I'm not passionate about cooking. I just like to eat.
I think there's a difference.
People who are passionate about cooking seem to really enjoy the process. They like to play around in the kitchen, and cooking seems to fulfill some creative desires inside of them.
But I think for me, kitchen endeavors have always been largely driven my desire to eat something good.
And homemade food is usually a surefire way to eat something good.
I want to eat; therefore I cook.
And bake.
When I was a teenager, I started baking bread because I wanted to eat homemade bread all the time. I really don't think it was about enjoying the process.
And when I look through cooking magazines/cookbooks, I don't think, "Ooh, that would be fun to make." Rather, I think, "Ooh, that looks like something I'd really like to eat."
When I had that bad snickerdoodle recently and I went home and made a good batch, I wasn't thinking about how much fun it would be to make cookies. I was thinking about how fun it would be to EAT a good snickerdoodle.
I'm all about the end result of work in the kitchen, I think!
Also motivating me: the fact that cooking at home is the cheapest way to enjoy good food.
You can get good food at restaurants, of course. But I have never seen a restaurant that can serve up good food for the price of what I make at home.
So.
I cook because I want to eat well and because I want to save money. And cooking at home is the best way for those two things to overlap.
Why I am sharing this?
Well, maybe you've been laboring under the delusion that you need to have some inborn passion for cooking in order to be at home in the kitchen.
You might look at people who cook on the weekends for fun and think, "Oh man, that could never be me."
I'm just here to say, ok, that's fine.
You don't have to be passionate about the process, but you can still be motivated by the end result.
So, if you are lacking motivation to get yourself into the kitchen, try focusing on the end result: good food + more money in your wallet
_______________________
Frugality. I always tell my husband and kids...." MOM won At DINNER!"....I put decent food on the table for less money than most and I work full time.
I also love to eat...with my family...at home...whenever possible....
Sadly, I love to read cook books and look at new recipes, but I seldom make new recipes.....hmmm.....
YESS!!!!! So much this!! My friends tell me all the time that I'm crazy that I cook everyday. I've tried for years to explain it to them. I like to eat. I like to eat good food. I like having control over what is in my food. I started cooking when I was right out of college and broke as a joke. I couldn't afford to eat out, but I really liked good food. I don't mind cooking, but its not something I dream of doing. I do dream of making really tasty things. And I absolutely LOVE when my 2 year old tells me "I like it mommy" when its something that is good for him. I love making a restaurant recipes healthier. When I see the calories on some restaurant menus and can't for the life of me figure out how you make a salad 1400 calories?!? Being cheaper is a great benefit too, but most importantly I can make food we all like to eat.
So much yes!
I think mostly I'm along the same lines as you are. I enjoy the cooking process when I'm working with my fiance in the kitchen, but mostly I get a kick out of making really good food for a cheap price. (It's like a game for me to make sure I use all the food I buy and to see how low I can get my cost per meal without feeling any deprivation whatsoever.) I finally made my own yogurt for approximately 1/6th of the price of store-bought. I also made my own Indian simmer sauce in my electric pressure cooker and got about 3 jars worth out of the recipe, which is (1) delicious (2) slightly cheaper than store bought (3) free of preservatives and did not have much waste besides recycling the tins from the canned tomatoes.
I love cooking for people. I love the process. I love experimenting; the joke in our family is pretend shock when I say I follow a recipe because I always tack on, "Except for I didn't have this, so I did that. . . "
Cooking (like gardening) for me makes me feel connected to the past; I can't explain why. I think of my grandmothers and on and on into history kneading dough just like I am (unless I'm using my Kitchen Aid).
100% what you said. On Sunday afternoons I listen to talkshows on the radio and I enjoy the process of chopping vegetables, cleaning out the fridge but that is how far my "Joy Of Cooking" goes.
Before kids cooking was a genuine hobby. I loved trying new things and being praised for my kitchen accomplishments (probably why when it was just me I would live on frozen dinners and baked potatoes). My kitchen outputs were more impressive and less cluttering than my poor attempts at crafts, for example.
Now I have less time and DH knows how to cook and is possibly better than I am... and occasionally I’ll read theShubox and wish I had a housekeeper who would create the recipes I picked out for her.
We’re bored with the restaurants in town. So... I cook for the food and so DH isn’t doing all the work.
This is 100% me. I do not really enjoy cooking, but it is the best option for eating healthy meals that don’t break the bank. It’s also kind of like cleaning - my husband thinks I like cleaning because I do it all the time, but what I actually like is having a clean house. I do not enjoy scrubbing toilets!
Same. I get SO SICK of cooking. I definitely do not do it for fun. I think feeding a relatively large family three meals a day every single day would kill the joy for even a really passionate cook. But even on the days when normal people would go out to eat or get take-out, I cook. Because I know that even scrambled eggs at home will taste better than restaurant food, and I recoil in horror at the thought of spending more than fifty dollars for mediocre food.
The only caveat to that is that I do find it kind of fun to find uses for foraged food, and I do enjoy the challenge of dealing with large quantities of things that are given to me (like the apples that I experimented with drying last fall) or that I grow (like the crazy quantities of garlic scapes we have this year.)
Food is my creative outlet, but not in the way that the Food Network seems to portray it. I have no interest in decorating a cake to make it look like the Queen's crown (or whatever), but I do find ways to be creative with what I have on hand and get a lot of satisfaction from that.
I so agree. I do enjoy baking (most of the time) but I can't say I really like to cook. I like good food too and IMO, most restaurant food is mediocre. I never order a dessert out because frankly, I can make it so much better and for less $$ at home! It boggles my mind that folks will spend so much money on a bakery cake. I think many buy for the WOW factor. PS I love cookbooks!
Speaking strictly for myself, I can bake the cake but I can't decorate the cake.
I am a TERRIBLE cake decorator, largely because I just don't care very much about it. I am not inspired enough to put a bunch of effort into making something edible look beautiful.
Cakes overall seem like a lot of effort to me; throwing the ingredients for yeast dough together seems relatively unfussy by comparison.
I love cooking and I love eating! I really enjoy the process of planning, shopping, prepping, and cooking. Not so much the clean up afterwards. I am excited when I get a new cookbook because it's new things to try - both cooking and eating. I also love tweeking recipes I've made before to satisfy my tastes or use up ingredients I have on hand. I cook new recipes for friends and family frequently and they all know that if the recipe doesn't work out I will order a pizza. My feelings aren't hurt if a new recipe doesn't turn out.
I'm not much of a baker, though I do manage a few loaves of bread a few times a year (usually fall). I was so proud of my eight year son when he announced he "likes to cook but not bake." I am so proud he knows the difference.
Sometimes I have a really hard time going out to eat because I know I can make the dish better at home. Going out to eat has to be to a place where I know the food is amazing or a new experience for me - running out for fast food is not going to cut it.
I agree. We only go out to eat once in 3 or 4 years, because frankly, I'm a better cook than most of the restaurants around here. That sounds arrogant, but it's just so. And we don't cook gourmet... we just cook real actual food that littles and bigs will all eat and adults will enjoy and that are healthy in balance and that fit the budget.
I disagree a smidge about the fast food: I don't deep fry at home, so sometimes fast food french fries are really, really good. Gross. But good. But even that is a few times a year.
When my family is happy to be eating a delicious meal that I made just for them it is hugely satisfying to me. I've thought that maybe we can't go on a fancy vacation but I can make our home happy with lots of love and good food.
What a beautiful sentiment!
I grew up cooking and baking at home and with my Gram.. I enjoy it.. so it is not a burden to do. We are a family of 2 adults and 3 adult sized teenagers.. We like to eat.. we likely eat too much- but by cooking it at home I know what is in the food and by having healthier options at home we can avoid some of the junk food. I LOVE to save money too.. I dislike waste... so today is my day off.. my kids last day of school.. I pulled out all the scrap bags and have a pot of chicken stock brewing... I also browned some pork loin chops off and made a roux and have that all simmering in the crock pot.. I also just don't like to have to load up, go out to eat, wait around, drive back home.. all for the average price of $40-50 dollars...
I love cooking. I love trying new things. I made your yogurt for the first time this week and it was FANTASTIC and so exciting! (My hamburger buns, not so much. Epic fail.) Since my granddaughter was born I have re-instituted Sunday dinner. Sometimes I make something repeatedly (Pad Thai AGAIN!) until I get it right - then it just goes into the rotation. I do like to make things I can reheat for a second meal, since I have a long commute. Eating out in Boston is SO costly - I try to save it for our favorite places that have great food. It has been fun making things for the baby she can take for her lunch - homemade ABC soup, chicken and stars, etc.
I don’t hate the process of cooking but I don’t love it either. It’s very important to me to feed my family nutritious and delicious food at a reasonable cost and I really like to be competent at things — practice makes perfect. When you cook every meal all year round that also means when it’s important I have the skills to pull off something more difficult or unusual. It’s nice to not lose sleep over ruining a $200 standing rib roast for Christmas dinner (my grandma always pays for the roast, and I cook it for her).
I love cooking and I love eating. I love being able to cook a great meal of whatever we fancy for way cheaper than a restaurant and honestly, tastes better (if I do say so myself) 😉 Although I live in a small town, I have access to 2 large cities that we frequent to shop, entertainment, eat etc...and sadly, the service in both of those towns is sorely lacking. So nothing makes me want to eat at home more than #1 paying the high prices and #2 paying those high prices AND getting cruddy service.
I have a ton of cookbooks that I go thru frequently and also I'm always on the internet finding good, healthy recipes. I'd be in the kitchen all day if I could, lol. So yeah, I'd say it's a passion. 🙂
I don't really like cooking--I think I used to before I got chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia, but now it just tires me. But I can't afford to eat take out all the time and as you say, I can generally make better food than I can get in a restaurant anyway. Besides, take out involves a lot of time and waiting, as do non-fast-food restaurant meals. (Full disclosure: I live in a wealthy area of the country with no fast food chains and expensive restaurants.)
I will say some of my favorite things to make, like the chicken enchiladas with red sauce, I found right here on your blog. Yummmm. And I do get Dinnerly for three meals a week since it's actually cheaper than shopping in my local store.
I'm with you, Rose! We need to watch the processed stuff that the food industry is pushing!
I've always liked cooking, mainly as a way to be creative or to try something new. My mom was a great cook, but she was very much into just a few standard recipes. Then 2 of my 3 kids went to culinary college (Le Cordon Bleu), and I felt like I had to up my game a bit. It's led to me trying even more recipes from different places, especially with the help of YouTube. There's a young woman on there (it's called "Cooking with Sros") who shows some Laotian food that's really inspired me to try something way out of my comfort zone! Plus I have fibromyalgia, and the additives in processed foods really mess with my pain and flare ups. It hasn't been good for my waistline, but I prefer it very much over the junk available. A garden inspires me too!
same reasons as you - i want to eat good stuff - and i want to save money by cooking at home 🙂
I was never a fan of cooking but we were broke as a joke( stole that from your reader) so I did it. Now my husband has taken over and he says he enjoys it. He would rather cook another meal than eat leftovers. I had to really stop that food waste behavior. He is better about it now that retirement is around the corner.
"Broke as a joke" is one of my 10,000 favorite phrases! I wonder who said it?
Cooking for my family--esp. my husband and grandkids--is an expression of love for me. They like my food, and I like seeing them happily eating away. So cooking is not usually a chore. Those times when I was on my own, I found I ate salad from a bag, soup from a can, or cereal and fruit. I am not a big eater, nor do I like to cook for just me.
I enjoy the entire cycle of find the recipe, get the ingredients, cook, watch them enjoy eating, then clean up.
As a professional woman who has had a very successful career and a hardcore feminist, I used to be embarrassed to admit that I cook because my husband loves my cooking and I love seeing him happy. His mom was a really terrible cook and I came from an extremely poor family and was taught to cook and bake just so the family could survive, so when we married and I started producing foods he loved, he fell in love with me all over again (he says that). It helps that he does all the cleanup without complaint or putting it off and he never fails to thank me for cooking for him. I finally realized that the point of feminism was for women to make their own choices and have the same opportunities...and if I liked something as traditional as cooking and baking, it was okay. (I used to try to get interested in mowing the lawn for the same reason...until my husband said he liked mowing the lawn and wished I would leave it to him.)
What motivates me....
If I didn't cook my husband would.
Scary.
Also, decent food at a decent restaurant is so over priced it makes my budget weep and scream the Ava Maria...I'd rather spend that kind of money doing something fun with our daughter.
Funny story. We were gifted from my husbands work a olive garden gift card for 100 dollars. Daughter ordered their chicken parmesan and though she enjoyed it she later asked how much it cost for me to make it at home for the three of us.
After contemplating I estimated around 9.00 or so. Hearing this she was shocked. She couldn't believe that they would charge almost 20.00 for chicken and spaghetti. Her words: Well I wonder how they can feel good about ripping people off (she's 15 so she's rather blunt which can be entertaining)
I laughed...thinking about it though, showing/teaching her about price differences and how she needs to think: coffee from home vs Starbucks for instance, is a pretty good motivator to.
My husband couldn't cook when we got married. Like literally did not know how to boil water. I taught him some stuff and eventually we sent him to a cooking class (there were a lot of husbands whose wives had sent them there as a Christmas present) and now he's better than I am. It just takes practice.
Such a great lesson for your daughter to learn! I use to tell my girls (when school shopping), "You have $___ to spend on clothes. We can go to the mall and you can get a couple of outfits or we can go to Platos Closet (consignment shop with only name brands) and you can get at least 4-5 times more outfits" They opted Platos every time!
I grew up poor, with a mother who didn't know much about cooking, didn't like it, and was tired from working full time and taking care of 3 kids. We sometimes didn't have enough food and what we did have was often processed stuff like hamburger helper, canned chili and all that. I know that's not good for me. So I cook mostly from scratch, and am always looking for healthy recipes, or I'll tweak one to make it healthier. It makes me feel really good to turn a pile of ingredients into delicious, wholesome, good for you meals. When I look into the fridge and see all the food one prepared waiting for me I feel satisfied and content.
EXACTLY the reasons I cook! Control over quality, cost, and ingredients.
I’m the same! I cook because I love to eat good food. Besides restaurant meals being so expensive, I also find that a lot of times I could have made something better tasting at home.
This is so true for me too. Although I would throw "healthy" in the mix too. I care less about baking, which to me feels like I just did a whole bunch of work in the kitchen and I STILL have to cook supper. 🙂
Seeing how much family and friends enjoy what I have prepared is what keeps me going. I am like you. I don't love cooking. I enjoy it enough but it can be so stressful. I do not like having people in the kitchen with me when I'm working. Too distracting. Always in the way. I never had patience teaching the children. On the rare occasion we go to a sit down restaurant I find myself always dissappointed. I know that I do it better most of the time. I really enjoy the fruits of my labor though so I will always cook.
My family motivates me to cook. I would eat cereal and buttered pasta as happily as a fabulous roasted salmon, crispy potatoes and veggies. They wouldn't, though, so I cook for them. One son and my husband have soecial diets, too, so if they want yummy things I need to make many of them myself.
I am a good cook but I am definitely not passionate about it or particularly enjoying it. It's okay. I like being good at it.
I love to cook and be in the kitchen; I usually enjoy both the process and the end result . But on days like today I dread it, when I've worked all day and I haven't even thought about dinner. It's challenging to pull something healthy together when you are tired and short on time. But I shall try.
Health! People don't realize how bad eating processed food is for health. You buy INGREDIENTS and make food. Too many people by and eat PRODUCTS full of things you'd never cook with and loaded with substances designed to stimulate more appetite (that's why you "can't eat just one" potato chip!). This shows in how healthy you and your kids are.
People overlook the value of cooking from scratch. It is the pathway to health.
I used to love cooking, love trying new recipes, love doing the fancy elaborate stuff. Right now, I don't. (I expect that will change eventually.) Nonetheless I still cook. It's less expensive, it's probably healthier, and it's less wasteful. What's changed is what I cook. Now I do the Stupidly Simple stuff and the hunk o'meat/veg (usually raw)/fruit. It gets the job done.
My goal in learning to cook was to be able to walk into a strange kitchen and make a meal based on what I found. I still enjoy the hell out figuring how to use bit and pieces so there's no waste. One definition of fun, for me, is to help someone else figure out how to use their scraps, or empty their freezer, or how to cook some odd ingredient they've been gifted or have too much of.
I too like to help someone figure out how to turn all the odd leftovers in the refrigerator into a meal. My friends think it's a weird quirk but they're happy to let me rummage around!
I can certainly relate to what you are saying about cooking! I've always loved to bake and it's fun for me to fiddle around in the kitchen making bread, cookies, muffins, etc. (given adequate time to do so). Cooking meals is one of those activities I do because A) I like good food B) I like to be competent C) I like my food to be (mostly) healthy and D) it saves a heckuva lotta money.
I have gone through many phases when it comes to how much I enjoy cooking. Sometimes its quite a lot and sometimes its not at all. And though I am not opposed to sandwiches or cereal for dinner I am always surprised when people say, "If I were single I would eat sandwiches (or cereal, or takeout, etc.) every night." That sounds miserable to me. So I cook at least a few nights a week.
Cooking is also an expression of love in our family. We never go out for birthdays or holidays - we cook! And we cook a lot.
I will say I really like baking. I don't do it much any more for health reasons, but I really love to take simple ingredients and make bread (is there anything better than homemade bread, warm from the oven with good butter?!?), or some kind of delicious sweet treat. But as much as I love to bake, I don't love to decorate. So I don't do elaborate decorated cakes or even frosted cookies. When it comes to cookies, I am more of a drop cookie or bar cookie kind of gal. My idea of a decorated cake is to toss on some sprinkles.
I used to love the whole process of cooking. Not anymore. I do enjoy good food, clean food and have diabetes so eating well means making my own.
I don't enjoy cooking, and sadly, I'm not very particular about what I eat either. For me, it was/is about filling bellies in the least expensive way possible while maintaining some semblance of a healthy diet. I definitely don't have "refined palate," and don't even really care how things taste. When I was younger, I would have said I liked cooking, and I did, but that was before I had 4 kids in 5 years and HAD to get 3 meals a day on the table without a very large salary. Now, we are empty nesters, and I can spend more, but I hate to do so. My husband really enjoys the ambiance of a nice restaurant, and we live in Hong Kong, an incredibly foodie city, so we do go out for a date night most Fridays. I do enjoy it, but often calculate that we spend as much on that one meal as we do on groceries for the rest of the week!
I love cooking! For me it is not only a meditative process, it's a creative art. I love being creative in the kitchen. I also love cooking something and knowing that when I've completed a session at this hobby I love so much, I get to EAT it! And if there's something I love more than anything else ... it's eating!
This is me too. I like to eat good food, and I’ve tweaked recipes over the years to make them just how my family and I like them. When we do eat out it is almost always for something I don’t make at home, like sushi. I don’t mind cooking, but it’s not something I would do just for fun either
Loved this article because I am so with you. I read food magazines, cookbooks, online for recipes but no, it's never "Oh, that'll be fun to make." The real incentive: Oh, I bet that tastes wonderful!
And the perceived value of the tastiness is what overcomes some way too complicated recipes. I'll put in some effort if I get a great reward. Otherwise, nah.
And I do think that a real passion for food is exactly that...the food and its taste and/or the joy in serving/sharing it with loved ones. (I constantly marvel at folks who love to entertain a bunch of people and do a lot of work to get a menu ready. I love some folks but it doesn't mean I want to put days into planning/making/cleaning up for parties, gatherings, etc.
I only really started cooking for myself in my early thirties. I was "inspired" by several things, but, most notably, a huge shift in my income that did not match my taste in food (acquired via extensive business travel abroad and in US where I got to wine/dine clients and sampled some fabulous food I could never have afforded.)
Once you've expanded your palate and tried some great food prepared by great chefs, you can't go back to one's own mediocre basic cooking.
So I invested in knives and pots and a spice shelf and began experimenting. In both learning to cook (lifelong) and cooking, there are often very disappointing outcomes. But...this is where cooking to make the food I could not afford to eat anywhere but home becomes life lessons. You experiment. You risk. You try. And even when something doesn't come out delicioso, well, you've still learned and you improved your skills and choices.
No matter why you love to cook, or how much you cook, I believe that every now and then, one needs to go out to dine and try food you would not make at home (because you know, there are some dishes where to purchase the ingredients WOULD make it more expensive than dining out) or could not make.
I live in a major city and I will tell you, I am not sure that if I had the money, I would not eat out, a LOT. We have so many different restaurants from so many ethnic cultures...you really could never want to be in the kitchen again.
As tough as it can be to shop, and cook, on a budget, I do believe that is what inspires us to come up with food that we create and love. Inspired by what we can see almost 24/7 on tv (and online, of course), we make things that "hit the spot." And we play around with our recipes.
Of course, another factor in "to cook or not to cook" at home is the size of one's kitchen. Mine is poorly shaped and small and cooking is arduous because you have to literally plan every move and do dishes inbetween. It's not fun at all and its time-consuming and those are factors. Even "30-minute" meals take much longer.
Yours is perhaps the first article I've ever read that really nails why most of us cook: We like to eat!
Yep, that's exactly what I think when I look through food magazines..."I'd like to eat this", not, "I'd like to make this."
That was interesting... I've always told people, "I like to cook". But maybe it's more, "I like to eat"!
I crave that moment of sitting down with my dinner, looking at it, and knowing "this is going to be good!" Then, I feel so content at the end, when I put my knife and fork down, and think to myself "that was really tasty!"
Not saying you are telling fibs Kristen, but I think you do like to cook! Julia has always said that she Loves to cook. Unfortunately she can’t cook now, so I have to do do all the cooking - definitely not MY favorite occupation! But I must say there ARE times that I find myself enjoying it. Mostly, of course, when things are going well - I have the right ingredients and they have not gone bad, the bread rises, the meal even LOOKS good as well as TASTES good from time to time. OK rarely, but occasionally. And it is especially fun when someone says Thank You, And it was good!! (Which I always did when Julia cooked - because it was always, well almost always, very good.)
Mmm this made me think, all my life I have loved making sweets and slices for special occasions - or not so special occasions 🙂 both enjoying the process as well as really wanting to eat and share the end result, I have a few meals that bring me a lot of joy to make especially ones I have learned from people I care about as it always makes me think of them - I love to write the name of a person who gives me a recipe on the top right corner so I will always remember who gave it to me. For everyday cooking I like lots of simple things that are quick to prepare so I can't say I love that kind of cooking but I do love the result!
I like to bake and love it when baked goods turn out, but just plain getting meals on a table? Nope. Still, I do it, two meals a day (because I work outside the home and pack a lunch), for the same reasons stated here: cost, health, and taste. Since my husband is a Type I diabetic and I have an autoimmune disease, we'd be sunk if we ate out a lot (or lived on junk). The other reason, which I don't think I saw yet, is when I shop then cook at home, I can know my meat is humanely raised and my vegetables are organic and local, as often as possible. Some restaurants around here are starting to use more of those things, but those restaurants are still rare here, and expensive as all get out. I enjoy buying straight from farmers and ranchers and getting to know them in the process.
I do enjoy cooking when I have the time like on the weekends. It's tougher during the work week. And I like that I have control over what we're eating and what we spend to eat well. My cooking has changed since it's only my husband and me at home these days. We eat far more simply most of the time than when I had my son and mother-in-law at home with us. What I HATE about cooking is the "what are we having for dinner" issue. It's almost always the case that when I ask the question of what would anyone like to eat when I'm making out my shopping list, the answer has always been "I don't know, I don't care, or you decide." I'm fairly sick of deciding! Oh, well. It's mahi mahi, fried rice and fresh asparagus tonight.
Yes. The deciding is so exhausting!
I have to make a large number of decisions for work & home so by the end of the day I sometimes get decision fatigue - I love to plan meals for both work lunches & dinner for this reason - I LOVE coming home knowing dinner is sorted, I also love leftovers both for themselves & the non-effort factor.
I will add though that on the weekend I find meal planning & preparation is much more fun for me
This is awesome!
I've had so many people sit down to eat a meal with my family, and comment "you should open a restaurant!"
Um, no. That is a LOT of work, and very little of it is focused on eating the tasty food - most of it is on logistics, budgets, and making food as quickly as possible. I get stressed trying to get dinner on the table in under 30 minutes!
I do happen to enjoy the process of cooking most of the time, too - it *is* a creative endeavor when I get to play around with flavors, textures, and ingredient combinations.
But mostly it's about enjoying the meal at the end!
I'm the same; I enjoy cooking when I am free to relax & potter along & I really enjoy the end result - both for me & to share- but cooking in a rush no thankyou that is definitely not my forte
I love this post. I am very sensitive to salt and feel physically sick if I eat fast food or any high salt meal. It seems almost all restaurants add lots of salt to their meals and results in me feeling sick all evening and guzzling water. Cooking at home is a way for me to eat food that is satisfying to me, yet still feel like myself. The more I do it, the more I enjoy it. I work as a speech therapist and have a very "people-y" job, so it's nice to just be quiet and get to work with my hands in the evenings!
You are correct - restaurants add a phenomenal amount of salt to their dishes. My cooking school teacher[1] and I butted heads about that constantly. I always got a 23 or 24, out of 25, on the practical exercises (i.e., the actual cooking) because I refused to add as much salt as my restaurant-trained teacher wanted me to.
[1] I took the semester-long Intro class, not the full three year course.
Yes lots of pre-packaged foods also contain a lot of sugar & salt - food scientists have worked out the 'bliss' point where a critical level of sugar & salt creates extreme enjoyment & craving. That's why some fast food chains put sugar in their hot chips & you find sugar in things like baked beans.
This is interesting, because I'm pretty much the opposite.
I love to cook and bake. I specifically enjoy cooking and baking for others. I love to read recipes and try them out. We have people over fairly regularly and I love trying out new recipes on guests. My mom is a good cook who doesn't enjoy cooking, so she taught us kids early on. I learned to scramble eggs at age 3 and took over a family dinner night by age 9.
I like to eat, but honestly I enjoy the process of making the food more than eating it. In the very brief times that I've lived alone, I mostly lived off carrot sticks and peanut butter.
I also really enjoy meal planning. The part I hate is the actual grocery shopping. We now get a produce delivery, it's called Ungraded Produce and it's perfectly good but just too ugly to sell in the store. It's completely random every week and I love coming up with meals on the spot to use everything.
I don't even mind the cleaning up part. We have a dishwasher, which is such a luxury. But if I never had to go grocery shopping ever again, I would be delighted.
Tarynkay, want to move in with me? I'd be happy to do the shopping and helping. I promise to give proper accolades for your efforts.
I cook because I typically enjoy the process of planning & organizing, to ensure we don't minimize waste. Of course, I love the frugal benefits, and as someone who prefers to eat a certain type of diet, it's just easier. I consider eating out to be a splurge, and great for fun or a special occasion. We certainly eat out, but I often find that I don't enjoy it.
We had the opportunity to go out tonight, but opted to make something nicer at home. A few weekends ago, I'd just run a 1/2 marathon, and my desire for cooking was absolutely zero, so we did a delicious delivery of Uber Eats. That alone cost my weekly grocery budget. It was worth it, but not something we do regularly. Had I planned better, we would have had something in the crockpot. So, lesson learned.
Yesterday, around lunch time, hubby and I were swamped with errands and were going home to three hungry teens. I thought, "Okay, it's Saturday, let's be fun and bring some Mexican food home!". Not Taco Bell, the "real" restaurant kind. We popped in, ordered 6 tacos and an order of loaded nachos. The bill was $22.25. Internally, I was pained, knowing how much it costs to make this, but went with it with the assurance that my kids would be pleasantly surprised to have something different. Within the first few seconds of eating, my daughters found a long hair in both the nachos and a taco. My son had eaten the first few bites of his taco, saying it tasted terrible and greasy. I was so upset. I'd just tanked my "fun" budget for this. After driving BACK to the restaurant (more gas $), showing them the offending hair, I requested a refund. They had the nerve to offer to make me another dish! Um, no thank you, you just served us hair!! Got my refund and am determined to never fall into this again. Last night, I immensely enjoyed making our dinner after that experience.
I love to cook, I love to eat and I even love grocery shopping lol. I cook mostly for the health aspect of things, although I do occasionally eat out. It is just me, and so I can cook as simply or as fancy as I would like.
I hate to cook. I m not a foodie. Can’t ask husband to cook everyday.
So yes, I cry deep inside and somehow cook just because there no other options. People have to eat to survive.
YES!!! All of this. I've tried to explain for years, I don't mind cooking but I don't love it. I do however love to eat good food. So it started after college when I had my first low paying job, I still wanted to eat something good. So I started cooking.
I love food. I love to shop for it, plan it, and cook it. I adore reading recipes. Baking is my passion. And I have to say: cooking looks a whole lot different for me now, than it did as a stay at home mom of four! Those were the juggle dinner time with after school activities days. The picky toddlers days. The grocery shopping with kids days. The pressure was on—five o’clock was looming and no plan? Add in the fact that we had SUCH a tight budget. I think I raised my kids on chicken and rice! And I often got a head start on dinner at nap time. I’d brown the meat, peel vegetables, etc. to get it out of the way.
You know, I did enjoy cooking more when I was a teenager. Over the years of cooking as a mom, though, it has started to feel like more and more of a slog.
But maybe when I am an empty nester, I will begin to enjoy it again!
@Kristen, That's what I'm hoping! I enjoyed it as a teen but cooking for kids/husband kind of beat out of me over the years. (Plus I have chronic fatigue syndrome. My last house did have a kitchen island on which I could sit and chop things, though I don't have it now.)
We can check back in with each other in five years or so to see if our hopes pan out.
I hate waste and gathered up every mushroom pepper tomato onion head of garlic.....sliced and roasted in olive oil...added to beef broth beef bouillon and 4 cans of beans washed free of salt...black...red...green..white and boiled the heck out of them...added just the rice part of pilaf box that was expiring......I have ten serving frozen. Gets better every time I eat it
I like the collecting of ingredients. The endless possibilities they represent. I also like collecting of recipes, again that endless possibility thing. The cooking I sometimes enjoy. It’s the timing part that ruins it for me. I like baking, again it’s the timing thing that throws things off for me.
I used to like restaurants until my husband started binging Kitchen Nightmares, now it’s a pass for me. I occasionally get take out. Usually i will order things I can’t make at home until I figure out how to make it at home. Then there’s something that’s clicks off in my mind, and I usually won’t order it again.
I guess the bottom line is I also really good food. I like making it, the sense of accomplishment. I get too much in my head and that affects everything.