Seeing with New Eyes in the Kitchen

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that the average American household spends $7,729 on food each year.

Of this total, $4,363 is spent on food at home. Fresh food like meat, dairy, and the all-important category of fruits and vegetables were just $2,231 of these total dollars. Curious what this has to do with seeing with new eyes in the kitchen?

Dollars Spent Away From Home for Food Often Means Food Waste at Home

So when you consider that the average household wastes $1600 of food annually, a bleak picture emerges.

This is evidenced by an average of $3,365 dollars spent on food away from home.

You may see yourself in these statistics and say, so what?

I’m busy.

I’m eating, not starving.

Here’s the issue.

Cooking Your Own Food: Core to Who We are as Humans

We have outsourced the one activity that is most central to the core of who we are as humans: Cooking our own food.

And, the average restaurant meal is 4 times larger today than in 1950.

Essentially you’re paying a lot of dollars to overeat.

And the experience of sharing the table in a crowded, noisy restaurant, it just isn’t the same as engaging in conversation over a freshly prepared meal at the home dining table.

It’s Time to See Cooking with New Eyes

It’s time for us to practice seeing with new eyes in the kitchen.

Here’s what I mean.

Upon leaving a birthday party, five-year-old Hudson shared with his Uncle Tim: “I didn’t even have very much fun. The only good things were the swing, the treehouse, catching lightning bugs, and eating cake.”

It’s all about perspective, and it’s time to think differently about cooking.

Cooking is a Delicious Life-Giving Adventure

Cooking is not a chore to be endured. It’s a new adventure every evening.

A carrot isn’t simply a carrot to be sliced and dipped in ranch dressing. It’s a transformation waiting for your magic touch.

Sauté it, grate it, roast it, grill it, or purée it. Add different spice combinations and the possibilities are limitless.

When you see with new eyes, the act of cooking and sharing the table is no longer a chore, but an important life-giving activity to be cherished even on a weeknight.

French novelist Marcel Proust said, “The real voyage of discovery consists of not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

Share the table this week with your family.

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