Until recently I’ve regarded the microwave as a saviour of modern life. I’ve felt that if it couldn’t be microwaved, it probably isn’t worth my while cooking it.
A microwave offers much convenience: stick a meal in, 2 or 3 minutes -enough to boil a kettle for a complimentary cup of tea- and *ping*, your meal is ready to eat.
Recently though, I moved into a new little flat and if going by the above, one of the first things on my shopping list should be a microwave. However, having lately been reading about good nutrition, the thought of buying a microwave somehow seems almost sacrilegious -if you’ll excuse the hyperbole.
You get out what you put in
A microwave is very convenient but perhaps now is a good time to draw in a general rule of life -‘you get out what you put in’. If the sum of your culinary efforts is to pop a tin of something in a box, press a couple of buttons and wait but a couple of minutes -then you might want to question what you’re getting out of so little effort?
It’s not really so much the microwave itself I have the issue with though, it’s more what I’d put in them. For the most part, most of what gets put into a microwave (that hasn’t received more than a few minutes of your own preparation) is not likely to be too great. The classic ‘ready meal’ is a good example of why I’ve not rushed out to get a microwave -they’re often stuffed with sugars, a poor choice of fats, salt and a host of preservatives.
Good old fashioned cooking
Thanks to my new found reluctance to consider buying a microwave I’ve been forced to cook food the ‘good old fashioned way’. So now, I’m spending more time cooking but I’m having much fresher food, that’s better for me and my diabetic sugar levels, and I’m opening myself up to a far richer selection of meal choices.
Also, it’s worthwhile considering the extra sense of self-satisfaction that ‘proper’ cooking provides. So far I’m finding that the very activity involved in cooking, and the accompanying extra washing and clearing up, has so far proved to provide me with more energy and a clearer state of mind through the evening.
So, it seems that by restricting myself to not using a microwave, I’m offering myself a lot more freedom in terms of my food choice as well as allowing myself a greater sense of freedom of mind.
