Your Ultimate Guide for How to Cook from Scratch in 2024

Learn how to cook from scratch with ease! This guide walks you through essential products, easy to follow recipes, and more to promise you ease and efficiency in the kitchen without sacrificing taste.

a bowl of brown eggs, a green apple, and a circle of dough laying on a wooden counter top

When I became a first time mom three years ago, I quickly became very aware of the ingredients in our food, and that many of them aren’t great. Added sugars, dyes, preservatives… you name it. I have only become more and more aware of this as time went on.

I have always loved cooking at home. The more knowledge I gained and the more research I did into nutrition, gut health, and the power of whole foods without all the added yucky stuff, the more determined I became to cook as many meals as I could for my family using quality ingredients.

And you know what? It’s much easier than I ever thought.

Why I Love Cooking From Scratch

FAMILY FRIENDLY – Learning to cook from scratch allows you the flexibility to create wholesome (and delicious!) meals the whole family will love.
HEALTHY – Prioritizing whole foods has been a game changer for our family. We like knowing where our food comes from, and what’s in it! Eat good, feel good, right?
SAVES MONEY– It can seem expensive to cook from scratch, but once you nail down the basics, it really does save so much money on groceries.

How to Start Cooking From Scratch

If you are completely intimidated or overwhelmed by learning how to cook from scratch, have no fear! These are my top three tips:

Invest in the right tools. This can make or break your experience in the kitchen! Investing in a handful of powerhouse tools in the kitchen can really skyrocket your success. Some of my favorites I have invested in include my Instant Pot, Kitchen Aid Mixer, and immersion blender.
Learn to batch prep. For me, this means creating easy staples that will work in a variety of ways to create different meals. Granola, hard-boiled eggs, and sourdough bread are just a few of my favorites for this.
Stock your pantry efficiently! This doesn’t mean spending a fortune to buy up all the food you possibly can, but learning what staples are best to stock up on to create a number of meals. I always have copious amounts of flour, rice, oats, pasta, chicken/beef stock, canned beans and tomatoes and more hanging around the pantry. I pair this with fridge staples like meat, butter, and eggs for easy and healthy meals!

Slow Cooker and Instant Pot Magic

I think most of us out there own or have at least used a slow cooker at some point. I still own one, and do find it extremely handy for slow cooking meats and soups for days when we are out of the house most of the day. They are relatively inexpensive and last for years!

My Instant Pot (along with my stand mixer) is one of my best friends in the kitchen. I use it constantly to make soups, shredded beef for tacos, hard boiled eggs, and even applesauce! All very quickly and with ease.

Easy Instant Pot Recipes

SEE ALL INSTANT POT

Discover the ease and convenience of cooking delicious meals with this collection of instant pot recipes!

hard boiled eggs cut in half and laying on a wooden cutting board

Instant Pot Hard Boiled Eggs: Easy Peel Every Time!

shredded beef in a glass dish with homemade tortillas and taco toppings

Easy and Delicious Instant Pot Mexican Shredded Beef

three glass jars of homemade cinnamon applesauce on a striped towel

The Ultimate Instant Pot Cinnamon Applesauce Recipe

The Power of Sourdough

Investing the time in creating an active and bubbly sourdough starter will save you time and money in the kitchen over and over again. It is extremely versatile!

Although it does create delicious sourdough bread, it is useful for creating all sorts of delicious recipes, from homemade bagels to cookies.

Sourdough also works great for meal prep! You can batch prep a bunch of doughs at the beginning of the week and store in the fridge for easy use later in the week. I do this often with sourdough pie crust!

To browse my guide of easy and affordable sourdough tools for success, head over to this post.

Top Tips from Food Bloggers!

Check out these noteworthy tips from fellow food bloggers who all strive to create wholesome, delicious meals for their families on a daily basis. Each blog is linked below for easy access to more yummy content!

“Having a freezer full of meat can make all the difference when cooking from scratch. Meat can serve as the base for any meal! If you have some on hand, you can easily piece together a meal in a pinch. This is especially true for ground meats like beef and chicken as they thaw quickly!”

-Lexi, our slice of home

“I’ve had the best success cooking from scratch when I pick easy recipes that my whole family loves. This whole wheat bread fits the bill! It takes only a few minutes to mix up and there is no kneading required. And my kids love it so it’s a win-win!”

Hannah, wellness with hannah

“Don’t be afraid to change up recipes! Substitute ingredients for similar things you have on hand, try different spices, and change ingredient amounts based on your flavor or health preferences. You’ll definitely have a few failures, but you’ll also become a better cook as you learn by experience. You may even create your new favorite recipe!

-VIOLET, Right at home

“Learn how to make cooking from scratch as economical as possible. Often times, the premade products (canned soup, dried mash potatoes, etc.) are cheaper than if we were to do it ourselves. However, the trade-off comes with a loss in nutrition quality. Being able to cook from scratch allows you to feed your family nutritious, wholesome food without breaking the bank. Effective ways to accomplish this are:

Keep your pantry organized so you know what ingredients you have on hand.
Buy in bulk when possible
Be okay with substitutions (frozen veggies for fresh, etc.)

Lastly, don’t overthink it! Recipes don’t have to be followed to the ‘T’ and your sourdough doesn’t have to be a perfect 80% hydration to be successful. Cooking should be fun! Let’s keep it that way.”

-Darian, the Kindred Kitchen

“My favorite tip for from scratch cooking is to find a couple of good
cookbooks. Get one that teaches the foundations of taste (like “Salt,
Fat, Acid, Heat” by Samin Nosrat) and one that has a good variety of
basic recipes with lots of instructions and pictures. I love Mark
Bittman’s “How to Cook Everything: The Basics“. Each step is clearly
defined and really teaches you how to cook the basics. You can then take any recipe (like the awesome ones here on Our Handcrafted Home!) and feel confident in your skills to make it.”

-karina, Goodleyliving.com

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