Like fixing my sleep schedule (which is going really well, actually!), cooking on a daily basis is another important habit that I'm trying to ingrain in myself before orientation begins. In college, I didn't do much cooking at all and ate a lot of unhealthy junk from fast food places. It's not that I didn't like healthier food, but I had a lot of classwork and a massively screwed-up sleep schedule that stressed me out and didn't put me in the right mindset to start teaching myself more about cooking. I had really good intentions; I even got a CSA box every week. But school-related activities and my unfamiliarity with how to prepare the stuff I got just led to me feeling guilty when I opened the door to get milk and saw the sad, neglected kohlrabi sitting there.*
I didn't learn to cook growing up, unless you think shoving a slice of cheese between two pieces of toast and calling in "grilled cheese" counts as cooking, which I don't. (It's still good, though.) I could do very basic stuff— follow directions on boxes, scramble eggs, that sort of thing—but I never really got into proper cooking until I was out of college and living with seventeen roommates.
As a member of the co-op, I had to take on five hours (or "lumps" as they were called, since the time for each task could vary a bit) of chores/responsibilities. In the year I was living there, I did dish-washing, bathroom-cleaning, floor-mopping, newsletter-editing, and cooking. Every day, there were two people assigned to cook, a two-lump head chef, and a one-lump cook who basically just chopped stuff. I one-lumped a few nights a week with some of the more experienced co-opers, and I began to get a lot more comfortable with all aspects of cooking, from basic prep to the more creative aspects of putting together a meal.
After living at the co-op, cooking seemed a lot less daunting, but it's still not a daily habit. In law school, I don't expect I'm going to be making myself three home-cooked meals a day, but I'd like to try to make my lunch most days. I got this awesome lunch jar so I can bring stuff that will stay hot or cold. In these last several weeks leading up to orientation, my goal is to cook at least one meal per day that I'm at home. That way, by the time that law school really gets going, I won't have to attempt to work in a new routine on top of all the other stress I'll be under.
On that note, I'm off to make lunch.
*I'm still not entirely sure I know what to do with kohlrabi.
links of interest:
Just Bento - a good resource for packed lunch recipes.
The Cooking Adventures of a Tired Law Student - a recent law grad's cooking blog.
Cooking for Geeks - really fascinating if you're interested in the science behind cooking.
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