Rotating Your From-Scratch
Here’s a way to take the pressure off your at-home cooking, while at the same time building your skills and confidence!
Don’t be too rigid!
Would you like to listen to the podcast version instead of reading this article? Find it here!
Some people tend to think they are being told they “have” to do something, when shown how to. And if that’s your approach, social media, or the internet in general, can be a pretty overwhelming place. Because you will get shown videos, hear podcasts and read articles about how to literally do anything, from parenting, to DIY, to organising and yes, definitely cooking.
I have recipes on here, and videos on my YouTube channel, on how to do a lot of things from scratch, like mayonnaise, marzipan, hummus and even pasta. Phew! That’s a lot of stuff from scratch. Want to know how often I make pasta from scratch? Well, I’m writing this almost halfway into the year and so far this year… once. How many times have we had pasta? Way more than once. I have also bought mayonnaise, and on one rare occasion even hummus, from the supermarket.
Just because I know how to make something, doesn’t mean that my life always allows for me to do that. But at the same time, just because my life doesn’t always allow for me to do something, it doesn’t mean that I should never do it. This doesn’t have to be such a polarised thing. I love the idea that we can, bit by bit, add to the repertoire of what we are able to make ourselves at home, because arguably, it will be much better for our bodies (and for all sorts of other things too. That’s kind of what The From Scratch Body is all about). But though we gain the knowledge and skills to make lots of things, it doesn’t mean that we now suddenly belong to some new religion where it’s a deadly sin to not use that knowledge or those skills. Along with more knowledge about base ingredients and cooking, we can determine what is perhaps more important to make from scratch based on what is important to us about cooking from scratch. Is it avoiding ultra-processed food? If so, maybe ready made pasta is not the biggest problem, but you may want to avoid mayo with emulsifiers or spice mixes with preservatives. Is it saving money? If so, you can look at the biggest savings you get from cooking from scratch, or maybe - in some cases - you may save on not cooking it from scratch, and doing a particular thing from scratch is more of a luxury in that case. Which is fine!
What I find is helpful to avoid the “all or nothing” approach (which stresses me out!) is to rotate what I make from scratch. This way I ensure a good bit of what we eat in a day, or in one meal (if there are several components), is made by me. A bit of a guilty pleasure of my husband’s for example, is oven chips - the ready made frozen bags. I like them too, but don’t feel great about having them for our health (especially as homemade oven chips are easy to do!), but I can offer it every now and then. If so, I make sure that everything else is definitely made from scratch. However, let’s say I made my own chips, I would be happy to sacrifice a different part of the meal. Having them with breaded chicken? I can use a box of panko breadcrumbs instead of making my own. Maybe one week I’ll buy mayonnaise and make my own hummus, the next I’ll buy hummus and make mayo! That way making stuff from scratch is less repetitive and boring as well, and we don’t get exposed to too much of any not-ideal ingredients from the ready-made foods (avoiding UPF is the main motivator for me).
So don’t get stuck thinking you have to do something from scratch just because you’ve learned how, but also don’t get complacent and never do it. Push yourself to make things from scratch that you don’t often make, and make your life easier by not being too rigid in all the other components of your meal being done from scratch, especially when you are working on a new skill or dish.
What are your thoughts on rotating what you make from scratch? Let me know in the comments below!
