Home Cooking Page 1

The Importance Of

Cooking And Eating

At Home

Home Cooking Page 2

Cooking at home is becoming more and more popular

nowadays as most of us try to make healthier food choices to

improve our health and well-being. Cooking at home has

several inherent benefits. It can mean great cost-savings to

begin with. In fact, experts say that bring home-cooked lunches

and snacks to school or work can save you a hundred bucks

each month.

Making meals at home also enables you

to be more in control of how much salt

and oils you put into your dishes,

therefore also enabling you to decrease

the likelihood of putting on weight and

suffering diseases of affluence. Aside

from that, planning your weekly menu

allows you to create balanced meals, and thus support your

weight loss efforts. Cooking is also a great way to interact with

your family and deepen your relationship. Several researches

indicate that youngsters who dine with their parents are usually

happier, healthy, and have better academic performance than

those who don't. At the same time, training your children on the

skill of cooking will be of great help to them in the future.

In contrast to what many people

believe, home cooking is actually

less time-consuming than eating

out. The time it takes you to drive

to a restaurant, place your order,

wait, eat at the restaurant or return

home, you could have already made a meal, even a three-

course dinner, from scratch.

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There are a number of quick and easy recipes which you could

try at home, stir fried shrimps tossed in sweet and sour mustard

sauce, for instance. This meal can be finished in 35 minutes,

and is best served with rice. Sweet and sour sauce is very

versatile since it could be used in

other dishes like meatballs,

prawns, battered chicken, or even

as a dipping sauce.

Fruit salads are also quick and

easy dishes to prepare. To create

more healthful salads made from fruits and vegetables,

substitute calorie-dense creams with low fat yogurt and honey.

Grated ginger and lime rind can also make this yogurt dressing

even better. Salads of fruits and vegetables can be offered as

palate cleansers, desserts, side dish, or appetizer. For the last

two, you can replace the creamy dressing with vinaigrettes.

Baking recipes, like carrot cake, can be done quickly and easily

and be served as healthy snacks for your loved ones. Recipes

for carrot cake usually require butter, but these can be made

healthier by replacing every cup of butter with 2/3 cup of

vegetable oil. The best thing about carrot cakes is that it is

uncomplicated, being that you only have to dump in the

ingredients into a bowl, mix and then bake. They’re so

straightforward, even school age children can make them.