What motivates you to cook? Especially those of you who can afford to eat out/order in?

What motivates you to cook? Especially those of you who can afford to eat out/order in?

This isn't a troll thread - I have a hard time building up the motivation after a long day of work, maybe the gym, errands, etc. to come home and spend up to an hour cooking and then cleaning up when it's all for myself. Occasionally I have a craving for something specific and I'll make it, but cooking daily is a big pain in the ass when I can just eat something prepared for me by someone else.

Non-financial motivations would be nice...

Food I make is much better than carry out 99% of the time. Also carry out for stuff I want, like Albondigas or Duck doesn't exist.

For me it's a hobby I enjoy. My job is something creative that used to be my love. Now it's my job. So I needed something kind of creative to fill the void left by turning my passion into a career. Cooking was it. I enjoy spending hours a day thinking about what I'm gonna cook and making it.

Time isn't an issue because most days I have the time to cook. When I don't I go out to eat, or get delivery. I do the same when inspiration doesn't hit me, but it does most days.

It helps that I have a wife who really appreciates my cooking. So even when it's a little bit of a hassle my efforts are appreciated.

As far as money goes, if I wanted to get food as good as what I cook at home at a restaurant on a daily basis it would be very expensive.

I enjoy it, it relaxes me, and cooking from scratch tastes better and is healthier than fast food or premade bullshit. I love food and I want to be able to create top-quality food for my own consumption.

I enjoy cooking a lot and i think the food i make is better than eating out. I don't cook every day though there's no way I'd have time for that. Its more of a weekend thing or every few days but I'll always have leftovers for days

Get a pressure cooker, and cook healthy food fast.

it's fun and relaxing
kinda meditative as well, don't have to think about anything but the cooking when I cook

It's a basic life skill that should be learned and cultivated

If you can't feed yourself you are an idiot

because I'm stingy as fuck and every time I go out to eat I always look at the food and bitch to myself about buying over priced food which I can make myself if I put the time in it

OP here. I can cook (maybe I'm not the best, but you can hand me some ingredients and I'll get the job done), but the opportunity cost just isn't there most of the time.

I used to hate cooking.

Until I invented my 10 minute rule, which means that anything that takes more than 10 minutes to cook is not worth it.

Now it's just like a minor inconvenience and as a result I've lost 32kg since I don't go for fast food and other unhealthy shit.

The only time I enjoy cooking is if I'm doing barbecue with my father, but then it's more about the bonding shit I guess.

you try ordering in goat stuffed with dates over rice pilaf with an arugula side salad and a nice Malbec
I'll wait

I make everything in pretty big batches that last me at least 2-3 days.
I'm way too lazy at home to cook every day.

It fills the void in my life. I used to just play video games 8 hours a day, now I cook for 3 hours a day and only play vidya for 3 hours.

What do you do with the other 2 hours?

I eat the food that I cooked.

Do you just spend 2 hours eating? I've found that I've grone increasingly 'addicted' to having constant stimulation and I can only eat with a stream or Veeky Forums open on my laptop

Same as other Anons, it's relaxing; that and most of the restaurants here in rural SW MI serve shit food that I can prepare better at home though there are economies of scale when it comes to some of the more fancy things, but those aren't served here anyway. It is what it is, you cut corners. One recipe I like to do is stuffing a chicken breast with some pate (no foie gras in this neck of the woods) , make a pocket in a large breast, fill it,tie it up with kitchen twine, pan sear it, place in another pan and bake to finish, make a pan sauce in the first pan with reconstituted fancy shrooms & their liquor or champignons, white wine or dry vermouth, add cream for the chest grabber; some green beans/snow peas, rice pilaf and a salad. Crusty bread. Sauvignon Blanc. It's golden. Rednecks around here who've gotten their meal ideas from the cooking channel aren't going to be able to produce that.

Ten minutes of actual work, like kneading dough, or ten minutes as in "throw salt and pepper on a steak and wait a half hour until I grill it then put on rice as I cook a steak for ten minutes"

It just seems like you should dedicate time to make food as delicious as possible no matter what it is

10 minutes?
Is that also limited to cooking with an oven?

The latter.

At most I'll use a frying pan for fish and chicken. Beans I eat cold. I don't eat rice, pasta, potatoes or anything like that.

A couple of hardboiled eggs for breakfast, but I got one of those egg cookers for that.

A shitload of vegetables on top of everything and wa la. I eat the same meal every day, I think my brain must be wired wrong because I don't get tired of it.

Used to cook as a child, about once a week. Mostly lived off of frozen dinners. I moved to a different country, and here there is still a homemaker culture. My two bedroom apartment has a wonderful gas and stainless kitchen with a powerful hood and no stupid smoke alarm 5 feet from the stove like one stupid apartment I used to live in.

Christ almighty the difference between working in a good kitchen versus a bad one. I used to suck at cooking because my stoves weren't hot enough. Even on hot stoves, fear of burning Teflon cucked me into unintentionally steaming all my food. I now have an egg pan and everything else is uncoated. Having a big kitchen with a big sink and very hot water makes cleanup super fast.

I cook every day now, and my goal is to be better than all but the best restaurants. Getting there quickly since being bad at frying made me compensate with flavor. When I get a house of my own, I'm going to start putting in commercial cooking equipment, maybe start selling food so I can cook all day without running out of money.

Mostly people not knowing how to properly prepare veggies

I feel like I have to go to a sit-down at $15 a head to get a decently prepared side of veggies. It's really not that hard to source seasonal produce and make cheap, tasty veggies with a little technique but you'd think it was haute cuisine in these parts

Plus, I eventually want to shave my neckbeard and procreate and the thought of leaving my childrens' nutrition to a stronk modern women terrifies me

Because sitting alone in a restaurant eating spaghetti bolognese is depressing as fuck

>What motivates you to cook?
getting better at it, learning new things/skills to do. showing off
i usually only do it on my days off as i only have 1.5 hours to myself during work days. rest are working /sleeping

I put on music I like and then go to town, it's pretty relaxing tbqh

Time.
As in "it would take me 30 minutes to drive, order food, and come back when I could use that time to cook at home and save money."
The weekends I go all out though, I would spend the extra time to make a good meal.
Weekdays I just cook some cheap frozen patties from Wal Mart and eat my sad but cheap burger.

This
My food is superior to lazy chefs and overpaid waiters.

I'm kinda like you, but time is not my problem, it's just that I hate cleaning up and doing the dishes (I don't have a dishwasher) so I disregard any recipe that needs more than 1 bowl + 1 pan to be prepared.
I also often eat the food directly from the pan using the wooden spoon I used to cook it.

My wife and i enjoy it as kind of couples thing. Well get off work go to the market. Get some shit and go home split a bottle of wine make the food and watch a movie or some shit. We do this just about every night...we like to go out too becuase it does make a mess. But aside fron that its pretty .

I just really enjoy it.

I find it relaxing and it feels good to create something that can appreciated. It's also exciting to try out new/exotic recipes.

>What motivates you to cook?

Being hungry.

But also control: control your food, control your weight.

I like to plan ahead, make recipes, and portion carefully to avoid getting fat again.

My issue is with vegetables. It feels inconvenient to get them fresh and because I'm already unhealthy, I always feel like crap after work, so it's usually just sitting around with no motivation. So cooking is a pain. I get the feeling that if I just ate boiled potatoes for dinner every day I'd actually end up eating healthier than I am.

i feel you, its a major hussle to cook every day, the only to make it more pleasant is to cook stuff that holds well for a couple of days and might even be varied,
I do a large batch of minnestrone/beouf bourguignon/bolognese or basically any stew/curry/soup/dumplings at least once a week and eat that for 2-3 days and freeze some.That way youll pretty much always have something you can make in a matter of minutes from the freezer.I also usualy go to my favorite delicacy store about once a week and get a couple of cheeses and other cold things, so i can have a nice cold meal when i lack the motivation to cook. My motivation is to cook for my gf, since she works til late pretty much every day. Also takeout/ordering makes you fat and eating at a restaurant is at least as much of a hussle, concerning time, as cooking.
But i do agree that its nice to have the option, because planning your food for every single day takes the fun out of it.

I'm a disgusting piece of shit with too much time on my hands. I'm addicted to food. Not fat yet luckily. But I fear that I wouldn't stop if I was.

I like my food and cooking better, plus I grew up that way. I was cooking for the family by 14-15 years old because both my parents worked. They taught me young. We didn't get fast food and there weren't fast food places on every damn corner. Plus, there were 6 of us total. We couldnt afford it. I'd rather cook my own food. I know what's in it that way too.

I enjoy cooking, I find it relaxing. Even better if you have a glass of wine / bourbon while cooking and some nice quiet music.

I'm a cheap ass who won't pay restaurant/takeout prices.

I also think that cooking is fun and a valuable skill.