Flesh can be weak at times but it’s these moments that remind me of the power of cooking
My friends and family often ask me how I can cook all the time without getting tired of it. The answer is simple: because I enjoy cooking. I love making my family (and myself!) happy with delicious food and I’m good at finding easy ways to create maximum flavours.
Well, almost all the time. I can’t pretend I don’t have my weak moments, such as when my husband has his dinner at a function and the kids just want some simple snacks for theirs. No need for me to cook for once. A nice break – I think at first.
After tucking the kids into their beds, my tummy eventually starts to rumble and so I open the fridge and start searching for some easy food to grab. I start by snacking on some yoghurt, bread, carrot sticks and dried fruit. I’m not so hungry anymore but I still feel like I want something else, something more indulgent that will make me feel happier. So I start on the cheese, nuts and chocolates. Now I’m really quite full but still craving something else since I’m still not really satisfied. I finally move on to naughtier foods such as chips, cookies and ice cream but, in the end, I realise that I’m never going to be satisfied in the same way as I am when I cook a proper, fresh meal with enjoyment.
I believe that our body naturally regulates appetite and controls the right amount of food that it requires when we eat nutritional and flavoursome food. This is why I always want to eat more than I actually need when I’m eating foods that are nutritionally poor or with commercially created tastes high in salt, sugar and/or fat.
When you cook, the experience of eating has already started in different ways before you even put the food into your mouth. You touch and smell food. You take pleasure from creation. This experience somehow delivers the same contentment you get from eating but in so many different dimensions that you start to feel satisfied even before you eat the meal. When you look at your loved ones enjoying the meal you’ve created, your pleasure of eating intensifies even more. You don’t need large amounts of food to feel fulfilled.
The more I cook, the better shape I get into. The more I cook, the healthier and happier I get. This is enabled by the REMIPE cooking style (simple, delicious and healing) that I developed and I love it more and more with every meal.
