The pleasures of sharing a home-cooked meal

Food brings people together and cooking at home is a great way to unite your family over the dining table. Everyone loves a home-cooked meal—even moody teenagers or picky eaters. And if you live alone, that doesn’t mean you have to cook or eat alone. Sharing meals with others is a great way to expand your social network. Getting appreciative feedback on a meal you’ve prepared for someone can bring a real boost to your self-esteem, too.

Make mealtimes a social experience. The simple act of talking to a friend or loved over the dinner table can play a big role in relieving stress and boosting mood. Gather the family together and stay up to date with each other’s daily lives. If you live alone, invite a friend, coworker, or neighbor over.

Switch off screens. Take a break from the TV, turn off your phone, and avoid other distractions so you have a real chance to connect with the person you’re sharing a meal with. By avoiding screens and eating with others, you’ll also help to avoid mindless overeating.

Cook with others. Invite your spouse, roommate, or a friend to share shopping and cooking responsibilities—one prepares the entrée, the other dessert, for example. Cooking with others can be a fun way to deepen relationships and splitting the costs can make it cheaper for both of you.

Overcoming obstacles to cooking at home
Despite all the benefits, many of us still think of preparing meals as a chore, either something that we don’t have time for, or something that’s only suitable for experienced cooks. Maybe you’ve tried cooking before and didn’t like the end results, or maybe your kids just prefer takeout food?

Overcoming obstacles to cooking at home often starts with changing the way you view meal preparation or time spent in the kitchen. Some common reasons why we don’t cook at home, and what to do about them, include:

Obstacle 1: “I don’t have the time to cook.”
Sure, shopping, chopping ingredients, cooking, and then cleaning up afterwards can be time-consuming. But there are plenty of ways to speed things up:

Shop online and have all the ingredients delivered to your door.
Get your family involved. Trade off shopping and cleanup duties with your spouse or a roommate.
Do some of the preparation ahead of time. Chop vegetables over the weekend when you’re less pressed, for example, to cut down on your final cooking time.
Use fresh ingredients. Salads and raw food recipes can take just minutes to prepare.
View cooking meals as a pleasant, relaxing experience rather than a chore—it won’t seem nearly as time-consuming.
2: “It’s cheaper to eat fast food.”
At first glance, it may seem that eating at a fast food restaurant is less expensive than making a home-cooked meal. But that’s rarely the case. A study from the University of Washington School of Public Health revealed that people who cook at home tend to have healthier overall diets without higher food expenses. Another study found that frequent home cooks spent about $60 per month less on food than those who ate out more often.

3: “I’m too tired to cook at the end of a busy day.”
Creating healthy meals doesn’t have to involve a huge investment of effort.

Loading a slow cooker with meat and vegetables in the morning allows you come home to a piping hot meal at night, with minimal preparation and little cleanup.
Make meals in bulk and freeze leftovers in single portions to eat when you don’t have the time or energy to cook.
By cooking your main protein once a week, such as a roast chicken or slow cooked turkey breasts, you can use the meat to create quick and easy meals during the week, such as soup, salads, sandwiches, burritos, or pasta dishes.
4: “I don’t know how to cook”
If you’re intimidated by the prospect of preparing a home-cooked meal, it’s important to remember that cooking is not an exact science.

It’s usually perfectly OK to skip an ingredient or substitute one thing for another.
Look online or buy a basic cookbook for simple recipe ideas.
As with anything, the more you cook, the better you’ll become. Even if you’re a complete novice in the kitchen, you’ll soon master some quick, healthy meals.
5: “Even if I cook a healthy meal at home, I can’t get my family to eat it.”
Over time, you can wean your family (and yourself) off the taste of takeout and packaged food.

Start small, cooking just once or twice a week to give everyone’s taste buds chance to adjust.
Young children love to cook and find it fun to eat what they’ve helped to make.
The childhood impulse to imitate is strong, so the more your kids see you eating healthy food, the more likely they are to follow suit.
Tips for getting started
Don’t think that have to make every meal at home. Cooking at home just a few times a week to begin with can reap rewards. The more you prepare your own meals, the better you’ll get at it. Eventually, you may find that eating out or ordering in becomes an occasional treat rather than the norm. Here are some tips to get you started:

Start with fresh, healthy ingredients. Baking sugary treats such as brownies, cakes, and cookies won’t help your health or your waistline. Similarly, adding too much sugar or salt can transform a healthy home-cooked meal into an unhealthy one. To ensure your meals are good for you as well as being tasty, start with healthy ingredients and flavor with spices rather than sugar or salt.

Keep it simple. Steam or sauté some veggies, grill some fish or chicken, add some herbs, spices, or a healthy sauce. Simple cooking can be tasty and quick.

Cook enough for leftovers. It’s great to have leftovers that can be used for a quick and easy lunch or dinner the next day. When making things like rice or pasta, cook at least double the amount you need and store it in the fridge to use with other meals. Freezing leftovers can also ensure you have a home-cooked meal on hand whenever you don’t feel like cooking.

Make substitutions for healthier meals. Grill or bake instead of fry. Replace salt with garlic or onion powder. Cut the sugar called for in most recipes by 1/3 to 1/2. Decrease the meat and increase the vegetables in stews and casseroles. Choose whole-grain versions of pasta and bread, and substitute whole-wheat flour for bleached white flour when you bake.

Stock up on staples. Ingredients such as rice, pasta, olive oil, spices, flour, and stock cubes are staples you’ll likely use regularly. Keeping cans of tuna, beans, tomatoes and bags of frozen veggies on hand can be helpful in rustling up quick meals when you’re pushed for time.

Give yourself some leeway. It’s okay to burn the rice or over-cook the veggies. After a few tries it will get easier, quicker, and tastier!