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Making meals from scratch is an easy way to slow down and really enjoy a simple way of living. It takes time to gather ingredients, make the meal and usually to preserve the leftovers in some way. We cook from scratch because we enjoy it, we like eating healthy meals most of the time and we try to gather, grow, catch or make our own food. Cooking from scratch allows for that and gives us such a sense of pride when we see our dinners on the table. There really are 4 reasons to cook from scratch in our minds.

1. Cost

Have you gone out to eat lately?! When Jorge and I go out, we usually have a cocktail and appetizer with our meal and our bill tends to sneak up pretty high. We don’t go out often, but when we do it is nice to splurge a little. If we went out regularly, I’m sure we wouldn’t splurge, but it is still pricey to eat out several times a week. I spend about $125 on groceries a week that will make dinners for our entire family (Jorge, myself and Jax & Tito) We save a lot of money by not going out and we also buy proteins in bulk from local butchers and sales to keep our freezer stocked and ready for upcoming meals. The dogs eat ground turkey and scrambled eggs. Our chickens help us to save there as well! There are a lot of ways to save money on eating at home, while still eating healthy meals that are delicious. We’ll come back to that in a future blog post.

2. Health

Making meals from scratch is a great way to know what you are eating. You can control what you are eating and how much of it you eat too. Depending on your diet, or types of food you like to eat, you can make just what you like. We prefer a protein with lots of veggies for dinner and sometimes a starch or pasta to go along with it. We both enjoy being able to go out to the garden to pick fresh produce, or even pull fish from the freezer that we caught ourselves. Not only are we eating healthy, but often times we have a hand in the ingredients as well. When you are out to eat, ordering from what looks good or what is most convenient often over rules the healthiest choice. Temptations are easy to give in to and it is easier to be healthy when you aren’t eating out regularly.

3. Mental Health

Whether it is pride in providing dinner for our family, a sense of accomplishment when it tastes good or even just the fact that you did that, it is a great mental boost. Pride, accomplishments and enjoyment in the taste of a meal all provide happy stomachs and happy minds! Feeling good about what you are doing makes it much more enjoyable. I often get a bit stressed, or overwhelmed, when I have a lot to do in a day. When I prepare a meal ahead of time and have it ready to just cook at the end of day reduces my stress levels by leaps and bounds. I plan the week’s meals out ahead of time so it is one less thing to worry about as well. This is a very simple practice to start. Just sit down and think about the foods you have ready to prepare and choose one for five or six nights of the week. I prefer to have chicken or a salad on Mondays, Mexican on Tuesdays, fish or seafood on Wednesdays, red meat on Thursdays, pasta on Fridays, leftovers on Saturdays and Pizza on Sundays. Sometimes the plan changes depending on our schedule, but this routine helps to make planning easier and one less thing to add to my to-do list!

4. Time

While it does take time to plan, prepare and serve meals at home, it is quality time that helps you to slow down a little. It is time spent on yourself, and your family. It is time that is not spent sitting in traffic, at a loud crowded restaurant or time spent waiting in the drive thru lane at a fast food place. In our home we take time to go over menus before we start the week, we prepare meals in advance so they are easy to prepare at meal time and we take time to eat together. All of this time makes the meal more enjoyable, and taste even better. It is quality time well spent on our meal and cooking from scratch.

As you can see, making your meals from scratch is not difficult and is often overthought. Spend a little less time talking yourself out of it and getting yourself healthy at a lower cost. Our 4 reasons to cook from scratch have made our lives easier, less expensive and over all happier people. We enjoy taking the time to fuel ourselves with meals we prepared and thought about. It makes us happy, accomplished and feel that it is time well spent for our family.

We look forward to hearing your thoughts about cooking from scratch! Leave a comment below or reach out on one of our social media channels. As always, thank you for reading. We love having you on this journey with us! Simply, Beth