Because we're worth it!

 The days of ready meals may well be numbered. Maybe it's due to the impending election, and all the depressing talk of National Debt, but the topic of 'getting back to basics' (NOT I hasten to add à la Maggie Thatcher) seems to be high on people's agendas at present.
My kids have begun really asking about food and food choices since we began this blog, and they appreciate the effort that goes into making an edible meal. Quite often now I will return home after some meeting or other to a kitchen looking like a bomb has exploded... but I really don't mind. So far they have made (YES, together, without arguing either!!) simple pasta dishes, cakes (a lot of cake come to think of it!) stuffed baked potatoes, simple salads and rice dishes, and it is with great joy that we sit to eat these meals. Sometimes they don't use a recipe, but there has been nothing that has been consigned to the bin as yet.
As mentioned last week, food can also produce great changes in people's habits in the wider arena of their lives, and to that end we have begun a cookery club at school, part funded by a Government Grant for disadvantaged children. A few years ago I ran a cookery club that included one lad who really struggled, and it really did make an impact on his self esteem... Look what I made, for you, for my Mum, for us..... I think that when cooking and creating a meal to share, it brings out that very basic human instinct of the desire to nurture others, and in so doing, is also self nurturing. So take a bit of extra time, don't buy something full of salt and additives, reward yourself with the satisfaction of producing a meal from scratch. Because we're worth it....