I’m referring to both “lol lmao why am I putting this leaf in” posts and “omg I found a leaf in my chipotle” posts here because both have the same issue of broadcasting their confusion over the internet instead of just looking it up.
You could chalk this up to social media but even before that’s advent you had Jamie Oliver showing you a 30 min dinner that consists of leftover ingredients that are not picked up by his show / cookbook and also assumes you’re cooking on kitchen grade equipment instead of the landlord special like most of his presupposed target audience and feel free to swap him for any number of aspiritional celebrity cooks.
It’s all showstuff. Which can be nice but let’s be honest here, if you’re cooking a lot at home you’ll be eating slop (non derogatory) most of the time because between price and time investment that’s what gets you tasty, manageable, affordable.
But that’s not in the cookbooks, I’m pretty sure I own all of them because if you’re a known home cook they just end up at your house. If you ate nothing but Jamie Olivers Healthy 30 min Dinners (all of them take about an hour or so because they presuppose you start with a 10L boiling pot of water and have the skills necessary to dice a large onion in a minute) you’d end up nutritionally deficient and poor.
But say you were to google lense your bay leaf and find out what it does, where does that leave you? I feel like there isn’t a site in the world that teaches you home economics cooking where you concoct up something healthy, tasty and time saving out of like half a pantry and a capsicum you bought on sale. I speak two languages and I’ve never found one - where the fuck are they?
I feel like even if you find cooking innately rewarding - or could - and have money to spare which is Jamie Olivers and his ilk actuals target group so they can brag about their cheap healthy dinners to their lessers you’re still gonna go run out of time on the stuff
I agree in most cases, but I know people for who cooking is just another hobby, they put on some TV or a podcast and lose themselves in the labor. For those people it’s feasible, maybe not EVERY night, but on a frequent basis. The point you’re touching on is a very good one though, because it highlights how people are made to feel ashamed for not making “refined” food, or pressured into eating “conforming” (typically over-processed and made hyper-palatable with a lot of nutrition stripped out.) food that isn’t healthy.
I see how I’ve failed to convey this but this is the point I’m trying to make: Jamie Olivers 30 mins healthy weeknight dinners cookbook sells itself on the fact you’d do that. But you can’t and even if you could, you wouldn’t, unless you’re so hilariously rich your mise en place is telling your live in sous chef to get on it, which messes with the “anyone can do this” attitude of the thing
i love cooking but i make one to two “fancy” meals every two weeks and the rest is curries or fastish meals that ive partially prepped ahead of time (teriyakis on rice, for example)
im also probably really nutrient deficient.
unless you have a severe dietary restriction (medical, logistical, self-imposed) you are not likely to have any nutrient deficiency. it’s way over hyped myth.
eat some fortified processed food once in a while if you are worried. and Vit D, with folic acid if you might stay preggo.
Eat mostly vegetables cooked in cast iron cookware and you’re mostly there