Cooking to Save the World

Make it Yourself

If you’re reading this newest post now, you have probably already perused our plethora of tasty recipes, and maybe even tried out a few for yourself. Our main goal with these recipes is to help people understand how easy, fun, inexpensive, and delicious cooking homemade meals really is. In particular, we have directed many of our posts directly at college students living in dorms, just as we are. Even in our small dorm room, we have been able to prepare scrumptious muffins, puddings, hummus, smoothies, cookies, and much more. Our main message is: you can do it too!

There are many more reasons to home cook than simply having fun, staying healthy, and eating delicious food. As much as you and I benefit from cooking our own food, the environment around us benefits even more. By simply blending your own hummus, you avoid buying several small plastic containers that most likely cannot be recycled and will end up in a landfill. You benefit by saving at least $10 and being able to adjust the recipe to your personal taste preferences. The environment benefits from your decreased consumption of plastics that require large quantities of fossil fuels to produce, and end up polluting the environment through carbon emissions and nonbiodegradable plastic.

The same story could be told of preparing homemade pudding, as we frequently do in our microwave, instead of buying prepackaged pudding snack packs. Puddings usually come in individual ½ cup servings in plastic containers bound together by cardboard, contributing both to plastic and paper consumption. Or imagine how many fruit parfaits and smoothies you see around campus, each one consuming a large plastic cup. Instead, you could make your own granola (I make granola practically every day just to keep the smell of warm cinnamon in my room) and mix up your own parfait with yogurt and fresh berries. The same thing goes for the smoothies, which are simple to prepare in either a blender or food processor and great for using up over ripe fruit.

The moral of the story is that cooking for yourself instead of buying prepackaged, highly processed foods will make you healthier and happier, keep your food bill low, and most importantly, reduce your carbon footprint and protect the environment. So get out there, start experimenting, and make it YOURSELF!