Why Home-Cooked Meals Beat Readymades

Everyone has busy lives and responsibilities.

Most people do not prioritise cooking from scratch, making eating out or buying ready-made meals a highly preferred option.

While this may seem easier, these habits and lifestyles can bad not only your health (but also your finances).

Since the pandemic started in 2020 many health-conscious people shifted to home-cooked meals over eating out and ordering takeout.

5 reasons to start making more home-cooked meals

1. Cooking is better for your health

Some studies suggest that people who cook more often, rather than get take-out, have an overall healthier diet.

This makes sense – many restaurant meals typically contain higher amounts of sodium, trans fats, and overall calories than home-cooked meals.

When you put fresh ingredients together yourself, you have total control over what is going in your food.

Restaurants are more concerned with the taste of the food than nutrition. They want you to keep coming back, so they make the food taste good, even addictive on purpose (think McDonald’s).

Often this means they use unhealthy cooking methods like frying and deep frying their food, which can increase fat levels within your body.

With home-cooked meals, you have full control over your food’s ingredients and nutritional values.

2. Cooking is quicker than most think

People who don’t cook, think that cooking is time-consuming.

But most meals take about 30min to prepare if you have the ingredients. That’s about the same time as sitting in front of Deliveroo deciding what to have and waiting for the food to arrive.

With the availability of technology and cooking gadgets, you don’t have to spend hours in the kitchen preparing a meal.

Most of these kitchen gadgets, like these handy food processors by Kenwood, cut meal preparation time and effort by almost half.

They make life in the kitchen easier and more enjoyable.

Too busy to cook at home? Read more about ways to eat healthier when you don’t have much time.

3. Cooking is a fun and social activity

Cooking together can offer you an opportunity to reconnect with your partner and loved ones.

Cooking can be fun and social. You can even do it with kids.

If cooking from scratch is new to you, there are plenty of free recipes online. Some of them also include videos.

4. Cooking saves you money

With the cost of living crisis, restaurant owners are increasing the prices for meals, so eating out is becoming even more expensive.

I love eating at home because I can control portion size, and eat until I’m satisfied. Restaurants often offer smaller portions, so you’ll order more.

In the long run, preparing meals at home will save you money.

5. It’s easier to watch your calories

If you are on a special diet or want to lose weight, it’s best to learn how to cook for yourself.

The average fast food order ranges between 1,100 to 1,200 calories total, that’s more than half of the recommended daily calorie intake (around 2000 kcal for women, and 2500 kcal for men).

Making a meal yourself means you can make sure the portion sizes and calorie counts are where you want them to be.

Recipes often come with nutritional information and serving size suggestions, which makes that even easier.

Final advice

Most of us are juggling work, school, and our personal lives. This means that there are very few hours in the day left for cooking. This makes cooking sound like a daunting task.

But when you consider the benefits of home-cooked meals, it is well worth your time and effort.