Fast food served in throwaway packaging, working moms who just don't have the time their grandmothers did, prepackaged meals from Boston Market or Wolfgang Puck, all these are modern phenomena which were unheard of just a couple of generations ago.

While I suspect that the "demise of cooking" may be an overstatement, there is no doubt that far fewer families enjoy a home cooked dinner six or seven nights a week than they did a few decades ago. The pressures of a society in which almost two-thirds of moms hold a full time job have made this change almost inevitable. But that's not the only culprit. Girls in school used to be expected to take Home Economics courses which taught them to cook (as well as many other household duties), but since the advent of "Women's Lib", such academic pursuits have fallen out of favor. And if the female members of the Baby Boomer generation haven't learned to cook, what hope is there for their daughters?

Fortunately, there is a flip side. The popularity of Rachel Ray's "30 Minute Meals" program, and the sales of her books and others like them attest to the fact that moms and others are not disinterested in cooking, just frustrated that they don't know how they can accomplish the difficult task of preparing a meal for the family in the short period of time afforded them by their busy lifestyle.

A lot of the secret of Ms Ray's 30 minute cooking schedule lies in the choices of what to fix. Rice and pasta are at the center of many of her menus, simply because they can be prepared in about 20 minutes, package to plate. Using store-bought products like jarred spaghetti sauce may have been anathema to your grandmother, but are quite acceptable to all but the most diehard traditionalists today.

Fast food has had a profound effect on American's eating habits. A quick trip through the drive-in lane at Micky D's or the Colonel's and your dinner problem is solved. But every solution brings a new problem, and fast foods are cited by many nutritionists as a root cause of an unhealthy shift toward obesity and concomitant problems. A serving of fries and a cheeseburger adds up to over 1,000 calories, and that is fully a half to two-thirds the daily suggested limit for many people. Premature death resulting from heart disease, stroke, diabetes, fatty liver disease or cancer are just some of risks involved with becoming obese.

Some have blamed the microwave oven for much of the current state of affairs, saying that it makes it far too easy to just grab a frozen dinner out of the freezer, pop it in the microwave, and start eating a few minutes later. I disagree. While there is no doubt that the prepackaged meal is "nuked" nightly in a great many households, the microwave oven is a boon to genuine cooks as well. Why bake a potato in a conventional oven at 400f for nearly an hour when you can nuke it in under four minutes? That is not only easier on the cook, it is easier on the planet as well, since the energy requirement is far less than that of the electric oven.

Make ahead meals offer a solution to the time restraint problem. You can assemble, cook, pack and freeze many dishes which can later be taken out of the freezer, popped into the microwave, the oven, or a pot on the stovetop and be ready to eat in minutes, and you don't have to slave away in the kitchen for practically the whole day every Saturday or Sunday to prepare them.

So you can't have homecooked Southern fried chicken done ahead, that just won't work. But you can make lots of sauces and stews, both of the meaty and the veggy varieties, in advance and reheat them to serve over pasta or rice or even a baked potato, fresh from the microwave. Heck, you don't even need to spend the limited time these starch elements require - just make a quick stop at the supermarket and get a nice loaf of Ciubatta bread, cut it in half horizontally, and fill the cavity with beef, lamb or chicken stew, open a bag of salad mix and a bottle of your favorite table wine, and you're good to go in less than half an hour. Top that off with a palate-cleansing lemon gellato you also picked up at the WinnDixie and it's practically a gourmet dining experience.

Family participation can be a big and a satisfying part of meal preparation. What could be better than having your kids as sous chefs? They can do lots of the prep work, they will enjoy taking part and the feeling of involvement in a family activity.

So don't be afraid to plan and prepare a hearty and healthy meal the whole family will enjoy. Careful planning will allow you to get the job done in a jiffy, and with results that will put smiles on the faces of all the beneficiaries of your labor of love.

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