Two weeks ago I asked readers of Joyfully Retired to participate in a survey on the frequency of cooking at home. (See post here.) I’ve been reading a book by Mark Bittman (Cooking Solves Everything) and I quoted these statistics:
“Seven percent of Americans say they never cook; 30 percent say
they cook three or four times a week.”
I found those statistics hard to believe, so I asked you to tell me your experience with cooking at home. I honestly thought the results of my survey would be skewed in favor of more home food preparation. After all, I was asking this question during the Weekend Cooking post. Weekend Cooking’s bloggers and readers are “foodies.” I thought they would show higher numbers for cooking at home. Here are the results:
Good news: 76% of survey participants eat the majority of their meals at home. That’s 35 people who rely on outside food places for 5 or less meals each week. According to Mark Bittman (and others), these folks are healthier. He believed that, once a person focuses on food at home, they begin to see food in a different way. We begin to see the raw ingredients in light of what they can become. The creative process encourages the home chef to try even more creative endeavors. In the process, everyone eats healthier.
There are still some of us who see food preparation as a job. I totally understand. I do remember those times, after working all day, when the last thing I wanted to do was face a stove and then all those dirty dishes and bowls and pans. Take-out, fast-food, or restaurants were attractive alternatives. I knew I wasn’t eating healthy, but I was caught in a cycle where other things than food had a higher priority. I’m sure we’ve all been there.
What’s the solution? Mark Bittman has an idea:
“Cooking has to become hip. It has to become
just as much fun, just as prestiious, just as much a part
of the culture as watching others cook.”
I think he’s on to something there, but I think it’s also something more. Preparing healthy food needs to be fun or hip for everyone. I know many men today are spending more time in the kitchen. That’s a good thing, but I still don’t see many at the grocery store.
Who does the meal planning for the week? I’m suggesting the whole family become involved. I know children can be included in both meal planning and preparation. A good trend is the number of schools whose curriculum includes gardening – the growing of vegetables. I’d love to see that trend extend to more home gardening by children. Even a pot of chives or other herbs would be a good start.
Perhaps those of us who participate in Weekend Cooking can help the 24% of survey participants who prepare few meals at home. Do you have a tip or two for those days when you have very little energy for cooking? Any ideas for quick meals children can help prepare? I’ve given this some thought too. You’re going to see more posts in the weeks ahead that will contain easy, healthy food ideas. I encourage my fellow Weekend Cooking participants to join in.
We eat out more than we should – a lot of times it’s a social event, though. Carl enjoys cooking and will run to the grocery store on the weekend.
I think food needs to be more affordable…the food that is good for you is so very expensive so it makes the bad stuff much easier on the budget. I wish that I really enjoyed to cook..maybe if I did have more family input on the meals I would enjoy it more. Sometimes it seems like a chore. I know grocery shopping is a dreaded weekly outing for me! I think I need an attitude adjustment
I think I told you when you wrote this post that we have moved into the realm of eating at home more. A conscious decision, plus a location one. We live at least 6 or 8 miles from any restaurant. Even then, it’s not a “nice” one. Our months of living in the country have made me not at all attracted to fast food anymore. However, all this was not the case in the past. We ate out a lot. I did try to order more healthy fare, but when you don’t see something prepared, you can’t know really how it is cooked. I do hate grocery shopping though – truly. I’d almost pay someone to do it for me. LOL
I think cooking is great, I just don’t think cleaning up is great! :–)
Somehow, I missed this poll when you originally posted it – too bad, I would have loved to participate. We only eat out maybe one meal a week, typically a dinner meal. We always pack our lunches to bring to work and eat a small breakfast (usually cold cereal) before work. That said, we don’t have fancy cooked dinners every night (far from it!). Often during the work week, we’ll have something simple like soup and grilled cheese sandwiches or pasta. For us it is more of a budget thing than a health thing, though we know and appreciate the health benefits as well. Usually when we do go out to eat, it’s because we have a gift card or groupon or something. We very rarely pay full price at restaurants. Interesting poll and interesting book!
Maybe I’ll enjoy cooking again if we ever get our kitchen finished. I don’t have counter space or enough cabinets so cooking anything is chaos.
Great idea to encourage simple meals. This is a hard challenge for me. I’ve never really had a problem cooking. I don’t plan my meals, I just buy what is fresh, seasonal, and looks good. I’ve always done that because that’s how my mom and and my grandmothers cooked. When in doubt, I make soup or stir-fry. I can whip together a one-pot healthful meal in no time using ingredients on hand.
When I’m in my really busy season with work and I’m working 7 days a week, 10 hours a day, I rely on my slow cooker, pressure cooker, and grill. Getting kids to help is a great idea of course. Maybe older kids can get the salad made and veggies prepped before you get home from work.
And I didn’t realize that cooking wasn’t hip. I thought it was. LOL.
Simple meals are a good way to go. I also cook for the freezer so if I don’t feel like making a fuss we can always grab something. And you would definitely see my husband at the grocery, he does the big shop for me on the weekends, he likes it. I’ll do the fill-ins during the week.
Interesting results! I use my crockpot a lot.
Interesting post. Lucky for me my husband and daughter both enjoy cooking so we all share in the fun. It’s the cleanup that we struggle with!
We don’t eat out very often, because it can be quite a challenge finding a good restaurant that will also have a vegan option for my husband. But we have some pretty interesting meals at home, since Ward likes to cook. He doesn’t like looking for recipes, though, so that’s my job (it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it …). Some days, it feels a little like being in a restaurant – I’ll find a recipe I like on Pinterest, email it to him, and next thing I know, it’s our dinner! He usually gets creative and turns out a vegan version of the same recipe as well, so it’s almost like we’ve having the same thing.
Now that we’ve moved to the city, Ward goes food shopping every day (well, actually, even when we were out in the suburbs, he did the food shopping every day, only he drove there – but he likes walking to the food shops a lot more than driving to them!), so the right ingredients are never a problem.
Interesting survey results. I admit some months we seem to eat out a lot more than others –think it depends how bust we are.
We eat out only once a month or so, although I might go out for lunch a few times during that span
Our dinners run most smoothly when I do meal plan – then I have all the ingredients I need, and there’s no 6 o’clock stress!
My current best tips are:
-cabbage salad. Make it once and eat it for several days. I learned to make it from Mark Bittman’s Food Matters book.
-panini. A new dish for us since we got a Griddler, Jr.
-soups. I’ve never been much of a fan of soup for a meal, but with a nice panini and/or a salad, it’s a good meal. And another item that can be fixed once and be used for several meals.
Meal planning sounds daunting, but from experience I can say that it saves a lot of time in the end. You end up with healthier and more satisfying meals as well. And you are less likely to end up with bits and pieces of groceries at the end of the week, wondering what to do with them (other than making minestrone or a pasta dish).
Eating out in The Netherlands is quite expensive, a sandwich with lettuce, tomato and cheese can cost as much as 3.50 euros in the university canteen. A meal at an average restaurant could easily result in a bill of 30 euros per person (2 courses, 1 or 2 drinks). It’s just more affordable to make my own meals :s Perhaps prices in the US are slightly lower than this?
I agree with everything Chinoiseries said
I always plan my meals a week ahead. Sometimes there are weeks when I don’t and in the end I always regret it.
I don’t mind cooking as much as I used to because now that we are retired, it’s much easier. No time crunch or pressure either especially now that TBG has been doing a lot of the cooking and some of the cleaning up and shopping. Meal planning hinges on what we have in the freezer or what is on sale that week.
Hehe what a pity I missed out on the survey — that would have been 1 more more person to regularly eat home-cooked meals!
As you probably know I often plan my meals — otherwise some CSA veggies get stuck at the bottom of my fridge.. LOL. I think CSA could be fun for kids as you can find out together what kind of ‘weird’ or forgotten veggies are around and what to do with them.
Also, a big bowl of hearty soup can be a good meal accompanied by a salad and wholesome bread. If you cook up a double batch and stick it in the freezer, you’ve got stock for one of those energy-low days. Preparing your vegetables in advance helps too. If your green beans are already washed, you’ll likely use them quicker. Even lettuce leaves will stay good for a few days after washing if you keep them whole!
Seems to me that everything has become complicated…why’s and how to eat at home along with everything else we do. We eat at home because we live there and the food is there and its healthier and cheaper. I have a sister that never cooks and she has 3 kids! Think of what else she could do with the money she would save by eating at home! and her kids wouldn’t have such weight problems:)
Last year my son started training at the gym. He became very interested in the food he was eating and asked me how to cook various things. We started with white rice. Once he had perfected that, we moved on to brown rice. Then ground beef. He’ll mix the rice with the beef. Then he wanted to add vegetables to the mixture. He is slowing expanding his menu. Daughter now wants to cook. Her first recipe is Coconut Chicken. We have made it together and next she will make it with me assisting. I have suggested to her that she perfect 2 recipes this year, and she countered with 4. They are both proud to boast to their friends that I cook most of their meals from scratch.
My son is at college and he is shocked that most of his classmates have no idea how to cook. All they can make are those salty noodle cups. He is now teaching his friends to cook a roast beef (cheap cut, long cooking time) and sweet potatos. They are amazed that you can eat good food and not spend a fortune. Oh yes, he tells them to eat oatmeal from the huge bag for breakfast, not those tiny pouches that are so pricey.
I go through phases of eating out and home cooking. At the moment, I have very much been on the no cooking regime, and I really need to get back to actually cooking.
There’s a great quote from Tamsin Day-Lewis I put on the blog four years ago:
Other people are prepared to put so much effort into other areas of their
lives. I mean, nobody says it’s wrong to go out shopping for hours on end.
People go to salons and have their bodies mucked about with and have their
hair and nails done. But five or six nights a week, they come home and they
don’t want to cook when it takes only half an hour to make a good supper.
It’s actually quite a relaxing thing to do at night.
Tamasin Day-Lewis
I missed your survey–but we only eat out on payday (1/mo) and when we travel. I cook the rest of the time.
What an interesting survey… I’m actually impressed that the results were that skewed toward eating at home. I’m sort of on the cusp of focusing on food at home. It’s been in that past 9 months or so that I’ve started thinking a lot more about food, and only in the past 3-4 months that I’ve really become knowledgeable (or trying to be) in environmentally friendly, organic, local foods.
Cooking is hard with full time work, especially shift work, hard to have enough time for a routine. It’s an important discussion to have though. I only ever partly read Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, but I do remember him saying that Americans ate 20% of their meals IN their cars- you just know that that food isn’t healthy. I’ve discussed that among Aussies I know and haven’t found anyone who eats in their car- apart from the occasional meal whilst travelling. Thanks for the survery Margot and the discussion- it was a great idea.
As soon as Gage turned 1 and was supposed to start eating what we eat I realized how bad Jason and I eat! BG (Before Gage) we ate out too much, but now I am trying to start cooking more and healthier. I’m not that great at the planning part which has been a problem. That and the fact that we like cheese too much and Gage can’t have any!