I love my Sunday's when I can watch Create on PBS. Public Television's cooking shows are fantastically well done, complete with a wide variety of outstanding chefs. Lots of inspiring foodies coming up with exciting and doable dinner concoctions keeps my short attention span. I get a feeling of excitement when expanding my repertoire of meals to make for family and friends. Inspiration to meal plan the upcoming week is an added bonus.

This was not the case when opting for a little variety. I recently wasted an entire morning with Food Network offensively spewing non-desirable options for cooking and entertaining. I have never been so appalled at such ludicrous ideas and statements in my entire life. The silly, bogus menus and hosts who clearly didn't imagine the entrees, let alone actually cook them, bordered on offensive. Clearly Food Network has taken their cue from the Kardashians, Housewives of New York and other off-the-wall people who don't have real lives. These are people who pretend to go through the motions of actual humans for the shock factor. Are we really supposed to watch and believe that these are authentic people who have real cooking skills, creating meals which are planned, shopped for and carried out on a somewhat consistent basis? After one hour it was obvious that Food Network "hosts" had no clue of how to plan meals and prepare them for people who actually exist. There was no inspiration or knowledge to pass along. It is unlikely anyone walks away from an episode on Food Network believing for a millisecond that these hosts are doing stuff that we, as real people, could actually accomplish as well.

I'm happy to say that I have never watched the Kardashians. Heck, I never watched an episode of Housewives either. I'm a busy wife and mom. I work. I cook. I clean. I shop for the meals that I attempt to plan in advance. This means I'm away from home the majority of hours we all have in any given day. I'm away from a television, and even a screen most of the time. It's unlikely that many moms have time to watch much television in the first place. If I'm going to take the time to schedule television into my busy life, to sit and watch something (while folding laundry, dusting or making dinner that is), it had better be worth my time. The Food Network is NOT worth my time. Here are a few reasons why:

Trisha Yearwood is a bit of a fraud

I allowed Trisha to invade my living room on a rainy Sunday while I cooked, cleaned and planned out my week. This particular episode, titled "Boxed Lunch," revolved around Trisha making lunch for her husband Garth Brooks. Trisha's menu for Garth's lunch included:

Turkey Meatloaf Sandwich
Coleslaw
Man's Oatmeal Cookies
Pineapple Sweet Tea



First, everyone knows meatloaf sandwiches are a leftover item. You don't make a meatloaf, with all that work, just so you can cut it up and place it between two pieces of sliced bread. You make meatloaf for dinner and the leftovers become a sandwich later in the week.

Second, Trisha and her producers have no idea of time management. You don't cook a meatloaf, make a sandwich and then brew tea and chill ice cubes with pineapple in it. The pineapple ice cubes are going to take at least 10 hours to freeze before you can place them in the tea. Hello producers!!! At least make it look like Trisha really made this lunch the same day she brought it out to poor Garth who was slaving away on a tractor in some lonely field.

Finally, while I love the idea of bringing my husband a lunch when he's taking time out of his busy life to help around the house and surrounding yard, this was not the case where Garth was concerned. He did not work 40 hours on this particular week, only to get on his tractor during his day off to plow the field. Trisha alluded to the fact that Garth wasn't doing much at all. He was just hanging out somewhere with his dog. So while hubby is out participating in his hobby of doing very little, Trisha spent an entire morning slaving to make and bring a lunch that her husband hardly worked for or deserved. It's insulting for those of us who work hard and want to do something nice for our husbands but are so darned tired we wouldn't even consider slaving away for a homemade lunch for a husband who wasn't working equally as hard.