Brett Maciech
When I was first considering how I should tackle the subject of take-out food in Laramie, I thought long and hard on all my favorite take-out places and all the recent take-out orders I placed. Do you know what? I realized I hadn’t eaten any take-out in two months and I couldn’t be any happier.
Admittedly, the food I have been eating hasn’t been any healthier than take-out, but I have gotten a greater sense of accomplishment from the stuff I make for myself at home. Even something like making turkey dogs with mac & cheese fills my evening with a sense of culinary victory. Because I made it and I made it on the cheap with that same money that would’ve been wasted on take-out.
It just feels so much better to cook for myself than to pass off the duty onto some poor schmuck who really doesn’t care about your food. They care about getting paid and making sure no one throws a fuss about how crappy the food is, but there’s no love in what you get from Jimmy John’s or Domino’s. No offense to either of those places, but that’s just the way take-out is made. If they try to sell you on that “but we make everything with love here!” garbage, don’t listen because it’s all filthy corporate lies.
Since I’m hypothetically speaking to people smart enough to get into an institution of higher learning, I’m going to assume that we all have grey matter in our heads, not rocks and that we all know take-out isn’t good for you in any sense of the word. So my question is why bother with it all? Because it’s cheap? Because it’s convenient? I’ll argue that you’ll get a lot more out of cooking for yourself than being fed like an adult baby.
First of all, let’s knock the question of cheapness out of the way. Cooking for yourself isn’t expensive. Not if you have an adventurous mind. Experiment with what you can find. Supposedly if you are ordering take-out you have the disposable funds to do something different than the usual sandwich and chips, so do something special with it. Grab some pork chops, make your own salad, or my personal favorite: breakfast for dinner. Late night pancakes will never lose their charm.
Not to mention that cooking for yourself is a smart life choice in general. Don’t depend on anything from anyone. If your significant other is the one that cooks, for the love all things breakfast in this world, cook with them. Get that experience and make cooking into a bonding activity. You’ll get a lot more out of life and your relationship that way.
I don’t mean to start sounding like some half-assed dating magazine. The importance of cooking for yourself cannot be stressed enough. Don’t take the easy way out with take-out. A self-cooked life is one worth living, friends. Not to mention a heck of a lot tastier.
