In the world we live in today, cooking from scratch isn’t as common as it used to be. Convenience foods fill the shelves at grocery stores, and there are fast-food chains on every corner of the street. Cooking from scratch means to cook a meal without using a prepared mixture of ingredients. It might sound overwhelming at first, but it provides quite a few benefits. Here are just a few top reasons to start cooking from scratch and ditch those pre-made foods:
More Affordable
Buying pre-made food, eating at a fast-food joint, or a nice restaurant all add up to quite a lot of money. Shopping the produce and meat aisles in the stores and buying from farmer’s markets will save you money over time. If you typically buy food during lunch at work, start by bringing leftovers from the night before, and you will quickly notice just how much money you could save.
Better Taste
Although it may seem like food from restaurants or fast food chains taste pretty good, the reality is that after the first few bites, it can quickly become dissatisfying. Nothing compares to the quality and flavor of food made from scratch. This is because of the quality of the ingredients. Restaurants, specifically fast-food chains, find ways to cut down expenses, and usually, that means lower quality ingredients.
Healthier
Most pre-made and packaged foods are loaded with fat, sugar, salt, and chemicals. Fat, sugar, and salt are cheap ways to make food taste good, and the chemicals allow the food to have a longer shelf life. When you cook food from scratch, you have control of what goes into your food. This means you are likely to make better choices by using less fat, salt, and sugar. Not only that, but you get to handpick the ingredients yourself, so you know the quality before you ingest the food.
To get the most out of these benefits, it’s best to pair homemade meals with proper preserving methods. You can make a lot of recipes go farther by adding them to the freezer in freezer-safe containers. Fruits and vegetables can be canned or pickled to prevent spoilage, thus saving you money over time. Make your fresh herbs last longer by hanging them up in an area with lots of sunlight but no humidity. This process is called drying and will save you money because you will no longer need to buy expensive dried herbs and seasonings from the store.
To Your Health,
Patti
