Hey mamas, sisters, and friends! Since dropping my last post, I had something come to mind. I wanted to share what I’ve been up to in my kitchen recently: cooking mostly from scratch.
I’m not here to change your ways of cooking overnight, but instead share some inspiration and encouragement to why I’ve slowly made the switch to an ingredient based house (not completely, but definitely more than the average person). I want to genuinely share with my readers a newfound love for cooking from scratch. You wanna know why? Because the food is just better. Better ingredients, better flavor, more satisfaction, and less inflammation. In a world of convenience and instant gratification…why not get out of our comfort zone and get away from boxed, packaged, and processed foods that are wreaking havoc on our bodies! I don’t have any statistics to share, aside from my own personal experience over time; however, I’m sure there is plenty of research to back up how processed foods are slowly deteriorating our bodies when consumed as a part of someone’s daily diet. Think cereal, packaged lunch box snacks like crackers, chips, and cookies, sandwich bread, and frozen dinner meals. Pretty much all the things that are in the middle of a grocery store…not the perimeter. Now don’t get me wrong, you’ll find a bag of chips and dip, Oreo cookies, or the Costco Orange Chicken freezer meal in our kitchen from time to time. I’m not strictly opposed to convenience food, but I am opposed to consuming it on a regular basis. Lack of nutrients, seed oils, bioengineered ingredients, and excess sugar are several reasons why.
So how can I get started on practical ways to minimize convenience food?
One of the first things I started doing was making my own pancakes (cottage cheese pancakes and then fresh milled flour pancakes), muffins, and bread from scratch. These were daily and weekly items that we consumed a lot of. Instead of Bisquick pancake mix or frozen Eggo waffles…get the ingredients and make your own. Instead of Lil’ Bite muffins or the grocery store bakery muffins…get the ingredients and make your own mini muffins. Instead of sandwich bread, hamburger buns, and dinner rolls from the supermarket…get some flour, yeast, water, and salt and make your own. It is truly that simple. The thing you have to ask yourself is am I willing to sacrifice the time to spend making these food items for my family? That is the hang-up when it comes to the ‘cost of convenience’. Why spend time making it yourself, when it’s already made for you? Well, dear friend, my reasons as to why from scratch is better were clear: better ingredients, better flavor, more satisfaction, and less inflammation.
What are some other practical snack staples I can make from scratch?
I love having homemade granola for yogurt, granola bars, protein balls, trail mix, and cookies on hand at my house. These snacks are chalked full of added ingredients at the grocery store, but I know exactly what goes into mine when I make them at home.
What about from scratch dinners?
I’ll list out some dinners that I’ve been rotating through that take a handful of ingredients, but will leave you satisfied and wanting more.
- Instead of frozen pizza from the store–I switched to a homemade cottage cheese pizza crust. Absolutely amazing!
- Instead of packaged frozen meatballs–I switched to making my own sausage and chicken meatballs at home. The flavor is amazing compared to the grocery store ones. I’ll add them to pasta and make some homemade 1-hour breadsticks for a complete dinner.
- Instead of frozen lasagna dinners–I make a baked ziti with ground beef and fresh graded cheeses from scratch.
- Instead of rotisserie chicken from Costco–I oven bake chicken thighs and shred them, or boil chicken breasts and shred them. Such an easy swap that saves you from consuming the microplastics from the bags they’re sitting in at the store under the heat.
- Instead of canned chicken noodle soup–I make my own ground chicken noodle soup with fresh vegetables. Less preservatives and a hundred times more flavor.
Other items I primarily cook from scratch: salsa, hummus, guacamole, cole slaw, French fries, mashed potatoes, hamburger buns, bread crumbs, pancakes, desserts like pastries, muffins, cookies, brownies, and cakes, and some of our sauces (not all…but that’s my next goal to transition out of. I’ve made homemade mayo and ketchup and love it!)
With all this said–I didn’t just become an ingredient household overnight and cook everything from scratch. This has taken me about three years to get to…and I’m still not 100% there! I’m sure there are people out there who don’t purchase any packaged food from the grocery store, and that is inspiration! However, when I do purchase from the grocery store I look for specific items that tailor to what I prefer. No added sugar to our yogurt, avocado oil chips, no-added sugar fruit snacks, and organic brands that have fewer ingredients.
I hope this has inspired you to make a few swaps or try something new from scratch in your kitchen! It takes time, but it’s worth it knowing you are fueling yourself and your family for the better. Like I titled this post, “”From Scratch is Just Better.” Be blessed, friends!
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