What I Learned From Home Cooking Every Single Meal for More Than 100 Days!
By: Aditi Agarwal
Tags: Health, Fitness, Homecooking, Nutrition

COVID-19 changed our lives in different ways; for all of us, it meant staying at home and for some of us it meant getting our groceries delivered and cooking our own meals. For me, for the first time in my 27 years of existence, I decided to cook every meal at home to have a sustainable way of surviving the lockdown. I was never a supporter of meal delivery. For me the amount of wastage in packaging one meal was too much to take. At the same time, I appreciate that food delivery has done a lot of good to the world especially during the coronavirus.

I LOVE food. I am one of those people who start to decide what dinner will look like while I am having lunch!

Before the lockdown, I would usually get my lunch and dinner at food courts or restaurants. Also, I LOVE food. I am one of those people who start to decide what dinner will look like when I am having lunch. Lockdown meant I had to either cook my own food or get it delivered. I decided to chose the former, and can affirmatively say that it changed my life for the better.

Today, I will share 5 key lessons I learnt by cooking every single meal for the past 100 days. And a productivity hack to get the dishes done simultaneously.

1. You can save a lot of money!

This is a no brainer. I am based in Singapore, and a takeout meal including delivery will cost an average of S$15, which translates to ~200 dollars for 2 meals/per day in week, not including breakfast and other snacks. I order groceries for less than 70 S$ every week including my breakfast and snacks. Pro tip: The cost of takeout meals increase linearly if you are ordering for more than 1 person, the cost of groceries not as much.

2. You will definitely cook healthier food, even if you are not thinking about it actively.

Although I added 30 mins of exercise to my routine about 4–5 times a week, the majority of my weight loss and healthier lifestyle came from eating home food. When you cook your meal yourself, you control what goes into it, including the micro ingredients like the sauces, oil to the macro ingredients like meat, pulses etc. At home, I added simple things like a salad with my lunch, which includes cucumber, tomatoes and lemon (yum!).

3. It takes less time than you think.

Cooking home food definitely takes more time than clicking a few buttons on the delivery app, but it takes lesser time than you are extrapolating. Especially, after the initial few days when you have got the hang of the recipes and are planning your ingredients correctly. For regular food, it takes me less than 30 mins now to get each meal prepped.

4. It helps you get more organised and productive.

This was an unintended learning from home cooking. I ordered groceries once a week. To ensure I had the right ingredients, I had to plan early if I wanted to cook a new recipe or top up the stuff that was running low. I got really good at this. I eliminated wastage and ensured I had enough ingredients every meal to improvise. Cooking at home got me more disciplined about my time. For example, I did my lunch and breakfast dishes together while I prepared my evening tea. Also, I did my evening tea and dinner dishes while I watched a podcast post dinner. I ensured I followed a good process to reduce my cooking/cleaning time with my 9–6 job.

5. You don’t need to be a chef.

I started lockdown with some idea of cooking home food, for example, making some overnight oats, making some basic Indian dishes, but during lockdown I started watching a lot more recipes and making dishes I had not tried before. It was not only a fun experience, but I also realised that most of the dishes follow similar patterns of cooking and if you get the basic ingredients right, taste just fine. We are not trying to be professionals here! Pro Tip: the food you cook yourself tastes better to you which is the best thing about home cooking.