For a long time, I didn't feel like it was worth bothering to make a real meal just for me. Not to mention when I was married, my husband was the cook of the family. No one could cook as well as him! Even fine dining restaurants didn't make food taste as good as he could. There's certain foods (like mashed potatoes and cube steak) I don't even bother eating since they're never even close to as good as his.

I lived off boxed pasta and sauce if I made my own dinner and lots of takeout if I didn't for too long after he died. It's not that I didn't know how to cook . . . most of the time, it just didn't seem worth the effort. There's so many other things I could (or should) be doing with my time. Now, since I'm trying to eat healthier, the best way to do that while still eating delicious food is to cook myself. At first, cooking felt like a chore. Cutting up all those vegetables and having to stand over the stove!

The more I'm cooking it though, the more I'm enjoying it. I'm experimenting with mixing different ingredients together in new ways. I'm buying unusual things at the farmer's market or grocery store. Some have been good (like lemon cucumbers and orange honeydews), some just ok (sprite melon). I'm discovering that it IS worth the time to take care of me.