Ingredients

People define “cooking” depending on their view of what it should constitute.  I follow the mental notion that taking premade products from the grocery store and heating them up isn’t cooking.  It’s simply completing the process provided by another.  There isn’t anything wrong with this.  I just don’t connect it with my definition of cooking.  As such, there aren't very many fully assembled freezer meals at my house.  My fridge and freezer are full, but they are loaded with individual items.  This isn’t to say you won’t find prepackaged granola bars or fruit snacks in the cupboard for my kids, but as a rule, my kitchen is void of most preassembled products.  Call it frugal, controlling, or healthier, but it’s the route I take with most food in my household.

This must not be the state of all kitchens, because I heard my daughter talking about how we are an ingredient house.  I had stumbled upon the conversation so I thought maybe I misunderstood what she was saying.  I asked for clarification, and she said, “At some houses I find food already made. For instance, they might have a package of chocolate chip cookies.  At our house you would find floor, sugar, and chocolate chips.  It’s a great thing, because you can decide to make the cookies yourself or in my case, you just eat the chocolate chips.  That’s why I say we are an ingredient house.” 

What an interesting observation.  Some people might find the inconvenience of having to make your own cookies a burden.  Instead, she focused on the advantages that come with having freedom to pick whatever ingredients are available.  I probed a bit more and asked what she thought about already assembled products.  In that conversation she commented on how the ease and speed provided benefits.  Both scenarios prompted a response that was positive and embracing of the upsides of each.

In our personal lives, perhaps we could view our world as having both ingredient and assembled houses.  Sometimes we need to look for the ingredients that will make the recipe successful.  Other times we can decide to embrace the whole package.  Maybe there are relationships, projects, or work that would benefit from an ingredient approach where we find the assets that are helpful.  Focusing on the positive ingredients can make processes more rewarding, just like the chocolate chips my daughter mentioned.  In other cases, we might be able to embrace the whole totality, knowing that doing so provides its own benefits of fullness, efficiency, and convenience.

There is more than one way to get a cookie into a kitchen.  Bake it with individual ingredients or buy it premade.  Either way, the reward is enjoying the dessert.

Changepoints:

Think of the ways in which you or those around you get a meal to the table:

·        What are the upsides of cooking a meal from scratch?  What are the upsides of buying a meal already prepared?  How does this mindset transfer to other areas of your life?

·        What are the downsides of only valuing ingredient-based cooking or only purchasing premade meals?  What areas of your life have this narrow-view and how can you shift the thinking?

·        Who are the people around you who tend to be flexible in accepting the various ways that the world can present itself?

·        How do the thoughts tied to meal prep translate to other areas in your life where you can decide to take an ingredient approach in some facets and a whole package approach in other facets?

o   How might you experience more satisfaction or relief and less frustration or discouragement if you avoided using a singular approach in your relationships or projects?

o   How can you embrace this model with your own views regarding yourself and self-acceptance? 

The act of live is much like getting dinner to our mouths – there are many ways to get the job done.

outSIGHTin, LLC: Creating awareness as a changepoint for improved organizational results.