The other day I felt lazy and bought a can of food for a quick dinner. It ended up creating the most trash of any meal for a while.

Since my apartment renovations opened up the kitchen, I’m cooking a lot more. Specifically, I’m cooking a lot more from scratch, buying a lot more vegetables, which I cook in the rice cooker / vegetable steamer / miracle appliance. Also a lot more beans, which I also cook in the rice cooker. Or I sauté the vegetables with olive oil.

I’ve noticed I’m creating a lot less trash—a lot less. I didn’t realize how much trash comes from food packaging. When I buy an eggplant, I put carry it home by hand or in a bag I brought with me. I compost the stem, so it becomes fertilizer. Prepared and packaged food creates a lot more garbage.

At the extreme, when I’m at a friend’s place who orders out, one meal produces more trash than cooking from scratch does in a week.

Now that I started the habit, cooking at home takes less time than eating out, including washing the dishes. It seems healthier and saves money. I don’t get the specialties of a trained chef, but I do get the satisfaction of my own home cooking. Plus my cooking is improving with experience and I know exactly what I’m eating.

Somehow producing less landfill trash seems one of the things I like most about home cooking. And the six-pack definition on the abs.

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