There are all kinds of jokes about the older you get, the less you remember where the kitchen is. And there's triumph in giving up dinner at home once it doesn't include kids who refuse to eat the zucchini casserole. But the merits of doing your own cooking are far more extensive than what prompted us to take that route earlier in life.



Cooking offers a lot of potential as a source of both cost cutting and pleasure. When the economy makes us look for ways to cut back, eating fewer meals in restaurants is a no-brainer. But if you do that, do cook. Scarfing down Cheetos while you watch Wheel of Fortune is an insult to your body. (Your mind, too....)

I'm not talking about Peking duck for your Saturday night dinner party. I'm talking about nutritious, easy-to-make, ordinary meals. The kind you make from what you have on hand instead of hunting through four stores for three different exotic ingredients.(That's not cooking. That's culinary one-upmanship.)

If you already know how to do this kind of cooking, take a shot at doing more of it. If you've never really gotten into cooking, maybe it's time to learn those skills. You don't have to get fancy, but make what you like.

Here's a quick list of some of the major advantages to eating at home:

- You get to decide the whole menu. No need to ask permission to substitute.

- You get to decide the portion size, so you can eat a bit less.

- You can enjoy what's left as a future meal. (But there's no need to cook enough for an Army platoon.)

- You get to decide when you want to eat. No waiting for a table.

- You get to enjoy it however you want. Chili sauce on your mashed potatoes? Who's going to know the difference?

- It costs a lot less than restaurant food--at least if you are paying attention.

- You can eat local from what farmers in your area produce—or from your own garden.

Food has more nutrients just after it's picked, so you get more healthful stuff eating local. It's a great opportunity to cut back on processed foods, which are high in salt, fat, high fructose corn syrup and other nasty stuff.

I am always amazed at how much fun I can have in the produce department for under $5. My mom--who at one point fed a family of nine healthfully on $25 a week--taught me early to buy what's in season and what's on sale. That's still good advice. But only buy it if it's pretty. Fresh stuff looks pretty. (Well, maybe not jicama. I'm not sure that's ever pretty. But it tastes good.)

Same deal in the other sections of the store. If it's outrageously expensive, it can wait. Buy what you need for a week and put meat you won't use right away in the freezer. You can get both chicken breasts and peeled uncooked shrimp frozen in bags. You use only what you need and put the rest in the freezer for later. Lots of stuff can be cooked starting from frozen.

There are hundreds of ways to be smart in a grocery store and another hundred for what you do with the food when you get home. It's a management issue. Step up to it!

If you still need to develop your cooking skills, relax. It's not rocket science. There are lots of basic cookbooks that tell you how to do everything from boil eggs to fillet a fish. And you can borrow them from the library to give them a test drive before you invest in one.

So get at it and count this extra blessing: Learning something new is a great plus when we get to where learning is considered optional. That's the best advantage of all. Cooking makes you think. You need to use you head to figure out the recipe, to decide what to substitute if you don't have what the recipe calls for, to follow the instructions.

You also get to be creative with what you do with what you have left. (I've made some inexpensive but heavenly salad meals of late that I would never have been able to sample in a restaurant.)

Yes, there are a lot of benefits in cooking for yourself. And it's like riding a bicycle, once you learn, you know it for the rest of your life.

Plus when you do go out to eat at a restaurant, you'll enjoy it more because you know how all that good food is prepared.

Copyright (c) 2009 Mary Lloyd