Perhaps at this point you’ve taken a look at your time baseline in the kitchen, and have begun to rectify some of the perceptions you may have with the realistic amount of time you desire to spend there.

I hope it’s brought a little stress relief 🙂

However we don’t all live alone in a bubble.

The person you’re living with, though they may not be the main cook in the family, will still have very defined answers to both of these questions and their own kitchen time baseline- even if they never lift a spatula.

The hard fact is, everyone has ingrained kitchen time perceptions and realities, most of which have been formed from outside influences.

We’ll touch on some of those influences in detail in later posts, but they can range from how their parents approached food to what you see on TV as far as sitcom families cooking, and what commercials tell you.

Did your spouse/partner/live-in sex toy for whom you cook grow up in an environment where most things came out of a bag, box, or can?

Don’t throw your defenses up, this isn’t about the health of the foods currently or once being consumed –remember, guilt free zone- rather it’s about time.

The more processed and/or ready-to-eat foods someone is exposed to at a young age, the less time they believe it should take to prepare a meal. It really is that simple. These beliefs are also extremely difficult to overturn.

(This is also something to consider if you’re currently a parent cooking for/with a child- you’re teaching them much more than just what’s healthy and not by your decisions. Again, not a bad thing, but definitely something to be aware of)

So when your significant other is baffled at what you have been doing for the last two hours, and you look at your beautifully healthy meal waiting for consumption on the table and think it’s pretty God-damned obvious…. this can be a second point of kitchen-time-friction that drives people away from cooking when they may actually enjoy it.

To put it mildly.

When we decide to share a space with someone, a question that rarely comes up is, “what kinds of food did you eat growing up?” But maybe it should.

Ask the person you live with the same food reality and perception questions you just asked yourself and see what their answers are.

Most people, to some degree, either enjoy or are interested in being in the kitchen and cooking more. But things like the guilt previously discussed or desire to avoid conflict and arguments with significant others can become such a massive stressor it’s not worth the time and effort.

Of course you see this downward spiral: quicker, ready-made foods tend to be less healthy, but are chosen to avoid conflict.

It seems like families are trying to eat better these days, so the guilt of serving something less healthy and the frustration of being barred from something you think you might enjoy because of conflict avoidance builds up- meal times become a land mine zone to just get through and not talk about.

Well that sucks.

Food is awesome. Sharing it is even awesomer.

And magical. It can make bad days better, sore throats ok, smiles bigger, bones stronger, celebrations happy, poker in a basement enjoyable, sleep sounder, obliterate some of these nasty degenerative diseases out there, lower medical bills…

…and anyone who doesn’t find chopping the shit out of something stress relieving is clinical and needs professional help.