Cooking at home is NOT frozen pizza!

Home made pizza

Cooking at home is a recommended for general health. Why?

Generally foods prepared at restaurants contain more butter, oils and preservatives that you would normally not encounter when cooking fresh food at home. I have a friend that typically ate out a lot and relayed this story to me.

He decided that he would start cooking at home more rather than eating out because he heard that it was cheaper and better for his health. So he bought a frozen pizza and brought it home to cook (first mistake). He then placed the pizza only (no tray) in the oven because he likes a crispy crust. When the pizza was done, he removed it with a wet towel only (second mistake). The pizza was so hot that he was surprised and threw it in the air. The pizza hit the ceiling and then the hot cheese came down and landed on his arm. My friend said that he was not going to cook at home ever again.

After laughing, I told him it serves him right because frozen pizza is not cooking at home. See how many fresh fruits and vegetables you can fill your cart with at the grocery store. We get a kick out of how many fruit and vegetable items we have to identify for the cashier because they don’t know them.

Other reasons to eat at home include a decreased risk of cancer. There is the thought that several types of cancer can be linked to ones diet. When eating out there is often not fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains and beans that contain lots of nutrition. It is also estimated that when eating out you generally consume up to 50% more calories than eating at home. Personally, I can live with out the cancer and with my limited time to exercise, I don’t need the extra calories.

There are several resources with healthy and easy recipes that I like to use. My favorite ones are Whole Foods Recipes, the Food Network and Quick Fix Meals by Robin Miller.

Enjoy!