If you don't feel like reasons why you should make dinner at home tonight - Here are some reasons why you might want to Not meal plan.
But that's not you and that's not me, We are all about saving money and being less stressed out and eating healthy and just being totally awesome in general!
That's right!
I know it is so easy to fall into the trap of: I am too tired / stressed / busy to make dinner tonight. Perhaps you might be, if you were needing to make prime rib, but it is just dinner. You can throw together some spaghetti and red sauce (as opposed to spaghetti and white sauce - which we have to specify in our house) - Anyway, you can throw together a spaghetti dinner and a green salad in the time that it takes to boil some water. Toast some bread with garlic and butter in the oven and you've got something that you could make people pay 8.99$ to eat.
Home Cooking Saves Money - Anything and everything you have someone else do you for costs money. Somebody else prepped that food, someone else cooked it, served it and is going to clean it up - and you're going to pay them. Pre-Cooked, Pre-Packaged, and Pre-Made are all just going to cost you more than cooking with basic ingredients. Never in the history of the world has spaghetti cost 8.99$ a serving in ingredients. See - dinner at home saves you money.
Home Cooking Saves Time - In the time it takes to drive to a restaurant, place your order, wait for your order, return home and serve the meal, you could have made a three-course meal from scratch with time to sit and chew slowly. If you are short on time during the week prep food on the weekends; chop vegetables, cook rice and pasta, freeze casseroles or soups.
Less of What You Don't Want - When you cook at home, because of the ingredients that you use and the ways that your prepare the food, it automatically has less chemicals, sodium and trans-fats. And that is without making any changes at all! If you want even less of the things you don't want (or MORE of the things that you do) you can adjust your recipes, try new ones and experiment with making recipes and dishes just exactly like you like them.
Avoid Being Hurt By Your Food (or Food Prepare-r) - I am avoiding using words here like "kill" and "death" and "dead" and "poison" - but seriously the reality of eating out isn't pretty. If you cook at home, you know you washed your hands.. And used soap! You know your cutting boards are clean and that you didn't cross contaminate. And at least the crumbs on the kitchen floor are you own - even if they are still there from breakfast. Most food borne illnesses can be prevented by some good safe food handling, and it is best to do it yourself.
It Brings People Together - You know I am the champion of Family Dinner. There isn't anything that I think it can't do. So I think it is the worth the extra "trouble" to do it. If there was a magic solution out there that could make us healthier, happier, richer..... you Know we would all be doing it. I really truly think that thing is family dinner.
I have lots and lots of other reasons too - it teaches our kids healthy food habits, it combats obesity with not only better quality food but correct portion size. It means less food waste and fresher foods which can mean more nutrients. There are fewer dangers of allergies and sensitivities if you prepare your own food.
You didn't realize how awesome you were being by having dinner at home tonight, did you? Now get that pot of water on to boil - you have a spaghetti dinner to make.
