terms of mental health and overall deliciousness. And it's not like I've been making anything overly complex, or following much for recipes. For the most part it's just mixing together random cheap ingredients or leftovers. Improv stir-frys, various rice concoctions, and increasingly awesome breakfasts that tend to involve lots of fresh bacon, pan-fried on the spot.

However, this little epiphany has gotten me to become more critical of how our society treats food, which seems to me is viewed as little more than a inconvenient necessity, which in turn has created various practices that I absolutely detest. The first of which is microwaves. Yes, those "handy" little machines which America has so readily accepted into their households because they can cook garbage like a Hot Pocket in 2 minutes. I've always hated microwaves for the fact they absolutely suck at cooking pretty much anything, leaving often soggy results and uneven heating. Anything that can be cooked in a microwave tastes infinitely better cooked on a stove or a real oven. Occasionally I'll break from my convictions and use one to heat up one of those disgusting Banquet meals, or to quickly melt some butter, but I try to avoid its use whenever possible. However, the time issue gets to me the most: People in western society have gotten so lazy and in such a rush with their stupid stress-inducing schedules that they are willing to accept eating shitty meals.

Which leads me to my next gripe: The stuff that goes INTO these "quick meals." While it goes for common sense that fast food is some of the most unhealthy garbage you can put into your system (I won't lie that it isn't delicious: Even I still quite enjoy some Burger King or Taco Bell) but take a look at some of the crap you are eating sometime. Imitation butter in squeeze bottles? Artificial sweeteners? MSG? And don't even get me started on the corn syrup that finds its way into practically everything on the market. So typically I've been trying to stay as close to natural ingredients as possible: Real butter, whole milk, cane sugar, etc., etc. I'm not overly picky about this, but if I can find an alternative to these overly processed "foods" that doesn't cost much more, I typically go for it. I find the simpler the ingredients of something is, then ten times out of ten it is not only healthier, but tastes better too.

A perfect example of this is those bags of "Ready Rice" by Uncle Bens. I used to eat those almost religiously after work because it was pre-cooked in a bag, and just required heating up. However, for the price of just a couple of these single-serving bags, you can get a box of plain rice and a can of black beans. Add the spices in yourself. Preparation time goes from 1 minute to 15, but it tastes infinitely better and isn't loaded down with preservatives. This isn't chef-type knowledge or anything, nor does eating decently require exhorbant amounts of money. Cheap food doesn't have to be shitty, unhealthy food, but it seems like that is a popular misconception in our society.

It seriously just seems to me that our society has trivialized our bodies' need to be sustained. And that is my rant for the morning.