I wrote this as a reminder to myself. The more I read this, the more motivated I am to practice and cook dinner instead of eating out!
Many times ‘life gets in the way’ of cooking as often as we’d like. We run out of time to grocery shop or energy to create a meal. Even people who know how to cook often don’t do so as often as they’d like.
Regardless of how much you cook, though, remember that learning to cook still offers many benefits.
Beyond the personal reasons that most aspiring home cooks have for learning, here are 9 reasons how you can still benefit from doing so.
9 Reasons to Learn to Cook (Even if You Don’t Do It Everyday)
1. Save money.
If you believe in being frugal in any way, and see it wise to save money for your future or the future of your children, cooking is taking those savings one step further. Having the skills to cook at home ensures you won’t have to rely on restaurants to feed you. And if you want to see how much you can save, track your spending to see how much you currently eat out.
2. Reduce the need to resort to fast/convenience food.
Do you often find yourself in a hurry to get out of the door in the morning? Or do you struggle to get dinner together because you work late? As you go deeper in the the world of cooking, you’ll learn about meal prepping.
The point of meal prepping is to make life easier for you during the week. Essentially, it should save you the stress of having to cook every single night. It also gives you control over the options available to your ‘future self’ — you can cook a week’s (or more) worth of healthy meals in one day, making it easier for you during the week to stay on track with your diet.
3. Gain independence.
When you’re hungry, you won’t need to rely on others (i.e. restaurants, family, or friends) to feed you.
4. Help family and friends.
Just because you won’t need help, doesn’t mean others won’t. Sometimes family and friends will have situations that you’ll really want to help them with. If you have the skills to create a meal, it will be no problem for you to lend them a hand, whether they’re sick, caring for someone else who is sick, or just had a baby.
5. Build self-confidence.
Think about it. Even if something unfortunate happens and you lose the option of dining out (due to finances or other circumstances), you and your family will still be okay because you can make your own inexpensive, healthy meals. If need be, you’ll be able to make it through tough times.
6. Sense of accomplishment.
One day you’ll look back and see that in order to learn, you sacrificed TV/Internet time and invested it towards a goal. You’ll then use those new skills to plan ahead and prepare for the coming weeks. You’ll use your time to create healthy meals both for yourself and your family. That’s nothing to take lightly – it’s serious accomplishment.
7. Helps bring families closer together.
Research shows that families that cook together are more connected than those that do not. And why wouldn’t they be? More time spent together cooking is valuable bonding time, on top of being educational for the kids.
8. Passing on the cooking mindset helps generations to come.
Along similar lines, after you’ve benefitted so much from cooking, when you pass your knowledge down to your children/nieces/nephews, you’re helping them in the same way. And since they’ll likely teach their children how to cook as well, you’re essentially helping to ensure that your children’s children’s children will have the security brought about by the cooking lifestyle. Quite a gift to give your descendants.
9. Ultimately, cooking brings freedom.
With a list of dishes in your repertoire and a well-stocked refrigerator, your abilities will translate into a great deal of freedom. Cooking skills give you control over what you create and put into your body. As you take your education even further, the possibilities will only limited by your creativity!
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