6 Reasons Why You Should Do It Yourself in the Kitchen

*EDIT* I just would like to let you all know that I originally wrote a reference to hormones in chicken that was made in error. I meant to write “beef” in its place. I have since updated this post to reflect that. I apologize for any confusion.

I hear the question all the time:

Why should I make something from scratch when I could just buy it?

I believe that today we rely too much on premade mixes. Recently, I saw a ready-made crockpot meal. You just open up the container, toss it into a crock pot, add water. Seriously though, how much convenience is enough? Crock pots are designed to be a set-and-forget utensil. Do we really need something that convenient?

pizza, frozen dinners, beer by iboy_daniel of Flickr

Let me break it down for you. Here are 6 reasons why it is better to do it yourself than purchase ready made:

1. You know exactly what you are putting into your food. Seriously. That is power! Are you deathly afraid of trans fats? Then leave them out and cook or bake with butter. Are you worried about hormones in your chicken(See above) beef? Purchase the hormone-free version. Ultimately, you control what goes into the dish, and I can almost successfully guess that there will not be any ingredients with 10 syllables in your recipes.
2. You will save money. Listen: when you buy a pizza that is ready made, you are spending about twice or three times the amount you would if you made it yourself. Before you tell me that your time is money, see the next item.
3. You will save time. How is that possible? You are making all the stuff, right? Well, here I go a little deeper in thought here. You are spending about 50% more than you would if you made it yourself, right? How much is your time worth? For every dollar that you spend “to save time”, you are working that much harder to make the money to save you time cooking. Kind of stupid, right?
4. You will be connected to your family. Thing is, get the whole family involved in the cooking. Perhaps the significant other can even chat with you as you are peeling the carrots. Maybe your son could help by handing you utensils. The kitchen used to be the center of the house in days gone by. Let’s make it that way again.
5. You are reducing your carbon footprint on the earth. Premade items are notorious for packaging, waste, and filling landfills. Do we really need pancake in a can? Hell no.
6. Gourmet food tastes “real” when you make it yourself. Hey! That steak dinner that was frozen will taste like crap when you cook it from frozen. There is nothing that you can do for that, aside from adding “natural flavoring.” Cook your food, it will taste better.

I know that it is hard to do, but honestly, with a little planning, there should be no reason why you would ever need a convenience product. More to come on this later, where I will give you all the tools needed to start this.

Tagged as: DIY, planning, recipe