   where to [learn to] cook?
  Anyone know of any good ideas online for cooking healthy & fit meals?  I'm tired of eating all this processed junk and want to make some fresh and real meals.  Maybe a culinary web site with food guides for workout-oriented people (weight loss, muscle toning, muscle building) or a forum of some sort???  How do you even go about learning to cook?  Girls learn from their mothers but guys..?   
Quote:Original post by SpintwoAnyone know of any good ideas online for cooking healthy & fit meals?  I'm tired of eating all this processed junk and want to make some fresh and real meals.  Maybe a culinary web site with food guides for workout-oriented people (weight loss, muscle toning, muscle building) or a forum of some sort???  How do you even go about learning to cook?  Girls learn from their mothers but guys..?But guys get married. [wink]I'd say just get a cookbook that looks like it has an intriguing dish or two.  You can kind of tell how healthy it's going to be by what it lists.  You can also try substituting healthier ingredients for less healthy ones.  Use ground turkey instead of ground beef, or use leaner ground beef (even if it doesn't taste quite right).As for eating healthier, I'd say most of the cliches are true.  Drink more water.  I seem to not be as hungry now that I drink more water, and I feel healthier and more awake.  Snack on fruits instead of junk food.  If you're working out, eggs and tuna are pretty good and fairly healthy ways to get protein.And, a lot of learning to cook is a lot like learning anything else: Repeated failure.  There's gonna be nights where you set off the smoke detectors and end up calling out for pizza.;  I learn from my mother and friends. French young men are usually as good as (if not better) girls when it comes to cooking, anyway. And everyone knows our cuisine is great.   ;  Here's an easy recipe to get you started (I picked this one up from a cooking class I took in high school)SALMON STEAKS WITH LEMON DILL SAUCE   4 Salmon steaks, 3/4 inch thick1 med. onion, sliced1 tsp. instant chicken bouillon1 tsp. dill weed1/2 tsp. salt1 c. water1 tbsp. lemon juiceLEMON DILL SAUCE:3 tbsp. flour1 (smallish) can evaporated milk1/2 tsp. salt1 tbsp. lemon juiceReserved poaching liquid3 tbsp. butter-------------------------------------------------------------------------------SALMON:Arrange salmon steaks in Frying pan. Top with onion, bouillon, seasonings, water and lemon juice. Bring pan to a boil and cover, reducing heat to medium. Leave covered (this allows it to steam) for 10 minutes or until fish breaks apart with a fork. Drain off poaching liquid; set aside. Let stand 5 minutes. Pour lemon dill sauce over fish to serve.LEMON DILL SAUCE:Melt butter into smaller pan, on medium heat. When butter is liquified, sprinkle flour over butter and stir (clockwise motion) with a fork. When this forms a pasty substance, slowly add in remaining liquid ingredients (and salt) while stirring. This should give you a thick, bubbling sauce.   ;  That's a pretty outdated vision of gender roles - these days many girls don't learn how to cook, and and some guys are taught to cook by their mothers.  In the middle school I went to Home Ec was a required class for both genders, so everyone learned how to do simple cooking like baking cookies.One problem you face is that healthy food is generally more difficult to cook than unhealthy food.  Anything you can buy premade and refrigerated or frozen or as a kit in a box is the easiest to cook, but they usually have lots of preservatives and of course the healthiest food, fresh vegtables, cannot be frozen or put in a box at all.  Also healthier food is generally more expensive than less healthy food.  But you could try broiling fish to start with, that's really easy and healthy and takes only 3 cooking objects: a glass baking pan, a flipper, and oven mits.  Rice is also extremely easy and can be healthy if you don't overload it with butter and salt and aren't on a low-carb diet.  So you could have fish and rice, and maybe a fresh fruit or vegtable with it, that would be a very easy healthy meal.   ;  Get yourself The I Don't Know How to Cook Book. It's got some fantastic recipes in it, and they're pretty much all ridiculously easy. Best of all, as you increase your confidence, you can modify most of the recipes to go from using prepackaged stuff to ingredients made from scratch.   ;Quote:Original post by sunandshadow...healthiest food, fresh vegtables, cannot be frozen or put in a box at all.Actually, for the most part, frozen vegtables are better than a lot of the stuff you by that is shipped 'fresh'. True, they can turn a little on the mushy side, but flash freezing is fairly good these days. Frozen foods are usually picked, ripe off the vine, where as stuff that is shipped to be 'fresh' are more often picked early because they last longer before starting to rot.However, there are still people that will harvest stuff early, and freeze it anyway.   ;  Mmmm, salmon recipe sounds tasty.When I need to cook I just use a cook book. My cooking isn't the best but it's passable.I met a mean French waiter once. He was mean.   ;Quote:Original post by TalrothQuote:Original post by sunandshadow...healthiest food, fresh vegtables, cannot be frozen or put in a box at all.Actually, for the most part, frozen vegtables are better than a lot of the stuff you by that is shipped 'fresh'. True, they can turn a little on the mushy side, but flash freezing is fairly good these days. Frozen foods are usually picked, ripe off the vine, where as stuff that is shipped to be 'fresh' are more often picked early because they last longer before starting to rot.However, there are still people that will harvest stuff early, and freeze it anyway.Personally the texture of frozen vegtables just makes me go ick, I like canned ones and fresh ones, but the only good frozen vegtables I've had are pureed ones like squash.  It may also be a regional difference - I find fresh vegtables at my local grocery stores to more often be overripe or moldy than unripe.  Fruits (including tomatoes) are often underripe though.   ;Quote:Original post by sunandshadowQuote:Original post by TalrothQuote:Original post by sunandshadow...healthiest food, fresh vegtables, cannot be frozen or put in a box at all.Actually, for the most part, frozen vegtables are better than a lot of the stuff you by that is shipped 'fresh'. True, they can turn a little on the mushy side, but flash freezing is fairly good these days. Frozen foods are usually picked, ripe off the vine, where as stuff that is shipped to be 'fresh' are more often picked early because they last longer before starting to rot.However, there are still people that will harvest stuff early, and freeze it anyway.Personally the texture of frozen vegtables just makes me go ick, I like canned ones and fresh ones, but the only good frozen vegtables I've had are pureed ones like squash.  It may also be a regional difference - I find fresh vegtables at my local grocery stores to more often be overripe or moldy than unripe.  Fruits (including tomatoes) are often underripe though.I advocate buying frozen vegetables because, if you are anything like me, you will buy the fresh vegetables and 'forget' to cook & eat them and by the time you get around to them they've gone bad.  Many times I have gone grocery shopping one day and actually planned for meals, then friends or family ask me to eat with them or I stay late at work or I really didn't feel like cooking.   