There’s nothing quite like having someone else cook dinner for you. The opportunity to sit down at a table and have someone else bring dinner to you is the ultimate treat.
That is until you realize how’re you sacrificing your health. Not everyone can afford or should afford a meal out every night.
The ingredients in many affordable restaurants aren’t meant for daily consumption. Here are 6 ways home cooked meals can save your pocketbook and your pulse.
1. Shelf Life
Home cooked meals have a better chance of including fresh vegetables. For restaurants, its expensive to stock large amounts of produce with no guarantee of a sale.
For this reason, the chances of your vegetables being frozen first are high. At home, you can buy broccoli on the same day you plan to cook it for dinner and get the freshest possible option.
2. Cooking Method
Light steam is the best method of cooking for vegetables. But in a restaurant, you won’t always be afforded this privilege.
Steaming is a time-consuming process especially during peak times of the day when lots of orders come into the kitchen. Expect restaurants to microwave many of its healthy dishes stripping away the nutrients.
3. Allergies
At home, you can pay better attention to potential allergens. Just because you can drink milk doesn’t mean it won’t lead to an upset stomach.
Home cooked meals can easily be made with substitutes that restaurants may not have. This makes eating at home safe for people with allergies at all levels.
4. Plant-Based Cooking
Eating at home makes it easier to enjoy completely plant-based meals. If you’re looking for a healthier diet, you’ll find that restaurants have a finite list of ingredients that won’t always satisfy the vegan palate.
Opt to make home cooked meals if you have a special diet that limits the ingredients that can go into your food.
5. Fewer Calories
On average, home cooked meals are healthier because they contain fewer calories than fast food. Fast foods contain lots of additives and ingredients that aren’t easy to digest.
Fresh foods bought from the grocery store won’t need to meet the strict food preparation standards of fast food restaurants. For example, your hamburger doesn’t have to be perfectly round like a Big Mac so it has less additives to keep it looking picturesque.
This means fewer calories overall since your burger is just regular lean meat cooked in quality oils.
6. You Know The Ingredients
Overall, home cooked meals are familiar. You know the ingredients and can limit things like the amount of butter in your mashed potatoes with products like Dinner Dude.
In a restaurant, you have no idea what the ingredients are. You can’t tell by looking at a soup whether it’s healthy or not.
The name of the soup and the listed ingredients are marketing tools. What actually goes into a dish might be more salt or oil to ensure the flavor is appetizing.
Benefits of Home Cooked Meals
Restaurants don’t have an obligation to your health. It’s up to you to choose home cooked meals that can help you prevent common diseases linked to gut health.
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