I don't know about peer pressure. Maybe these days, yes, but then I never was one to cave in
I got along with every "class" (or clique, if you will) in high school. I wasn't a cheerleader but I got along with them. I didn't enjoy sports but I got along with the guys on the teams. I wasn't a geek or a nerd but I got along with them. I wasn't one to leave campus to go smoke weed but I got along with them. When people made fun of me for being a bit studious, because grades were important to me, I basically backed them down. I sure didn't let them tell me what was cool or not cool to eat!
Ah, but that was years ago. I didn't let them tell me how I should dress or that I had to wear name-brand clothes, either!
There's really not a "wrong" way to cook. But (for example) I despise canned cream of mushroom soup. Were I to use canned mushroom soup to make a gravy I'd use golden mushroom. I don't like instant mashed potatoes. I don't like canned vegetables or fresh ones cooked to death (but neither do I want them so "tender-crisp" they may as well be raw).
I've mentioned my mom was all about frozen and prepared foods when they came around. So one Thanksgiving when I visited them I roasted cornish game hens for us, made real mashed potatoes, steamed some fresh broccoli. I'm not sure why I didn't make cornbread dressing; probably because there was just the three of us for dinner and despite the fact that when I cook for just myself, my elderly parents wouldn't have stored them in the freezer to eat later. I am not a baker so I did heat up some frozen dinner rolls. This is the kind of really no-fuss meal they'd been missing all those years.
Another time I went to the store and I got some lovely veal cutlets (sorry if you're morally opposed to veal), half cream, a block of Parmesan cheese. I made veal piccata and fettucini with a nice creamy/Parmesan sauce (aka Alfredo). I can't recall the vegetable. Dad was ecstatic... Mom stopped cooking like that back in the 1960s!
Fraidy