How to Cook From Scratch When You Don’t Want to
What better person to write about how to cook from scratch than the one person who does not want to cook from scratch? heh heh
It’s a tongue twister, I know, but really…
There’s a lot of planning and preparation involved when we cook from scratch and it can be overwhelming at times.
I’ve got a mental backlog of the staple foods that I typically like to keep in stock at home and I’m wondering, where do I begin?
Make a List
The inventory of the things I need to do, swirls around in my head, leaving me quite dizzy and a little anxious.
Once I get all those floating tasks written down and out of my head, the room begins to settle.
5 Reasons to Write a To-Do List to be More Productive
1. Get Organized
Once you get your to-do list written out, you can then break it down and organize it so you can figure out where to start.
At this point you can prioritize, categorize, and get creative with your list.
Sometimes it’s fun to use stationary or colored ink, stickers, add a little spritz of essential oils to your paper, and go all out if it sparks motivation.
Shop Stationery
Affiliate links help support the blog. I get commissions for purchases made through links in this post at no extra cost to you. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. See full disclosure here. Thanks for the support!
For example, I created a list of foods we eat throughout the week that require forethought, preparation, and time on cute cat and laundry stationary.
Since I cook from scratch this list is not a list of recipes but more of a to-do list because there’s a whole process involved.
Let me show you what I mean.
Here’s a list of Scratch foods we keep in our home:
- Whole Wheat Sourdough Sandwich Bread Loaves
- Sourdough Artisan Bread
- Kombucha
- Kimchi
- Keifer
- Sauerkraut
- Bone Broth
- Fill Water Jugs
- Flour Tortillas
- Soak Beans
- Veggie Prep
Ferments
As you may have noticed, the top 6 items are ferments, which take about 24 hours or more to prepare.
Food Prep
The next item is bone broth, which doesn’t require as much time as the ferments but it is a process.
Item number 8 seems silly, however, I use a gravity filtration system for our family’s drinking water.
It takes quite some time for the water to filter down into the lower chamber that holds the clean filtered water.
In order to create reserves, I have to stay on top of refilling the top chamber with water.
Items 9-11 are staples I keep on hand that take some time to prepare.
2. Relieve Stress
As you start knocking out items from the list, you’ll begin to feel good.
Yup, that’s a release of dopamine to save the day!
It’s so relieving to not only check off the list but see the fruits of our labor.
Now we have booch to drink and bread to eat!
Shop Kombucha
3. Accountability
Once we put pen to paper, we have given life to what needs to be done.
There’s no more wondering and veering off into the abyss, we know what to do.
We have also created accountability for ourselves, which is motivating and will make us more productive.
4. Schedule Tasks
After examining your to-do list, you can then organize and prioritize what needs to be done.
Planning and making sense of your time further relieves stress and anxiety.
Scheduling time to prepare food during the day or week is essential when you cook from scratch.
The Compounding Effect
Consider the compounding effect, sprinkle in small food prep tasks in your agenda throughout the week and it will add up.
You will soon reap huge rewards after creating these small habits.
For instance, Sunday nights would be a good time to soak a couple of different types of beans and prepare the sourdough levan.
Monday, cook the beans, knead, and proof the sourdough bread.
Tuesday prep the veggies and while the knife is out, make the kimchi and sauerkraut.
Wednesday brew the kombucha and get the Keifer going.
Thursday make the bone broth and a batch of tortillas while the broth is cooking.
5. Delegate
Take a good look at the list, where can you delegate some of the work?
Is there something that the little ones or husband can help you with?
Filling up the water tank would be an excellent task for my husband, and the little ones can fill up the jugs.
Now that’s one less thing for me to worry about!
Remember Why You Chose to Cook From Scratch
It’s the perfect time to remember the “why”.
Why is it important to cook from scratch and what does it matter when you can easily buy takeout?
4 Reasons to Cook From Scratch:
1. Cost of Food
Inflation, Inflation, Shrinkflation? Need I say more?
It’s incredibly concerning how expensive food is becoming
One money-saving hack I learned as a homemaker is to buy food in bulk and cook the staple foods from scratch myself.
Buy in Bulk
We eat bread like there’s no tomorrow, especially if it’s homemade.
Let’s examine the baking items that I cook from scratch such as sourdough bread and flour tortillas on my list.
Shop Sourdough Starter
Because I bake often, it makes sense for us to buy those ingredients in bulk.
I buy a couple of 25 lb bags of various high-quality flours from Azure Standard which are the main ingredients in almost all of my baking.
I make sure to store them properly so they don’t spoil, which would defeat the purpose of buying in bulk!
Now I have enough flour to last me 6months-1year and the cost of bread goes from $6 a loaf to $1 a loaf.
I was shocked to see that a pack of 12 non-organic flour tortillas was $4.50 at the grocery store!
I cook my own 12-pack from scratch for less than $1!
2. Control the Ingredients
Anytime you buy food in a package, it will most likely have some sort of preservative or extra ingredients that your body doesn’t need.
Whether it is natural or not, many companies add fillers and use low-quality ingredients to increase their profits.
Take control of the ingredients in your food by cooking it from scratch using organic high-quality ingredients when possible.
Avoid toxic and inflammatory ingredients that plague our health.
3. The Taste
Ooo there’s nothing like the smell and taste of fresh bread out of the oven!
Let’s face it, when you buy a loaf of bread from the grocery store, do you rush home and rip the package open to taste a slice?
Hardly.
On the other hand, when the alarm goes off on the stove, and the bread is ready, everyone rushes to it and I can barely open the oven door without the fear of someone getting burned!
Or when you got the griddle going and those soft flour tortillas are coming off the pan, they’re gone before you could even finish cooking the last one!
The taste is so rewarding!
4. It’s Healthier
In our American culture today, we are spending less time cooking from scratch and relying on convenience foods.
According to a research paper from the Public Health Nutrition Journal, these foods that are prepared away from home typically are high in energy and have low nutritional value.
One interesting reason Americans are spending less time cooking from scratch was noted as follows:
Female participation in the workforce outside the home is often cited as a primary determinant of declining cooking frequency as women (and mothers in particular) spend less time cooking than in the past.
Wolfson, J., & Bleich, S. (2015)
I found this very interesting because providing meals from scratch for my family was one of the reasons why I chose to become a stay-at-home mama.
While it is possible to work a full-time job outside of the home and provide home-cooked meals, I chose to focus my time as a homemaker and all it entails.
The research paper concludes with this:
Cooking dinner frequently at home is associated with consumption of a healthier diet whether or not one is trying to lose weight. Strategies are needed to encourage more cooking among the general population and help infrequent cookers better navigate the food environment outside the home.
Wolfson, J., & Bleich, S. (2015)
Doesn’t that affirm what we are doing matters?
Sometimes we just need small reminders.
Source Quality Backup
If you’re still not convinced, fear not!
Sometimes we just aren’t in the season to do it all and that’s ok!
This is where the store-bought raw sauerkraut and kombucha come into play.
Shop Back up Foods
As much as I like to make these from scratch, you will always find a store-bought version in my refrigerator.
Maybe one day when my girls are a little older, they can be in charge of some of the ferments… sigh.
Until then we will not give up altogether, it’s alright to keep backup bread, tortillas, and canned beans at that!
Cooking from scratch can be a pleasure and a chore, remember it’s also a sign of love.
I’ll leave you with this inspirational quote from Proverbs:
What do you like to cook from scratch? How do you get motivated to do it?
I’d love to hear all about it in the comments below!