How to gain health and save money by cooking

Photo by leahish.

Cooking is an under-rated skill in Singapore. If you believe in the concept of specialisation of labour, then you would think that it's more efficient for working professionals to concentrate on working and earning money and buy cooked food for our meals.

Well...yes and no.

While Singapore hawker fare is relatively plentiful and inexpensive, the true cost of not cooking is reflected in our health. In general, eating out can be more costly in the long-term because of the health implications.

Hawker food (and even restaurant standard) usually is:

* Not fresh
* High in sodium, oil, sauces
* High in saturated fats
* Bad bad bad for your health

So what's the alternative?

Learn to cook.

I used to be those who didn't know how to cook. Then I slowly picked up the hobby of cooking over weekends by learning to buy the ingredients such as meat (chicken, fish, pork) , vegetables, spices and sauces etc. Learning how to steam, stir-fry, boil simple dishes and soups.

Hey, isn't this a personal finance blog rather than a cooking blog? You're right, this topic is relevant to our personal finance because cooking can save you money as compared to restaurant meals. Recently I bought a whole chicken (1.1kg) for only $2.90! (Ed: sometime in mid 2007, now is $4.50) Wow... That's enough to feed me for 3-4 meals as I can chop the chicken into 3-4 portions, freeze most of it and cook each portion for a meal. Coupled with quick stir fry of spinach + shitake + dash of seasame oil, light and dark soy sauce, chopped garlic and onions and we have a simple nice meal all whipped up in less than 40 minutes.

The one thing that I realised from cooking my own meals is that it's very much healthier as you can control how much of salt, fats and oils you add to your dishes. In addition, the fresh onion and garlic are natural anti-bacterial agents which help to kill nasty germs in your body helping to boost your immunity.

Cooking is also a survival skill as you learn how to choose what you want to put into your mouth instead of relying on someone to cook leftovers and charge you $3-4 for that.

Be well and save money by cooking your own healthy meals!