Home Cooking vs Takeout

My family bakes our own bread. The kids really don't like store-bought bread unless it's the super expensive stuff. We prepare all of our own meals. We use relatively generic flour that comes in 5 pound bags.The main thing I've learned is:Get over everything having to be as yummy as prepared food, unless you're willing to hire a psychologist and a chemist, and a cardiologist. You're paying for that stuff twice: First to consume it, second, to get rid of it in the g

One aspect of the problem is this idea that seems to have crept in, that it's necessary to eat elaborately cooked meals all the time. Making a couple of cheese sandwiches actually takes a lot less time than hitting the nearest drive-through, as well as being both healthier and cheaper.

As someone who likes to cook but generally doesn't, I feel the problem is how this scales per mouths to feed.Cooking for 1 or cooking for 5 doesn't involve much increase in the total time (5 sets of eating dishes instead of 1 and slightly larger cookware to clean) and has a slight decrease in price per mouth (buying food items in bulk is cheaper). Now I could cook big meals for just myself to eat 5 times along with buying in bulk, but this means a significant loss in freshness and

> There are TONS of easy and healthy recipes out there.The cooking itself is not difficult, but you have surrounding activities that take significant time like prep, cleanup (dishes, cookware, table etc.), and extra time for grocery shopping (want fresh vegetables? you're probably going to have to shop every 3 days if not everyday. want diverse meals, you're going to need to spend time planning)I have timed myself and the extra time cost here is definitely significant. I still

I cook all my own food. I think it takes longer to deal with ordering it and having it delivered than it does to prepare--if you just want basic healthy dishes. A lot of the HN crew came from upper-middle class families, so they didn't learn this from their parents.

Cooking, eating and cleaning up after it take time. If I can prepare a daily meal in 10 minutes, with no washing up, consume it on the go, and it turns out healthier than what I would otherwise eat (I'm no good at healthy cooking)... I don't see the drawback.I suppose I'd still eat recreationally, at least from time to time. And on social occasions, obviously. But saving up even half an hour every day is huge.

>I can make better food faster with better ingredients for a cheaper price at my own house for my own family, as long as we did some thi king ahead and planning. On top of that, when I make a new recipe, I learn how to make something new with new ingredients that helps me do more exotic dishes in the future.Can you? Are you accounting for your labor cost?I do a lot of cooking for my family too, but when I account for the time it takes to shop for groceries, prep, cook, and clean up, I d

My thoughts as well.You don't need to spend an entire day in the kitchen to prepare yourself a few meals with unprocessed or minimally processed foods: frozen or fresh veggies, dairy products, eggs, raw meat, or fish with about 20 mins of cooking, frying, or boiling and you have yourself a few meals.Its actually cheaper than eating out and if you apply meal prep on a weekly basis, like I do, it doesn't even take too much of your time.

I cook all my meals. I spend an average of 3.4 hours per week in both cooking and washing the dishes. I order all my groceries to an online supermarket. I could save 3.4 hours by spending 300-400$ more and losing control over what I eat and how it was done. No thanks.Cooking is not going anywhere. I simply cannot understand why common people with a kitchen would not cook. It just takes some planning and cooking enough food that it last 2-3 days.

My struggle is that I look at it as a time/cost relationship. I'd rather use my time more wisely because the cost of me maintaining a pantry, cooking, and cleaning for one outweighs the cost of getting takeout. It's probably an excuse more than anything but my work schedule can be irregular and makes it more difficult to plan.