Learn to cook

This may not seem the most proactive or especially ethical way to improve your life but these days it can make a real difference. Many people nowadays do not know how to cook more than a few basic dishes. Most have never baked bread or a cake in their lives. Home Economics is taught less in schools and nearly not at all to boys. A lot of people these days prefer to buy frozen ready meals from Iceland or M&S to pop in the microwave when they come home from work so they can spend the evening in front of the idiot tube. Cooking is seen as in imposition in this country.

The situation is not the same everywhere. Most Southern Europeans who visit Northern Ireland and the British Isles in general are appalled at what we eat and the lack of interest we take in food. In countries like Italy, Spain, Greece and elsewhere food is a central part of life; its origins, freshness and quality are paramount. Here, we pretty much stuff anything down our gullets provided it does not take too much trouble to prepare.

Why will learning to cook do to make life simpler (and better)?

Junking ready meals - learning to cook for ourselves we cut out the evil of ready-prepared meals. Why are ready meals evil?

• They are more expensive than home-cooked meals.
  
• They usually contain higher levels of salt and sugar than food you prepare yourself as well as other nasties such as preservatives and other additives.
• They may (and most likely do) contain such unpleasant items as genetically-modified ingredients, battery eggs or intensively-farmed meat.
• They are usually encased in unnecessary amounts of packaging.
• The industrial preparation of the item and the consequent cooking by the consumer is highly energy inefficient compared to cooking fresh ingredients oneself.

Cooking for oneself ensures you know what goes into what you eat.

• You can choose where the ingredients come from and buy local.
  
• You get the pleasure of creating something with your own hands.
  
• Cooking fresh food is healthier since it lacks artificial additives.
  
• The amount of packaging you use is less (if you choose wisely).
  
• It gives you control over what you put in your stomach.
• It can be very cheap!
  

Cooking should not be chore. It is a wonderfully creative and relax way to spend time. I enjoy it nearly as much as eating the finished product!