When you prepare a meal for someone it feels pretty great. Even a beautiful tray of cut veggies and hummus shows care. If someone were to take a few bites and then throw away their meal, reactions could get emotional. This happened when I served dinner recently to close family — “respect your food” was said repeatedly. Learning to respect your food is an ethos that covers health, positive engagement, and enjoyment.
Seven ways to respect your food, as follows:
- Market together: If able, make food shopping an event that involves the entire family. This way you can learn everyone’s tastes and buy food that will be enjoyed.
- Cook together: Similar to shopping, cooking can be an enjoyable activity done as a group. When you prepare a meal, appreciation is gained from being involved in the meal’s preparation.
- Proper food storage: Put food away in its proper place after use to preserve its freshness and taste.
- Edit your refrigerator and pantry: Similar to editing a closet, food storage deserves the same treatment. Toss out expired items or foods you haven’t eaten. Clean and maintain your fridge and pantry. Organize items by grouping together. Spices and baked goods, teas and coffee, should be on their own separate shelf or space in the cabinet for an efficient and attractive display.
- Plan weekly meals: Meal planning not only eliminates the stress of what to serve for dinner, it’s also a way to put thought into nutritional and tasty meals.
- Understand portions: Serve the proper amount of food, which is both healthy and not wasteful. Tips to control eating properly is to eat from a plate, not on the go or in front of a screen, and read labels.
- Shop your local farmer’s market: Buying produce and food as close to its source is healthy, sustainable and promotes local business. Get to know the sellers, learn their stories, which is all part of respecting your food.
Resources:
Cast iron cocottes: Staub
French oven: Staub
