Judy Johnson
The Communicator

Nutrition is difficult to maintain in the society that we live in because there are fast food joints at every street corner. 

Finding a good tasting and healthy place to eat can be stressful.  A Place that serves fresh vegetables, cooked with a splash of butter, salt, pepper and garlic, instead of grease filled French fries are few and far between.  The few restaurants that do provide these healthy delights are for the most part expensive and if it is dinnertime, a line can be expected.  The Olive Garden, Outback, and Tomato Street are just a few of the restaurants that offer decent food but it is a bit more expensive than going for Taco Bell or McDonald’s.

The other choice of finding taste buds dancing food is to cook at home.  This is the best option for nutrition, quality and easier on the wallet.  Making dinner at home may not be possible every night of the week due to class, homework and work, but the more experiments are done, the better the meals will be.  

The first to making these meals is to find recipes that look good.

These can be found on the Internet, in cookbooks, even from family and friends.  Simple recipes are the best to start with, such as soups, salads, or marinated steak or chicken.  After these are mastered, making sauces from scratch for spaghetti or fettuccine would be a quick and easy dinner.  

Not all meals come from written down recipes.  Quite a few of my best meals have been from me goofing around in the kitchen trying to figure something out for dinner.  I grab some potatoes and throw in whatever spices sound good and grill up a chicken breast with an A1 and barbecue sauce mixture.  Or maybe a sirloin steak that was marinated in Captain Morgan’s Spiced Rum, garlic, seasoned salt, and lemon pepper, and a baked potato with fresh green beans has become one of my favorite meals to make.

Making these meals can easily be done 30 min to an hour but the price can be an issue.  These ingredients are not always cheap, in fact, steak and other meats along with vegetables can be extremely expensive.  The benefit from eating these foods out way the cost of paying for them.  

Time also is another cost to preparing meals.  If a person has a family, works and goes to school their schedule is packed full without taking the time to make dinner.  My family was always running in different directions when I was growing up, but as often as it could be, my mother would cook our favorite meals and have a family dinner.  These times are good to not only enjoy good food, but to enjoy the company of friends and family.

The fast pace of our society has left many people without eating proper nutrition and sacrificing the sense of taste.  Fast food is everywhere and may fill the stomach, but no one really knows for sure what is in that food.  For me the choice is easy, try to create my own meals whenever possible, but the fast food will due when my time is short.

You can contact the writer at staffwriter@spokanefalls.edu