Eating Habits

Unit 8 Eating Habits

Cooking at Home

So you’d rather eat out because you think cooking at home just takes too much time? Well,

here’s

Jennifier

Harrison

with

our

FYI

to

prove

to

you

that

hitting

the

kitchen

at

home

can

be

healthier and a lot easier than you think!

You

can

cook

a

healthy

meal

in

about

half

an

hour

with

just

a

few

ingredients.

Does

this

sound too good to be true? To find out we’re taking professional cook, Spencer Ritchens, with us

into

different

homes.

Now he

will

have

to

prepare

a

meal

on deadline

with

just

the

ingredients

found in the kitchen!

Let’s hit the pantry! All right, so here we are. Let’s see what’s going on!

First stop. Jill Guenza’s home. Jill, a typical busy mother of two, doesn’t find much time to

squeeze

cooking

in.

She

makes

dinner

two

or

three

times

a

week.

So

how

does

she

feel

about

Spencer cooking up the family food?

Could be scary! I haven’t gone to the store in a while, but I’m sure he’ll find something. I do

have a lot of staples.

Let’s take a look in the fridge.

In the nooks and crannies of Jill’s kitchen, Spencer actually discovers an array or ingredients:

meat, bread crumbs, eggs, garlic, onion, tomatoes, and tomato products, olive oil, noodles, salt and

pepper.

Let’s

see

what

we

can

do

with

this

stuff.

What

do

you

say

we

make

a

little

spaghetti

and

meatballs and try to keep it simple today?

It can be quick and easy to cook at home, but there’s also a health issue to home cooking.

And

we

enlisted

the

help

of

registered

dietitian

Kathleen

Newman

to

show

us

how

to

stock

a

kitchen, and more importantly, to discuss the nutrition downfalls of always eating out.

When we eat out, the food that we purchase is generally higher in fat, saturated fat, calories

and lower in fiber.

Cooking helps your health, but listen to this. It may also help your mental skills.

Where else can you learn how to organize and have a meal turn out at the same time when

you have such diverse ingredients, such as potatoes and a piece of meat and some vegetables that

don’t take very long to c

ook.

Now it’s time to put those meatballs together.

As Spencer whips up spaghetti and meatballs, it’s clear Jill can do this, too. She had all the

ingredients on hand. But catching the cooking habit starts with planning.

My key is organization. You actu

ally can’t decide what you’re cooking for dinner on the way

home to do that.

Looks like we’ve got some growing kids here, so we’ll give them a couple of meatballs.

All right kids! Let’s see what happens. Here you go!

Taste test.

Oh, this is great.

We’re now at a bachelor’s pad. We’ve dropped in on Brandon, and again Spencer’s mission is

to make a meal out of the food found in the kitchen, Spencer, I bet the ingredients will be rather

different here.

I think so. I’m thinking maybe some wheaties and

a little Taco Bell.

Let’s check it out.