Should You Cook at Home? Benefits of Cooking At Home

Eating out at restaurants or ordering food from your favourite eateries is fun. But have you ever wondered how it is affecting your health and how heavy it is on your pocket? When home cooking can solve both these issues, most millennials quiver at the thought of preparing their meals.

The major excuse people give for not cooking at home is the lack of time. Indeed, you might not always find the time or energy to cook after work. But you can always plan your meals in advance and reheat them in the microwave when you want.

And if your excuse for not cooking is that you are not good at it, that can be changed easily. Remember, even the celebrity chefs once probably could not tell apart sugar from salt. There are plenty of recipe videos available on YouTube to learn. Give yourself some time, and you might become the next Gordon Ramsay.

Moreover, if you feel ordering food is more convenient than preparing it at home, reconsider before your empty wallet and health issues force you to question your life choices.

How to start cooking at home

It is not that difficult to start cooking at home. You just need to stop coming up with excuses and get on with it. If time is an issue for you, check out the 15-minute recipe videos on YouTube. There are plenty of them to try out every day. If you are still not confident enough to make your own meals, consider hiring a cook. It costs less than eating out every day.

Why should you cook at home?

Preparing your food at home has multiple benefits, seven of them are mentioned below:

1. It saves money and time

Restaurants not only charge you for the food but also for their operational expenses like electricity, staff wages, rent, and others. So, when you compare the costs of ordering from restaurants and groceries, home food will be much less expensive. It is also time-saving as you do not have to visit an eatery and wait for your order every time you are hungry.

2. It is fun

Experienced psychologists suggest that cooking is a therapeutic activity as it relaxes your mind. So, it can be a lot of fun to cook at home. Try it out today and let the aroma of different delicacies magically reduce stress.

3. It is hygienic and safe

There is a reason the restaurants do not allow you to enter their kitchen—they cannot let you see what and how they are cooking. You do not have any control over food hygiene and safety when eating out. That is where home-cooked meals have the advantage. When you buy the ingredients and prepare the food yourself, you have complete control over cleanliness and safety.

4. You eat good-quality food

Most restaurants do not use quality ingredients for food preparations, not even the expensive places. You do not want to eat substandard food every day and fall sick! So, it is advisable to visit the market to buy fresh products and use them to prepare your favourite meals at home.

5. You can experiment with taste

A great thing about homemade cooking is that it leaves room for experiments. You can try out different cuisines, seasonings, and ingredients to discover what you like. With restaurant food, you need to choose from the limited options and settle for what they offer. But preparing meals at home allows you to develop taste and skills to get better at it.

6. You can avoid overeating

People often end up overeating at restaurants to avoid wasting food and money. When you are preparing the meal at home, you can make only how much you can eat. Even if there are leftovers, you may store them for later. This way, you can avoid overeating and save money.

7. Reduced consumption of processed food

One of the biggest disadvantages of eating out is that restaurants mainly serve you processed food with high sugar and salt content. Consumption of such food may lead to obesity, diabetes, heart ailments, and other conditions. When you prepare lunch and dinner at home, you may rest assured of consuming unprocessed, organic food. So, we can say that home-cooking enhances your health and wellness.

How cooking at home is cheaper than eating out

If you are not convinced that home-cooked meals are inexpensive, let us look at some numbers to get a clear picture. In most Indian cities, a kilogram of lentils and good-quality rice costs about ₹100 each. So, you can get all the nutrition you need in a week for ₹200. Even if you consider spices and other ingredients, the total weekly cost should not be more than ₹300.

This means you can make your daily lunch for around ₹40. The same meal can cost you up to ₹100 even at a reasonably priced eatery. Why would you pay almost 200% more for the food that you can make at home easily? This same logic applies to fancy foods as well, which cost almost double in restaurants compared to at home.

How to save money on food

Although home-cooked food is inexpensive, it is not the only way to save money on meals. Check out the below tips:

• Hire a cook: If you are certain that you do not want to prepare food, hiring a cook is a great option. It will cost you less than what you would spend eating out every day. Moreover, if you have a flat mate, it will be quite easy on your pocket.
• Overcome food FOMO: The Fear of Missing Out (FOMO) on outside food is an expensive habit. And, considering the wide range of restaurants, you cannot keep up with the new offerings all the time anyway. So, overcome your FOMO because it does not help your wallet.
• Take restaurant leftovers home: There is no shame in asking the attendant to pack your leftover food at restaurants. When you pay for the food, it is your right to take it home. After all, the next day’s lunch is sorted.
• Compare prices on different apps: If you need to order from outside, it is always advisable to compare the price of what you wish to order on different delivery apps. They offer a variety of discounts on the same eateries. So, explore offers and find the cheapest option to save money.

Eating healthy homemade food is always a great choice. It helps you save significantly and ensures that you eat what is good for you. And when you are not eating out every day, you will enjoy a lot when you visit restaurants occasionally.