Home Cooking Vs. Eating Out: The Great Health (and Money) Debate – Awesome Chef

We all know home cooking scores over eating out in terms of health as well as cost and time savings, but what then stops most (or at least a major chunk) of us from cooking our own meals regularly? Well, let’s look at both sides of the coin.  

The Upside of Home Cooking Your Own Meals 

1. You know exactly what you are putting into your mouth:
   • Foods purchased from restaurants, fast food café’s or supermarkets hardly ever disclose all of their ingredients, fat, calories, or additives put into your meal.
   • While some of your favorite restaurants may choose to disclose some allergens, very few of them disclose any key nutrition information in order to help you make healthier meal choices.
   • Cooking at home gives you the freedom to choose recipes, ingredients, and their proportions.
2. You tend to make healthier choices:
   • Have you ever noticed the meal size at most restaurants? Portions served are generally on the higher side, leading to higher chances of heart disease, high-cholesterol, and obesity.
   • When you eat at home instead, you can dictate the portion and can be rest assured of the quality of the food your family and you consume.
   • Similarly the amount of calories you could consume by eating at a restaurant can be overwhelming. But by including whole grains, lean proteins, and plenty of fresh vegetables in home cooked meals, your life could be much healthier. This is especially true for children as healthy eating habits when started early, last a lifetime, giving them a better chance at a healthier, happier adulthood.
3.  You save precious wallet share:
   • By ditching high-calorie meals at your favorite restaurants, not only will you be able to improve your health, but also your finances! Opting for healthy meals at the comfort of your home can definitely cut your food budget significantly.When you believe that a satisfying and healthy meal can be prepared for less than half the amount that you would have paid at a restaurant, would you still want to run through a drive-thru for double the cost?
   • High-calorie or high-fat foods do not offer the mental or physical energy that your family and you need to thrive on. Try this for a change, skip eating out for 2 weeks and put all the money you saved into a piggy bank or jar for a movie screening, a joy ride, or get a present for your loved one.
4. You can bond better with family and friends over home-cooked meals:
   • Eating out can rarely be an intimate affair – given the music, presence of fellow guests, and other circumstances that can keep you from truly enjoying the company of fellow diners. Instead of eating out, spending a fortune, and consuming countless more calories, consider having an intimate get-together with your family and friends, over a home-cooked sumptuous meal. What’s more – you can catch a movie or listen to your favorite podcast while you eat!
   • Engage your guests or invitees in the procedure; make it a potluck party, or slot in everyone in a task or chore in the kitchen. Make the kitchen the core of your home where food, friendship, and family are celebrated. The meal will stimulate companionship, creativity, camaraderie, and healthy eating practices.
5. You can ward off temptations:
   • If you are planning to go on a diet, eating at home can help you a long way in staying faithful to your diet plans.When you are eating out, you will definitely be exposed to greater temptation and be lured to eat tasty but totally unwholesome and unhealthy food. Not to mention that you may forget about your dietary limitations and boundaries if you are eating out with your family and friends.
   • Of course it is quite possible to triumph over these temptations, but it is still a better and easy option to stay away from such tricky situations completely.

The Downside of Home Cooking

1. Wastage
   Most of us are not aware of the exact proportions we require for recipes and at times, buying the full packet for things like spices and toppings is the only choice in supermarkets – making it a wastage-prone and costly affair to cook at home.
2. Hunting for the right ingredients
   While most everyday recipes require standard ingredients, if you were to cook an exotic meal like a chef, you’d need extensive time and effort hunting for the right ingredients. Even then, the quality is a gamble.
3. Home cooking takes time and practice
   Ever heard that all good things take time to build? Same is the case with good food, but that shouldn’t deter you from indulging as today there is no dearth of options – for instance, cooking apps and recipe builders for beginners as well as experts in the kitchen! 

Fret not, there’s help at hand!

With services like Awesome Chef, you can order ready-to-cook meal kits to make your home cooking easier, smarter, and extremely cost-effective! The best part – you get to choose from a wide range of exotic recipes suited for every mood and palate and all of these come with easy-to-understand step-by-step instructions, so even if you are a beginner, the output is guaranteed to be lip-smacking delicious! The time to enjoy restaurant-like gourmet meals in the comfort of your home is now!