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Benefits of Cooking and Eating at Home

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The Many Benefits of Homemade Food and the Benefits and Advantages of Cooking at Home.  There are so many wonderful benefits to preparing homecooked meals, from better health to easier weight management. Find out what some of our top benefits are from cooking at home with your family.
top 10 benefits of cooking and eating at home

Benefits of Cooking and Eating at Home and Benefits of Cooking at Home vs Eating Out

We have always been huge advocates of cooking and eating at home!  So here are 10 of our top benefits for getting out those pans, firing up that oven, and doing some healthy cooking!
Benefits of cooking at home vs eating out – eating out is expensive and the food quality can be much less because you will not typically have organic foods or produce that has not been raised with chemicals. We are learning much more about beef and chicken and the hormones that have been added to increase production.  Animals are typically fed foods that are grown with and have absorbed pesticides.  Salt is also a big factor in our health and restaurants tend to use a tremendous amount of fat and salts to enhance their foods.

1. Cooking at home is one of the most important things you can do for you and your family’s health.

Cooking at home is so much healthier because you can serve more nutrient-dense foods. A typical fast food meal does not contain the proper nutrients to keep a family healthy and fit. Restaurant meals can just as bad for you as fast foods, with the same amount of calories, salt and fats. When you cook at home, you can use up ingredients that might otherwise go to waste. This can help reduce your environmental impact and save you money in the process.
You can buy more organic foods and produce. This is a big one in the food industry and one to pay attention to if you want to improve the health of  your family. Organic foods are so important because much of our food is now Bio Engineered and contains an array of pesticides.  Look on your food labels for “This Food Contains Bio Engineered Ingredients” much of the food supply is now grown with Roundup or Roundup like products.

2. You control portion sizes, which helps control the size of your family!

cooking at home helps with portion sizes

We are all starting to be more aware that portion sizes have gotten out of control and so have our waistlines. By learning proper portion control, we can start to control the amount of food that we serve and eat. When you cook at home, you can control the amount of food you make, which can help with portion control and weight management.
When serving carbs like pasta and rice, use a measuring cup until you learn the correct portion sizes. 1 cup of pasta and 1/2 cup of rice.

3. Kids love routine and rituals. Dinner hour would be considered both.

Kid thrive on routine and quite honestly, so do many adults. Life can be uncertain at times and dinner hour can provide a much needed sense of stability.
Cooking at home provides a chance to set a time for dinner and stick with it. The dinner bell doesn’t have to ring right at 5:00 though, dinner can be later in the evening when schedules are hectic.

4. You control the salt, fat, and sugar that goes into your foods.

This is one of our favorite pitches for cooking at home!  You control all that fats, salt and sugar that is loaded into fast foods.   When you cook at home, you have control over the ingredients you use, which means you can choose healthier options like fresh produce, whole grains, and lean proteins that contain no additional additives. Just healthy fresh foods.

Now with the importance of organic foods vs. traditional foods, you can control which organic foods comes into your house.

5. You save tons of money!

Families can spend close to or more than $400.00 a month eating out or with Door Dash. That’s a lot of extra money for most families.  When you start shopping with a grocery list and a plan, and start eating more at home, you will be amazed at the amount of money you will save. Cooking at home is much cheaper than eating out. You can buy ingredients in bulk and make meals that can be stretched over several days, which can save you a lot of money in the long run.

6. Families that eat at home eat more vegetables.

We also love this one! Families that eat at home together prepare more home-cooked vegetable dishes and eat more vegetables.  It’s easy to plan more healthy vegetables into our meals when we spend time going over our weekly menu.  And who doesn’t love finding a new recipe for veggies cooked a different way?  Why Minestrone Soup Is so Good For You and Healthy

7. Families that eat meals together get more bonding time.

Families Cooking at home

It is true that children that have home-cooked meals together are a little closer to their parents. Bonding time over meals is very powerful, and this is also a good chance to fill your kids (and parents) with wisdom gained from the other folks at the table.

8. Spend time cooking with the kids.

Cooking with kids can be a lot of fun! Children that learn to cook young have an advantage over those that do not. Learning how to cook is one of the life skills that is necessary to learn in order to have a healthy life.  Cooking with Kids

9. You know where your food came from and how it was raised.

Well, we certainly have learned a lot in this decade about how our food is being prepared and raised. There are many questionable practices that we have just recently become aware of. When you shop for your own food, you have a chance to read all the food labels and become more aware of what is in the food.

10. Cooking at home will make you a much better cook!

Every time you cook at home you get just a little closer to Julia Child! If you strive to make cooking fun, you will find that you really don’t mind pulling out those pots and pans and you will become a much better cook.

eat at home

Conclusion – It really is healthy to cook and eat at home, but sometimes it’s just not possible. Remember – cook extra and freeze some for those times you don’t have time to cook, instead of ordering out.  Finding time can be a challenge, but hopefully here at DinnerPlanner.com we can provide some much needed help.

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