Get Cooking

Cooking From Home

Canada’s Food Guide tells us to cook food at home more often. Why? Benefits of cooking from home include:

  • You can choose healthy ingredients and control what goes into the food

  • You can improve your food knowledge, creativity and planning skills

  • You’re less likely to have food go to waste, which is good for the landfills and your wallet

  • You can save money by eating out less often

  • Home-cooked meals tend to have a less sugar, salt and saturated fat compared to take-out, ready-made or convenience foods

  • You can cook with friends, family, neighbours, and co-workers, and share food traditions unique to your cultures

What should I do if I’m too busy to cook from home?

Busy schedules can make cooking at home challenging. Thankfully, Canada’s Food Guide has tips on how to find time for healthy cooking:

  1. Batch Cook. Make many portions of one meal so that when you need it, it’s ready! Keep them in your fridge to have during the week, or freeze and thaw as you need it.
  2. Keep Your Kitchen Stocked. Avoid turning to convenience foods by keeping your kitchen stocked with ingredients needed to make your favourite healthy meals.
  3. Use a Slow Cooker. Slow cookers are great for busy schedules because they don’t require much attention.
  4. Keep it simple. Choose realistic recipes. Recipes don’t have to have a long ingredient list for them to be tasty and healthy! As your confidence and skills develop, try more advanced recipes and cooking methods.

Want to eat healthy but don’t know where to start?

Check these out:

Cooking On a Budget

Helpful Tips and Budget-friendly Recipes

More Healthy Recipes and Resources

Other Websites

The Health Unit also recommends the following websites for healthy recipes and food preparation tips:

Canada’s Food Guide

Cookspiration.com

Foodland Ontario Recipes

Unlockfood.ca

Contact Us

North Bay Parry Sound District Health Unit

North Bay
345 Oak Street West

Parry Sound
90 Bowes St, 2nd Floor, Suite 201

Phone 705-474-1400
Toll Free 1-800-563-2808
contact@healthunit.ca