The Real Food Boot Camp

I've got a couple of friends (OK, more than a couple) who say they want to eat healthier but they
 A) don't know how to cook, B) don't know anything about food, C) don't have time to cook, and D) think they can't afford to eat better.  So I've been thinking about coming up with a (gentle) boot camp series of blog posts to see if I could help out even a little bit.

We all have to start somewhere when it comes to cooking.  I'm a big fan of the Couch to 5K running program which does exactly what it implies -- 9 weeks of baby steps to get anyone running a 5K.  Sometimes when you look at a cookbook, online recipes, magazine and newspaper articles, and TV reports about how we're all fat, lazy, and killing ourselves with processed food, it's easy to get overwhelmed and just go right back to that box of mac and cheese in the cupboard.  It's easy to say "I'll start tomorrow" to anything in life, but when it comes to your health let's face it -- there may not be a tomorrow for some people.  So why not change people's perceptions of cooking with real food through baby steps?

I don't want to throw around a whole ton of scientific articles and info about the nuts and bolts of nutrition.  My plan is a series of simple steps once, maybe twice a week to tip the scale from mostly convenience food to mostly fresh food.  I'm not any kind of expert.  I'm not a nutritionist, doctor, fitness expert, or chef.  I'm just a busy wife and mom who works full time and tries to keep her family healthy.

Would this help you?  Do you know anyone who might benefit from this?

Ready?  Go straight to Week 1 or see all RFBC posts so far.

Outline:
Pantry raid: the big box o' crap
     Convenience food out
     Fresh food in
     Recipes anyone can make
Knife skills
     Mise en place
Kitchen tools
Food storage
Convenience foods that won't kill you quite as fast
Reading labels
     Sugar
     Corn everywhere
     Sodium
     Fat
     Calories
Freezer staples
     Mirepoix
     Trinity
     Stock/Broth
     Cubes: egg whites, herbs, compound butter, tomato paste
     Beans
Pantry staples
     Pasta and grains
     Beans and legumes
     Oils and vinegars
     When canned veggies will do
     Condiments
Menu planning
     DIY
     Your "usuals"
     Planning snacks
     When all else fails, copy someone else
Soups and salads
     No sweat big batch cooking
Eating the rainbow
     Snacks too
Stepping outside of your culinary comfort zone
     Discovering new cuisines
     Discovering new flavors
     Vegetables you thought you didn't like
     Where the flavor at
     How to pair flavors
Budget foods
     Coupons
     Bulk bins
     Farmers markets and farmstands
     Ethnic markets - field trip time!
     Co-ops (really!)
     CSAs
     Gardening
Finding recipes
     The library
     The Internet
     The newspaper
     TV
     Winging it
Real vs. fake foods (the truth about butter)
Incorporating exercise
Feeding the entire family
     Baby food
     Kid food
     Lunches

Ready?  Go straight to Week 1 or see all RFBC posts so far.