When times get tough, we get cooking!

Yes, it’s hard to believe but we’re reacting to the pandemic in really healthy ways and one of them is that as a country we are in our kitchen going at it. We’re cooking more than ever and it could, over time, make us healthier than ever. This is not to say that we also aren’t doing unhealthy activities like drinking more or going off the deep end and stress-eating from time to time but hey – we have good reason being in a global pandemic, right? This is about celebrating what we are doing day in and day out and celebrating our newfound achievements as chefs!

Let’s break it down. In a recent survey conducted by Hunter PR, 54% of people are cooking more, 50% are more confident in the kitchen and 51% of us report that we will continue to cook more often even after lock-down restrictions. Want further proof? The search term “online cooking classes” saw a five-fold increase on Google over the past four weeks, and the search title “cook with me” saw a 100 percent increase in average daily views on YouTube in the second half of March. 

What started as something to pass the time, is now becoming firmly rooted in our daily lives. We have the perfect storm of factors contributing to our new found passion for cooking – more time at home, less desire to eat out or get take out, and more awareness of just how much money we can save if we don’t go out to eat. I know I was pleasantly surprised to see my credit card statements be way lower mostly from just eating at home – it was eye-opening to see just how much money my family was spending on the casual night out or the daily lunches out of the office or even not satisfying my coffee breaks. Truly amazing! 

Better yet, if we keep up the cooking, we are looking at major reductions of our risk for chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and stroke. The NYT reports “A poor diet is the biggest underlying cause of mortality in America, and that poor diet is largely delivered by large food companies like Pepsi, Coca-Cola, Chick-fil-A and McDonald’s. Just 10 dietary factors (such as high intake of processed meat and refined grains) are estimated to cause more than 1,000 deaths per day from heart disease, stroke and diabetes alone. More than 100 million Americans have diabetes or pre-diabetes and 122 million have cardiovascular disease.” Considering so many COVID-19 deaths are attributed to underlying immune-compromised diseases, better nutrition might help safeguard us while we wait for a vaccine.

So it’s a big deal to be doing home meal prep – it can literally help make our country so much healthier and personally, even I am pleasantly surprised with some of the meals I have been whipping up. 

Don’t get me wrong – there are days where I crave just being able to be served and not having to clean another dish. I long for the ease of just sitting back and doing nothing. And what I miss more than the actual food and service, is the social connectivity I used to love and cherish from having good laughs over a delicious meal. I’ve found that one of the best parts of all this cooking is the new time I have with my family. Not so much the rushed breakfasts and lunches but we all really do come together now to eat dinner. Sometimes we can’t get it together until 8 pm …but I digress. I have three children with big opinions and personalities and it’s not always a kumbaya kind of meal but we have come together more these last months over these home-cooked meals and for that, I am eternally grateful. Even though I don’t get a ton of compliments as a parent, at least now they think my fish tacos are as good as a restaurant. #winning!

Happy cooking!